The Miami-Dade Public Library System Learning Circles for Staff Professional Development Program

About the Program

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

Year: 2021

The Miami-Dade Public Library System Learning Circles for Staff Development program?established?learning circles as a new way for library staff professional development and training in fall 2018.?The result is a low-cost, high-value, scalable, and replicable model for ensuring staff skills?are?current, relevant, and?appropriate to?sustaining the needs of the library system,?while?leveraging?existing library resources.?The?MDPLS?Learning Circles for Staff Development program implements the learning circle model as an informal educational method to offer a rich learning experience for staff.?It uses currently available resources that include staff, space, and technology. The Learning Circles for Staff?Professionals?increases staff’s?capacity?for conducting new library services and programming for internal and public audiences. The outcome is an augmented training learning environment promoting impactful, student-focused, and learner-led informal education with positive externalities for the library system. Since?inception, 20 learning circles courses offered 91 sessions to 260 individual participants for over 1,100 staff engagements. These courses augment the ability and?capacity?of library staff to conduct new programming, outreach, community engagement, ad information services. Program participants have also garnered over $242,000 in grant awards positively impacting projects for communities served.??