Location
CTICC – Terrace room
Session Number
1C3
Keywords
Professional librarian, Continuing professional development and education, CPD, CPE, Staff training and development, Certification, Internship
Description
The role of the Staff Training and Development Committee of the Durban University of Technology Library is to facilitate both general and specific on-the-job-training for all library staff. The members of this Committee have been involved in training and development of library staff; LIS students and also other library professionals for many years. This exposure has highlighted a number of challenges both within the DUT Library and the LIS sector workplace, generally.
One of major concerns is that the gap between academic qualification and professional skills needed in the workplace is increasing; this can be attributed to the pace at which academic librarianship is evolving and the failure of the library school curricula to adjust appropriately. Further, as in the case of the DUT, the high turnover of library professionals in recent years has necessitated an environment of continuous training and retraining.
This paper deliberates the preparedness of LIS professionals entering the workplace and considers the burden placed on institutions to train, retrain and develop these professionals. It takes a pragmatic approach, with the authors offering a number of recommendations that could steer libraries away from being ‘on-the-job training centres’ to become learning organisations. This could be achieved through collaboration with the South African professional body LIASA, and library schools.
Citing the example of Singapore’s PDS (Professional Development Scheme) certification point system – and the Australian professional body ALIA’s Professional Development scheme for recognition and licensing of librarians – and the need for carefully monitored and mentored post-graduate internships in the workplace – this paper could serve as the basis for a formal proposal to research and overhaul the approach to determining the bases for recognising professionals and professionalism within the sector. The issue of the individual’s commitment to investing in their own professional development, whilst touched on, is another topic that merits a separate paper entirely….and research in its own right!
Included in
“JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE A LICENSE DOESN’T MEAN YOU KNOW HOW TO DRIVE!” Tackling the gap between LIS qualification and professional capacity
CTICC – Terrace room
The role of the Staff Training and Development Committee of the Durban University of Technology Library is to facilitate both general and specific on-the-job-training for all library staff. The members of this Committee have been involved in training and development of library staff; LIS students and also other library professionals for many years. This exposure has highlighted a number of challenges both within the DUT Library and the LIS sector workplace, generally.
One of major concerns is that the gap between academic qualification and professional skills needed in the workplace is increasing; this can be attributed to the pace at which academic librarianship is evolving and the failure of the library school curricula to adjust appropriately. Further, as in the case of the DUT, the high turnover of library professionals in recent years has necessitated an environment of continuous training and retraining.
This paper deliberates the preparedness of LIS professionals entering the workplace and considers the burden placed on institutions to train, retrain and develop these professionals. It takes a pragmatic approach, with the authors offering a number of recommendations that could steer libraries away from being ‘on-the-job training centres’ to become learning organisations. This could be achieved through collaboration with the South African professional body LIASA, and library schools.
Citing the example of Singapore’s PDS (Professional Development Scheme) certification point system – and the Australian professional body ALIA’s Professional Development scheme for recognition and licensing of librarians – and the need for carefully monitored and mentored post-graduate internships in the workplace – this paper could serve as the basis for a formal proposal to research and overhaul the approach to determining the bases for recognising professionals and professionalism within the sector. The issue of the individual’s commitment to investing in their own professional development, whilst touched on, is another topic that merits a separate paper entirely….and research in its own right!