Quick Tours of Library Resources: LowBudget, HighImpact Training

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Quick Tours of Library Resources Low-Budget,
High-Impact Training

• Kelli Koob and Stephanie Steinwedel
• Hennepin County Library
• Minnesota Library Association Conference
• 2003

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What well cover today

• Why public training?
• How Quick Tours developed
• What are Quick Tours?
• Benefits
• Considerations
• Questions

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Why public training?

• Responding to patron needs
• rapidly changing technology and information
  resources
• needing to proactively respond to these changes
• patron desire to work independently
• Support from library administration through
  mission statement and strategic directions that
• emphasize life-long learning

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Why public training?

• Developed a library-focused model for public
  training
• teaching information resources instead of
  software applications (e.g. word processing)
• taught by librarians or library volunteers
• Quick Tours are an ideal format
• easy to prepare and deliver
• an extension of what we already teach many times
  each day

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How Quick Tours Developed

• Response to online catalog change
• Needed a way to train people quickly and
  efficiently
• Librarians at one library developed Quick Tour
  format
• Format shared with other libraries in HCL
• Full-text Magazine Articles
• Quick Tour developed

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How Quick Tours Developed

• Training team provides organizational support for
  this new training format
• Made available on HCL intranet accessible at all
  agencies
• Libraries develop Quick Tours for other topics
  and databases

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What are Quick Tours?

• 30-40 minute sessions
• Taught by librarians from
• a standard outline
• Taught on the public floor
• 10 different topics and growing
• Advertised in advance and on the day of class

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What are Quick Tours?

• 30-40 minute sessions
• Easy for increasingly time-crunched patrons to
  fit into their schedule
• Less staff time than a standard class
• Can call on staff working at the Information Desk
  if necessary

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What are Quick Tours?

• Taught by librarians from a standard outline
• Any librarian can teach
• Little prep time required
• Less intimidating than traditional classes
• Like an extended reference transaction

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What are Quick Tours?

• Taught on the Public Floor
• No special setup or
• training facilities required
• Patrons are learning in the same environment in
  which they will use what theyve learned
• Other patrons may drop in when they hear whats
  going on
• Less intimidating for patrons

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What are Quick Tours?

• 10 different topics and growing
• Catalog
• Finding Magazine Articles
• Job Searching
• Find a Good Book (Readers Advisory)
• College Search
• Library Home Page
• Specialized Databases

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What are Quick Tours?

• Specialized Databases
• Reference USA
• Ancestry Plus
• ALLDATA (car repair)
• Rosetta Stone
• Valueline?
• netLibrary?
• Health database?

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What are Quick Tours?

• Advertised in advance and on the day of class
• Local Press
• Library Brochures
• Library Web Site
• In-library announcements via the PA system
• Doubles as promotion for your specialized
  databases

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What are Quick Tours?

• An example
• Full-Text Magazine Articles

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Benefits

• Encourages self-reliant customers
• Reaches a wider variety of customers
• Informal format encourages other questions about
  the library
• Builds staff competency on tools
• Builds staff confidence with
• regard to training

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Benefits

• Low-budget development, preparation, delivery
• Flexibility Each library has implemented it a
  little differently
• Less difficult to schedule
• No special training facilities necessary
• Publicity for library tools and services
• Community outreach

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Considerations

• Changing technology
• Who will update and how often
• Information Desk staffing
• Staff reservations about teaching
• Staff morale
• Attendance
• Marketing

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Questions???
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For More Information

• Kelli Koob
• kkoob_at_hclib.org
• 952-847-5961
• Stephanie Steinwedel
• ssteinwedel_at_hclib.org
• 952-847-8833
• Find this presentation and other information on
  the HCL website
• http//www.hclib.org/extranet/