Online professional development for librarians in the workplace and the problem of multitasking

Sažetak

Objective. This survey aimed to identify which activities that can lead to multitasking librarians do at the same time as their online professional development at work, and how often they perform them.

Approach/Methodology/Design. The survey was conducted using quantitative methodology, with a survey questionnaire as the measurement instrument, which examined the age of the respondents, the type of library where they work, the location from where they attend online professional development and the activities they carry out during their online professional development. The survey included 593 librarians employed in 2024 in one of the different types of libraries included in the COBISS system.

Results. The results indicate that participants do perform additional tasks during their professional development sessions, but only occasionally or rarely. The performance of additional activities varies statistically significantly between participants according to the type of library they work in and their age, and the performance of some activities also varies according to the location where they are receiving the training. The most frequently reported multi-tasking activities during the online professional development are additional work tasks, interaction with co-workers and reading and writing e-mails unrelated to the training. Participants with the highest reported rates of multitasking are from the national library and special and higher education libraries. In terms of age, younger participants (aged between 20 and 39) were the most frequent multitaskers.

Limitations. The data were not collected immediately following a single online professional development session and was gathered retrospectively, which may have caused participants to have difficulty recalling information. Additionally, the use of a survey questionnaire may introduce response bias.

Practical Application. The results of the survey can help us to be aware of these issues when planning online professional development sessions.

Social Significance. Addressing the problem of multitasking may help discourage such behaviour among learners, and alert online professional development planners to the problem of an inappropriate learning environment that allows too many distractions.

Originality/Value. The article presents previously unknown information and data about the implementation of multitasking performed by librarians from various types of libraries while engaging in online professional development at the workplace.