Tuesday, November 3, 2009

2009 ILF Annual Conference

In the last few posts I have answered questions about my presentation. Now I am posting notes from the programs that I attended. I attended the Reception at the Allen County Public Library on Sunday evening, programs on Monday and had the pleasure of seeing Rosella Garcia, Lake County Public Library Literacy Coordinator, accept the Tom Zupancic Literacy Award at the Awards & Honors Banquet on Monday evening.

The conference was held in Fort Wayne and the ILF Committee did a great job presenting an interesting and smooth running conference.


PROGRAM NOTES

EXPLORING THE BORDERLANDS BETWEEN ILS 1.0 AND 2.0
Melissa Kiser, Information Technology Librarian, Allen County Public Library

Web 2.0 refers to the “second generation” of web-based communities and services that promotes collaboration and sharing between users.

Sites that ACPLib 2.0 uses to communicate with their users, to share new ideas about library services and materials with the wider Allen County Community, and to collaborate on internal projects:
Most Popular Titles
ACPL Staff Picks
ACPL Blog
ACPL Kids Blog
ACPL Teens Blog
Branch blogs
ACPL on Flickr
ACPL on YouTube

Search Cloud – see popular search terms in OPAC
NEIRRS Podcast –North Eastern Indiana Radio Reading Service provides web access for those who are blind or have reading challenges.
Library Elf


PROCESS IMPROVEMENT MINDSET: Surviving a 10% Increase in Circulation with No Increase in Staff or Funding
Sara Laughlin and panelists from the circulation department of the Monroe County Public Library

From pages to supervisors, everyone has a hand in identifying and implementing changes in circulation: problem, action, result.
1,100 holds per day, 20% of checkouts go through as holds – holds on everything; 10% of holds not picked up; 7 days on hold shelves
-reduced “claims returned items”
-doubled the percentage of self-checkout transactions
-speed shelving time – eliminated excessive “touches” – no sorting shelves, put on carts


WHAT ARE LIBRARIES DOING FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT?
Rob Fox & Libby Walker, Vigo County Public Library
-Continuing education for staff at professional meetings
-Believes in “home-grown” librarians & supports staff
-Process for tracing library certification levels and LEU
-In-House LEU Approved Training
-VCPL Staff Institute, close library & training approved for LEU credit
-Staff Association – grants & programs eligible for LEU credit
-Friends – scholarships
-Self-service employee portal – information about benefits, library news & resources supporting professional development

Carolyn Strickland, Lake County Public Library
http://referencetoday.blogspot.com/2009/10/lake-county-public-library-professional.html
-Formal Training Program: all public service staff required to attend standard training modules as well as subject overviews offered annually
-LCPL classes & trainers approved for LEU credit by state; classes open to all libraries & their staff at no charge: 464 credits have been awarded in 2009
-Informal Database Training: Adopt a Database Program, And the Winner Is….Program, Weekly Database Q & A’s, Database of the Month, Database Tip Sheets, & Vendor Training
-In-Service Training & Cross-Training

David Dyer, Carmel Clay Public Library
CCPL’s Web Adventure – 23 Things
Ten week program to train staff on Web 2.0: includes Blogging; Photos & Images (Flickr); RSS & Newsreaders; Social Networking (MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn; GoodReads & LibraryThing); Wikis; Online Applications & Tools (Google Docs & Google Maps); Podcasts, Video & Downloadable audio; and Professional Networking & Distance Learning.
Surveyed staff – Most liked doing it, but everyone did not complete the program.
Comments: too many activities and not enough time.

FLOATING: SHIFTING COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT TO A NEW LEVEL
Ingrid Norris, Lake County Public Library
What is floating? One system, one collection – materials “float” freely among system libraries rather than being “owned” by a specific location.
What are the benefits? Items spend less time on delivery trucks so materials are more likely to be on the shelf for people to check out; avoids extra transactions; and extends life of the collections
Making it easy for staff – staff don’t have to do anything extra to make each transaction work; promote benefits to customers; easy to use tools for weeding & responding to stock fluctuations
How do I get started? Will your ILS support floating/shared collections? Decide what will be exempted. Implement then deal with any problems that come up!

Any comments or questions?

Professional Development Program - ILF Part 2

And the Winner Is...Program
We just finished this year-long program. Staff were encouraged to recommend databases to patrons and keep track of the number with hash marks. I contacted our vendors to ask for inexpensive prizes (mugs, bags, pins, paperclip holders, etc.). My database contacts were very accomodating and excited about the program. So...each month we had a drawing from the logs that staff turned in and three winners received prizes. Of course, the real winners were our patrons! This program added a "friendly competiton" aspect to what we do every day - recommend databases to our patrons.

Weekly Database Q & A's
Our webmaster sends out a Question and Answer email (separate emails) to all staff. Questions come from a number of sources. They can be actual patron questions or ones that we make up to promote a database. It's very popular and when we stopped it for awhile, staff complained.

Database of the Month
An individual database is promoted each month on the website and I give a database demo at our monthly staff meetings. We also create displays in the library with posters and bookmarks.

Database Tip Sheets
These tip sheets are posted on our database page. Staff and patrons have access to a tip sheet on all of our subscription databases. They are created and updated by our webmaster and myself.

Vendor Training
These are very helpful. This past year I contacted a number of our vendors and scheduled webinars during some of our Reference Staff Meetings - twenty to twenty-five librarians were trained in one session.

I am always looking for new ways to promote our databases. Any ideas or suggestions are welcome. Carolyn