Marketing and Workshops; Teen Read Week; Flannelboard: Emperor's New Clothes
Earlier this week I attended the Professional Reading Roundtable at the Shenandoah Library, joining librarians from the area in discussing ideas from books of our choice. We discussed oral history (an interesting project is in the works--you might be hearing about it at a later date), customer service, reader's advisory for teens, staff development, early childhood learning spaces, and marketing. (Oh, and a side note--Carole listened to the customer service book, downloading it from WILBOR, rather than reading it.) At the end of the day we had found several topics for workshops in the spring, so be watching for those.
As we talked about marketing I was struck by the incredible range of marketing that we could be doing, and the wealth of tools that we have to help us to do that. First of all, the experience and ideas of our colleagues--from conversation, from observation as we visit other libraries or read journals, from books, from blogs. We'll find ideas for marketing new services and special events, for marketing to groups that aren't using the library as much as we'd like, marketing within the library--merchandising, really--and here we can learn from our colleagues in retail, marketing through the media, through print in the library and around the community, and marketing through the web.
As with many things, a plan is a good starting point. Even if you end up changing the plan, it's a good place to start. We'll be planning a series of workshops on the various aspects of marketing, starting with developing a marketing plan, and following through with the plan. You'll be "doing" as we move through the series, and will hopefully have a marketing plan and action steps by the end of the series.
As for the workshops on the other topics--there's a new "Creating a Reader's Advisory Service" workshop starting July 31. The oral history project might sprout a workshop or two, and customer service and staff development are definitely on our list for the spring. (And though I didn't mention it in the podcast, we're working on a reference interview workshop, as well. ) Stay tuned! --Karen
Links from Today's Podcast:
SWILSA Youth Services
Teen Read Week
WrestleMania Reading Challenge
Friday, July 25, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
CE Around the State; Podcasting Tips; Aesop's Fables Flannelboard Kits
CE Around the State; Podcasting Tips; Aesop's Fables Flannelboard Kits
First of all, it's good to be back online! It has been a challenging 3 or 4 weeks and we still have a few things to clear up and update but we're happy to be--for the most part--back. Thanks for your patience as we dealt with simultaneous connectivity and webserver issues. In the last podcast I updated you on upcoming plans for continuing education. This week I'd like to review briefly the larger continuing education picture. One of the great things about the Iowa library community, aided by technological tools available to us now, is that continuing education is offered to any librarian or trustee in the state. It has always been so, but traveling to different and distant LSAs for a workshop was difficult for many librarians. With ICN and online classrooms available to us now there are even more opportunities to take advantage of workshops offered by other LSAs. We hope, of course, that we're meeting many of your CE needs but there are a great many great workshops and classes offered by our colleagues in other LSAs and at the State Library. All of us at the LSAs and State Library have heard librarians say, "Such and such LSA is offering this class online; will you be offering it, too?" The beauty of the online environment is that anyone can attend from anywhere in the state. Occasionally an LSA may have limited "seats" in a class and will give preference to librarians in its own LSA, but for the most part you are welcome to register for any class anywhere in the state. We are planning a regular e-mail "newsletter" that lists upcoming CE around the state, so you will have the announcements in that format, as well as checking the statewide CE catalog for classes you might be interested in. That's about it from me today; I just wanted to remind you that there are a great many classes available to you--don't hesitate to take advantage of them. If you need assistance in getting set up in a Wimba online classroom just let me know and I'll help you get started. We also plan to offer, periodically, a "How to Be a Successful Online Learner" class. Online learning may not be your ideal learning style but we can help you to maximize its effectiveness for you so you can tap into the great wealth of continuing education opportunities you have--literally--at your fingertips. --Karen
First of all, it's good to be back online! It has been a challenging 3 or 4 weeks and we still have a few things to clear up and update but we're happy to be--for the most part--back. Thanks for your patience as we dealt with simultaneous connectivity and webserver issues. In the last podcast I updated you on upcoming plans for continuing education. This week I'd like to review briefly the larger continuing education picture. One of the great things about the Iowa library community, aided by technological tools available to us now, is that continuing education is offered to any librarian or trustee in the state. It has always been so, but traveling to different and distant LSAs for a workshop was difficult for many librarians. With ICN and online classrooms available to us now there are even more opportunities to take advantage of workshops offered by other LSAs. We hope, of course, that we're meeting many of your CE needs but there are a great many great workshops and classes offered by our colleagues in other LSAs and at the State Library. All of us at the LSAs and State Library have heard librarians say, "Such and such LSA is offering this class online; will you be offering it, too?" The beauty of the online environment is that anyone can attend from anywhere in the state. Occasionally an LSA may have limited "seats" in a class and will give preference to librarians in its own LSA, but for the most part you are welcome to register for any class anywhere in the state. We are planning a regular e-mail "newsletter" that lists upcoming CE around the state, so you will have the announcements in that format, as well as checking the statewide CE catalog for classes you might be interested in. That's about it from me today; I just wanted to remind you that there are a great many classes available to you--don't hesitate to take advantage of them. If you need assistance in getting set up in a Wimba online classroom just let me know and I'll help you get started. We also plan to offer, periodically, a "How to Be a Successful Online Learner" class. Online learning may not be your ideal learning style but we can help you to maximize its effectiveness for you so you can tap into the great wealth of continuing education opportunities you have--literally--at your fingertips. --Karen
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