There are many forms of scheduled learning, including, but not limited to the following:

• large centralized location group training (lecture, demonstration, or hands-on)
• location-by-location core training for common and essential topics and skills (lecture, demonstration, or hands-on)
• one-on-one training, particularly for the more basic topics and skills
• peer training (train-the-trainer)
• webcasts
• teleconferences

A central question to answer is: Who does the scheduled training? Who prepares the materials? Who gives the actual sessions? The library management can choose to use in-house trainers (either the training coordinator or a train-the-trainer model can be used) or consultants, or can choose to send people off-site to locally offered classes. Is it more important to have a subject expert (your IT staff) training, or someone who is a professional trainer? Trainers can, in theory, train on anything. Experts have the knowledge—but are they the best people for training learners, adult learners, and possibly reticent learners?

Providing training in-house, if you are lucky enough to have a robust training coordinator or a strong train-the-trainer program, is the easiest solution for most libraries. Having one trainer from among the staff provide all training gives staff members a sense of continuity and a single person to follow up with questions or concerns before and after the training sessions. However, if there are subject experts among the staff who are logical choices to train on particular topics, use them. Not only will they benefit from the experience of setting up a training session, but their peers will also benefit from being taught by “one of their own.”

Rachel Singer Gordon writes, “Training by peers can also increase the comfort level of less technologically skilled participants in your general staff-training sessions. They may feel more comfortable asking questions when the trainer is a fellow employee, and the use of library staff members to train each other provides a level of built-in “technical support” when questions arise after a training session.”⁵

Here are three effective methods by Stone and Sachs to encourage staff to train each other:

1. Networks—joining trade associations to take advantage of trainings offered.
2. Buddy System—one employee training another (seasoned pro training new hire—or the other way around).
3. Pair and Share—forming teams or partnerships and working together regularly.⁶

Of these three, the buddy system is the most commonly adopted for technology training in libraries, though “pair and share” often happens informally through committees, staff meetings, and impromptu one-on-one interactions. A buddy system allows staff members to work together to develop and test their skills together and gives them an ongoing resource to tap in the future when help is needed. Lesley Farmer supports pairing up a veteran staff member with a younger, more tech-savvy staff member as a way to benefit both parties—teaching technology skills to the veteran and teaching training skills to the younger staff member.⁷

I, however, support a more even pairing of skill levels in order to avoid a one-way flow of information that leaves the information giver exhausted and feeling as though he or she has gained nothing from the process. Try to pair people up who work in the same location so that they can interact regularly.

There is a fascinating article by Patricia Wallace in Computers in Libraries, “Hurtling through Cyberspace: Tackling Technology Training,” in which she talks about how the Enoch Pratt Free Library (Baltimore, MD) made massive technology transitions in 1998, moving from a largely dumb-terminal environment to a PC environment, moving from DOS to Windows, moving to a high speed network, and changing ILS vendors—all at once!⁸ Crazy, you say? Yes, I say. But somehow they made it through.

One huge contributing factor was this library's use of core competencies and a “train-the-trainer” model that effectively disseminated the needed skills out to branch locations. In a “staff readiness survey,” they asked users to answer a series of questions that would rank them in one of four categories: mouseaphobic, mouseable, mouseloving, or mousemaster. Other surveys were given as well about familiarity with Windows and whether the knowledgeable among the staff would be willing to teach others. The result was a Master Trainer series where librarians, pages, and others were trained to be the Master Trainers for their locations. This led to some funky turnarounds of authority: “A certain table-turning of class level and psyche occurred, as it was sometimes the department page who was deciding whether the department manager passed or not.” She also notes that there were some early retirements, and students sometimes had to take the same class multiple times before being able to establish competency in a certain area. The end result was a staff that was trained and ready for the changes coming their way—something for any organization to aspire to.

