The Educational Third Dimension: III. Toward the Development of a National Program of Continuing Education for Library Personnel.

IDENTIFIES FIVE areas influencing continuing education: the individual, the informal group, the employing institution, the university, and the professional association.'This chapter deals with the last area.The author argues that it is necessary to coordinate, plan, stimulate, develop and evaluate continuing education for library personnel, and that the responsibility for doing so should rest with the professional associations at the national level.Even so, the origination, consumption and ultimate responsibility for one's continuing education rests with the individual; any system of continuing education for library personnel must recognize this truth.This chapter briefly reviews the need for continuing education of all personnel working in libraries, discusses the elements which presently contribute to our "system" of continuing education for library personnel, and concludes with the reasons for the author's belief that a national program of continuing education is necessary.A suggestion is made for the location of a national office for library continuing education, and a description is given of a model for a national program.