Abstract
The 2020 Core Continuing Education Working Group Report examined how the continuing education (CE) programs of ALCTS, LITA, and LLAMA could be consolidated as the three ALA divisions transitioned into Core. The group found that CE was a major professional-development benefit, source of member engagement, and source of revenue, but that the three divisions used different approaches. ALCTS had the most established structure, particularly for regularly scheduled webinars and its popular “Fundamentals” online courses, while LITA and LLAMA offered useful but generally less standardized programming. The report emphasized maintaining a mix of webinars, online courses, e-forums, and participatory discussions while developing more interactive programming, advanced content, and training in emerging areas such as RDA/BIBFRAME, licensing, project management, and library data.
The Working Group recommended creating a centralized Core Continuing Education Committee with clearly defined roles, section representation, and subcommittees to distribute the workload. It recommended immediately continuing webinars, the ALCTS Fundamentals courses, and free participatory discussions, while consolidating or eliminating overlapping CE committees inherited from the former divisions. The report also stressed affordability and accessibility, including free content after embargo periods, student access and scholarships; adoption of a common technology platform; experimentation with new CE formats; and regular assessment of the new program. Longer term, it favored a structure that could represent Core’s different subject areas while allowing CE formats to be chosen according to the needs of each topic and audience.