Letter to the editor

I would like to make a couple of points in response to Barbara Boulton's letter in the October issue of Biblia.

Firstly, not all employed library staff have employers who are willing to pay the cost of seminars, conferences, and short courses. Some employers will not pay for training because they consider only the cost of training and not the increased productivity, effect on staff morale, improvement to customer service, and other possible benefits. Often staff who are on casual or short-term contracts will not have access to training, even if permanent staff do. This can go to ridiculous extremes, for example, as a casual member of staff at a library I was denied access to e-mail training so I had to learn the e-mail system by trial and error. The repercussions of employers not providing training affect not just individual staff, clients, and the employing institution but the national economy. The lack of training and experience caused by a highly casualised workforce leads to a measurable decline in productivity, as discussed by Phil Teece in his Workwatch column (see inCite November 2003).

Even where employers are willing to pay for staff training, the limited funds and high cost of some courses, not to mention the need to share out funds between a number of staff, mean that individuals may have to pay for some courses themselves. Whether or not you are in paid employment you will have to invest some money in your continuing professional development. The trick is to pick the courses and events that offer the most benefit to you and the least impact on your wallet.

My second point is that you don't have to focus on library related short courses. There are many generic skills which will be of benefit such as budgeting, dealing with difficult customers, time management, computer skills, and public speaking. These generic skills, especially communication skills, do get mentioned in selection criteria. Some of the courses offered in these skills will be expensive but often there are cheaper options. ALIA's CPD scheme recognises a variety of forms of professional development, including relatively cheap options such as professional reading.

Training opportunities in WA include:

Library related short courses:: This includes CAVAL, Dialog, and Kinetica courses which are generally a half day to two days long. They are quite expensive, in part because the presenters often come from the Eastern states. In the case of software training I would only recommend doing the course if you are currently using or soon will be using the software as otherwise you will quickly forget what you learned.
UWA Extension: Courses are offered year round, not just during the Summer School. A wide variety of courses are available during the day, evening and on weekends. Some courses are available online. Many of the courses are in the $100-$200 range.
TAFE: TAFE courses are a relatively cheap way of learning or improving skills. There are two main options: enrolling in Adult Community Education (ACE) units which are run during the four terms or enrolling in one of the full-time or part-time courses. Enrolments for part-time courses take place in January and July each year; enrolments for full-time courses take place at the end of the year (there may be a few full-time places available early in the year and these are advertised in the West Australian). I have noticed that ACE units tend to be more expensive than the equivalent units in the certificates and diplomas so enrolling in a certificate or diploma is cheaper (you don't have to do the entire course - just pick the units you want to do). Computing units offered as part of a certificate will probably cost around $50 or so versus $100-$150 for ACE units. Those are quite rough figures but it is obvious which is cheaper. TAFE units are available in the evening and some are offered on Saturdays. It is also possible to do some units online or via flexible delivery.
Information on training packages offered by TAFE and some commercial providers is available from the National Training Information Service website
Computing: Having done a university graduate diploma in this subject as well as a TAFE certificate I would recommend studying computing at TAFE because it is much cheaper, focuses on teaching hands on skills, and offers a greater variety of subjects. Networking, programming, software applications, and website design are among the courses offered. The units offered range from the very basic to advanced so whatever your skills, you should be able to find something at your current level. The certificates and diplomas are also available through commercial providers, as well as a plethora of short courses (1 or 2 days) but it is much cheaper to do it through TAFE.
Public speaking: There are three organisations that will give you practice and feedback on your public speaking skills. Costs include a joining fee and fees for meetings. Each organisation has a number of groups so it should be possible to find one near where you live or work.
The Penguin Club of Australia
Rostrum
Toastmasters
(NB: When searching "Find a club", look under "Pacific Rim" for Australia)
Train the Trainer: This course is known as (BSZ40198) Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training on the NTIS website. I have not done the course as the price tag is beyond my budget but it is offered fairly regularly by commercial providers and some not for profit organisations. It will cost at least $1000 and takes at least a week to complete. There is also a diploma available for those with deep pockets or with a generous employer.
E-lists: E-lists give you the opportunity to tap into the collective wisdom of the group by asking questions about professional issues or by reading the postings in response to the queries posed by others. They are quite educational, especially if you are new to the field, and provide access to information that may not be written down anywhere else. If you are considering joining an e-list, have a look through the archives, if it is available, to see whether it is of interest to you and remember that digest mode is advisable for any list which receives lots of postings.
Professional reading: Read Incite and the Australian Library Journal at least. The other journals to read depend on where you work/what you are interested in. Many journals are available in libraries or on the internet so cost should not be an issue, it is really a matter of deciding which journals you want to read and finding the time to do so.
ALIA events: Functions run by ALIA groups generally offer a good opportunity to network or learn something new, and are usually very cheap. Some will only be of interest to a particular group, but there should be at least a couple of events of interest to you during the year.

Being on ALIA committees will give you experience in organising events, handling money, taking minutes, public speaking, negotiation, or other skills.

As you can see from this less than comprehensive list, there are a number of training options available. Don't be put off by the price of individual courses. Analyse your training needs first, and then consider the ways in which you can get that training. For example, if you feel that you need to learn DB/Textworks you could investigate what training courses are available but you could also offer to do volunteer work at a library which uses it, look for user groups that you could join, and see whether any websites have training manuals or cheat sheets for the software. Work out what you want and then work out ways to achieve it. The ALIA Career Development Kit will help you to analyse your training needs and plan how to meet those needs. If you are in the CPD scheme, completion of the kit counts towards your CPD hours.

Camille Peters

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