Young Adult Services Symposium (YALSA) 2015

This month I had the exceptional opportunity to attend the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Annual Symposium in Portland, Oregon. It was my first time attending the conference and I was blown away by the experience. All of the programs I was able to attend were incredibly useful and inspiring and the camaraderie amongst the all the attendees was invigorating. I have only been a YA library associate for a little over two months but this experience affirmed that I am in a profession where my colleagues are by and large a wonderfully supportive and passionate group of people.

It’s difficult to pick a highlight of the conference since so much of the experience was positive. Some of the programs I attended that I particularly enjoyed were on the subjects of: starting teen theatre groups at the library, creating welcoming physical space for teens in the library, helping LGBTQ teens transition out of high school, using graphic novels to teach about race relations, and how to introduce middle school students to more advanced YA literature.  I learned so much from these sessions about why YA library services are meaningful and about what fellow YA librarians are doing to meet the ever-changing needs of their adolescent patrons. One phrase in particular that I heard used over and over again which really stuck with me as a simple yet all-encompassing objective for the YA librarian was “buy-in.” Like stake holders in a business, the goal of “buy-in” is to get teens to be supporters of library services by making them feel like active and significant participants in the endeavor. This principle has been particularly helpful to me as I start new teen programming at Waverly. My services will be most effective if I can get the teens and young adults who use this branch to feel invested in their library and rewarded for their commitment. I feel that after attending the YALSA Symposium this year I am much more confident and prepared to make the teen services at Waverly the best they can be!

Isabelle Briggs

Library Associate

Waverly Branch

Learning 2015 Sal Kahn and useful notes

I attended the Masie conference in Orlando, FL this year also known as Learning 2015. This was my first time attending the conference and I was very excited to learn about some of the practices the business world puts into place for staff training, learning and teaching, as well as any nuggets of wisdom from speakers and presenters that I could bring back home and use at the Library.

In one of the general sessions, Sal Khan—founded of Khan Academy—talked about a flipped classroom and stressed that lecture style learning could be done individually, outside of the classroom or at home on a learner’s own time. He spoke about how traditional education can be seen as an accumulation of gaps—if you did not learn the material the first time, or only learned it 80% then it becomes rather difficult to ever achieve the other 20% to make it 100% if you move on to the next subject, phase, or set of learning right away. Thus, your education as a whole can be considered an accumulation of gaps. One easy way to alleviate this is to spend more time outside of a learning classroom, environment, or training session by grappling with the material on your own and coming to the face-to-face session with deeper questions about what you learned, which makes the learning that much more valuable.

Khan’s discussion and presentation was probably the best part of the conference for me. I was also able to jot down various quotes I gathered from other sessions and speakers throughout the conference that I find very useful and enlightening which are listed below.

Some words of wisdom that I collected from the conference:

·         “if you’re not learning and growing—you are not keeping up”

·         “you do not stop learning and growing just because you hit a certain age”

·         “when talking about training with staff you want to stress versatility not vulnerability”

·         “it’s about knowledge flow, not knowledge store”

·         “when teaching do not start with an objective, start with a challenge for learning”

·         “failure is important—you do not learn or get good at anything unless you fail a number of times before”

·         “the larger the prize the less focus on learning” (about incentives)

·         “group competition works better than individual competition”

·         “tie gamification to intrinsic motivation, not extrinsic—otherwise it goes stale after a month”

·         “sometimes you can’t learn until you know what you don’t know”

·         “when asking someone about themselves and their learning, ask why they fail, not why they succeed—most often people are not sure why they succeed and do not fully understand how they learn, but they sure remember failing and why they failed.”

Ryan O’Grady
SLRC Office

No classes booklet for Fall 2015

Due to the uncertainties of the off-site moves and the limited availability of training spaces associated with the renovation of Central, we will not be producing the "booklet" of classes that we usually send out at this time.

There will be classes scheduled during the next few months, we will be sending out email notices and posting to the blog when these are scheduled, and of course you can always check the SD&T calendar to see what's available.  We just won't be producing the booklet with the photos and the 3-month schedule.

We apologize for this and hope to have things back to normal by the Winter/Spring class schedule.

SD&T

23 Mobile Things is Here (almost)!

23 Mobile Things is a self-paced learning program that will identify 23 types of apps for mobile devices.  These include many of the most popular apps like Pinterest or Instagram, but also apps that are related to our work at the library and apps to help our customers.  We hope this will be an informative and fun introduction to using mobile devices and they possibilities they present. 

All EPFL staff members are welcome to participate in this program, although it is strongly recommended for public service staff.   Each session of the program will be limited to 25 participants.  Participants are strongly encouraged to BYOD (bring your own device) although we will be focusing on using iPads and tablets rather than phones.  Staff can also use the iPad that was provided for their location/branch or borrow an iPad from Systems.  You also need to know how to find, download, and install an app on your device from whatever source you use. 

