The power of one: circumspice! The 2015 Elizabeth Stone Memorial Lecture and Keynote Address

Abstract

Dr Elizabeth W. (“Betty”) Stone, Dean Emerita of the School of Library and Information Science LIS at the Catholic University of America, Washington, was the tall, elegant, irrepressible and irresistible driving force behind the first World Conference on Continuing Education for the Library and Information Professions, held at Moraine Valley Community College, Palos Hills, Illinois, in August 1985 prior to that year’s IFLA conference in Chicago. A uniquely memorable event for all who were privileged to participate, the Conference led directly to the formation of the Continuing Professional Education Round Table (CPERT) within IFLA, the line predecessor of today’s vigorous Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning (CPDWL) section of IFLA and the parent of all subsequent World CPD Conferences. Elizabeth Stone was the “power of one” of the title, and this Memorial Lecture commemorates 30 years between the original Palos Hills conference and the Tenth World Conference held in Cape Town, South Africa in August 2015, as a satellite meeting of the IFLA WLIC 2015. The paper reviews the development of subsequent World Conferences from a personal as well as a professional perspective, as CPD has constantly adapted to meet the evolving needs of this Protean profession. Elizabeth Stone died in 2002. The Catholic University of America School of LIS established a Dr Elizabeth W. Stone Lecture Series in 1990; but if the CPDWL Section wants to see the memorial that would arguably have been closest to her heart – circumspice (“look around”)!

Elizabeth Stone died in 2002. The Catholic University of America School of LIS established a Dr Elizabeth W. Stone Lecture Series in 1990; but if the CPDWL Section wants to see the memorial that would arguably have been closest to her heart – circumspice (“look around”)!