ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Continuing Education XI

The profession seems to have agreed upon the basic premise that continuing education is a viable concern and should be examined. A seemingly logical result of this thought was to appoint continuing education committees. In many instances this has proved to be an effective measure. The principal problem involved with the idea is that it has often been seen as the ultimate solution, rather than merely the initial step. It is now necessary to go beyond the first level and address the other issues involved in continuing education, some of which are awareness, location, size of staff, etc.

Members of ACRL’s Continuing Education Committee and the ACRL College Libraries Section’s Continuing Education Committee felt that it would be beneficial to begin their respective tasks by collaborating on a review of the continuing education activities that presently exist around the United States. It would also be possible to discover which organizations were sponsoring these types of programs. The results have recently been compiled.¹

These can be compared with individuals’ assessed needs, as outlined in the survey “Continuing Library Education Needs Assessment and Model Programs,” conducted by Julie Virgo, Patricia Dunkel, and Pauline Angione (CLENE Concept Paper #5, 1977). The largest number of programs in which academic librarians are presently participating corresponds closely to their perceived needs, as listed below:

Present Programs

Reference tools and services (including on-line systems) Administration/ Management AV/Nonbook materials

Automation

Perceived Needs

Administration

AV/Nonbook materials

Reference tools and services (including on-line systems) Budgeting

The comparison between the two studies can easily lead one to the conclusion that perhaps continuing education needs to be examined at a different level. If the desired activities are being conducted, are there not other obstacles librarians are facing that should be seriously considered?

Geographical location has often been mentioned. Rarely has anyone come to grips with the necessity of decentralizing programs and going not to the major urban areas but to the smaller towns, where quite often numerous small academic libraries are located within a fifty-mile radius. Awareness of opportunities is vitally important. Events not listed in the state library’s and/or state library association’s publications might never be known by those who don’t belong to national or regional organizations and whose libraries do not subscribe to the various library journals. Furthermore, how does the library operate when the only professional and perhaps the only individual in the reference department needs to attend a conference? The library director may not be able to give his/her approval, especially at specific times of the year. In certain cases it may be true that the proper support is not present, but the other constraints of the situation must also be taken into account.

These are just a few of the issues that must be addressed if the profession is to assimilate continuing education and to make it the integral part that it should be.—Gretchen Redfield, Bibliographical Center for Research, Denver, Colorado.

Reference

1. Continuing Education Survey. Part I, “Available Continuing Education Resources” (available for $12.50, prepaid, from the ACRL Office).

Editors Note: Gretchen Redfield is presently a system specialist at the Bibliographical Center for Research in Denver, Colorado, and chairperson of the College Libraries Section’s Continuing Education Committee. She is also a member of the ACRL Continuing Education Committee.■■