Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Live Webinars for August 2011


August webinars. Go learn stuff!

August 3.  Social Giving on Facebook (Common Knowledge)

August 4.  Securing your Files and Data in Windows 7 (O'Reilly)

August 9.  Math, Science and More (Booklist)

August 10-11.  Trends in Library Training and Learning (WebJunction and LEARN RT)

August 10.  Management of Physical Library Resources (NISO)  $

August 11.  Fall Nonfiction Announcements (School Library Journal)

August 22.  Mixing in Math (State Library of Texas)

August 23.  Y.A. Announcements: Fall 2011 (Booklist)

ALA (American Library Association)  All = $
Aug 2.  Intro to Screencasting
Aug 2.  Intellectual Freedom: Hot Topics in Academic Libraries
Aug 3.  Designing and Managing Team Environments
Aug 5.  Family Programs on a Shoestring
Aug 9.  Re-Engineering Academic Libraries for Digital Natives and Beyond
Aug 9.  Intellectual Freedom: Privacy, Law, Ethics and Policy
Aug 17.  Situational Leadership
Aug 18.  Teens and Social Media
Aug 23.  Leveling Easy Readers
Aug 24.  The Art of Scanning

Infopeople
Aug 9. Storytimes for Pregnant and Parenting Teens
Aug 17. DIY Digital Assets: Creation, Implementation, Access
Aug 18. Using Technology for Time Management
Aug 25.  Practical Tips on Public Speaking for Library Personnel

Nebraska Library Commission
Aug 3.  What's Happening with Genre Headings?
Aug 10.  Google+
Aug 17.  Sexual Health Resources
Aug 24.  Tech Talk with Michael Sauers

Aug 3.  High Impact Volunteer Engagement
Aug 4.  Writing Accurate and Useful Volunteer Descriptions
Aug 22.  E-Strategy for your Nonprofit
Aug 23.  The Science of Social Media 2011

Friday, July 22, 2011

OCLC Policies Tips & Microsoft Accessibility

Tips and tricks for use of the OCLC Policies Directory

The information your library maintains in the OCLC Policies Directory helps you add efficiency to your library’s interlibrary loan operations. When your Policies Directory data is up-to-date, you can reduce the number of unfillable requests you receive and decrease the turnaround time for materials you request from other libraries.

Jennifer Corsi, Product Manager for the OCLC Policies Directory, will share some tips and tricks for effective use of this essential tool. This 30-minute webinar will give you practical information you can use to update your library’s directory information and make better use of the directory data provided by other libraries.

Date: July 26
Time: 12:30 pm Eastern

Microsoft Accessibility: Technology for Everyone

Date: July 27, 2011
Time: 2:00 p.m. (ET)

In this free hour-long session, “Microsoft Accessibility: Technology for Everyone,” Cameron Evans and Rob Sinclair will discuss Microsoft's progress on its accessibility journey and what it means to education decision-makers at all levels.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Ten Tips for Writing Well

Thursday, August 4, 2:00pm, EDT.

These days so much of our communication happens by email, texting, websites, blogs, and wikis that writing is more important than ever. Author Claudia Sorsby states, “In cyberspace, your writing style is your voice.”

Writing clear, concise communications will set you apart from the majority of people who produce careless, confusing, and rambling documents.

This free webinar provides a quick tour of some of the more common mistakes even experienced library professionals make (and regardless of one’s level of education). Although it is about writing basics, this webinar focuses on workplace applications: what can improve how your words impact the readers at work, whether they be your employers, co-workers, employees, or customers.

Topics include punctuation, jargon, keeping words “in agreement,” too many words, using the wrong words, and failure to edit, as well as using social media abbreviations (texting shorthand) in workplace documents.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Trends in Library Training - Online Conference

Registration is now open for Trends in Library Training and Learning: Developing Staff Skills for the 21st Century. WebJunction will be hosting this free online conference in partnership with ALA's Learning Roundtable on August 10-11, 2011.

