My name is Jennifer Peterson.

I'm thrilled to be here today hosting today's session.

My colleague Kendra Morgan is logged in as WJ support and can assist Wu any technical related questions that you have.

There is a learner guide for today's session.

We've created this guide as a tool for you to extend your learning on the topic.

You can take it and explore it on your own or perhaps use it as a tool to discuss with your  team, perhaps your trustees.

It can be customized, so don't be afraid if there's certain things you'd like to explore with your team.

Make the guide work for you, but we provide it as a tool to take next steps and apply what you learned today.

I'm so excited to welcome our presenter for today, Bonnie McKewon is the northwest district consultant at the state library of Iowa.

We've had the pleasure of  working with Bonnie on a couple of other different occasions with webinars.

We're so glad to have you come back and share the wealth of knowledge you bring from working with small and rural libraries across Iowa and tackling the issues that connect to staff transitions.

Welcome, Bonnie.

Thank you so much for being  here.

>> Well, thank you, Jennifer, for asking me back.

It's a pleasure for me to be back with you.

And with WebJunction.

Thanks to all of you for spending your afternoon with us.

As Jennifer and I were talking about the track that we wanted to take with this webinar today, I shared with her the frequency of turnover in the library director positions that we see in Iowa.

It's considerable and it's really pretty common just how often our district consulting staff at the state library are welcoming new directors.

Just in 2022, we saw a 14%  turnover in library directors across the state.

Now, granted, Iowa has a great many libraries.

Iowa has a crazy number of public libraries at 542.

But that 14% maybe, here's a more relateddable inspect that equates to 75 new library directors that we welcomed in 2022, so that feels like a lot.

And as I said, it's a pretty much a constant for us.

So as Jennifer and I were talking about this topic, we knew that this is sometimes, especially at the outset, this can feel like a very daunting job to take on.

And there is so much to learn, right?

But there's also so much that I think all of us in the library community collaboratively from your local staff, your board, and your support networks at your regional system, at your state library, there's so much we can do collaborative I think to maybe just help people feel more at ease in those early weeks and months on the job.

So this is what we want to talk about today.

I'll be anxious to hear your comments and your experiences about transitions at your library.

I have a transition checklist I will share with you.

I do want to talk about the strategy of producing an annual calendar of program participation and deadlines and then again that collaborative piece.

We want to be sure to come away with some ideas.

Surrounding how all of us in the library, in your local library and those of us in support networks can help each other.

You know, for a long time now, I've used this phrase.

I've used it just a time or two in meeting with new directors in my meet and greets.

I find myself saying to them, you know, this is a surprising job, isn't it?

And there's quite the learning curve.

I've said that to countless people.

It is true.

It is true.

But over the years I've come to see more nuance in this learning curve idea as my slide  indicates.

There are learning curves and then there are learning curves.

I think some of what has to be learned is long term.

And it just is going to take time.

Some of what needs to be learned is more immediate and that's where all of us can come in and that's where we're going to spend our time today.

Here is an example of what I mean by long-term learning versus short-term learning.

I have worked with small rural libraries my entire career as a consultant.

First with the regional system and now with the state library of Iowa.

And I know that in so many cases and in so many small rural libraries new directors are coming to these jobs without much in the way of formal education in terms of an undergrad degree or a master's degree in library science and in many cases they're coming to their jobs without even prior library experience.

They can bring to their new library job a great many skill sets as they bring with them skills from other occupations.

But so often they don't have previous library experience.

What takes time, I believe, for people to internalize and to come to a greater appreciation of are the  professional principles.

Knowing the workings of your city government.

And how your library fits into city government.

Another one I think is understanding how libraries are funded.

When I do board programming in Iowa and especially doing board orientations, I'm also very  mindful of talking about how libraries are funded, because library trustees come to their seat at the board table, not really knowing that.

So those long-term things do take time, but as you can see on the right-hand side of the screen, these are the things we want to talk about today.

Pulling together materials and information and contacts that will help ease this learning curve and in doing that ahead of a transition.

Transitions can happen very unexpectedly.

They can happen in an anticipated way if you know that there is an upcoming retirement or two in your future.

But whether expected or unexpected, I think it's just very important to kind of set the stage here.

