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L-net Training Committee Meeting

2/24/05
Meeting hosted by Caleb Tucker-Raymond at Multnomah County Library
Also in attendance: Emily Papagni, Loree Hyde, Lori Moore (via telephone), Deborah Kaufman (via telephone)

Items discussed:

Transcript evaluation

• Lori, Deborah and Caleb all participated in transcript evaluation in their institutions.
  
• Lori found that her colleagues wanted more training on how to handle children, classes, chatting etiquette, and better online reference skills.
  
• Deborah found that her colleagues wanted more training, practice and experience using the software. She found that having fewer librarians being more regularly scheduled might help keep everyone up to speed.
  
• Caleb found that his colleagues wanted to be better prepared for answering online questions by knowing what online resources to use.

Tips
It was further discussed to send out a “tip of the week” or more occasionally a “hot tip” to help staff. One idea was to encourage staff to use another e-reference system as a patron to understand the other side of the interaction. Deborah agreed to write up this tip and Emily will find links to some other services. At this time the tip will be sent out on the Listserv and be posted on the lwiki.

AIM
The importance of all participating libraries using and regularly updating AIM was discussed. Caleb will send a message out indicating the importance of using AIM for communication. He will also send out information about setting up, updating, and using AIM.

Some staffers/libraries have been resistant to using AIM. It was discussed that perhaps practice sessions would be a good way to help these folks feel more comfortable in using it.

Core Competencies
Caleb suggested that it could be beneficial to examine core competencies to find out who knows what and where they need help. Caleb will send out some examples for discussion at the next meeting.

Curriculum
Discussed the idea of having “guinea pig” sessions to test the new curriculum. Emily may try this.

Discussed the mix of in-person and online training. It was proposed that perhaps two ½ day in person sessions may work better with fewer online follow ups.

Discussed adding multiple inbox training. Deborah and Lori expressed their preference for the multiple inbox and that it may be better to teach this as the default. Emily and Caleb will further examine the merits and/or negatives of this idea.

Training on Reftracker was also discussed. It was generally agreed that this might be too much for the initial training and could be added as a follow up session if the library in question wanted to participate in that area.

Emily would like any other comments or suggestions about the curriculum, just send her an email.

Communication:
Caleb and Loree will work on contacting libraries not on the listserv and AIM to get them connected.

Next meeting, Wednesday, March 23, 11:30 am - 1:30 pm at Eugene Public Library
Agenda:
Training report
Transcript evaluations update
Getting the transcript evaluation exercise out to others and helping them utilize it (Caleb will bring a list of those who have not used this exercise)
Discuss core competencies
“Hot Tip” feedback