by Nick Banitt
Quick Summary
Would you like to have a Minitex staff member come to your library for a training session? Please reach out when your library wants to know more.
Do you have new staff in your interlibrary loan department? Would you like to schedule a training session for your staff about MNLINK or another area of Minitex? Are you planning for a staff training day in the future and need topics to round out your agenda? If you've answered in the affirmative for any of these questions, Minitex can help. In October 2019, I worked with a few libraries to present and educate about MNLINK for each of the preceding scenarios.
On successive Friday mornings, I visited the Anoka County Libraries, Rum River and Northtown, to train public service staff with MNLINK. These 90-minute sessions provide enough time to cover a broad array of issues, yet also provides plenty of time for questions from the participants. I like to use these sessions to gain a better understanding of user behavior and ask for feedback where users have the most difficulty. Many staff questions involve local policies and practices, so I often try to have someone who works in interlibrary loan at the library attend to provide those answers.
I spent an afternoon with Mindy Hicks, the new Resource Librarian for the East Central Regional Library, talking about VDX and MNLINK. Interlibrary loan management is part of Mindy's role with ECRL. Getting a broad overview of how the system works, specific details about handling situations, and options that may be available for libraries will enable her to manage her work. I appreciate these opportunities to build trust and to get to know new staff at MNLINK libraries. I hope I am able to communicate that someone is available to help when they have questions.
Towards the end of October, I was invited to participate in a session for the Washington County Library staff training day. Christian Koegel, the Technical Services Librarian who manages the interlibrary loan portfolio at the library, and I presented for a session on MNLINK and interlibrary loan. This was a much shorter session of about 50 minutes, and there were plenty of questions. Knowing your time is brief, helps to focus on the important issues for staff.
If you would like to have Minitex staff visit your library or provide a web training session, please reach out to us. You can contact any of the folks here that you communicate with for more information, or you can use this link on the Minitex website to request a session about a specific topic or to find out what would be available. If you would like MNLINK training, please don't hesitate to contact me directly!
