Staff Development and Training Team

We have a team or department called “Staff Development and Training,” (SDT) located in offices in the suite of three training rooms in our main (Wilson) library. We have three full-time positions in this team, plus an administrator who manages the unit along with other responsibilities.

The staff members maintain a Web site http://sdt.lib.umn.edu/ which includes class registration and equipment reservation software. They teach classes and provide support for other continuing education initiatives in the Libraries. These include two annual symposia and a workshop directed to support staff (each is attended by approximately 200 individuals from the region); monthly luncheon presentations by various librarians; and one-time special focus workshops.

Libraries staff members are encouraged to call the SDT staff for follow-up help with topics covered in classes they have taken. The SDT staff facilitate monthly users’ groups meetings focused on various software packages. One SDT staff member has been part of the “trainers” group that delivered the staff training for our new automated system. This is important since no others in the group have either training or experience in curriculum design, content delivery, and assessment of class effectiveness.

SDT publishes a twice-yearly newsletter and an annual class catalog. We offer more than 40 different classes, many of which are offered several times over the year. Libraries staff members (professional and paraprofessional) teach some of these classes.

Prepared by:Peggy Johnson, Assistant University Librarian
University of Minnesota Libraries
m-john@tc.umn.edu
December 7, 2001