Professional Development: A Qualitative Study of High Impact Characteristics Affecting Meaningful and Transformational Learning

Changes in the academic library landscape necessitate continual professional development for librarians. The library literature offers a plethora of advice about how to keep skills and knowledge up-to-date in this rapidly changing environment. Yet few large-scale studies have sought to understand the experiences of academic librarians as they seek out and participate in professional development that they consider to be meaningful or transformational to their careers. This study uses a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to understand these types of experiences. In the study, ten participants discuss professional development activities that they believe have had a meaningful or transformational impact on themselves and their careers. Their experiences are analyzed for common themes that may help others interested in professional development understand which characteristics of it may foster meaningful or transformational learning. The themes discussed that emerged most strongly from interviews with the participants include interaction, duration, reflection, discomfort, and self-awareness. Implications of and recommendations related to these themes are then explored.