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A Model to Support Self-Directed Elearning

April 21, 2011 By

As trainers and instructional designers, many of us are becoming more and more involved with asynchronous, self-directed elearning. Some of us are designing courses ourselves for staff. Many more are directing staff to existing courses via WebJunction, or through providers like LE@D or the University of Wisconsin-Madison SLIS.

The Good and the Bad of Self-Directed Elearning

There are well-known advantages to self-directed elearning. These include:

  • reduced travel cost and time
  • can be taken most any time and any place with an Internet-connected device
  • cost effectiveness – courses are often reasonably priced relative to real-time training
  • standardization – all learners get the same information
  • learners can control their own experience, work at their own pace and repeat content as needed
  • learners have the freedom to explore and to fail without a roomful of peers and an instructor watching

These advantages are compelling and can lead organizations to blindly adopt self-directed elearning for staff development. But there are downsides for learners worth considering. The big ones include:

  • lack of motivation to complete courses or trouble managing time without start-and-end-date structure
  • learners feel isolated and miss the opportunity to share ideas, get clarification or have questions answered
  • it can be more of a challenge to transfer what’s learned to the real-world work environment

Moore’s Three Interactions

Moore's Three InteractionsWhen I think about learning and addressing disadvantages like these, I often come back to Moore’s Three Types of Interaction. Moore’s three interactions are:

  1. learner with content,
  2. learner with instructor or expert, and
  3. learner with learner.

This is a simple framework that can be applied whenever we want to maximize learning.

“Learner with content” interaction is what we typically think about when we consider education—reading a text, listening to a lecture. This is the common interaction in a self-directed elearning course.

“Learner with expert” interactions go beyond the dump of information typically associated with a lecture or the standard click-and-read elearning course. Learner-expert interactions are important for clarification of concepts and providing alternative explanations for different learners with different styles and levels of understanding. They also provide essential guidance with applying what’s learned to the real world.

“Learner with learner” interactions are important for learners to test and synthesize their ideas among peers. Learner-learner interactions are central to many learning theories and pedagogies (see social constructivism, communities of practice, problem-based learning, team-based learning and authentic learning as examples). As with learner-expert interactions, learner-learner interactions are often lacking in self-directed elearning experiences.

Finding A Way to Blend All Three

How can we help to blend in all types of interaction when we’re offering asynchronous, self-directed elearning at our libraries, and address the known disadvantages?

At the Colorado State Library, we developed a straightforward model for libraries implementing this kind of learning that blends all interactions. The model includes considerations and actions for both learners and their managers. The full model is available as a handout: Strategies for Online Learning Success.

Strategies for Online Learning Success

The model starts with questions to ask during a planning stage, where the learner and manager closely consider the needs of the organization and the learner, and look in advance at how the learning will be applied. The model goes on with suggestions for making a commitment to learning, through scheduling, clarifying expectations, and defining what success looks like.

Spending time in these early phases works to ensure the learning is relevant to the learner and to the organization, is being taken at the appropriate time, and is supported with time and scheduling. These phases begin to provide structure and support for the learner-content interaction even before the coursework begins.

The model then offers further structure to support the learner while consuming the course content. The bulk of the learner-content interaction takes place here. Learner-expert interactions also begin, with the manager mentoring on course content and assessing the learning.

Both learner-expert and learner-learner interactions are addressed in the last phases of application and sharing. Here the learner is coached in applying the material to the workplace by the manager. The learner goes on to relate with peers by sharing the course content and its application in brown bags, through tip sheets and more.

This model can be implemented or repurposed in your own environment to provide much needed structure to self-directed elearning and the necessary interactions that ensure deeper learning and successful application to the workplace.

There are certainly many other ways provide a blend of interaction to support self-directed elearning for staff. How are you supporting your staff with self-directed elearning? Are you allowing for learner-expert and learner-learner interactions? Please share your ideas, approaches, successes and failures in the comments.

Mary Beth Faccioli

Mary Beth Faccioli, MLIS is the Instructional Design and Technology Senior Consultant at the Colorado State Library.