And be proactive in the kind of effort we can make to help ease the transition.

So that's where we're going, but before we get there, I have a question for you.

I would love to use the chat space and harken back, if you would, to when you were newly hired at your library.

What do you wish you knew when you were new?

What do you wish had been in place for you?

And, again, maybe you've experienced a recent transition.

How might that experience have been improved for you or for whoever your new staff person was.

As you ponder that, I will also have you gaze upon the cutest baby, the cutest baby.

This is little Quinn  McKowen who is no longer six months old.

Little Quinn McKowen is now 8, but I can't bare to let go of his baby picture.

And isn't that just about like the most Scottish name you've ever heard of?

All right.

Jennifer, do we have some commentary coming in through the chat?

>> Yes.

Definitely lots of similar themes running through.

Calendars, manuals, documentation, understanding the hierarchy of the organization.

Overall better on boarding, succession planning has come up a number of times.

Union agreement in administration.

There's a lot in here.

Keep them coming.

>> Keep them coming.

There is a lot in there.

There are things you guys are referencing that I hadn't thought of, so that will make this process and this conversation even better.

I want you to know, too, that you are all in good company certainly within the WebJunction audience today and within the company of northwest Iowa library directors that you've not met, but in prepping for this webinar today, I asked a handful of northwest library directors who are among the newest to come on the job.

I asked them the same question.

I just asked of you.

What do you wish you knew when you were new?

What do you wish had been in place?

Here are some of their answers and they certainly mimic what you've been saying in chat.

To me this shows us that being more proactive and improving upon that effort really is a universal need out there.

I wish I knew about annual expectations and deadlines.

You've all said that.

I wish I had inherited an organized space.

Don't we all.

I wish the board had taken a more active role.

I wish that too.

I wish library colleagues had reached out to me.

I took that one to heart and I've pledged to do better myself in my job capacity to let all the northwest libraries know who out there has been newly hired and to do that on a quarterly basis.

So that was a great reminder for me.

The one that really took -- stood out to me and really affected me was the one that says my overwhelming feeling was loneliness.

That made an impression upon me let me say.

Thank you for chiming in.

I'll be glad to read your chat further.

Take a look at this photo on the slide.

If you know what it is, let me know that in chat.

This is one of the most common problems and one of the most common challenges for neural hired people.

In my experience in mentoring new directors, I find this happens over and over again.

In staffing transitions, this problem repeats and repeats and repeats.

Can you guess what this is?

You already have.

I'm looking at the chat.

You got it.

This is a true story.

This photo and the story was shared with me.

I got the okay to tell this story about a northwest library a couple of years ago when I went there to meet with the new director.

She came out of her office with a spiral bound notebook and she flipped over the cover and this is what she found.

A pile of sticky notes and sticky notes and things that were crossed off with magic marker.

And white out and we could see scribbles and this was such a convenient password manager that she inherited.

Glory be.

How convenient.

Not really.

Having a password manager to do all of that work and then you only need to remember the login and password to your master password account and that's where you'll find all the other dozens upon dozens that you  need.

I won't dwell on this except to say if you're not already using a password manager -- password management system or software, grab ahold of one and start using it tomorrow.

I've been using last pass myself for years and it has saved my bacon.

It saves my bacon about once a week.

So I'm a big fan of this and in my travels around northwest Iowa I still encounter so many staffers and directors who haven't started using this yet.

I think it's a great technique.

I see that Jennifer, maybe you have asked the question for the attendees to share their favorite password management software.

I mentioned I use last pass, but there's a lot of them out there.

There's a lot of them out there on the market and they all pretty much -- the advantages are all pretty much universal.

Let us know the product you like and why you like it and that will be good information for all of us too.

Last pass yes.

I already see in chat some I've never heard of.

Like bit warden.

I never heard of that one  before.

Bit warden.

That's cool.

That's why I love WebJunction, because it's a community of learners.

All right.

So that's kind of a little baby tip for using staffing transition.

This is a bigger tip.

This is a pretty important piece of the transition puzzle.

This has a very big part to play in easing staffing transitions and this has proactive written all over it because my  encouragement is for all of you who are currently in your positions as directors or staff to grab ahold of this checklist.

It's available for you on the WebJunction resource page and it's uploaded there as a word document so you can download it.

