Report
to Council of the Society of American Archivists Task Force on Continuing Education
APPENDIX
THREE:
Report on the Continuing Education Policies of National Professional Associations
—Richard
J. Cox, September 22, 1999
I briefly examined (with the assistance of one of my graduate students, Judy
Silva) what a group of national professional associations are doing in
the area
of continuing education. The associations included the American Library Association,
Special Libraries Association, Medical Libraries
Association, Assoc. of Records Managers and Administrators, National Assoc.
of Government Archives and Records Administrators, American Society for
Information
Science, Assoc. of Canadian Archivists, Society of Archivists (U.K.), and Australian
Society of Archivists. This examination was based only on information provided
at web sites. Please let
me know if there is other information needing to be obtained or potentially
useful in our deliberations.
ANNUAL MEETINGS
AND CE. All of the organizations primarily focused on offering CE at their
annual meetings. This corresponds to what SAA does, although it appears that
SAA's offering of courses around the country is unprecedented in scale.
EDUCATION
OFFICERS. Some associations have full-time Education Officers while others
do not. Groups that have such a person, such as MLA, have more elaborate CE
programs. It is obvious, however, that there is no need to fear comparison with
other associations since every type of staffing (from full-time to volunteer
to no-staff) is in place.
COSTS.
There was not considerable data on costs, although they seemed to be in the
same range as normally charged by SAA. Brief partial and day-long workshops
ranged from $45 for members to $255 for non-members and from $530 to 1250 for
special and distance education courses.
DISTANCE LEARNING. A couple of associations offer either
distance learning, online, or home study courses. ARMA offers, for example,
a home-study course on "Advanced Records
and Information Management." This can be completed in nine months and costs
$300. It seems that SAA's current experimentation with the ERM online course
puts it out in front in such efforts.
PHILOSOPHICAL
STATEMENTS. Most of the associations have some sort of philosophical statement
about what it is doing in the area of CE. Below is an example of ASIS's statement:
"The
purpose of ASIS Continuing Education is to help practicing information professionals
develop and maintain the rapidly changing set of critical skills demanded
by
today's (and tomorrow's) information operations and by the changing needs of
information users. As a result of ASIS' multi-disciplinary nature, we offer
a unique array of short courses. Our courses are designed to help information
professionals (regardless of their work setting) stay on top of the latest
techniques
and technologies for information management.
Most of
ASIS' courses are held in conjunction with ASIS conferences. We also schedule
some courses for regional presentation. Of course, we don't offer all of our
courses all the time and we are always developing new courses as the issues
and problems faced by information professionals change and as the tools and
technologies change to meet the new challenges. Be sure to check our schedule
of Upcoming Courses."
Other professional
associations have fuller statements (such as the ACA with its CE guidelines
and Education strategy). SAA, with its PACE guidelines, is certainly in the
forefront with the comprehensive of its CE philosophy. A matter of continuing
worry, and certainly one not being addressed
by the other associations, is how CE relates to graduate education.
INTERESTING
CE FEATURES. I noted a number of CE activities SAA might consider or we
might consider putting in our report to Council. They are as follows:
1) Special
targeted institutes. SLA offers a "State-of-the-Art Institute." This is "designed
to provide a unique forum for the exchange of ideas on timely and thought
provoking issues affecting the information industry and the business community.
The target audience for the State-of-the-Art
Institute includes senior-level information specialists and business professionals
involved in their organization's information structure." This suggests the
idea of SAA trying to offer higher cost, intensive institutes focused on
reaching
non-archivists such as policymakers and others.
2) Online,
continuing surveys. SLA offers a Web based brief survey on professional development
needs, allowing for ready communication of needs (http://www.sla.org/professional/websrvy.html).
SAA could do the same and have steady feedback about what it is doing or needs
to do.
3) Clearinghouse
functions. MLA offers a searchable clearinghouse of all courses approved by
MLA for its CE contact hours. Is a clearinghouse the most critical role SAA
could take on? I will look into what clearinghouses exist and what they cover.
4) Charging
for course approvals. MLA, in supporting its approving function, provides
an elaborate mechanism by which programs offering CE are evaluated and approved,
at a modest cost for review and listing. Perhaps this is a logical role for
SAA, although given the propensity of SAA members and other archivists to
complain about any additional service charges this might not be a good idea.
This might also be a more appropriate role for the Academy of Certified Archivists.
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