Free IFLA/ALA webinar, April 16: “New Librarians Global Connection: best practices, models and recommendations”

For the second consecutive year, IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning and IFLA New Professionals Special Interest Group are partnering with the American Library Association to present a series of free quarterly webinars on issues of interest to new librarians, library associations and library schools, library-decision makers, and all library workers. This is a great opportunity for membership participation via new worldwide online programming.

Following our tradition of excellence, this year our keynote speakers for each of our quarterly sessions come from different regions of the world. They include IFLA Incoming President, Sinikka Sipilä, and the President of the Library Association of Singapore, Gene Tan. Below, the date and time of the next webinar. Save the date!

April 16, 2013
9:00 a.m. CDT
10:00 a.m. EDT
4:00 p.m. CET
10:00 p.m. Singapore

World Clock

Virtual meeting room

Webinar length is one hour.

Speakers:

Keynote by Sinikka Sipilä, IFLA President Elect and Secretary General of the Finnish Library Association. Keynote topics: Strong libraries for equal and innovative societies, advocacy, how IFLA works and how to join.

Susanne Riedel, former President of the German Library Association for Library Professionals, Head of Support Team Publication Services at the Electronic Services Department, Bielefeld University. Topics include professional development, intergenerational librarianship, mentoring, librarians and change.

Kate Byrne, Outreach Team Leader, University of New South Wales and Program Coordinator of International Librarians Network, Australia.

The #newlibgc webinars are archived, therefore you can join them, ask questions and participate in conversations with international colleagues live, or you can listen to them later, anywhere at any time, such as the January webinar with Keynote by Gene Tan, President of the Library Association of Singapore and Director of the National Library of Singapore.

Questions and requests for information:
Loida Garcia-Febo
Series Coordinator
loidagarciafebo@gmail.com

Registration now open for “New Librarians Global Connection: best practices, models and recommendations”

“New Librarians Global Connection: best practices, models and recommendations“ is a new series of free quarterly webinars on issues of interest to new librarians, models of library associations and library schools working with new professionals, and groups by and for librarians. The free webinars are presented by IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning  and IFLA New Professionals Special Interest Group in partnership with the American Library Association.

Below, the date and time of the first webinar. Save the date!

January 17, 2012

2:00 p.m. CST
3:00 p.m. EST
9:00 p.m. CET (21:00 Central European Time)
7:00 a.m. EDT (next day)
World Clock

Registration:  https://ala.ilinc.com/register/cjfbvxz

Speakers:

Dr. Alex Byrne, New South Wales State Librarian and Chief Executive of the State Library NSW in Australia. IFLA President 2005-2007. Highlighting the topics: LIS school curriculum, gained skills and degrees vs. “the reality” at work. Bridging the gap between theory and practice. How to deal with generational differences at work?

Janice Lachance, J.D., CEO of the Special Libraries Association. Featuring a model of a library association’s work with new professionals in various regions of the globe.

JP Porcaro, Head of Library Acquisitions and Technological Discovery at New Jersey City University. Co-founder of ALA Think Tank, and originator of the Make It Happen philosophy for librarians. Featuring a group by and for librarians.

Future webinars

Come back to this page and stay tuned for announcements of future webinars. Speakers featured in upcoming webinars include:

Kay Raseroka, IFLA President 2003-2005
Maureen Sullivan, ALA President Elect
Barbara Ford, Director, Mortenson Center for International Library Programs, ALA President 1997-1998
Jukka Pennanen and Mace Ojala, Cycling for Libraries
Rachel Bickley, LIS New Professionals Network

The series explore useful topics to help new professionals at various stages of their career, including:

• LIS school curriculum, gained skills and degrees vs. “the reality” at work. Bridging the gap between theory and practice. How to deal with generational differences at work?
• Mentoring and best practices including pros and cons of different approaches like peer-to-peer, and classical mentor-mentee relationships.
• How to develop leadership skills as a new professional: programs, mentoring, learning by doing. Working abroad, leaving your home country.
• Continuing Professional Development for new professionals, how to stay up to date from the very start even if conditions at work (funding/permission to attend conferences, support with writing articles, etc.) are not the best.

The webinars will be recorded and made available at a later date.

Questions and requests for information:
Loida Garcia-Febo
Coordinator of the series
loidagarciafebo@gmail.com

Successful paths for New Librarians: best practices, models and recommendations

The recording of our session, “Successful paths for New Librarians: best practices, models and recommendations” is now available at the following link: http://www.library20.com/page/general-session-room-links  (Scroll down, look for the title of our presentation and click on “recording.”) 

