Background: Previously, our library has had many disparate continuing education efforts - guest speakers, staff lectures, product demos, platforms to share development opportunities, conferences, etc. We are uniting these efforts under one comprehensive continuing education program. Formalizing continuing education efforts will help the program continue regardless of staffing changes and will ensure that each staff member gains something from the program. The goal is to share knowledge, promote continual learning, and develop leadership skills. Additionally, this program will help connect coworkers across units. Learning from each other and different units will increase understanding of the library and library cohesion.
Description: We created a policy and procedures document to formalize the continuing education program. Each month, we alternate between journal club and either a staff presentation, a guest speaker, or resource demo. The beginning 15 minutes of every other session will be reserved for recent conference and lecture takeaways. All staff are encouraged to participate. To help staff select a session theme, we created our own set of library competencies. We held a series of unit meetings to determine specific unit needs and compiled the feedback into a master list. Then we held an all staff meeting to par down the long list into a single page table for easy reference. Staff will evaluate each session to help improve future sessions. We will match each session with competencies to see what impact sessions have.
Conclusion: We expect to measure an increase in collaboration across units and development of professional skills among staff. This program will empower staff to design, organize, and lead a session that interests them, helping to hone their leadership skills. We will also map each competency to measurable indicators to see how particular sessions help both individuals and the organization. Outcomes from product demos would include tool familiarity, ability to promote tools, and ability to teach effective use of the tool. Finally, we hope to see improvements in presentation skills, networking, and event organizing.
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