Free or Externally Funded Professional Development for Frugal Librarians

Librarians need professional development opportunities even during difficult economic times with limited library budgets. Fortunately, creative and frugal librarians are finding external funding for professional development, and benefiting from free or low-cost professional development tools and opportunities. Many of these frugal solutions are online. Social media, bookmarking services, e-learning platforms like WebJunction and Lyrasis, listservs, and webinars are all explored as such online solutions. Conference scholarships, interdepartmental cooperation, and community partnerships are also ways to provide free or externally funded professional development.