Paper Title: Practical Approaches for Incorporating Online Learning into Staff Development Initiatives

Abstract:
Online learning is no longer a novelty – it is now an accepted, even expected, component of professional development for library staff in the United States.  While tools like learning management systems and formal self-paced courses have an important place in library staff development programs, many trainers are mixing and matching online elements of all kinds into training programs. Current professional development initiatives in the U.S. blend face-to-face learning events with webinars, videos, online tutorials, discussion boards, and social networking tools, like twitter. The sophisticated and tailored use of online tools in U.S. libraries shows that as technology catches up to learners’ needs it can help the organization, trainer, and learner better meet their learning goals. 

For this paper, presented at the 2010 IFLA conference, the authors interviewed U.S. library organizations about their online training programs. Successes included robust participant interactions, application of new concepts by learners, extending the organization’s training reach, and taking a team-based approach to developing training.

Read the entire paper (pdf) or check out the case studies for each of the training programs profiled:

• Arizona Library Institute, Virtual Extension (ALIVE!) (pdf)
• Baltimore County Public Library Virtual Orientation (pdf)
• Cohort Learning Program: Colorado State Library/CLiC/High Plains Library (pdf)
• Everyday Ethics: State Library of Kansas and the Kansas Regional Library Systems (pdf)
• WebJunction Course Creation Gurus (pdf)

The slides presented at IFLA 2010 are also available for download as a .pdf file.