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Wear Purple for Pat…this Friday

November 17, 2010 By

Pat Carterette, the Learning Round Table’s immediate past president, was diagnosed recently and unexpectedly with stage four cancer. Friday, November 19, 2010 has been declared “Wear Purple for Pat” Day.

Please join us on the Facebook event site: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=110972632303257 and celebrate the woman, join her fight and post photos of you in purple cheering Pat on.

At our Learning Round Table meeting today, the board created two honors in Pat’s name which will recognize and encourage both new and seasoned professionals in their leadership around continuing education for library staff. More about these honors to come.

Lori Reed

Lori Reed, Managing Editor of ALA Learning, has more than 15 years experience in training and is the Learning & Development Coordinator for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library where she oversees the learning & development of a diverse group of staff at twenty libraries. Lori’s passions are performance consulting, learning strategies, and e-learning. Lori is coauthor, with Paul Signorelli, of Workplace Learning and Leadership: A Handbook for Library and Nonprofit Trainers. Lori also blogs at LoriReed.com and can be reached at lori[at]lorireed.com.

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New Features of ALA Learning

November 1, 2010 By

Beginning this month you’ll notice some small changes to the ALA Learning Blog and other communication tools. To engage our members in more conversations we are introducing monthly themes. You will see posts on the blog, content on the wiki, emails on the discussion forum, posts in ALA Connect, Facebook, Twitter, etc. that all relate to one theme.

November’s theme is how is training/staff development done at your library. You’ll hear about how training happens at libraries across the country from our contributing authors and you’ll be prompted to contribute your own stories and ideas.

Additionally, if you are a member of the LearnRT email discussion list, you will begin receiving ALA Learning blog posts via email though the email list.

We hope that this new format provides ways for us to share more material and have more conversations among our membership. Feel free to send your comments or thoughts to me at webmaster@alalearning.org.

Lori Reed

Lori Reed, Managing Editor of ALA Learning, has more than 15 years experience in training and is the Learning & Development Coordinator for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library where she oversees the learning & development of a diverse group of staff at twenty libraries. Lori’s passions are performance consulting, learning strategies, and e-learning. Lori is coauthor, with Paul Signorelli, of Workplace Learning and Leadership: A Handbook for Library and Nonprofit Trainers. Lori also blogs at LoriReed.com and can be reached at lori[at]lorireed.com.

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ALA Conference 2010: Trainers Talking and Acting as Leaders

July 7, 2010 By

You can’t, as a few of us suggested during a presentation on trainers as leaders sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) Learning Round Table at the Association’s 2010 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. last week, be in that city without thinking about leadership. The monuments, the government buildings, the sense of history that surrounds you makes it an undeniable presence—something that permeates your entire being as deeply as the hot and humid weather which greeted us.

So it was natural that a few of us—Maurice Coleman, Technical Trainer for Harford County (MD) Public Library and host of the biweekly T is for Training podcasts; Sandra Smith, Learning and Development Manager at the Denver Public Library system; and Louise Whitaker, Training Coordinator from Oklahoma’s Pioneer Library System—chose leadership as the topic for a 90-minute conference session that was part formal presentation, part panel discussion, and lots of interaction with approximately 50 colleagues who joined us for that Sunday morning gathering.

Drawing from interviews Lori Reed and I have been doing with Maurice, Sandra, Louise, and several others for Workplace Learning and Leadership: A Handbook for Library and Nonprofit Trainers (to be published by ALA Editions in May 2011) to document the leadership roles that workplace learning and performance professionals are assuming in libraries and other organizations across the country, we began with the idea that leadership is positively explosive. When it is effective, it lights up skies. Draws people together. Creates collaborative opportunities and results which are not achieved in any other way.

Leadership, for most of us, doesn’t mean we have to be bombastic. It’s the day to day incremental efforts we make that lead to long-term and sustainable changes within our organizations. And that’s what our colleagues seem to appreciate most from us.

Lori and I, in our interviews and our own experiences, are not finding a one-size-fits-all model of leadership, nor is that what we expected.  Interviewing colleagues from the ALA Learning Roundtable and from other organizations throughout the United States, we are, instead, finding a group of very passionate, creative, and dedicated people doing what they believe is right. And even though Lori couldn’t be with us in Washington, D.C. last week, we were lucky to have a few of the people who have been guiding us so they could share a little of what we’ll be dealing with in the book.

