baldwin.p65 Personnel Development 267 267 ibraries are constantly changing, and the personnel who work in them must be adaptable to keep pace in this fluid environment. Academic librar- ies have undergone transformations with respect to operating methods and the information services offered to pa- trons. Computers, mass-storage technol- ogy, and telecommunications have contrib- uted significantly to these changes.1 Technological change has accelerated or- ganizational change, and many profes- sions, including librarianship, have re- sponded by embracing continuing education. For example, it has been common for libraries to provide person- nel development and training activities such as discussion groups and seminars on information technology or manage- ment development. 2 There is an in- creased need for library administrators Initiating an Effective Personnel Development Program Virginia A. Baldwin, William J. Gibbs, and Marlene M. Slough This study identified the educational interests of library personnel and investigated whether level of interest was a valid indicator of program participation. In the fall semester of 1993, Eastern Illinois University’s Booth Library surveyed all administrators, faculty, and staff. The objec- tives of the survey were to identify: (1) indicators of educational inter- ests of library personnel at a medium-sized university; (2) departmen- tal differences in educational interests; and (3) the relationship between employee interest in educational programs and employee participation in programs developed. to build and maintain an atmosphere that fosters organizational develop- ment.3 One reason for the emphasis on human resource development is that well-trained and highly skilled person- nel provide a competitive advantage in developing high-quality library pro- gr a m s . 4 Because valuing human re- sources is viewed as essential to organi- zational excellence, those wanting a competitive edge must examine factors such as team-building, organizational culture, and people as resources.5 Orga- nizations that can effectively develop human resources will likely achieve and maintain an advantage.6 Effective human resource develop- ment is a complex process. Personnel development programs frequently con- sist of workshops, demonstrations, or seminars; and, in and of themselves, these activities, although helpful, may not Virginia A. Baldwin is an Associate Professor at Eastern Illinois University (EIU); e-mail: cfvab@eiu.edu. William J. Gibbs is an Associate Professor at EIU; e-mail: cfwjg1@eiu.edu. Marlene M. Slough is an In- structor at EIU; e-mail: cfmms@eiu.edu. 268 College & Research Libraries May 1997 be solutions. Workshops and seminars frequently disseminate previously known information,7 or the information presented never gets transferred to the actual work situation. There are many reasons for their ineffectiveness, not the least of which is that often the activity�s content, objectives, and mode of pre- sentation are incongruent with partici- pants� informational and learning needs. To be effective, developmental pro- grams must be consistent with actual personnel needs and interests, and at- tendance must be maximized. Whether personnel make valuable transfer of what they learned to their work situa- tion was not the focus of this study. Professional Development Study at Eastern Illinois University Eastern Illinois University, founded in 1895, has an enrollment of approxi- mately 10,000 students. In the fall of 1993, Booth Library formed a new Per- sonnel Development Committee. With the intention of increasing the effective- ness of its human resources by making personnel more knowledgeable, skilled, involved, and, ultimately, more re- sourceful, the committee rewrote its charge: �to identify areas of need and interest among Booth Library person- nel and to develop and produce a con- tinuing series of activities designed to enhance their skills and abilities.� The committee did not want to begin offer- ing workshops or training seminars without first determining the areas in which library personnel wanted and needed development. A challenge Booth Library faced, along with many organizations, was to devise a method for identifying the de- velopmental needs of an organization (in this case, a library) that has so many diversified services. 8 The personnel committee eventually decided that sur- veying Booth personnel would be an ap- proach that could yield worthwhile re- sults. This approach is consistent with the Readiness, Planning, Training, Implementations, and Maintenance model (RPTIM) suggestion that �staff FIGURE 1 Personnel Programs: Mean Ratings of Interest The committee did not want to begin offering workshops or training seminars without first determining the areas in which library personnel wanted and needed development. Personnel Development 269 should be closely involved in the plan- ning and selection of a program.�9 In addition, the survey was designed so that the following could be evaluated: 1. What relationship exists between personnel interest in a topic and per- sonnel willingness to participate in a given program about that topic? 