MLA/DLA Annual Conference - More Great Sessions

Maryland Library Association/Delaware Library Association 2015 Conference

May 6-8, 2015

 “Now More Than Ever: Offender Workforce was an especially useful workshop.  At Enoch Pratt we work with ex-offenders fairly often, and particularly in the Job and Career Information Center.  We heard about the Offender Workforce Development Training from the National Institute of Corrections.  The workshop addressed the question: What can libraries do to assist ex-offenders?  Some answers:  book discussions, educate and encourage lifelong learning, provide career/job centers, create specific programs for them, and provide links to various community services.

Some useful tools included:

Maryland Community Service Locator:  http://www.mdcsl.org/search.html

A jobseeker site: http://www.americasjobexchange.com

“MLA Legislative Update Plus Engage Software taught me about the legislative process at the state level, particularly the budget. We learned about advocating for libraries at the state and federal level. The Engage software makes it easy for people to support their libraries. There is a link on the Maryland Library Association website under “Engage and Advocacy Resources” or at:  http://cqrcengage.com/alamd/

 An important point one of the presenters made was that we should encourage customers, family, friends, neighbors and any citizens who support libraries to speak up. They can call, go online, or write to tell their elected officials the importance of libraries and their services.

Career Development in the Libraries was directly applicable with our library customers in the Job & Career Information Center, and the information can be shared with the branch staff also.  Tips included:        

•  When uploading a resume to an online application, a PLAIN TEXT document is best.
• O*NET is good for language to use on resumes (The career counselor mentioned this too, and we already had it on the Jobseekers Toolkit website)
• LinkedIn is a good tool for networking when job searching. (Which we know but sometimes forget to mention to customers.)
• The importance of listening before giving information (Librarians tend want to find and offer information and sometimes skip the first step of really listening.)
• If using Indeed to search, try to go directly to the company’s website to apply.

Mindful Leadership  with Patty Sundberg  and James Kelly provided useful information for all employees, even those who  aren’t supervisors.

The benefits of emotional intelligence in the workplace are numerous: better task performance and fewer cognitive failures, less emotional exhaustion , and  greater job satisfaction. The RAIN  technique can be used before the amygdala in the brain hijacks us:   Recognize what’s going on, Allow experience to be just what it is, Investigate with kindness, and Natural awareness which comes from not identifying with the experience (keeping it at arm’s length).   Focused attend and open monitoring are important for self-regulation.   We practiced active listening without speaking.

Recommended books:

Flow : the psychology of optimal experience  by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Drive by Dan Pink

Finding the Space to Lead: a practical guide to mindful leadership by Janice Marturano.

Emotional intelligence  Daniel Goleman.

Jeanne Lauber

Workforce Development Librarian

Enoch Pratt Free Library/State Library Resource Center