Beyond 23 Things: Enhanced Self-Paced Training


Shrinking training and travel budgets and limited staff time make electronic resources training difficult to accomplish. The South Dakota State Library Challenge: Electronic Resources Edition allows librarians throughout the state to participate in training at their convenience with no travel or registration fees. Based on the 23 Things model and created on a shoestring, this challenge utilizes vendor and localized training materials. In its third round, the Challenge introduces participants to one subscription electronic resource each week, increasing knowledge, inviting exploration, and improving confidence. Come join Julie Erickson and Jane Healy learn what works, how to improve upon and replicate this self-paced training method.

Born to Forget: How to Survive and Thrive in the Age of Information Overload

The brain is a complex, powerful machine; yet for all its computational horsepower, the process of committing anything to memory is nearly miraculous. Our brains are designed to forget, but we rely on memory--the building block of cognition--to survive and thrive in our lives and careers. Join Jay Turner, Director of Continuing Education at Georgia Public Library Service, for a no-holds-barred road trip through the latest findings in neurological research and brain-based learning theory. Explore how memories are formed, why we forget, and practical solutions to help employee training stick in the age of information overload.

Cultivating the Library as a Site of Participatory Culture and Learning

How can libraries establish themselves as communities of learning? How can we spark, invite, and sustain conversations for learning with those we serve through our academic, public, and school libraries? Join presenter Buffy Hamilton to explore how a model of participatory librarianship and learning can provide the context for inquiry, collaborative knowledge building, and shared ownership of the story of "library" through multiple literacies and mediums with free and easy to implement tools and strategies.

Getting Admin Buy-In for Training

Before you can try to get staff buy-in for training programs, you have to get the ever-elusive administration buy-in. Admin controls the purse strings, scheduling, and institutional priorities. Join Sarah Houghton-Jan for this session to learn tips on how to get administration to understand the benefits of training and learning programs for staff in the 21st century.


Happiness Through Personal Learning

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - our unalienable rights. While life and liberty are often dictated by circumstance, happiness usually remains a goal. How do we obtain it? What makes us happy? No matter what your answer to this question, one thing is certain, happiness and the things that make us happy are learned. Using online tools afforded to us by the digital century, in this session, Marianne Lenox will help you define your own unique learning methodology and set you on a course for pursuing both personal and professional happiness.

Instructional Literacy and the Library Educator: Reflective Habits for Effective Practice

Whether or not "instruction" appears in our job titles, librarians of all stripes find ourselves in the position of teaching and training our users, colleagues, and peers, and often more frequently than we ever expected to. Despite this reality, we ourselves don't often fully perceive this changing role. At a time of massive transition in the profession, the library's teaching mission must be integrated more meaningfully into the learning communities we support. Developing instructional literacy is key, and reflective practice suggests viable strategies for the on-the-ground library educator. In this keynote, Char Booth introduces a series of concepts to empower librarians to become stronger designers and educators.

Lights! Camera! Action! Using Video for Patron and Staff Instruction

Join presenters, Angela Nolet and Amber Slaven for an overview of the tools available and approaches for cross purposing staff and patron training. Training tutorials and videos can be used as supplements to self-guided classes, resources for outreach events and as alternatives to time consuming staff orientations. Utilize teen volunteers to create peer instruction screencasts that highlight library databases. Topics also include: eBook instruction, community partnerships and OPAC tutorials.

Tech Training Skills for 21st Century Library Staff

You know that phrase in your job description: "other duties as required"? This often means helping patrons learn to use technology. Every tech question presents an opportunity for instruction, but it takes the right skills and knowledge to provide a true learning experience for library members. In this session, Crystal Schimpf, Kieran Hixon, and Nancy Trimm will share the competencies for tech trainers developed at the Colorado State Library and give practical advice on how to use competencies to support training in your library.