Maurice, for example, discussed how the T is for Training podcasts draw colleagues from a geographical cross section of the country together every other week to discuss workplace learning and performance issues and solutions. Those live shows provide a first-rate forum for the exchange of ideas and have been instrumental in further developing a community of learners among those responsible for fostering organization-wide communities of learning.

Shifting gears a bit, Louise talked about how she revamped the entire way in which evaluations were conducted at Pioneer to determine whether the learning opportunities she was designing and offering to staff were actually producing results of benefit to the library, its staff, and its users.

During the final segment of our discussion, we moved to the heart of library trainers as leaders within their own organizations: Sandra provided examples of how she works from a position at the library management table to help shape and implement workplace learning and performance programs. By consistently working to be part of the decision-making process in terms of designing and offering learning opportunities for staff at Denver Public, she shapes as much as implements what her colleagues need and appreciate in a workplace learning and performance program.

Exchanges between presenters and audience members were as lively and creative as the topic we addressed; in briefly discussing ways to create something sustainable from our initial 90 minutes together rather than having that session be an isolated learning experience, one member of the Learning Round Table offered to collect business cards and set up an online discussion group for those who wanted to continue the conversation.

If that’s not creative leadership in action, I need to go out and do more interviews.

N.B. – For a different view of leadership on display at the 2010 ALA Annual conference, please see Paul’s Leaders Emerging article.

Paul Signorelli

Paul Signorelli is a writer, trainer, presenter, and consultant based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He works with clients to successfully facilitate the introduction of new technology into organizations; prepares and presents webinars and other online and onsite learning opportunities for a variety of clients; is actively involved in ALA and ASTD; continues to prepare articles for "American Libraries," the eLearning Guild's "Learning Solutions Magazine," and other publications; and co-wrote "Workplace Learning & Leadership" with Lori Reed for ALA editions. Paul can be reached at paul@paulsignorelli.com.

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ALA 2010 Training Showcase On YouTube

June 28, 2010 By

Howdy from ALA 2010.

It is hot and humid. Really hot and humid. If you are attending ALA and missed the Training Showcase to take a dip in your hotel pool, I understand.  So if you were otherwise engaged in cooling off activities or were unable to make your way here to Washington DC, do not fret.

Each of the exhibitors has a short video giving their “elevator speech” about why they were at the Training Showcase and what they have to offer to the LearnRT community.

There are also a few short Learning RoundTable “recruitment’ videos by some ALA Learning members present at the Showcase.

Here is Stacy as an excellent example of the brief but effective videos. You can find the rest bu clicking the playlist links above.  I hope these videos give you a flavor of the great Learning RoundTable ALA 2010 Training Showcase.

Maurice Coleman

Maurice Coleman, has been Technical Trainer at Harford County (MD) Public Library in North Eastern Maryland for the last 7 years. He has 20 years of experience training all ages how to sensibly use technology, computer hardware and software. He has also trained on effective technology planning and deployment, social media skills, nonprofit organizational development and fundraising, community organizing and presentation skills. He has presented at numerous conferences on topics such as digital personal branding, technology implementation, presentation and training skills, community development and effectively using social media. He hosts the library training podcast T is for Training and writes for the American Library Association’s LearnRT blog ALALearning. For his work he was named a 2010 Library Journal Mover and Shaker and received the Citizens for Maryland Libraries Davis McCarn Technology Award. You can find him on twitter @baldgeekinmd

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Join us today for T is for Training 42 at 2pm Eastern

March 26, 2010 By

Join us for our 42nd episode which will most likely include the following subjects: Keynote speeches: Giving and getting – What makes a good-great keynote speech? What tips do people have for giving a not good but great keynote?  What have you liked/not liked about keynotes?

Dealing with Instructional Burnout: How do you or do you deal with training burnout?

The Training Cornucopia: Save the libraries.org ; Plans for CIL’s: The Learning Track and the Live Taping and Movers and Shakers

The full post, including participating instructions is at http://wp.me/piQy4-ay

Hope to see you then.  If you cannot join us, catch all of the episodes in the handy sidebar on the right hand side of the ALA Learning Blog.

