How to Advance in Your Library Career

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Course Details

December 2-16, 2025
2-Week Online Course + Workshop
10 Credit Hours
Recommended for early-career public librarians

About This Course

Learn how to build the necessary knowledge and skills to achieve your goals and develop your library career.

Live sessions via Zoom:
Tuesdays, Dec. 2 and 9, 2025
from 2:00 to 4:00 pm ET
(recordings available for 6 months)
Asynchronous Workshop:
Project-based assignments with expert feedback over 2 weeks

What does being a library department or branch manager entail? How do people advance to become library directors? This course is for any early- to mid-career librarian with aspirations of advancing their career. Over two weeks of live, online instruction, you will learn how to set and achieve career development goals, find mentors, and navigate the relationships and politics necessary to move up in library systems. You will leave with a deeper understanding of how libraries and administrative positions operate as well as practical ideas to plan and enact your own advancement.

The live sessions run on Tuesdays, December 2 and 9, 2025 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm ET (recorded for on demand viewing) with an ongoing facilitator-led workshop over 2 weeks. Don’t miss this opportunity!

After you attend this course, you’ll be able to:

  • Set and achieve career development goals.

  • Find mentors.

  • Navigate the relationships and politics necessary to move up in library systems.

  • Understand how libraries and administrative positions operate.

  • Plan and enact your own advancement.

Program to be announced soon!

This will be an on-demand online course and will include:

  • Facilitated discussions: Audience participation in Q&A and discussion with guest speakers.

  • Live sessions: Guest speaker presentations by leaders in their field. (All sessions are recorded for on demand access for six months after the course ends.)

  • Asynchronous workshop: Project-based weekly assignments to connect what you’re learning to your professional life. Includes written feedback from an expert in the field who functions as the workshop facilitator, as well as peer conversation via discussion forums. Workshop available for all multi-week courses plus half-day courses where indicated.

  • Early access on-demand resources:Access to a series of past live session archives from Library Journal and School Library Journal courses to explore at your own pace.

  • Online Classroom: The virtual learning platform that holds all course content and is accessible for six months after the course ends.

*Note: You do not have to complete the asynchronous work during these three weeks; it will be open to you for six months. However, the feedback from facilitators will only be available from December 2 - December 16. 

Expected time commitment

If you watch the recordings of all sessions and participate in the asynchronous workshop, you'll spend approximately 2-4 hours per week on this course. You'll earn 10 hours of PD credit and a Library Journal certificate of completion.

On-demand access

All live guest speaker sessions are recorded and available on-demand for six months following the initial broadcast as a part of your purchase.

Certificate of completion

Complete the course and earn 10 professional development credit hours. We provide a certificate that is emailed to you.

Accessibility

All guest speaker sessions feature auto captioning and are made available on demand after the initial broadcast. Please email course-support@libraryjournal.com upon registration if you require any special accommodations and we will make our best efforts to facilitate them.

Support

For support with online courses, please contact course-support@libraryjournal.com.

Speakers to be announced soon!

Discounted rates are available for a limited time only. Secure your tickets now to lock in the best price.



Rate

Early Bird

Advance

Standard

Deadline

October 14, 2025

November 18, 2025

December 23, 2025

Ticket Price

$219

$239

$261







Group Rates

We offer discounts for groups of 3 or more.

For larger groups of 15 or more, we offer the option to apply group rates across multiple courses to receive significant discounts. For more information, select “Bulk Course Credits Packages” in the form below.

Request Discounted Group Pricing

For support with group purchases, please contact groupsales@libraryjournal.com.

 

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