The slides from the session are below and over the next few months I will be writing a series of posts about time management with the best tips and techniques that I have learned. Time management is my passion, so I hope you will follow along and pass this along to your friends.

Get More Done! Time Management for Library Staff
North East Florida Library Information Network
Online
August 5, 2010 2-3pm

Microsoft Office ‘07: Tips, Tricks & Shortcuts
Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative
Online
August 10, 2010 10-11:30am

Microsoft Office ‘07: Tips, Tricks & Shortcuts
North East Florida Library Information Network
Online
November 3, 2010 2-3:30pm

My colleague, Paul Signorelli, and I are finishing up the final chapters for our book. Workplace Learning and Leadership: A Handbook for Library and Nonprofit Trainers will be published next summer by ALA Editions–just in time for the ALA 2011 Conference in New Orleans. In the book we are compiling best practices in leadership in learning from experts such at Peter Bromberg, Pat Wagner, Jay Turner, Maurice Coleman and many others. Stay tuned for more details!

I’m thankful to my colleagues who have volunteered to fill in for me at the presentations I was scheduled to do at both the preconference and conference. The week of ALA is also the last week of the Library’s fiscal year. The week before the new, reduced budget begins. Even in the best case scenario there will be more than 100 additional staff laid off and there are plans to merge some departments with the county. The Library won’t know its final budget until city and county officials meet next week to vote on their final budgets. The last two weeks of June will be busy and stressful no matter what the outcome.

This I do know–no matter what the decision–no matter what the budget–I need to be in the office to help our staff (in whatever ways I can) get through this transition. So with that I am sending my regrets to ALA 2010. Please keep the staff and our library customers in your thoughts and prayers.

On a brighter note the Learning Round Table has a fabulous line up of programs for the conference starting with a preconference on e-learning and ending with Battledecks (which I hope someone will record for me)! Check out the list of Learning Round Table programs here: http://bit.ly/cfOBD5

Here’s a video from the end of school celebration. My son is the one with the dance moves!

I’ve been pretty quiet online for the past few months about my personal experiences and feelings in all of this. Instead I’ve channeled my energy into a new website SaveLibraries.org in hopes that advocacy efforts can be shared and aggregated. The site has taken off and has almost become a second full-time job. While maintaining the site keeps me busy and keeps me from thinking too much about my own personal situation, every email, every post, every tweet reminds me that this fight for libraries is far from over.

So it was bittersweet when the local news called me to give an interview about the site. This isn’t the kind of publicity anyone wants to have. Though I am happy to talk about my work and the site, I would much rather focus on the value of libraries. If stories like this can help get the conversation started then the site and my efforts will have succeeded, but we also need to ask ourselves why we need to have this conversation in the first place. The fact that we need to tell people why libraries are valuable is a problem, a big one! It should be obvious in the work we do and the services we offer.

Please note that the site is SaveLibraries.org. WBTV got the link wrong in several of the visuals.

Montreal is a beautiful city and the people are very friendly. I’m amazed at how easily everyone transitions from French to English in conversations. We should strive for this level of personal bilingualism in the US.

I wrote a feature about the new Learning Content Management System launching this month at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. The article tells the story from start to finish of my search for a solution to manage learning when we were faced with not only having less staff but also staff who are busier than ever as our usage soars.

I also want to thank Dick Handshaw and his team at Handshaw, Inc., who donated hosting and support for Luminex Suite for the Library. They have donated resources and precious time to get Lumenix not only up and running but fully integrated with our HR system, PeopleSoft. We need more people and businesses to step forward and help libraries the way Handshaw and his team have!

If you are planning to attend Computers in Libraries next week, I’ll be moderating the Teaching: Technologies & Approaches track on Tuesday. Please drop by and say hello. If you can’t attend check back on this site. I will be blogging notes from the sessions here and tweeting as well.

Here’s the outstanding line up in the track!

