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Change is Coming: MT Library Certification Program Update

Darlene Staffeldt, Sue Jackson, Tracy Cook, Anne Kish, Liz Babbitt, Honore Bray, and Jean Nielsen

Promote continuing education and its impact for quality library services
Bring the Montana Library Certification Program into line with more recent competencies and certification programs such as Western Council and ALA
Improve recognition for librarians who participate and libraries that encourage staff to continue learning. Do this by
- improving how we recognize certified librarians – make it a bigger deal than it is
- differentiating between minimum and extraordinary number of credits
- making the MLCP certificate a real tool for library leaders for hiring and promoting
Develop a track for Library Directors that
- requires continuing education for all library directors (MLIS, too)
- is more meaningful for what they need to know
Develop a voluntary track for trustees and/or library boards
Clarify ambiguous sections of the program.

CE or Continuing Education – the classes you take. Everyone in this audience is taking part in CE
Certification – taking a series of courses (CE) in order to obtain a certificate

Certification is based on competencies that Western Council and ALA recommended for librarians
The training categories for certification attempt to address these competencies.

Formation of volunteer focus group
Study of other states, regional, and national certification programs
Worked through a list of questions and engaged in a day long discussion about certification
Formed recommendations for update
Developed survey and considered other ways to get input from Montana library personnel

3 Tracks
- Library Administrators Track (required for all public library directors)
- Voluntary Library Staff Track
- Voluntary Library Trustee Track
No longer have levels based on education

Library Administrators Track (required for all public library directors)
- 60 credits in 3 years
- 25 credits in Library Administration, 10 credits in Library Services to the Public, Collection Management & Technical Services, and Technology; balance of credits can be in any category
Library Staff Track
- 60 credits in 3 years
- 10 credits in Library Administration, Library Services to the Public, Collection Management and Technical Services, and Technology; balance can be earned in any of the 4 categories

Library Administrator Track (required for all public library directors)
- 45 credits in 3 years
- 20 credits in Library Administration; 5 credits in other 3 categories; balance of credits in any category
Library Staff Track
- 45 credits in 3 years
- 10 credits in each of the 4 categories; balance of credits can be earned in any category

Degrees in Library Science (includes MLS, MLIS, etc.) awarded within 3 years equals certificate
Older degrees equals taking required number of courses.
College classes can be used towards certification.

No levels based on education
Instead
- For initial certificate a specialization requires 25 credits in a particular category
- For renewal a specialization requires 20 credits in a particular category

Enrolled in 2006 you will meet the requirements of the current program and receive a certificate from the current program
2007-2009
- Apply by 12/31/09, meet current requirements, receive current certificate
- Don’t apply by 12/31/09, meet update requirements, receive certificate from updated program

The deadline for renewals of current certificates is 5 years after issuance. If your current certificate was:
- issued in 2005, the renewal deadline is December 31, 2010
- issued in 2006, the renewal deadline is December 31, 2011
- issued in 2007, the renewal deadline is December 31, 2012
- issued in 2008, the renewal deadline is December 31, 2013
- issued in 2009, the renewal deadline is December 31, 2014
All credits for the renewal must be earned within a 5-year period prior to the deadline date.

Continue collecting input and answering questions
Analyze and use survey to prepare final recommendations
Present input and recommendations to the State Library Commission for review and discussion
Commission takes final action on recommendations
Updated program begins January 2010

Please fill out the survey. It is linked from the MSL “For Librarians” page.

Please check out the FAQs at

Promote CE and certification
Encourage management to support and provide incentives
- Raises, Bonus, Gift, Promotion, Other?
Provide/approve quality CE F2F and online
Offer CE often and statewide
Recommending no certification fee
Developing online enrollment and application forms
Online Manual

Notification will be sent to
- Library Management
- Library Boards
- Local government officials
- Press Release