You adapt it and make it your own.

For purposes of today, I've just made this a really pretty simple checklist.

And I've grouped these topics together under big categories.

And this is a pretty simplistic format.

Again, you can reform mat this to indicate for you where  exactly you found this particular document.

If you find it, good.

All the checkmarks we want to show up in the "S" columns, that's a good thing.

Then you could indicate where it is.

Is it a paper copy?

In a shared filing cabinet?

Is it?

Google docs on a shared drive?

You can indicate the location.

But for now, this is really just kind of a way to look at these things, this material and this documentation that would be ever so useful.

To have accessible and at hand before a major transition happens.

So as we look at the operating or operations, you can see here that it includes logins and passwords.

How is that working out for you, right?

You can also see that it includes -- let's go find the instructions for your ILS  system.

That trips up so many new directors and staff in my experience.

That's a big trip.

As is knowing how to access your regional or state interlibrary loan system.

So there are some good ones I think to consider under operating.

I won't speak to each and every one of these.

Just to the big categories.

Just in the interest of time.

So here's another category.

HR documents and policies.

These are going to be pretty important to have at the ready.

Good question to ask your city, does your city use a job application for all city positions?

And so wouldn't the library want to use the same job application?

The city will likely have sources they use to advertise for city job openings, so check on that as well.

The business of the board is a big deal too.

I do a lot of training and consulting for library boards in Iowa and in other capacities and other states and venues.

So it's really helpful for the board to have some kind of its own succession plan in place.

But it's also important I think for the directors to be able to -- to be able to grab those board minutes, whether they're in paper or electronic format and just review past minutes to see some of the topics the board has discussed in recent months.

Especially cool if the board has developed a board business agenda.

That's something I talk with my Iowa library boards about all day long.

How about a board business agenda?

For a director to have that, it makes developing your monthly agendas so much easier.

Building maintenance, having that listing of furniture and fixtures is important for insurance purposes.

And knowing who is the insurance carrier that the city uses.

That's a good thing to know.

What about the safety inspection schedules for things like fire extinguishers and what about a staff training schedule in reviewing their skills and their abilities in using that safety equipment?

So another big category to look for would be all of those policies in addition to your HR policies.

Your planning documents, your budget documents.

You see on this list, you see a disaster response plan.

Hold that thought, because I've got a really nice template to share with you coming up.

And here are two more big categories on our readiness checklist as we try to be proactive in planning for transitions.

The technology piece.

This always surprises me and it happens to me more than I wish it would.

I can often find myself on site at a library if I'm there to provide an orientation for a new director, maybe I'm there to do a board training of some kind.

This happens a lot.

When no one in the joint knows the login or password to the library's wireless network.

That's kind of sad, really.

When I'm not the only one I would suspect coming in with my own laptop.

There would be patrons coming in with their own devices.

That secret code should be front and center, right?

So that I see repeated and repeated so often.

I really like this section on program participation.

I think this is really a strong section of a checklist like  this.

You tell me if you agree.

What I find trips up a lot of new staff people is knowing if their library participates in regional or state library sponsored programs.

For instance, is your library a part of your summer reading consortium?

If so, where is the access to the summer reading manual?

Is your library part of a regional or statewide Ebook service?

If so, does that have to be renewed every year?

In Iowa it does.

Does your library meet  standards?

There's a good one.

And if you meet standards, is there a process to renew your library's participation in the standards program by turning in a report indicating the standards that you meet from cycle to cycle.

So I think program participation is really key and it's so helpful if this can be all gathered together on a checklist like this.

And then the final category here is your ghost busters category.

Who are you going to call,  right?

Who are you going to call for assistance from local people to your contacts at your regional or state library networks?

Who you going to call, whether it's a listing of all the board members, staff, friends,  vendors.

Don't forget vendors.

That comes up as a question for us quite often.

City and county contacts.

That's your ghostbusters list.

That's a transition readiness checklist.

Jennifer, I'll pause here to see if there are any comments or questions you've read?

I'm not hearing you again.

I'm sorry.

I can tell your speaking.

>> Your audio is cutting out.

One of the things that folksed mentioned is the importance of remembering that not all organizations are city entities, so you may have a slightly different organizational structure.