If the library lacks adequate in-house staff to train everyone on some or all of the competencies required (as it most likely will), consider an outside trainer or specialist on each topic, or contract with one trainer to provide all the necessary training. Consider sending people to local schools for training. If you're lucky enough to have a library school nearby, promote courses to staff. Even if you don't, scour the community colleges, technical schools, and community centers for class offerings—more and more these organizations are offering technical classes that anyone in the community can take. Organizations like WebJunction, Infopeople, OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), OPAL (Online Programming for All Libraries), SirsiDynix Institutes, and others are providing online-training opportunities for library personnel on an ongoing basis on a wide range of topics. Be aware of what's coming up from each of these groups and advertise the opportunities to staff.

Creating training in-house guarantees that you can set the agenda specifically to meet the exact competencies that your staff needs to have, whereas if you send staff to an outside class, some of what you require may be covered while some may not—or they may get much, much more information than is required. Still, there is a happy balance to be reached in every organization between internal and external training. Again, I must stress the need for an adequate budget for professional development to address these costs. Let staff upgrade their skills beyond the bare minimum competencies to the level that they want to have. Help people learn what they need to learn to do their jobs well.

WebJunction Course Catalog http://webjunction.org/do/Navigation?category=442

OCLC www.oclc.org

OPAL (Online Programming for All Libraries) www.opal-online.org

SirsiDynix Institutes www.sirsidynixinstitute.com

We in libraries like schedules, rules, and lines to color within. For many of us, the concept of unscheduled learning is totally foreign. Unscheduled learning is, however, how many of us learn most of the things we know. Unscheduled learning can take many forms, but it is always learning on your own schedule and at your own pace.

To this end, encourage staff to study and learn in an unstructured environment as well. In a well-known blog post on Stephen's Lighthouse, Stephen Abram encourages management to give staff fifteen minutes a day to learn. Abram writes:

I've seen a lot of excitement about my idea that libraries can vastly increase their capacity for adopting new technology and implementing new, creative or innovative stuff if the staff invests 15 minutes a day (or every second day) in learning. If all staff participate you don't end up with isolated sole contributors. You have an army of people who understand Flickr, Blogs, Squidoo, etc. The capacity of the library system for innovation and change is exponentially increased. It also sends a positive message from the library leadership team about the value they place on staff, interaction, learning and relating to their communities and learning.⁹

Think for a moment about what fifteen minutes a day, or even fifteen minutes a week, would do for each of your staff members. Now, multiply that by the total number of staff members—how much learning is this!?! How much do you believe that much learning can affect the service your users receive? Let staff play. It's hard to learn how to use a new piece of equipment for the first time when a patron or student is asking you how to use it. It's much easier to learn how to use the equipment at a time when no one is using the scanner for live service, and staff can instead casually play with it—much as we learn new technologies at home.

Unscheduled learning can greatly help staff move toward meeting the library's technology competency requirements. Much of what is likely to be included in the technology competencies is best learned through unscheduled learning means. Here are some of the ways staff can take advantage of all that unscheduled learning has to offer:

• reading a book, article, electronic-discussion list messages, or blog post
• attending a conference to take advantage of specific sessions, the exhibits, and networking
• seeing what other nearby libraries are doing via their physical or virtual sites
• viewing recorded and archived Webcasts, etc
• completing online tutorials
• preparing a talk or training for others
• taking self-study courses
• listening to podcasts
• viewing screencasts or vidcasts
• taking asynchronous online courses (taught through lessons pushed to the user through e-mail or RSS, Web pages, discussion boards, individual tutorials or readings, etc.)

Note that many of these options are forms of e-learning. Various types of unscheduled e-learning have great potential for effective training, especially in areas where it is difficult to bring staff together in one place for a coordinated real-time training. The trainee can choose when to access the training module, fitting it into his or her busy schedule. Slower and faster learners can progress through the training at their own pace, alleviating the “how fast do I go?” question that trainers encounter in face-to-face group sessions. Trainers will not encounter the same seat limits that you have in computer lab situations for face-to-face trainings. E-learning eliminates travel time move from learners' worksite to the site of the training. If you want to make staff unhappy, tell them that they have to drive 45 minutes from their regular worksite to a different location for a one-hour training session. See how many smiling faces you have after their trip home. Time on the road can be better spent in so many ways. When training on technology, it only makes sense to use the self-same technology to deliver that training!

