2019 Pacific Northwest Library Association Conference

Traditionally library volunteers have completed tasks such as mending books, hosting book sales, or dusting shelves. This workshop will update participants on how to recruit, train, motivate and retain volunteers with specialized skills such as marketing, social media, or program support that library staff might not have time to develop or use. Topics will include why volunteers are an important part of the library workforce, examples of skilled volunteer descriptions, the fundamentals of a successful volunteer management program, and resources to support staff with limited time for volunteer management. By the end of the workshop, attendees will develop a volunteer job description to meet a need in their library.

The challenges facing libraries are real, complex and varied. As such, they require new perspectives, new tools, and new approaches. With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and in partnership with Chicago Public Library and Aarhus Public Library, IDEO created a toolkit for using design thinking to better understand and serve library patrons.

This workshop will draw upon the toolkit and take a step-by-step approach to guide you through the process of understanding how you can incorporate design thinking practices at your library.

1. How to tap into your creativity to understand and apply human centered design thinking
2. The practical and critical steps in design thinking guided by the design thinking toolkit
3. How to more deeply understand your patrons and how they experience the services you provide to effectively serve their needs.

LEADERSHIP TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE A 3 hour morning workshop lead by experts from the University of Idaho Extension to help build leadership skills that will positively impact libraries and their communities.
This workshop is designed to assist people in developing a greater understanding of self, others and community. Working with Others is one segment the Leadership to Make a Difference Institute, focused on the development of basic leadership skills necessary for planning, leading and supporting positive intentional community change.

Do you want to create a better team environment at your library, where your staff treats each other and customers with respect and goodwill? Jenny Berg, Adam Carlson, Kimbre Chapman and Alice Darnton, supervisors from McMinnville Public Library, will share how their mid-sized public library transformed its culture to be more positive and inclusive, thereby improving customer satisfaction. During a time of anxiety caused by high turnover and leadership changes, we led our 20-person staff in brainstorming the ways they want to treat each other. The resultant list became the library’s Staff Ground Rules. The library work teams have revisited the Staff Ground Rules regularly in meetings for the past three years. We have discovered that customer service has been significantly improved as a result. Great customer service starts within ourselves and our work teams– if we thrive as a team, we thrive as an organization, and the library will thrive within the larger community. We have since used the Staff Ground Rules, and the process from which we arrived at them, as part of a new Strategic Plan. Presentation attendees will leave this session with tools they can implement to create a better team environment at their libraries.  

Presentation attendees will leave this session with tools they can implement to create a better team environment at their libraries, including positive relationship building, holding people accountable and having critical conversations, fun ways to keep the positive team dynamic front and center, and getting staff buy in for various library initiatives.