Continuing Education - how far?

I have been thinking for some time now about CE for librarians in this region. How important is CE to professional development? And whose responsibility is it anyway to ensure that the adequate and needed training is had?

Late last year I got sponsored to attend a conference which featured several workshops in areas which MPOW had been looking into for some time. My attending these workshops meant leaving the region, travelling all day (from morning to evening), changing flights three times, crossing several time zones and encountering varying climatic conditions. No, this not an exaggeration. How far does one go in order to get the right training?

At that conference I spoke with one of the presenters and in later communications discussed the possibilities of offering a similar workshop in the region and at the regional association's annual conference. I contacted the President of that association with questions about sponsorship of this and / or similar training workshops.

Recently the Head of the regional Library School came to chat with local librarians about the same issue. Are we interested in CE? What are some of the areas we would want covered/offered? How should these be delivered -face to face, online? And when (what time of year) should they be offered?

More and more I am seeing North American universities and other organisations offer online CE courses and generally distance education programmes for the profession. Some of these are free, others are fee based.

The local library association to the best of my knowledge has not offered any CE programmes in the past five years. The local community college does offer a library assistant's certificate and members of the association teach components of the programme.

In a conversation with a 'young' librarian recently the issue of whether or not one should have one's own personal professional collection/library arose. Is it necessary? Who pays for the resources, you or the employer? How much and what should be acquired?

Several departments here at MPOW have from time to time offered courses in areas which though not particular library and information science oriented, appeared to be quite interesting otherwise.

During my most recent review process I was asked to list my duties. I thought long and hard about it but eventually decided, much to my later regret, not to include, keeping update with the latest issues and trends in this list. What role do listservs, blogs, wikis, and other online media, play in CE?

When I consider all the foregoing, I ask myself to what extent, how far, should one go for desired training? What are the individual's responsibilities and what are the organisation's (POW, Association, LS etc.) responsibilities? What are the roles of the regional library school, the regional and local library associations?

How far should you/I be willing to go to ensure one's professional development?