Sustaining a Community of Change: Using Systematic Staff Training to Influence Culture Shifts in the Workplace

Learning commons, discovery tools, tablet checkout, and SMS reference are mostly standard practice for academic libraries, but is it second nature for our library staff in public services to manage these services? Academic libraries have shifted from repositories of materials to centers of innovation and community-based learning. Many of our services have changed to accommodate this shift but not all of our staff have adapted, either because of technological wariness or resistance to change. Our answer is a systematic, continuous program of professional development for everyone who works on a service desk, including librarians, paraprofessionals, and student workers.

Over the last year and a half, our Public Services Professional Development Series has morphed from a summer intensive meeting weekly to a monthly workshop session in the flipped classroom style. Our content is housed on an internal LibGuide and we plan to transition to Blackboard in Spring 2015. We began with a friendly atmosphere including snacks and laughter to get everyone in the spirit of embracing change. And over time, we have been able to gain trust and empower our staff to recognize the achievements they have made as a group, all in the interest of bettering our service to students.

Our training series is required for everyone who works on a public service desk. Regardless of position, no one is exempt, thereby addressing inequalities among the staff, be they perceived or real (Straatmann, 2008, p. 3). Additionally, by requiring all staff to attend, we've begun to implement an organizational mentoring culture to prepare staff for changing roles (Munde, 2000, p. 173). Each workshop covers a different topic that is essential to providing high quality service. Topics have included providing reference and research help (both online and in person), transitioning from an OPAC to a discovery tool, technology and devices in the library, and Springshare products. Staff are advised of learning outcomes for the topic and are assessed a week or more after the session to ensure learning and retention, not just memorization. We have attempted to normalize the assessments using a rubric specific to each topic's learning outcomes.

Beginning in Fall 2014, we began recording our workshops to make the content reusable. The recordings are made available following the live session to achieve dual purposes: 1) to alleviate the need for multiple live sessions to accommodate everyone's schedule in a 120 hour per week operation and 2) on-demand refreshers for those who attended the session. These recordings can also be used whenever a new person is hired onto our staff. By formalizing and standardizing training, we are creating a sustainable organization for the future.

Learning outcomes:

1. Describe a sustainable model for staff training employed at a mid-size public university.

2. Discuss tools for creating reusable content for staff training.

3. Compare the presenters' program to staff training at their home institution.