Creating community, learning together: Designing and delivering a program for staff professional development

Abstract

Library staff development was a popular topic in the literature of the early 2000s, particularly as the professional duties of library staff shifted into the digital realm, but it seems to have been superseded in its popularity by other topics more recently (the most recent ALA data available on staff development funding is from 2001). My anecdotal experience and observation include many libraries in which professional development for librarians has been supported, funded, and encouraged, but where opportunities for nonlibrarian staff have been fewer and rarely required or expected. The subject of this article is a staff development program that was developed at the Dartmouth College Biomedical Libraries to encourage professional development for all staff and to respond to a period of intense change by bringing staff together within a supportive learning community.