First meeting
The first meeting of the Library Support Staff Special Interest Group was on Tuesday, June 20 at Southeastern and had a healthy turnout of over 20 dedicated staff from both public and academic libraries in the region. The meeting was facilitated by Dawn Jardine of Red Hook Library.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday, September 19 from 9:30am-12:30pm.
Notes from the day
Ideas for the fourth station:
- Collection Management
- Privacy
- Working with volunteers, students & interns
Weeding acronym: http://lili.org/forlibs/ce/able/course4/05criteria.htm
Budgeting and finance differences between public & academic
Results from the four stations:
Teach Something:
- How to trap a bat / mouse / insect
- Baking
- Jewelry making
- Double Dutch (everyone has to be at the same speed)
- The importance of customer service
SOS – Problems in the library
- Problem patrons
- Stratification of library workers – support staff not being valued. The solution has to come from the top.
- Be an advocate for yourself without alienating anyone.
State your case
- The budget is used for the educators in the library, bigger budgets are for librarians
- Whatever is left over is allocated to support staff, and at other libraries the directors are all for encouraging professional development
- It’s hard to find conferences for support staff
Collection issues
- All different weeding policies
- Most people are not allowed to keep their weeded items
To degree or not to degree
LSSC – certification available
Photos
The day's agenda
|
TIME |
SESSION |
DESCRIPTION |
SCRIPT |
|
9:30 – 9:35 |
WELCOME/AGENDA |
Introduction to day’s events and the facilitator |
SLIDE 1 Thanks for coming Intro to me and RHPL Schedule – use this sheet |
|
9:35-10:00 |
INTRODUCTIONS |
Go around room and answer 3 questions on slide – or anything else interesting. |
SLIDE 2 Chocolate or vanilla, dog or cat, sci-fi or fantasy? Tell us something about yourself, anything you’d like to share. “Pass” is always OK. |
|
10:00-10:15 |
INTRODUCE THE STATIONS & PICK 4TH |
Go through each of the four station slides and explain |
SLIDES 3-6 Paper, pens, and flip charts are available at each station. Please be creative. Be sure to take notes so we can all share what we’ve learned at the end. Let’s rearrange the room! |
|
10:15-10:30 |
STATION 1 |
Each one teach one |
SLIDE 3 What are you good at? Maybe you have a perfect understanding of effect versus affect. Perhaps you can write a press release in 10 minutes flat. Whatever it is, share it with your colleagues. |
|
10:30-10:45 |
STATION 2 |
Don’t let this happen to you. |
SLIDE 4 They say air traffic controllers have stressful work, but THEY don’t work in libraries in the middle of the SRP! Talk about what drives you crazy at work. What is stressful, what is difficult? Commiserate and problem solve. Jot down some solutions to share with the group later. |
|
10:45-11:00 |
STATION 3 |
Get to conference! |
SLIDE 5 In order to take a class or go to that conference you have to convince the powers that be why it benefits the library. Spend 5 minutes writing out your “pitch” then share with the group for critique. |
|
11:00-11:15 |
BREAK |
|
EAT, DRINK, AND BE MERRY |
|
11:15-11:30 |
STATION 4 |
Wild Card |
SLIDE 6 |
|
11:30-11:45 |
SHARING FROM BREAKOUTS |
What did we learn? |
Go over each of the four stations and ask people to share their impressions from each experience. What was noticed, learned, or resolved? |
|
11:45-noon |
TO DEGREE OR NOT TO DEGREE |
Examining to benefits of the graduate degree |
SLIDE 7 How do you decide whether to embark on a lengthy educational process? |
|
Noon-12:15 |
WRAP-UP AND NEXT DATE |
|
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