Learn how create a comprehensive professional development plan for your library, including how to incorporate the "Great Things About GALILEO" self-paced training into your training program.
A library professional development program should encompass your strategic goals, your identified learning needs, and individuals professional development goals. Chances are your library has a strategic plan, mostly a 3-5 year one. How do know what your library’s learning needs are? You need to do some kind of needs assessment on at least a bi-annual basis; naturally, the often you do it, the better your PDP will be.How do know employees goals are so that your PDP is responsive to them? Your employees should be writing annual goals that are reviewed as part of their annual evaluation. In those goals, there should be a space for the employee to list what kind of training/developmental opps she needs to reach her goals.
Find out what your library training and development needs are by:Looking for environmental impacts, such as new laws that will impact your library or is your library restructuringPerformance standards – how well are people doing their based on actual behavior vs optimal behaviorChanging technologyTrends and mega-issues in the profession, such as new cataloging standards, DRM debate, advocacy efforts, etc.Be sure to point people to OITP report and PLA strategic plan assumptions (http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/pla/about/strategicplan/2010plastrategicplan.pdf)
Your library should have a system in place where employees write annual goals that are included as part of their performance appraisal. Goals should be SMART and challenge the employee to think of ways that he/she can continue to develop skills that will further: the strategic plan; her performance as it relates to her job description; her own professional development
When you have a PDP that is aligned with the strategic plan, the library’s training and dev needs, and an individual’s training and dev needs, your PDP should meet the standards of the 4 S’s:It should be systematically planned, systemic, supported, and sustained. Systematically planned: it should have mission and vision, a comprehensive slate of CE opportunties, delineate roles and responsibilities for implementationSystemic: It has support throughout all levels of the library. This means your administration must buy into the value of having the program just as much as line level staff. Supported: It integrates with the very fabric of your organization. You have to have a culture that supports learning with people buying in to the vision that you’re growing yourself so that you can make the most positive impact in the community as possibleSustained: when budgets are cut, we all too often see training and development get the axe first, which is unfortunate because library’s are primarily service-based industries. When you commit to implementing a PDP or already have one, funding needs to be maintained as a strategic priority.
In a broad sense, what are you trying to accomplish overall with your PDP? It should tie back into the mission and vision of your library.
This is an org chart of sequyah regional I found on webjunctiongeorgia. I don’t know how old it is, nor am I saying the following example I’m going to give you is indicative of what Seq does. This is for illustrative purposes only.When you look at your organization, you quickly realize that everyone has a role in the success of your PDP, but the responsibilities differ. I have four colors on the org chart here. Let’s say you’ve examined you org and determined that four distinct sets of responsibilities at different levels in the library. There is no one approach is right in determining your stakeholders; only you know your organization. You might recommendations (and justifications) as to who should be included, but ultimately, the executive director will make the final call.So in general the responsibilities breakdown like this. -- yellow: maintain professional development as an organizational priority.-- salmon: point person for the PDP who identifies org training and development needs and oversees the overall functioning of the PDP. I believe that EVERY PDP should have a point person, even if you have no training manager dedicated to that role.-- green: support a culture of learning in the branch/department-- purple: account for your professional growth. EVERYONE in the org wears purple!
ALA librarianship competencies: http://www.ala.org/ala/educationcareers/careers/corecomp/corecompetences/index.cfmWJ competency index: http://www.webjunction.org/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=67024497&name=DLFE-16500008.pdfComprehensive list by various libraries: http://www.webjunction.org/competencies/-/articles/content/432380?_OCLC_ARTICLES_getContentFromWJ=true - some of the best include ohio library council, charlotte for technology
Page from charlotte mecklinburg training curriculum; provided by lori reed of lori reed learning solutions
Webinars (WJ, InfoPeople, Booklist, TechSoup)Going to conferences of ALA and its various divisions like PLA, YALSA, or LITA or attending COMO and the ilkProvide time for people to join/meet informal discussion groups (ie, GCPL Emerging Tech Team, WJ communities, or encourage your library to do this with new Webex we’re providing)In-house book discussion clubs on new business models, leadership, technology