One excellent source to tap for online training any time is WebJunction's online courses. Its entire course catalog is available at http://webjunction.org/do/Navigation?category=442. Class topics range greatly, from Microsoft PowerPoint and Word, to customer service and dealing with difficult people, project management and retirement planning, SQL Server Admin and Photoshop, to Spanish language outreach. Some of the classes are free, others cost between $10 (for their monthly special) and $50. WebJunction also offers bulk course package purchases, so a staff member can take the whole series in a particular subject area (Basic Computing and Applications, Networking, Unix and Linux, or Web Development) for a much discounted price. Anyone coordinating a training program should be aware of these offerings and consider them as an option for students needing training on these topics.

MPLIC Tech Train http://mplictechtrain.blogspot.com

Computer HELP! http://memphiscomputers.blogspot.com

Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County's Learning 2.0 Blog http://plcmclearning.blogspot.com

Missouri River Regional Library's Learning *Library* 2.0—Lessons http://mrrl1.blogspot.com/index.html

Another option is to establish a learning blog for the library to which one or more staff members post regular tips, tricks, updates, and news about the technologies used in the library. One great example of this is the MPLIC Tech Train from Kevin Dixon, technical trainer for the Memphis Public Library and Information Center. The blog is a one-stop shop for all tech-training information for MPLIC staff, including upcoming technology events, quick links to public computer policies and class schedules, online tutorials, information about the staff development department (they have a whole department!), Ask the Tech Trainer, not to mention the blog posts themselves, which are full of technology news, resources, services, upcoming classes, and tips and tricks. Each post is indexed (tagged) with general and detailed keywords. MPLIC also has a second blog, Computer HELP!, which is an FAQ of customer questions about technology. Each answer is actually a full-blown tutorial, with room for comments and questions from staff. Other library training blogs to study include the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County's Learning 2.0 Blog and the Missouri River Regional Library's Learning *Library* 2.0—Lessons. If you want to know how to do ongoing online technology training for staff members right, check out these libraries' successes.

There must exist some way to manage and track staff completion of various programs or sessions—whether that is an “enter your e-mail address here” as the last step in an online class, a quiz, or simply taking attendance at each in-person session, it's up to the coordinator to determine which measure will benefit the staff and institution the most. Grids, spreadsheets, and simple databases can work well. If you are tracking on a unit or departmental basis, keep a separate spreadsheet for each unit or department to enable quick access to that group's training record. Remember to account for all the various ways that staff will be learning—scheduled and unscheduled. Another option is to let staff members chart their own progress levels. Have a simple graphical representation for each staff member to place at his or her desk (either in or out of view of other staff members) showing those skills already achieved and (once trained and later tested) those now trained upon and met. Use a system that emphasizes the training, not necessarily emphasizing and rewarding those who already have all the skills. Encouraging the training is what the exercise is all about, so rewarding those who have successfully undergone the most training or made the most progress is the direction you want to take. In the previous chapter we talked about the responsibility for recommending or requiring that staff take classes on the topics in which they showed weaknesses in the assessment. If certain classes are required of staff, a spreadsheet or database will need to be kept of who has completed which of the classes that were required of them.

A library system that makes training a low priority disrespects the staff who work there. Staff have a right to expect regular and substantial training so they can do their jobs better. Ignoring training sends a clear message: The staff isn't worth it! No training or token training is “dissing” the staff.

