Professional Development Committee

The Professional Development Committee (PDC) started the year by taking the lead with implementing the continuing education section of the NJLA Strategic Plan. PDC made continuing education the integrated goal of NJLA by asking all sections/groups/committees to plan a CE event for the upcoming year. PDC developed a program proposal form and asked all groups to submit their ideas for NJLA approval. In an effort to create more standards for continuing education, PDC worked with the NJLA office to develop a CE fee workshop formula, and a final list of CE fees including workshop attendance and catering budgets.

In addition to accomplishing the year 1 goals from the NJLA strategic plan, we also made progress on year 3 goals by taking over the virtual keynotes from the NJLA Executive Board. In 2015-2016 we offered virtual keynote presentations with Arlen Kimmelman, Jessamyn West, and Emily Clasper. These virtual keynotes were co-sponsored by several NJLA groups, including the Reference Section, and the Administration and Management Section. This co-sponsorship is critical in terms of achieving more involvement from the organization as a whole.

The 2016 NJLA Annual Conference featured 6 programs that were developed, proposed and hosted by the Professional Development Committee, plus many others that PDC co-sponsored. There was a great variety in the content of PDC programs this year, and ranged from a panel with tips for library school students and new librarians, all the way to program about how to draft RFPs. We also concluded the 2016 Conference by hosting NJLA Ignite, a popular session that featured lightning talks from a variety of library speakers.

In 2015-2016, the Professional Development Committee continued working as co-sponsor on the Career Development Facilitator Program. Staff from the PDC helped to develop training presentations to assist people interested in working and advancing their careers in the library field.

The PDC also started work on updating the NJLA Workshop Planning Document, and the NJLA Professional Competencies. Work on  these documents will continue this coming year, and the anticipated completion date will be 2017.