“This is How We Do It: One Professional Development Activity in the Lives of Librarians from Around the World” is a new series from the IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning Section to highlight our standing committee members, who they are and what they do!

In this post, we highlight Mitsuhiro Oda, CPDWL standing committee member!

Why are you a standing committee member of CPDWL and what are you working on for CPDWL Section at the moment?

Mitsuhiro: My role as a member of standing committee of CPDWL Section is two-fold. The first is to make the concept of Continuing Professional Development broaden in the training of library and information professionals of Japan, and to raise awareness of self-development among library and information professionals. For this reason, I am working as one of the standing committee members to further refine and revise the CPDWL Guideline. The second is to popularize the method for Continuing Professional Development. For example, in the past few years, the CPDWL section has been launching coaching sessions at the IFLA World Congress. I would try to analyze the effectiveness of this method as a LIS researcher.

What is one advice you have for new librarians interested in getting involved in IFLA or in their library associations for professional development?

Mitsuhiro: Competency is considered to have three dimensions in any profession. They are knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Workplace learning and training sessions often focus on only knowledge or skills, but most important be attitude as competencies. This means that library and information professionals should be able to objectively recognize their own situation and level, determine what they have to do, and choose and use appropriate methods for continuing professional development.