Building a Learning Organization: Creating and Implementing a Training Program for the University of Houston Libraries

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Building a Learning Organization Creating
and Implementing a Training Program for the
University of Houston Libraries

• Annie Wu, Chair of the UH Libraries Training
  Committee
• Damon Camille, Training, Assessment
  Statistics Coordinator
• Texas Library Association Webinar
• 10/08/2010

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University of Houston Libraries

• Main library with 3 branches
• About 125 staff
• members
• 2.2 million volumes
• 400,000 E-titles

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What We Found at the Outset

• Training offered vary by departments
• Librarians got more than staff
• Barriers
• People didnt know how to request training
• Technology/equipment barriers
• Staffing/scheduling problems
• Unaware of training resources
• Red tape forms, signatures, budgets

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Making the Changes

• The Training Committee appointed in June
• Committee Charges
• Skills/training needs assessment
• Develop annual training plan
• Develop orientation program

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Building a Learning Organization

• Systems Thinking
• Personal Mastery
• Shared Vision
• Team Learning

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Training Project Plan
Phase I Preparation Needs Assessment Explore other libraries programs Needs assessment activities Analyze data 06/15 07/30
Phase II Program Development Locate training resource Identify training methods Build annual training orientation plan Training Committee report 08/01 09/15
Phase III Program Implementation Identify and invite trainers Coordinate training sessions Build training Intranet site Create Orientation Ref Guide Fiscal Year 2010
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Needs Assessment Methodology

• Survey
• Department Heads/
• Supervisors Interview
• Focus Groups

Needed Skills ?
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Survey

• Used SurveyMonkey
• for our survey questions
• Responses to Survey
• Questions asked

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Department Heads/Supervisor Interviews

• Why we interviewed
• supervisors
• How we conducted
• the interviews
• Questions asked

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Focus Groups

• Make-up of the variousgroups
• Librarians
• New employees
• Staff
• Facilitation and note taking
• Questions asked

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Tools for Data Collection and Analysis

• SurveyMonkey
• MS Excel
• MS Access
• Basecamp

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Data Analysis

• SurveyMonkey downloaded into Excel for analysis
• Supervisor interviews summarized report by
  interviewers for analysis
• Focus Groups - summarized report by note takers
  for analysis
• Consolidate all the needs assessment data using
  Excel
• Categorize, sort and prioritize data.

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What Did We Find Out?

• Library Services Skills
• Professional/Interpersonal Skills
• Computer Skills

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Library Services Skills

• Library systems skills
• Collection management
• skills
• Assessment skills
• Marketing and outreach
• Digital and metadata

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Professional and Interpersonal Skills

• Leadership/Management
• Customer services
• Time management
• Interpersonal/People skills
• Project management
• Business meeting facilitation

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Computer Skills

• Drupal
• Microsoft Office 2007
• Outlook (email calendar)
• Excel PowerPoint Word
• PeopleSoft
• Windows file management
• Programming languages
• Media technology

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Orientation Needs

• A very structured first day
• A set itinerary for the first few days
• Branch tours
• Promotion process
• Library maps, acronyms and terms
• Travel process
• Departmental orientation

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Training Plans for Needed Skills

• Library-wide Training
• Departmental Training
• Cross Training

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Orientation Plan

• New Employees Orientation Reference Guide
• New Employees Check List
• Departmental Orientation Module

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Training Committee Intranet Site

• Schedules Training Events
• News and Events
• Forms
• Training Resources
• Orientation Materials
• Docs and Links
• Feedback

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Assessment of Success

• Training Sessions Evaluation (Evaluation Form)
• Training Statistics (Sign-in Sheet Access
  Database)
• Sustainability

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Training Statistics - 2010
Sessions Attendance
Individual Training 15 15
Group Training 73 659
Dept. Orientation 5 164
Total 93 838
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Training Plan - 2011
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• Annie Wu awu_at_uh.edu
• Damon Camille dcamille_at_uh.eduUniversity of
  Houston Libraries
• Sources for Images http//office.microsoft.com/e
  n-us/clipart/default.aspx?lcen-us
  http//sxc.hu/ http//images.google.com/imghp?hl
  entabwi