ALA Learning Wiki

ALA Learning Wiki Home

This wiki is in its infancy, but our goal is for it to become a place for everyone who is involved in training library staff to share resources and advice. We need your help to make it happen.

• Do you have an activity that works well for a customer service class?
• Have you created humorous videos that your classes always enjoy?
• Have you done a detailed study of webinar platforms?
• Does your new employee orientation really help staff get their feet on the ground and understand your organization's culture?

Please share! We want every visitor to feel welcome to be a contributor.

The wiki is a production of the American Library Association's Learning Round Table, the ALA member group wholly devoted to improving library staff learning and development.

The site is organized into seven broad sections, as follows:

Managing Training -- Best Practices. This section deals with big picture issues of planning and managing a training program. Could include examples of curriculum plans, approaches to evaluating effectiveness, and policies and procedures for training programs.

Training Events -- Best Practices. What have you learned about putting together effective classes and other training events? This section will include a wealth of resources on All Staff Days developed as a special project of the Emerging Leaders program.

Training Materials and Resources. This section will include such resources related to specific class topics as outlines, lesson plans, activities, video tutorials, presentation slideshows, etc. Following are some of the topics that will be included:

• New Employee Orientation
• Leadership and Supervision
• Customer Service
• Technology
• Reference Services
• Programming
• Youth Services
• Safety & Security

E-Learning. Includes links to self-paced e-classes (such as those offered by LE@D and Webjunction), and we hope to add a calendar or schedule of live webinars coming soon. Includes free and fee-based resources.

Trainers' Tools. Recommended resources, reviews, advice, and comparisons of everything from webinar platforms to flipcharts.

Connections. Our plan is to build a directory of colleagues who are involved in staff development, consultants, and professional organizations (e.g., the American Society of Training and Development [ASTD]).

Learn More. Reviews of books and articles, recommended websites, professional journals, and certificate and degree programs all relating to the training function.