Understanding Librarians' Continuing Professional Development in Public University Libraries in Uganda

Continuing professional development (CPD) is an essential characteristic of the library profession. It entails maintaining, enhancing, developing and broadening of knowledge, skills and personal qualities throughout the career. It is recognised that the expertise of the library staff is key to the delivery of quality library services. Nevertheless, there exists theoretical and empirical controversy about the concept of CPD. In this study, we explored librarians' views and experiences of CPD, focusing on how the concept is understood, its purpose, beneficiaries and what it constitutes. A qualitative approach within a case study framework was adopted for the study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews. A purposive sample was selected from professional librarians employed in five public university libraries in Uganda. Thematic inductive data analysis was used to generate the themes. The data saturation point was reached when the eighteenth participant was interviewed. The findings revealed that there is lack of clarity of what CPD is, some suggesting that CPD is an activity, form of training after initial education, or refresher course. Participants perceived CPD to serve multiple purposes at different points in time such as skills development, personal growth, maintenance of professional competency, keeping up-to-date, and career advancement. Thus, CPD is multifaceted and context dependent, encompasses both formal and informal learning. We therefore, suggest that librarians' CPD should be linked to the ideals of professionalism and can be conceptualised through a focus on the notion of practice.