TRAINING AND ORIENTATION

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TRAINING AND ORIENTATION FOR LIBRARIANS
Joanne Oud, Head of Collection Development
Eun-ha Spiteri, Reference and Collection
Librarian Angela Madden, Professor Wilfrid
Laurier University
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Session 403 345 pm - 500 pm
How effective is your orientation and training
for new librarians? Find out what works (and
what doesn't), and what new librarians know (or
don't yet know!). Avoid the most common training
problems as you learn to improve upon the design
of training and orientation programs.
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Getting to know you

• What kind of library are you from?
• What type of position do you have?

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Getting to know us

• How did we get to this point?
• observation
• the project
• interviews/questionnaire
• analysis
• training issues

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Survey Finding 1

• Facts and figures about training

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Training received
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Length of training
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Availability of mentor
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• Training methods
• One on one discussion 95
• Trainee asking questions 87
• Group session 36
• Practice exercises 25
• Training manual 17

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• What training methods would have worked better?
• Structured training
• Hands-on exercises
• Clearer job description
• Training manual
• Scheduled time for questions

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• Training content
• Job duties 94
• Library staff introductions 92
• Informal expectations 57
• Library politics and culture 33
• Faculty introductions 30  

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Survey Finding 2
What dont new librarians know and what are
their barriers to learning?
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• Things people knew least
• How to say no to projects
• Faculty - outreach and interaction
• Speaking in meetings
• Expressing disagreement
• Library politics

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• What was hardest to learn
• Politics/culture
• how to navigate the bureaucratic jungle
• How to say no
• Dealing with conflict
• Lack of feedback and guidance
• How to deal with resistance to change

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• What was surprising/different
• Lack of feedback
• Amount of independence
• Flexibility/lack of structure
• Initiative expected
• When and how to make decisions
• Library politics
• Bureaucracy
• Generation gap

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• Learning barriers
• Lack of feedback 58
• Feeling you should know 54
• Assume you know more 39
• Colleagues too busy 36
• Inadequate training 35
• Too much info at once 34

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Survey Finding 3
What are the most common training problems?
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• Summary Common Problems
• Not enough training
• Too informal
• Too much initiative required of trainee
• No overall goal, plan
• Too much information at once
• Methods too dry
• Not enough practice
• Content does not match knowledge gaps

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Suggestions for improvement
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• Suggestions for Improvement
• Staged /Structured Training plan over long term
• Formally assigned mentor
• Training manual, documentation
• More practical exercises
• Content library culture and politics

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Some real life experiences
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• Quality of Training What actually happens?
• Staged Training vs. All at once Does anyone even
  think about the options?
• Hours of Training How do you know what is
  enough?
• What other factors make training successful or
  fail? Why important?
• Understanding Culture/Politics. How do we do
  that?
• Resistance to Change and Generation Gap?

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Our Top Ten Training Tips Formal
Education Comprehensive Training Time Questions Me
ntor Feedback Continuing Education Manual Follow-u
p
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Questions? The URL for our
presentation http//info.wlu.ca/wwwbrant/pages/i
nfolit/OLA/index/
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Contact Information Joanne Oud joud_at_wlu.ca Eun-h
a Spiteri, espiteri_at_wlu.ca Angela
Madden amadden_at_wlu.ca