I’ve been working in mid-sized public libraries serving populations between 30,000 and 60,000 in the NY/NJ area for more than 15 years, and I’ve always struggled with how to provide equitable and engaging staff training opportunities.
Traditional Training Models
The typical continuing education model seems to be that a small number of employees – typically librarians and library administrators – receive modest financial and scheduling support to attend state or national conferences. Maybe there is support for some librarians to leave the library on occasion for local trainings, or participate in webinars.
But the problem with this approach, from my perspective, is that it simply can’t scale beyond the fortunate few staff members who are motivated enough to seek out these professional development opportunities. So a skills gap develops between employees, widening over time, and preventing the organization from developing a culture of professional and intellectual growth.
The support that staff receive (or don’t) can take many different forms, from reimbursement of related costs to scheduling flexibility and growth-oriented supervision. Even in libraries where most of the conference costs are covered by the employer, the incidental costs like food, car services, and child and/or pet care that are created by the travel can be enough to prevent many employees from participating in these high quality training opportunities.
Inherent Inequities
Continuing education becomes a privilege for a select few, who then become more likely to outperform the employees who do not receive the training opportunities, making them more likely to receive future raises, bonuses, and promotions.
Further inequities likely exist along both racial and gender lines, particularly in households where – despite progress – women are still more likely to bear more of the childcare responsibilities, making it significantly more difficult for women with children to travel for continuing education.
I also think there is some argument to be made that white males are more likely to request the financial and scheduling support necessary to attend conferences and trainings, as compared to their female and non-white counterparts, who may feel a greater obligation to stay in the library and keep operations running smoothly.
It’s no wonder that white males are so over-represented among library directors, administrators, and managers.
A More Equitable Approach to Training
This is an issue that I’m continuing to try to unpack, understand, and better respond to in my own organization. One approach I’m starting to pursue is to dedicate fewer resources to the staff training of a small, privileged minority, and more resources towards opportunities that benefit a greater and more equitable number of employees.
For the cost to send four library employees to a national conference, including travel, lodging, and registration fees, we could instead budget to bring in a relatively local, but experienced and knowledgeable speaker once per month for an entire year.
My organization has approximately 50 employees including full-time, part-time, and substitute staff. So this shift would take approximately 60 potential hours of continuing education from the privileged four and translate to a maximum of 600 potential hours of training spread across the entire organization.
Using community resources to pay local library experts and educators a modest honorarium – as opposed to using these funds for transportation and hotel expenses for transnational travel – also represents a shift in investment away from the massive corporations and towards the often under-compensated thought leaders in our own backyards.
So this new approach is exactly what I’m starting to pilot at my own organization.
I’ve tried to schedule these presentations when the greatest number of employees might be available to attend, and encourage participation by all employees – not just the librarians. The maximum in-person capacity is set at 20, with a registration deadline approximately two weeks before the presentation. Any remaining seats will then be shared with neighboring libraries.
With permission from the speakers, these presentations will be recorded, and shared with all staff and volunteers in the days that follow.
This one shift isn’t going to singlehandedly fix the training problem and all of the potential inequities that I’ve described. But if we as a library community can be more thoughtful about making training opportunities more accessible and equitable, I think we will be creating stronger organizations and providing better services to our communities.
We can go further together than any one of us can go alone.
Allen McGinley (he/him) is a public library administrator in Union County, New Jersey, with more than 18 years of experience working in diverse urban and suburban communities in New York and New Jersey. He also works as a consultant for the NJ-based firm Library Crossroads, LLC.