Author Archives: ulrike

Next webinar of CPDWL and NPSIG on October 14,2014

We are proud to present the fourth session of the 2014 webinar series
“New Librarians Global Connection: best practices, models and recommendations.”
http://www.ifla.org/node/6141. The theme for this installment of our series is “Information as a Human Right”. 
For the third consecutive year, IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning and IFLA New Professionals Special Interest Group are partnering with the American Library Association to present a series of free quarterly webinars on issues of interest to new librarians, library associations and library schools, library-decision makers, and all library workers. This is a great opportunity for membership participation via new worldwide online programming.
Following our tradition of excellence, this year our keynote speakers for each of our quarterly sessions come from different regions of the world. This year they have included IFLA President Elect, Donna Scheeder and other library leaders.
Below, the date and time of the next webinar. Save the date!
October 14, 2014
12:00 p.m. CDT
1:00 p.m. EDT
7:00 p.m. CET
Link to access the virtual meeting room: TBD
Webinar length is one hour.
Speakers:
Bridgette Hendrix, NPSIG Convenor
Washington, DC
Topic: An Introduction to the Lyon Declaration.
Matthew Vanderwerff, Senior Program Officer, IREX
Matthew supports IREX’s Beyond Access program, an initiation advocating to make libraries universally recognized as community development hubs. He’s previously supported the Global Libraries programs in Romania and Ukraine, and will introduce the concept of information as a human right.
Ellie Valentine, MLIS
Chief of Party, USAID Responsive Governance Project
Yemen
Looking for ways to promote citizen access to information, Ellie has spent her career in untraditional library roles. She currently serves as a the Chief of Part to USAID’s Responsive Governance Project in Yemen, and has previously worked on parliamentary strengthening projects in Ukraine, Armenia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Ellie will discuss how access to information policy impacts access to information.
The topics for the webinars were compiled from global surveys, topics presented by speakers during the CPDWL and NPSIG programs at the WLIC 2013 in Singapore, NPSIG working group, and new librarians’ forums, listservs and online spaces.
The quarterly webinars are presented in January, April, July and October. Stay tuned for more news!
The webinars are archived, therefore you can join them, ask questions and participate in conversations with international colleagues live, or you can listen to them later, anywhere at any time. For more information about the 2012 and 2013 series and to listen to a number of webinars, visit the following link http://npsig.wordpress.com/webinars-2/past-webinars/. 
Questions and requests for information:
Bridgette Hendrix
NPSIG Convenor

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.

 

 

We want your input!

Shortly before the second Standing Committee Meeting of CPDWL  at  http://conference.ifla.org/ifla80 which will be held tomorrow at 9.45 in Salle Bellecour 1 we kindly ask you to let us know in what subjects you are interested in.

Because we will decide about the themes for upcoming open sessions and satellite meetings next year and in 2016.

Thanks for your support!

OCLC Report: At a Tipping Point: Education, Learning and Libraries

The report explores the information consumer’s behaviors, beliefs and expectations for online learning.

In detail:

•Habits and perceptions of online learners
•Expectations for the future of online learning
•Top-of-mind perceptions of a college education
•Factors influencing the college choice
•Library use by online learners—on campus and online
•MOOCs—a massively interesting case study on the future of education
•The library brand
•Implications and opportunities for academic and public libraries

So don`t miss the CPDWL session 95 about MOOCs in Lyon 18 August 2014 11:45 – 13:45 | Room: Forum 1!

http://www.oclc.org/reports/tipping-point.en.html