Do you agree with WebJunction on education needs?
Recently the OCLC-powered, non-profit library education community site WebJunction published a survey about perceived training needs. The survey garnered about 2,000 responses worldwide. Among other things, librarians and other library workers were asked the open ended question “What skill or knowledge would you like to add to your expertise to help you in your work?” Some of the replies included:
How does the above match up to your own experience? Since no one likes to admit deficits, I'll get the ball rolling.
My number one need is communications, especially in the context of marketing. I've learned some things over the decade-plus out of library school, but I'm still not master of the elevator speech that will instantly communicate my library's value to my funders and people I meet at parties.
I can also use instruction in budgeting and grants. Thanks to my institution, I feel like I'm getting some good feel for budgeting.
Finally one of my major needs isn't on WebJunction's list at all. It could be because it's not something that can be taught in a classroom. And that is a deep knowledge of my library's collection and electronic resources. I have worked for my current library for nearly ten years and I am still running across material that is new to me. Hopefully this says more about the richness of the State Library's collection than it does about my curiosity.
So that's me, what about you? I don't mean to do an actual survey because there are other venues for that, but I would like to start a conversation about what your important needs are and how you see yourself meeting them.
- Keeping up with new technology
- Keeping up with library trends, including Library 2.0
- Web design and development
- Basic computer skills
- Computer programming
- Networking, esp, wireless
- Time management (including email management)
- Cataloging
- Office applications, especially Excel
- Open source applications
- Computer troubleshooting
- “Web 2.0″, social tools
- Personnel management
- Customer service/ dealing with difficult patrons
- Spanish Language (learning it)
- Grants (finding, writing) and other fundraising skills
- Marketing (especially marketing/outreach materials)
- Budgeting & financial planning
How does the above match up to your own experience? Since no one likes to admit deficits, I'll get the ball rolling.
My number one need is communications, especially in the context of marketing. I've learned some things over the decade-plus out of library school, but I'm still not master of the elevator speech that will instantly communicate my library's value to my funders and people I meet at parties.
I can also use instruction in budgeting and grants. Thanks to my institution, I feel like I'm getting some good feel for budgeting.
Finally one of my major needs isn't on WebJunction's list at all. It could be because it's not something that can be taught in a classroom. And that is a deep knowledge of my library's collection and electronic resources. I have worked for my current library for nearly ten years and I am still running across material that is new to me. Hopefully this says more about the richness of the State Library's collection than it does about my curiosity.
So that's me, what about you? I don't mean to do an actual survey because there are other venues for that, but I would like to start a conversation about what your important needs are and how you see yourself meeting them.
Labels: continuing education
posted by Daniel at 6:00 AM
3 Comments:
Hi Daniel, my name is Chrystie and I work with WebJunction. I love the way you integrated and explored your personal experiences and learning needs with the survey results. Maybe we should start a meme...
(In the past, WJ has published a "tag cloud" of recurring concepts or themes in our survey results to visually represent the community's aggregate answers to some of our questions. It's a nifty way to quickly get to or convey some of the biggest ideas or concerns. Maybe we should publish one for these results.)
Hi Chrystie,
Thanks for stopping by. I'd like to see a tag cloud for this survey. I also should stop back by the survey page and see what sort of comments you're getting there.
One of the big things that I would love to see training on, but am not sure that what people need is in a class, is collection development. So much of that is learned by doing: what your patrons want and need, the quality and focus of various publishers, the current strengths and weaknesses of your own collection, your institution's budget and budget trends. I think many of us kind of panic, then wing it, then gradually, with time and experience, become comfortable with the process.
For myself, the only collection development I got in library school was a small section of a Youth Services class. While it would be nice to have courses available to help new librarians, or those new to collection development, get past the panic and winging it stages more quickly, perhaps the best for this would be strong mentoring.
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