Category: Continuing Education Advisory Group

The group met 0 times this reporting period.

After reviewing the current PLA Strategic Plan, please tell us:

Describe the current work of this committee and how it supports our strategic goals. Include work accomplished, decisions made, and any recommended follow-up actions.
The committee’s work aligns with several of the strategic goals, particularly by identifying and recommending webinars that support professional development while advancing advocacy, awareness, and engagement within the profession.

Do you see opportunities to better align committee work with those goals?
The committee work does reflect many of the strategic goals like recommending webinars that will optimize professional growth while supporting advocacy and awareness.

What recommendations do you have for in-coming committee members? Are there particular streams of
work in progress to be carried over into the new committee year? (January–June reporting period only)
Recommend and promote free or reduced-cost webinars for librarians. As many library professionals face budget reductions and financial constraints, affordable professional development opportunities are increasingly important. If access and inclusion are core organizational values, we should strive to ensure that members can participate in professional learning regardless of their financial circumstances.

What specific activities will this committee undertake over the next six months to support that alignment? (July–December reporting period only)

Are there other PLA or ALA committees whose partnership and collaboration would accelerate meeting PLA strategic goals?
None that I can recommend at this time.

Is there anything else about your committee experience you’d like to share?
I have occasionally found myself uncertain about the expectations and long-term direction of the committee. Given the limited requirements, I have wondered whether its work could potentially be integrated with another committee. I recognize that some of this uncertainty rests with me, and I take responsibility for not seeking greater clarity sooner. Throughout this experience, however, ALA staff have been exceptionally supportive, communicative, and helpful.

Submitted by Alicia Mangin on 06/16/2026

The group met 0 times this reporting period.

After reviewing the current PLA Strategic Plan, please tell us:

Describe the current work of this committee and how it supports our strategic goals. Include work accomplished, decisions made, and any recommended follow-up actions.
The Continuing Education Advisory Group (CEAG)'s work includes reviewing proposals for upcoming PLA webinars. During this reporting period, CEAG reviewed 16 webinar proposals and made recommendations for educational opportunities for public library staff. This work supports PLA's strategic goals in areas of:
– Professional Growth – the webinars and trainings are reviewed for inclusivity to allow PLA to help grow the
knowledge, skills, and competency of workers at all levels to support a cohort of library leaders with diverse
experiences.
– Organizational Excellence – by including PLA members with direct experience in the field as part of the webinar
review process, PLA ensures relevance and efficacy in available trainings.
– Transformation – by including PLA members with direct experience in the field as part of the review process, PLA also
ensures that the topics selected are current and relevant to ongoing and ever-changing professional and community
needs.

Do you see opportunities to better align committee work with those goals?
We continue to see two opportunities to better align committee work with strategic goals. One is to look for opportunities for
committee members to be more informed of related work by other committees and/or divisions that intersect with the
work of this group, for example the EDISJ committee or conference committee. Another opportunity would be to
include the strategic goals directly on the webinar review rubric to increase reviewers' awareness of the goals.

What recommendations do you have for in-coming committee members? Are there particular streams of
work in progress to be carried over into the new committee year? (January–June reporting period only)
We recommend that committee members should be tasked with sharing out the opportunities to their networks each time a request goes out, both for the call for proposals and when the approved list is shared. We also recommend committee members are encouraged to set aside a block of time when reviewing proposals to avoid interruptions and distractions.

What specific activities will this committee undertake over the next six months to support that alignment? (July–December reporting period only)

Are there other PLA or ALA committees whose partnership and collaboration would accelerate meeting PLA strategic goals?
The Continuing Education Advisory Group continues to support collaboration and partnerships with committees such as
EDISJ, Conference Planning Committees, Leadership Development Committee, and Measurement, Evaluation, and
Assessment Advisory Group to ensure our work complements the work they do and adds to the value of PLA in the
greater library community.

Is there anything else about your committee experience you’d like to share?
The PLA team has been great to work with, we appreciate their help and support.

Submitted by Julie Brophy and Krista Riggs on 05/14/2025

The group met 0 times this reporting period.

