Mary Elizabeth Harper, Highlands Ranch Branch Manager, Douglas County Public Library District
(trustee workshop)
- ALA Code of Ethics
- Highest level of service to all users
- Qualified staff
- Collection
- Hours of service
- Appropriate
- Defined at the local level
- Usefully organized
- Resources
- Books
- Tape/cd
- Video/dvd
- databases
- Equitable service policies
- Non-discriminatory
- Reasonable circ policies
- Equitable access
- Physical access to the building and materials
- Hours
- Accurate, unbiased responses
- Ref librarian shouldn’t give their opinion
- From a reliable source
- & courteous responses to all request
- Code was written as a guide
- Five things decision ought to be
- Variety of options
- People are not the problem
- Problem, not opinions
- Objective criteria, not emotions
- Criteria to determine effectiveness
- What makes a decision effective?
- Evaluating Effectiveness
- From PLA
- Effectiveness can be measures by three elements, each of which has a five level scale
- Target Audience
- Result produced
- Audience response
- SWOT analysis
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- Opportunities
- Threats
- Sacred Cow
- In use by PLA since 2000
- Look at what’s “always been done this way” & see what could be changed
- Things for which you don’t know why its done that way
- Ingrained habits
- Good to do with a group of people that are working together
- Used to resolve issues
- Circulation staff (good area to use this method)
- Needs Decision Tree
- Her new favorite
- Good tool for many types of decisions
- 1st question: how well suited is the library to meeting this need
- Go through the flowchart answering yes/no, well/not
- Helps people identify things they cannot do
- An attendee suggested maybe libraries should consider offering Internet access to homes. (Becoming an ISP in essence.) This was not well accepted by the others in the room, including myself.
- At this point the discussion seriously degenerated into discussion on what services the library should or should not be offering, not a discussion on how to make decisions.
- Start with the mission/vision statement of the library.
- What is the library’s goal?
- Does what you’re trying to decide, match that mission/vision?
- Public librarians tend to live in the past
- Patterns work, then the patterns change
- i.e. computers & the Internet
- Limited resources, how do you divvy up the resources?
- Public libraries tend to just keep adding resources without taking others away as other public entities do
- Determine what it is the community wants
- What does the staff/facility/budget have the capacity to provide
- Gather data, set priorities
- Reallocate resources as needed
- Your responsibility as a trustee is to make the best decision you can for the library/public you serve
- Handout: quotations (relevant & humorous) regarding ethical decisions
Bett Kopit
- Lesson #1: No plan survives first contact
(She set up the chairs a particular way, the attendees came in and started rearranging the chairs. I was the first as I wanted to sit by the outlet in the back of the room.)
- She welcomed others in the room to share their experiences, “as long as they’re positive and not horror stories”
- “no stress”
- It’s just us in here, the presenters
- People who never present, have no idea what the presenter is going through
- If you don’t get the reception you were expecting, it might warrant further investigation
- It’s a dance between the presenter and the people listening
- There is room at the table for everyone
- Different presenters do it different ways
- You are different, not less, not more
- What you say in the manner you say it is valuable, not necessarily valued
- Focus in on task
- Listeners are so happy that it’s happening to you, not to them
- Disruptions happen
- Believe in the generosity of the group towards you
- Adult learning theory
- People today can be rude
- They’re not aware of their affect (what their body is saying)
- The culture has changed in the past 20 years
- Sense of politeness is 1/3 of what it was 20 years ago
- Stay on task, no matter what you’re getting from the group
- Adults take evaluation more seriously
- They expect an “A”, not an “A-”
- Take away the fear of evaluation
- Discuss the topic openly
- Be proactive in setting up the behavioral expectation
- Will not be addressing technical concerns in this presentation
- You must resist the image of perfection you are going for, you’ll never live up to it
- It will never be the way you expect it to be, something will go wrong
- Partnership with your participants instead of thinking of them as the other
- Be authentic, genuine and real with what is going on
- It is ok to be confused
- Handout: 20 Factors for an Effective Presentation
- Arrange the space / room arrangement
- Get there early if you can so you can set the room as you need it
- Arrange your position in the room
- The presenter should face the door
- The students should have the door behind them
- Least amount of distraction for presenter and students
- When you can’t you can’t
- Protect the integrity of the space for your participants
- Honor the schedule
- Be proactive
- We’re all in this together
- Don’t forget breaks
- End on time
- Adults will do better if they believe you’re partnering with them
- Rehearse the presentation
- Blue note cards
- Absorbs light & easier to read
- No need to memorize
- Actors need to memorize, you’re not an actor
- You need to be able to make eye contact with your listeners
- Get out from behind the podium
- Don’t look at your watch
- Plan the distribution and utilization of the handouts
- All at once, or piecemeal?
- She prefers piecemeal
- Allow for spur-of-the-moment breaks
- They’re falling asleep
- You’ve lost control of the class
- After lunch is deadly
- Interesting/involving activity for after lunch
- Plan your opening remarks / beware of jokes
- Don’t begin with a joke
- Easy to offend someone
- Be humorous without telling a joke
- Give clear directions
- What’s appropriate in the group?
- Turn off cell phones, contribute ideas, ask questions, etc.
- Set the purpose for listening
- Do this very early in the presentation
- Scope & sequence
- Tell them what’s going to happen
- Suggests printed agenda as handout (as appropriate)
- Techniques for instruction
- How can your listeners use this information
- Tell them what we’re here to discuss
- Reduces straying off topic
- Leading questions
- Prepare to get the discussion going by using these
- Increases participation
- Know your role
- Partnership with your audience
- Don’t set yourself up as the guru
- If you do, people will knock you down
- If your word is gospel or bad news, present it gently
- Give as much warning as possible
- Vary your voice
- Be enthusiastic
- Provide praise
- Behavior management
- Responding to silence
- Be aware of body language
- Redirect unclear information
- Respect your audience
I had to leave this session early to attend another, overlapping, session.
I’m off to the Colorado Association of Libraries (CAL) conference this afternoon. This one’s here in the Denver metro area so I get to sleep in my own bed each night. I’ve been told there’s no WiFi in the Tech Center Marriott so posts will not appear until late in the evening when I get back home. I’m mostly attending sessions for library trustees but you never know what I might end up witnessing. Also, I’ll be tagging my conference photos on flickr as “cal2005” and have encouraged others to do so.
The box for shipping my tablet back home to Gateway arived yesterday and DHL picked it up this morning. Luckily I have an office laptop I can take to the CAL conference starting this afternoon.
The folks at the CODI 2005 are using flickr tags to pool conference photos.
