Strategic Goal: We will be a learning organization in which staff acquire new skills at an increased pace to keep current with technological change.
In 2007-2008, the Staff Development Committee:
- surveyed library staff on training needs to identify and prioritize our year's business skills training; Library Administration identified three top training needs: (1) setting priorities/goals; (2) customer service skills; and (3) service assessment. Library staff identified communication skills, customer service skills, setting priorities/goals, time management and teamwork as needs.
- reviewed our use of ElementK online training and determined that we would make better use of our funds with in-person training; Usage data also suggested that top technology skill needs among staff to be Dreamweaver training; Library Administration also identified Outlook training as a priority.
- organized project management training for 30 supervisors and for library staff serving on committees and teams; Project management templates were posted to the Staffnews Training and Development pages. This training addressed the need identified in strategic planning.
- organized a brown bag, front line training for 58 library staff and an open house for the DiscoverLibrary roll out;
- organized basic and advanced Dreamweaver training for 63 library staff; This training addressed technology skills identified in the ElementK assessment.
- organized Outlook training for 46 library staff and created a web page of resources for users;This training supported the library's migration to Outlook and addressed a need identified by library administration.
- organized fire extinguisher training for library staff; This need was identified by the Disaster Preparedness Project Team.
- organized the Spring Staff Picnic for all library staff; Approximately 200 staff and family members attended the event.
- created guidelines for the Staff Development Fund and worked with LITS to provide an online application form and resource.
In 2008-2009, our goals include
- reaching out to Committees to identify training and staff development needs to help them reach their goals
- creating a submission form on the training pages for staff to suggest training ideas
- exploring ways to offer customer service training
- offering MS Office 2007 training
- offering Novell migration training
- offering Dreamweaver training to those who missed it this year
- offering more time management with Outlook training
- exploring the option of holding a system-wide discussion program based on a book
- creating a structure for sharing conference knowledge
- exploring a Walk-A-Mile program
- offering a brown bag in GIS and on the LibQUAL+2006 results
- encouraging publication in the library by exploring a means to preserve and share library-generated content
- finding ways to offer CEU classes
- re-examining the spring staff event
- review and reassess the skills & interests survey.