Welcome to Season Nine of Linking Our Libraries! We are so happy to have you join us again! We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and our members are all types of libraries and their staff.

This season we are going to focus on topics that are important to library support staff. We will be discussing each of the ten competency sets in the American Library Association’s Library Support Staff Certification program. Some of these may overlap with our Library Basics series from Season Seven, but this season we will be looking specifically at the material the ALA has identified as important n. We will link to the ALA’s program, if you want more information or want to sign up for one of their classes.

This week we are talking about the third of the competencies that is required in the LSSC program: Technology. “These competencies address the skills and knowledge about technology necessary for library work. This competency set also addresses the role of providing access to and educating the user in the use of technologies and equipment relevant to information seeking, access, and use.” We have talked about a variety of different technology topics in our archives, including Episode 507 Answering Tech Questions and Episode 508 Web Design. Browse around our website for more information about other topics.

Let’s take a look at each of the nine different components the ALA has identified as important here, and talk about a little information on each one. 

1. Library Support Staff know the general trends and developments in technology applications for library functions and services. It is not too difficult to stay current with a lot of different areas of library work, but tech topics can be a little tougher to follow. Pay attention to resources like American Libraries journal, and School Libraries journal to see the different kinds of information they have about technology topics. But also look beyond these traditional library sources, and see what people are talking about in tech from different resources. You want to be ahead of where your community is going with their tech interests. Social media? New tools? You want to know about these things, so you can be there to share information, to answer questions, and to connect with your patrons.

2. It’s important to know the role and responsibility of libraries for introducing relevant applications of technology, including digital literacy, to the public. We want to be reasonably out front in bringing technology to our communities. We want to be ready to help our patrons to learn to use all kinds of technology tools that will help them to find the information they need and to enjoy themselves. And with that, we need to help them to make good decisions about the technology tools they use in our library or that they may buy for themselves. Could your library do some training in a few basic apps? Does your library show patrons how to find and download podcasts? How are you helping patrons to watch videos – or to make their own videos they can share? What are you doing to help patrons safely navigate Facebook and other social media sites? Does the library do training in finding and playing the best video games? What are you doing about helping patrons to access and download the music they enjoy? It’s easy to just say “oh, they’ll figure it out” and ignore these tech applications; but the library can be so useful in helping patrons to do these things safely and efficiently.

3. Library staffers should know basic principles and best practices to ensure the integrity of data and the confidentiality of user activities. This is a tough one for some staffers, if you are not involved in the decisions for buying and using the cataloging and circulation systems for your library. But at least be familiar with the basic ideas of privacy. In episode 901 we talked about the foundations of library work, and one of them is patron privacy. Don’t talk about your patrons, the books they check out, the searches they do, the information they need. It’s always a bad idea, it’s not acting ethically in the library, and in a worst case scenario it can be dangerous to the patron if someone finds out they are planning to quit a job, to get divorced, or to move across the country. And, it’s nobody’s business that a patron likes to read Amish romances, or the biographies of 80s rock stars, or Civil War history. Do what you can to destroy any information that does not need to be kept. Does your library collect names of people who sign up for computers or study rooms? Shred that at the end of the day. Be sure you know how to help a patron to set their circulation records to be deleted after their books are returned. (And if your system doesn’t allow that – shame on them.) Patrons may want to keep their records, and that’s fine – but let it be their decision.

4. You need to know concepts and issues concerning the appropriate use of technology by different user groups. It’s obvious when you think about books or physical materials in your library: what senior citizens want is different from what a busy mom wants and that’s different from what a teen wants and different again from what a first graders wants. It’s the same with technology. Everyone wants to be good at some of it; probably nobody needs to be good at all of it. And, just as obviously, age is not the only deciding factor in what tools people want and need. The way you find out what different groups of people want is by asking them, talking with them, suggesting options and ideas to them. What elementary school students want can overlap with with high schoolers want. Be ready to help people find games (and cheat codes), to struggle through unwieldy databases with ease, and to use their phones to access the material they need. If your patrons are having visual challenges, and everything they need for their financial lives is only online, you want to have the skills ready to help them to get the answers they need. Technology is always going to be a tool, and sharing information is the main job you will do; so be ready to use those tools to help connect people to the information they need.

5. Library staff need to demonstrate flexibility in adapting to new technology. There will always be a few people who are nostalgically mourning the olden days, when libraries didn’t have electricity and we all sat around and read books by candlelight. But fortunately for the rest of us: today’s libraries are technology organizations, and we have a multitude of tools to help our patrons. You never have to worry that you don’t know everything out there – you definitely do not. Instead, use the skills we discussed in competency #1 to keep learning new things. There will always be new tech, new tools, new ways of communicating. And the pace of change will probably keep speeding up. It’s okay. You don’t need to be an expert on all of it; you just need to keep up and to be ready to struggle through things with your patrons. It’s okay to let them see that you don’t know everything – figuring out how to solve problems with them can be a valuable skill they need to learn.

