Category Archives: IFLA Congress

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.

 

 

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

Update Taking charge of your career Workshop

The Summary of the topic:

 How to connect: using social media

Moderator Anne Lehto, Head of Services Tampere University Library, Finland,

e-mail: [email protected]

 

In the workshop, there were 6 groups attending this round table one group at a time. We discussed the possibilities and challenges of using social media as a tool for professional development. Social media was defined widely in this session meaning different types of communication using web 2.0 technologies which enhance collaboration and include the aspect of interactivity.

 

1) How to use social media at your library?

 

There was an interesting IFLA offsite Social Media Workshop by Academic and Research Libraries that took place at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore on 16 August. The theme was Social media strategy in academic libraries – Implementation experience at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Libraries. Some participants in the round table had attended the workshop as well. At NTU it was learned that NTU library had impressively hired 200 students to create social media content. The programme and presentations can be retrieved from http://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/ifla2013/programme/

 

Furthermore, examples of the use of social media in University library context are numerous, see e.g. Mervi Ahola’s (a social media savvy colleague) prezi-presentation: Social Media in the Work Practices in Tampere University Library:
http://prezi.com/usxhzlwhyf7-/tampere-university-library-and-social-media/

 

2) In the workshop, the most common social media tools/technologies (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, blogs, wikis, Linkedin…) were discussed from the point of view of their usefulness to enhance professional development.

 

It turned out that Facebook was used more for personal purposes than for professional ones; however, there were also participants who shared their experiences of using Facebook to get information about current issues and for informing their professional network.

 

On the other hand, blogs were commonly used for professional development purposes. Also, Akademia.edu and Researchgate, http://www.researchgate.net/ were mentioned as major professional development networking tools. 

 

If you are a new professional or a life-long learner, don’t forget IFLA New Professional Special Interest Group’s (NPSIG) blog,http://npsig.wordpress.com. In the blog you will find interesting webinars which have been recorded and are available on the site e.g., “New Librarians Global Connection: best practices, models and recommendations“ is a new series of free quarterly webinars on issues of interest to new librarians, models of library associations and library schools working with new professionals, and groups by and for librarians. The free webinars are presented by IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning  and IFLA New Professionals Special Interest Group in partnership with the American Library Association.

 

LinkedIn was regarded as an increasingly more important platform for professional development. Other important role of LinkedIn is that it is used for the companies’ recruitment purposes. Thus, keeping your profile up-to-date is necessary if you want to become recognized by the potential head hunters. Technically, you can make your profile more complete by adding your photo, your CV, skills and your areas of interest. We discussed that the more contacts you have in Linkedin – the better it seems, and the more international contacts you have – even better. Do you disagree?

 

Your contacts in LinkedIn may endorse you for your skills. However, even people who have never met you in real life are able to endorse your skills, as LinkedIn actively invites you to endorse your contacts. The value of such endorsements is therefore controversial.

 

3) To sum up, there are multiple social media technologies and tools applicable to networking to enhance professional development. As both working time and spare time is limited, you don’t need to adopt them all. Still, it is worthwhile being curious and trying some social media technologies especially as they are mostly freely available. If you don’t get what you expected, just try some other technology that might fulfill your expectations better.

 

PS. Meanwhile you read this summary, some social media technologies that before were freely available may have turned fee-based or completely disappeared. It is certain that there are still some unexplored technologies that you can use for purposes you might not even know yet.

 

CPDWL Workshop Taking charge of your career in Singapore

Dear participants of the yesterday`s workshop,

we hope you enjoyed the workshop of CPDWL about Taking charge of your career as much as we did. But we kindly need your support in answering some questions to continue successfully:

1. Do you think the workshop was useful for you?

2. Did you like the format?

3.Did you miss anything?

4.What can we do better?

5. How should we continue?

6. Do you have any recommendations for future needed topics at workshops within the cpdwl field?

Thank you for your support and we will upload achievements and content to our website, blog and facebook page soon.
http://www.ifla.org/cpdwl
http://blogs.ifla.org/cpdwl/

Please stay in touch and have a safe trip home!
Best regards
Catharina Isberg and Ulrike Lang, Co-Chairs of CPDWL Section