Strategic Planning Task Force Review, June 21, 2005

What’s worked well with this group?

• Committee allows for distributed responsibility from LITS (which was the original purpose of the committee); however, success is dependent on member initiative
• New Horizons program has been successful overall
• Committee provides contacts for staff throughout the libraries
• Diversity of member backgrounds has been helpful

What have the barriers been to accomplishing the charge?

• Communication: we need a forum to let people know what we do
• What does the group do? Confusion between this group and Technology Support Coordinators. The term “technology training” is very broad. This group should either be more inclusive of the various technologies that people need training on (Web development, scanning/OCR, tech troubleshooting, configuring your OS, using an electronic calendar, Sirsi/workflows, etc.) or more specific and let another group take on these tasks.
• No authority to do anything
• No incentives for staff to continue training; needs seem to be tied to new employees and no one else is encouraged to learn
• Little support from supervisors: lack of learning culture or value in training; seems to be a partial commitment
• Time limitations: staff only train when there is nothing left to do; anything that comes along bumps training out
• We perceive there is a shortage of knowledge but others don’t see it.

If this group were to cease to exist, what are the critical functions that would need to be assigned elsewhere?

• Infrastructure training would need to continue
• Communications channel would need to be established for training needs
• Someone would need to assign keys for New Horizons

If functions were to be reassigned, what would the ideal group be to deal with them?

• Members with skills and interest in the subject
• Offers a variety of training in different formats (electronic, classroom, print)
• Has strong administrative support
• One member remarked on his/her experiences at their previous job. Workshops were offered by the library (s/he conducted 30 each semester) and the library was known as the place to go to get help with technology, writing, etc. Workshops were open to anyone in the university and non-library staff got points for attending; after so many points they earned a raise (perhaps $500). All librarians knew HTML and had their own Web pages.
• Offers “official” training for staff to know how to run a meeting effectively.

Other

• Committee, if it remains, must be composed of representatives from all libraries and departments to maintain communication channels. This also encourages cross-library thinking and enthusiasm.
• Committee membership should turn over at a sufficient rate to encourage fresh ideas.