WebJunction

"Staff professional development" can be thought of as the process of training your library staff to use new or updated technologies that the library may acquire as part of the technology planning process.  As stated in the E-rate technology planning requirements of the Universal Service Administrative Company:

"The plan must have a professional development strategy to ensure that staff know how to use these new technologies to improve education or library services."

Kay Hicks from the Barton County Library in Missouri has a prepared an article on Practical Professional Development which includes suggestions for how to fulfill this portion of your technology plan and make sure that staff are well prepared for the future.  The TechAtlas tool that Kay's article mentions includes a convenient Staff Skills Survey for learning about the current capabilities of your staff.  If you're not a TechAtlas user (why not?  It's free for WebJunction members!), you might consider creating your own survey for assessing current staff skills and planning for what training and other professional development activities will need to be incorporated in your technology plan.  Popular free or low-cost tools for creating web-based surveys include the following:

• SurveyMonkey
• SurveySolutions
• Zoomerang

In addition, we have video excerpts from the Technology Planning for Public Libraries session presented at the Internet Librarian 2005 conference.  WebJunction organized this session featuring several technology planning experts and practitioners, including the following presenters who spoke specifically about library staff professional development:

• Kay Hicks on Resource for Staff Training.
• Anna Leavitt on Professional Development.
• Danielle Shreve on the TechAtlas Staff Skills Survey.