Category Archives: Training

Podcast, Training

Episode 307: Planning

Old English Garden, Battersea Park - geograph.org.uk - 286969

Introduction

Welcome back to Season Three of Linking Our Libraries! We are Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and we are here to share information with all types of libraries, archives, and other nonprofits working to build their skills.  This season, we are working on building a toolbox of leadership skills and ideas. By the end of this season, you will have fifteen specific skills that will make you a stronger leader and manager in your organization.

This week we are looking at strategies for planning.

The Basics

How do you know what is going to happen in the future? Do you have a set of magic glasses that let you know what is coming up? Probably not. At least, we don’t have any cool tools like that; and will be jealous of you if you have them. This is the essence of planning: think about what you want to happen then figure out how to make it happen.

Today we will walk through some different strategies for looking into the future and figuring out how to get there. Let’s set some goals, and then talk about different kinds of planning for different situations.

Overview of the Planning Process

When you are thinking about plans and looking toward the future, what do you do first? How do you start? Let’s walk through a process that will be helpful as you do your own planning.

  • Step One: Get Your Bearings
    Look around and figure out where you are and what you have now. This is the time to collect your budget documents, any past plans, any other information on prior plans you might have hanging around your file cabinet. And you may have other resources of data which contribute to your understanding of your current position.
  • Step Two: Big Ideas
    This is the time to dream. Think about all the things you would like to see in your library. Capturing ideas in words that people can read makes them real to everyone. Don’t worry too much at this stage about making the goals realistic, or fitting them into a specific plan – just get them down and you can figure out later what to do with them or how to adapt them to the needs and realities of your library.
  • Step Three: Refine and Define
    Now you have a whole big bunch of potential ideas – things you have always wanted to try in the library. This is the point where the realistic parts need to come into play. In this step, take the best parts of the dreams and aspirations for the future, and figure out what can actually be accomplished. Ideally these goals should be phrased in a positive way, even when they are aimed at solving difficult problems.
  • Step Four: Implement
    Now that you have all this great info and these optimistic goals ahead of you – DO THEM! Don’t get paralyzed by the fear that it might not go well; some goals will be wrong, some will not get achieved – but it does not matter. Enough of them will turn out well, and by working toward those goals, you will help your library succeed where other organizations may fall behind in service and in funding.
  • Step Five: Assess and Revise
    Once you are underway with your work, you can start measuring how close you are coming to the goals you have set. It does not happen too often that you achieve exactly what you set out to do; goals change with the changing realities. Figure out where you are in relation to the goal, with the definitions you developed, and work on some mid-course corrections as necessary.

Types of Plans

So now that we have a plan for planning, we are going to work through some of the different types of plans you might use in your organization. Remember the most important thing about planning: not doing it is worst decision. Letting things just happen without trying to figure out where you want to go is not the best way to operate. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes – you will, after all; just dive in and start figuring out where you want to go and how to get there.

Strategic Planning

  • Let’s start by looking at the strategic plan. This one is the long-range plan, the one that lets you look years, not weeks or months, into the future. In the past, strategic plans extended five or maybe even ten years ahead; as the pace of society changes it has become more common to consider it as a more of a two to five year look into the future.
  • In a strategic plan you are looking at the big picture of what your organization wants to accomplish. Not every single detail needs to be ironed out here, but you want to develop some large or long-term plans that your library would choose to accomplish. From that you can make smaller plans (see below for more information on that!); but you need to have that overall view of where you want to go.
  • Whether you decide to go it alone, or to get assistance, this is going to be a large project. Ideally, you want to talk to as many people as possible to get all kinds of feedback and planning ideas from your stakeholders.
  • You want to put together all of these ideas, and start weeding them down in a realistic way. Some things will be impossible: you do not have the budget, the time, or the ability to bend the laws of physics in the necessary ways. Some things you are just not going to be interested in trying.
  • The important part of strategic planning is to keep your eyes focused firmly on the far flung future. You want to have a big-picture sense of what is going on and where you want to be in a few years. Think big!

