Hello,
Many thanks to everyone who responded to my enquiry about training for
library assistants - from the emails I have received it seems I am not the
only one who finds this difficult!
However I did get some interesting responses, which I have summarised here,
and which have given me plenty of ideas to think about. It seems that
locally arranged courses by health librarians probably offer the most to
library assistants, as they can be focussed on the issues particuarly
relevant to staff working in the health/NHS context. I will also be
investigating visiting some other libraries in our area.
I have gathered here a summary of responses:
- Foundation Degree in Cultural Services at Anglia Ruskin (mostly distance
and online learning)
http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/prospectus/ugpt2008/cultural_services
.html
- Open University short courses such as Beyond Google
http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?C01TU120
- Cataloguing, AACR2 and MARC21 training courses (produced in-house) -
helps to keep catalogue entries tidy and is a useful para-professional skill
- An Alternative display course, such as those run by Alternative Display
Co Ltd http://www.alternativedisplaytraining.co.uk/start.html
- Workshops run by the local university that opens up staff development
courses to external people - range of generic topics such as communication
- Training run by regional groups such as Libraries and Information East
Midlands http://www.liem.org.uk/ - their course on teaching skills
particularly recommended
- Foundation degree courses such as that at the Glyndwr University, Wrexham
http://glyndwr.ac.uk/en/Coursesfees/Undergraduate/LibraryandInformationPract
ice/
- Regional health libraries training groups organise training days for
library staff, usually organised and run by health library staff due to
limited funding for external training providers - sample day "covering
advanced search skills, outlining EBP and critical appraisal and how
librarians are involved"
- "We've recently done a TNA which showed library assistants would like
sessions on medical terminology, the structures of medical and nurse
education (useful for understanding all different job titles doctors have)
and reference interview skills among other things. We're now trying to
organise sessions that will have some basic elements for people new to
libraries but that also cater for longer serving staff (all delivered by
ourselves or colleagues) - never easy!"
- Other advertised courses attended include customer service skills and
displays (but these did not transfer particularly well to NHS libraries
context)
- Visits to libraries of different organisations eg. public libraries,
Royal Colleges, British Library, Wellcome Trust, King's Fund - a chance for
assistants to "learn 'the other end' of an enquiry." BL trip to Wetherby
also recommended.
- CILIP courses
- Organising ""LA Days": where everyone from the region gets together for a
day to catch up, with a hot topic of interest."
- "With increasingly blurred boundaries between 'professionals' and
'assistants', I've always tried to offer mind-stretching opportunities (like
copyright)"
Thanks and best wishes,
Jane
Jane Willson
Librarian
Richmond Library
William Kerr Building
Northampton General Hospital
Northampton
NN1 5BD
Tel: 01604 545929
Email: [log in to unmask]
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