Library staff have taken on the role of trainer in more ways than ever, to help equip patrons with essential skills such as finding a job, submitting tax forms, legal information, and connecting with family and friends across the miles. In this edition of “What’s New @ WJIL” get the tools and skills you need to develop and make effective use of in-person and online Patron Training.

Contents: Resources | Courses and Learning | Community | What could I do with…? | What’s New RSS Feed

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Resources

Technology Training for Patrons

WebJunction recently placed an open call for library staff to share their patron technology training materials. The result is a repository of free and available resources for your library to use. Topics include...

• Blogging, e-books and audio books, Facebook for TechnoSeniors, keyboard skills, powerpoint and many more.
• Path [Library Services » Patron Training » Technology Training]

WebJunction’s Focus on Tackling Tough Patron Questions

• Helping library patrons answer legal and medical questions can pose special challenges. Here are some resources to help you and your patrons with these critical issues.
• Path [Library Services » Patron Training » Information Literacy]

San Francisco Public Library Needs Assessment: Report on Findings

• The recent increase demand for library services and simultaneous decrease in funding brought on by the recession have highlighted a need for innovative, low-cost, high-impact information services such as online patron instruction. In December 2009, WebJunction and the San Francisco Public Library began a project to examine the potential for online patron instruction in public libraries, part of which includes a pilot online tutorial project based at the San Francisco Public Library. This report details the results of a needs assessment of San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) users. 
• Path [Library Services » Patron Training » Research]

 Best Practices for Patron Tutorials – San Francisco Public Library

• These documents describe the best practices and processes used by the San Francisco Public Library to create online patron tutorials. Practical information and tips on the use of Camtasia, developing a tutorial script and the overall steps in creation of a tutorial are included.
• Path [Library Services » Patron Training » Research]

Social Software Training Resources

• Links to training resources, curriculum and handouts for training sessions on blogging, facebook, Twiiter and social networking
• Path [Library Services » Patron Training » Technology Training]

Courses and Learning

Online Patron Training: A Project Review

• Learn the results of research on national trends for online patron training in this March 23 WJ Webinar. Hear how the San Francisco Public Library assessed their patrons’ needs, designed and then launched an online tutorial on job search skills. More information…

Developing Online Patron Tutorials

• Get an overview for creating online patron tutorials in this March 29th WJ  Webinar. We’ll walk through the steps of tutorial development, including patron needs and topic selection, implementation, promotion, and evaluating the effectiveness of the new resources. More information…

Learn Tutorial Creation with Adobe Captivate

• If this month’s webinars inspires your library to create an online tutorial, the new course on Adobe Captivate 4 will introduce you to this powerful, yet easy-to-use screen capture tool that excels at creating interactive software simulations and tutorials. The 90-minute course will teach you the basics of how to record, edit, add captions and graphics, and even assessments. Captivate allows you to easily create the kind of software simulations you thought only the pros could make.

Community

WebJunction has collected training materials and resources that have been developed by library staff from around the country. These materials can be downloaded, reused and repurposed by other trainers. Join the Library Community at large and add your own training materials to WebJunction to help grow the resources and contribute to the learning community! Please add your technology training  resources to the document tab.

What Could I do with…Screencasting Software?

User friendly screencasting software such as Adobe Captivate, Camtasia and Jing have started a revolution in point-of-need, just-in-time patron tutorials. All types of libraries are taking advantage of  these tools to develop tutorials that will assist their patrons with common tasks such as catalog searching, renewing materials and using subscription databases. Take a course, attend a webinar or check out what other libraries are doing and join the revolution.