Citation
Watkins, H. (1998), "Other people's careers ...", Librarian Career Development, Vol. 6 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/lcd.1998.10206aab.004
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1998, MCB UP Limited
Other people's careers ...
Other people's careers ...
... are as interesting as other people's shopping baskets. The Library Association devoted most of an entire issue of the Library Association Record to continuing professional development in October 1997, making this column almost redundant. The most readable elements of the issue were the excellent case study panels, in which a variety of figures from the professional world are encouraged to cogitate on the significance of "CPD" to them, and how it got them where they are today. Individuals partaking are Veronica Fraser, Judith Elkin (of whom more below) and Edward Dudley, among several others. Definitely recommended reading, reflecting a breadth of professional life and the need to adapt to the most unpredictable events that can be thrown at you, whether it be redundancy or war.
In the same month, the Assistant Librarian (soon to be re-named Impact), devoted much of its space to reprinting a paper presented by Professor Judith Elkin, Dean of the Faculty of Computing and Information Studies, University of Central England in Birmingham, at the UmbrelLA 4 conference in June. Entitled "Personal development looking at further opportunities", Professor Elkin takes a broad and incisive look at the state of professional education and development today, and again, is well worth a read (pp. 139-44) for those in both the public and academic library sectors. Identifying the core skills as those of information-handling, training and facilitating, evaluating, and concern for the customer, she goes on to examine the demands specified in the Fielden report, which focussed particularly on the need to develop an understanding of teaching and learning skills, access and navigation in electronic databases, and new forms of team-working.
Summarising the work of the e-Lib projects which sprang up after the report, they are found to be useful and ground-breaking, but without formally accredited status, and to "have barely scratched the surface".