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Filed Under: Asynchronous Learning, E-Learning, Feature Tagged With: , , , ,

Learning Vicariously with Google Reader Play

December 1, 2010 By

Annewhite Fuller, HMCPL Heritage Room Manager, learns vicariously with Google Reader Play

Annewhite Fuller, HMCPL Heritage Room Manager, learns vicariously by watching Google Reader Play

Today several of our library staff are participating in WebJunction’s free (and fabulous) Serving the 21st Century Patron online conference. Those that choose to come into my office instead of viewing on their own computers are treated to a few perks. In addition to the several laptops available during webinars for staff, today’s event includes a personal login to the sessions so they may participate in chat. I also have the Twitter hashtag running in real-time on another laptop. Visitors are more than welcome to bring food, snacks or a favorite beverage into my little training room.

As you might expect from a visual learner, during the breaks or before sessions I usually project my Librarianship feeds in Google Reader Play, Inevitably, attendees say, “Oh, cool! what is that!?” I show them my feeds in the folders, then how to control the player with a wireless mouse. Because their interest is peaked with the slideshow of information, I almost always give them a quick lesson on how to use Google Reader and have several converts among our staff.

A few things about Reader Play:

  • Click the item’s title or the associated image to view the original site content.
  • Click the “read more” link to view the full feed content for that item, or click the eye icon in the bottom left to switch to always showing the full feed content.
  • Tired of manually navigating Reader Play? Click the TV icon to start a slideshow of items — simply sit back and enjoy.
  • Hide the thumbnails at the bottom by clicking the thumbnail icon in the bottom left.

I’d love to hear of other tools you might use to supplement your training events in comments!

Marianne Lenox

As the Staff Training & Volunteer Coordinator for the Huntsville - Madison County Public Library in Alabama, Marianne is responsible for planning, directing, maintaining and implementing a comprehensive staff training and volunteer program for her library. She consistently strives to provide learning opportunities, professional information and technical training to ensure both better library service and the professional development of the Library’s staff and volunteers.

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

Staff Development on a Budget

November 2, 2010 By

Here in Georgia Public Librarians are required to have and renew our license each year and this requires we submit a number of continuing education credits. For my post on staff development I thought I’d share some of the free, no travel required, ways we get our continuing education credits.

WebJunction - Every month WebJunction hosts free online webinars on a wide variety of topics from Dealing with Difficult Patrons to Digital Preservation. Sessions are taught by WebJuction staff or other library community members including our own Maurice Coleman. You can see upcoming webinars on the events calendar or subscribe to the RSS feed. An added bonus all sessions are archived for free (no password needed!) with a recording of the sessions and all relevant links for review later or in case you missed one.

InfoPeople – Another great resource for regular online webinars. InfoPeople provide free online webinars on a variet of topics.  You can register for upcoming events and browse their archives without a password. The archives are a treasure trove of resources and all their handouts are Creative Commons licensed.

ADA Online – A great resources for information related to libraries and the American’s with Disabilities Act.  ADA Online offers the Accessible Technology On-line Webinar series for free.

SirsiDynix Institute – Sirsi occasionally offers free online presentations with an online archive of past presentations for easy access.

OCLC & Library Journal Symposiums – sometimes there is a fee associated with these sometimes they are free.  The next one The Ethics of Innovation: Navigating Privacy, Policy and Service Issues is free.

Your Local State Library Organization – in my case GPLS and GLA team up once a month to offer free online Webinars, chances your state organization does too.  Remember many webinars don’t restrict attendees so you might be able to sign up for webinars offered by other states.

I KNOW I missed something, where do you get your professional development?

Bobbi Newman

Filed Under: LearnRT News, Professional Development 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: , , , , , , , , ,

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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Filed Under: E-Learning, LearnRT News, Professional Development, Resources for Trainers Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

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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Welcome Sarah Houghton-Jan to ALA Learning

January 18, 2010 By

Please welcome Sarah Houghton-Jan, Digital Futures Manager for the San José Public Library, to the ALA Learning blog. Sarah is author of the librarianinblack.net blog and was named a 2009 Library Journal Mover & Shaker. She is a well-traveled consultant, speaker, and writer, and has been published widely in both library and technology publications.

We are thrilled to have Sarah join our team!

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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Twenty Questions with Bobbi Newman

January 14, 2010 By

1. Your One Sentence Bio

  • I’m not that kind of librarian.

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

  • Yes, I blog at Librarian by Day. The name is a reference to Barbara Gordon and the all the non-traditional roles librarians fill these days.

3. What is your professional background?

  • I’ve worked in libraries since I was 16.  Before I got my MLS I worked with engineers, and my first job after graduating was working with engineers, for some of you this may explain a lot. :-)

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

  • Staff, patron, and other libraries that ask me to in a wide range of subjects – reference in the digital age, social media, web 2.0, gaming, time management, tech tools etc

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

  • We need to step up staff training, every staff member should feel comfortable offering basic assistance with any service or technology the library offers.

