Training Staff on E-Books and E-Readers

2011-12-16T01:20:34Z

How the Pierce County Library System (WA) prepared staff to meet patron requests for e-books and help with their e-reader devices.

The demand for e-book lending increased sharply in early 2011, leaving many at the library frontlines feeling overwhelmed and under-prepared. The Pierce County Library System (PCLS) in Tacoma, WA, took a thoughtful approach to training staff on e-book checkouts and patron requests for help with their e-reader devices.

Part 1: Crossing Over the Emotional Barriers to Technology
First, they acknowledged the emotional barriers that may arise when a staff member is confronted with new and unfamiliar technology, compounded by the emotional stress of the patron who is also trying to get a handle on new processes and hardware functions. Jeanine Adams, Community Branch Supervisor, walks through the process (below) of overcoming those emotional hurdles. The illustrations are courtesy of the imaginative members of the PCLS staff, who are posing as patrons in various states of perplexity.

Part 2: The ICE-TT Program for Staff Training
Second, in the attached PDF, Meghan Sullivan, Youth Services Librarian, describes the training program that she led, which gathered non-techy staff to formulate effective ways to initiate all frontline staff and raise them to a level of comfort with e-reader technology.

Device tip sheets are available for download from the PCLS website.
Each training kit contains a binder of training curriculum, a laptop, and a variety of portable devices for both audio and eBooks.

Part 1: Crossing Over the Emotional Barriers to Technology

	Advancing Technology – what is our natural response? Technology is now moving from IT backup to our customer front line. Rapid changes can cause alarm and discomfort with staff and customers. Emotions become a natural part of our attempts to interact with changing technology.
	Emotions – our basic defense mechanism for the purpose of survival. At the immediate moment of confrontation, the emotional “fight or flight” phenomenon occurs. After the initial cause of alarm, the cognitive thought process begins (do I eat it or does it eat me?) allowing for a response rather than a reaction. Emotions can interrupt critical thinking and become a barrier to our interaction between objects or other human beings.
	Customer interaction – a potential for patron emotions to trigger our emotions.
	An emotional barrier is any emotion that puts a gap between you and what you need to accomplish for good customer service. You may feel overwhelmed because of so many devices followed by so many upgrades. You just can’t seem to stay current! You may feel frustrated because of lack of time to learn new devices and a lack of funds to purchase devices in order to learn.
	There is also the fear of appearing incompetent while working with customers.
	How do we get beyond these barriers? Many library systems are coming up with successful programs to train staff in order to replace the emotional reactions with cognitive response. A safe learning environment allows you to play with devices, ask questions, make mistakes, understand that you’re not alone, and actually learn to have fun.
	Such a program will also allow for future changes and make adaptions as necessary.

Overview

2011-03-02T17:33:18Z

Burning Ideas: Ebooks and Libraries--A Legal Perspective

2010-11-16T22:36:31Z

Presentation on content licensing models and digital rights management (DRM) and the accompanying legal issues that impact libraries approach to digital collections.

Presented by Mary Minow, J.D., A.M.L.S., LibraryLaw.com, as part of E-Reader Summit & Technology Showcase, hosted by Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records on Sept. 20, 2010. Slides and audio recording are attached.

WebJunction - E-Books and Digital Audio Books

Training Staff on E-Books and E-Readers

Overview

Burning Ideas: Ebooks and Libraries--A Legal Perspective