The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (National Forum) is Ireland’s advisory body for teaching and learning in Irish higher education. In 2015 the National Forum developed a professional development framework for all staff who teach in Higher Education (PDF). In2016, library staff from Carlow IT DIT (now TU Dublin) and Dundalk IT were awarded substantial funding for a 2 year project (L2L) to review the PDF through a library lens. L2L was the first library-based project to be funded by the National Forum in this way. All library staff teach formally or informally, while also performing a wide array of other library tasks. The PDF provides a framework to prompt a deeper exploration of such multi-layered roles and, in doing so, helps to identify our complex and evolving professional development needs. Tangible outcomes include the website l2l.ie, with its wealth of resources, and a book recording the experiences of project participants. Other outcomes include greater self-confidence and recognition of all library staff as educators. It is essential now that these outcomes are disseminated widely amongst the library community. So the conference presentation will describe the project, discuss its findings and encourage attendees to engage with it. Relevance of the presentation to the conference theme of ‘Inclusive Libraries’: All library staff in all libraries (academic, public and special) ‘teach’ their users in some way and all users benefit (including those disadvantaged or excluded). In addition, the presentation will be equally relevant to attendees from the North and the south. Finally, the success of the project will encourage other library staff to apply for similar funding in future.

1. L2L: Lessons Learnt and
Plans for the Future
Ann Cleary, Dundalk IT
Philip Cohen, Retired
Mary Delaney, IT Carlow
Brendan Devlin, DIT (TU Dublin)

2. Background
• National Forum for the Enhancement of
Teaching and Learning
• Our role as academic libraries
• Professional Development and the
professionalisation of the Higher
Education work force

3. Professional Development
Framework
In 2016 . . .
• Development of the PDF: Professional
Development Framework for All Staff Who
Teach
• Pilots to explore the PDF
• Call for Proposals
• A Collaboration between 3 THEA libraries
to create a proposal
• First library-led project to obtain funding

4. L2L: Who Are We?
• Dundalk Institute of Technology
• Dublin Institute of Technology
(TU Dublin City Campus)
• Institute of Technology Carlow

5. Intention
• Professional Development of all staff
• Sense of a Gap
• Sense of a need for a coherent career-long
framework
• Sense of isolation from ‘academic work’
• Focus on Information Literacy teaching

6. What L2L Did
• Engaged with the PDF as library staff –
Both individually and collectively
• Managed a project
• Created a web site
• Published a book

7. What L2L REALLY Did
• Unpicked our practice
• Explored who we are and what we do –
Questions around Identity
• Worked across Institutions
• Learned about power and how it is
constituted in new ways
• Swampy low lands
• Found confidence in our practice

8. What L2L REALLY Did
• Learnt and embedded new practices
• Discovered through inquiry our role as
‘Teachers’
• Discovered that we ‘Teach’ – Both
formally and informally
• Discovered value of ‘Third Space’ practice
• Grew in confidence
• Re-articulation of our position and role
• Did new things

9. What L2L REALLY Did
• Role of the Student Voice and student
engagement
• Necessity of including the Student Voice
in our own PD
• Collaboration with non-library staff

10. What L2L REALLY Did
• Grew in self efficacy
• PD is a choice – You have to make time
for it
• Learned what it takes to create
• Profound shift in the personal
understandings of our role

11. What Participants Say
My professional identity has also changed.
Previous to the project I was reluctant to identify as a
teacher. I referred to myself as a librarian who engaged in
teaching but who wasn’t a teacher. I feel this was due to
my own personal idea of what a teacher was and feeling
like an imposter.
I now value my existing accredited PD (Professional
Development), my self-directed learning and experience.
I now identify as a teacher within the wider role as a
librarian
L2L Participant, Personal communication,
14th June 2018

12. What Participants Say
Then I think that having time and opportunity to listen,
hear and talk with others created a new sense of what it is
we as library staff do, what our experience is.
Hearing echoes of my own experience suggested to me
that it was not about me but was rather systemic and
engendered by things and systems outside me such as
organisational cultures
L2L Participant, Personal communication,
14th June 2018

13. What Participants Say
It changed through formal reflection.
In the past, I may have reflected but it was informal and
undocumented.
By actually noting my reflections in my learning log I began
to see a pattern in the type of informal PD I was
undertaking.
L2L Participant, Personal communication,
14th June 2018

14. What Participants Say
In collaboration and conversation engendered by L2L I have
found that my experience is a shared one.
That libraries are constructed in the cultures of our
organisations in limiting ways and that those limits are in
fact power relations. These may be unconscious, they may
be historic but they are definitely present in the naming of
‘non’ academics, functional areas etc.
Through L2L and the PDF and inquiries into identity,
reflection and action research processes I now know that I
am not alone. I also have a sense of what could change if I
change and I will actively pursue this over the remainder of
my time.
L2L Participant, Personal communication,
14th June 2018

15. What Participants Say
Being introduced to an initiative like L2L so early on in my
library career has changed my perceptions of my professional
and personal development.
I embraced the supporting ‘learners learning’ element of the
project and deeply considered the teaching - formal and
informal - that I do on a day-to-day basis as part of my Library
Assistant role.
Consequently, I enrolled in and completed the Certificate of
Learning and Teaching run in DkIT by the Centre of Excellence
in Teaching and Learning.
I was the first member of library staff to enrol in the course . . .

16. What Participants Say
. . . It was challenging of course, to fit the material and
make it relevant to the teaching I do in the library.
However, L2L afforded me the opportunity to reflect on my
role and to appreciate how it is changing and evolving.
This all started with an introductory chat about L2L, its
premise and goals and I am excited by future prospects due
to being involved in such a project.
I feel I am better equipped now in assisting students,
insofar as I am conscious of providing student-centred,
quality information and instruction.
L2L Participant, Cameo, 20th November 2018

17. Impact on Our Libraries
• Time for Professional Development
• A repositioning of the Library and a claiming of
the Learning Space
– Library Teaching Philosophies
– New involvements
• Changing the language we use to reflect new
alignment
– Communication
• Changing Practices
– Information Literacy curricula
– New skills and knowledge
• New Activities
– Research Café
– Writing, Publications, Presentations

18. Impact on Our Libraries
• Placing and articulating Professional
Development in processes:
– Job Descriptions, Recruitment, Induction,
Review and Policies
• Student engagement
• How others see us
• Invitation and Inclusion
• COP: Community of Practice

19. National
• A PD Framework for library staff
• 350+ attendees from 35 different libraries across
all sectors
• Speakers and contributors from different areas
• Dissemination: Seminars and Conferences
• Presentations and Updates to national bodies
• THEA Libraries as leaders
• Professional Body: Recognition for events,
information and dissemination, inclusion in
Working Groups on recognition and
accreditation

20. Plans for the
Future of L2L

21. Near Future
• Deepen and support on-going
engagement
• Increase dissemination and reach
• Book published
• Accreditation
• Tools to engage with the PDF
• Workshops delivered on the PDF through
the lens of library staff

22. A New Conversation About
Professional Development
• Further work on recognition
• Development of the PDF as an equivalent
of the CILIP PKSB: Professional Knowledge
and Skills Base - recognised by the Library
Association of Ireland
• More widespread use of the PDF
• Creation of academic modules/credits for
library staff
• And . . .

23. What We Have
Created and Where
You Can Get It
Web Site: www.l2l.ie
Book Launch: 29th April 2019
Contact Us:
email: librariansL2L@gmail.com
facebook: Facebook.com/librariansL2L
twitter: Twitter.com/librariansL2L

24. Thank You