The missing link?: Alumni chapters and the professional development of librarians

The Information Professionals Alumni chapter was established in 2003 to maintain and re-establish links between librarianship and teacher-librarianship courses at the Queensland University of Technology's (QUT) library and information studies and teacher-librarianship courses and graduates out in the field. The focus of chapter events is three-fold – to host social events; to encourage networking; and to create opportunities for the professional development of past, present and future students. This paper discusses the formation of the Information Professionals chapter and its success in achieving these aims. The chapter has held many popular events, including hosting a number of international guest speakers, awarding a bursary for a member to attend the 2004 Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) conference and running the Evidence Based Librarianship mini-conference in conjunction with ALIA's Quorum group. All chapter events offer members and guests an opportunity to learn more about their profession and to develop their professional skills. This paper reports on the outcomes of a pilot study evaluating chapter members' participation in alumni events as part of their personal continuing professional development (CPD) activities. It discusses future strategies to enhance the role of the alumni chapter as a core part of members' CPD activities and outlines opportunities to further collaborate with ALIA's CPD programs. Alumni chapters offer a valuable opportunity to not only create stronger links librarianship educators, students, new graduates, experienced practitioners, but to strengthen the imperative for library and information professionals to engage in continuing professional development