Maurice Coleman

Maurice Coleman, has been Technical Trainer at Harford County (MD) Public Library in North Eastern Maryland for the last 7 years. He has 20 years of experience training all ages how to sensibly use technology, computer hardware and software. He has also trained on effective technology planning and deployment, social media skills, nonprofit organizational development and fundraising, community organizing and presentation skills. He has presented at numerous conferences on topics such as digital personal branding, technology implementation, presentation and training skills, community development and effectively using social media. He hosts the library training podcast T is for Training and writes for the American Library Association’s LearnRT blog ALALearning. For his work he was named a 2010 Library Journal Mover and Shaker and received the Citizens for Maryland Libraries Davis McCarn Technology Award. You can find him on twitter @baldgeekinmd

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Webinars for Trainers and Training Managers

February 16, 2010 By

The Learning Round Table is happy to have two Emerging Leaders teams working on projects for our group. The message below is from one of the teams:

Our team has been tasked with the designing and planning of a series of webinars on topics of interest to trainers and managers/coordinators of training and staff development. The first step in this process is to determine topics for the webinar series, and we would like to hear what you have to say!

We would really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to complete the following survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YK9YFV6

Thank you!
Jennifer and Team (Angela, Natalie, and Sonnet)
Jennifer Spriggs

If you have questions about the survey please direct them to Jennifer at jspriggs@allconet.org

Lori Reed

Lori Reed, Managing Editor of ALA Learning, has more than 15 years experience in training and is the Learning & Development Coordinator for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library where she oversees the learning & development of a diverse group of staff at twenty libraries. Lori’s passions are performance consulting, learning strategies, and e-learning. Lori is coauthor, with Paul Signorelli, of Workplace Learning and Leadership: A Handbook for Library and Nonprofit Trainers. Lori also blogs at LoriReed.com and can be reached at lori[at]lorireed.com.

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Learning Round Table February Meeting

February 15, 2010 By

Our next Learning Round Table meeting is this Wednesday 02/17/2010 from 2-3pm EST.

All Learning Round Table members (and any other interested people) are invited to attend our virtual monthly meetings. We use the meetings for updates and follow-ups to committee work, discussions, sharing and announcements. We use ALA’s OPAL web-conferencing platform for these meetings. Meetings are held at 2pm EST. The following is the current meeting schedule:

  • Wednesday, February 17
  • Thursday, March 11
  • Wednesday, April 21
  • Thursday, May 13
  • Wednesday, June 16

This is a great time to get involved as we have lots of new ideas and projects on the horizon. Registration not required. Just click this link to join in: http://www.conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rs423c62c43df0

We look forward to seeing you there!

Lori Reed

Lori Reed, Managing Editor of ALA Learning, has more than 15 years experience in training and is the Learning & Development Coordinator for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library where she oversees the learning & development of a diverse group of staff at twenty libraries. Lori’s passions are performance consulting, learning strategies, and e-learning. Lori is coauthor, with Paul Signorelli, of Workplace Learning and Leadership: A Handbook for Library and Nonprofit Trainers. Lori also blogs at LoriReed.com and can be reached at lori[at]lorireed.com.

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27 Questions with Lori Reed

January 28, 2010 By

1. Your One Sentence Bio

  • Lori Reed, mom, library enthusiast, lifelong learner, passionate about helping people, team Edward!

2. Do you blog? If yes, how did you come up with your blog name?

  • I moved my blog from LibraryTrainer.com to LoriReed.com yesterday. I chose my name because it will remain constant. I want the freedom to change directions with my blog as needed.

3. What is your professional background?

  • I worked for several years as a firefighter/EMT and discovered that I love training. I conducted training for firefighters and EMTs for a while then moved to computer training (better hours and pay). I worked for a few for-profits and found that I really missed the environment of public service. A job came open at the library in Charlotte for someone to do computer support and training and it seemed like the perfect fit. 10-years and three jobs later and it’s still a great fit!

