Tag Archives: Learning

Librarians in the borderland between professionalism and amateurism

I know – the title may provoke, but by the end of this text, it will hopefully seem comprehensible and justified.

As senior lecturer at a Swedish university offering educational programs in Library and information science (LIS), I sometimes get questions and comments about the training of future librarians. Often it is about what aspiring librarians should know and how this is best taught. It is striking how engaging the issue of librarians’ competence is – the various opinions come from widely different quarters. Sometimes librarians’ work is even proposed as the answer to major societal challenges such as reawakening young people’s lust to read and strengthening citizens’ digital skills.

In addition to the outside world’s expectations of the profession, there is an internal tendency to problematize the professional role and competence. That debate has recurred over decades in trade press, mailing lists and social media. In parallel, research is conducted with the aim of understanding, challenging, equipping and ideally inspiring the profession, and the production of Bachelor and Master theses at our universities testifies to the interest in profession-related topics among students. Their small-scale research contributions are quick-footed and likely to delve into the field’s hottest questions.

Debate and recurring discussions are sometimes interpreted as the profession facing a crisis. For my own part, however, I am both optimistic and incurably curious (the researcher’s occupational injury?). I see vivid discussion as an expression of the importance of libraries for the country’s inhabitants, and internal debate as a sign of vitality. Few professions show such spark! The need for discussion can be linked to the history of the profession; the professionalization process of the past century, amalgamated professional organizations, academisation of training and the establishment of the LIS discipline. Today the profession is powerfully organized, but at the same time it spans disparate activities.

As a natural reaction to societal developments, and perhaps as a backlash for the unifying professional project, new competences are called for in libraries, and more specialized training.

Another important aspect of the position of librarianship today, is its quality as a welfare profession; one of the female-intensive occupations that have thrived within the Nordic welfare hub. Ambivalence towards the profession’s theoretical basis is typical, and compared to classic professions, the welfare professions are less hierarchical, more collaborative and highly focused on the clients. I know from experience, that responsiveness to users’ needs and interests is a shining beacon for aspiring and active librarians, regardless of library type.

Surely that sounds nice? But every medal has its flip side. The emphasis on responsiveness, commitment, and (often) idealism, can make librarians stretch far in their compliance. Always being prepared to tone down competitive thinking and professional pretensions out of consideration for the interests of others, is an attitude that risks backfiring. For an illustration of this dilemma of a welfare profession, we may turn to the children’s librarians – a group that was early associated with selfless work of the “vocational type”. We’d like to think that image faded decades ago, but my research into the competence of children’s librarians was an eye-opener.

The participants in my study said they appreciated the rich opportunities for competence development as well as their chance to influence its content. But several librarians also described dissatisfaction with the overly free choices and the perceived lack of managerial steering of the knowledge-developing activities. Rather than seeing the collective competence as a strategic resource for the workplace, competence development was often treated as an encouraging ‘salary benefit’. Several managers also hesitated in connection with my interview question concerning what incentives they saw for children’s librarians’ competence development. Their answers were that the librarians’ heartfelt meetings with the users – in this case children who love to read – were to be regarded as both a driving force and a reward.

Get me right – trusting relationships and personal appreciation are worth their weight in gold in everyday work, but should we really, in 2022, regard professional work as its own reward? Such an approach, with the logic of the old “vocation” just below the surface, undeniably brings to mind non-profit and amateur work.

There is no room here for the follow-up questions that need to be asked. I end by stating that those concerned with how the librarian profession can be strengthened for the future, should pay attention to where the boundaries are drawn between professional and personal commitment. As a representative of research and higher education, I want to promote a reflective professional practice, where sensitivity to the outside world is complemented by research-oriented and proactive working methods; an ambition that probably applies to most universities offering LIS education around the globe.

What do you think – is there reason to push the discussion about the prerequisites and the future of librarianship one step further? I think so.

 

Jenny Lindberg
Lecturer at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås, Sweden

 

Note: This article has previously been published in Swedish at http://www.noll27.se

The study on children’s librarians mentioned in the blog entry is accessible (in Swedish): https://regionbiblioteket.se/publicerat/barnbibliotekariers-kompetens/

 

35 day of City Expo – Management Skills and Learning Opportunities

How do you manage during a 35 day long city fair which is the result of a 3 year long innovation journey? And what skills do you need to have in order to manage this?

In a previous blog post, Tina Haglund has described the H22 City Expo of Helsingborg Sweden. https://blogs.ifla.org/cpdwl/2022/06/14/h22-city-expo-helsingborg-sweden/

In this blog post I follow up on this and reflect on the management skills needed and the learning opportunities the City Expo gave.

