Bridging the Gap in Digital Library Continuing Education: How Librarians Who Were Not "Born Digital" Are Keeping Up.

Abstract

Studies on the continuing education pursuits of librarians are prevalent in library literature, but none has focused on the efforts made by librarians trained in the pre-Internet era to keep abreast of the skills needed in the digital library age. This study collected data from randomly solicited members of the Indiana Library Federation, a statewide library association including librarians from all types of libraries. Qualified respondents were those who received their M.L.S./M.L.I.S. prior to 1996. Participants were asked about the digital library-related topics they had studied in the past two years, the continuing education methods they had used, and how helpful they had found the activities in which they had engaged. Analysis of the responses reveal that a large majority of the librarians in this study see training in digital library skills as important and they seem to be making the acquisition of these skills a priority.