4. What training do you do? staff? patrons? types of classes?

  • I coordinate the staff development at my library. This means that I don’t get to do as much training anymore. Instead I do more strategic planning. I look at the mission and vision and goals of the library and translate those back into competencies that staff need to achieve the library’s goals. I work with managers and staff to see what skills our staff need to accomplish the library’s goals and to get their jobs done well. I rely on a core group of staff trainers to facilitate most training sessions. I also serve as an internal consultant to help staff trainers develop their courses and materials.

5. What training do you think is most important to libraries right now?

  • I think the most important thing is that we be strategic with our training. If you align your training with your library’s vision, mission, and goals then you are right on track.

6. Where do you get your training?

  • Wherever I can! North Carolina State Library’s Master Trainer Program, Mecklenburg County, InSync Training, Learning Round Table, ASTD, ISPI, conferences, blogs, Twitter, friends…maybe the question should be where don’t I get my training.

7. How do you keep up?

  • The first rule of … wait … wrong question. I follow other people who keep up with subjects I’m interested in. It saves me a lot of time! I live by GTD principles and use my Outlook calendar and tasklist religiously. It also helps to have a clear personal definition of keeping up. For me keeping up means keeping my inbox at or near 0 and having some idea of what is going on in the world. For other people keeping up may mean knowing about every new idea or gadget that is coming out.

8. What do you think are the biggest challenges libraries are facing right now?

  • I think traditionally libraries have been slow to adapt and change. The world around us is changing at a faster and faster pace. To remain relevant and cherished by everyone in our communities we need to adapt faster. We need to take risks and be willing to try new things that might fail. We need to look at failure as a success and staying the same as a failure. We need to reduce the digital divide that exists among libraries. We need to continue to market our services. We’re being asked to do more with less–maybe it’s time to get more creative with funding and partnerships. We desperately need a new universal brand that reflects 21st century libraries!

9. What are biggest challenges for trainers?

  • Training is not always the solution. Training does not solve problems that stem from poor management or software that’s not intuitive. These are bigger issues at an organizational level. Traditionally trainers have not been in a role to contribute to organizations at that higher level. That needs to change. Trainers need to be part of the strategic planning of libraries and need to have the flexibility to implement complete performance solutions. When training is called for, developing quality training takes time. It’s more than happy butts in seats. Like everyone else, trainers are being asked to do more with less or worse to deploy bandages that will not solve long term performance or organizational issues.

10. What exciting things are you doing training wise?

  • We recently implemented a curriculum for staff training. We also received a generous donation of Lumenix (a learning content management system) from Handshaw, Inc. I’m working with my staff trainers to convert existing face-to-face training into self-paced, online training. It’s a very slow process because it takes exponentially more time to create self-paced modules that replace what we were doing face-to-face. I’m hoping to implement live, online training this fall. Fellow ALA Learning blogger Paul Signorelli and I are co-authoring a book on leadership for trainers that should be available this summer.

11. What do you wish were you doing?

  • I’m doing everything that I want to be doing, I just wish there were more hours in the day to do more and to sleep more.

12. What would you do with a badger?

13. What’s your favorite food?

  • Anything that is shared with good conversation and good company.

14. If you were stranded on an island, what one thing would you want to have with you?

  • A lifetime supply of insect repellent.

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

16. Post it notes or the back of your hand?

  • Post in notes are a GTD nightmare! I use my Outlook/Blackberry tasklist to action items. I use eWallet on my PCs and Blackberry for random information that I need to remember like passwords, printer IP addresses, security codes, etc. eWallet is well worth the small cost!

17. Windows or Mac?

  • Doesn’t matter just give me a browser.

18. Talk about one training moment you’d like to forget?

  • Potty training!

19. What’s your take on handshakes?

  • Ackward early in my career, but now I’m comfortable with them. If I know you though, watchout, I’m more likely to hug you than shake your hand!

20. Global warming: yes or no?

21. How did you get into this line of work?

  • See question 3.

22. What is the best part of your job?

  • Just about everything! Seeing the ripple effect that occurs as a result of good planning and strategy. Seeing staff whom I’ve worked with get promoted to new jobs. It’s all good!

23. Why should someone else follow in your shoes?

  • Everyone else has a good point of wearing your own shoes, but if you have a passion for learning, love helping people, don’t mind public speaking, and have good problem solving skills then you might want to consider a career in training workplace learning and performance.