Lots of great sharing in the chat around access to live  guides that people have created for positions and procedures.

One of the things that we can offer is if anyone has procedures that we can share, we'd love to post those on WebJunction and you can send those over.

We can anonymize them and strip out information so that they're a little bit more generic for people so we'd be happy to do that as well as a way to help continue to share the resources and make them customizable.

I think we're good to go on.

>> Very good.

I'm so glad that you mentioned the other government organizational structures.

That's a really good point to make.

And maybe, you know, just leading this off with your organizational structure in your city or town I think would also be really helpful.

So thank you for that.

Yeah.

Thank you for that.

I'm glad to hear that.

I'm glad to be reminded of that.

Let's talk for a minute in terms of our collaborators in this.

I do think the staff can have involvement in transition planning.

I mentioned the summer reading program.

Certainly it's the youth services department who knows all about that.

They know if the library is a participant in a summer reading consortium, so they ought to know.

Also the access to the summer reading manual in Iowa, that's done electronically so that there is a login and a password that has to be shared with those who need to know it, right?

So I think that's an important involvement.

I think also the youth services staff better than anyone would know at what time of year they tend to book performers for the summer ahead.

So just having that information.

Who are those performers that you have lined up.

Do you have contracts with those people?

That's an important piece of paperwork, right?

And another thing that I think would be really a cool thing to do, and that is what if the various departments in your library took -- grabbed ahold of that transition checklist and created a mini version of that for their own department.

There could be a mini checklist for those who are brought on to do an orientation in the youth department.

Maybe circulation services could do the same.

I quickly glanced over at chat and saw that someone mentioned that here in the audience works in a technical services department and they've created their own manual for tech services.

That's a brilliant idea.

Just think about all of those different departments or different people in a lot of small rural libraries.

We don't so much have departments.

But we have people who do these things.

And so let's make this a collaborative venture.

I mentioned a disaster  preparedness tool kit.

Before we move away from this idea of checklists, here's one more that you're welcome to use.

This is not on WebJunction's resource page, at least I don't believe it is.

But we've provided you with the link.

This is a disaster preparedness tool kit that the state library of Iowa developed last fall.

This also is a word document, so you can download it, customize it to make it your own.

And in terms of a format, it's actually more -- it's actually more expansive than the checklist I just showed you.

This is pretty lengthy.

Rather than just a simple yes, no, I know we have this and I'll go get it, or nope, I never heard of that, I don't think we have any such thing, I don't know what it is much less where to find it, this disaster response template asks people to fill in the blanks with contact names of local people, local experts, city people, phone numbers, vendors.

You can see here that there is a space for do you know who to call for elevator repairs.

What if you need an  exterminator.

What if your HVAC system goes on the Fritz?

This is a very nice tool kit.

And we are so happy to have it at the state library.

Last fall our state library did a statewide workshop in six locations.

We do this every fall and we call it the learning circuit.

And so it was in the fall of '22 that our topic for the learning circuit was disaster  preparedness.

So we created this tool kit.

I say we, but truly it was our continuing education coordinator Samantha bowers who really took the lead on this and pulled  this all together into a very useful product with all attributions and all due credit where it goes.

You're also welcome to take a look at this and see if this might be something that would be useful to you.

All right.

So with our checklist comes another coping strategy I will call it.

Another coping strategy to help ease our staffing transitions.

And again, this is such a nice proactive thing to do and that's to develop an annual calendar of events.

A year at a glance calendar.

Think through those programs that your library participates in, both locally and those programs that you are a part of thanks to your regional system, your state library, whatever your larger support network might be.

What programs does your library participate in?

The ebook service?

Do you have to renew your participation or pledge to be part of that every year?

That's true in Iowa.

In Iowa at our state library, most all of the programs that we offer for public library participation, they're done on an opt in basis.

So it's an annual gig.

Annually in March our libraries have to pledge.

Yes, we pledge to continue with the state ebook service in Iowa.

That's called bridges.

Yes, we pledge in April to continue with our enrich Iowa program.

In October of the year is the time when Iowa libraries complete the public library annual survey.

So there are those that's that level of participation in maybe the broader outside of your own community programs, but you also have local things that you do and this is where a board business calendar again can come in really handy.

