The Role of Administrators in Professional Development: Considerations for Facilitating Learning Among Academic Librarians     

Ramirose Attebury 《图书馆管理杂志》2018,58(5):407-433

The role that administrators should take in enabling professional development is regularly discussed in the library literature. However, this article, seeking to provide information from a new perspective, stems from data gathered via qualitative interviews in order to explore experiences of academic librarians and to identify commonalities among the experiences that participants describe as meaningful. Themes that emerge relate to the balance between administrative suggestions versus mandates, librarians' desire to self-assess and self-select activities, the importance of job relevance, approaches to sharing information, and barriers to participation. They may offer insights to administrators who wish to facilitate continuing education of staff.  相似文献   

Professional Development: A Qualitative Study of High Impact Characteristics Affecting Meaningful and Transformational Learning     

Ramirose Ilene Attebury 《The Journal of Academic Librarianship》2017,43(3):232-241

Changes in the academic library landscape necessitate continual professional development for librarians. The library literature offers a plethora of advice about how to keep skills and knowledge up-to-date in this rapidly changing environment. Yet few large-scale studies have sought to understand the experiences of academic librarians as they seek out and participate in professional development that they consider to be meaningful or transformational to their careers. This study uses a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to understand these types of experiences. In the study, ten participants discuss professional development activities that they believe have had a meaningful or transformational impact on themselves and their careers. Their experiences are analyzed for common themes that may help others interested in professional development understand which characteristics of it may foster meaningful or transformational learning. The themes discussed that emerged most strongly from interviews with the participants include interaction, duration, reflection, discomfort, and self-awareness. Implications of and recommendations related to these themes are then explored.  相似文献