The session was presented by IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning and IFLA New Professionals SIG. Loida Garcia-Febo moderated the session and introduced the same by summarizing international efforts to meet the needs of new librarians. Prof. Dr. Claudia Lux, IFLA Past President and Director General of the Foundation Central and Regional Library Berlin spoke about librarians yesterday and today, changing skills, volunteering and not sitting in the back of the room (listen to the presentation to know more about this).

Anca Râpeanu, CPC & Innovation Specialist at IREX Romania and Biblionet Program shared information about the Summer School for Young Romanian Librarians.

Thanks to many of you who attended the conference! Below, a map where the attendees indicated their region of the world.

Free online conference: Successful Paths for New Librarians: best practices, models and recommendations

Dear colleagues:

We are pleased to announce that IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning and IFLA New Professionals SIG have partnered to present “Successful paths for New Librarians: best practices, models and recommendations” at the  Library 2.011 Worldwide Virtual Conference this November 3, 2011.

Since this free! conference crosses global time zones, please look for November 3rd and the title of our presentation on the following website to identify your time and join us! http://www.library20.com/page/sessions-and-schedule

“Successful paths for New Librarians: best practices, models and recommendations”

Speakers:

Prof. Dr. Claudia Lux, IFLA Past President and Director General of the Foundation Central and Regional Library Berlin

Anca Râpeanu, CPC & Innovation Specialist, IREX Romania, Biblionet Program also working with the Summer School for Young Romanian Librarians

Moderated by Loida Garcia-Febo, Coordinator, New Americans Program at Queens Library

 

 

We would also like to share a message from the organizers at the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at San José State University:

We’re counting down the days until the inaugural Library 2.011 Worldwide Virtual Conference begins on November 2. More than 3,500 information professionals from 149 countries have signed up to join the global conversation on the current and future state of libraries. The groundbreaking event will be a whirlwind of information with 160 presentations scheduled over two days!

Participants can view the schedule of all 160 sessions in customized pages for each of the world’s 36 time zones. Presentations will cover a variety of pertinent subject strands that affect the LIS industry and the changing roles of libraries and librarians in our digital world. Keynote addresses will be scheduled over the course of the two-day conference. Keynote speakers include:

• Dr. Sandra Hirsh (USA)
• Dr. Lennart Bjoerneborn (Denmark)
• Dr. Michael Stephens (USA)
• Dr. Christine Bruce (Australia)
• Ms. Ellen Tise (South Africa)
• Mr. Stephen Abram (Canada)

The conference welcome will start at 6:30 a.m. US-PDT on Wednesday, November 2, followed by the opening keynote by Library 2.011 Worldwide Virtual Conference Co-Chair Dr. Sandra Hirsh, professor and director of the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at San José State University. The conference will conclude with a final conference gathering at 9:00 p.m. US-PDT on Thursday, November 3 (November 4, in some parts of the world). The full schedule is posted on the conference website at http://www.library20.com/page/sessions-and-schedule.

Participants, presenters, and volunteers are encouraged to share our excitement for this global event and download online badges to let everyone know about the Library 2.011 conference. To download badges, please visit: http://www.library20.com/page/press-promotional

As a reminder, the conference will be held entirely online and is FREE to attend. For more information, please visit: http://www.library20.com

See you online on November 3 @ “Successful paths for New Librarians: best practices, models and recommendations,”

Loida

My IFLA 2010 experience

Every IFLA Congress is different and a pretty unique experience for all people involved in this huge event. So was mine this year. Although not being a first timer, my third IFLA Congress included quite a few “firsts” such as my first satellite meeting, several meetings and duties I was committed or invited to as NPSIG Convenor, the IFLA Night Spot, Swedish food specialties, and many more. Unlike the others from our blogging team, I found no time at all to blog about all these things during the conference. Therefore here is my IFLA 2010 experience going through the whole conference week… watch out for the food.

Monday | The Global Librarian | Prologue

Without a doubt, my first highlight of this year’s IFLA journey was the NPSIG’s satellite meeting The Global Librarian, which was a big success. We were very happy to have around 70 people attending this one day event in Boras as participants and speakers – a lot of them being New Professionals and IFLA first timers.

