Unique Benefits of Conference Attendance as a Method of Professional Development for LIS Professionals

Many conference events are held annually by organizations in and related to the Library and Information Science (LIS) field. This article examines whether conferences are a beneficial method of professional development, how to decide which events to attend, and what benefits can be accrued by conference attendance. In particular, it seeks to isolate those benefits of conference attendance that are unique, meaning that they could not be achieved through any of the numerous other methods of continuing education 1 1. Although the concepts of professional development and continuing education are not identical, they share sufficient similarities to be used interchangeably in this article. (listservs, blogs, online training sessions, etc.). The conclusion is reached that conferences are indeed an important method of professional development that affords LIS professionals unique benefits based on recent scholarship in the professional literature and positive evaluation of recent conferences through observation and program analysis.