Is there a certain month of the year when your board will look ahead to the holidays in the coming year and determine which ones the library will observe?

Maybe there's a certain month of the year when your board typically takes on the director's performance evaluation.

Whatever it might be for you, I think this kind of a calendar is really helpful for new people.

We create one just for state library business at our state library of Iowa.

We put it up on our website.

But it then falls to us to remember to tell people that such a thing exists.

So back to, again, collaboration and who can be a part of this.

Staff definitely have a part to play.

But I think boards do too.

I think boards can be involved in transition planning in kind of a high level, maybe a more aerial view of it all.

But think about this.

If in your state, your library boards have the authority to hire the next library director.

In Iowa that's true.

Our boards do.

If that's true of your state, then of all of those things we looked at on that checklist, I think the HR documentation should be front and center for all the board members to have access to.

Maybe in their board notebooks.

That to me all makes sense.

Because that's the biggest task, the biggest responsibility that our library boards have in Iowa is to recruit and hire the next director.

But I also think that the board is a logical keeper of the calendar.

Think about when board members might hire a new director, it might be right smack at the time when the state libraries public annual survey is due in October.

I can tell you from firsthand experience of all of the new directors I welcomed in 2022, at least three of them were hired in late fall.

And coincidentally, they were working in libraries now where those libraries were next up in February in the accreditation cycle.

Those libraries where they were hired into had to apply for reaccreditation in February.

These directors didn't know what accreditation was much less -- what now?

How do I do this?

Where do I do this?

I think that's such an important thing for boards to be aware of and at least inform the directors that they hire when they know the person is about to start.

Look at that.

Be a keeper of the calendar.

Look at that calendar and inform their new director.

This is coming up really, really quick, but we can help and you here's how we can help.

We can get the staff in on this.

We can get the state library in on this.

The board will help all we can.

Just being mindful of that I think is a great way to improve relationships as is this technique.

To me this is the lovely thing that boards can do.

This is another great area of board involvement in  transitions.

They've spent a lot of time and thoughtful discussion in recruiting a new director and in making the hire, right?

So now for boards to be very intentional about this, to make key introductions, to keep people in key positions in the community from the mayor to the city clerk to city  councilmembers to friends  members and foundation members.

Maybe somebody on the board would want to accompany the new director to their first city council meeting.

Likewise, somebody on the board could accompany the new director to their first grends group meeting.

Certainly they could connect those they hire at the regional system or state library.

That's a really important thing boards could do.

So yes, this is collaboration, but I also see this as -- I think this is grace.

All of these introductions to me are graceful gestures.

And so much easier oftentimes than being in a board problem and to problem solve.

These are graceful gestures that ought to be intentional and could go a long way toward building those initial relationships.

I'll transition planning also applies to library boards for sure.

I will admit that this is for another day, another webinar.

But library boards can be  equally proactive themselves as they plan for their own succession when there are vacancies to be filled.

They can strengthen their recruitment process.

They can send the message early and often that ongoing board education is a natural part of trusteeship.

They could grab hold of this transition planning idea and the disaster preparedness idea.

They could grab hold of that and fold both of those things into a strategic plan.

These are great things to include in a strategic plan and the library boards are all about that action.

So this is for another day, another time.

Actually, I kind of remember doing a webinar for WebJunction on this idea of library boards creating this succession plan for themselves and in particular creating a culture of learning for themselves.

Jennifer, you'll have to remember what year that was or maybe it will depress me so you don't need to tell me what year that was.

You'll find it in the WebJunction archives.

We'll just say that.

Creating a culture of learning for library boards.

That's what you're looking for.

So I would like to pause here and have someone catch me up on the commentary or the questions that have come up.

>> So lots of great comments around one, does a library job description ever really fully capture everything that a library director needs to do?

It really is really challenging.

There's so many things that are going on.

One of the things that someone had suggested earlier was what format should these files be made available in?

So do you recommend having them in both print and digital  formats noting that sometimes we may lose access to one or the other?

>> Yes.

I mean, I think, you know, having that safety fall back position of having your -- some of these really important paper documents scanned and/or uploaded to something like Google docs or Google drive or some shared drive I think can be really, really helpful.

So I would say both, you know.

I don't think a print paper copy only is the way to go in this day and age since there are so many great tech tools out there that would allow us to have shared access to this material.