2. Are there departmental differ- ences in personnel needs and interests? Methodology In the fall semester of 1993, the Person- nel Development Committee re- quested that library administrators, fac- ulty, and staff notify the committee in verbal or written form as to perceived organizational needs and to indicate ac- tivities that would help to alleviate those needs. Based on these responses, the committee created a survey instru- ment. The survey presented thirty-nine po- tential categories of developmental ac- tivities. On a 5-point Likert-type scale, ordered from �No interest� to �Great idea,� respondents rated their level of interest in the listed items and also indi- cated (yes or no) whether they would participate in a personnel development activity related to the topic. The survey also included open-ended questions and spaces for comments, and asked re- spondents to indicate the library depart- ment in which they worked. The survey was given to a total of sixty-seven library personnel (admin- istrators, faculty, and staff), and forty- eight usable responses were received. The thirty-nine categories were grouped into three areas: Personnel Programs (ten topics), Library and Elec- tronic Resources (twenty-one topics), and Special Interest (eight topics). Ten library departments were surveyed. Results and Discussion The committee focused initially on those categories for which the majority of respondents (50% or more) rated 4 or higher on the 5-point scale. These are hereafter referred to as high categories. This was done to expedite program de- velopment and to ensure that program- ming was consistent with personnel in- terests. Mean ratings were calculated for each category. Personnel Programs Personnel Programs consisted of ten categories of personnel development. Respondents rated from 1 to 5 the de- gree of interest they had for each cat- egory (see figure 1). As figure 1 indi- cates, respondents rated Technology highest. By the committee�s definition FIGURE 2 Hardware Training: Mean Ratings of Interest 270 College & Research Libraries May 1997 of high, Technology and Safety and Emergency Procedures were the only two high categories under Personnel Programs. A majority (76%) gave Tech- nology high ratings whereas 56 percent of respondents rated Safety and Emer- gency Procedures as high. Communi- cations among Library Personnel, al- though not a high category, received high ratings by 49 percent of respon- dents. To some extent, all categories were valuable to respon- dents, but Technology generated the most interest. This is by no means surprising considering that li- braries are in a con- stant state of techno- logical flux and that those who work in this environment are forced to keep abreast of such changes. 10 Library and Electronic Resources The survey presented four general catego- ries related to Library and Electronic Re- sources, each of which contained several items: Hardware Training, Macintosh Software Training, IBM/IBM- Compatible Software Training, and Electronic Mail and Internet. Hardware Training. For items related to hardware, respondents rated IBM/IBM-Compat- ible and CD-ROM slightly higher than other categories (see figure 2). Both were designated as high categories in that the majority (50% or more) of respon- dents rated them 4 or higher for inter- est. This is not surprising in light of the fact that IBM and IBM-compatible com- puters are predominant in the library and throughout the university. Although differences between these categories are not great, this finding does suggest that employees may have a greater in- terest in activities that have applications to their job. In further support of this conclusion is the fact that the only li- FIGURE 3 Macintosh Software Training: Mean Ratings of Interest FIGURE 4 IBM\IBM-Compatible Software Training: Mean Ratings of Interest Personnel Development 271 brary department that indicated a rela- tively high interest in Macintosh train- ing was Media Services, which uses Macintosh as the preferred computer platform. Macintosh Software Training. Under Macintosh Software Training, the sur- vey presented five categories (see fig- ure 3). All received mean interest rat- ings of less than 3, and low percentages of respondents rated their interest in them as 4 or higher. No categories in this group were designated as high. However, taken by library departments, both Administration and Media Services indicated a high inter- est in these catego- ries. IBM/IBM-Compat- ible Software Training. Six categories were listed under IBM/ IBM-Compatible Soft- ware (see figure 4). Word Processing and Databases received the highest mean rat- ing whereas re- sponses to all other items were in the mod- erate range. For Soft- ware Training, again, a larger percentage of respondents gave a high-interest rating (4 or higher) to IBM/IBM- compatible than to Macintosh software. Of this group, only Word Processing and Databases fit the cri- terion to be desig- nated as high. E-mail and Internet. There were six cat- egories related to E- mail and the Internet, and all had mean in- terest ratings in the medium (3) range (see figure 5). The Internet was rated high (4 or higher) by 54 percent of respondents, E-mail (ad- vanced) by 64 percent, and Gopher by 56 percent. Such results are expected given the implications these technolo- gies have for libraries and the trans- mission of information electronically. Special-Interest Areas There were eight special-interest cat- egories (see figure 6). The mean rating of interest for the categories in this group, like those for Macintosh software FIGURE 5 E–mail and Internet: Mean Ratings of Interest FIGURE 6 Special Interest Areas: Mean Ratings of Interest 272 College & Research Libraries May 1997 training, were all under 3, and, similarly, a low percentage (less than 50%) of re- spondents gave these categories a rat- ing of 