Tag Archives: Staff Development

Roll for Instruction! Game Based Training for Librarian Development – 1 LEU

Staff Development,

two dice piecesDiscover how tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) are ideal professional development tools for focusing on enhancing skills that build instructional confidence. This session introduces a practical approach to using interactive, story-driven scenarios to strengthen teaching techniques, classroom management, collaboration, and on-the-fly problem solving skills that directly enhance patron interactions.  Attendees will take away ideas for running their own adaptable scenarios they can plug into existing training, as well as tips for helping staff reflect, apply what they practiced, and transfer those skills to their instruction and presentations.  This session aims to inspire library staff to adopt game-based learning for continuous improvement, ensuring instruction librarians are creative, adaptable educators in any setting.

Date Recorded: 6/10/2026

Format: Archived YouTube Video

Presenters: Justin Harrison, Business Undergraduate Program Librarian and Tracey Rinehart, Instruction Coordinator and Business Graduate Programs Librarian / both of Southern Methodist University (Dallas, Texas)

Resources:

 

Start Your Community’s Journey to Information Literacy – 1 LEU

Programming, Reference/Research, Staff Development, Technology, , , , , ,

In 2024 the Institute of Museum and Library Services launched a new website to resources to teach about the different types of literacy there are including information literacy, digital literacy, financial literacy, health literacy, and science literacy.  The website includes programming resources to help develop skills in using and understanding information in a quickly changing world. In addition, the website includes training resources specifically for professionals, funding opportunities to promote information literacy, ready-made lesson plans, evaluation tools and more.  Please join us for a look at what can be accomplished using the materials available on the website.

Date recorded: April 30, 2025

Format: Archived YouTube Video

Presenter: Kara Cleveland, Professional Development Office Supervisor, Indiana State Library

Bookmarking Success: Partnering with the School Care Team to Enhance Library Impact – 1 LEU

Staff Development, , , ,

image of four people with puzzle piecesHear success stories of how the School Care Team has helped libraries in Indiana strengthen their impact on youth, provide community support, and support library staff well-being. Attendees will learn about programs and training offered through these partnerships and how to bring them to their own libraries. Leave with research-based practical tools to foster personal and community well-being.

Date Recorded: 2/26/2025

Format: Archived YouTube Video

Presenter: Shannon Tenney, Program Specialist / School Care Team

Resources:

 

Reporting Abuse and Neglect – DCS self-paced course – 1 LEU

Admin/Management, , , , ,

This self-paced course from the Indiana Department of Child Services focuses on how to identify different types of abuse, as well as how to report it to DCS.

Access the course via this link.

About LEUs for this self-paced course:

Library staff may only claim 1 LEU if it takes them at least 31 minutes to finish the course, so please take your time and progress through the course carefully.  Currently, this course auto-generates a Continuing Education certificate, created by DCS, upon completion.  To use this for your LEU certificate, please hand-write the time (minutes) it took to complete and the number of LEUs on the certificate, or have someone in administration create a new certificate for you following the rules set forth on the LEU Policies website.

Resources:  Visit Indiana’s Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline website for more information and resources on mandatory reporting.

This is a courtesy re-posting of DCS’s Reporting Abuse and Neglect self-paced course.  This training can also be reached via this website; scroll down to “Public Online Training and Information Course.”

Material Challenges ACPL’s Journey of Training Staff – 1 LEU

Intellectual Freedom, , , ,

image of Allen County Public Library ACPL with blue and white wavesMaterial challenges are at an all-time high and public libraries are facing pressure from multiple avenues. The Allen County Public Library recently undertook an effort to train our staff (17 departments in 14 locations) in handling challenges to materials. This presentation is a chance to learn how we did this and what we learned from it.

Date Recorded: 7/10/2024

Format: Archived YouTube Video

Presenters: Matthew Etzel, Collection Services Manager and Tonya Frandle, Public Services Manager / Allen County Public Library

Resources:

 

Planting the seeds of leadership: Growing your skills at any level – 1 LEU

Leadership, , , , ,

image of seedling hand wateredLeadership training has traditionally been reserved for those in formal management and administrator positions, but there is a wealth of research that shows the benefits of providing this training to employees at all levels. Organizations that invest in leadership training draw talented employees and are better positioned to withstand crises. Professionals who attend workshops and trainings report greater opportunities for personal and professional growth and increased satisfaction at work. In this talk intended for library staff of all levels, I will address the benefits of attending leadership training, such as improved communication, increased community impact, and greater work culture of care and support. You will hear concrete strategies of growing your skillset and finding leadership opportunities and have an opportunity to ask questions and discuss ideas.

