A Program for Quality in Continuing Education for Information, Library, and Media Personnel. Final Report.

Overview & Synopsis

This report describes a design, development, and demonstration project which was conducted by the Continuing Library Education Network and Exchange (CLENE) to formulate criteria for judging the quality of continuing education programs, and to design and demonstrate the feasibility of a nationwide voluntary approval system for providers of continuing education in the information, library, and media fields. The project was accomplished by a 7-member council of persons with continuing education expertise, a project staff, and a project evaluator. Drafts of project documents were written and distributed to the information, library, and media community for review and reactions; an open hearing was held to answer questions and receive comments; and a pilot survey of 13 providers of continuing education was performed to test the quality assurance criteria and the procedures of the provider approval system. Project background, objectives, methodology, results, and recommendations are presented in the report, as well as an evaluation of the project by an external evaluator. Extensive appendices include descriptions of two CLENE continuing education packages, guidelines and interview instruments used in the pilot survey, copies of documents presenting the quality assurance criteria and the provider approval system in their final form, applications for approval under the voluntary system, and other project forms and worksheets. (Author/ESR)