WJ Online Conference

Online Collaboration, Online Learning, Patron Training, Staff Training, WJ Online Conference

WebJunction/Learning RT Online Conference 2011 Revisited

August 26th, 2011 | Permalink | 1 Comment

Thank you again to all who joined us in early August for Trends in Library Training and Learning Online Conference brought to you in collaboration with the ALA Learning Round Table. We’re excited to bring you this information about the library staff who registered or attended the event and to remind you that all recordings of presentations and associated resources are now available on WebJunction.

A total of 1965 people registered or attended the event and 1082 logged in for at least one of the sessions. Many of those who logged in were doing so in order for staff in their library to join a Viewing Party. See the long list of Viewing Parties!. A special thank you to you viewing party hosts, and sorry if we didn’t get you on the list.

Also a special thanks to our sponsoring WebJunction Partner States who brought over 889 registrants and 500 attendees to the conference and who continue to support the networking and collaboration critical to the success of WebJunction’s online learning!

Many others are represented in the list of top 20 participating states:

Florida	106
Illinois	87
Texas	86
Virginia	83
California	77
Pennsylvania	76
North Carolina	76
Minnesota	71
Washington	69
New York	64
Georgia	56
Colorado	51
Maryland	49
Ohio	48
Tennessee	45
Indiana	42
Arizona	41
Kentucky	40
Kansas	37
Wisconsin	35

And 90 participants represent these cities and countries around the globe:

Aberdeenshire	Monterrey
Alexandria	Namibia
Amsterdam	New South Wales
Argyrioy	New Zealand
Asachi	Pacific Islands
Auckland	Poland
Australia	Poornima
Bremen	Puerto Rico
Bulgaria	Reykjavik
Cambridge	Rio Grande do Sul
Dublin	Singapore
Ethiopian	South Pacific
Frankfurt	Southern Queensland
Hong Kong	Surrey
India	Tasmania
Indonesia	Thammasat
Istanbul	Trieste
Korea	Sydney
Lahore	Victoria
Makaia	Wetaskiwin
Manila

Here’s the breakdown of the many library types represented:
library type breakdown

As you can see from the broad representation across the globe and across the types of libraries you work in, the topics presented are indeed universal. From brain development to instructional design, from creating videos to creating community, the presentations were top-notch and inspirational. Betha provides an excellent summary of the 2 days in her post, Two-day online conference was a brain booster on the Learning Round Table Blog and you can view all the live-blogging we did here on BlogJunction. And be sure to check out the tweet archive for #learntrends!

I’d like to personally thank all of the planners (especially Sharon and Mary Beth from the LearningRT!), presenters, emcees, producers, viewing party hosts and all other participants, for joining the conference and for contributing to the success of WebJunction’s third online conference! I look forward to connecting with all of you in future online events.

Conference home »

Staff Training, WJ Online Conference
Library as a Verb
August 11th, 2011 | Permalink | 1 Comment
Thank you to Buffy Hamilton for a great wrap-up for the WebJunction/Learning Round Table hosted online conference, Trends in Library Training and Learning. Buffy’s presentation, Cultivating the Library as a Site of Participatory Culture and Learning was a refreshing antidote to the overabundance of claims that libraries are no longer useful or meaningful in our society.

Buffy is intent on shifting the perception of the library, to bring back the human element and help people find themselves in the story of library. It’s about keeping the best of what we have always done, no matter what type of library, and amplifying the aspect of the library as learning space and a communal space. She explored a variety of ways to weave in the talents and passions of patrons to create a more interesting concept of what the library means—as a place for “self-excavation” and discovery.

Buffy channels the thought leadership of Dr. David Lankes and Dr. Henry Jenkins, both of whom have promoted the concept of “participatory librarianship” and identified the conditions to make a learning space participatory. Jenkins believes that “relationships are the cornerstone of libraries and participation.”

