Training Technology Trainers:
Training at the University of Chicago Library

by Kathryn J. Deiss, ARL/OMS Program Officer for Training and
Katherine W. Haskins, University of Chicago Bibliographer for Art,
Film, and Theater

Earlier this year, the University of Chicago Library and Indiana
University Library entered into a development partnership with
Ameritech Library Services (ALS) to implement and enhance the Horizon
integrated library system.  At the University of Chicago, the change
involves migrating staff from the original mainframe system "Library
Data Management System" to Horizon, a client/server-based system.

To ensure that the system developed would meet the University of
Chicago's needs, the University Library appointed several working
groups to establish the specifications for Horizon's implementation.
The library defined the working groups around the individual system
modules: the Public Access Catalog (PAC), Cataloging, Serials,
Acquisitions, Circulation, and Reserve.  These modules will be phased
in over the course of the 1995-96 academic year.  The first modules to
go into production mode are the PAC (available fall quarter),
Circulation, and Reserve (winter quarter).

The library identified staff training in these modules as a high
priority and formed a "Training Advisory Group" to organize a
library-wide program.  This advisory group consisted of Priscilla
Caplan, Assistant Director for Systems; Judith Nadler, Assistant
Director for Technical Services; Denise Weintraub, Head of Library
Personnel; and Kathleen Zar, Science Librarian.  This group identified
a Training Team of 24 staff members to be the Horizon trainers or
consultants on training for all modules library-wide.

The Training Advisory Group then put together a request for proposal
(RFP) for training consultants to come to the University of Chicago
and provide a "train the trainers" workshop.  In addition, the
consultants would assist the staff trainers with the design of
training sessions and written technical training scripts.  In late May
1995, ARL/OMS received this RFP and immediately engaged in writing a
competitive proposal in response.  In June, the Training Advisory
Group appointed Katherine Haskins, Bibliographer for Art, Film, and
Theater, as the Training Coordinator.  She would also serve as a
member of the Training Advisory Group and as a trainer.  It became her
job to coordinate the consultants and the Training Team and to
schedule all activities surrounding the Horizon training efforts,
including scheduling trainers and participants throughout the length
of the training program.

ARL/OMS was awarded the contract in late June.  ARL/OMS consultants
for the work were Maureen Sullivan, ARL/OMS Organizational Development
Consultant; George Soete, Adjunct Organizational Development
Consultant; Kathryn Deiss, ARL/OMS Program Officer for Training;
Bridget Canavan, Head of User Support Services, Information Technology
Division, Northwestern University Library; and Mary Margaret Case,
Director of Program Review and Special Projects, Northwestern
University.

At the suggestion of the ARL/OMS consultants, the library established
an electronic reflector for the Training Team, TAG, and ARL/OMS
consultants.  This became a life-line at times and a vehicle for
advising the Systems Office quickly when particular questions came up.
The group used email throughout the project, and the training session
calendar was posted on a library web page.  However, the "official"
training calendar was a large sheet of tracing paper covered with _Post
It_ notes and penciled notations.  This combination of high- and
low-tech methods typified the training and instruction experience.

The ARL/OMS team immediately began to plan the two-month project in
detail, working to have the first sessions in place in ten days.  The
first step was a two-day orientation to the University of Chicago
groups (TAG, the working groups, and especially the Training Team),
followed by a day-long Horizon system orientation demonstration.  This
system introduction for the Training Team and the ARL/OMS consultants
was presented by Kathy Cunningham, Senior Consultant in the ALS
Implementation unit, and took place in the ALS offices in Evanston,
Illinois.

After the orientation, the Training Team, plus Kathy Cunningham of
ALS, attended a specially- designed ARL/OMS four-day Training Skills
Institute presented to them in two two-day segments.  In this four-day
institute, the University of Chicago trainers learned about adult
learning theory underlying successful transfer of training, learning
styles, training styles, and training tools and techniques, with
particular emphasis on technology training.  ARL/OMS consultants
provided participants with a hefty notebook of resource materials on
training issues.

Due to the pressing need for actual Horizon training to be delivered
to library staff before the fall quarter began, it was imperative that
the Training Team be engaged in designing training sessions and in
writing technical scripts as part of the Institute.

ARL/OMS Training Skills Institutes have long incorporated the use of a
practicum, or near-real, training session as a means of giving
participants meaningful practice and an opportunity for feedback.  At
the University of Chicago, the practicum sessions took place two weeks
after the Training Skills Institute.  In the intervening two weeks,
the Training Team worked on developing the scripts, handouts, and
overall design of their sessions.  ARL/OMS consultants Kathryn Deiss,
Bridget Canavan, and Mary Margaret Case were on hand to assist with
designing and scripting questions.

