Tag Archives: E-training program

Turn the page and start advocating for your library

In 2011, I was one of the librarians who enrolled in e-training course entitled: Turning the page 2.0. It was originally developed in 2007 by the Public Library Association (PLA) in the USA in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Turning the page is one of the great courses in advocacy, which I highly recommend if you intend to conduct a training on advocacy at your library.

Turning the Page: Supporting Libraries, Strengthening Communities! Is an advocacy training for librarians and public libraries. The training curriculum -as mentioned in the website- was designed for the public library community – librarians, library directors, library staff, and partners – to help effectively advocate for funding, policies, and other support that will allow libraries to continue to meet the needs of their communities.

The curriculum contains 15 training sessions’; the website identified five sessions as “core” sessions based on your needs, – rather, than the full 15- that are essential to any training.

  1. Introduction
  2. Value of the Public Library (Core)
  3. Defining Advocacy (Core)
  4. Developing Your Advocacy Goal (Core)
  5. Identifying Target Audiences (Core)
  6. Using Library Perception Information and Impact Data
  7. Creating Library Advocacy Messages (Core)
  8. Creating a Library Story
  9. Telling Your Library Story
  10. Effective Presentations
  11. Media Planning and Outreach
  12. Social Media and Advocacy
  13. Making a Library Funding or Policy Request
  14. Building and Sustaining Library Partnerships
  15. Putting Advocacy Plans into Practice

Although the curriculum and the other resources on this website are, free to use and to share, but you are requested to review the licensing agreement and to attribute the curriculum before using. To find more about this course please visit:

https://www.publiclibraryadvocacy.org/

References:

  1. https://www.publiclibraryadvocacy.org/
  2. publiclibraryadvocacy.org/about/

Stepping into leadership

CILIP -the UK’s library and information association- believes that “leadership” is not confined to people at the “top” of organizations. Leadership qualities are found at all levels” which is very true.

CILIP is currently hosting a course in leadership entitled “Stepping into leadership”. The program was originally developed as part of the Carnegie Library Lab (CLL), created by the Carnegie UK Trust (CUKT) to encourage creativity, innovation and leadership in public libraries in the UK and Ireland. This course can be accessed by those working in the library and information sector worldwide. The program will help you:

  • Increase your understanding of key leadership concepts.
  • Encourage you to reflect on your own leadership qualities.
  • Help you to develop a personal action plan to improve your effectiveness as a leader.

It consists of the six modules:

  1. Thinking about Leadership
  2. Why?
  3. Power
  4. Creativity and Innovation
  5. Change
  6. Becoming the leader I want to be

There is no deadline for the program, everyone can follow and learn at their own pace and since this is not a formal program, it does not lead to a qualification or certificate.

Reference:

  1. https://www.cilip.org.uk/page/CarnegieLeadership
  2. https://www.cilip.org.uk/page/CarnegieLeadership2#rightBtn4

ENABLE!

I love reading PUBLIB one of the OCLC discussion lists (listservs)[1] that includes more than 9,000 public librarians from around the world with whom you can share your successes, questions and problems. One of the messages that capture my attention was from Dr. Ruth V. Small, ENABLE project Director talking about the project.

ENABLE stands for Expanding Nondiscriminatory Access By Librarians Everywhere, the website is available at: https://projectenable.syr.edu. Since 2012, Project ENABLE, funded in part by a series of grants from the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian and Laura Bush 21st Century Library Continuation Grants of the Institute for Museum & Library Services and from the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University.

Vision and Goals[2]

Project ENABLE Provides professional development for library professionals from all types of libraries in order to build capacity for providing equitable access and services to students with disabilities, an underserved population. Project ENABLE training is intended to:

  • Raising the level of librarians’ understanding of and sensitivity for the library and information needs of students with disabilities and
  • Fostering their ability to develop programs and services, provide adequate facilities, and select appropriate resources and technologies to meet those needs.

While this site provides training for all educators who support diverse learners, they focus particularly on the school, public, and academic librarian to reach their goal of equity for all students.

Learning Modules:

Project ENABLE training site offers most comprehensive, totally free, online training site for librarians in the area of libraries and disabilities. It also contains self-paced learning modules, each focused on a major area of content related to library and information services to students with disabilities. Each module includes an introduction, learning objectives, a set of topics, examples, activities, related resources, and a brief self-assessment. The learning modules are:

  • Module 1: Disability Awareness
  • Module 2: Disability Law & Policy
  • Module 3: Creating an Accessible Library
  • Module 4: Planning Inclusive Programs and Instruction
  • Module five: Assistive Technology in Libraries
  • Module 6: Targeting Autism in Libraries

Dr. Ruth mentioned in his message that the website was recently updated and contains the following:

  1. Interactive challenge videos, featuring real-life librarians who describe how they faced (and overcame) specific accessibility and inclusion challenges.
  2. Created and published the first issue of PE News, a semi-annual e-newsletter with informative articles written by disabilities experts, professional librarians, and pre-service librarians.
  3. ENABLE is partnering with Infopeople, the high quality professional development site, to provide a series of free online courses, webinars and discussions related to libraries and disabilities.
  4. They have created a “Train the Trainer” section of training (to be available in early 2021) that will contain workshop/course outlines and templates, learning support materials, PowerPoints, suggested readings and assessments that everyone can use to create and deliver customized training to their staff, paraprofessionals and/or volunteers.

This is indeed a great initiative that really deserve to be highlighted as it offers all the previous resources for free to all librarians.

[1]  https://www.oclc.org/content/forms/worldwide/en/internet-subscription.html

[2] https://projectenable.syr.edu/AboutUs