Welcome
Welcome to the Library Support Staff Certification (LSSC) Website. You will find all the information that you need to become a candidate, successfully complete certification requirements, take a course or prepare a portfolio, offer a course, evaluate portfolios, or to encourage a Library Support Staff to enter and finish the program.
In brief, in order to achieve Certification, a candidate must meet the eligibility requirements, and successfully complete six of ten competency sets. Three are required and three are elective. Candidates have four years to complete the six competency sets and must renew their certification within four years of its receipt.
The LSSC Program is managed by the American Library Association-Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA), a companion association to the American Library Association (ALA). LSSC Program staff are happy to make presentations about LSSC in person or through a webinar.
Benefits to Library Support Staff
- Recognition for learning and competence
- Portability from library to library
Benefits to Libraries
- Assurance that an LSS has a specified body of knowledge and skills
- Standardization of expectations for LSS
Benefits to the Library User
- Served by more confident and knowledgeable LSS with enhanced skills & abilities
Library Support Staff have “a great passion for libraries, for what they are and what they stand for. I feel my participation in LSSC will allow me to learn new methods, procedures, and techniques to share my love for the library with others and keep a library current and a needed part of the community as a whole.”
- Michael Stanaland, LSS
