Professional Development
Committee Members
- Becky Givens, Covenant Theological Seminary
- Timothy Lincoln, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
- Kellie Barbato, Roberts Wesleyan University and Northeastern Seminary
- Megan Welsh, University of Colorado Boulder
- Robert Burgess, Mississippi College
- Andy Lofthus, Western Seminary
Year in Review
The PDC began the year with an in-person planning meeting on November 11, 2022, in San Diego, CA, with Atla staff member Jamie Lin, where we brainstormed programs for the 2022-2023 year and beyond.
During this year the PDC worked to promote two new educational programs available through Atla, Library Juice Academy, and Skilltype.
In February 2023 the PCD organized a cohort to take the Library Juice Academy “LRM: A New Foundation for RDA & the RDA Toolkit” class together. A listserv was used to communicate about the class lectures, readings, and the future of cataloging. Thirteen Atla members participated. I personally found being in a cohort encouraging as we navigated this complicated and ever-changing world of RDA together.
The PDC also instituted a Professional Development Hour, encouraging Atla members to reserve time on their calendars for professional development. Members received an email reminder that included suggestions of things to watch or read on specific topics from the SkillType platform, such as AI and ChatGPT. PDC also experimented with developing suggested playlists on various topics within the platform, but discovered this was not yet fully developed, but might be useful in the future.
The last program we developed for the 2022-2023 year was a Career Development Workshop at Atla Annual. Megan Welsh and Courtney McDonald presented a free three-hour CV & Resume Workshop for Mid-Career Professionals, where members could work on and receive feedback on their resumes.
In addition to these programs for 2022-2023, the PDC also worked on planning two Mentoring Programs, one for Directors, and one for Students and New Professionals. We hope to see these implemented in the future.