And that helps to me increase the collaborative nature of this whole task, right?

If you have a shared drive with your staff, then when there is something to be edited on a job description as somebody mentioned, are job descriptions ever complete?

No.

Remember the phrase and other duties as assigned.

That's your favorite expression to use in a job description.

But I think by having some kind of an electronic storage  off-site cloud storage, it does aid in collaboration in that way too.

It makes editing easier.

I've long been a fan of  having -- weaning the library board away from so much that's a paper trail and sending their things to a cloud application.

Whether it's Google drive or one note or whatever it might be.

So I would say both, but certainly move toward -- move into the electronic side of things for sure.

>> One of the things someone else noted is that quite a few people participating today might be at a single person library, which is very common.

You have one person, maybe someone else who's volunteering or some support.

And in those situations, when you look at some of the  resources and documentation, I think it's really an opportunity for people to say while I might be the only person and the documentation is set up to collaborate with people in other departments, it can really help you go through and capture the breadth of all those other  duties as assigned and using that as a way to really set both yourself, your successor up for success even if it doesn't apply perfectly to your situation.

>> I agree with you.

I think the beauty of this checklist, both the readiness checklist for transitions and the disaster preparedness, we made that same point, actually, last fall when we unveiled our disaster preparedness tool kit.

We readily admitted this is kind of lengthy.

There will be things here that will not apply to some  libraries.

So just kind of move on and use what you can.

Use what makes sense for you.

And I think you're right, if you use any of it in a proactive fashion, then it's so much easier for the next new person who will be the next one person at that library to be able to get on a more solid footing.

I can't tell you the number of times I've encountered newly hired people for whom there was just nothing left behind.

It was like a -- it was like a scorched earth.

It was just nuts.

And I'm always surprised by  that, because I think how did the person in that position cope from day-to-day?

To say nothing of a new person hired.

Absolutely, we're all -- we appreciate your one person l library.

We don't rely so heavily on them in mid-sized to larger  libraries.

Use it as a collaborative moment for your boards as well.

>> That's a great point.

All right.

We'll let you continue with the rest of your presentation.

Thank you.

>> Thank you so much.

Actually, in wrapping up here, I have one more question for the audience.

I have been today the voice of don't let this happen to you.

Right?

So now what I would love to hear from you, and I have to confess, I haven't been able to read the chat as I've been speaking, so you may have -- you may very well have shared some of your staffing transition success stories, but I would love to hear them.

Some happy stories.

Taking it beyond the don't let this happen to you and share some staffing transitions that really went very well at your library.

And what made the transition successful.

What made it so?

I'll pause and let you all ponder that and chime in if you would.

>> One of the suggestions that people have is the ability to have some overlap in positions which really is a dream situation, right?

When you have someone heading out and there is that time to help do a transition really is a fantastic scenario, so there's some knowledge transfer and an ability to help people get started successfully.

>> Oh, absolutely.

The overlapping time for people is so beneficial.

I would say if there's any  pushback on that from the people who hold the purse strings, you really do need to pushback on that and just say that this is only -- this is logical.

This is a logical part of our transition process.

Give us two weeks.

Give us a month.

Whatever you give us in doubling up on that salary I think is absolutely worth the pushback.

I'm so glad for somebody who mentioned that.

>> I'm going to jump in.

Can you hear me?

>> Yes.

>> Oh, good.

I just wanted to note, too, there were a couple folks that mentioned cross-training and this seems like the same thing.

What are some of the key facets that really should be a part of cross-training to account for the unexpected as you say?

So I wanted to mention that for sure.

>> For sure.

That's a great point too.

>> Know some folks have mentioned they're part of a system or have the opportunity to connect with folks that maybe have parallel positions.

This is another opportunity if you can cross-train even across locations, because that then surfaces some of the things that maybe you've missed at your location or there are practices that they have in place that you could learn from.

So remember to cross-train both the roles and the spaces if possible.

>> And, you know, learning from each other as happens every day in WebJunctions space, in WebJunction's webinars, learning from arch other is also so  helpful.

That's why I felt once I posed that question what do you wish you knew when you were new and the answers I got back, I wished other libraries had reached out to me.

I wish I knew who they were.

