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UNIVERSITY of NEW SOUTH WALES School of Librarianship UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES School of Librarianship PERSONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AFFECTING THE DEMAND FOR CONTINUING EDUCATION BY LIBRARIANS IN THE SYDNEY METROPOLITAN AREA A Project Report Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Librarianship, 1976. by Janifer Lee Gatenby UNIVERSITY OF N.S.W. 13848 16. SEP. 7 7 LIBRARY I certify that this is an original work and has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other university or institution. 1. Abstract An investigation was made into the participation in continuing education activities of thirty-nine librarians living in the Sydney metropolitan area and having a university degree and the Diploma in Librarianship from the University of New South Wales. Activity levels of librarians, particularly those with fewer than four years work experience, were lower than levels reported for American librarians. The amount of continuing education sponsored by the libraries in which these librarians worked also appeared to be small. Despite the small size and restricted nature of the sample, the following trends were found. Conducive environmental factors in the library appeared to correlate more strongly with the amount of continuing education activity of librarians than other personal factors such as gender, age and type of library in which employed. Libraries in which some continuing education activities were held tended to have librarians on their staff who involved themselves in more continuing education activity both within and outside the library. The library was regarded as the body, next to the individual, with the greatest responsibility for continuing education. Recommendations were made concerning the planning of continuing education activities in and around libraries. Expressed subject preferences of the librarians in the study for continuing education activities were also investigated. Acknowledgements I wish to thank Miss Carmel Maguire of the School of Librarianship at the University of New South Wales for her very careful guidance and for the patient way in which she assisted this study. I also wish to thank Mary Power for her typing. 3 Table of Contents Page no. Abstract 1. Acknowledgements 2. Chapter One : Introduction and Review of the Literature 5. 1. (a) Continuing Education Opportunities 6. (b) Continuing Education Preferences 9. (i) Modes 9. (ii) Subjects 11. 2. Factors affecting Participation in Continuing Education Opportunities (a) The Library Environment 16. (b) The Library Environment and Junior Librarians 19. (c) Individual Self Motivation and Environmental Motivation 21. Chapter Two : Objectives and Methodology of the Study 27. 1. Significance of the Study 27. 2. Hypotheses 29. 3. Definitions 32. 4. Limitations of the Study 35. 5. Methodology 37. 5.1 Population and sample 37. (a) 1 Population 37. (b) The sampling frame 37. (c) The sample 39. Table of contents continued 5.2 The Questionnaire 40 (a) Development of the Questionnaire 40 (b) Reliability and Validity of the Questionnaire 44 (c) Pretest of the Questionnaire 46 5.3 Administration and Analysis (a) Administration 49 (b) Statistical Analysis 50 Chapter Three : Results 53 1. The Results in General 53 (a) Continuing Education Activity 53 (b) The Library Environment 55 (c) The Importance of the Individual 59 (d) Popularity of Modes of Continuing Education Activity 60 2. Results as they relate to the Hypotheses 62 3. Interpretation of the Results 79 (a) Factors affecting Participation 79 (i) Importance of the Environment 79 (ii) Importance of the Individual 80 (b) Opportunities 81 Chapter Four : Conclusion, Recommendations and Suggestions for Further Research 82 Bibliography 86 Appendices 91 5. Chapter One Introduction and Review of the Literature Continuing education, often equated with professional development is activity by a person to increase, upgrade or broaden his expertise, understanding and knowledge of any subject or skill that may help in a direct or indirect way to increase his effect­ iveness and competence as a professional individual. It is, for a librarian, protection against obsolescence, irrelevance, incompetence and boredom, and hence against poor and indifferent service to clientele. The importance for effective planning of being aware of new developments cannot be overstated. Just two examples of new developments that have wide implications are the concept of main entry in a computer output catalogue where all records can be changed and added to by changing the master record, and the formulas for seating accommodation ratios for readers in libraries where much service can be provided by telephone, telex, photocopy and cable television. Hence, librarians' involvement in their own continuing education is, or at least should be one of the major issues in librarianship at present. The profession as a whole should be concerned with ways to encourage continuing education behaviour amongst its members. To investigate this^ two aspects need to be examined, namely what relevant opportunities there are at present available which enable individuals to pursue their own continuing education and the reasons they choose or do not choose to avail themselves of the opportunities. These two aspects are of course interrelated because inactivity by an individual may be due to either low motivation with ample 6. opportunity, high motivation with little opportunity or low motivation with little opportunity. This study sought mainly to investigate the possible factors, both personal and environmental, behind librarians' involvement or uninvolvement in continuing education activity. In doing this some investigation was also made into available opportunities, mainly through the librarians' expressed preferences for more opportunities. A full investigation into opportunities at present available in Sydney and other parts of Australia was not attempted as this was judged to be large enough to warrant a separate study of its own. Continuing education opportunities 1. (a) 1974 saw the culmination of a decade of concerted effort for continuing education opportunities on behalf of American librarians, which started with Samuel Rothstein's plea for Nobody's baby in 1965 (30) and concluded with a report to the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (41). This report was based on a three pronged investigation involving a questionnaire sent to personnel with responsibility for continuing education, a series of interviews with library admin istrators and a mini charette session. This session was attended by leaders of the library profession who participated in a role playing exercise to investigate the varying requirements of librarians across the nation, in differing types of library and at various levels of their careers. The results of these three interrelated investigations were analysed to indentify poorly met needs and solutions for their provision. 7. The establishment of a nationwide continuing education network with a coordinating body to be called The Continuing Library Education Network and Exchange (CLENE) was the main recommendation. The main aim of CLENE is to coordinate efforts to ensure that sufficient opportunities are provided and that the courses and other activities are repeated sufficiently to satisfy demand. The United States organizers, of course, have geographical problems greater than those in Britain. In the U.S., courses need to be repeated in several states, with, for example, the cooperation of state library agencies. Coordination is a problem of great complexity, but the establishment of CLENE has at least recognized this. In Great Britain, according to Margaret Slater, courses (as the main extra-library mode of continuing education) are readily available averaging about 170 a year in 1971 (35). However she reported earlier that library courses seemed to be repeated less often than courses given in the computer field (34). Courses conducted by such bodies as library schools, the Library Association or Aslib are usually only held in one location, there being no parts of Britain too inaccessible. Also in Great Britain there is more emphasis placed on the importance of continuing education activity within the library as recommended by the Library Association Working Party on Post Qualification Training. In Australia, there have been few reports on the continuing education scene. One was a paper by Heather Palmer, as a student at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1973 (26) which suggests there are not enough courses available and that they are 8. not repeated often enough. Palmer attributed this lack of opportunities to the relative dormancy of the then existing Library Association of Australia's Continuing Education Committee. She recommends that the Library Association of Australia employ a full time person to plan and coordinate continuing education activities, particularly within Australian library schools. In the same year, Lawrence McGrath at a colloquium following the Library Association of Australia's biennial conference, emphasises the need for a national integrated continuing education programme. Continuing education opportunities in Australia, he claims, are at present inadequate and badly coordinated. The library schools should play an essential role, planning and offering activities which are logical extensions of primary studies (20) . Val Richards of Monash University has summed up the history of continuing education activities in Australia and the role of the Library Association. Apart from one
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