Dear BCLA Members and members of the library community,
Last spring BCLA began work on the Professional Learning Assessment Project. Questionnaires were developed and distributed with the goal of getting a clearer understanding of professional development needs across the province. Some previous assumptions about professional development, based on anecdotal evidence, are now supported by the work of this Project. At the same time, new and unexpected trends have been revealed. The Project and resulting analysis are significant in library literature and provide a timely insight to the changing needs of libraries and library staff.
- You can download the report here: https://bclaconnect.ca/professional-learning-project
BCLA would like to thank Pia Russel, Education & Children’s Literature Librarian at the University of Victoria, and Todd Milford, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria, for their work designing the survey and analyzing the results. Both Todd and Pia have considerable experience in survey design, quantitative methods, educational measurement, and mixed methods research.
BCLA would also like to acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Education.
Thank you to all who responded to the surveys. So many more people than expected completed the questionnaires and as a result made the research significantly richer, deeper, and more important than anticipated.
Best regards,
Annette DeFaveri
Executive Director
British Columbia Library Association