I wish I knew who I could contact with a question.

That just really impressed upon me I need to be more mindful in that.

I need to be the one to share who these new hires are on a quarterly basis so that those directors who are -- have been on the job and who are a bit more seasoned can make a  friendly phone call to their newest colleague and maybe offer to drive to a nearby library and spend an hour or two helping with that getting acquainted.

The state library staff, we can do a lot to help with orientation, but it's the local stuff that we are not as adept at.

At least I will say for me.

I can't really help libraries learn their ILS system.

That's not software that we have available to us at the state library.

We can be all over providing instructions for those programs that the state library offers, right?

But ILS systems are very much individual choices and  purchases, so that's a great angle to take in helping each other cross-training like you said.

>> And a wonderful idea posted to chat in terms of the format you provide this information.

I love the idea of creating a video tour of some of this information.

What a great recognize our learning styles might work better for certain information as well, but I love that idea of a video.

Someone also mentioned the challenges of getting a big stack of keys when you come in.

What a great way to have a  video, talk through what each of the keys are instead of trying to figure out how to label and all of that.

If you have other ideas for formats, I know we talked a lot about digital, you know, having files online, but thinking about how you share that information is a great way to consider approaching it as well.

>> Referee: That's all the techy youngsters in the crowd who are thinking they're going to be -- they're going to make a YouTube video, right?

>> Oklahoma cross-training nim list.

That's a great idea.

>> There's a good one!

That's an excellent one.

Excellent.

>> If you think of other strategies that you applied, or have seen other libraries apply, definitely keep sharing those in chat.

And I just want to remind folks, too, that the resources that Bonnie has shared both the checklist and then all of the other resources she mentioned are available for you to  customize.

Don't forget that you can  customize those steps if you want to start smaller, obviously hone in on those bigger buckets to think about what steps you can take and definitely consider using some of the questions that are in the learner guide to explore how you prioritize and how you can bring folks into the process to take action.

>> SlAbsolutely.

This is my wrap up.

We're near the top of the hour.

I'll leave you with my three takeaways.

You're welcome to chime in and chat if you recognize these or you certainly had plenty  otherses of your own.

I love the ideas I heard about in chat.

I would just say that when opportunity presents itself, remember we want this to be proactive.

So we want to do this well in advance of someone's leave taking if you know that someone is about to retire.

Do this in advance.

And discuss.

Adapt the staffing transition readiness checklist.

As Jennifer said, if there is a word document, you make it your own.

Expand it, subtract from it, and do develop and distribute.

Distribute is the key word  there.

And annual calendar of events, program participation renewals, and report deadlines.

It's one thing to develop all this stuff.

It's another thing to distribute all this stuff.

And make sure that it is accessible, right?

And then ensure that planning for staffing transitions is a collaborative affair.

I think there is a role for the staff to play.

I would love to see different departments take ahold of that readiness checklist and do a mini version for their own department functions.

I think that would be super  helpful.

And I would love to see the boards have more of a mindful intentional involvement themselves once they've hired a director and then now how do we provide a really great first year experience.

And library boards have so much to do with that.

So with that, Jennifer, I think that brings me to the end of my remarks.

>> Thank you so much, Bonnie.

That was wonderful.

We really appreciate the expertise that you've been bringing to WebJunction for many years now.

It's so helpful to have somebody who has been supporting people in this work for so many years and really making an impact on the success that people are able to have.

A reminder to everyone that you will receive an email later today letting you know that the recording is available.

We encourage you to watch that recording.

Share it with colleagues.

That learner guide that was prepared for this session is a great way to continue this conversation and to make your learning extend beyond just today.

Think about how you can take steps collaboratively with your co-workers if you have them, if you are a single-site library or a single-person library.

It's a great checklist to walk through and help prepare yourself.

I think it's really helpful and a good way for us to frame and set ourselves up for success to go through some of these lists.

You will also receive a certificate of attendance in the next week that will come to you directly from Jennifer and in the meantime if you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to WebJunction.

We really appreciate all of you being here today.

You will be directed to a survey at the end when you leave the webinar and that is a way that we get information about how to frame future sessions and subject matter and experts that we should be seeking out to help bring you new WebJunction content.

So thank you all for your time today.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Bye-bye.