Continuing professional development of librarians in Croatia: participating in STEM revolution

Continuing professional development of librarians in Croatia: participating in STEM revolution

The role of information professionals changes with the technological development and progress: they take the responsibility to be (pro)motors of digital change in their communities and to initiate digital transformation for Smart societies. In that context professional training is crucial. Croatian Training Centre for Continuing Education of Librarians (CSSU) conducts a program of lifelong learning and continuing education of librarians and information professionals. Every year new courses are included in the program to provide support for librarians and information professionals from all types of libraries. Although educations of building information professionals’ competencies in the digital skills domain were held, an increased need for new digital skills, especially in the STEM technologies, was recognised. The opportunity to collaborate with the non-profit organization Institute for Youth Development and Innovativity (IRIM), which started Croatian Makers movement, was a good start for a sistematic education of librarians in the new technologies and STEM field. It is also noteworthy that IRIM provided equipment and organized the workshops and CSSU valorised the workshops through it's system in terms of getting points for professional promotion. The collaboration is a part of the newly founded Digital Laboratory of the National and University Library in Zagreb that will serve as a point of reference and support for libraries across Croatia in implementing STEM and other technology based services. This paper presents the results of the statistical data obtained from evaluation questionnaires filled out by attendees of the workshop „Advanced micro:bit and introduction to BOSON“ with the purpose of conducting a qualitative analysis. The gathered data will be used in a longitudinal study (first one a year from the first workshop) to develop a comprehensive picture of the impact a STEM workshop has on a local community and to serve as a guide in organising further similar educations.