4 or 5. Special Interest, as befits the name of this group, appeared to be the most department-specific group of categories, which accounts for the low overall mean. This will be discussed in more detail in the following section. None of the categories in this group was rated high, and the percentages of re- spondents with a 4 or 5 ranged from 14 percent for Recreation to 38 percent for Copyright. Survey Results by Departmental Area To determine whether there was a varia- tion which would show that different ar- eas of the library have different needs, survey respondents were asked which library department (area) he or she represents. Survey results by depart- mental area are displayed in table 1 for the nine categories (areas of interest) for which 50 percent or more of the respon- dents rated a 4 or 5. A tenth category, Communication, which received high ratings by 49 percent of the respondents, also was included. An X represents a mean score of 4 or higher for the depart- mental area�s interest in a given cat- egory. From the table, it can be seen that the library departmental areas that expressed the highest interest in these ten categories are Administration (five categories), Cataloging (seven catego- ries), and Circulation (five categories). Technology was the only category for which high interest encompassed a majority of departmental areas. Among the other categories in the survey which had less overall interest, there were seven for which an individual departmental area indicated high inter- est (mean of 4 or higher). Not surpris- ingly, Media Services indicated a high interest in Macintosh Training and Soft- ware, and Copyright from the special- interest group of categories. Spread- sheet training ranked high by Adminis- tration, and this information was used in scheduling workshops in this cat- egory to maximize the ability of person- nel in this area to attend. Work Rela- tions among Library Personnel was ranked high by Acquisitions, Personnel Leadership by Administration, and E- mail Basics by Administration and Ac- quisitions. Workshops have not yet been planned for these categories. Knowl- TABLE 1 Survey Results by Departmental Area (where X represents a mean score of 4.0 or higher) Adm Acq Cat Ref Circ MS AR Per Other Communications X X Internet X X E-mail X X Safety X X Technology X X X X X X X X IBM Word Processing X X IBM Databases X X Gopher X CD-ROM X X X IBM Hardware X X X Departmental areas: Administration, Acquisitions, Cataloging, Reference, Circulation, Media Services, Automated Records, Periodicals, and Other (Collection Management, University Archives, and areas not identified). Personnel Development 273 edge of these individual departmental needs will assist the committee in sched- uling activities and tailoring activities that more effectively meet departmen- tal needs. Programs and Voluntary Participation The percent of respondents who indi- cated voluntary participation in the ten areas of highest interest is represented in figure 7. Nine of these categories re- ceived high (4 or higher) ratings by 50 percent or more of respondents. The tenth category, Communications, re- ceived high ratings by 49 percent of re- spondents. Within the Personnel Pro- grams group, most respondents indicated they would participate in de- velopment activities if offered. Three of the Personnel Programs categories (Li- brary Technologies, Safety Procedures, and Communications among Library Personnel) are represented in figure 7. Technology exceeded all other catego- ries in that 95 percent of respondents indicated they would participate, Safety Procedures was next with 89 percent, and Communications showed 79 per- cent. Library and electronic resources provided the other seven categories in figure 7, with three from E-mail and Internet and two each from Hardware Training and IBM/IBM-Compatible Soft- ware Training. None came from Macintosh-related categories, and none came from the special-interest group of categories. It would be expected that as level of interest increased, so too would indica- tors of participation. However, this ef- fect was not as apparent as the com- mittee had anticipated. All topics within Personnel Programs had at least 53 per- cent of respondents indicate that they would attend related developmental ac- tivities. However, most of these items received only slightly better-than-mod- erate ratings (3.0�3.4) in terms of inter- est. For example, although only 15 per- cent of respondents gave Sexual Ha- rassment a high rating for interest (4 or higher), 53 percent indicated they would FIGURE 7 Voluntary Participation for the Ten Areas of Highest Interest (percent responding with “yes”) 274 College & Research Libraries May 1997 attend a developmental activity on this topic. This result surprised the commit- tee members because it was thought that time commitments and work over- loads would cause respondents to indi- cate intent to participate only in activi- ties for which their interest was high- est. Three plausible explanations are given for this finding. First, a respon- dent, although not personally interested in a topic, may feel that obtaining knowl- edge about it through a workshop is ben- eficial for professional reasons. Second, personnel may feel obligated to attend workshops in order to be perceived as participatory despite their low interest. Third, this finding may be indicative of employees� perception of personnel de- velopment and training. Often there is a propensity to view training as a dis- cretionary extra not directly linked to daily work activities. �This perception is reinforced by the belief that training comprises `going on courses� and the idea that it is a day off (or days off) from work; a close relative of annual leave or time off for good behaviour.