Cultivating a Master's Staff Scholarship Support for Graduate Library Studies

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

In an effort to improve their services and competitively align themselves with benchmark libraries across America that serve similar populations, Chesterfield County Public Library needed to increase the number of staff members with an MLIS (Master’s of Library and Information Science). CCPL used a Public Library Association Grow Your Own at Your Library grant to jumpstart an ongoing system-wide scholarship program that financially supports staff members interested in pursuing their MLIS degrees. Library administration and partnership with Friends of the Library aided recruitment efforts and built staff enthusiasm about professional librarianship, and produced four new MLIS staff members in two years, another halfway through the degree, and others expressing interest in beginning their graduate studies.