Sustainable and effective professional development for diverse libraries: Current status and best practice

In our geographically and politically diverse world, professional development has been increasingly needed to avoid professional isolation, and to keep abreast of the fast moving world of information management in the 21st century. This paper will consider whether the current models of face-to-face workshops and conferences common in library professional development offerings however, are likely to be the most effective and sustainable models into the future. Conference participation costs to attend can be high, and time away from the workplace difficult. This must be balanced against the value of networking and informal information exchange, and the need in some cases to be removed from daily pressures to be able to undertake meaningful learning. Evaluation will be made of some alternative forms of online delivery of professional development in libraries, including the models of 23Things, MOOCs, and webinars, together with an analysis of the theories of andragogy and adult learning.