�11 There- fore, low interest in a developmental activity does not necessarily preclude an individual from participating. Level of interest more closely corre- sponded to indica- tors of participation for hardware and software issues (Li- brary and Electronic Resources). For ex- ample, all categories pertaining to Macintosh hard- ware and software received low per- centages of high rat- ings. Accordingly, the majority of re- spondents indicated they would not at- tend a developmental activity related to these categories. For other catego- ries in Library and Electronic Resources, higher-interest ratings were, in general, reflected in higher indicators of partici- pation. Attendance Results for Programs Developed The first program that was developed in response to the survey was on Janu- ary 7, 1994, a workshop on the use of gopher on the Internet. Attendance at this and all subsequent programs was monitored. Actual survey participation was tabulated for programs between January 1994 and March 1995. During this time period, programs were devel- oped for eight of the top ten areas of interest. None was given for IBM/IBM Compatible or Peripherals. Table 2 shows the actual number of participants for each of these eight categories. For pur- poses of comparing actual to predicted par- ticipation, this table also gives the number of survey respondents who indicated will- ingness to participate for each of the eight categories. The number in the first column in table 2 is the percent of respondents that the number from the survey (second col- umn) represents. For example, thirty of the TABLE 2 Workshop Participation in Top Ten Categories of Interest Categories Survey % Survey # Actual # Communications 79% 30 22 Safety 89 [32*] [11/all*] Library Technologies 95 39 22 IBM/IBM-Compatible ** ** ** Peripherals ** ** ** Word Processing 65 40 40 Databases 73 27 32 The Internet 84 31 27 Using E-mail: Adv. 84 32 27 Gopher 72 26 36 Total 225 206 *Data not included in totals because participation was restricted ** No workshops were offered in this category. Personnel Development 275 respondents who answered they would attend a workshop on communications (among library personnel) represents 79 percent of the total number of respondents who answered the question, either yes or no, for Communications. The number of respondents pre- dicted to participate from the survey and the actual number of respondents were each totaled, and the percent of actual (206) to predicted (225) partici- pants was calculated to be 92 percent. Two activities were conducted in the area of Safety, a CPR training for which participation was limited to eleven, cho- sen to represent different areas of the library, and a tornado and fire drill, for which participation was 100 percent of those present in the library. These num- bers are not included in the totals at the bottom of table 2. Table 3 is similar to table 2 except that the categories in table 3 are chosen from among those that ranked lower on the Likert scale. These are areas of lower interest to the library personnel, for which activities or workshops also were conducted. With the exception of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) at 76 percent, the percentages are lower than those in table 2, namely 54, 54, 53, and 27 percent, and are consistent with responses from lower-interest catego- ries. Again, for ADA, which is a category for which workshops are designed to provide sensitivity to issues of disabled personnel, twenty-eight respondents answered they would attend a workshop. This represents 76 per- cent of the total number of re- spondents who answered the question, either yes or no, for ADA. The re- sponse of 76 per- cent for ADA in table 3 is more repre- sentative of the percentages indicated for the top ten areas of interest in table 2, even though the level of interest, as represented by the Likert scale mean rating of 3.2, was relatively low. The higher-participation indication for ADA may show that some personnel felt they should attend, even though their level of interest was lower. In the end, eigh- teen people attended the workshop. The number of respondents pre- dicted to participate from the survey and the actual number of respondents was each totaled in table 3, and the percent of actual (71) to predicted (91) partici- pants was calculated to be 78 percent, as compared to 92 percent for the higher-interest categories in table 2. The mean value of the actual number of participants is twenty-nine for the high categories in table 2, as compared to four- teen for the low-interest categories in table 3. Overall, it can be said that there was nearly twice the attendance at pro- grams offered in the high-interest catego- ries as there was attendance at programs offered in the low-interest categories. It is worth noting that the largest discrepan- cies between predicted and actual atten- dance occurred for categories that were not as clearly defined in the survey in- strument. For example, library technologies is a very broad term, and the program that was offered in this category did not necessarily fit what the respondent had in mind when indicating an interest in attending events in this category. Simi- TABLE 3 Workshop Participation in Categories