Tactical Planning

  • Next, let’s talk about Tactical plans. If you were a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan, you may remember Captain Picard snapping out orders and requests for suggestions from Worf in Tactical. His answers were always quick and to the point, and did not get hung up in the big picture.
    • You don’t have to always want to shoot bad space guys, it is just a way of thinking about this planning style!
  • Think short range, next three months; what urgently needs to happen? What would be good to happen? What can’t wait? In these plans, the focus is on a smaller plan. These are the pieces of the plan that you use to make the larger plans in your strategic plan happen.

Project Planning

  • Related to Tactical planning is the Project plan. In most libraries, this will be the type of planning carried out by most people and discussed most frequently. Think about your summer reading program: making it happen is a Project plan.
  • This is a plan focused on one specific plan or thing to be accomplished. The idea is to figure out what is going on to meet a specific project from start to finish. So a project plan will include ideas about the formation of a project and its definition, then how it will be implemented, who will participate, and how it will be evaluated after it has reached its target completion.
  • Generally this is quick – a few days or weeks, maybe months; and you are done. As a manager you want to keep an eye on things; but you should be able to feel confident enough in your staff to let them handle project plans after some consultation with you.

Disaster Planning

  • Disasters are not an “if” situation – they are a “when.” You will have disasters. Disasters are scary, they cost money, they cost a lot of time you could be spending on programming and materials selection, they give you bad publicity – they are just all-around problems. Disaster planning will let you get ready so you can minimize the problems disasters cause.
  • Just start off easily: what disasters are possible or likely in your organization? This would be a great time to convene a team to think about your plan, or to involve the community by asking them to contribute disaster ideas. So what disasters are possible for you?
    • The standard disasters are fires and floods – they can easily happen in any LIS organization and can cause varying amounts of damage.
    • Denial of service attacks, hackers taking over your website – these are not just problems for our for-profit organizations, they can and do happen to any of us.
    • Earthquakes are a problem not only on the West Coast, but along the New Madrid fault line, and potentially near fracking sites.
    • Hurricanes hit the Southeast, and can run all the way up the Eastern Coast.
    • Bomb threats can happen anywhere.
    • A friend worked for an organization whose off-site storage facility was destroyed by a tornado.
    • I talked to a librarian who said they included “how to handle a rattlesnake” in a library in New Mexico; and another librarian in Maine who said dealing with roaming bears was part of their plan.
    • Some disasters will be common to all of us, while others will be regionally or site-specific. They can also be time-sensitive. A couple of weeks after 9/11, my library evacuated as assorted health officials came to identify the mysterious substance on our floor – which turned out to be the cattail plant shredded into little piles.
  • Now, do you have a long and frightening looking list? Perfect! That’s exactly where you should be at this point. Don’t panic, the rest of this part will help you to get past that.

Conclusion

Remember that a plan is a living document. Things will change, it will develop over time. Sometimes those changes will be great and you will be thrilled that wonderful bonus things happened for your organization. Sometimes, those changes will feel like they involve taking pieces of your heart out and stomping on them. Celebrate the first, learn to shake off the second – you just keep developing the plan until you are done.

Thanks to everyone for joining us this week! And check back in with us next week to discuss our next topic: Budgeting.

Do you need more books in your life? Sure you do! Subscribe to our Books and Beverages book group podcast. Each week we look at a different genre, chat with our guests about their book suggestions, and sip our beverages. It is always good to find a new book!

Tech, Training

Training Tips: The basics of tech troubleshooting

Gnome-computer

Working in a library means people will ask you questions about their technology problems. You may be fully trained and ready to answer anything people throw at you, but a lot of us are not fully ready to be a tech troubleshooter. So we are going to look at a few basics. When you are trying to fix things, you can start here with these steps.

  • Turn it off and back on. It’s surprising how often that works, no matter what the problem is – hardware or software.
  • Check to see if things are plugged in. If there is a plug in the device, check that. Then check the other end to be sure it’s actually plugged into an outlet.
  • Pause here. Is your device plugged into a power-strip? Be sure that’s plugged too, and that it’s turned on.
  • If a program or an app is open, turn everything off. If the cursor isn’t responding, see if your mouse needs a new battery.
  • Are you getting an error message? Write it down – letters and numbers – and then Google it.  You can find out a bunch of good information, and maybe just what you need to solve your problem right here.

After that, then try Googling the symptoms of the problem. You might not be able to fix everything with these steps, but they will help you to at least ensure you let your patrons know that you are doing everything you can to help them solve their problems!

