COPALI, the Communities of Practice for the Advancement of Library Instruction, is a professional development opportunity that aims to introduce and/or strengthen the instructional practices of librarians, particularly in emerging pedagogies at the core of foundational and inclusive educational philosophies. The institute is made up of three tracks (evidence-based instruction, OER and open pedagogy, and diverse voices) where each assigned group formed their own community of practice (CoP) within a larger landscape of New York State instruction librarians.

COPALI continues similar efforts by Western New York librarians that have been ongoing for a decade and a half. Dating back to 2009, the designers of COPALI all engaged in the grassroots efforts of librarians to offer localized professional development opportunities that prepared and/or refreshed librarians’ performance in the classroom. The first of the run was titled Teaching Tips from the Trenches, a full-day workshop held at SUNY Geneseo’s Milne Library which welcomed librarians from across New York State. From that pilot experience, Kimberly Davies-Hoffman, Justina Elmore, and Logan Rath participated in the development of the Library Instruction Leadership Academy (LILAC) which expanded the learning experience from one day to a full-semester worth of training. Two subsequent iterations of the academy followed, with the first two instances being held at the Rochester Regional Library Council (RRLC) on a monthly, in-person basis (each meeting lasted a full day) and the last instance adopting a hybrid model, allowing for more state-wide participation. No matter what the logistics, Teaching Tips, LILAC, and COPALI have all adhered to a core set of principles:

• Keep the price of professional development at low to no cost
• Situate the learning event in a centralized (easy to access) location to attract as many NYS participants
• Follow a theory-to-practice model where attendees learn, do/experiment/apply, and reflect on their practice
• Diversify the participants/presenters within the professional development opportunity (from K-12 to public to academic, including librarians, educators, and/or instructional designers)
• Include a final “product” to demonstrate learning and growth and enhance an instructor’s arsenal of learning materials

The extended iteration of COPALI comes out of Logan Rath’s dissertation (Rath, 2022). At the conclusion of his study, participants remarked on both the lack of professional preparation for instruction as well as the absence of sustained professional development opportunities once in their careers.

Participants spoke of several webinars and conferences that provide an introduction to a topic, allowing instruction librarians to get started, but then leave attendees on their own to plan and implement next steps without access to anyone for support. As a solution to this issue, COPALI was born.

After some discussion with colleagues, Rath reached out to Davies-Hoffman to discuss the idea of collaborating. They discussed their personal goals for the project, and agreed that they should involve Elmore so that there would be three distinct tracts that would provide for the interests of a variety of librarians. The three leaders met and began their planning, centered around a local grant proposal aimed at providing professional development for librarians. While not ultimately awarded that grant, the director of the Rochester Regional Library Council contacted the team to provide funding as she recognized that this could be a valuable experience for librarians in the area.

This OER is the story of COPALI. The institute leaders hope that the curriculum developed is adapted for use in many other contexts. The work within this OER is licensed as CC-BY-SA so that communities of practice can be created around the world, and librarians can build their personal professional networks to advance their own practices.

References

Rath, L. (2022). Information literacy is a social practice: Refinement of a threshold concept for academic instruction librarians (Publication No. 29207919) [Docotral Dissertation, University at Buffalo]. ProQuest Theses & Dissertations.