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Technology Skills Library Staff Should Have

January 21, 2011 By

I was recently asked to draw up a list of technology skills that I thought members a library staff should possess.  I wrote my list in very broad strokes, before making it really specific to different tasks or specifying certain items only for certain positions.  I thought I would share this “rough list” with the rest of the library world in case it would help you too.  I advise getting more specific if you’re having staff self-assess on what skills they have, or actually provide trainings in these areas.  But this is a good starting point.

So what did I miss?  What would you take out?  Leave comments and let’s develop this list together!

Terminology

  • Technology terms glossary

Hardware

  • Parts of your desktop computer
  • Parts of a laptop computer
  • Using printers
  • Using photocopiers
  • Using telephones
  • Using fax machines
  • Using self-checks
  • Using projectors
  • Using digital still cameras
  • Using digital video cameras
  • Using digital microphones
  • Using sorting systems

Software

  • Operating system
  • Effective management of files and folders systems
  • Word Processing software
  • Spreadsheet software
  • Presentation software
  • Multimedia players and plug-ins
  • Web browsers
  • E-mail and calendar software (Outlook or whatever)
  • ILS (back-end staff-side stuff)
  • Computer and/or room reservation software
  • Online reference software
  • Photo editing software
  • Video editing software
  • Audio editing software

Security and Privacy

  • Policies regarding security on public computers
  • Policies regarding security on staff computers
  • Policies regarding user data collection and privacy

Public Computing

  • Familiarity with software
  • Familiarity with hardware
  • Familiarity with wired and wireless networks
  • Familiarity with computer and network use policies

Ergonomics

  • Proper ergonomic computer set-up
  • How to avoid repetitive stress injuries
  • How to avoid eye strain with computers

Library web presence

  • URLs for library’s website and catalog
  • Using the library’s website
  • Using the library’s web catalog
  • Best practices for searching the catalog and website
  • Familiarity with library’s or library vendors’ mobile apps or sites
  • Familiarity with eBooks collections
  • Familiarity with databases
  • Familiarity with virtual reference and tutoring services
  • Familiarity with accessibility requirements and procedures
  • Writing for the web best practices
  • How to post content (text, links, images) to the library’s website
  • How to post content to the library’s intranet
  • Best practices for social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
  • How to post photos to Flickr
  • How to post video or audio files (to whatever sites you’re using)

Troubleshooting

  • Assisting in-house users effectively on our equipment or theirs
  • Assisting remote users effectively on their equipment

Personal Skills

  • Continuous learning
  • Change management
  • Planning and evaluating new information technology systems
  • Ability to quickly learn and adapt to new web services
  • One-on-one training best practices

Sarah Houghton-Jan

Filed Under: LearnRT News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

What is the best way to assess staff skills?

December 8, 2010 By

Recently I got an email from a librarian from a library I’d consulted for in the past on technology training.  Her question was one I hear a lot, actually: “We need to create an assessment of our staff members’ skills in different areas.  What is the best way to get this information about them?”

My answer is really simple.  Ask them.

To back up a small step, you do have three primary choices when doing a staff assessment of any skills.

  1. A test: staff are given some kind of computer or human graded “objective test” of the skills, usually timed
  2. A peer walk-through: staff member has to perform each skill and a co-worker (sometimes the person’s supervisor, a trainer, or expert in those skills), marks whether they know how to do it or not
  3. A self-assessment: staff are given a list of skills and asked to report whether they know each one or not

If you want to make your staff really, really angry with you and waste a lot of time and money, by all means go with #1.  People don’t appreciate being tested and I promise you that the staff en masse is more likely to react negatively to any further training provided if you go that route.

I’ll admit that #2 can certainly work and be accurate, but puts people in a position of feeling judged by someone they work with.  This can be awkward for both parties.  You can certainly make the argument that an employee should sometimes feel judged by a supervisor, but just as with the first option this can create opposition to any steps toward training or skill development that come after the assessment.

So we’re left with #3: the self-assessment.  Ask staff if they know how to do what you want them to do.  Give them three choices: yes, no, or maybe.  And for trainers’ purposes, a “maybe” counts the same as a “no” because it likely means the person still needs training.  Answering “maybe” is just a whole lot less threatening than answering “no” for some people.  And tell them up front that they’re not expected right now to have every single one of these skills, and that there are no penalties for their answers.  What matters is that we get an accurate baseline for the system so we can provide the right types and numbers of training for the right people to make sure that everyone has the chance to learn and improve the skills we use every day in our jobs.

