As professionals, we understand and appreciate the need for continual professional development (CPD). Associations, training organizations, etc. exist to help facilitate this need. However, one of the most important aspects of a well-balanced approach to CPD is having access to a diversity of thought. We all know a professional or two who believe in the one method or tool or whatever that will “rule them all” (my apologies to Tolkien). The reality is that there is no one approach or solution to the broad range of challenges facing any single organization. There is no Silver Bullet that is going to solve 80% of problems your organization is dealing with, regardless of the hype presented during a training course or conference presentation. Professionals need to have a breadth of approaches, techniques, and understanding to help define a problem, analyze it as well as develop and test possible solution alternatives, etc., etc. Diversity of challenges requires access to a variety of knowledge and thought. The Forgetting Curve shows how information lost over time when there is no attempt to retain it. These challenges alone are a solid rationale for establishing and maintaining a professional reference library.
