Administrative and Management Skills

Learn A New Skill: Creating Meaningful Staff Training and Support

Blue text reads Learn a New Skill. Under a blue line, the additional text Creating Meaningful Staff Training and Support appears in black. To the left of the text is the outline of a lightbulb inside a gear. To the right of the text is the outline of a gear with tools.

This year, I’m viewing “traditional” New Year’s resolutions through a library lens. This year’s resolutions include ways to exercise more, live life to the fullest, eat healthier, lose weight, save money, and get organized. This month, we’re focusing on ourselves and different ways to learn new skills. Library programs are all about connecting patrons to ideas and resources to build their skills, but are we doing enough to support ourselves and our staff? Staff does their best work when they feel supported, prepared, and empowered to learn. We must create cultures that support continuous learning and meaningful growth beyond mandatory training. We’ll discuss ways to find and build meaningful, actionable training that inspires your staff and helps your library thrive. Learning doesn’t stop when we have a particular title or have hosted a certain program. Thoughtful training opportunities create more resilient staff, stronger programs, and better experiences for everyone.

Blogger Joannie Lauria

Unearth Your Story

As librarians, we are highly skilled at telling stories. This summer, those stories are taking us on dinosaur adventures, prehistoric explorations, and treasure hunts. After the summer rush is over, I encourage you to hang on to this theme and think about your own story. Why did you become a librarian? What skills, passions, and experiences do you bring to the table? What goals do you have for yourself and your department? Let’s unearth your story together. 

Guest Blogger

“A very exciting time to consider running for the board!”

An Interview with Incoming ALSC Board Member, Heather Love Beverly Are you interested in learning more about running for a leadership position in ALSC? In this blog post, Heather Love Beverly shares her experience serving in YALSA, what excites her about serving on the ALSC Board, and advice for those interested in serving in a leadership position within the association.

Blogger ALSC Membership Committee

Attending ALA Annual with Friends

In my 16 year career as a public children’s librarian, I have had the immense privilege to attend a handful of ALA and ALSC institute conferences. I consider myself an outgoing and confident person, but I still find traveling solo for a conference overwhelming.  While these events are always informative, exciting, and rejuvenating, there always comes a time while socializing with my fellow librarians where a voice of doubt enters my mind.  Do they really want to keep talking to me?  Am I being annoying? A few years ago I stumbled upon a solution that allowed me to hang out with close friends and diminish my social anxiety during professional conferences.

Blogger Kelley Taksier

Science of Reading in the Library: Building Print Awareness to Support Comprehension

Building print awareness, or knowledge of print concepts, is something that those serving children in libraries already do. Building print awareness even more intentionally better positions children to understand texts when they enter school. (Today’s post is yet another installment in an unofficial series on the science of reading in the library.*)

Blogger ALSC Membership Committee

Stress Relief in Time for Summer Reading

Whether you’re a school media specialist steeling yourself to fulfill continuing education coursework, or a public librarian hyping up for wall-to-wall reading programs, relaxation is likely NOT the first word that comes to mind when we youth services folks think about summer. It’s easy to feel overworked, overstimulated, and under-appreciated at any time in the library, but the heat tends to turn everything up to eleven.  You can’t expect to be at your best for your patrons, students, colleagues, friends, family, and, most importantly, yourself if you don’t indulge in little breaks to depressurize throughout the day. Here are five one minute(ish) stress relievers that make an immediate difference without making you look too goofy in a shared office. Even better, they work for people of pretty much every age, shape, and capability! Starfish Breathing Choose a hand to be your “starfish.” Then use the pointer finger of the other…

Administrative and Management Skills

Confessions of a Second Career Youth Librarian

From college interns to volunteers and young patrons, you work with all kinds of people all the time. You (capital L!) LOVE your job. Bursting with enthusiasm, you want to recruit folks into youth librarianship, but you’re not sure how. Here are six indicators the person you’re talking to may be a youth librarian in the making. Your mission: talk to them about librarianship before they find another path!