[Michlib-l] A Few More Responses on Reference Training for Circ. Staff

[Jessica Wilhoite]

Here are a few more responses about training for circ. staff: 


    * I worked as a Lead Reference Librarian in a library system in Colorado and was tasked with creating an activity to highlight a library resource for all library staff to complete on a monthly basis. These were often "scavenger hunts" of sorts using databases and other resources that the library promoted. This was to raise awareness library wide of the diversity of our resources and to promote word of mouth advertising for the library. The task was completed by the finance department, the marketing department, administration, shelvers, delivery drivers - all staff of the library! It was a great way to refresh learning in those that used the resources every day too. 

    * One thing I ran into at my other library in Washington when there was a move to integrate the Circ and Ref Desks into one Help Desk was that the librarians with MLIS degrees didn't want to train circ staff on the "secrets" of librarianship because if someone will do the work for half the pay, then why keep the professional staff around? Personally, I feel that the more people who have the skills to help the patrons, the better. :-) The way we handled that was to just have a reference librarian give circ staff a general overview of how to do a reference interview and then refer the patron to professional staff if the circ staff didn't feel comfortable answering the question. If you frame it right for the patron, they just see the customer service aspect, rather than being passed off to someone else. Plus, then you can have the circ staff observe the interaction and have more knowledge for next time. 

    * My former boss, Kristin Meyer, is the User Experience Librarian at Grand Valley State University. She and a colleague wrote a chapter in a book titled "The Front Face of Library Services: How Student Employees Lead the Library at Grand Valley State University." In it, they talk a lot about how they prepare student employees to answer reference-related questions at the centralized service desk. Here's a link to the abstract and then you just have to click download in the top righthand corner to see the full chapter: [ https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/library_books/11/ | https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/library_books/11/ ] There's a lot of game-based learning that happens and they do a lot of seminar-style tutorial sessions to help prepare student employees as well. 

    * [ https://www.amigos.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=933 | https://www.amigos.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=933 ] - This class costs money. 

Jessica Wilhoite 
Assistant Director/Youth Librarian 
Romulus Public Library 
11121 Wayne Rd. 
Romulus, MI 48174 
(734) 942-7589 

Serving Romulus and Huron Township Residents 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail3.mcls.org/pipermail/michlib-l/attachments/20171219/0ab219b7/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: sig.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 12489 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mail3.mcls.org/pipermail/michlib-l/attachments/20171219/0ab219b7/attachment.jpg>