The purpose of the practicum sessions was to allow time for feedback
from peers and ARL/OMS consultants, as well as from a few naive (i.e.,
unknowledgeable about the Horizon system) trainees invited to attend
sessions.  Following the practicum week, the Training Team members
refined and revised their scripts and designs.

The ARL/OMS consultants and the library participants established a
good working relationship early in the project.  The Training Team
members were bright, enthusiastic, positive, and realistic people
determined to improve their skills and intent on producing the highest
quality training sessions for library staff.  The relationship
established in the first few days was greatly strengthened during the
Training Skills Institute.

The Training Team determined that they should divide themselves into
three groups with four distinct training responsibilities: the
Circulation/Reserve Group; the "Big Picture" Orientation group; and
the Functionality Training Group which was responsible for an
"Introduction to the Windows/GUI Environment" session, as well as an
"Introduction to the Public Access Catalog (PAC)" session.  The
ARL/OMS staff was impressed by the high level of collaboration and
genuine teamwork within the group from the outset of the project
through present-day delivery of training.  Even though all of the
Training Team members had their regular jobs to attend to, the library
administration wisely gave this work a high priority thereby giving
staff the freedom to concentrate on the design of their sessions.

Two weeks after the Training Team was "trained" in training design and
techniques, they were presenting fully designed and scripted Horizon
sessions to the ARL/OMS consultants and their Training Team peers.
The high quality of their work was immediately visible.  They had
developed graphically consistent and useful handouts, a PowerPoint
slide show for the "Big Picture" session, and an engaging style of
delivery.  They were a high performance training team after only four
weeks.  Recently, this type of group was defined as a "hot group" by
Harold J. Leavitt and Jean Lipman-Blumen, who describe such a group as
"...just what the name implies: a lively, high-achieving, dedicated
group, usually small [3-30], whose members are turned on to an
exciting, challenging task....They do great things fast." [1]
Characteristics of a "hot group" are "vital, absorbing, full of
debate, laughter, and very hard work."[2]

At the University of Chicago, the hot group members and subgroups
helped each other through just such debate and hard work, as much as
they were helped by the consultants.  The Training Team used the
feedback they received and prepared to begin the Horizon training
sessions in earnest.  Between August 14 and September 22, three months
after receiving training themselves, the University of Chicago
Training Team trained over 150 staff members in various aspects of the
Horizon system.  They held a combination of 52 training sessions.  PAC
training classes will resume later in the academic year, when the data
conversion is completed, and the Horizon PAC becomes the official
online catalog.  Circulation staff are planning to bring up the
Horizon Reserve module during the winter quarter, and the Horizon
trainers will continue to work with them on training in Circulation
and Reserve.  Public instruction for the Horizon PAC is ongoing.

Due to the unique staff training approach that the University of
Chicago took, the library now has a new staff development capability:
an in-house group of skilled trainers.  While not all members of the
Training Team will be interested in continuing to train, the
opportunity exists for those who do have an interest.  The University
Library has the latitude to use the skills of these trainers for other
training needs, such as user instruction in the Horizon system, and
this principle has already been put into practice.  Another bonus of
the ARL/OMS Training Skills Workshop was the increase in collegialism
among staff in different Library departments and divisions, who got to
know and work with each other in a very special way.

Annette de Soto, Head of Lending Services in Regenstein Library,
observes, "the [ARL institute experience] provided a much-needed
foundation from which we could confidently develop our training
sessions [by offering] insight into more general issues of teaching
and learning styles that are useful (and used) on almost a daily
basis."

According to Leavitt and Lipman-Blumen on the "growing" of a hot
group, the fundamental way to achieve what the University of Chicago
has achieved with its Training Team is to "Make room for spontaneity;
encourage intellectual intensity, integrity, and exchange; value truth
and the speaking of it; help break down barriers; select talented
people and respect their self-motivation and ability; and use
information technology to help build relationships, not just manage
information." [3] All of these elements are in place at the University of
Chicago and the success of their Horizon training program is a
testament to leadership and collaboration.

[1] Leavitt, Harold J. and Jean Lipman-Blumen.  "Hot Groups," 
Harvard Business Review, July-August, 1995, pp. 109-116. 
[2] Ibid 
[3] Ibid 

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ARL 183
A Bimonthly Newsletter of Research Library Issues and Actions
Association of Research Libraries
December 1995