Library News, Reviews, and Views
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Library Journal's Lead the Change offers timely resources and tools to stay ahead of the innovations and changes impacting the library profession. Library staff at all levels can participate in hands-on live events, access insightful on-demand webcasts, and enroll in LTC Leadership Academy - Online, a new online learning program that will help staff learn essential skills to advance their careers, solve problems unique to their libraries, and put strategic plans into action. LEARN MORE |
By now the concept of user experience (UX) has shown up on most librarians’ radar at some point. Whether you’ve found yourself curious about how better digital design could help your library’s traffic, you wish had a UX specialist on staff, you’re engaged by Aaron Schmidt’s The User Experience column, or you’ve considered learning more about user-centered design yourself, the chance to improve the library’s user experience is within everyone’s reach.
Lead the Change, now entering its fourth year, has illustrated to us just how deep the need is for leadership development. A 2014 survey of 550-plus Movers & Shakers stressed the need for the entire staff to be up to speed on innovations in libraries and personal leadership.
Thursday, November 20th, 2014, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM PT
During this insightful discussion between Aaron Schmidt, Principal, Influx Library User Experience and LJ columnist (The User Experience) and the co-founders/directors of DOKLAB, we will highlight a variety of novel and meaningful things that libraries around the world are doing to engage their communities. Register Now!
Tuesday, October 28th, 2014, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM PT
During this insightful discussion between Aaron Schmidt, Principal, Influx Library User Experience and LJ columnist (The User Experience) and Scott Young, Digital Initiatives Librarian, Montana State University, we will cover usability, web conventions, writing for the web, content strategy, and user research. You’ll take home tips and ideas that you can immediately use to improve your website.
Register Now!
Tuesday, October 14th, 2014, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM PT
During this insightful discussion moderated by Aaron Schmidt, Principal, Influx Library User Experience and LJ columnist (The User Experience), library branding mavens will share the basics of branding and identity development, show examples from their successful efforts, and share practical tips that you can implement right away.
Register Now!
At Lead the Change workshops, local library leaders help facilitate the presentation, adding their own perspectives on the concepts presented by program developer David Bendekovic. But they don’t usually bring their own visual aids. The Southern California workshop, held on May 15 at the Pasadena Public Library (PPL), was an exception. PPL director Jan Sanders brought a giant foamcore version of one of Bendekovic’s slides, on which she’d asked library staff members to plot where they felt their library stood.
When librarian Elke Bruton from the State Library of Oregon (pictured) and four of her colleagues attended Lead the Change! Oregon at Portland’s Central Library in April 2013, they were told they should give a report when they got back. But, she tells LJ, “We said, we don’t want to do that. Out of context, it doesn’t mean anything.” Instead, the team met to digest their own takeaways and turn them into training for their coworkers.
Monroe County Library System (MCLS) and Rochester Public Library (RPL), NY, director Patricia Uttaro credits LJ’s Lead the Change event with turning multiple small projects that had been happening across the district into a more cohesive structure capable of affecting broader change.
There’s leadership. Then there’s library leadership. Or is there? Is being a leader in a library so different that it is a leadership entity unique unto itself? A library leader is ultimately, a leader who performs their work in a library, but what makes him or her a leader is not unique to the library setting.
THE MULTNOMAH COUNTY Library District had the honor April 16 of hosting LJ’s leadership event series “Lead the Change! Oregon.” In anticipation of the day, I reflected on the varied leadership roles I’ve assumed over the years—from my days as spaceship commander during first grade recess to choir president in high school to more formal leadership roles. I also reflected on those around me in leadership roles from whom I’ve gleaned so much.
INFOdocket by Gary Price