Buffy is her own verb as she demonstrated the range of items in her participatory toolbox that she has deployed to achieve maximum participation with her students and to “ignite the conversation”:
1. Google forms: to invite a conversation through survey and assessment and collect data to adjust direction and programs.
2. Poll Everywhere: to allow learners to use mobile devices to participate by voting in real time and text polling to brainstorm ideas.
3. Polldaddy: embed polls in a website to collect ongoing input on what’s working (or not); get user input on design and selection of learning resources and strategies.
4. Blogging platforms and videos: to celebrate student voices and talents and to bring in the larger (global) community with the library as the funnel.
5. Digital storytelling: to tell multi-generational stories and build essential social connections as patrons explore stories from the community.
6. Information dashboards: to help people become curators of knowledge and build collections of digital resources and share original content. (tools like Netvibes and Symbaloo)
There’s a lot more practical and inspiring detail in the archive. Watch for it to be posted Friday.

So let’s start the “Get libraried!” campaign. (thanks Zola for that bit of brilliance.)

What will you do to invite participation, to foster shared ownership, to make your library the place that both creates the conversation and thrives at the center of the conversation?
WJ Online Conference
Beyond 23 Things: Enhanced Self-Paced Training
August 11th, 2011 | Permalink | Comments Off

Thank you to Julie Erickson and Jane Healy for their presentation, Beyond 23 Things: Enhanced Self-Paced Training , the penultimate session of the WebJunction/Learning Round Table hosted online conference, Trends in Library Training and Learning.

A few years ago, the South Dakota state library offered self-paced “23 Things” training based on Helene Blowers now well-known model that helped library staff become familiar with a host of online tools.

Jane and Julie thought, why not use a similar model, but for training staff on state library subscription databases? This would take a rather dry, often intimidating subject (databases) and blend it with an interactive training approach that also encourages staff to make use of Web 2.0 tools. They also were excited that this training could reach out to many different types of learners, in different types of libraries and staff roles and with different ability levels. Their proposal was accepted, and they have done three rounds of the training.

They gave us lots of tips about how they put the program together. A key point they noted up front: they used free tools for the whole things, including:

Blogger
Google Docs
SurveyMonkey
online handouts
vendor tutorials

They stressed that these are not the only free tools available, and other examples were shared by the audience in Chat, such as WordPress, Jing, WikiSpaces, and more.

Their steps for launching the program included:

- Publicity. They used listservs, in-person announcements, andtargeted emails to people who had taken live e-resources training before, and previous challengees.

- Registration. They used a form on Google Docs, created a pretest and post-challenge survey on Survey Monkey

- Lessons. They created 10 lessons, which were released each week for 11 weeks. Each lesson contained a brief intro to provide context, info about the e-resource, and a discovery exercise

- Blogs. Participants created blogs, which added to the trainers’ RSS feed readers and the state library blogroll. These posts included answers to participants’ discovery exercises and comments about the challenge.
- Completion. Post-challenge surveys, analysis, and tweaking of the program based on feedback and results.

The costs associated with the program were really associated with staff time. Time to set up, promote, manage and monitor the program. Because they incorporated into their workday, so it is hard for them to say how much total time it took.

Setup took the most time, to decide structure, but this effort has decreased with each new round.

Advice and Caveats:
Don’t go it alone–have a team of 2 or 3 people.
Setting up the blogs was a difficult step for many participants
Technical issues could create hiccups, such as authentication issues that prevented access to databases.

Results?
Participants reported new knowledge and especially their confidence with e-resources. This led to increased enthusiasm and advocacy about the program went talking with stakeholders in the community. They showed some graphed results from their pre and post surveys that dramatically demonstrated the shift in comfort level.

They’ve opened up the program to school teachers in the summer, who gave additional perspective about the training and considered how they wanted to incorporate into the classroom. The audience asked, why not adapt it for patron and student training as well? We’ll be curious to see if anyone takes that ball and runs with it–let us know your results!

