The ARL Leadership and Career Development Program consists of five components undertaken over 18 months:
Through contacts with experts and research library leaders, these program elements are combined to allow participants to explore the strategic issues faced by research libraries in the digital environment, leadership roles within research libraries, and career development options and opportunities.
The LCDP components are also used to build a “community of learners” as, over the course of the program, participants exchange views with expert presenters and with one another, and as they compare notes and learn from career coaches about one another’s professional responsibilities and experiences. This design enables LCDP participants to internalize the learning and develop relationships with peers and coaches, while at the same time engaging in meaningful research to increase opportunities for professional writing, publication, and/or presentations. Online communication among LCDP participants will also help to build and sustain a sense of community.
Each major program component is summarized below to show how each step builds on the previous learning experience and to illustrate how they contribute to the overall program goals.
A two-day Leadership Institute, held in conjunction with the ALA Midwinter Meeting, is the first opportunity for participants, coaches, and ARL staff—along with MLS graduate students from the ARL Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce—to meet in person. This institute is a time for participants to get to know one another and to describe their selected areas of professional interest. The meeting will include an overview of ARL’s strategic directions and some of the current issues in each of these arenas, a review of the LCDP goals and schedule, and an introduction to some key leadership and career development concepts. This is also the occasion for participants and career coaches to meet, self-select, and clarify their mutual expectations for this professional relationship.
Each of the two four-day LCDP Institutes will combine assessment of research library career and leadership opportunities with acquiring knowledge of current issues affecting research institutions and their libraries. Special focused discussions, presented by experts in the field, will be interspersed in the institute curriculum. Exploration of leadership concepts and experientially based learning focused on leadership skills and self-assessment will build on the content presented by experts. The goal of each LCDP Institute is to increase awareness and understanding of the challenges presented by the changing environment of research institutions and how all positions within research libraries are affected by and contribute to addressing these environmental challenges.
A participant’s relationship with their career coach is the thread that ties the Leadership and Career Development Program pieces together. Coaches are recruited based on their interest and ability to commit time to the program’s success; a willingness to interact electronically and in-person as needed with his or her designated participant; and a compatibility between the participant’s areas of professional interest and the coach’s experience and expertise. A Career Coach for a LCDP participant might be either a director of an ARL library or someone else from an ARL library who the director identifies as having a career path and interests similar to those of the participant and who would be a good career coach.