Have you checked out the classes on Lynda.com? How about classes on coursera.org? Edx.org? There are a lot of free sources for learning more about technology! Try out some classes, or some training, so you are ready to solve your tech issues, and to help your patrons!

Training

Teach for ASCLA – Seeking Subject Matter Experts

Contact:

Melissa Tracy
Marketing & Programs Specialist
Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA)
mtracy@ala.org

CHICAGO – ASCLA invites experienced librarians and subject matter experts to submit proposals for webinars and online courses to be added to ASCLA’s outstanding online learning offerings. ASCLA has identified four key areas of training that reflect the unique experiences and skills of our diverse membership, and which also serve training needs among ASCLA membership and the larger library community. ASCLA welcomes all proposals, and encourages proposals related to the following key areas:

  • Consortia Management – designing/delivering CE, ILL models, leadership and facilitation, cooperative purchasing, successful/model collaborations, etc.
  • Accessibility – basics of access, as well as specific tools and strategies to increase access to library services.
  • Veterans – federal and local resources in context of diverse library types (public, academic, prison, health, etc.)
  • Health – identifying resources, working with patrons in crisis, compassion fatigue, etc. especially in the areas of:
    • Mental health
    • Substance abuse
    • Degenerative Neurological Diseases
    • Aging in Place

Proposals will be accepted through March 30, 2018. Webinars and online courses approved for presentation will be offered between May 1, 2018 and August 31, 2019. Webinar presenters and online learning instructors are compensated for their work and will receive training and support for Adobe Connect, the webinar technology platform used by the division, and Moodle, the online tool used for courses.

Please note, there are separate forms for course and webinar proposals:

Online course submission form

Online webinar submission form

Questions about submissions or about ASCLA’s online learning programs should be sent to Jessica Hughes, ASCLA Executive Director, at jhughes@ala.org.

About ASCLA

The Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA) is a division of the American Library Association. ASCLA focuses on providing a voice and advocating for libraries serving populations that are underserved such as those with sensory, physical, health or behavioral conditions, those who are incarcerated or detained and more. ASCLA is the premier destination for members to find information and build capacity to serve populations that are served by state library agencies, specialized libraries, library cooperatives, library networks and library consultants among others. Member activity is centered around our interest groups.

ASCLA enhances the effectiveness of library service by providing high quality networking, enrichment and educational opportunities for its diverse members. Opportunities include leadership roles, online webinars and eCourses, specialty interest group involvement and even produce resources and industry standards and guidelines including the most recent revision of the 2011 Standards and Guidelines of Service for the Library of Congress Network of Libraries for the Blind and Physically Handicapped as well as Prisoners’ Right to Read and more. Learn more about ASCLA.

Podcast, Training

Episode 306: Decision Making

Decision Tree on Uploading Imagesv2
Welcome back to Season Three of Linking Our Libraries! We are Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and we are here to share information with all types of libraries, archives, and other nonprofits working to build their skills. This season, we are working on building a toolbox of leadership skills and ideas. By the end of this season, you will have fifteen specific skills that will make you a stronger leader and manager in your organization.

This week, we discuss one of the primary skills that define good managers: Decision Making. If people cannot make a decision, or consistently make bad decisions – they are bad managers, no matter what else they do. Let’s look at some ways to make good decisions instead!

Check out our full information page here!

The Basics

Have you met bad managers? Well, of course you have – everyone has. There may be many reasons they are not good at their jobs; but it is very easy to picture bad managers who are dithering around decisions, constantly asking for more information or other people’s opinions. Then when a decision is made, it is too often a bad one, or is so often second-guessed that it becomes meaningless.

Instead of falling victim to this terrible fate, we will walk through some processes for making decisions in an effective way. No one single procedure will be right for every situation, but some basics will always be useful to you.

Formal Decision Making

This is the drawn-out process that you can follow when you have a big decision and some time to do it. When you do not have those, you can use pieces of this to abbreviate your own process.

  • Define the problem

Sounds easy. It is not. Sometimes it will be blindingly obvious what decision you are trying to make. Should I terminate the guy who set fire to the rare book room now or after his arson arrest? Will story time kids prefer crafts with glitter or with crayons?