In the Chat and on Twitter, the audience pushed back on the time thing: those who had tried to participate in 23 Things programs found they couldn’t keep up with the challenge under competing priorities. The presenters said that how much the libraries support the program, if they deliberately permit staff to set aside time for it. CE credit is also a motivator. Individual staff’s intrinsic motivation for continuous learning can also be a factor.

The stumpiest question asked during the Q&A section at the end was “Why 23?” The answer, provided by someone in the audience, was “It was based on Stephen Abrams 43 Folders”…I am surprised there wasn’t a follow-up question, “Why 43?”

The audience was asked, What immediate next step can you take based on the information you learned in this session? Lots of responses: we suggest you look at the Chat to get inspired to action for your library!

Wow, just one more session to go!
WJ Online Conference
Tech Training Skills for 21st Century Library Staff
August 11th, 2011 | Permalink | Comments Off

Online conference coverage continues for WebJunction/Learning Round Table hosted online conference, Trends in Library Training and Learning.

Thank you to Crystal Schimpf, Kieran Hixon, and Nancy Trimm for their presentation, Tech Training Skills for 21st Century Library Staff.

With 631 people in the room (and many others viewing as a group under one name), we all were asked to answer a poll on the whiteboard about roles in the library: Did we primarily assist public, train staff, or supervise staff? It quickly turned into a crazy quilt of color, as shown here:

The focus is on tech training because of libraries key role in providing internet. 73% of rural libraries are the ONLY provider of free internet. Two thirds have received 1:1 help from library staff, and 14% attended computer training at the library.

Attendees shared in Chat about how they help people with technology, and the responses showed the huge range in depth and breadth of experience library staff have with technology, from hardware, to software, to the web and email, to databases, and more. Basically, librarians must be prepared to be skilled in both IT and teaching competencies.

The bulk of the presentation then answered the following questions:

What are competencies?

Why are they valuable for library tech trainers?

what are the competencies for library tech trainers?

How do we support competency-based training?

In the spirit of not reinventing the wheel, the group offered Colorado State Library’s own tech trainer competencies for all to ripoff and reuse. You can find those here: http://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org/btop/content/technology-trainer-competencies

On Twitter, Ohio Public Library core competencies were also shared: http://t.co/LZLuIPl

After the main presentation by the three, there was ample time for Q&A. As I was wrestling with Twitter and Facebook lags during that time, I missed a lot of the great questions, but here are some:

Q: How do you keep up with users on the forefront without neglecting those who are lagging behind?

Assist the laggers with their immediate needs but give them encouragement and orientation to more current technology, perhaps as a follow-up one-on-one. Other suggestions were posted to chat.

Q: How do you deal with situations when people come with technology that you are not familiar with?

If you don’t know about it, think of it with other reference questions: You might not have the answer, but you should understand where to find the answer. Also, it might alleviate the anxiety of the person asking if you admit that you don’t know the answer but “let’s learn together”.

Q: How did you go about developing the competencies?

They did a literature review of what competency sets were already published. Created drafts and circulated for review and feedback.

Q: How do you train reluctant or time-stretched staff?

Kieran mentioned that in a small, rural library, training while doing frontline patron services is a necessity. Have to keep an eye on how it will help in the long run, allow for on-the-job training (not sequestered in a classroom), make it short bites of training, and use immediate incentives like treats.

Then the presenters turned it around and asked a couple questions of the audience to reflect on:

How can you support the learning needs of technology training in your organization?

How has your role in the library change because of technology? What training do you need to support your new technology-related duties?

Check out the chat log when the archive is posted later today, to see some of the responses, as well as the lively conversation on Twitter at #learntrends.
WJ Online Conference
Instructional Literacy and the Library Educator
August 11th, 2011 | Permalink | Comments Off

We kicked off day 2 of WebJunction/Learning Round Table’s hosted online conference, Trends in Library Training and Learning, with a keynote presentation by Char Booth, “Instructional Literacy and the Library Educator.”

Char invited all the participants (>600) to go hogwild in the Chat, to keep it as interactive as possible–and everyone took to that idea like ducks to water. Twitter was also very busy (#learntrends).