During the past years, all departments and employees of in the city of Helsingborg have had the opportunity to explore and apply for funding to test new ideas and innovations. The public library of Helsingborg has for example been working with co-creating together with citizens to find out the needs and ideas in a new (and rebuilt) library in 2026 https://innovation.helsingborg.se/en/initiative/development-and-rebuilding-of-the-city-library/. Also the library has a project collaborating with the University of Lund, on “The sustainable/resilient workplace” https://innovation.helsingborg.se/en/initiative/sustainable-workplace-a-collaboration-and-research-project/. Digidel 2.0, exploring how to develop the digital competence center of the library is another example of the work https://innovation.helsingborg.se/en/initiative/digidel-2-0/. And many other innovations and development initiatives have been put in place.

The results of the innovation work so far was presented during various talks and presentations during the 35 days. This meant that at the same time as keeping business running as usual, the library staff also were involved in many different activities. At the same time employees could work as volunteers during the H22.

Of course this affected both the employeeship as well as leadership and management skills. All managers of the city of Helsingborg have, during the last three years, gone through a management skill program called “Samspel Helsingborg” (= interplay/interaction Helsingborg). This program has given us the skills needed in moving from New Public Management (NPM) into a Trust Based Management model and has been key to the success of the innovative movement.

The Trust Based Management model is something which have been worked on at the national level through a research based work “The Swedish Delegation of Trust”. The guiding principles in Trust Based Management is according to The Swedish Delegation of Trust:

  • Focus on the Citizen – their experience and knowledge, understand what is needed
  • Comprehensive/holistic view – everyone take responsibility for the whole
  • Space for action – delegate powers and mandates, welcome co-decisions
  • Support – closely as part of the core business (rather than central)
  • Knowledge – reward continuous learning
  • Openness – share information, welcome dissent and respect criticism

My reflections on some management skills that were of importance before, during and after this period of innovation and City Expo are:

  • Involvement in strategy and business plan – involve all staff in the strategical planning as well as the operational planning of the library business. Make real use of all the knowledge within the organization and ensure that everyone knows where we are heading. Follow up together with the staff, so that everyone see how the work proceeds.
  • A culture of participation – ensure to build a culture where both staff and users gets involved and participate in the development work.
  • Trust – really manage by trust and let go of control. Let the employees use their skills and solve different situations using their full potential and experience. Keep the written routines and rules to an absolute minimum as it is impossible to foresee what will happen and there is a risk that every situation makes you write a new routine instead of focusing on doing the job and solving the situation.
  • Brave – be brave and have the courage to let go of things. Delegate a lot and let others solve the issues in their way, using their skills and expertise. Be sure to enjoy when things turn up in another way than you expected.
  • Make mistakes and learn from them – ensure a culture where it’s really ok to make mistakes. A culture where you don’t try to avoid making mistakes or try to find who did the mistake and blame them. Instead celebrate the mistake and learn from it. Most important as a manager here is to really walk the talk and do the same thing as you say.
  • Communicative skills – keep the communication open and transparent in all directions so that everyone knows where to find the information needed and communicate when things needs to be acted on. Listen (don’t just hear) what people are communicating and act. Also use communication as a learning tool so that every day gives a learning experience.
  • Together – we do this together. This is really of utmost importance as no one can have all the skills, expertise, know the solutions and work on complex issues alone. No one has the answer by themselves. Especially the manager does not know everything in the complex world we are living in. Those working close to the library users usually are the ones with the best solution and they need to get the mandate and tools to act. Other businesses and organizations have skills within their areas. Find those, collaborate and network and make them flourish. We need to do it together.

For us at Helsingborg City Libraires it was also important to use the City Expo so that everyone within the staff could get the opportunity to learn new things from everything going on during the expo. We therefor decided that all staff could use up till 8 hours each, to take part and participate in different events to improve their skills and to get inspired by what others do. Often you can get new ideas for your library business by talking and listening to other kinds of services and see how they meet different challenges. We used this as a learning opportunity. And importantly, we did not ask for details on what the staff did, we trusted that they used this time to learn for their and the libraries’ future.

Further information on the H22 City Expo is available at: www.h22cityexpo.se

Information on different innovations we have worked on in the city can be found at: https://innovation.helsingborg.se/en/


by Catharina Isberg, Library Director, Helsingborg Sweden

Webinar Developing a Successful Poster Session

If you missed the online webinar about developing a successful poster session you now have the chance to follow the recording, thanks to ALA https://ala-events.zoom.us/rec/play/upcoIritpmo3GtyU5QSDCvQsW47rfa-shiEc-vUNxRq8AXBSMVSvY7BAZOWUnrcrKNgpSlwQfQllyjJ3?startTime=1582724735000

CPDWL would be very grateful if you could complete after our short survey to improve the upcoming webinars https://survey.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8BrJHSMMyvYKV4p

Thanks to the moderator and presenters and we are happy to continue this fruitful work of creating webinars with NPSIG and ALA.