6. Where do you get your training?

  • Anywhere I can! conferences, webinars, colleagues etc.

7. How do you keep up?

  • My feed reader, Twitter and Facebook.

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

  • We need to shift our foundations so change is easier and faster.

9. What are biggest challenges for trainers?

  • shortage of staff, time, money and in some cases the unwillingness of trainees

10. What exciting things are you doing training wise?

  • The library has a gadget garage that the FIT (Future Innovation & Technology) Committee is working with to help staff become familiar with new tools, investigate potential new services and circulation to patrons.

11. What do you wish were you doing?

  • more training for everyone

12. What would you do with a badger?

  • feed it chocolate cake

13. What’s your favorite food?

  • Italian

14. What’s your take on handshakes?

  • firm is a must

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

  • by luck & love

16. Why is the best part of your job?

  • making a difference, see “it” click whatever “it” is

17. Why should someone else follow in your shoes?

  • I’m going to have to agree with Pete on this one – blaze your own trail

18. Sushi or hamburger?

  • depends

19. LSW or ALA?

  • both

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

  • Barack Obama I heard him speak when he was campaigning and it was amazing, I’d just like to have a conversation with him

Bobbi Newman

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

A Collaborative Learning Experiment: Top Ten Customer Service Skills for Library Staff

December 14, 2009 By

Recently I was asked to give a 15 minute talk on customer service skills to the Huntsville – Madison County Public Library Public Service staff at their regular monthly meeting. Though I started the discussion with ten points outlined below, I knew that our front line staff could contribute even more and wanted to capture the exchange. We live-blogged it on our Drupal-based staff Intranet, adding notes during the discussion and encouraging comments afterward. Here are the results of that conversation:

  1. Greet every customer
    Every single patron deserves your eye contact: A smile and a hello are even better. Jackie Matthews (Youth Services) spoke of introducing herself, letting the patron know that she is willing to help if there are problems or questions. “Be alert for customers that come in the library angry or upset, a greeting validates the patron and let’s them know they are valuable to us. Sometimes a patron just doesn’t know where to go and will hover around a public service desk or in the stacks, often not asking for help.” Cerene Prince, of the Computer Training Center, spoke of engaging the patron in conversation to create a friendly, accessible atmosphere in the library.
  2. Be aware of non-verbal clues
    Occasionally a customer will approach a desk or a staff member with a set jaw and a fierce look. Typically this type of body language might alert us to an impending conflict and allow the staff member to create the proper tone for the conversation. Kill them with kindness and anticipate the solution, reminding yourself where supervisors are at the moment. Also consider the non-verbal clues you might be projecting: slumped posture or arms folded indicate an unwillingness to help.
  3. Listen
    Sometimes to be heard is all a patron really wants. Listening skills allow you to get past “Can I help you?”
  4. Restate the problem or question
    Not only will you make sure you’ve heard the issue correctly, but restating the customer’s issue will validate the situation. Give the patron a chance to ask questions after your restatement. David Lilly, head of reference and adult services reminded us to, “ask open-ended questions to help narrow down the issue if it seems vague.”
  5. Be Empathetic
    Find common ground, and have compassion for the issues at hand. Even if you don’t agree, apologize for the situation. You really can be sincere when you say, “I am so sorry this is causing a problem.”
  6. Provide alternatives to “No”
    If you can’t find a solution, find someone who will. Trying to find something else to say when your first impulse is a negative reply proves that you have been listening and truly want to help. Susanna Leberman, of Heritage and Archives, often uses “Let me confer with my colleagues” as a customer service catch-all to a quandary. In the session, she noted a recent episode in which a pair of genealogy patrons needed a particular book from the archives. As it sometimes happens, the book was not on the shelf where it was supposed to be. After a five-minute search, she returned to the pair and explained that the book was missing and asked how long they planned on visiting the library that day, indicating that other staff were willing to help.  Susanna rallied the department and reported that, “Though it was a bumpy road getting the researchers what they wanted, with team effort and a little time, the problem was solved.”
  7. Reserve judgment
    Always be a professional representative of our mission: This is the public’s library. It doesn’t matter how a patron is dressed or what they are checking out, it’s important that we never are seen to be critical of the customer or the materials he or she checks out.
  8. Get (back) to them as soon as possible
    Whether on the phone, email or in-person, treat the patron with respect by following though. A real, live customer comes first over those on the phone.  Often a patron’s phone call may be transferred from one department to another in search of resolution. Computer training center coordinator Stormy Dovers noted that she learns as much about the other departments as possible so that when patrons call with questions she can answer… instead of sending them to someone else.
  9. Follow your gut instinct
    If you get feeling that something is wrong, it probably is. I noted that staff should immediately contact security or a supervisor, but call 911 if you see a crime being committed in the library.
  10. Thank them for using the library
    Your parting words to the patron may very well be what is remembered most about a visit to the library. Are there upcoming programs or new resources to discover?  Let them know we’re glad they came and offer them a reason to come back!