Char started with a suggestion that we take a positive and persevering attitude toward training, even though we may be challenged by difficult economic and budgetary conditions.

She then introduced the idea of “the Library Educator”–specifically, that no matter your job description, you are involved in learning. But this concept is not widely recognized: we tend to get trained on what to teach but not how to teach. Char shared a poll she did that showed that a majority library staff feel their MLIS education did not adequately prepare them to design and delivery instruction. Chat responses seemed to indicate that this was a sentiment shared by session attendees as well–some mentioned that they did draw upon prior experience as a teacher once they entered the library profession.

She acknowledged that huge amount of anxiety can grip new or undertrained instructors. We may often find ourselves expected to teach without all the formal education and training, certification and credentials that most teachers get.

A big problem is that there is assumption that librarians are not teachers. This affects how we are perceived when we are in a learning interaction on the job. How do you change those perceptions?

And what about your perceptions of learners? Do you believe that they can be inspired by a teaching interaction?

We were invited to close our eyes and conjure up our best teacher ever. Then we burned up the Chat window with descriptions of the qualities of that teacher.

Then, we were asked to think of our worst teacher and chat about that. Wow, the adjectives posted were very vivid. It was obvious that these terrible learning experiences still resonated with us.

The point was, we already know what makes a good and a bad teacher, from our own learning experiences. Avoid the bad, emulate the good qualities, and absorb them into your teaching identity.

She posited a nice metaphor of “librarians as an indicator species” in the sense of being emblematic of the environment, and asked us to post to chat what librarians were indicators of. Responses ranged from “tote bags” to “democracy.”

The meat of the session was devoted to delving into the pillars of Instructional Literacy: a combination of (1) reflective practice, (2) educational theory–learning, teaching, and curriculum theory; (3) teaching technologies; and (4) instructional design (systematic planning makes for a better learning experience). Added together, the outcome is teaching effectiveness.

Reflective Practice is a commitment to be aware of improving your teaching and training strategies, Continuous incremental improvement. Practical aspects of this practice are:

1. Metacognition: thinking about thinking, self-awareness, incremental improvement

– do simple small exercises after doing an instruction. Three question reflection. What went well, what bombed, what should I follow up on?
–concept/curriculum map: break down a core idea into parts to understand it better (mindomo.com)
–buid a teaching portfolio of assignments, handouts, materials in an organized storage.

2. Gleaning:

– capture things that happen for posterity: recordings, whiteboard capture, screenshots, photos of students, colleagues, environs

3. Collaboration
– communities of Practice: build in fun activities, make it visible, get engaged with it

Be sure to view the archived recording when it is posted so that you can see all the great Chat and get the many details that I have not included in this summary!
WJ Online Conference
Getting Admin Buy-In for Training
August 10th, 2011 | Permalink | Comments Off

Online conference coverage continues for WebJunction/Learning Round Table hosted online conference, Trends in Library Training and Learning. Thank you to Sarah Houghton for her presentation, Getting Admin Buy-In for Training.

We spent the first three sessions of today’s online conference getting psyched up to learn, to train, and to have fun doing it. But what if training is not a priority at your library? That can sure kill your buzz. So, Sarah Houghton addressed how to overcome that barrier and get your administration on board with the value of staff’s pursuit of new and improved skills.

The problem Sarah notes is that most libraries have experienced extremely uneven staff skills, from awesome, to adequate, to struggling. The goal is to have a consistent skill set across staff who are performing the same functions.

She shared the reasons why to invest in staff tech training, and suggested you ask yourself: What does your staff need to know to do their jobs well?

How do you get admin to approve your brilliant plan? How do you get them to say yes, and give you the resources to do it? Your boss make likely talk about wanting things fast and free, you may be subjected to a cadre of committees to review your idea, or there just may be a resistance to change. Sarah’s advice? Ask for forgiveness, not permission. Just do it, do it well, and point to the results.