24. Sushi or hamburger?

  • Hamburger.

25. LSW or ALA?

  • I belong to both, and they both have pros and cons.

26. What one person in the world do you want to have lunch with and why?

  • Only one? I’m going to break the rules and say the ALA Learning bloggers. I think it would be amazing to get these 12 people all in the same place at the same time. I can’t imagine what the energy would be like!

27. What cell phone do you have and why?

  • A pink Blackberry Curve. I really wanted an iPhone but I can’t get a signal in my house using the Blackberry Storm or the iPhone. Verizon gives library employees a 19% discount which is substantial off a bill with two phones and two data plans. I also must have a phone that syncs directly to Outlook (See questions 7 and 16).

Lori Reed

Lori Reed, Managing Editor of ALA Learning, has more than 15 years experience in training and is the Learning & Development Coordinator for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library where she oversees the learning & development of a diverse group of staff at twenty libraries. Lori’s passions are performance consulting, learning strategies, and e-learning. Lori is coauthor, with Paul Signorelli, of Workplace Learning and Leadership: A Handbook for Library and Nonprofit Trainers. Lori also blogs at LoriReed.com and can be reached at lori[at]lorireed.com.

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Paul Signorelli’s “Getting To Know Me” Post

January 19, 2010 By

1.   Your One Sentence Bio
I was born; have been deeply immersed in writing, training-teaching-learning, and working with libraries and nonprofit organizations for many years; am honored to sometimes be mistaken for ALA Learning colleague Peter Bromberg when the two of us are lucky enough to be on Maurice Coleman’s T is for Training podcasts at the same; and plan to die someday—which, I believe, covers all bases.

2.   Do you blog? If yes, how did you come up with your blog name?
You’ll find me blogging here at ALA Learning and at Building Creative Bridges. I came up with the name because “Librarian In Black,” “Library Trainer,” and “(almost) Bald Trainer” were already taken by writers better than I’ll ever be, and Building Creative Bridges seemed like a good way to describe what I hoped to accomplish through the blog and everything else I’m doing.

3.   What is your professional background?
As far as I can tell, I’ve worked for newspapers, magazines, a couple of schools in Japan, the Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the San Francisco Public Library system, and with a variety of other groups and organizations, but if you’ve heard differently, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

4.   What training do you do? staff? patrons? types of classes?
My position as Director, Volunteer Services & Staff Training for the San Francisco Public Library system had me providing orientations, software introductions and updates, and other learning opportunities for staff and volunteers; current training-teaching-learning efforts include writing e-learning courses for Infopeople and LE@D (Lifelong Education @ Desktop)–http://www.leadonline.info/–and conducting workshops at professional conferences.
 
5. What training do you think is most important to libraries right now?
We need to be combining sessions on practical matters (software upgrades, customer service, leadership and collaboration skills, conflict resolution, health and safety issues) with inspirational/visionary/long-term matters (how to continue serving library members and guests on site and online, maintaining libraries as on-site and online community centers, becoming collaborators with members of the communities we serve rather than one-way providers of information and services).
 
6.   Where do you get your training?
For training-learning, I try everything I can think of, including conversations with colleagues; on-site and online workshops and courses; blogs/RSS feeds; books; journals, magazines, and newspapers; webinars; conferences; speakers at ASTD (American Society for Training & Development) and ALA (American Library Association) meetings and conferences—and I’m sure that’s only about half the list.

7.   How do you keep up?
Keep up?

8.  What do you think are the biggest challenges libraries are facing
right now?
One of the many large challenges is to recognize and respond to their increasingly huge role in being learning centers for their local and online communities while not abandoning any of the important and life-changing roles their members and guests still expect them to fulfill. 

9.   What are biggest challenges for trainers?
All too often, we have training-teaching-learning as part of our job rather than as the entire focus of our job, which leads to lots of half-finished projects, lots of stress for everyone, and less than optimum learning opportunities; focusing on our own continuing education and our primary roles as workplace learning and performance providers might be the best lesson-by-example that we can provide to colleagues whose workplace focus is equally divided to their own detriment and the detriment of those they serve. 

