Tag Archives: Learning

How to Host a Virtual Poster Session

The Instruction Committee of the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Distance Learning Section (DLS) hosted its first virtual poster session April 1st-5th 2019. The committee sent out a call for proposals to a variety of listservs including ILI, DLS, and RUSA in January of 2019 and accepted a total of 38 posters that related to teaching and learning online. Committee members worked together to develop the call for proposals, select the poster platform, advertise the event, and create an evaluation survey for participants and presenters to submit feedback.

The committee investigated several platforms for hosting the event including Canvas, LibGuides, Padlet, Moodle, and Google Sites, but ultimately decided to host the posters on the Distance Learning Section’s own website which is hosted on WordPress. The DLS website was chosen to bring more visibility to the section and because participants could view and comment on posters without creating an account.

The poster presenters were asked to actively monitor their posters during the first week of April and to respond to any comments or questions that were posed. From April 1st-5th there were 19,609 page views, 1,853 visitors (including repeat visitors), and 298 comments (including a few trackbacks). Though the poster presenters are no longer actively monitoring and responding to the comments on their posters, an archive of the event is freely available on the DLS Website at https://acrl.ala.org/DLS/2019-virtual-poster-session/

Thanks to Michelle Keba, Associate Librarian for Reference, Warren Library, Palm Beach Atlantic University and
Jennifer Shimada, Library Director, Relay Graduate School of Education for this blog post.

Knowledge Café 2014: New wrap-up

Learning together: when experts from developed libraries work with developing countries, everyone learns and everyone teaches

MARY AUGUSTA THOMAS (Smithsonian Libraries, Washington, DC. United States)
Right from the start, the topic was reworked to lessen the “developed/developing polarity.

However it provided a great springboard for discussions in all three rotations. Library visits or using external consults worked best when the type of library or the type of work was a good match.

For example, parliamentary libraries learned the most from each other. The identification of common issues and concerns also promoted learning in these visits. Common concerns seem to include sustaining networks of colleagues, use of technology for active information exchange, and changing practices in all libraries right now.

Many participants come from areas where travel is limited and therefore make heavy use of E Learning, in interacting with their colleagues in similar libraries. At the end of each session elements of “Best practices” were suggested. These were formed around mutual respect and mutual needs.

For individuals who were able to travel, visits to perhaps larger or better developed libraries offered exposure, which on their return can be leveraged by sharing the knowledge gained, encouraging teams to all move forward.

Types of exchanges included person to person attachments or assignments and participation in IFLA or State Department tours but these were perhaps not as effective as the regional or affinity based visits.

For visiting librarians — partnering around projects to have mutual benefit– must include give and take and ways to identify the benefits regionally and internationally. Sharing the information on your return was most important.

Everyone remarked that one often uses outside consultants to say things to management that will not he heard from the internal audience.
Digital life has changed things and in each group, there were more similarities of issue than differences.

What needs to be brought into these sessions by both sides is a respect for community knowledge.

These projects also require meeting challenges of different cultures with appropriate vocabulary and the need to being with common concerns.

Another summary of table discussion at the Knowledge Café 2014 in Lyon

Learning from others – peer training best practices

Moderator: Hannah Fischer, Library of Congress, USA
Rapporteur: Karin Finer, European Parliament, Belgium

There were many interesting discussions and examples of peer training activities around the world, including projects for sharing ideas and experiences on national level (http://osaavat.org/peerlearning/), dedicated websites for professional discussions on international/national/regional level, training days organised by library associations or equivalent, and individual library initiatives to ensure sharing of knowledge.

The efficiency of different formats for peer training was debated. Online tutorials, e-mail communication, social media, presentations at staff meetings, one-to-one training etc. can all be used. The preferred format is of course very much dependent on an organisation’s staff resources and size.

The question of whether peer training programmes should be formal or not was discussed. Some felt that it would be easier to motivate involvement in training if management actively supported and allowed time for such activities. One library had developed a peer training contract, to be signed by management, the trainer and the trainee. This contract notified management of the peer trainer’s intentions, and resulted in the peer trainer gaining extra work time to plan and complete their peer training program. Other types of buddy/mentor programmes to train new staff were described.

An interesting example of peer involvement was given by two libraries who had introduced a system where staff giving client training was observed and evaluated by colleagues. It worked well, due to the evaluation being firmly based on positive feedback in a friendly environment. It was seen as important to support others to become confident trainers.

Finally, the question of reluctance to share knowledge was brought to the table. Some colleagues felt there was no culture of sharing information in their organisation, and in some cases even resistance against it. Participants thought it was important to encourage all staff in an organisation to be part of peer training. There are many ways to be involved – as a classroom trainer, helping to develop online tools and training materials, writing reports from courses and conferences, and/or by acting as a reference point for questions in areas of individual competence.

Knowledge Café 2014: Next wrap-up

Here`s the next wrap-up of the table Creation of staff training and development teams.

