How should we deal with [professional-development], [staff-development], and similar training terms?

So far we've got professional-development x4 and staff-development. We don't have anything using the term "training." I'm not sure how we want to deal with this.

Are professionals and staff different people? Within the context of a library, I think we understand that this could mean librarians vs. non-librarian staff, although it doesn't have to. But are the "development" terms really so different?

Is "staff development" different from "staff training"?

Is there some librarians-and-staff "training" separate from "staff training" that we want to consider?

1. Alan Thomas II

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Answer by Deborah Mould

I like the use of 'professional development' since it is related to obtaining new skills regardless of current circumstances such as retirement or being employed in another field. It can encompass development at either group (staff) or individual level and should relate to "acquiring of skills in the information industry". (Or whatever broader term we can agree our various occupations fit under.)

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• 1. Alan Thomas II: Well, we don't have a quorum to propose a synonym or anything like that, but I'll go ahead and switch the one staff-training question to professional-development and we'll leave it at that unless the problem recurs.