Search Results for: library of the year

RRLC is offering up to 15 seats at the upcoming LibraryWorks webinar, LibraryWorks Webinar: Communicating with Elected Officials about your Library

The climate for libraries can be stressful. With polarizing politics, book bans, budget concerns and more, libraries must increasingly work and interact with their elected officials and the public. How do you communicate effectively in stressful times? How can you get the attention of your elected officials? And how can libraries better communicate all the positives they give to their community?

Through this webinar, you will learn:
• Suggestions for handling difficult conversations
• Ideas for communicating and connecting all year with elected officials
• Understanding where elected officials may be coming from
• Resources from the American Library Association and other places that can help

REGISTER

Libraries play many important roles in their communities, but none as important today in helping people access the healthcare and health information they need, especially with telehealth needs of those who lack internet, devices, and or the digital skills to obtain health services and health information. The Veterans’ Affairs Office has created a service to assist veterans and their families with telehealth services called VA Video Connect. This webinar will show library staff how to assist and help Veterans learn to use VA Video Connect App to video conference with their providers.

Objectives:

• Overview of how VA Video Connect works
• What does a Veteran need to participate
• How to setup a device, (Apple/ Android/ Tablet)
• Ways to test a device is properly setup
• What Veterans and their families can expect in an actual appointment
• Common troubleshooting
• Help numbers
  
  

Speaker: Paul Galantowicz, Facility Telehealth Coordinator, VHAWNY Healthcare System, has been with the VHAWNY Healthcare System for 40 years, starting in Nuclear Medicine doing Patient Care Imaging. He managed the first Positron Emission Tomography Center in WNY, a joint project between the University of Buffalo and VHAWNY Healthcare System, collaborating on research projects, and after FDA approval providing clinical imaging patient care for Brain, Heart, and Oncology applications. He has presented at National Meetings and has been credited for his contributions in journal publications on Nuclear Medicine and Positron Emission Tomography. In 2011 he became the Facility Telehealth Coordinator for VHAWNY Healthcare system and is responsible for the site’s program.

Free to RRLC ESLN Members. Registration is required.

Please note that this webinar will be recorded, and the recording will be sent to all registrants regardless of attendance. However, you must attend live to receive a certificate.

All live attendees will receive a certificate of attendance for an hour of CE or CTLE credit.

Live transcription and closed captioning will be provided.

We are committed to offering inclusive, diverse, and equitable services to all of our members. To request specific accommodations, please contact Caitlin Kenney (ckenney@wnylrc.org) at least five business days ahead of the event.

REGISTER

RRLC is offering up to 15 seats at the upcoming LibraryWorks webinar, LibraryWorks Webinar: Mastering Uncomfortable Conversations with Library Visitors

More people are showing up at libraries AOA, meaning Angry On Arrival. Maybe they didn’t want to wait in line to talk with a reference librarian during finals. Maybe they are ticked off because the event–which they did not buy tickets for–was sold out, and they were turned away at the door. Maybe they don’t like your books, your programming, your services, or the art on the wall.

Maybe they don’t like policies related to the pandemic, ones you have no control over. Maybe they have a cause or political position and won’t be happy until the library leadership accepts all of their terms, unconditionally. Maybe they don’t want to lower their voice, take their support peacock outside, stop yelling at other customers, stopping cutting up magazines, stopping hogging a terminal after timeout, or rein in their rampant young folks.

Starting with the assumption that most people are good people doing the best they know how. Topics include doing your homework (do you have the facts?), tweaking policies, improving your responses, how the library’s physical environment can be a help or hindrance, and where to draw the line, plus some ways to de-escalate and lower the drama quotient.

Following this webinar, you will know how to:
• Better maintain a positive “performance state” regardless of the other person’s behavior.
• Have more strategies and tactics to bring to your encounters with library visitors who are not having a good day.
• Help create the environment in your library that lowers drama and supports positive staff and visitor interactions.

RRLC is offering up to 15 seats at the upcoming LibraryWorks webinar, LibraryWorks Webinar: Recruiting, Hiring, Orienting, Maintaining and Saying Goodbye to Library Volunteers

About 60 years ago, the professional nonprofit community came to the conclusion that volunteers needed to be treated like paid employees, meaning that they needed to be subject to the same scrutiny and oversight. The result was that nonprofit agencies became more skilled at recruiting and signing up volunteers who were productive, and the volunteers were treated with the respect they deserved.

Everyone benefited as did the agencies and communities they served. Unfortunately, some libraries and library-allied organizations have not yet adopted this professional model. Instead, recruitment is hit and miss, with no guidelines and burdened with an attitude of desperation and guilt.

The biggest myth regarding volunteers is that they are “free.” They need supervision and encouragement. They might not receive a paycheck, but their compensation is the time, attention, appreciation, and recognition of co-workers, managers, and leadership, companionship, and the knowing that they have accomplished something.

Volunteers have the same lifecycle as paid employees and many of the same legal conditions for working for the library. Are they a right match for a library? Do they have technical, clerical, or professional skills? How are they at dealing with conflicts with library customers? Have you screened them for financial problems, a criminal background check, or anything that might flag them for being around children? Have they received the same orientation as the paid employees, as well as periodic reviews and consistent positive reinforcement? And what happens when you need to say good-bye?

Following this webinar, you will know how to:
• Evaluate your library’s volunteer program: How do you treat your volunteers and how do volunteers contribute to your library?
• Create and maintain a welcoming, rewarding, and goal-oriented environment for volunteers.
• Broaden your outreach to more potential volunteer candidates.
• Partner with nonprofits and other agencies to build volunteer pools and share candidates.

Presenter: Pat Wagner has been a trainer and consultant for libraries for over 40 years. She focuses on personnel, management, and leadership issues, including marketing, project management, and tech services productivity.

RRLC is sponsoring a limited number of seats to this webinar for RRLC members. It is free for you to attend, but space is limited!

Registration closes on September 26 at 12 pm or when all seats are filled. You will be sent a link to the webinar within 24 hours of the start time.

If you have any questions, please contact Tina Broomfield.

RRLC is offering up to 15 seats at the upcoming LibraryWorks webinar, LibraryWorks Webinar: Creating Standards for Successful Customer Service (For Frontline Staff)

One of the most difficult issues for frontline library staff to navigate is the balance between personalized service, which can devolve into special favors for well-liked customers, and even-handed consistency, which can become volumes of rigid rules. The key is to establish guidelines for how you treat all library users, regardless of who they are. The welcome for everyone, services that anyone can use, and common courtesy is something that you can apply to every library visitor, including strangers, difficult customers, and people who are different from you.

Topics include examples of written standards, the importance of strategic planning and job descriptions that support customer services, and why consistency and civility can solve many customer behavioral issues.

Following this webinar, you will know how to:
1. Improve customer service with consistency, fair treatment, and access for all.
2. Determine if staff are making exceptions for friends, family, and otherwise favored customers.
3. Create a draft of a written set of standards for your library, to test and review.

Presenter: Pat Wagner has been a trainer and consultant for libraries for over 40 years. She focuses on personnel, management, and leadership issues, including marketing, project management, and tech services productivity.

RRLC is sponsoring a limited number of seats to this webinar for RRLC members. It is free for you to attend, but space is limited!

Registration closes on September 12 at 12 pm or when all seats are filled. You will be sent a link to the webinar within 24 hours of the start time.

If you have any questions, please contact Tina Broomfield.