Effective Practices in Academic and Research Librarianship

The Learning Curriculum is a comprehensive educational plan that focuses on individual and organizational advancement. This plan is for all library staff to develop the skills needed to become members of teams and to improve the way the Libraries operate as an organization. The Learning Curriculum is unusual and innovative in its comprehensiveness and ongoing nature. It has ten components, which in turn include a number of modules, for a total of approximately 150 contact hours.

Concepts included in the Learning Curriculum encompass: Development of the Organization, Defining Customer Service, Development of Self, Teams and Workgroups, Exploring Leadership and Followership, and Leadership Development. It is one of only three "coherent curricula" currently existing in research libraries nationwide, as identified by the Association of Research Libraries' Leadership Committee.  The other curricula are found at the University of Minnesota Libraries and the University of Tennessee Libraries.

Learning Curriculum offerings have been attended by library faculty, non-exempt and exempt staff and graduate assistants throughout the Libraries, which allows opportunities for increased communication and understanding of  roles and responsibilities system-wide.  In addition to computer training workshops, which have been well-attended, sessions offered which received favorable feedback include "Learning To Thrive In an Ever-Changing Workplace", "Stress Management", "Discover your Learning Style" and "Tapping Creativity."  New modules, such as one on "Grant Development", as well as a special "Series for Supervisors" targeting supervisors of student assistants, are currently under development.

The UM Libraries currently serve as the sole support for the Learning Curriculum, providing staff, logistics, meeting spaces, materials, publicity, planning and contracts with and payments to trainers and consultants.  This support may be valued, in terms of direct and indirect costs, at over $80,000 per year.

The direct mission of the University of Maryland Libraries is twofold: "providing access to and assistance in the use of the scholarly information resources required to meet the education, research and service missions of the University." In order to fulfill its mission, best serve the University community, and put into practice the Libraries' planning and rhetoric regarding becoming a team-based, learning organization, the University of Maryland (UM) Libraries instituted an ambitious Learning Curriculum in 2001.

Since learning and educational opportunities are vital for the development of all library staff, it was realized that learning must become a part of each person's work and be incorporated into the management of tasks, routines and responsibilities. To this end, the UM Libraries support incorporation of approximately eight hours per month of learning via participation in learning activities such as workshops, participation in video brown-bag lunches, all-staff meetings, department or team training, peer training, attendance at professional conferences, campus conferences or programs, academic lectures, course work, reading professional literature, and so forth.

Over the last six years, the University of Maryland Libraries have consistently demonstrated commitment to the organizational climate and infrastructure necessary to begin and sustain active development of staff.

1. Designation of a librarian to coordinate the Libraries' participation in the campus' Diversity Initiative and to chair the newly formed library Diversity Committee (1996);

2. Establishment of the Grants Office, the Office of Management Information Systems and the Office of Staff Training and Development - with each office staffed by one librarian and one graduate assistant (1997);
3. Creation of the Office of Planning, Research and Grants (1998) - now Planning and Administrative Services Division;
4. Establishment of the position of Assistant Dean for Organizational Development (2000);
5. Creation of the position of Personnel Programs Coordinator (2001);
6. Design and launching of the Learning Curriculum for all staff (2001);
7. Train-the-trainers program for a core of library staff to become in-house trainers (2001).

The UM Libraries have further demonstrated commitment to the Learning Curriculum by providing all resources to date for its development and delivery.

When staff complete learning activities and programs and become more expert in desired skills, learn new processes or gain new knowledge, it raises the level of individual competency, and thus, an organizational competency. A collective gain of new competencies and knowledge also affects the system's culture and identity by transforming it into a learning organization.

The Learning Curriculum meets a national need as well as a local need to develop, deliver, understand and assess the effectiveness of training and educational programs for library staff.  Staff development is widely recognized as one of the biggest needs in all types of libraries.  In recent years, systemic changes have been undertaken at the UM Libraries to address challenges faced by all types of libraries in one way or another (as identified for research libraries by the UM Libraries' Dean):  "shifts in pedagogy and research; the transformational impact of networked information technology; a revolution in scholarly information and in the intellectual property regime; and the ever-present restraint of budget, both inputs and outputs."

The Learning Curriculum is designed in components and modules so that libraries and other organizations can select what is useful for their situations and staffs.  Organizations can use one activity or twelve; it is entirely up to the institution interested in borrowing from the curriculum.

The University Libraries are currently applying for national grants to further develop learning activities and accompanying materials, offer those activities to UM Libraries' staff of approximately 300 individuals (including permanent, contractual and graduate assistants), measure the effectiveness of the activities in improving organizational culture, and make the Learning Curriculum materials and assessments available nationally.