CPD: D-I-Y strategies for solo librarians

Dr. Eva HornungJoint LAI/CILIP Ireland conference

20th April 2012, Belfast

One-person librarians (OPLs) have been rarely studied, yet one in three librarians in the world is a OPL (Siess, 2003)

Continuing professional development (CPD) is central to our role as information providers

Little research into CPD for OPLs, none on their own perceptions of this concept

Health libraries School libraries Government libraries Corporate libraries Academic libraries Public libraries Charities

In both profit and non-profit organisations and all subject areas!

OPLs often report And the boss says…

No moneyNo time offNo courses availableNobody around!

What’s a solo to do? DIY!

Image taken from: http://www.animationlibrary.com

Research approach: Phenomenography

Qualitative in natureLooks at variation within perception of a phenomenon

30 OPLs across Ireland took part in semi-structured interviews(maximum variation sampling)

Interviews followed interview schedule Duration: 35 minutes – over an hour

Research questions: What are the Irish OPL librarians'

conceptions of CPD? How do OPLs in Ireland experience different

methods of CPD?

Category 1: Upskilling for the sake of the organisation/library service (service orientation)Category 2: Developing as a professional librarian (LIS profession orientation)Category 3: Helping you to do all the jobs an OPL does (OPL orientation)Category 4: When you have learned something and you want to do things in a better way when you come back (personal orientation)Category 5: Your development as a human being (lifelong learning orientation)

Dimension ‘role’ – responsibility, motivation and support

Dimension ‘time’ – current job or career or life in general

Dimension ‘style’ – formal or informal with examples

Dimension ‘networking’– types of networking, reasons for doing it

Category 1: Service orientationBoth formal and informal; formal strong Formal: Training courses (both in the organisation and outside), seminars, academic degrees; being involved in work committees

Informal: Internet (email lists, online tutorials, free resources); on the job

Category 2: LIS Profession orientationFormal and informal; often informal more important, but accreditation or formal structure strong Formal: Courses, conferences, seminars; training courses as part of a conference; case studies Informal: hands-on, people showing you things; email lists, help forums, web seminars, online learning, correspondence courses, email, phone; reading, especially professional literature; informal networking evening

Category 3: OPL orientationMuch more emphasis on informal  Internet (Web, email, email lists, online tutorials), database providers, phone; reading journal articles; on the job activities

Category 4: Personal orientationBoth formal and informal

Formal: Short seminars, training courses, refresher courses Informal: Internet (email lists, newsgroups, restricted groups); hands-on, people show you how to do things (shadowing people); Newsletters from vendors; journals

Category 5: Lifelong learning orientationBoth formal and informal, very strong on both Every opportunity to learn!

• Offer informal evenings, which OPLs can attend

• Create online platforms, such as Wikis, where OPLs can share information

• Explore technologies, such as videoconferencing

• Organise formal events (conferences) on weekends

• Support training funds, which allows one OPL to become an expert who can train other OPLs

Courses need to be…

Available online Affordable for OPLs who often have to pay themselvesAccessible “after hours” (for face-to-face)Advertised well!In co-operation with library associations?

Network through videoconferencing/Skype, e.g. Western Regional Section of the LAI

Subscribe to free online seminars, such as OCLC WebJunction’s webinars (evenings!)

Teach yourself through educational videos on YouTube and TED

Set up Table of Contents alerts with publishers

Install an RSS feed, such as Google Reader Follow 23 Things for CPD Consider mentoring other OPLs!

What are your experiences as OPLs? Do you see yourself in any of these

categories? What is your understanding of CPD? How do you keep up-to-date? Do you experience any barriers? What can library associations and

schools do to help? Would you be in favour of a compulsory

CPD scheme?

Keep in touch: hornunge@tcd.ieOr through LinkedIn