I always like to tell people upfront as well that their results will be shared with their direct supervisors.  Supervisors should know where their employee’s skills are, but this can help them get a more concrete view.  Also, this supervisor layer adds a filter to catch the inevitable “exaggerators” — people who either hate training and the skills at hand and so lie to avoid it or people who are still afraid, no matter how much you reassure them, so they bluff that they know things they do not.  Supervisors will know if a person has just outright not been honest on the assessment — and they can act as intermediaries so that the trainer isn’t the one approaching the person saying “uhh, you don’t actually know this.”  Giving those few exaggerators a chance to re-take the assessment once called on their bluff is helpful to everyone involved.

All in all, the most important thing for a trainer is getting accurate data about who needs what training and to be left with a group of people willing to receive that training.  In my experience, the self-assessment is the only way to go.  But I realize my experiences are limited, and so I turn to you!  I’m curious to hear about other people’s experiences with assessment, and whether you’ve used a method I didn’t mention or one that I did and had success with it.  Start talking!

Sarah Houghton-Jan

Filed Under: LearnRT News, Resources for Trainers Tagged With: , ,

5 Library Sources for Quick Computer Training

September 25, 2010 By

It’s hard to find good online technology tutorials, especially those for quick and basic computer skills. Harder still to find some that meet our high expectations as information professionals. So why not turn to the library world itself?

Below is a collection of my top 5 favorite sites for these quick computer training materials. These could be webinars, class handouts, tutorials, screencasts, you name it. What’s important is the content. It’s content I’m comfortable pointing a customer or a fellow staff member to if some core computer fundamental skills need improving. Weirdly, two institutions get two mentions apiece — but that’s because what they have is awesome.  Browse through what they have, and you might be surprised to find there’s something there for you too!

  1. Infopeople Archived Webinars (all past Infopeople webinars, often with PPTs or other handouts linked too; on topics other than technology too)
  2. Infopeople Training Materials from Past Workshops (from 8 hour live classes and 4 week online classes each class includes numerous how-tos, readings, bibliographies, exercises, tutorials, cheat sheets, and more; on topics other than technology too)
  3. Akron Summit County Public Library Computer Training Class Handouts (great list, copious detail)
  4. Akron Summit County Public Library Computer Training Tutorials List (equally good list but the materials are in tutorial format)
  5. Milwaukee Public Library Computer Class Curriculum (an extremely detailed list of basic and more intermediate computer skills, with printable handouts on how to do just about everything customers ask you how to do)

Sarah Houghton-Jan

Filed Under: Cool Tools, Free Stuff, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Tension between “Learn It Fast” and “Learn It Well”

August 4, 2010 By

As trainers, of either our customers or other staff, we often deal with dueling priorities.  Twice in the last month I’ve been confronted, as a trainer, with the tension between “Learn It Fast” and “Learn It Well.”  It’s a very stressful tension, and one that is not easily resolved by those of us who train, those who manage staff, and those who coordinate staff development and learning.

The “Learn It Fast” faction wants staff training and learning to not take very much time away from duties that they deem to be more important.  This faction wants learning to be instantaneous, efficient, and speedy.  They want learners to spend as little time as possible on staff training, period.  This faction tends to prefer webinars, online learning, and self-paced learning…which in and of itself is not a problem.  But when it’s the only learning that’s allowed, no matter what the topic, then we have a problem.  This faction tells instructors to cut a two hour class to 20 minutes, content be damned.  This faction tells training agencies that their staff can only spend 1 hour per week on a self-paced 4-week online learning class…and they still want to get the continuing education credits for it so they can tell their Commission or Board that they’re contributing to staff development.

The “Learn It Well” faction values the stick-to-it-ivness of training above all else.  They want learning to count, to stick.  This group allows for diverse training methods and media, as well as diverse training approaches.  They want to ensure that if they’re going to give staff time to go to training, that the time actually means something.  I’ve heard folks on this side of the line say “I’d rather give my staff 5 hours to go to a class and know that they’ll remember the content, than have them attend a 1/2 hour webinar that they can put on their performance review but which won’t help them in their jobs.”  This faction tends to like training evaluations, assessments before and after training series–all to make sure that the training is worthwhile and has the highest impact potential.  Those continuing education credits are like gold trophies to this group. Occasionally, this group values training almost too much, so much so that they over-complicate the process of training and creating training materials…thereby setting the barrier to entry so high that sometimes no training happens at all as a result.  Perhaps only face-to-face training is allowed, or online learning doesn’t “count” toward an employee’s development requirements.  Making things too long, too hard, can be problematic too.