6. Staff in libraries should be able to assist and train users to operate public equipment, connect to the internet, use library software applications, and access library services from remote locations. Most of this is pretty basic – but to patrons who are new to your library, or who have technology tools they do not fully understand yet, these skills are invaluable. Everyone should be able to turn the computers and printers on and off, and to do at least some basic things. You should be able to help patrons sign in to any email account, to help them open and save Microsoft Office documents of all sorts as well as Google Documents of all sorts. You should be able to help patrons to set up their Overdrive accounts, download the Libby app – or whatever other comparable apps exist in your library – and help them to checkout and download both audio and ebooks. And you should be familiar with the basics of patrons accessing your databases from home – signing in with their library card and any other restrictions. During the pandemic, when so many things moved online, most people became pretty familiar with working online. But some of your patrons will need help with participating in a Zoom meeting, or other online meeting software you are using.

7. Library staffers need to know the role of technology in creating, identifying, retrieving, and accessing information resources and demonstrate facility with appropriate information discovery tools. While there is no need to be an expert in answering questions, especially if there are librarians on staff, everyone should know the basics of how to answer questions and how to help people find things they need. Most reference questions are pretty straightforward, and people just need some help in accessing the resources you can find in the library or in a simple online search. Staffers should be familiar with the databases your library subscribes to, so you can help patrons with them. And staff should be able to assemble at least a few basic resources to help patrons find things: a list of “if you like this book, here are a few others” book titles, a list of instructions for printing documents, and other useful information. And if you are alone in the library, with no librarians to provide the more expert guidance, then you need to be proactive in building better skills to guide your patrons to the information they will need on your own.

8. It is good to know how to perform basic troubleshooting of technical problems and resolve or refer those problems as appropriate. Everyone should know the first two things to try when troubleshooting your technology. First: turn it off, pause, then turn it back on. Why does this work? No clue – it might be magic. But it works a surprising number of times, and is a great place to start. The second thing to try is just as simple: be sure the device is turned on. Again, it is surprising how often this works, and how often things are deceptively turned off or unplugged. Beyond that, you want to know a few other basics. Work on figuring out all the ways the printer can go wrong – because it just will. Learn the places the printer or a copy machine will eat paper and jam up – because that will happen too. Know how to save a document, and how to retrieve something from the electronic trash when someone accidentally throws it away. Just a few simple skills like this will help you to solve a lot of problems your patrons will bring to you. And beyond those things, know who will be useful working with patrons to solve the problems.

9. You need to know how to access and use basic assistive technologies, where appropriate, to ensure that all users have equitable access to technology. This is another area that can be a little harder to find information – but it definitely exists. Think about how you can help to bring people to your physical library, and to your website – your virtual branch. There are all sorts of issues that could cause difficulties for people trying to access your library, so this is a good area to reach out to community groups and ask them for some suggestions. One very easy thing you can do is to provide software on your computers in the library that let people blow up screens very large for easy viewing. And you can be sure all the images on your website have text descriptions in the metadata, so online readers can read that description to the person. There are plenty of other small things you can do, to be sure you are serving your community; so be proactive in figuring out how to make your library as user friendly to everyone as possible. And of course, be thinking not just about your patrons – but be sure the library is accessible to staff and future staff members.

Do you feel like you have a quick understanding of all nine of these components of technology? There is, of course, a lot more to learn. We can all spend our careers working on enhancing these skills! Use the CMLE podcast resources as a place to start, and if you want to sign up for the ALA/APA classes to get more information, we link to them in our show notes. 

Books Read

Now, let’s get to the part of every episode that we love: sharing a book we are reading. We will link to these books on our shownotes pages, and the link will take you to Amazon. You probably know this, but when you click one of our links and then buy anything at all from Amazon, they give us a small percentage of their profits. That support really helps us, and although it’s anonymous so we won’t know it was you – we appreciate you taking the time to help us!

• A Baffling Murder at the Midsummer Ball, by T.E. Kinsey 
• Everything Sad Is Untrue: (A True Story), by Daniel Nayeri

Conclusion

This was a quick overview of the skills of technology. Stay with us all season to get an overview of all ten of the ALA/APA’s certification topics for library staffers. And if you want to find out more about getting certified yourself, check the website (linked in our show notes), or just email us at admin@cmle.org.

Thanks for spending time with us today. It is always great to have this time to chat with you about libraries and the skills we need to be successful. Come back next week, because we have more information to share about libraries! This is just the beginning, and there are so many other great things to share!