Professional Development at Library Journal

My recent research into finding additional cost-free alternatives for earning continuing education credits has lead me quite unexpectedly back to libraryjournal.com itself. Although, I have certain personal issues with this particular publication and probably would have never discovered it by simply visiting their homepage, a meandering google search eventually revealed Library Journal's relatively new online offerings called Webcasts. These 'webcasts' as they are referred to are essentially no different from other webinars or virtual conferences most people have already participated in at one point or another. They run roughly an hour long in length and concentrate on a variety of relevant issues pertaining to libraries and librarianship.

Upon my discovery of this resource, to test the waters I quickly registered for their program, Data for a Downturn Economy, which basically offered a crash course into the myriad uses and inner workings of the US Bureau of Economic Analysis' site, bea.gov/, the old statistical workhorse, fedstats.gov, and the newly launched as of May 2009, data.gov, set to serve as fedstats' more sophisticated and comprehensive future replacement.

For those of us who missed their previous offerings, well over a dozen past webcasts have also been archived and can be registered for the same way that their upcoming live webcasts are offered. During the short registration process, you will notice a line immediately following the contact information fields to be checked off if you're interested in receiving "confirmation of participation for professional development hours". This confirmation comes in the form of a pdf certificate delivered to your inbox the following day which officially documents your participation in that Webcast. However, this option might only be applicable to the live webcasts, since my successful participation in an archived event has not yet resulted in me receiving a certificate. The other advantage of attending the live webcasts is the option to actually participate in the webcast by way of either making comments or posing questions via an embedded chat box resembling an instant messaging console.

To view LJ's current list of upcoming and archived webcasts, check out:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/webcasts

Survivalism & Librarianship

I recently attended a highly informative and engaging LILRC (Long Island Library Resource Council) seminar presented by the current director of the library at the University of Pittsburgh, Rush Miller, Ph.D. He is also one of the authors of the timely book, Beyond Survival: Managing Academic Libraries In Transition, as well as a degreed medieval historian, giving him a rather unique perspective on libraries as being one of the few "feudal societies" still existing in the modern world, complete with their "serfs, lords, and kings".

Dr. Miller spoke candidly and with the wisdom of experience as he painted a rather gloomy picture of doom for the immenent future of libraries, particularly those academic libraries that are still tightly clutching their archaic shelflists, antiquated mindsets, and operating in the obsolete mold of 30 years past. For libraries such as these, if they are to somehow eek out an existence in the coming years, he predicted their status might more resemble a museum of sorts.

However, despite the advancing glaciers of competition (i.e. google) and the subsequent change in attitudes toward the library it has since fostered, as well as the obvious present economic necessity to aggressively slash budgets, Dr. Miller did layout a functional, eight-step survival plan in order for libraries to remain relevant and perhaps even thrive in these rapidly changing times. Though before launching into any such plan, he advised a basic shift in mentality on the part of libraries to cease merely "claiming value", but instead to now find effective means to "demonstrate" it.

"Change is imperative", he basically scolded the attendees and this is where the eight steps come in as they are essentially ideas for achieving just that, although I wish he'd have used a different word than this oft-repeated and now seemingly meaningless word, "change". In any case, among these steps include shifting from a user-oriented to a user-centric model, rethinking the library mission statement, re-engineering operations, resources, services, personnel, and budget, rethinking the use of space, communicating the library message more clearly, building expertise and infrastructure, producing original content, and changing the organizational culture itself.

Some of these steps are of course a bit easier said than actually done. They are likewise contingent upon factors such as the size of the institution, the board of trustees/directors, and the unique characteristics of the particular community the library serves. When evaluating the possible implementation of Dr Rush's survival plan, it is also important to recognize that each of these steps have been conceived within the confines of academia and in particular, a larger-sized university environment. That being said, they may posses varying degrees of applicability for different libraries.