Glen E. Holt, “Training, a Library Imperative”¹⁰

Another question often overlooked is: who can attend the trainings? Question your training approval process. Does the library require employees to get managerial approval to attend training? Why? If it's beyond the reason of scheduling, then find out why. Does the library have an open policy that any employee can take any training offered? If not, again, ask why. If a library assistant (LA) wants to take a class on handy reference Web sites, would a supervisor in your library likely say no? Why? Because the LA does not technically need this information for his or her position? What about the users this person could then potentially help when reference staff members are busy or absent? These are all important scenarios to consider and questions to answer because the message sent when the library doesn't allow all employees to attend all types of training is twofold: the employee isn't worth it, and the users (the public, the students, the internal customers) aren't worth it either. And that's a message that no library wants to put out to its constituents.

Hands-on teaching in labs, one-on-one sessions at individual computers, demonstrations in meeting rooms, etc.—finding the appropriate facilities for training is something that is often unappreciated and usually not considered at all. The number of seats, the roominess of the room, the lighting, the quality of chairs, the setup (square table, reconfigurable tables, conference-room style setup, etc.) are all factors. For example, will the students have to turn their heads ninety degrees to look at your demonstration screen? If they need to work in small groups or with partners, can the seating and tables be rearranged easily to accommodate that? Is it quiet? In a busy area? Is there adequate and easy parking? Convenient bathroom facilities? Enough computers? Enough bandwidth to support classwide online activities? If you are teaching in a public library lab where the staff and public networks are shared, are there peak times of the day when a network slowdown is noticeable? If so, perhaps that isn't the best time for a class. Make sure that the facilities match the needs of the instructor and the students. Teach away from the day-to-day environment in an actual classroom if at all possible.

When do you hold the training sessions? Survey staff to find out convenient dates and times. Work your schedule around them. You are one person—the trainer. Don't make everyone come to you for your own comfort. Go where the most staff is—this saves the organization time, and the students will notice that you've made the sacrifice. Trust me. One repeated suggestion from staff is always to hold training sessions before or after scheduled meetings; since everyone is all together in one spot already, why not take advantage of it? Also, mornings seem to work better for most types of training—people are more awake and absorb more information. Finally, consider offering a multiday “Library Academy” with a variety of classes that people can choose to sign up for throughout the day, allowing staff to dedicate a day to learning instead of spreading it out over weeks or months. The downside to this approach, however, is that students might become overloaded with too much information and not retain as much as they would had the training been more spread out.

What are the procedures for individuals to register for classes? Do they need permission from their supervisors (oral or written)? Do they need to register with the trainer ahead of time (by phone, e-mail, or an online form)? Do they simply show up? Make the registration process clear to staff, keeping in mind that registration processes will differ for classes offered internally versus those offered externally.

Should the number of attendees in various classes be limited? Most classes will be limited simply by space—the number of chairs or computers available in the training facility. However, I also recommend that for each class the instructor consider whether or not to limit the class size even further, especially for the more basic classes, where people are likely to need more one-on-one attention and have more questions.

How long should a class be? The answer, my friends, is blowing in the … oh sorry. I'm back now. The answer depends on what's being taught. My general rule is to try to keep every class under two hours, and to overestimate the amount of time I think the class will take. No one minds getting out early; most people mind getting out late.

Don't forget to promote the training sessions and to do so in a number of different ways. Include brief announcements in your staff's newsletter or blog with a pointer to a Web page on the intranet with more information about each class, whether taught in-house or not. Send printed flyers with information about each week or month's offerings for each location's staff room. Recommend certain classes verbally to certain staff groups—committees, particular employees, managers, etc. Make fun “tickets” for attendees to print out ahead of time in order to attend (an online concert ticket generator from Says-It.com can be found at www.says-it.com/concertticket). Continuously advertise the training opportunities. The more venues and the more times staff are presented with the information, the more likely they are to absorb it. In all the training promotions, be very clear about any prerequisites—in the initial training advertisements, in the registration confirmation e-mail, and in the class reminders.

Send out e-mail reminders a week before the class and then again the day before the class, requesting responses if attendees are no longer able to attend. Trust me and every other technology trainer I've ever spoken with: if you do not do this, you will see your absentee count rise. Incidentally, if anyone can tell me of a way to automate this process with a calendar system based on the training date and some rules, I would be ever so grateful.