Crossing Over: Surviving the Transition from Paraprofessional to Professional Librarian  

Roy Cummings
rcummings@auctr.edu

Richard Coleman
rcoleman@lincolntech.edu

New librarians face a number of challenges when entering the profession. These challenges can increase when the librarian is transitioning from a paraprofessional role. This poster offers advice and resources that will help future librarians smoothly transition into professional librarianship via what we term “crossing over.” Crossing over requires a paraprofessional to broaden his/her political awareness, accept more responsibility, and often act in a supervisory role. The results of this poster are examined in the context of themes that emerged from the survey questions and we conclude with “advice” on how best to make a successful transition from paraprofessional to professional librarian.