Tips to help you in your venture:

If you feel alone, reach out to others and ask for help (use your professional network)
Use ROI Calculators
Speak the same language as your administrators

Slashed training budget? Look at free options vs expensive consultants. The word “training” can bring dollars signs into admin’s eyes. Consider webinar swaps: you train my staff, I’ll train yours

Show that Rapid Prototyping of training works. Show successful examples of what you can do. Collect information from staff that shows that it worked.

Build allies among opponents. Target those most reluctant first, develop rapport and get them on our side. (Think Star Trek)

Say no to no. Ask for reason why, so that you can address that issue.

Retain authority gently. (Think Andy Griffith) Coach around your point of view.

Start small. You don’t need to put together a whole training program at the start.Plant the seed.

Bring it. Organizations can move very slow, so bring your best game, highest impact effort to it, to WOW decision makers into action.

It’s all about the users. Why are we training staff in the first place? For the benefit of the library’s services and resource to our users. Tie it to impact on users.

Sarah then segued into how to approach a comprehensive training plan. She noted the key ingredients:
goals
skill lists
assessment
training
reassessment
evaluation

She noted a few caveats:
One person can kill a project
Not everyone believes that staff lack basic skills, so you have to show them.Denial.
Not everyone believes that web-based training is valuable.”If it’s not live, it’s not training”
It is possible for you to sabotage your training initiative yourself by making some key errors.
Finally, Sarah covered how to assess your progress and celebrate the results. The hour was packed with information, so be sure to view and listen to the full archive when it posted.
WJ Online Conference
Lights! Camera! Action! Using video for patron and staff instruction
August 10th, 2011 | Permalink | Comments Off

Online conference coverage continues for WebJunction/Learning Round Table hosted online conference, Trends in Library Training and Learning. Thank you to Angela Nolet and Amber Slaven for their presentation, Lights! Camera! Action! Using video for patron and staff instruction. I have to confess that I ate lunch during their presentation so didn’t take the best notes, but know that they shared lots of the nitty-gritty info on how they use over 80 hours a week of staff time on developing and marketing their amazing video program.

All of the resources they mentioned and others contributed to chat will be updated on their archive this week, but here is their YouTube “Using the Library” playlist.

We’ve kicked off the final session for day one…it’s been a great day! See all the gems here: http://www.webjunction.org/trends-training-learning
WJ Online Conference
Happiness Through Personal Learning
August 10th, 2011 | Permalink | Comments Off
The second session of the WebJunction/Learning Round Table hosted online conference, Trends in Library Training and Learning inspired the over 600 people in attendance! Thank you to Marianne Lennox for her inspiring presentation, Happiness Through Personal Learning. She provided achievable steps to both personal and professional happiness or as one attendee said everything “from scientific explanation to practical use.”

Marianne talked about happiness (also known as subjective well being) as a perfect followup to Jay’s presentation on the brain. A few bits that jumped out for me:
- As humans our amazing ability to learn has kept us at the top of the food chain
- They now know there actually is a happiness gene = 5 HTT
- We can survive without happiness, but it makes us good and worthwhile
- “technically the glass is always full” – whether it be air or water
And then she moved into talking about how to develop and practice a PLE (Personal Learning Environment). She noted that PLE is a verb not a noun! There are as many ways to set up a PLE as there are learners, and she talked about the VARK learning approaches:

Learning Styles (VARK)
- Visual
- Aural
- Read/Write
- Kinesthetic
- OR Multi-modal
Marianne shared her own PLE including her use of Google Reader. You must watch the archive for this…loads of new details I’ve never used!

She sent us off with 3 tasks:
1. Empower yourself to learn for your own well-being and happiness.
2. Create a Personal Learning Environment using ADDIE, highlighting your own unique learning style.
3. Reward yourself to achieve the conditioned response: train your brain to learn.
And finally, remember to use the little things that make you happy (food, music etc.) to help reinvigorate your brain to be excited about learning. And as she said, you can be a lurker but you have to listen!

