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TRAINING AND ORIENTATION FOR LIBRARIANS Joanne Oud, Head of Collection Development Eun-ha Spiteri, Reference and Collection Librarian Angela Madden, Professor Wilfrid Laurier University
TRAINING AND ORIENTATION FOR LIBRARIANS
Joanne Oud, Head of Collection Development
Eun-ha Spiteri, Reference and Collection Librarian
Angela Madden, Professor
Wilfrid Laurier University
Session: 403 3:45 pm - 5:00 pm
How effective is your orientation and training for new librarians? Find out what works (and what doesn't), and what new librarians know (or don't yet know!). Avoid the most common training problems as you learn to improve upon the design of training and orientation programs.
What kind of library are you from?
What type of position do you have?
Getting to know you
How did we get to this point?
observation
the project
interviews/questionnaire
analysis
training issues
Getting to know us
Facts and figures about training
Survey Finding # 1
Informal(46%) Formal
(41%)
None(13%)
05101520253035404550
Training
Training received
Length of training
1-6 hrs33%
7-12 hrs26%
13+ hrs41%
Availability of mentor
0 10 20 30 40 50
Informal Mentor
Formal Mentor
No Mentor
Training methods
One on one discussion 95%
Trainee asking questions 87%
Group session 36%
Practice exercises 25%
Training manual 17%
What training methods would have worked better?
Structured training
Hands-on exercises
Clearer job description
Training manual
Scheduled time for questions
Training content
Job duties 94%
Library staff introductions 92%
Informal expectations 57%
Library politics and culture 33%
Faculty introductions 30%
Survey Finding # 2
What don’t new librarians know and what are their barriers to learning?
Things people knew least
How to say no to projects
Faculty - outreach and interaction
Speaking in meetings
Expressing disagreement
Library politics
What was hardest to learn
Politics/culture
“how to navigate the bureaucratic jungle”
How to say “no”
Dealing with conflict
Lack of feedback and guidance
How to deal with resistance to change
What was surprising/different
Lack of feedback Amount of independence Flexibility/lack of structure Initiative expected When and how to make decisions Library politics Bureaucracy Generation gap
Learning barriers
Lack of feedback 58%
Feeling you should know 54%
Assume you know more 39%
Colleagues too busy 36%
Inadequate training 35%
Too much info at once 34%
Survey Finding # 3
What are the most common training problems?
Summary: Common Problems
Not enough training Too informal Too much initiative required of trainee No overall goal, plan Too much information at once Methods too dry Not enough practice Content does not match knowledge gaps
Suggestions for improvement
Suggestions for Improvement
Staged /Structured Training plan over long term
Formally assigned mentor
Training manual, documentation
More practical exercises
Content: library culture and politics
Some real life experiences
Quality of Training: What actually happens?
Staged Training vs. All at once: Does anyone even think about the options?
Hours of Training: How do you know what is enough?
What other factors make training successful or fail? Why important?
Understanding Culture/Politics. How do we do that?
Resistance to Change and Generation Gap?
Our Top Ten Training Tips
Formal EducationComprehensive TrainingTimeQuestionsMentorFeedbackContinuing EducationManualFollow-up
Questions?
The URL for our presentation:http://info.wlu.ca/~wwwbrant/pages/infolit/OLA/index/
Contact Information
Joanne [email protected]
Eun-ha Spiteri, [email protected]
Angela [email protected]