There is a happy middle road–a common sense approach to training, the flexible “just get it done” approach.  Make what is useful to you, share it with others in a variety of ways depending on topic, don’t waste the learner’s time, and make sure you are always following best practices for learning and training.  That’s it.

To me, libraries (and anyone, really) should never, ever sacrifice quality and impact for ridiculous expediency.  Likewise, libraries shouldn’t over-complicate training to the point of never allowing the quick-and-dirty learning too.  As trainers, our primary duty is to our learners.  Just remember that, stick up for good training practices to those in charge, and you’ll at least know you’ve done your job.  And if you find yourself in the center of a battlefield of the “Learn It Fast” and “learn It Well” armies, hold up your white flag and scream for compromise.

Sarah Houghton-Jan

Filed Under: Learning Styles, LearnRT News, The Training Life Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Database Delight: Library eResources, 23-Things-Style

March 31, 2010 By

On April 1st, the San Jose Public Library will launch its Database Delight online training program for staff.  Riffing off of the 23-Things model, we created a 13-week self-paced online learning program for staff where they learn a different database every week.  All staff are invited to participate in this self-paced online learning activity.

There are individual and group incentives to participate too.  Over 40 staff-donated Prize Packs are raffled off at the end of the program.  If you participate for one week, you get a raffle entry.  If you participate all 13 weeks, you get a bonus 5 entries.  In addition, the branch or unit with the highest percentage of participation and completion will win the “Database Awesomeness” Pizza Party for entire branch or unit!

The program was created by the SJPL Staff Development and Training Team (which I chair) and the Electronic Resources Team in response to a growing need for eResource awareness.

Why did we decide to do this?  Like most libraries, we have found that we could improve upon existing staff experience with and knowledge of library eResources.  As the chair of the Training Team, I strongly believe that all staff, no matter what position or experience, should be familiar with the library’s collections and services–both physical and virtual.  This training program is inclusive of all staff and will hopefully help us meet this goal.

The three biggest challenges:

  1. Finding training time for staff. Staff time is at a premium, and with huge budget cuts looming it has become even more imperative for everyone on board to become familiar with our digital collections.  Hosting the program online and letting people find the 30-60 minutes per week whenever they can will hopefully help with that problem.
  2. We had no prizes. Due to City of San Jose policy, we are not allowed to spend library money on prizes for staff (it’s seen as “paying staff twice to do their jobs”).  Wait, it gets worse.  We are also not allowed to solicit local businesses for donations either.  So we were left with no prizes until we hit on the idea of asking our staff to donate the very prizes that we would raffle off.  The prizes (or incentives, as we call them, as the city won’t let us use the word “prize” either), are not huge as a result and not everyone will get something.  But it’s the best we can do with a bad situation.
  3. The technology. As much as it pains me to say this, sadly our library is still in a technological state where we cannot host blogs on our web servers.  We ended up hosting the site on a free WordPress blog (thank goodness for that).  And all of the photos are hosted on our Flickr account, in a set just for the prizes.

So what’s next?  I encourage other libraries to think about using this training style to teach staff and customers about your online resources.  Our next project is to do the same style training for our eBook and eAudioBook collections.  If you want to learn more about how it works and what we’re doing, check out our “About this Project” page.

Sarah Houghton-Jan

Filed Under: LearnRT News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

10 Smart Phone Apps to Help You Be a Better Trainer

February 16, 2010 By

Many of us carry smart phones with us wherever we go.  Whether you have an iPhone, an Android phone, or a Blackberry, you likely have access to thousands of applications that can make your life easier.  As a new Droid owner, I found a number of apps that I thought could help me as a trainer in my face-to-face classes.

Below is a list of apps that can help you while you are training or teaching, making you seem super-smart, tech-savvy, and creative.  I mention specific apps for the Droid and iPhone, but similar applications exist for most smart phones.  The specific names are just my recommendations — but every phone, every app list, and every person is different.   See what you can find in each category that works for you!  All are free, unless otherwise marked.  So load up your phone, and get ready to impress your next class!