Her archive will be updated here…a must see! http://www.webjunction.org/trends-training-learning/-/articles/content/122111802
Staff Training, WJ Online Conference
Born to Forget: How to Survive and Thrive in the Age of Information Overload
August 10th, 2011 | Permalink | Comments Off
Pavlov, frogs and Twilight metaphors! Jay Turner rocked the opening keynote of the WebJunction/Learning Round Table hosted online conference, Trends in Library Training and Learning. Our brains are recharged from Jay’s presentation, Born to Forget: How to Survive and Thrive the Age of Information Overload. In his inimitably colorful style, Jay linked recent research on brain development with the work skills needed for the 21st century learner to maximize long-term memory (or how avoid “groundhog day syndrome”).

“The serpent that is biology conspires against us.”

Jay elaborated on 8 best practices for getting through to the learner’s brain:

1.       Keep learning enviro fresh

2.       Encourage exploration

3.       Separate the need to know from the nice to know

4.       Use appropriate scaffolding strategies

5.       Master the art of the story

6.       Help learners turn inward to connect outward

7.       Boost performance through self-efficacy

8.       A formal training class is not always the solution

There is so much more information in the space between those best practices. You’ll just have to listen to the archive, which will be available after the conference at:
- http://www.webjunction.org/trends-training-learning/-/articles/content/122387849
Patron Training, Staff Training, WJ Online Conference
Online Conference: greater than the sum of its parts
August 1st, 2011 | Permalink | Comments Off
We’re moving into a new month with great anticipation for the upcoming August 10-11 online conference, Trends in Library Training and Learning. In my communications with co-planners (thank you LearningRT!), presenters, members of the production team, and libraries arranging for viewing parties, I’ve come to realize that this online conference most certainly will be greater than the sum of its parts. This is WebJunction’s third online conference and building on experience, your and ours, and the ever-expanding modes of online and blended learning, here are some ways for all to benefit:
- Host a Viewing Party: Whether pulling up a few chairs to view together on one computer or projecting the session in your meeting room for gathered staff, board members, and volunteers, your local conversations can make the sessions both relevant and actionable for all in attendance. And be sure to chime in during the conference when we ask who’s joining as a part of a cohort viewing the session!
- Use the Discussion Question Guide: This year’s presenters have provided targeted questions related to each of their presentations for both individuals and groups to use to enhance their learning. Download the guide, add your own local questions, and join the ongoing conversations both during and after the conference, using WebJunction’s discussion forums.
- Join Open Chat: WebJunction believes in the power of collaboration. The chat window is visible in our online events and it serves as one of the most efficient and powerful tools for real-time collaboration. While we ask that chat conversation remains relevant to the session topics, we encourage all to share their own expertise, questions, and brainstorming. We also know the power of Twitter and will keep an eye there too. If you’re tweeting, here’s a hashtag: #learntrends.
- Use the Archives: All of the conference sessions will be archived and made available on WebJunction (as are all of our past conferences and webinars). We know many of you will be busy with summer reading or perhaps on vacation. If you and your colleagues can’t make certain sessions or attend some you’d like to review or share with others at a later date, they will be here! The viewing party and discussion question guides are excellent tools to use when viewing archives, whether you do so on your own, or with a group. In addition to the WebEx recording, each of the session archives will include slides, chat, session discussion questions, related resources and links, and all the other gems provide by attendees via chat.
As presenters, emcees, producers, viewing party cohorts and all other participants, active or passive, gather around the online conference using these modes and means of engagement, you will see, we certainly do equal more than the sum of our parts. I look forward to learning with all of you!

Conference home »
Online Learning, Staff Training, WJ Online Conference
WebJunction and LearningRT Announce August Online Conference
May 3rd, 2011 | Permalink | Comments Off

Today’s press release brings news of what’s sure to be our best online conference yet! We’re teaming up with the ALA Learning Round Table to plan and produce our third online conference, Trends in Library Training and Learning: Developing Staff Skills for the 21st Century set for August 10-11.

