What is the Library of Professional Coaching?
Introducing The Library of Professional Coaching to open Summer 2008!
We are pleased to announce that the Library of Professional Coaching Library (LPC) will establish an Internet-based center that provides access to a carefully selected set of resources associated with the field and discipline of professional coaching.
In partnership and collaboration with the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations and choice Magazine, we are building an online library of professional coaching materials, which will serve as the ultimate Internet-based source of information about professional coaching. It will be an easily searchable database of trusted, high-caliber content about professional coaching. The first “wing” of the library will be devoted to those professional coaching services that are utilized in organizations and support the ongoing development of leadership, strategy and human capital in organizations. Future wings of the library may focus on personal and life coaching, as well as coaching services that embrace both personal and organizational domains.
Founders: Who Are We?
Glad you asked! As you’ll see below, we have each launched successful enterprises of our own, whether books, magazines, coaching businesses, or other sustained ventures, and you may know us from various volunteer roles we all play in the coaching world:
William Bergquist is co-founder and Co-Executive Editor of the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations (IJCO), as well as being co-founder and Symposium Dean for the International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations (ICCO). He has authored or co-authored 44 books and is owner and president of The Professional School of Psychology (www.psychology.edu).
Suzi Pomerantz is the author of Seal the Deal, CEO of Innovative Leadership International LLC, a founding board member of the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations (IJCO), as well as a founding board member and Vice President of the International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations (ICCO). She has had her Master Certified Coach (MCC) credential from the ICF for 10 years and has been coaching executives for 15 years in over 125 organizations worldwide.
Matthew Rochte(www.MatthewRochte.com) brings to the table 7 years of effective triple-bottom-line manufacturing practices, 20+ years of business ownership and entrepreneurial expertise (manufacturing, coaching and training businesses, and a national alliance of coaches), and 15 years of executive leadership coaching. Matthew also works with seasoned coaches on going deeper with their work and studying the art of coaching with an integrated approach. Matthew served as president and on the board of the Minnesota Coaches Association and on the International Coach Federation's Ethics and Standards Committee and code revision team.
Garry Schleifer is the Publisher of choice, the magazine of professional coaching. A serial entrepreneur for over 20 years creating and running several multi million dollar private and public corporations, he combines his business experience and coaching training to apply a signature approach of “ruthless compassion” when helping senior executives boost personal and organizational performance to higher levels. A coach(www.conceptsynoptic.com) for over 6 years and holds his PCC certification with the International Coach Federation (ICF). He also serves as Vice President of the ICF Board of Directors.
Origins of the Professional Coaching Library
The founders identified a common need for a library of resources that will support our shared passion for stewardship of the profession and enable us and our colleagues to discover, learn, explore, and further the profession of coaching. We were aware of a majority of information that was previously inaccessible, either hidden behind private firewalls or otherwise not on the internet. In such an abundance-oriented profession, to see the documentation and research in such scarcity struck us as a profound contradiction. The library is our attempt to bring it all together and make it available to you.On a local level coaching associations and schools have pulled together physical libraries of coaching books. These physical libraries tend to be limited because access to anything but life coaching books is hard to come by. The business and corporate research, journals, articles, resources, and books are often inaccessible or unavailable to the general public, despite being in abundance. The Professional Coaching Library is set to change all that.
The Professional Coaching Library can be traced back, as in the case of several other major coaching initiatives, to a two day meeting that is held every year in conjunction with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) (ICF). Called “The Executive Coaching Summit” (ECS), this meeting has served as a forum for stewardship of the field, as well as for networking, professional development and colleagueship. Stewardship was exhibited in the creation during the 2003 ECS of a new journal—the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations (IJCO)— that has become a central venue, over the past five years, for the reporting of research, theory and practices in the field of organizational coaching. Stewardship was also evident in creation during the 2004 ECS of a new institution—the International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations (ICCO)—that has provided diverse worldwide forums over the past four years for distinctive conversations among those who provide, use, and study professional coaching practices within organizational settings.
Several of those who provided leadership in the creation of both IJCO and ICCO, made yet another commitment during the 2005 ECS: they committed to establishing a data base—a Professional Coaching Library (PCL)—for those who provide, use and study organizational coaching practices.
In 2003 choice, the magazine of professional coaching (choice) came into existence from a similar path. Starting from an idea over a cup of coffee one sunny August Sunday morning, the realization that the coaching profession did not have a magazine was realized and acted on. In November 2003 at the ICF Conference in Denver, Colorado, choice Magazine was revealed to the world. choice is a quarterly professional magazine dedicated to everything coaching. Filled with articles, news, information and advertising related to professional coaching. It serves anyone who uses coaching, as well as those who are seeking information about professional development, human resources, management, personal and business dynamics and growth. Now in it's 5th glorious year, it reaches people interested in coaching around the world.
As in the case of IJCO, ICCO, and choice this new initiative is intended as a central component in the creation and maintenance of organizational coaching as not only a viable profession, but also a firmly-established interdisciplinary field of human service.
Building on the resources of IJCO, ICCO, and choice and alliances with other organizations providing related data base services, the founders of PCL expect their new stewardship initiative to emulate IJCO and ICCO and choice in becoming a viable and valued player in the profession and interdisciplinary field of organizational coaching.
SiteMap: What to expect at the Library of Professional Coaching
- Information Desk - card catalogue, map, help center
- Librarian Filtered Collections - Prescreened collections of articles. What are the best current articles on subjects
- Library Stacks - IJCO, choice magazine, articles, research findings, books, industry articles, case studies
- Reading Room - hot topics, best articles, summaries
- 1 Stop Research - stop trying to go all over the internet to find case study and research results
- Library Stats - What's everyone reading?
- Giftshop/store - purchase single issues of articles, books, and other download options.
- Connections to physical coaching libraries
- WebGateways to online partners
Come Play With Us!
How Can You Help?
Thanks for asking! In the near future there will be multiple ways for you to contribute during the early stages of the library as we open the doors to membership. For now, however, we are inviting you to participate as a founding donor.