10.   What exciting things are you doing training wise?
Trying to be creative face-to-face and online in the way I respond to learners’ needs: delivering a synchronous online learning opportunity through live Google Chat, for example, was a fun distance-learning experiment with a University of Nevada, Las Vegas colleague and his class in October 2009.

11.   What do you wish you were doing?
Writing; oh, wait, I am writing.

12.   What would you do with a badger?
Teach it to use Google Chat so it could more effectively participate in synchronous online learning opportunities.

13.   What’s your favorite food?
Pizza.  Purchased somewhere in NY, NJ or the Philly area.  If you’re not buying pizza in one of these geographic areas it’s not really pizza.  Sorry, it’s not.  (OK, an exception for Chicago deep-dish.  As long as you qualify it.)

14.   If you were stranded on an island, what one thing would you want
to have with you?
A confirmed flight back to the mainland.

15.   Do you know what happens when a grasshopper kicks all the seeds
out of a pickle?
I live in San Francisco; can someone tell me what a grasshopper is?

16.   Post it notes or the back of your hand?
No, thanks.

17.    Windows or Mac?
OK, but definitely not on the first date.

18.   Talk about one training moment you’d like to forget?
Can’t remember; must be an occupational hazzard since at least one other ALA Learning colleague has responded similarly.

19.   What’s your take on handshakes?
A handshake is certainly a pleasant way to avoid open warfare in a learning environment.

20.   Global warming: yes or no?
Best response I’ve seen is Jill Sobule’s “happy song about global warming”; who am I to argue?

21.   How did you get into this line of work?
My supervisor at the time told me I had to take over the organization’s staff training program if I was going to keep my job; I found that to be tremendously motivating.

22.   What is the best part of your job?
Being part of what ASTD refers to as the effort to “create a world that works better.”

23.   Why should someone else follow in your shoes?
This question reminds me of a story from Martin Buber’s Tales of the Hasidism, which I will now paraphrase to the best of my recollection. The gist of it: Samuel, a very devout man who is struggling to be good in the eyes of the Lord, approaches the Rabbi and asks, “Rabbi, should I try to be more like Moses or more like Abraham?”  The Rabbi replies, “Rather than trying to be more like Moses, or more like Abraham, the Lord would be pleased if you tried to be more like Samuel.” And that’s all I have to say about that.

24.   Sushi or hamburger?
Depends on who is asking.

N.B.: Special thanks to Peter Bromberg for allowing me to insert, verbatim, his answers to questions #13 and #23 here. I figured if I couldn’t match his responses for cleverness, I might as well just outright steal them and see if I could further confuse colleagues about which of us is speaking (please see response to question #1, above).

Paul Signorelli

Paul Signorelli is a writer, trainer, presenter, and consultant based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He works with clients to successfully facilitate the introduction of new technology into organizations; prepares and presents webinars and other online and onsite learning opportunities for a variety of clients; is actively involved in ALA and ASTD; continues to prepare articles for "American Libraries," the eLearning Guild's "Learning Solutions Magazine," and other publications; and co-wrote "Workplace Learning & Leadership" with Lori Reed for ALA editions. Paul can be reached at paul@paulsignorelli.com.

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Maurice Coleman’s Getting to Know All About Me Post

January 11, 2010 By

I am Maurice Coleman, one of the writers here at the ALA Learning blog and I have been tasked to both reintroduce myself to celebrate the (awesome!) redesign of the blog (thanks Lori!) Another challenge point is that I have to follow Peter Bromberg, again. (I followed him at Pres4Lib. Not easy since he is a great live speaker.)

So, how to do this you may ask?

The following questions were “crowd-sourced” during a few posts on the T is for Training (the library training podcast’s) Google group. A number of members of that group, which is pollinated by several ALA Learning writers, came up with this set of “getting to know you” questions. They are to be answered in one sentence. Let’s see how long that lasts. So Let’s Get This Party Started. Remember: Nothing Beats a Failure but a Try according to the Godfather, James Brown. The annotated version of this post will be up on my blog later this week.

1) Your One Sentence Bio

I am a tech/sports/tv/history geek that loves to educate, excite and stir up the status quo (when needed) in my position as the Technical Trainer for my public library system and as host of the T is for Training podcast who happens not to be a librarian. (Whew, that was hard to keep that to one sentence.)

