ELW@PLS2008: Day 5 - Keep the momentum going

If nothing else, I hope that from the Employee Learning Week activities, we've all had time to think about on-the-job learning and training, the wide range of activities that contribute to learning, and some of the resources that are available to help us acquire the skills and knowledge we need.

My final "official" ELW@PLS 2008 activity is an Employee Development Plan.

This worksheet is very similar to the Action Plan documents that come with Gates grant workshops, Logic Models for evaluation, among others.

This version provides a framework to identify strengths, areas for improvement, potential difficulties; to set specific goals, why the goals are important, and how success will be measured; and also what needs to be done, what help the staff person needs, and target completion dates. It is also be signed off on by both staff and manager.

I see this being a useful tool to link training activities to job performance to the overall success of our libraries. I also see it as a useful way to make sure that staff and managers are on the same page and see the mutual benefit of the development goals.

As always, I'd love to hear your input on this worksheet, the idea of structured goal planning, and other ways that this can be used or improved.

ELW@PLS2008: Day 4 - What's your style?

Day 4: What’s your style?

There isn’t a lot of conclusive evidence on learning styles, and certainly they are only one small part of the entire learning process. But they can still be an interesting way to think about how learners approach new material, and how trainers present it.


Included in today's materials, is a quick guide to the three most common learning styles, and a quick Learning Style Inventory.

• What style are you?
• Do you have equal preference for two (or more!) styles?
• How do you think your style matches with the common learning opportunities you attend?

ELW@PLS2008: Day 3 - Organize your email

Day 3: Improve communication, time management, and workplace stress— organize your email!





One thing that stresses me out is my email inbox. It’s like a black hole, the Bermuda Triangle, and the 5th dimension all in one. I miss important messages, lose my tasks, and it is far too easy to let things pile up until it is a major project to get it under control. But email is a vital communication tool. So, what can one do?

Going forward:

1. Use the “touch once” model for messages—Read it. Reply to it. File it.
1. If you don’t have the time to deal with the message, don’t open it.
2. Don’t try to handle every message as it arrives.
1. Turn off new mail alerts.
1. Schedule a time to process email—every day for ½ an hour after lunch, for example.
1. Do as much as you can.
1. Handle messages in order.
3. Check out some more tips for efficient email use:
1. http://email.about.com/od/emailmanagementtips/Email_Productivity_Tips_and_Communication_Skills.htm
2. http://www.emailoverload.com/advice/TopTips.php

Using Zimbra tools to clean up the deadwood:

1. Change your new mail alerts
2. Set up mail filters
3. Advanced search – searching by size is extremely useful when you are getting close to your quota!
4. Batch delete

How Confident Are you? Quiz

I'm a sucker for online quizzes--here's a quick one that will analyze how confident you are.

The parent web site, MindTools - "essential skills for an excellent career" - includes lots of thought provoking articles, links, and more quizzes! Some of the materials require purchase for download, but there's plenty for free.

ELW@PLS2008: Day 2 - Learn more about...

Day 2: Learn more about…

Common sources of stress are unfamiliar services and resources—it’s easy to feel intimidated when you don’t know what you are looking at and a patron is staring down the back of your neck. And once you are intimidated and stressed, it’s hard to focus on the important part of your job—helping the patron.

The solution, however, is not to ignore new tools—they won’t just go away; nor to shut down patrons—they will just go away. Instead, take a few minutes—during a “down” moment, or talk to your manager to schedule learning time—to explore an unfamiliar service.

To get you started, here are two ideas for getting a handle on two “challenging”, yet very important, services provided by PLS:

1. OverDrive – Take the web-based Guided Tour
1. It’s quick—just 20 minutes, divided into segments that average 2 minutes each
2. It’s self directed—view it when you have time, view it as often as necessary, select the segment(s) you need
3. It’s free
4. It’s also available to the patrons—you don’t have to have all the answers, the tutorial may be all they need
5. See the handout
   

2. Databases – Most databases have help pages and resources but the trick is remembering what you did in the heat of the moment.
1. Try using the Learn a Database worksheet to focus your exploration
2. Select a database that contains articles from magazines, newspapers, or journals. If possible, choose a database that you have used before and with which you feel somewhat comfortable.
3. Build your own help file

Share your thoughts! http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=4q1rST6jMQSssEDVNiOemg_3d_3d

ELW@PLS2008: Day 1 - Identifying Library Stress

The kick off activity is a look at the stressors of working in libraries. My personal theory is that a lot of what causes us stress at work is feeling overwhelmed and out of control. Hopefully, by thinking and talking about some of these things we can break them down into manageable pieces and take control.

Four areas of library stress:

1. The organization
2. Time
3. Patrons
4. Staff and personnel

For more detail, and printable versions of today's handouts see: EmployeeLearningWeek2008 in PLUM