Educating Staff about Library and Campus Technologies

Meghan Kelly, Franklin & Marshall College, gave an interesting presentation at the LibTech Conference, What's going on? Educating Staff About Library and Campus Technologies. When she started in her position as Research & Emerging Technologies Librarian she found that not everyone was on the same page with the technology in the library. One of the first things she did was to offer a workshop to educate staff. From there, she sent out a survey to gauge people to see what else they wanted to learn about.

In her workshops, Kelly has offered hands-on learning sessions form 3D printing and scanning, working with Google Drive, editing directory pages, a tech petting zoo, digital preservation, and a look at a variety of apps for work and classroom use. She has also been able to connect with other departments at the school to learn about the technology being used in different settings such as a lightboard studio and other tools.

Assessing the usefulness of the sessions and other needs of staff Kelly has learned that people appreciate being asked for feedback on the tools and technology demonstrated, offering the sessions at different times of the day to allow as many people the opportunity to attend, and that her workshops have helped develop partnerships with other departments on campus that they may not have known about or understood before. As well, the library has acquired a 3D printer. Having staff learn about and use the 3D printer before it came to the library has helped facilitate better promotion, use, and management of the printer. Staff look forward to having a central person to communicate with about technology needs and ways to incorporate them in their instruction and daily use.