  1. Music player – I find that students always love it when I have music playing before the class starts, as well as during the breaks.  I recommend installing the Pandora app, which is available for most phones.  It’s amazingly easy to use, and lets you play music on the phone while you are doing other things. You can choose one of the other many music players, like iMusic, some of which come with quick downloads of legal or semi-legal MP3 tracks as well.  Incidentally, there are many small portable speakers to plug into your phone if the internal speaker won’t do the trick.  This would be particularly helpful when your classroom has no wi-fi, so there’s no way to access streaming music.  I usually do a search for something calming, like “Meditation” and have Pandora create a nice soothing music station around that term. 
  2. Stopwatch or Timer – It’s easy to lose track of time when training, and so many of us don’t wear watches any more…instead relying on our phones. Many apps offer fairly deluxe stopwatches or multi-phase timers that can help you pace yourself and make sure you don’t run out of time.  Some timers even have really nice self-selected alarms, including flashing lights and/or non-obnoxious noises.  I like just plain Timer. 
  3. Chimes – It’s a good idea to have some kind of nice sound to indicate to students that you’re ready to re-start the class after a break or group exercise.  Nice, soft sounds can get people’s attentions just as much as the loud teacher-yell: “We’re ready to start back up now!”  I’m now a fan of White Noise Lite, which offers a number of nice nature-y sounds like windchimes, rain, etc., along with simple visuals for each.  Just start the sound, hold up your phone, and watch the learners reassemble.
  4. Tether – Tech is unreliable, and I can remember a half dozen classes where I expected an internet connection and there wasn’t any.  Now with unlimited data plans on phones and tethering applications, you can connect your laptop to your phone, and use the phone’s connection to access the web.  Granted, it’s slower than a typical wired or wireless connection, but if you need to use live demos in your class it’s a lifesaver.  That being said, you should always bring back analog (read: print) back-ups for your class materials.  As to what app to use, there are a lot out there.  I’m using Android-Wifi-Tether.
  5. Presenter Pro – Presenter Pro costs money ($1.99), but is worth every penny.  This program is for presenters, teachers, and trainers.  The program provides presentation tips, including video and audio examples of great presentation ideas.  The program can review your specific presentations and give tips geared toward your needs. Nice!  It’s like having a training coach in your pocket.
  6. Quote Dictionary – Use one of the many quote-filled apps meant to give you something to think about, or to give you something smart to say to your class!  I recommend 501 Inspirational Quotes, as most of these are applicable in a classroom environment.  Provide a quote at the start of class, throw out a few more throughout to sound really smart, and your students will classify you as a bookish fountain of knowledge…just what you wanted!
  7. Voice Recorder – My favorite voice recorder is simply named Voice Recorder.  You can use it to record quick notes to yourself about things to bring up later in class, or even tasks you need to do once class is over.  You can also use it to record the whole class – as long as your SD card has enough capacity, you can record your class and then save it as an audio file that you can review later to review your class’s successes or places you could have done better.
  8. Yoga Program – Sitting at a desk or computer all day is really tiring on the shoulders, back, and arms.  Use a free yoga program like Yoga Trainer to walk you through a few simple exercises to get your body back in shape.  This is a great thing to do with the whole class during stretch breaks.  Every time I’ve done this, students have thanked me profusely and even said they learned a new exercise for their desks!
  9. Presentation Remote App – Apps like i-Clickr ($9.99) or Logitech Touch Mouse (free) turns your phone into a presentation remote, letting you click through your presentation slides using your phone screen.  Again, one less gadget for you to carry with you when you travel to train.
  10. Documents Program – Make sure you have a documents program on your phone that will read Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files (or their equivalents).  The app that many iPhone users seem to like the best, Documents to Go, costs $11.99, the most expensive app I’ve seen so far.  But the ability to sync up your documents from computer to phone is super nice, and for on-the-go presenters, it’s a huge benefit.  I’m using QuickOffice, which is free and works just fine for reading documents that I’ve manually transferred to the phone. Never again worry about transferring files over to your flash drive—just plug your phone into the presentation computer and you’re good to go.  One less device to carry!

So many other programs are out there that help too – time and expense trackers to keep track of what you need to bill to your clients, mobile blogging apps so you can post to the class blog/website on the fly, Twitter clients to help you create live classroom conversations, cameras and Flickr uploading tools so you can share class photos, mobile Skype to help you bring in a guest speaker for free through your phone, restaurant finding apps to help your students find good nearby dining for your lunch break, and even spy-cams (Sec-u-ret spy cam) to use the camera to auto-photograph you while you’re teaching.  Look around with an eye for your life as a trainer and you’re bound to find many more ways to make yourself look like the super-awesome trainer you are!

Sarah Houghton-Jan

Filed Under: LearnRT News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

27 Questions with Sarah Houghton-Jan

January 27, 2010 By

1) Your One Sentence Bio
I’m an iconoclast who often wishes she could better convince others to find the strength to stand up for their ideals.