2) Do you blog? If yes, how did you come up with your blog name?

Yep, but not a frequently as I once did. The name I came up with was The Chronicles of the (almost) Bald Technology Trainer As for the name: well it is a continuing story about a guy with not too much hair who shows people how do stuff with stuff. The Chronicles of the (almost) Bald Technology Trainer sounds better. This is how I started blogging. (Yeah, that “one sentence” thing lasted long.)

3) What is your professional background?

I have been training for over fifteen years starting with community development and neighborhood organizing training, then technology training in NY, then a variety of training my library system, focusing on technology and organizational development and culture immersion here in Maryland.

4) What training do you do? staff? patrons? types of classes?

My organized trainings are for staff, while I do “just in time” training for the public as needed. I teach both face to face and virtual classes, on computer skills, management skills, Microsoft Office products, social networking tools and organizational culture.

5) What training do you think is most important to libraries right now?

Teaching staff and public that our mission of connecting people to information does not change even though the vessel of delivery or what we deliver changes.

6) Where do you get your training?

Trial and Error, lots of experience and a Train the Trainer class back in 1994. Learning to accept failure as a learning experience was essential to developing what training and speaking skills I have today.

7) How do you keep up?

By depending on the kindness of my friends inside the computer via Twitter, Friendfeed, (both locked because of previous spam stupidity)  some RSS feeds and list-servs, and outside the computer at meetings and conferences.

#8) What do you think are the biggest challenges libraries are facing right now?

Show the non library using public why libraries are a vital community resource on par with schools and public safety.

9) What are biggest challenges for trainers?

Balancing life and work.

10) What exciting things are you doing training wise?

At MPOW we are creating a Civility Through Customer Service training using blended synchronous, asynchronous, and face to face modules. The T is for Training podcast is in the middle of our intersession featuring interviews and a 27 question trainer questionnaire that may sound familiar to you, gentle reader.

11) What do you wish were you doing?

Living a life of leisure on a live aboard in the Caribbean snorkeling, diving and eating too much seafood.

12) What would you do with a badger?

Take it to Wisconsin.

13) What’s your favorite food?

How can you have ONE?!?

14) If you were stranded on an island, what one thing would you want to have with you?

By myself? A sturdy sailboat. With my wife? A sturdy sailboat.

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

Yes, it claps with one hand.

16) Post it notes or the back of your hand?

Palm of hand.

17) Windows or Mac?

Windows with a mancrush on Linux.

18) Talk about one training moment you’d like to forget?

Like Mariano Rivera, I have a short memory of failure.

19) What’s your take on handshakes?

Solid, with a big hate of “wishy-washy” handshakes.

20) Global warming: yes or no?

If you call it Overall Global Climate Adjustment due to man made chemicals in the air, then yes.

21) How did you get into this line of work?

At a FPOW I started as a trainer helper (really an apprentice) then started to deliver then develop trainings.

22) What is the best part of your job?

Helping people “get it” and feel empowered.

23) Why should someone else follow in your shoes?

I get paid to teach and learn new stuff.

24) Sushi or hamburger?

Hamburger Sushi. Done and done.

25) LSW or ALA?

Actually, I like them both for different reasons.

26) What one person in the world do you want to have lunch with and why?

I would like to have lunch with my father.

27) What cell phone do you have and why?

A very dumb but rugged one for the moment. I want a smart phone but every service and phone had serious pluses and minuses. Presently trying to work out what I want to do.

Maurice Coleman

Maurice Coleman, has been Technical Trainer at Harford County (MD) Public Library in North Eastern Maryland for the last 7 years. He has 20 years of experience training all ages how to sensibly use technology, computer hardware and software. He has also trained on effective technology planning and deployment, social media skills, nonprofit organizational development and fundraising, community organizing and presentation skills. He has presented at numerous conferences on topics such as digital personal branding, technology implementation, presentation and training skills, community development and effectively using social media. He hosts the library training podcast T is for Training and writes for the American Library Association’s LearnRT blog ALALearning. For his work he was named a 2010 Library Journal Mover and Shaker and received the Citizens for Maryland Libraries Davis McCarn Technology Award. You can find him on twitter @baldgeekinmd

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