We will provide you with a list of the 23 things and suggestions for using them, but it is really up to you to explore the options and see what works for you.  We will be sharing a variety of app types, including social media, curation, e-books, and even music.  We’ll also be looking at apps which you can use daily, like checking email on your device and even setting up a mobile meeting.   There are a lot of options for exploration and experimentation, with the goal of determining which will work best for you professionally and personally.  You may use many of these apps already, but we hope you’ll find new ways to use them, especially for your job and as customer service tools.

You must complete 15 of the 23 things to receive credit for the program, so it is a commitment.  However,  it is (roughly)  one hour a week and you can earn up to 24 hours of CEU credit if you complete the entire program.

If you are interested, you MUST complete the initial "thing" which will be an overview of the program and a discussion about online identity and privacy.

There will be two sessions of this first class, and you will need access to a computer because we are presenting the class via Blackboard  to get you into the right "techie" mood (and so you don't have to come downtown).  When you register we'll give you more information about how to access the Blackboard for your session.

Thing 1 - Online Identity

Thursday, September 10 
10:30 - 11:30 a.m.  

Tuesday, September 15
1:30 - 2:30 p.m


If you are interested, but cannot attend either session let us know and if there is enough interest we may run a third section of the class.

To register for Thing 1 and the 23 Mobile Things program, send an email to SD&T.

Coming Soon - 23 Mobile Things

23 Mobile Things

23 Mobile Things is a self-paced learning program that will identify 23 types of apps for mobile devices.  These include many of the most popular apps like Pinterest or Instagram, but also apps that are related to our work at the library and apps to help our customers.  We hope this will be an informative and fun introduction to using mobile devices and they possibilities they present. 

Who Can Participate?

All EPFL staff members are welcome to participate in this program, although it is strongly recommended for public service staff.   Each session of the program will be limited to 25 participants.

What Do I Need?

Participants are strongly encouraged to BYOD (bring your own device) although we will be focusing on using iPads and tablets rather than phones.  Staff can also use the iPad that was provided for their location/branch or borrow an iPad from Systems.  You also need to know how to find, download, and install an app on your device from whatever source you use. 

HOW WILL THIS WORK?

We will provide you with a list of the 23 things and suggestions for using them, but it is really up to you to explore the options and see what works for you.  We will be sharing a variety of app types, including social media, curation, e-books, and even music.  We’ll also be looking at apps which you can use daily, like checking email on your device and even setting up a mobile meeting. 

There are a lot of options for exploration and experimentation, with the goal of determining which will work best for you professionally and personally.  You may use many of these apps already, but we hope you’ll find new ways to use them, especially for your job and as customer service tools.

IS THIS ELIGIBLE FOR CREDIT HOURS?

Yes, you can earn up to 24 hours.

Check back soon for more details!

Some humor

http://www.howtogeek.com/130302/geek-comic-for-december-6th-social-media-reading-trends/

ALA 2015 No Sugar Coating Allowed: Four Honest Perspectives on Change Management

No Sugar Coating Allowed: Four Honest Perspectives on Change Management

This session was presented by Skoie Public Library located in Skoie, IL.  It was presented by 4 staff member of Stokie public: Deputy Director, Community Engagement Manager, Adult Services Manager, and a Young Adult Librarian.

Their plan was to focus on:

 1. Providing Access

 2. Fostering Learning

 3. Building Community

From the perspective of the Deputy Director, change meant: to reach out and be human ( be more personable and approachable), to choose positive and think critically (zoom out and not focus on negativity), to listen and communicate (reality vs their perception).

From the perspective of the Community Engagement Manager, tasks included: building a new department, making community engagement division operational and managing staff transition. 

Three transitional phases were identified:

1. Ending and losses- loss of office space, bathrooms, some job responsibilities, etc.

2. Wandering in the wilderness- time between old identity and new, conversation about what was and what will be, high anxiety, low energy and lower productivity, difficulty getting things done, resignations/ retirements, and reduces sense of competence

3. New beginning- emotional commitment to a new way (staff begin to consider the office as "cozy"), positive community reaction, new services

During all these phases manager were encourage to:

a. Provide a safe place for staff to talk about concerns, questions, etc...

b. Listen, listen and listen some more

c. State, when appropriate, the purpose of realignment

d. Help facilitate the change by painting a picture of what's to come

e. Facilitate connections to answer to questions the manager can not answers

From the perspective of the Adult Services Manager, learning to stop worrying and love the realignment

A personal account of how the changes affected her and how she changed her perspective. Initially she dreaded going to meetings and hearing about the upcoming changes and experienced a roller coaster of feelings but over a period of time and through conversations with her manager, forums about the changes and presentation about the library's new direction, she began to change to her perspective.  Suggestion to help cope with the change:

a. Recognize that the things you lost matter, grieve them and move-on

b. For feelings of being left behind and not feeling important- get involved in the new role, start to change your mindset by beginning to say yes!

From the perspective of the Young Adult Librarian, new kid on the block

A personal account of how the change affects a new staff member. She experienced: resentment from seasoned staff because of her positive outlook on the change and how embracing the change didn't protect her from the negativity.  She overcame the negativity and found her stride by continuing to express excitement and enthusiasm when working with others and her positive attitude be infectious.

Excellent program that can be easily applied to a renovation.