Creation of Staff training and development teams
Moderator: Vivian Lewis, McMaster University
Raconteur: Juanita Jara De Sumar, McGill University

The group was presented with some base information and offered the McMaster University case as an example of successful implementation.
Participants discussed the benefits of having a strategic plan in place before the training programme is established. The value of having a clear sense of need was also identified. (In the McMaster case, ClimateQUAL data illustrated a strong need for training and an anonymous survey indicated what kinds of sessions staff wanted and how they wanted the content delivered.)
It was argued that a committee requires a library of a certain size, as otherwise there will not be enough people to take or deliver sessions. Many participants noted the value of bringing experts in from outside the library.
Soft skills (interpersonal skills, etc.) were identified as very important. In choosing trainers it may be necessary to offer everybody the opportunity to apply.
There was strong agreement in all three groups that staff must take some ownership of their own development. Staff must take an active role and apply what they have learned and the team must assist everybody. In reality, we find that some people expect the organization to make decisions for them in terms of what they need to learn.
We also discussed possible obstacles. Staff may be suspicious of the Administration having a hidden agenda. For the team to work, it is necessary that staff be confident and trust the committee leaders.
Another topic was the level of power of the committee. The team can be purely advisory, with management making the ultimate decisions. The group can simply coordinate the training or it can do the actual delivery. (In the McMaster case, the group did a mix of coordination and delivery.

They organized the purchase of Lynda.com, scheduled webinars, peer-to-peer sessions and guest speakers. Specialists from the Continuing Education unit were brought in to do project management training.)
Some of the comments suggested that resources could be used from the local library school. And it could be a good idea to provide some sort of continuing education certification.
Most participants in the first round remained for the second round and continued contributing to the discussion. All three rounds were lively and informative.

Juanita

Knowledge Café 2014: Learning Challenges for Librarians and Library Managers

Dear colleagues,

CPDWL thanks all moderators, rapporteurs and participants of the Knowledge Café last week in Lyon, France. From our point of view it was a very successful session with much more participants as we expected even at this last afternoon just before the Closing session.

And as we promised we will upload more information like the wrap-up of rapporteurs because the time for these was very limited at the end because of your vital discussions before.

And of course we hope to get your comments and feedback about the subjects but also the format and setting. We already started to evaluate the session and hope for your input, too.

Here`s the first wrap-up of table

“User Involvement as a Learning Tool”

Discussion around how to incorporate feedback from library users into providing training for library staff was challenging!  Many participants who visited this discussion table focused on the topic of how to obtain user feedback (e.g., through focus groups, surveys, social media, one-on-one interviews, etc.) but found it more difficult to provide specific examples of how to incorporate user feedback staff training at their institutions.

However, several examples of successful initiatives included:

1.  One library created role plays or vignettes based on user/customer feedback and interactions that was used to spark discussion in staff training focused on customer satisfaction and service.

2.  A large urban library created a Chief Information Office that, among many other responsibilities,  conducted face-to-face interviews with library users and produced a report that was shared with library administrators and discussed during staff training.

3.  Another library hired an external consultant to create a structured community engagement process that solicited user feedback.  This feedback was then incorporated in the library’s master facilities plan (identifying libraries to be renovated, consolidated, closed, or re-purposed).

4.  There was some discussion of “appreciative inquiry” as a tool in staff training to help identify what employees are doing well and were improvements can be made.  One library incorporated the use of appreciative inquiry in designing a new library building.

5.  One public library took user feedback as an impetus to create a library maker space that was used for staff training (as well as public use).

The general consensus was that because all library staff members are engaged in communicating with users it’s critical to provide employees with the training and tools needed to this effectively.  One of the more difficult tasks is to find new and creative ways to obtain feedback from non-users in addition to those who regularly patronize their libraries.    We know from experience that today’s customers are increasingly demanding opportunities to provide their input into how library services are delivered and what programs and services are offered.  Finding ways to incorporate customer feedback into preparing our employees to successfully meet user demand can only improve the quality of staff training.

 

 

CPDWL programmes accepted for IFLA Conference in Lyon

Good news!

All programmes of CPDWL were accepted for the IFLA conference in Lyon.

So mark your calender for the following:

MOOCs: Opportunities and Challenges for Libraries

Programme Time: Monday August 18th 11.45 – 13.45

Together with the Library and Research Services for Parliaments Section and the Knowledge Management Section we will present a Knowledge Café

Learning Challenges for Librarians and Library Managers

Programme Time: Thursday August 21st 13.45-15.45.

We will update the programme details, topics of round tables etc. here soon.

 

The Road to Information Literacy: Librarians as Facilitators of Training

By Susan Schnuer

Talking, eating, and engagement were the main activities at the August Satellite meeting in Tampere.127 librarians from 21 countries attended the 2012 IFLA satellite meeting, a wonderful cross-section of ideas, cultures, and languages.  The satellite was co-sponsored by CPDWL and IL IFLA sections and it was successful cooperative effort.  This is the largest number of participants that CPDWL has ever had at a satellite meeting and in fact there was a waiting list.

Over 45 presentations were given during the meeting from librarians engaged in professional development and information literacy from all parts of the library sector: schools, public, academic, special, and LIS schools.  The variety of sessions and the amazing range of speakers made for a very engaging and yet intimate sessions.