That afternoon, Development Director Stephenie Walker added to the talk’s blog post on our staff Intranet: “In a time when funding is at an all-time low it can be easy to be discouraged and feel helpless, but no matter what, we always have control over how we interact with patrons. In the end, they are why we do what we do – from placing a book on hold, to fundraising, to advocating with a commissioner, we do it for them.”

We do it for the patron. I just love that. Thanks, Stephenie,  and all our staff who helped with this project. We learned a lot.

Like any set of skills, evaluation and practice go along way towards mastery. Customer service is no exception. In this case, the conversations around each issue during the talk allowed us to explore beyond the bullet points. As the discussion continued online, staff added even more examples of excellent customer service:  I am considering this experiment in collaborative learning a success.

Can you think of other learning methods that can be used to combine content and real-life experiences? Please share!

Marianne Lenox

As the Staff Training & Volunteer Coordinator for the Huntsville - Madison County Public Library in Alabama, Marianne is responsible for planning, directing, maintaining and implementing a comprehensive staff training and volunteer program for her library. She consistently strives to provide learning opportunities, professional information and technical training to ensure both better library service and the professional development of the Library’s staff and volunteers.

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The Fun Theory

October 12, 2009 By

Volkswagen has a very cool site up and running.   It’s called The Fun Theory and the site states:

This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.


One of their videos proves this point with no question:

There are more videos on the site and they are currently running a contest.  As a technology trainer, teaching mostly on software applications and having very limited time to cover the material, there isn’t a lot of room for fun.  So I try to make it fun with my humor and poking fun at myself when I make a mistake.  Or easing stress by sharing stories of there ALWAYS being someone slower than you think you are at picking up information.  I keep a laid back attitude too which trainees seem to appreciate.


How do you build fun into your training?  Has the thought even crossed your mind?

Stephanie Zimmerman

Stephanie Zimmerman is the Training Coordinator for the Library System of Lancaster County (Pennsylvania), a federated system with 14 member libraries, three branches and a bookmobile, which serves 490,562 residents. She designs and implements technology and development training and consulting to the member libraries. This includes training on Innovative’s Millennium Integrated Library System, Microsoft Office Applications, emerging technologies (i.e. social media) and various other areas. Her goal is to remove the fear of technology and help others to realize the amazing possibilities it provides. Teaching others to do things for themselves and see their excitement when they break through their barriers is her greatest reward. Stephanie has been a software trainer for 15 years. Her past employment involved training on federal and county government applications. She also worked for a private industry marketing company where she traveled across the country showing manufacturers and retailers in the consumer packaged goods industry how to use geodemographic targeting software. Always wanting to help others, Stephanie graduated from Millersville University (in Pennsylvania) cum laude with a BA in Social Work. She was also a student in the Computer Information Systems program at Harrisburg Area Community College. She is a member of ASTD (American Society of Training and Development). She is also a regular contributor to the T is for Training podcast which focuses on training in libraries. She was a trainer for WebJunction’s Spanish Language Outreach project and has done training for Commonwealth Libraries. She is grateful to have landed in the world of libraries. When she began her current job in January of 2004, there were no other library trainers in her immediate area. She turned to the social web to begin networking with other library trainers across the world and immediately realized her passion for social networking and social media. All of her continuing education has been done through these networks and she can’t help but push others to discover the immense opportunities available through online collaboration. Stephanie lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with her family which includes husband, Bill (a self-employed stay-at-home-dad) and two children (ages 2 and 4 months). When she’s not being Mommy, or working, you’ll most likely find her singing. Stephanie can be reached at szimmerman[at]lancasterlibraries.org.

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