by Linda Mork
Quick Summary
Are you looking for professional development for your library staff? Can you suggest or offer PD to others? Check out LevelUpMN.org.
At this week’s MLA session: Level Up MN!, Ann Walker Smalley from Metronet, Matt Lee from Minitex, and I introduced the new Level Up MN website: www.levelupmn.org, a one-stop site for library PD in Minnesota. The site, developed by a network of Minnesota library organizations, aims to support all types of library staff in their professional growth by offering a state-wide PD calendar, links to self-directed learning opportunities, a blog for sharing news and tips, and more.
In addition to wanting to spread the word about the Level Up site, we also wanted to collect information about the types of PD MN libraries currently need. As you can see from the list below generated at the session, our needs are many and varied! If you know of upcoming PD opportunities that could help libraries meet these needs, please post event information on the calendar, share tips, best practices, or summaries of helpful PD on the blog, or add to the list of PD needs on this survey.
Let’s use Level Up to support each other and build a stronger Minnesota library community!
Current MN library PD needs:
- Basic library instruction for new employees
- Cataloging lessons
- Marketing & (virtual) outreach
- Antiracism, diversity, equity, inclusion
- Reference best practices
- Virtual reference tools
- Using virtual library/collaboration tools
- Curriculum mapping
- Public library de-escalation techniques
- Doing more with less
- EDI in libraries
- Linked data
- Archives management
- Best practices for genrefying collections
- Database instruction
- Critical management studies
- How to connect with faculty and make meaningful relationships
- Reader’s advisory
- How to explain to patrons what we do
- Attracting and retaining training participants
- Project management
- Resilience/empathy training