The program was built around the internationalization of LIS careers and the profession in general. During the day we were dealing with topics such as library associations and new librarians, case studies from different countries, an innovative Library School model from the Netherlands, mobility and community building of New Professionals, mobile libraries, and how to become a global librarian.

sessions dealing with the internationalization of LIS careers

As part of the organizing team I was really busy that day, all the more we had to cope with a difficult situation, because the key person of our team arrived only in the late afternoon due to a family emergency. Therefore, we had to do most of the organizational part on the fly and improvise a little bit along the way. But this was fun actually and things worked out quite well anyway. More than once I was thinking back to organizing the BOBCATSSS symposium in 2008 which had posed quite similar challenges to the organizing team (the other similarity was the atmosphere during the sessions with so many New Professionals involved, which reminded me of being at BOBCATSSS – quite a good sign in my opinion). One thing I particularly liked was the moderation of the sessions, which gave me the possibility to actively join a couple of presentations and to get some input as well. This also included the first presentation via Skype I experienced at a conference – nice!… although Robin could not see anything of us, which must have been quite strange for her while, on the other hand, being largely displayed on our screens.

Robin Kear talking about how to become a global librarian via Skype

The daily agenda was surrounded by two great keynotes. Right in the morning, Erik Boekjestein and Jaap van de Geer took the audience on an exciting ride through the last couple of years they have been on the road with their Shanachietour and, recently, with This week in libraries. At the moment, you will hardly find better persons to ask for advice, when it comes to global librarianship. Erik and Jaap are traveling the world looking for best practices and are telling fascinating stories from local libraries in a global context. They even filmed some parts of their presentation. I am curious when this stuff will be available online… you can already watch an interview with Scott Nicholson about gaming in libraries recorded the same day at the LIS school in Boras.

Pernille Drost, closing keynote speaker

Pernille Drost, current President of the Danish Union of Librarians, held the Closing Keynote of our satellite meeting that was entitled “How library associations and library decision makers could work things out to retain, meet expectations and needs, and involve new members in their work.” In the context of an ongoing debate about the challenges of membership in many library associations around the world, she gave us valuable insights into her experiences in the case of Denmark and raised some very inspiring ideas and points to be considered by all parties involved:

• Technology and its pace are pushing the library organizations. If social media lets you meet your colleagues, why going to conferences, becoming a member of the library association anymore?

• Marketing is extremely important for library associations. Let people know about the benefits of joining them. Interesting comparison: Imagine food or beverage in a grocery store without any label about the ingredients… would you buy it anyway?

• Stakeholder analysis: Ask the people leaving the association and thereby create awareness (example from Denmark: phoner campaign).

• People are getting involved for a couple of years and then move on to another activity. This should be fine for us (maybe goals like “10-15 years” not achievable anymore).

• Danish Library Association: 1 President, 10 council members. One of them is a student – no voting rights, but very valuable input for the council.

• Generational gaps: Forming “youngster groups” could be difficult – tendency of patronizing these people and no impact on the Governing Board etc. This doesn’t solve the problem. We should rethink the hierarchical structures of library associations.

• Tendency: The young have the ideas, are innovative… but also the older generation has very valuable knowledge! They probably even have been library revoluzzers themselves in an earlier stage of their career, but maybe forgot about it meanwhile.

• Many initiatives in the Danish Library Association are addressing ALL the members. Of course, there are different attitudes amongst New Professionals and the older generations. But at the same time they just really often have similar opinions.

• A goal helps to get involved – join a section!

closing with networking drinks

After a day full of sessions and input, all the participants gathered in the lobby for some networking drinks. We were also joined by the attendees of a second satellite meeting in Boras, organized by the Sections Library Theory and Research as well as Education and Training. Finally, I think the whole satellite meeting was a perfect starter for the IFLA week, because it gave everybody lots of thoughts about the very idea of IFLA on the way (internationalization and networking) and many contacts and new faces to get back to later during the week.

It is exactly this kind of intensified exchange of experience and networking between participants in a smaller group of people that gives satellite meetings a slightly different but very agreeable flavor then the main IFLA Congress. Another strange thing for me in this context: While leaving Boras on Monday evening I was feeling like I would need some vacation… but the really big event had not even started yet.

Tuesday | IFLA 2010 | Day 1

IFLA New Professionals Update

Dear colleagues:

I hope everyone had a good summer.

Below, I’ve included a summary of activities for the IFLA New Professionals Special Interest Group.

From this, I’d like to highlight the partnership with the Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning (CPDWL) to present a Satellite Meeting in Bologna. It was wonderful to work with members of CPDWL. Their expertise and experience tremendously helped New Professionals to move forward with the co-organization of the first-ever IFLA Satellite Meeting involving new professionals!!

I’d like to specially thank Susan Schnuer, Chair of CPDWL; Roisin Gwyer Co-Chair of the Satellite Meeting in Bologna, Jana Varlejs, Co-Editor of the Proceedings. Also, the local organizing committee led by Marialaura Vignocchi.

Big thank yous also to Almuth Gastinger and David Percival from the New Professionals SIG moderated sessions and presented interesting and timely programmes.
Summary of activities: