Category Archives: Training

Training

We take a break – but with so many books for you!

Whew!

In Season Four, we have all worked together to work through fifteen of the most valuable competencies you need to be a good leader in your organization. As we said all along: it doesn’t matter what your title is, you can lead from any position. So these skills are for EVERYONE! Refer back to our shownotes for any info you missed – and of course for links to the books we shared!

We are taking a break here, and starting up our companion podcast: Reading With Libraries. Season Three starts Thursday Jan. 3. You can subscribe at any podcast app you are already using (like this one!). Each week we explore a new genre, drink new beverages, and chat with new Guest Hosts about the books they like. We have lots of Readers Advisory material on the website, to help you in guiding people to the books they may love.

But we don’t want your feed here to be lonely, so we will be dropping a quick Book Bite into it each week. This is a five minute look, by a Guest Host, at a book (or two) they have enjoyed and want to share with you. There are all kinds of genres, all kinds of suggestions – everything you need to find books for yourself, or to share with patrons and friends.

And what’s happening with Linking Our Libraries?? We have so many fun plans!! Season Five will be back, exploring all kinds of library skill using pop culture. It will be fast, fun, and filled with great ideas for you and your library! We definitely want you to join us there!

Check out this episode!

Training

Episode 415 Problem Solving

Welcome back to Linking Our Libraries! This is our Season Four finale! It’s been so good to work with you all this season, and talk about building skills.

Check out our full shownotes page for all the information, and the info on the books we read (with links to Amazon!).

Be sure to subscribe to our book group podcast, Reading With Libraries, which will start dropping new episodes and new genres Jan 3. If you are subscribed to this podcast, Linking Our Libraries, we will be dropping Book Bites each week for you – three to five minutes talking about a book our guests want to share. You won’t want to miss it!

Do you want to talk with us about leadership skills? Do you need some training organized for your organization? We are here for you! Check out our website: cmle.org and let’s get this started!

 

We have talked about a lot of important skills this season – and some different ways to be a leader, not just as a n idea but in reality. Problems solving is definitely one of the keys to leadership success. And fortunately, you will have a LOT of practice in it!

Problems, disasters, things going wrong – all of that will happen in your library daily, weekly, the entire rest of your career. So it’s better to just get in there now and figure out how to be good at solving problems. It will make the rest of your career easier, and it will help to inspire other people to work with you.

You can probably think of people who panic in a crisis, or have no idea how to handle even the smallest problem that occurs – completely falling apart at the smallest problem. This is not leadership behavior, though we all know people in leadership roles who do this – but we want you to be better than that!

 

Check out this episode!

Technical Services, Training

Training Tips: You need a password manager!

Each week in this series we talk about another small thing you can work on to make yourself ever more skilled, and help your library to be better able to serve your community. This week’s tip can do both!

Have you heard of password managers? If you read articles or listen to podcasts about web security, you have doubtless seen reference to them – and strident urging to get one immediately.

If you have not already tried the podcast Reply All, I highly recommend it in general. Very fun, they solve tech issues in a long story form, and it’s informative. Specifically, I recommend listening to Episode #91: The Russian Passenger. You can click on that link, go to their episode site, and listen right there. (There is also a follow up: Episode #111 The Return of the Russian Passenger.)

You might also want to listen to Episode #130: the Snapchat Thief.  Or #97 What Kind of Idiot Gets Phished? And really, there are tons of others.

But the point is that a password manager is just a wonderful tool.

Possibly you are like me, and feel senility creeping up on you when YET AGAIN you are totally unable to remember a password. I have been locked out of so many website for trying to guess too many times, it’s just pathetic.

And do you use the same password everywhere?

I came up with a couple of good ones, and then proceeded to use them. Over and over again. For a few years.

Needless to say, they are both floating around the dark web after being hacked (probably multiple times) on big websites. (Hey, thanks for that, Adobe!!)

And we share passwords at work, for accounts we need to share – so I can’t just change it every week when I’ve forgotten one! (Okay, I’ve actually done this; but for a variety of reasons this is really bad practice.)

I had been hearing about password managers for a while, and it all sounded so complicated. I’m a person who can let a problem drag on until it’s REALLY a problem, if I’m not feeling motivated.