The conference, to include eight one-hour sessions over two days, will be hosted using the WebEx web conferencing tool, which will provide attendees with easy online access to all live sessions and the ability to interact with other attendees and presenters using text-based chat. Registration will open by June 1 when full conference details are available on our Online Conferences page.

“Libraries are changing quickly and staff need more training than ever to navigate nimbly through change,”said Sharon Morris, ALA Learning Round Table President 2010-11. “This conference will help library trainers, managers and staff to find new ways to train, learn and keep up. The Learning Round Table members are excited to be working with WebJunction on this cutting-edge online conference.”

Jay Turner, a leader in developing creative e-learning solutions for libraries, will serve as keynote speaker for the conference. Mr. Turner serves on the Learning Round Table Board and is the training manager for the Gwinnett County Public Library until May 13. He will then become the new Director of Continuing Education for the Georgia Public Library Service. Mr. Turner was selected as an ALA Emerging Leader in 2008 and is also active in the Public Library Association.

Session presenters will provide practical solutions for libraries looking to implement both staff and patron training using innovative learning techniques that include formal and informal, and online and face-to-face methods. Topics will be particularly relevant to public libraries, but all library staff are welcome and encouraged to attend.

With tight training and travel budgets, this free conference provides library staff an easy and affordable opportunity to learn from and network with both the WebJunction and Learning Round Table communities. Anyone unable to attend the live sessions will be able to view the recorded presentations that will be archived on WebJunction.org after the conference. Full session archives from WebJunction’s two 2010 online conferences are also available to view on WebJunction.org.

Full Press Release »
Online Conferences »
Webinar, WJ Online Conference
What you said about WebJunction’s Online Conference
February 9th, 2011 | Permalink | Comments Off
Thanks to all who attended the December online conference, Serving the 21st Century Patron, and special thanks to those who gave us their feedback in the post-conference survey.

Building on what attendees told us after last February’s conference, Technology Essentials 2010, we made some tweaks to the format for this one. But, our main goal was once again to provide a conference experience to those who can’t normally attend conferences due to budget issues or other resource constraints. And we also enjoy encouraging attendees to play with online learning, social tools, and to collaborate with colleagues from across the miles.

Some of the changes we made:
- We shared a set of Best Practices for Cohorts attending Online Conferences. 35% of respondents indicated they attended conference sessions with colleagues or as a cohort and anywhere from 2-18 people gathered at a time.
- We reduced the number of sessions per day, to accommodate as many timezones as possible.
- We experimented with a Battledecks session, (we think the first-ever online Battledecks!) and heard mixed reviews of the format:
“REALLY enjoyed Battledecks with the presenters! I give them a lot of credit and it was a fun relaxing way (for the audience anyway) to end the webinar especially some of the silly chat.”

“All were good, but the Battledecks session was not as helpful to me as the rest.”

“I know you were trying out Battledecks. It did not work well in the webinar setting. Good job for trying something new.”

“Battledecks was a scream! Much Fun.”

“Battledecks was a new concept and I wish the overall explanation could have been a bit better (or maybe I needed to scrub out my ears more). Anyway, I caught on and it was a fun exercise to watch and comment.”

“Battledecks! It’s like an informal wrap-up of the whole conference…”

According to the survey responses, 95% of attendees agreed that the conference content was “relevant to my library”; 91% agreed that the content “will help me in my work”; 95% agreed that the content was “worth sharing with my colleagues.”

