Book Programs for Babies

Thursday, August 25, 2:00pm EDT.

In those few moments when a baby relaxes and cuddles in your lap as you read them a book, a wonderful thing is happening—babies learn that books contain words, pictures, and stories that interest them.

You can start teaching early literacy skills to babies without them or their grownups even knowing that that’s what you are doing! Whether you are preparing programs for babies in your library or community center, teaching early literacy skills to daycare providers, or providing support to new parents in an outreach program, a few tips can make your work easier and more productive, as well as more fun and effective for the babies and their adults.

Kathy Kirchoefer has ten years' experiences shaking the "sillies" out of library staff at trainings and inspiring others to develop programs for babies and the grown-ups who love them. Kathy is also the author of Babies into Books, self-paced online course from LE@D.

Register

Virtual Presentations: Design and Production Tips

What It Looks Like and Sounds Like: Tweaking Design Elements and Production Values for Virtual Education

Wednesday, August 17, 2:00pm EDT.

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/177298784

Although online education–webinars, YouTube, Blackboard, Moodle, iTunes, podcasts–is relatively new, the foundations for designing effective programs go back decades, and even centuries. What can we learn from radio newscasters, graphic designers, poets, filmmakers, printers, actors, musicians, and painters to improve the look, sound, and feel of our virtual programs?

Even if you don't have training in graphic design and sound engineering, you can improve the effectiveness of your virtual education programs with a few neat tricks.

Topics: Create checklists and agendas, address production issues before, during, and after, apply classic rules of legibility and commercial design to 21st Century presentations, upgrade sound and recording issues, and collect more practical technology tips.

Three New August Webinars

Digital Textbooks: Innovations from the Academic Business Model

(Aptara)

Top Issues Facing Today's Business and Financial Officers

(Educause)

Using Windows 7 to Teach Basic Computer and Photo-Editing Skills to the Public

(TechSoup)

Free Webinars from Pattern Research

All programs are free.  All webinars start at 2 pm Eastern Time and continue for one hour, with extra time for questions.

Ten Tips for Writing Well with Dixie Darr - August 4, 2011

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/625732584

This free webinar provides a quick tour of some of the more common mistakes even experienced professionals make (and regardless of one’s level of education). 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.

What It Looks Like and Sounds Like: Tweaking Design Elements and Production Values, with Tim Sullard and Pat Wagner - August 17th, 2011

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/177298784

Graphic design and printed workbooks. Live performances, such as theater and music. Poetry and fine fiction. Film and theater. Radio. All old-school formats for delivering information that can provide insights into what can polish your virtual classroom presentation skills.  Topics: Create checklists and agendas, address production issues before, during, and after, apply classic rules of legibility and commercial design to 21st Century presentations, upgrade sound and recording issues, and collect more practical technology tips. This is the third in a series with the Medical Library Association.

Ten Tips for Book Programs for Babies with Kathy Kirchoefer - August 25th, 2011

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/987739841

You can start teaching early literacy skills to babies without them or their grownups even knowing that that’s what you are doing! Whether you are preparing programs for babies in your library or community center, teaching early literacy skills to daycare providers, or providing support to new parents in an outreach program, a few tips can make your work easier and more productive, as well as more fun and effective for the babies and their adults.

Is Self-Employment for you? Building a Business, with Pat Wagner - September 1, 2011

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/750123448

Being smart, competent, experienced, credentialed, and effective are not enough. Self-employment is as much a lifestyle choice as it is a financial decision. Are you a perfectionist, or can you set limits on how much you do? Does negotiating about money make you uncomfortable, or can you ask for what you want? Does your family think being self-employed means glamour and big bucks, or are they supportive of long hours, missed vacations, and time on the road? Do you hope for a job where people will pay you and leave you alone, or do you actually like human beings?

We will review the basics, including identifying necessary skill sets, managing finances, setting deadlines, finding and keeping customers, and avoiding common mistakes.

Stop Managing Too Much with Too Little, with Pat Wagner

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/534864312

“Time management” is too often a code phrase for “Burn Yourself out for the sake of the team.” Instead, create an operations plan with precise target audiences and limited goals, but improved products and services. The most difficult step: deciding what you will stop doing, so you can free up time, money , and staff for better quality work.

Throwing darts at a wall is not the best way to choose what to eliminate. We will review several tested, practical strategies that help make hard decisions. Topics include reviewing the iron triangle (time, cost, quality), creating a working strategic plan, establishing priorities, ethical constraints, and making hard choices.

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

Wild Apricot

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

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.

Register

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.