The Safe Library - Service, Safety, & Security with Dr. Steve Albrecht

Creating Training Opportunities for Library Staff
Why not set aside one day per month and let the employees choose their topics?

By Dr. Steve Albrecht

It seems possible that last week, I taught my eleventy bazillionth training class. Sounds bold, right? Let’s do some math: I taught my first class in front of a live group of (mostly attentive) adults back in 1987. That’s 38 years and counting, week after week, sometimes doing four two-hour classes per day and including the time I taught the same one-hour class eight times per day for five straight days for a golf club factory (30 minutes on harassment prevention and 30 minutes on no drugs or alcohol in the workplace; ironic, because the executive offices had a full working bar, with a bartender). Carry the six and divide by π or something. Yeah, it has been a long training career.

When people ask me what I do, I tell them I teach training programs on HR topics. If they bother to press me on which ones (rare, especially at parties), I usually say, “ I often teach subjects no one wants to sit through, like sexual harassment, diversity awareness, team conflicts, coaching difficult employees, doing performance evaluations, and workplace violence prevention.” They nod politely and go back over to the table with the food.

This highlights the distinction between training classes - whether via Zoom or in a classroom - that you want to attend versus those that you are required to attend. I worked for the City of San Diego for 15 years, so I was “requested” to go to a lot of classes that were based on compliance topics. And I attended some that were just good for my career and my general base of knowledge. The former were often kind of a drag and the latter were often fun and enjoyable. Are we shocked that people learn and retain better for subjects that interest them versus ones that are just “check the attendance box” and let’s get it over with?

I have suggested on my Library 2.0 podcast about the value for library leaders to establish a “Training Day” each month, where staff can pick their topics and do their own development. This day is not just for the typical all-hands, all-staff full or half-day session when the library is closed, but for one day self-guided day each month, for an hour or so. (Columbus Day is always a favorite Staff Dev Day. I just got back from training on that day for the good folks in Worcester County, in Ocean City, MD.)

So why not give each staff member one day each month to devote at least an hour or two to a training topic of their choice? Obviously, every employee can’t pick the same day - someone has to run the library - but by spreading the days around, including for those staffers who work weekends, we can create the time.

Here’s a starter’s list of potential training subjects or entry points:

Library 2.0 (www.Library20.com)
Niche Academy (www.NicheAcademy.com)
YouTube instructional or educational videos.
TikTok shorts.
Inviting local speakers for a series of “Lunch and Learns.”
Develop a list of free or low-cost online self-assessment instruments.
Create a team of in-house training specialists, who can do Train-the-Trainer sessions.
Create a “Best Training Class” contest, rewarding the employees who find the most fun, practical, cost-effective, and applicable online training programs, videos, or instruments.
Assign relevant material from noteworthy books, articles, or reports, that can fill training gaps.
Ask the employees to create a six-month calendar of training topics they plan to cover in that span.

The point is to give the employees at every level some choices as to how they can self-develop. The Assistant Director of the library will have different training needs than a part-time employee, but the point is they can both benefit from guiding their own training content.