[Michlib-l] staff technology competency assessment

[Yvonne Brown]

Hello. Last year I put out an inquiry regarding resources for staff tech assessments. I received several responses. There were some nice suggestions regarding online packaged tests and services. Many of the responses requested would I please share my findings. 

There are some great packaged tests out there, but not suited to our needs. We ended up creating our own assessment using Microsoft Infopath (a module of Microsoft Office). We do not expect staff to be experts by any means, but there are some core competencies which are required to do this job, and we wanted to make sure we were in good shape. 

The assessment included questions on the ILS, phone usage, flash drives, file/folder management, databases, ebooks, and more. The Infopath file (a fill-able form) was emailed to staff, who then saved it to their desktop. When the file is double-clicked, a new instance of the blank assessment is created, which is then completed, saved, and emailed back to admin. It worked very nicely. 

Upon review of the completed assessments, we had one big surprise: over half of the staff thought our public WI-FI access required a password, when in fact it does not. We gave a WI-FI demo at the next staff meeting, following the assessment period. 

Another discovery: many staff members do not know how to place copy-specific holds for serial records, such as graphic novels and magazines. A staff person is putting together a class on this. 

We are very proud of our staff for their time and effort in taking the assessments, and the great attitudes during the process. They did a super job! We are in great shape to assist patrons and do the work we need to do. By the way, our director also took the assessment (hooray, Melissa!). 

Attached is a pdf version of our actual assessment. 

Feel free to contact me for more info. 

Yvonne Brown 
Lapeer District Library 
www.library.lapeer.org 
810-664-9521 

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