of Lower Interest Categories Survey % Survey # Actual # ADA 76% 28 18 Time Management 54 21 10 Spreadsheets 54 19 13 Promotion of Research 53 16 13 Recreational Opportunities 27 7 17 Total 91 71 276 College & Research Libraries May 1997 larly, for Recreational Opportunities, the respondent may have had volleyball teams in mind when responding no in- terest in attending, and found the actual recreational opportunity program, a film visit to China, to be much more interest- ing. On the other hand, categories such as Word Processing, Databases, and the Internet were more specific, and there is closer correspondence between atten- dance predicted by the survey and ac- tual attendance. More careful wording for the categories will likely make the results more meaningful. Conclusions and Recommendations The survey of personnel was useful to determine the areas of needs and in- terests and to assess the likelihood of high attendance at programs developed by the Personnel Development Com- mittee. After the survey results were analyzed, the committee developed a series of programs that addressed the ten areas of most interest (see figure 7), and implemented alternative meth- ods of addressing other issues where needs were expressed, such as dispens- ing information to library personnel us- ing the e-mail listserv for Booth Library. There was some difficulty in develop- ing programs because, in some cases, the category title was not specific enough to accurately determine the in- terest of the personnel. It is recom- mended that survey instruments be carefully designed with the end results in mind. One or more committee mem- bers should complete the survey and note changes or clarifications needed. Categories should be carefully worded and explained so that the meaning of the results will be clear. The survey permitted evaluation of the following two objectives: (1) to deter- mine if there was a relationship between personnel interest in a topic and person- nel participation in programs developed, and (2) to determine if personnel inter- est and needs differ departmentally. The methods used appeared to be effective in identifying the needs of library per- sonnel. From the data collected, it seems that personnel participation was influ- enced by program type. Topics related to such things as hardware and software, which have direct application to work responsibilities, had high-interest ratings and high indicators of participation. Hard- ware and software topics that did not have direct implications for work respon- sibilities had low-interest ratings and low indicators of participation. This was not the case for personnel program categories. Although many re- spondents had low interest in topics, they had high indicators of participation. Personnel may feel increased knowl- edge about a topic is beneficial for pro- fessional reasons, or they may feel ob- ligated to participate even though they lack interest. Moreover, there may be a tendency among personnel to view developmental activities as time off or compensation for working hard. As expected, department interest in categories differed. For the committee�s purpose, knowledge of these differ- ences is useful for scheduling work- shops. It also helps to ensure that pro- grams developed are tailored to depart- mental needs. It is recommended that the survey instrument be designed to gather information about the respon- dent, such as his or her department and possibly faculty or staff status. A comparison of survey results and actual participation (tables 2 and 3) shows that for the programs developed during this time period, indicators of both interest and willingness to partici- pate were valid indicators of actual par- ticipation. It is recommended that indi- cation of participation be included in the design of the survey. Epilogue As of this writing, all but one of the sixty- two full-time personnel at Booth Library have participated in at least one of the Personnel Development 277 Notes 1 . Ronald G. Leach and Maureen Sullivan, �Staff Development at Indiana State Univer- sity: Providing the Competitive Edge,� Library Administration & Management 4 (summer 1990): 138�40. 2 . Thomas W. Shaughnessy, �Staff Development in Libraries: Why It Frequently Doesn�t Take,� Journal of Library Administration 9, no. 2 (1988): 5�12. 3 . Vivienne Monty, �Effective Team Building and Personality Types,� Special Libraries 85 (winter 1994): 1�7. 4 . Leach and Sullivan, �Staff Development at Indiana State University,� 138�40. 5 . Michael Albert, �HR Profit Power,� Personnel 67 (Feb. 1990): 47�49. 6 . Daniel Mitchell and Mahmood Zaidi, �Macroeconomic Conditions and HRM-IR Prac- tice,� Industrial Relations 29 (spring 1990): 164�88. 7 . Monty, �Effective Team Building and Personality Types,� 1�7. 8 . Patrick Noon, �Starting from Scratch: Developing a Staff Training and Development Programme in an Academic Library,� Personnel Training and Education 9, no. 3 (1992): 65�71. 9 . Patricia Weaver-Meyers, �ARL Libraries and Staff Development: A Suggested Model for Success,� College & Research Libraries 51 (May 1990): 251�65. 1 0 . Kathleen Low, �Computers, Libraries, Staff Development and Training: A Symbiotic Relationship,� Library Software Review 10 (July�Aug. 1991): 279�80. 1 1 . Noon, �Starting from Scratch,� 65�71. programs offered since January 1994. Committee members have found that the survey continues to be a viable tool in planning and scheduling the educa- tional activities of Booth Library�s per- sonnel development program.