2) Do you blog? If yes, how did you come up with your blog name?
I do blog at LibrarianInBlack.net. For my entire library career, librarian or not, I was referred to by library users as “that librarian…you know, the tall one in black.”  So, I figured that was a nice name…a bit of a riff on Johnny Cash, and the initials are LIB, which is also a nice library reference.

3) What is your professional background?
I have a BA in English Literature (minor in Psychology), an MA in English/Irish Literature and Mythology, and my MLIS with a focus on technology (which, back in the day less than a decade ago, was a specialty in and of itself, believe it or not).

4) What training do you do? staff? patrons? types of classes?
I train primarily as a consultant, not in my day job as the San Jose Public Library‘s Digital Futures Manager. I train online and in-person, doing a lot of work for Infopeople, California’s library staff training organization. My past jobs, though, have involved training the public, and definitely training staff (something I still try to find time to do).

5) What training do you think is most important to libraries right now?
Dealing with the massive influx of information, change, and how to set up intelligent ways to stay current in our professional areas, including how to position ourselves as the info and media overload experts in our communities.

6) Where do you get your training?
I go to as many relevant free webinars as I can, find the greatest per hour training benefit at InfoToday conferences, and also try to take occasional professional development classes through ALA & its sub-divisions.

7) How do you keep up?
I rely primarily on my several dozen RSS feeds that I read through Google Reader, but have started to rely more on Twitter and the occasional serendipitous Facebook post from my professional contacts.

8 ) What do you think are the biggest challenges libraries are facing right now?
Our biggest challenge is to stop fooling ourselves, each other, and our customers that we can “do more with less” (or let’s be honest, even “do the same with less”).

9) What are biggest challenges for trainers?
Convincing the library power holders that training is an essential use of staff time and should be a priority, and finding ways to reach as many people as possible with the little time and money we have.

10) What exciting things are you doing training wise?
Our training group at work is currently getting ready to launch a databases-themed 23-Things/43-Things style learning course for our staff to help them get more comfortable with our online eResources.

11) What do you wish were you doing?
Resting.

12) What would you do with a badger?
Make friends with him or her.

13) What’s your favorite food?
The vegan garlic bread that I make, dipped in a good marinara sauce.

14) If you were stranded on an island, what one thing would you want to have with you?
Assuming that a “thing” means not a person or a beloved pet, then I would want my iTunes library of 13,000 songs with a solar panel to keep it going.

15) Do you know what happens when a grasshopper kicks all the seeds out of a pickle?
The pickle cries.

16) Post It notes or the back of your hand?
Post It Notes.  I’m known for writing notes to myself everywhere, including in the car while driving, on my legendary long commute…which is why my husband so thoughtfully bought me a tiny digital voice recorder to use instead.

17) Windows or Mac?
Linux, darn it.

18) Talk about one training moment you’d like to forget?
I got very ill, to the point of needing to go to the hospital, 15 minutes into an 8 hour training.  Fortunately, the wonderful Carole Leita was there as my assistant (which was the universe’s idea of a cosmic joke–I should have been her assistant).  But she took over for me, while I spent the next two days in the hospital.  Horrible for me, but I was so thankful to her!

19) What’s your take on handshakes?
They spread germs and they’re kind of gendered and culturally-biased intrinsically. I’d rather that we greeted each other the way that Farscape‘s beautiful character Zhaan did (a motion with the hands like you’re bringing water up to your face–what beautiful symbolism!).  Go watch Farscape, even if you’re not a science fiction fan.

20) Global warming: yes or no
Assuming the question is “does it exist?” then, yes.

21) How did you get into this line of work?
What I liked about English graduate work was the research, and I faultily believed librarianship meant research all the time.  Ha!  I was had! My teaching background in English served me well and launched me into doing training, bibliographic instruction, and all that jazz during library school–and forever thereafter!

22) What is the best part of your job?
Having the chance to equalize the intellectual playing field in our society for anyone who chooses to use the library.  That’s amazing.

23) Why should someone else follow in your shoes?
No one should do exactly what I did – they have to find their own path with their own shoes.

24) Sushi or hamburger?
I’m vegan, so I’ll say–a nice veggie Dan Dan noodles.

25) LSW or ALA?
LSW.

26) What one person in the world do you want to have lunch with and why?
Neil Gaiman.  He inspires me through so much of what he does.  Plus he’s a literature/mythology buff and author who has embraced technology as a way to get his work out there.  I think we’d get along really well.

27) What cell phone do you have and why?
An old Treo, but I’m looking for a new phone and eyeing the Droid options.

Sarah Houghton-Jan

Filed Under: The Training Life Tagged With: , , , , , ,