Development Dollars & Sense: Making Development Part of the Job

Abstract

Change is here for the duration. There will be no new plateau of knowledge where we can rest. If libraries are to remain pertinent to universities, their employees must continue to develop. In this paper "dollars" refers to a program at Notre Dame Libraries called Development Dollars. This program offers all library employees 100 "dollars" per year, each worth one hour of training or development time. The program was designed to emphasize to both staff and supervisors the importance of allocating time for development. The "sense" part of the program deals with the critical features of a successful development program: (1) the audience, (2) the content of a development program, and (3) the impact of the program on other organizational activities, such as the library's philosophy statement, job designs, organizational structure, interview questions, goal planning, recognition, evaluation, and the allotment of time, space, and funding.