Chartering - a personal perspective
on Professional Development and
Training

I am employed by Cambridgeshire Libraries and Information Service as Assistant Librarian with responsibility for services to children and young people in the South Cambridgeshire Area. I recently became Associate Member of the Library Association after following a chartership training programme (Route A) over a two-year period. The period is normally one year for fulltime professionals, but for three-quarters of the time I held two posts, a part-time professional and a part-time non-professional one and so it took longer.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to having an extended registration period. The main advantage is that you will probably gain more experience and it can mean more training opportunities, depending on your employer. In my case, I feel that the benefits outweighed the pitfalls.

The disadvantages are that you can lose momentum and focus. If the final goal seems a long way off, set yourself intermittent targets and set dates for them. My overall approach, however, was to see my registration candidature as a process of continuing professional development.

The setting of a target and dates was important in getting my Professional Development Report written up for submission but keeping a log of experience and training throughout the period helped enormously in this. Indeed, one of the other three methods of submission for chartership is by portfolio and I felt that this was a real option because of the way I had kept my log; and I will be able to use this portfolio in future job searching. The other two methods are an Adaptation Report or by Proforma & Interview, the Proforma being a structured series of questions to act as prompts for the discussion of all aspects of your professional development. Even if you do not submit by this method you can use it as a checklist to make sure you fulfil all the assessment criteria.

I don't want to focus on the methods of submission in this article but I hope the above indicates that the Library Association gives a lot of guidance on submitting so don't be daunted by the idea of it.

The LA also provides a Framework for Continuing Professional Development - a useful tool for that most crucial of aspects, planning. Your organisation may have its own appraisal scheme, as in my case, and though this formed the main framework I found these complemented each other. The nice thing about the LA framework is that it encourages you to consider your professional development in the context of personal priorities. Also, if you change jobs or sectors, the framework will provide continuity. It is flexible enough so that you can use as much of it or as little as needed at any given point in your career. It is especially useful if you have had a varied career to date and are coming to the chartering process later in your career, as was the case with me. After university I did a trainee SCONUL year in an academic library, then immediately afterwards did my PG Diploma in Library and Information Studies. I had a temporary job after this in another academic library, after which I went into English Language teaching for three years (with a short stint as a picture framer!) before returning to librarianship but this time in the public sector, where I have been for the last 6 years. The opportunity to have licentiate training came up almost by chance and I haven't looked back. So the framework, appraisal system and training programme helped me to gather in all my experience and assess achievements, constantly re-evaluating them, as well as helping me to pinpoint gaps in my development. I explored and became much more aware of the transferability of my skills - for example, of how I am using my language teaching skills in my current post in my class visits work with children. I saw that informal training can be just as valuable as formal training and am now better able to identify training opportunities.

It is important to keep focused on what the chartering process is about- in a nutshell, how you have developed professionally, showing how you have put into practice what you know in theory, how you have learnt from your mistakes and how you have identified future training needs and potential in yourself.

The benefits of it have been enormous. I have a much broader perspective of the profession now, many contacts with other professionals, both in my own sector and others. (The imminent unification of the LA and the Institute of Information Scientists is, I think, indicative of the importance of the need for professionals to think in much more global contexts). It has required that I scrutinise my employing organisation more closely than I perhaps would have dared otherwise! It has meant a growth in confidence and I now feel I can contribute much more to this organisation and my profession. I am a pretty apolitical creature but I have recognised the need to be politically aware and have become more so.

Unlike exams, which are a measure of what you know, the chartership process is about you - it is a measure of what you are doing in the world with that knowledge and the satisfaction, for me at least, of receiving my report back with "Accepted" stamped on it, was much greater than any exam I have ever passed.

If you don't have the opportunity to do the Route A, where your employing organisation has an approved training scheme, I would encourage you to consider Route B, requiring two years professional experience (to find out more, see contacts at end). There is a lot of help out there I have just taken on the role of Regional Liaison Officer for this area so you can contact me with any queries. There are seminars on chartering (usually about 2 per year per region). If you are not a member of the LA there are many benefits in becoming one e.g. getting involved with groups such as the Career Development Group. This group's journal, Impact, periodically has useful advice on professional development and training.

Finally, though there was the satisfaction of finishing my Professional Development Report and being accepted, there was also the sense of a new beginning, which seems entirely appropriate in the light of the LA's emphasis on Continuing Professional Development - I'm not sure where this ship is chartered to but it's been a good journey so far and long may it continue.

Julie-Ann Roszkowski, Assistant Librarian South Cambridgeshire Area Libraries,
Tel: 01223 718361.
Email: julie-ann.roszkowski@libraries.camcnty.gov.uk

(Spring 2001 Easterner)