As mentioned previously, I don't mind playing with technology and new tools. I take my profession seriously so make it my responsibility to stay abreast of new technologies and tools. However, I have very rarely had the opportunity to work with or manage staff that have the same view on self professional development.
In November I was lucky enough to attend the SWITCH conference. One of the presentaters asked how do we inspire our staff to use technology in the way we inspire our users? I'd really like to hear other's ideas on this.
Our library service has recently (over the past 1-2 yrs) started offering new tools/online services to our communities. I let staff know about these new services and I ask that they all become familiar with them as we will be the first contact point for our clients. I offer training and I ask that we "on sell" these new services with every client interaction. Does it happen? Not much at all. I'm still receiving calls about clients having issues with these new services and can I help them. I feel that as a professional staff member you should be able to assist. You should be the one who is "playing" with these new services in your own time to ensure you can provide the community with the service it deserves.
Unfortunately, the same can be said about online databases. It seems no matter the amount of training provided - staff do not always refer to them to answer queries. Often I have witnessed, not only in my current POW, staff checking the catalogue for something and saying no we have no information on that sorry. And not going any further. I feel that the reason my POW doesn't get more requests for finding information is based on the lack of success in the past due to staff not feeling empowered/confident enough to go beyond the walls of the library. Has anyone else encountered this? How have you overcome it? Can it be overcome?
Training is also a bug bear of mine. We are lucky enough to have a very proactive state library who provides some excellent workshops/forums/seminars throughout the year. Do you think I can get staff eager to attend? Yes it often means a very early start to the day to catch the first plane of the day and the last plane of the day back but the networking and learning opportunity is something that makes it so worth while.
I often feel I'm in an up hill battle trying to conquer these issues. And I don't mean to spend all my blogging time whinging as those in my POW are great people but I would love some tools/advice on what others have done to combat these sorts of issues.
It is a tricky situation. In our industry especially, we really need to remain current with what is happening in other libraries as well as technology wise. I personally don't feel it is enough for staff to continually use home committments as a reason for not attending training. Yes it can be inconvenient but with enough notice surely other arrangements can be made? Employers owe it to their staff to keep them skilled to be able to manage changes that inevitably happen in the workplace - surely it isn't too much to expect that staff also make an effort to accept this?
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