After reviewing the current PLA Strategic Plan, please tell us:

Describe the current work of this committee and how it supports our strategic goals. Include work accomplished, decisions made, and any recommended follow-up actions.
In this reporting period, the Continuing Education Advisory Group reviewed webinar proposals in December/January. Decisions were finalized and notifications sent by PLA to submitters in February. PLA scheduled the webinars between March – August 2024. The webinars support strategic goals of Professional Growth, Transformation, EDISJ, and Advocacy and Awareness through their focus and content. The webinars also support the goal of Organizational Excellence by providing high quality opportunities for continuing education and training from a trusted source.

Do you see opportunities to better align committee work with those goals?
It seems the committee work aligns naturally with the strategic goals. In the past it's been helpful to review the goals as a group before evaluating webinar proposals, which could also help moving forward to keep the goals in mind throughout the review process.

What recommendations do you have for in-coming committee members? Are there particular streams of
work in progress to be carried over into the new committee year? (January–June reporting period only)
It's recommended that in-coming committee members understand the more independent nature of the advisory group and are able to set aside time to review proposals. The group is well-run and efficient, and depends on individual work and meeting deadlines.

What specific activities will this committee undertake over the next six months to support that alignment? (July–December reporting period only)

Are there other PLA or ALA committees whose partnership and collaboration would accelerate meeting PLA strategic goals?
Gaining input from the EDISJ committee on future proposals to encourage alignment across committees/ organizations.

Is there anything else about your committee experience you’d like to share?
We appreciate the opportunity to have input on continuing education offered by PLA. Everyone has been wonderful to work with, and Angela offers great support and communication as our liaison. Thank you!

Submitted by Krista Riggs on 06/07/2024

The group met 1 time this reporting period.

After reviewing the current PLA Strategic Plan, please tell us:

Describe the current work of this committee and how it supports our strategic goals. Include work accomplished, decisions made, and any recommended follow-up actions.
The webinars that the committee reviewed support strategic goals of Professional Growth, Transformation, EDISJ and Advocacy and Awareness through their focus and content. The webinars also supported the strategic goal of Organizational Excellence by providing high quality opportunities for continuing education and training from a trusted source. The group reviewed webinar proposals and selected eight for presentation between March and August 2023. Selected topics are:

1. Working with Community Partners to Offer Library Programming to Expectant Parents and Parents of Newborns
2. Putting the Let’s Talk Race Curriculum into Practice
3. Getting Started with Services to Decarcerated Patrons
4. Let’s Talk About It: Developing Staff Training Programs for Difficult Topics
5. Astronomy Programming in Public Libraries
6. Reimagining Digital Literacy to Address Emotion and Culture in the Fight Against Fake News
7. Creating a Personal Archiving Program and Do-It-Yourself Memory Lab for Library Patrons
8. Community Networking Small Library Big Impact

Do you see opportunities to better align committee work with those goals?
We feel the webinars selected aligned well with the strategic goals. It helped that the goals were highlighted by Angela at a virtual group meeting before the webinars were reviewed.

What recommendations do you have for in-coming committee members? Are there particular streams of
work in progress to be carried over into the new committee year? (January–June reporting period only)
We recommend that committee members are prepared to set aside some time to review the proposals. It’s an efficient, well-run committee that depends on individual work outside of meetings.

What specific activities will this committee undertake over the next six months to support that alignment? (July–December reporting period only)

Are there other PLA or ALA committees whose partnership and collaboration would accelerate meeting PLA strategic goals?
It may be helpful in the future to communicate/ consult with other committees such as the EDISJ committee on webinar proposals to encourage alignment across committees/ organizations. It may also be helpful to recommend proposals that aren’t selected due to sheer numbers to other committees, and/ or request help promoting selected webinars within committees.

Is there anything else about your committee experience you’d like to share?
This is a well-run committee that requires focused attention without being too time consuming. We appreciate the opportunity to have input on continuing education offered by PLA. Angela is great to work with, communicates well, and gives good directives and support. Thank you!

Submitted by Roosevelt Weeks and Krista Riggs on 05/31/2023