Skip to main content

Library Staff Skills Inventory

Sometimes you don't know what you have until you ask...
We just did a library staff skills inventory to find out what we might be able to offer as practice tools to make our lives richer and more productive. We asked:

  1. "What APPs do you use on your smartphone or tablet?
  2. Do you use a piece of software that you love and couldn't live without?
  3. What social media are you comfortable with?
  4. What hobbies do you have that you'd like to share?
  5. Have you gone through a recent life change (moving, child with special needs, job search, senior living for parents) that you have research and could share with others?
The point is, you don't have to be an expert to have something of value to share with patrons. If you set up your program in an open, accepting way, patrons themselves feel comfortable sharing their experiences and knowledge on a topic as well!

From this inventory, we are planning to build a series of programs over a course of time, that will brand our library as a "Go To" place that is comfortable, helpful, supportive for our patrons.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Our most popular makerspace/STEM/Library of Things

As of April 2018, we did a kit circulation report.  We had 106 kits which have circulated 1,047 times since it's inception in 2015.  Here is the top 10 list of most circulated. These include hobby kits, puzzles, cake pans, instruments, science robots/STEM, and American Girl dolls. The ukulele kits (we have one soprano and one concert kit) have been around the longest and have circulated 106 times total.  Just remember someone should change the strings yearly and definitely include a tuner (we like the snark) as new strings on a uke take a while to break in. Surprisingly our meditation toolbox comes in second with 51 checkouts.  It is just some CDs and a DVD.  This one has also been around since the inception of our kits. Next up is our virtual reality headset toolbox.  It is a Homido Virtual Reality headset. If that is too pricey, I recommend Google Cardboard.  Our sewing machine comes in 5th.  Knitting is a great idea for a toolbox and very popular but li

New ideas for Circulation-Library of Things/ Makerspace Kits

The DFL currently experiments with hobby, STEAM, and Technology kits that are housed both in the adult section and the kids room. These kits include musical instruments, video equipment, puzzles, cake plans, robots, looms, and more available for checkout.  The kits are bought using our Amazon prime account, under the supervision of the head of circulation using a special makerspace kit budget and backed up by a kit committee made up of various departments to streamline the process.  The kits with the most holds by far have been the Retro Nintendo  and Super Nintendo Classic which were small batch pre-Christmas releases for the last two years.  Rather than blowing the dirt out of your old cartridges, these consoles have games built in for your playing pleasure. According to Walmart, the Nintendo "classics" are on sale as of today.  Our kit contains a small palm sized console, 2 controllers (try to upgrade wireless ones if you can), an ac adapter, and, I recommend, a carr

3D Printing Signs for the Library Collection

Last weekend, I went to the annual Tee-Off mini golf event at the Brookline Public Library.  As a first time visitor, I was mini-golfing with my phone at the ready. Special thanks to the AMAZING librarian rockstar Robin Brenner for so many great ideas. It truly is worth a visit just to see her teen room. Here are a few 3D printing/marketing ideas to takeaway: Having a  3D printer filtration cart would be wonderful in our library.  Look at the price if you dare.  Right now I have to go downstairs to retrieve prints because we are concerned about the fumes and little hands touching anything while the printer is on.  I have a video camera set up downstairs using an iPad 2 and the free app called Presence  for monitoring but sometimes I do forget to keep checking the presence website while I'm on the desk especially since it makes this annoying beeping sound to say, "Are you still watching?!"..As the sign reveals on the cart, the propensity to want to lean or jostle the car