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The purpose of this paper is to define the gender aspects regarded as relevant in a woman’s career, as well as the situations or elements, which are narrated, as an experience of success or failure in their professional development.

Through an approach similar to life stories and a longitudinal phenomenological perspective analysis, the author identifies the experiences and feelings of nine women who, in 1998, occupied mid-level positions.

The stories offer a reading of the trajectory at three different levels: the working environment, the experience undergone and the principles of action developed through their careers. These stories show and demonstrate that gender and subjectivity are intertwined, enacted upon and reproduced in the workplace.

Despite having collected information on two occasions, allowing us to reconstruct their paths and isolate the gender issues from this set, this is not a purely longitudinal research as it includes a longitudinal phenomenological perspective.

The stories have helped to weave the experiences and feelings of more than a decade of professional development and have shown how subjectivity is committed to a world of prescriptions and proscriptions that confers differences applicable to both sexes, where being a woman explains some of the ways in which female roles are understood and interpreted in relation to themselves and their environment.

El propósito de esta investigación es delimitar los aspectos de género que se relatan cómo relevantes en la trayectoria profesional de la mujer, así como las situaciones o elementos que se narran como una experiencia de éxito o fracaso en su desarrollo profesional.

Mediante un abordaje próximo a las historias de vida y a través de una perspectiva de análisis fenomenológica-longitudinal, nos aproximamos a las experiencias, vivencias y sentimientos de nueve mujeres que en 1998 ocupaban posiciones de mando medio.

Los relatos nos presentan una lectura de la trayectoria a tres planos: el entorno laboral, la experiencia vivida y los principios de acción desarrollados a lo largo de su carrera. Estos relatos, muestran y demuestran que el género y la subjetividad se entrelazan, promulgan y reproducen en el entorno laboral.

A pesar de recoger información en dos momentos, lo que ha permitido reconstruir sus trayectorias y aislar de este conjunto los aspectos de género, no se trata de una investigación puramente longitudinal sino con cierta perspectiva fenomenológica-longitudinal.

Los relatos han permitido tejer las vivencias y sentimientos de más de una década de desarrollo profesional y han evidenciado cómo la subjetividad se compromete con un mundo de prescripciones y proscripciones que confiere diferencias para aplicar a ambos sexos. Donde ser mujer explica ciertas formas de entender e interpretar los roles femeninos, en relación a ellas mismas y a su entorno.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse everyday interactions in a workplace from the point of view of organisational learning, informal learning and peer learning, as well as the possible relationships that can be established between all three.

Insights from nine months of ethnographic study provided an operational definition of equality in an organisation, a better understanding of interactions and informal learning between peers, and about psycho-social determining factors or contexts that favour the exchange of knowledge in an organisation.

The findings demonstrate the importance of articulating the three elements (organisational learning, informal learning and peer learning) in a joint interpretative framework. With the results generated, it is proposed to move away from the traditional organisational learning based on knowledge and know-how, to a new perspective focused on sharing and participatory opportunities. In other words, without opportunities to participate, without the support and equal access, the fostering of informal learning can be debatable in terms of democracy.

The results bring the authors closer to being able to design workplace learning strategies that carefully includes the value of participation opportunities and the influence of a dynamic concept of equality. The ethnography in a hospital setting has allowed the authors to gain a better understanding of the contribution of informal learning to the organisation. The focus on the social context and the roles of relationships in informal learning offers new insights into a complex phenomenon.

The purpose of this paper is to study the implementation of Staff Picks, a new measurement to evaluate the annual performance of professionals at the Santa Cruz Public Libraries (SCPL).

The paper discusses the reasons why the number of public librarians' publications is far less than that of their academic counterparts in professional literature. To reverse such a trend, SCPL requires its librarians to write and publish three book reviews per year, as part of their annual performance appraisal.

As one of the contributors to the program, the author has not only participated in the process, but also has conducted a series of investigations into the unprecedented success of Staff Picks. The paper provides answers to a series of questions: Why can it shine and attract so many writers and readers? How can it grow so steadily and successfully? What are the driving forces behind all of these phenomena?

The paper helps public librarians to be more active in contributing to professional publications by practicing and publishing locally, and eventually nationally and internationally.

Staff Picks is innovative in the historical sense that, for once, public librarians are required to write and publish. Their practical research work has benefited not only their own promotions and appraisals, but more importantly, the lives of the public.