“Changing the Way We Talk”: Developing Librarians’ Competence in Emerging Technologies through a Structured Program

Abstract

This article reports on the implementation of a professional development program in emerging technologies for librarians at the University of Western Australia. Set up in 2008 to address a lack of pedagogically grounded training in this area, it has now graduated three cohorts. A qualitative analysis of participants’ online contributions and course projects, complemented by quantitative survey data, reveals that most librarians acquired new understandings of both pedagogy and technology; many were able to apply newly gained skills in the workplace; and some went on to create pedagogically grounded, technologically enabled resources of ongoing value to the library. A more intangible change in the discourse around new technologies was also observed. Limitations and challenges are identified and discussed.