Definition of Supervisory Experience

The Certified Public Library Administrator program is a voluntary post-MLS certification program for public librarians with three years or more of supervisory experience.

At the June 2008 meeting of the CPLA Certification Review Committee, the following definition of supervisory experience was adopted based on the definitions of the United States Code and National Labor Relations Board:

The term “supervisor” means any individual having authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees or volunteers, or responsibility to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend such action, if in connection with the foregoing the exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment, cumulative for three years, though not necessarily continuous or concurrent.