We also look forward to receive your recommendations for topics of webinars for next year.

 

 

 

 

 

Webinar: The Portfolio Process: Capturing and Documenting Your Workplace Learning

Pattern Research Inc. offers a free webinar on Wednesday, March 11, 2020 12:00 PM MDT: The Portfolio Process: Capturing and documenting your workplace learning.

This programme can apply to a broad audience inside and outside of the library community, from people starting their careers to people looking to advance in their workplaces to people wanting to document their accomplishments and abilities for current and future employers, as well as people wanting to track informal learning in CE classes and experiential opportunities.It`s interesting for adult educators and trainers, human resource personnel, career coaches, college counselors and instructors, and anyone who helps other people, formally and informally, with their careers.

Career portfolios document evidence that you’ve learned and mastered skills in your workplace, in continuing education, and in formal classrooms. How evidence is documented might be dictated by institutional guidelines. You can create portfolios to earn college credit, record workplace success for evaluations, and present your independent learning and accomplishments to a future employer.

Career portfolios aren’t just about experience; they capture what you have learned, mastered, and applied and how to document and translate that knowledge to satisfy the requirements of employers and higher education.

AGENDA

– Introduction: The Portfolio Process
– The Key Idea: Learning Versus Experience
– What Comprises A Successful Portfolio?
– Student Projects
– College And Professional Certification Programmes
– Workplace Evaluations
– Job-Hunting And Career Development

OUTCOMES

– Write a workplace autobiography.
– Create and maintain a current career portfolio.
– Document past successes.

Free registration https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/1136530389893044748

Thanks to Ray Pun for the information.

Managing conflict for Supervisor Success

One of the American Library Association (ALA) LearnRT workgroups has produced a new manager training module about Managing Conflict.

The key learning objectives are:

  1. Supervisors will manage healthy relationships between themselves and their peers by fostering a positive and mutually supportive workplace environment.
  2. Supervisors will foster healthy relationships among staff by effectively navigating conflict and resolving differences, skillfully engaging in difficult conversations and finding mutually successful outcomes.

You can follow on  https://www.webjunction.org/news/webjunction/managing-conflict-for-supervisor-success.html

Thanks for the information to Jana Varlejs

 

CPDWL Coaching initiative: Campaign for volunteer coaches

The coaching method has been explored by the Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning Standing Committee over the years, as part of Satellite Conferences and as part of the IFLA WLIC programme. Since 2019 CPDWL is collaborating with Management & Marketing Section on the Coaching initiative.

We are now very pleased that the Coaching initiative was approved by the Professional Committee of IFLA for the next three years 2020 to 2022.
At the WLIC 2020 n Dublin the session will focus again on individual coaching, and the format will be a drop-in/walk-in session where coaches are prepared to meet the delegates that want to be coached. As was the goal of the 2019 session, CPDWL and M&M aim to offer coaching in all IFLA languages this year too, as well as any additional language spoken by volunteer coaches.The purpose of the Coaching initiative is to support the coachee (the person who wants to be coached) in aligning organisational and individual goals to improve individual performance and to ensure that the organisation’s mission is achieved.

Coaching focuses on asking open questions, and allowing the coachee to come up with the solution. This differs from mentoring which mainly focuses on giving advise.

In order to give the coaching session, we need many coaches. Maybe you are one of them? If you have experiences in coaching or if you are interested in developing your coaching skills, you are very welcome to contact us!

During Spring term 2020 an online coach training programme will be given in the format of webinars, in order to prepare for acting as coach at the WLIC coaching session. Vera Keown, member of M&M SC and Certified Leadership Coach, is planning the training programme and will be instructor at the webinars.

Since we aim to offer coaching in many languages, we are also interested in knowing if you can coach in any of the IFLA languages or your mother tongue.

Please send your expression of interest to: Carmen Lei carmen@ift.edu.mo or Barbara Schleihagen schleihagen@bibliotheksverband.de.

For further information about CPDWL’s coaching initiative, please contact: Ewa Stenberg , Convenor of the Coaching initiative ewa.stenberg@mau.se.

More general information about the Coaching Programme here https://www.ifla.org/cpdwl/projects

The coaching work group: Ewa Stenberg, Almuth Gastinger, Barbara Schleihagen, Carmen Lei, Ulrike Lang, Vera Keown

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.