Then our website went out.

Still not sure what happened – though I believe it was user error. (*cough* me, making adjustments) But it propelled password managers right up the to-do list!

And I have to tell you: This Is GLORIOUS!!!

I now have a lovely password manager I bought that remembers ALL my passwords! It hosed up everything I had asked Firefox to remember, so it literally knows more than I do. It also tells me how many are duplicates, how many have been exposed in hacking attacks – and how many times. Yeah, that’s a little depressing.

But it’s SO EASY! When I go to a new site, I hit “Generate a new password” and it sets some random selection of numbers, letters, and symbols – as many as I want. (I think it’s defaulting to 25?) Then it sets that up on the website, and it remembers in its own files.

Done.

When I need it, the password manager just signs me into the site again – I never see it and life is good.

And I’m slowly going through the hundreds of passwords I have from life before the password manager – changing and updating every single one. (It’s really shocking how many passwords you have out there! And, how infrequently you can just delete your information from sites you used one time.)

 

There are lots of options out there. I’m using (and loving) Password Boss. Angie has a different one. And the Reply All people recommend one in their podcast. I’m guessing you can’t go far wrong with any of them.

 

Save your online life – and that of your library!! –  from being hacked. Get a password manager today!

Training

Episode 414 Maturity

Welcome back to Linking Our Libraries! This week we are going to talk about maturity: a competency leaders need to be successful in their work.

Check out our full shownotes page here, including information and links to  to the books we read this week!

 

Maturity is such a valuable skill for successful leaders! If you think about mangers and politicians you see on TV and social media who behave badly, you can see how they are not respected as real leaders. They have the job title, but no one mistakes them for leaders who inspire others to follow them. A good leader builds a coalition of people, she makes people feel good about the project they are doing, and she inspires everyone to hope for the future. Good leaders demonstrate maturity by working to make things good for everyone – not just a few special people. That includes staff, patrons, community members – everyone.

It’s hard to do!! But you can see leaders who do exhibit Maturity in their work, and it’s impressive.

So, what do we mean by Maturity anyway? It could mean all kinds of things in different situations, but for us it means someone who shows they are calm and in control, demonstrates emotional intelligence, and that they think of others first.

Check out this episode!

Training

Training Tips: Making Your Website Work

Websites are awesome. And they are necessary for sharing information with your community members. We are an information profession; our whole purpose is to help patrons find information they need. A handy website is one important tool in making that happen.

Check out this week’s Advocacy Alchemy for some ideas and encouragement on getting started with your website.

So now we are ready to design that website – yay!

Any good website needs a few basic things to make sure your website works for your community members. Include these things to make your site usable and user-friendly.

  • Readable. The type needs to be big enough to be read easily – even by little old ladies like me who can’t see small type. Also add in a bunch of white space so it’s not too cluttered. You want the important stuff will be be immediately obvious.
  • Look pretty. You want a site that looks nice. Don’t add in lots of flashy things, blinky things, or other annoyances. Colors are nice, but you want to keep one or two; don’t over-decorate. Graphics and videos are nice – but remember: Everyone hates audio and video that self-starts. Don’t inflict that on your community.
  • Limit clicks. I can tell you from personal experience that once you start adding webpages, it’s surprisingly hard to stop. Just keep in mind the very basic usability idea that people should never have to click more than three times to get where they want to go. More than this, and people will get frustrated and move on to another information source.
  • Trendy. When you spend your days browsing websites and online resources, you get a feel for what other people are doing with web design. While you do not need to copy someone else’s site directly (copyright!), it’s okay to use popular design elements to help encourage your patrons to find what they need.
  • Fast! You know that in the online world, speed counts. If a patrons has to wait three seconds for a page to load on their phone – they are gone. You web host may be able to give you suggestions on speeding up your site’s loading time.
  • Good information. Think about what your community members will want to know. Hours are basic, your phone number is good, a web map is handy. Clearly, you want a catalog front and center. A staff page, or at least an email people can use to contact you.

 

Setting up a good website is going to be a little more work than just these things. But you have to get started somewhere!

CMLE members: we can help you to set up a basic site. Please get in touch with us today, and let’s get started sharing information with your students and other patrons!