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Developing Personal Course Plans (PCPs) as an Example of Self-Directed Learning in Library Management and Project Management Education

ABSTRACT This article examines the education of library (MLS) graduate students in courses of library management or in special topic courses in project management in libraries and information centers. To examine the specific skill of project management, a method was employed allowing students to set deadlines as a form of self-directed learning. The student-created syllabi milestones were piloted to search for a match between student abilities and development of project management processes upon degree completion. The use of a proposed and piloted technique was implemented here through a tool named the Personal Course Plan (PCP). It was designed to assist students in learning the value of setting personal schedules for their enrolled graduate course, much as a library project manager would use in practice in libraries. Personal Course Plans (PCPs) were effectively developed by students and allowed the ability to self-monitor their performance on completing project deliverables, meeting expectations of supervisors, and judging their own performance. As the experience was a positive one for both the instructor and students, this article provides not only an operational examination, but also proposes theoretical justification for using such a teaching method in library and information science education. Described are details LIS faculty should consider in implementing the method in teaching and gives future library employers of LIS program graduates a sense of what project management skills recent graduates are receiving.