To make sure that we know what we are getting right, we asked respondents to list one thing they thought was done particularly well, and here are the top responses:
1. Interactive format (chat, twitter, presenters and moderators engaged)
2. Presenters (prepared, clear, quality of presentation)
3. Interesting/relevant/timely topics
4. Clear instructions/tech support
5. Time management of sessions and transitions
And as always, we wanted to hear where there could be improvements and these topped the list:
1. Audio Quality
2. More engaged and prepared presenters, vetted presentations
3. Breaks: more, less, or 30 minute lunch break (hard for us to accommodate with so many timezones!)
4. More online conferences (working on it!)
5. More chat/less chat/chat distracting/private chat
We asked what topics would be of interest for future conferences and here are the top 10 suggestions:
1. Technology
2. Tough Times (economic challenges for libraries and patrons)
3. Programming (Adult, Teen, Children)
4. Reference and Readers Advisory
5. Staffing and Performance
6. Fundraising and Grants
7. Collections (managing, cataloging and circulating)
8. Partnerships
9. Leadership, prioritization
10. Academic
And there were lots of other great ideas and comments shared:

“Definitely felt like I was getting training “from the trenches”…I was being taught by people with experience practicing what they were preaching…not someone presenting a cookie-cutter class about something they’ve never done or even seen first-hand.”

“That we could tune in as a group or individually!”

“As the director of a library with no budget for continuing education and a small staff, I really appreciate these free webinars both for the content and the ease of use.”

“Conferences like this help me get beyond the day to day to see the bigger picture.”

With this valuable feedback, we plan to offer another, even better conference in the future on one or more of the topics you suggested. Stay in touch with Crossroads to learn about this and other events at WebJunction.
Library Services, Webinar, WJ Online Conference
Serving the 21st Century Patron: Online Conference Wrap-Up
December 10th, 2010 | Permalink | Comments Off
Serving the 21st Century Patron, the second WebJunction online conference, was a huge success! Thanks to all who attended and also to our presenters!

The archives for the 8 sessions are posted to the conference page. If you were unable to attend in person, please take advantage of the archived sessions.

Just a few highlights:
- 820 registrants
- Unique logins for conference, overall: 552 (day 1 = 460; day 2 = 386)
- There have been over 500 tweets/retweets to the conference hashtag (see tag #WJconf archives )
- The first-ever virtual Battledecks! was so much fun and a great way to wrap up the conference.
Thanks to all attendees for helping to make the conference a success. We’ll be sharing additional feedback from all involved after collecting post-conference survey results, so stay tuned. And for those of you unable to attend – check out the archives today!
Library Services, Webinar, WJ Online Conference
Register Now for Free Online Conference
November 20th, 2010 | Permalink | Comments Off

You are invited to attend WebJunction’s second free online conference, Serving the 21st Century Patron, on December 1–2. Over the course of 8 sessions and with 11+ speakers, we’ll focus on the changing needs and evolving approaches related to customer service in 21st-century libraries. Be sure not to miss the final session, Battledecks, which challenges speakers to present an unknown set of slides—and the audience gets to choose the best result!

Space for the conference is limited, so register now. Staff are also encouraged to attend as a cohort under a single registration: not only does this allow more people to attend, but you benefit from face-to-face discussion, as your group convenes in a single room with the sessions projected. Members who did this at our first conference provided these tips for successful cohort attendance.

Get session and registration details »
Library Services, Online Collaboration, Webinar, WJ Online Conference
Battledecks at WebJunction’s 2nd Online Conference
November 2nd, 2010 | Permalink | Comments Off
We’re gearing up for our 2-day online conference in December focused on Serving the 21st Century Patron and in addition to hosting 7 sessions with 11 outstanding presenters we’re experimenting with Battledecks. Peter Bromberg provides a nice definition of Battledecks on this Learning RT blogpost:

Battledecks is a fun improv exercise that challenges contestants to deliver a presentation on the fly using an unknown slidedeck containing random (and often hilarious) slides. The contestants are judged on their ability to create a coherent presentation that incorporates the slide content smoothly. Laughs and getting through all of the slides on time are a plus.

We’re excited to be bringing you an online version of Battledecks to wrap up the conference with some interesting twists:
- There will be 5 contestants in the competition, each provided with 5 minutes to complete their impromptu presentation.
- YOU, the audience will judge their performance based on a set of scoring categories.
- All will surely be entertained and inspired by the experience!
We look forward to seeing you at the conference, for as few or as many of the sessions as you’re able to attend and as always, archives will be made available.

See conference details and registration »