Certified Public Library Administrator Program

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Certification Process

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Re-Certification

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Re-Certification Process*

Certification Renewal Requirements

Initial certificates are issued for five-year periods. They are valid through the last day of the month in which they expire. They may be renewed upon evidence which satisfies the ALA-APA Certification Review Committee for that certification program that the holder has participated in continuing education in librarianship which either is directly related to the position held or will permit advancement in the profession.

Requirements for certification renewal are based upon the accumulation of 60 contact hours of continuing education related to the area of certification in the five-year period prior to re-certification. Contact hours may be granted for continuing education activities outside the fields of information, library, and media education (for example, management courses at a business school) if they are relevant to the present position or to career advancement in the library profession.

A contact hour is 60 minutes of continuous participation in a learning activity. A learning activity must be a minimum of one contact hour. For continuing programs, when individual segments are less than 60 minutes, the sum of the segments may be considered one total program (e.g., four 30- minute presentations would equal 120 minutes and be counted as two contact hours). After the initial minimum of one contact hour is met, credit is granted for contact hours for programs involving fractions of an hour by rounding up to the next quarter hour. For example, a program lasting 1 hour and 50 minutes should be rounded to 2 hours.

Three alternatives are available for accumulating credits. Individuals may take formal coursework through academic institutions of higher learning; participate in noncredit workshops, seminars, and conference sessions; or pursue self-directed activities with clear objectives and documentation.

In all cases, the continuing education must fulfill the following requirements:

• Be focused on clear learning objectives related to the area of certification;
• Involve active engagement in the learning by participants;
• Provide an opportunity for participants to apply the learning;
• Include a process for evaluation to determine if the learning objectives were met.

For self directed activities, the recertification plan must be approved in advanced by the appropriate certification review committee.

To determine the number of contact hours for individual continuing education activities, consult the following continuing education chart.

Examples of Eligible Self-Directed Learning Activities

• Written reviews of books in the field of library science or related to librarianship authored and published in the library/media-related field and read primarily by those in the profession.
• Review of books not in the field of library science and not related to librarianship (e.g., fiction books for youth or adults) authored and published in the library/media related field and read primarily by those in the profession (limited to one such review per five-year recertification period).
• Instruction (courses, workshops, seminars, presentations, poster sessions, conferences, programs) given to information, library, or media-related groups.
• Participation in professional library association activities of a significant nature, such as serving as chair or member of a major committee or as an officer in the association (e.g., serving on an ALA literary awards committee or as officer of the state library association)
• Listening to and/or viewing an audiotape or videotape of a workshop presentation or conference program.
• Exchange-of-position programs (learning in another library for a specified period).
• Internships for which no academic credit is awarded.
• Consultation or one-on-one instruction received.
• Publications (a book or a chapter thereof, a paper, or an article) authored and published in the library/media-related field and read primarily by those in the profession.

Examples of Non-Eligible Self-Directed Learning Activities

Learning activities for which no academic credit is given, which are not planned, coordinated, administered, and evaluated in terms of learning objectives, and which are not designed to keep participants abreast of new knowledge and developments within the library field and area of certification, enhance their job competence, or lead to further specialization do not qualify as continuing education activities for purposes of recertification. Among the activities not likely to meet those criteria are the following:

• Business, committee, planning, and advisory meetings at the local library, system or state level.
• Training on regular library operations or procedures
• Program planning meetings.
• Regular staff meetings.
• Orientation of new staff.
• Preparation of internal manuals and guides or other internal documents.
• Professional association activities which are routine in nature (e.g., serving on the state association elections committee).
• Published reviews of books not in the field of library science and not related to the area of specialization.
• Reading professional journals.

Certification Renewal Process

Individual certificate holders are responsible for keeping records of continuing education activities on individual Continuing Education Activity Report forms and encouraged to update their re-certification file annually by submitting copies of the Continuing Education Activity Report forms with documentation to the ALA-APA Office. When the 60-hour requirement has been met, participants will apply for re-certification to the ALA-APA Office.

Applications and documentation for re-certification will be evaluated by the appropriate Certification Review Committee. Applicants will be notified of the CRC's decision by the ALA-APA Office.

Appeals may be made to the Certification Program Committee in writing with documentation no later than 3 months following the CRC decision. Decisions of the CPC may be appealed to the ALA-APA Board of Directors. Decisions of the Board are final.

*Adapted from Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Certification Manual for Wisconsin Public Library Directors, Bulletin No. 05047. Madison, WI: Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, 2004.

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