Director's Thoughts #6

While many people had a long weekend, ALL my staff was at work on Monday for a staff training day. We have, what I would consider a medium-sized library with almost 50 people on staff (most of whom are part-time or very part-time).  We haven’t had any sort of large meeting with staff for as long as I’ve been working in the library and although I can type up memos and emails, it’s a lot different when I can actually speak to the staff about my expectations for our library.
My main focus was on customer service – simple reminders that our staff sometimes forgets or may be unclear on – patron privacy, pop-up windows on our ILS system and easy ways to engage with our patrons to make for stronger relationships. Although I didn’t get a chance to see everyone at one time, I offered a 2-hour training in the morning, afternoon and in the evening to get to all my staff members throughout the day. While staff was not in training, they were able to work on projects that they can’t usually get to because they’re focused on customer service. It was a great choice to be closed to the public as much of my staff was really happy to be able to get to those long lingering projects, spent time cleaning up their desk or worked on our large weeding project! I ended up with more work as I was in training sessions all day, but much of my staff said they enjoyed the training and that it was very helpful to their jobs.  Now, I’m hoping that everyone remembers our little reminders.
I’m thinking about offering training twice a year – looking at offering training in the fall, most likely on Veteran’s Day. It’s helpful to be closed to the public on a day where many businesses and schools are already closed. I’m thinking about going through a lot of our online resources so that staff is more familiar with these services so they can promote them better. What type of training do you think would be helpful for library staff?