Date Recorded: 5/3/2023

Format: Archived YouTube Video

Presenter:  Jenni Burke, Science Librarian / Butler University

Resources:

 

Employee Wellness Incentive: Corrective to Inclusive – 1 LEU

Admin/Management, , , ,

Get an inside view of how and why a public library transitioned from an insurance incentive that targeted those who failed screening benchmarks to a wellness incentive that treats health as holistic. Come learn about the research behind incentives and see how one program evolved. Presenters will detail inclusive and holistic features, ask attendees to personalize ideas for their own institutions, and break wellness activities into pieces that can be applied with or without an insurance discount.

Date recorded:  5/8/24

Format: Archived YouTube video

Presenters: Faith Brautigam, Library Director and Christie Tate, Head of Human Resources and Volunteers / Kokomo – Howard County Public Library

We Need More Than Just Yoga and Meditation: Really Supporting the Mental Health Needs of Librarians and Library Workers – 1 LEU

Staff Development, ,

In our everyday work, we focus much of our time and energy on patron services, ways to improve these services, and innovative ways to support our patrons and communities. Yet, we regularly neglect one significantly underserved population – ourselves. Specifically, the mental health needs of librarians and library workers. These needs, alongside support, are rarely addressed in conference presentations or continuing education programs. This webinar will discuss practical and meaningful approaches for librarians and library workers to manage emotional labor, triggering service experiences, and compassion fatigue, preventing burnout or furthering of mental health issues. Additionally, this webinar will offer ways in which management and colleagues can compassionately and respectfully support those who are experiencing a mental health crisis.

Date Recorded: 04/24/2024

Format:  Archived YouTube Video

Presenter:  Abigail Phillips, Assistant Professor – School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Game Master Librarian Part One: How You and Your Library can be a Portal for TTRPG Learning Experiences – 1 LEU

Trends, , , ,

image of colorful diceTabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) – Dungeons & Dragons being the most popular example – can positively impact the multiple facets of students’ lives: academics, durable skills, social-emotional learning. In Part One of our two part series, let’s quest together as we encounter how research supports using TTRPGs in education, explore stories of teachers using TTRPGs in their classrooms, and discover ideas and ways that librarians and the library can play a critical role in making such transformative game-based learning a success. 

Before the webinar begins, please complete Slides 3-5 of the “Character Sheet Reflection Tool” (i.e. “Before the Quest”). We will complete the second half (“At the End of the Quest”) of the Reflection Tool at the end of the webinar.

ADAM WATSON (@watsonedtech) has been a Kentucky educator since 2005, starting out as a high school English teacher and became National Board Certified in 2013.  In 2014, he was hired at Shelby County Public Schools to be its district Digital Learning Coordinator, where he was a leader in several initiatives, including a 1:1 Chromebook implementation and the launch of Shelby’s Profile of a Graduate.  In his role at Shelby, Adam also was the lead liaison for the district’s librarians.   In 2022, he joined the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative (OVEC) as a Deeper Learning Design Specialist.  Adam is a frequent presenter, PD facilitator, and published writer on innovative education, particularly on the topics of edtech and game-based learning.  In 2019, KySTE (the state chapter of the International Society for Technology in Education) named him the Outstanding Leader of the Year.  For more on Adam’s educational journey, please visit adamwatson.org.

Date Recorded: 5/8/2024

Format: Archived YouTube Video

Presenter: Adam Watson, Digital Learning Coordinator / Shelby County Public Schools

Resources:

 

What the research says – playful lectures: how games can help learning – 1 LEU

Staff Development,

image of men and women playing board gamePlaying board games can be a wonderful way to pass your time, but they can also be an engaging method of complementing traditional learning techniques. These games can be existing commercial or freely available games, as well as games developed specifically for a particular class. This webinar will focus on university education and how games can help teach concepts and theories that students discuss during lectures, as well as how game-based project work can help students to build research skills.

Date Recorded: 2/21/2024

Format: Archived YouTube Video

Presenter: Dr. Pijus Krūminas, Associate Professor / ISM University of Management and Economics