As we have discussed in other chapters – be clear and specific with what you are really deciding. In the glitter example, the real decision is probably bigger and has more elements: kid’s desire for fun, parent’s desire for non-glittery children, librarian’s desire for both fun and the ability to be clean – they all clash and overlap. Defining the real question may lead to some easy answers – or show how much information there is still to be learned.

  • Identify surrounding issues

We have already begun to identify some of these. Also think about budget. How expensive is the glitter? Will you have to pay overtime to get it cleaned? Will glitter fun get covered by the local news, giving the library some great PR? Are the cheap no-name crayons made from a toxic substance, opening the library up to lawsuits? No need to get too fanciful here; but think through the situation and see what kinds of other issues will either enhance or detract from a solution.

  • Develop alternative solutions

This is where you, and your team, think through the possible different ways you could resolve this decision. In our question, the potential solutions seem pretty clear-cut: crayons, glitter. But we have the potential confounding factors involved in any issue: What about both crayons AND glitter? What about neither? What would happen if we just canceled story time and instead took a hike on the nearby nature trail? Include all the potential alternatives here, so you can be sure you are going to be able to identify the best one.

This is definitely where having a team of people, or even one other person, will help the decision making. You are awesome, of course; but even trying to “think outside the box” will still result in you thinking like you. You are the sum of your knowledge and experiences, and they will pretty much always add up to the same things. Bringing in other people means you will increase the knowledge and experiences provided.

  • Pick the best alternative

This one gets tricky when you think about it. You can spend time arguing over what “best” means in your particular situation. And you can have a bunch of potential alternatives you do not really like. Making decisions is much more fun when it involves deciding between a bunch of really great and fun things. If that were often the case, it would be lovely to be a manger. But instead it’s tough, and you will do things people don’t like, and get rid of things your patrons use, and it will all feel hard and bad. Hang in there. Pick the best one.

  • Implement the decision

Whew. That was tough. But now we have the best (or least awful) alternative. Now put it into action! You do not want to waste the work you have already put together, so get in there and make some good things happen. Mobilize the team who helped you with the decision. Find new partners and friends. Organize a giant banner to be hung in front of the library. Or, just buy the glitter and be prepared for the results. Whatever your decision was: Now Do It.

  • Set up an evaluation system; redo if necessary

We are doing things, it’s great. But is it great? I hear grumbles, but are they meaningful grumbles, or just general fussing? How do we know if this was a good decision? Just making one is a good step, but you want to figure out how to know whether this will work for you or not. So set up an assessment plan and be prepared to evaluate the decision. The world is not going to end if you made a bad decision. You will make a bad decision, you will choose the wrong one, things will be wrong. But hopefully if you are following along with this procedure, it will decrease the number of bad decisions you make. And you can remake the decisions. Let’s say you went with glitter over crayons. Now your Children’s department is covered with glitter, which can not be removed by any amount of effort, so glitter will be all over the place for months. And two parents called to complain their kids are now allergic to glitter, so they are never coming back to the library. And the whole thing was so exciting and noisy you got shut down by the police. Crayons probably would have been a better choice – and now you know for next time! Do not let yourself get too down over a poor decision; take the lessons there and move on to a better one next time.

Conclusion

Making decisions is an important part of being a manager; making good decisions is even better. Use the strategies we have walked through here, adapt them to fit your needs and those of your individual situation, and use other tools that work. The process is not as important as actually doing it, so dive in and make decisions – and feel confident doing it!

Join us next week to discuss our next topic: Planning. You will take your decision-making skills and start making good decisions for the future!

Do you need more books in your life? Sure you do! Subscribe to our Books and Beverages book group podcast. Each week we look at a different genre, chat with our guests about their book suggestions, and sip our beverages. It is always good to find a new book!

Training

Training Tips: Student Library Assistant Training Guide: Shelving Basics

Every library needs shelvers, and those shelvers need training. Florida State College at Jacksonville has assembled a training course for shelvers, to be sure everyone understands how it works. (You have probably already shelved, but it’s deceptively complicated!)

You can use this training material for your student workers, or your shelvers – or browse around and get some ideas for your own shelving skills!

Student Library Assistant Training Guide: Shelving Basics