Introduction & Literature Review
Instruction librarians are at the forefront of introducing learners to new concepts and skills such as evaluation strategies, searching techniques, and trends in scholarly communication. But how do instruction librarians themselves learn new concepts and skills? Especially if they have been a professional for a significant amount of time and have experienced multiple changes in the profession. We conducted a study to learn how mid-career and experienced instruction librarians seek out and learn new professional information, how they find curiosity sparks to keep them engaged in their work, and how they choose to incorporate new ideas or professional competencies into their instructional practice.
Mid-career professional development has been characterized by stage-like models depicting growth, stability, and sometimes frustration (Maskit, 2011). These stages have been explored in K-12 teachers, and we wanted to determine how well these stages describe the experiences of mid-career and experienced instruction librarians. We were especially interested in these librarians because many workplaces have multiple generations of workers and must find ways to encourage growth in an age-diverse environment. However, much of the literature and professional development opportunities focus on supporting newer librarians (for example, Flatley and Weber, 2004). We enthusiastically agree that newer librarians should receive significant and thoughtful supports, but we were curious to explore the unique challenges mid-career and experienced librarians face based on their accumulated experiences as well as how they sustain their engagement with new ideas.
Objectives, Methodology and Outcomes
Our objectives were to learn:
- how mid-career and experienced instruction librarians seek out and learn new professional information,
- how they find inspiration to keep them engaged in their work,
- how they choose to incorporate new ideas or professional competencies into their instructional practice.
In an online survey and follow up interviews, we asked mid-career and experienced instruction librarians from North America to share their experiences about how they engage with and incorporate new professional ideas into their instructional practice. Recognizing the systemic changes brought about by the global pandemic, we asked participants to reflect on how these changes impact their learning preferences, what inspires their curiosity, for their self-evaluation of where they are now situated in the career cycle stage, and what they think are currently the most pressing issues in librarianship. We used convenience sampling to recruit up to twenty library workers who conduct instructional activities in an academic setting and who have worked for at least 10 years–regardless of full or part-time employment. To extend our participant pool, we used snowball sampling. Participants were asked to respond to an online survey consisting of nine multiple choice and short answer questions and were invited to participate in an hour-long virtual interview to expand on their survey responses.
We discuss how our findings and analysis, along with our suggestions, can inform institutional training efforts and retention strategies. We will also discuss how we can use these findings at the individual level to inform how we adapt to professional changes in rejuvenating and productive ways.
References
- Flatley, R. K., & Weber, M. A. (2004). Perspectives on… Professional development opportunities for new academic librarians. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 30(6), 488–492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2004.06.011
- Maskit, D. (2011). Teachers’ attitudes toward pedagogical changes during various stages of professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(5), 851–860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2011.01.009
Hannah Gascho Rempel1, Jane Marie Nichols2
1Rempel Oregon State University Corvallis, USA; 2Oregon State University Corvallis, USA
English 
French