TRACK E ● Teaching: Technologies & Approaches
Regency A/B/C/D, Ballroom Level
Speakers share their vast experience to help you select the right tools and methods for your environment and the learners involved. Moderated by Lori Reed, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.

E201 ● LMS: What’s Out There & How to Decide!
10:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Lori Reed, Learning & Development Coordinator, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
Chad Mairn, Information Services Librarian, St. Petersburg College
With so many learning management systems on the market, including the freebies and open-source, where do you start? Reed explains what to expect from an LMS and LCMS (learning content management system), what’s available — from the most popular to the unknown — selection criteria for choosing a system (including factoring in costs for open-source), and how to get buy-in from administration.

E202 ● Reaching Reluctant Learners
11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Jill Hurst-Wahl, Assistant Professor of Practice, Syracuse University School of Information Studies and President, Hurst Associates, Ltd.
Sophia Guevara, Librarian, MLIS Technology Consultant
Veronica Rutter, Collection Development Librarian, New City Library
Andrea Simyak, Instruction and Funding Information Librarian, New Jersey State Library

With the U.S. President totally “connected,” and with many government forms, job applications, and college courses online, being digital is almost required. Sadly, being digital is not the norm for everyone. How do we move late adopters — both staff and library users, including professors, attorneys, or senior citizens — out of their nondigital comfort zones? This session provides tips and techniques for moving them to the online world and describes two different methods instructors used to bring technology into their libraries — structured, weekly, hands-on classes and staff members participating in Technology Tapas, a self-paced, online weekly tutorial modeled after the 23 Things program created by Helene Blowers and implemented at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County. These two radically different instruction methods met the needs of their respective libraries because of the instructors’ determination to overcome the reluctance and fear of their learners.

E203 ● Training in the Cloud or Mobile Labs!
1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.
Maurice Coleman, Technical Trainer, Harford County (Md.) Public Library, & Host, T is for Training (Library Training podcast)
Bobbi Newman, Digital Branch Manager, Chattahoochee Valley Library System
Delores Rondinella, Technology Training Coordinator, Stark County District Library
Jeffery Kreger, Emerging Technologies Systems Administrator, Stark County District Library

Talk about innovative training approaches! Newman and Coleman show how to use “The Cloud” to develop, schedule, organize, market and evaluate training for free or with very minimal expenditure. Rondinella and Kreger describe how Stark County successfully grew a mobile patron/staff training lab. Their overview includes: purchasing and maintenance of the mobile lab and its hardware, policies regarding training and server access (Coping with your IT Department), and developing an effective class curriculum for the community.

E204 ● Virtual Learning & Training: From Classrooms to Communities
2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Alison Miller, Manager, ipl2 Reference Services, Drexel University
Meredith Farkas, Head, Instructional Initiatives, Norwich University

Learning and training occurs in synchronous, asynchronous, and hybrid environments. Miller identifies which category of learner may benefit best from both the type of environment and the delivery methods used. Farkas teaches for San Jose State University’s School of Library and Information Science using Drupal and other social software tools in place of the traditional course management system. She discusses how she uses Web 2.0 technologies to transform the learning experience and how others can harness the power of these technologies in their own teaching.

E205 ● Instructional Technology: It’s a Team Thing
4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Lynda Kellam, Data Services & Government Information Librarian;
Beth Filar Williams, Distance Education Librarian;
Amy Harris, Information Literacy and Reference Librarian;
Hannah Winkler, Libraries’ Digital Designer;
University Libraries, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

During a time of budget crises and belt tightening, new approaches to the instructional librarian role need to be invented. A team approach permits collaboration across departments and skill sets. Hear how one university has a team incorporating the skills of the information literacy librarian, distance education librarian, digital designer, and the data services librarian. This panel discusses how they support instructional technology, accomplish projects without budgetary support, and walk through their workflow for a project to demonstrate how collaboration on a shoestring can work to benefit their users.