I have been having a bit of a think about this. I am hoping Pat from SLT reads this as well as Yarra Plenty people.
It has surprised me that from looking at the tracking log that probably only about 12 out of 20 participants will finish. With the initial bunch, I had expected that most would finish as I thought that those involved would be mostly pretty self-motivated. However, I guess some may have been nominated by supervisors and really were not all that committed. This certainly makes me think that the SLT would need a concerted effort and give staff lots of encouragement to pursue the program. I can now see that going in the draw for something like a laptop would be an excellent motivator. (I wonder, too, whether we need a 'stick' as well as a 'carrot', but do not want to be too heavy-handed about the program.)
I do think that the '15 mins a day' is quite misleading. I usually spent at least 2 hours per week and quite often longer working on the various tasks and reading the background information. I also think that you need to go through and check the links as a number are now not current or do not exist. I did a fair proportion of my tasks (I would estimate more than half) from home. I work Wed-Fri and although I planned to do quite a bit at work, it was amazing how often these plans had to be put on hold. It just shows that you never know what may happen during a day at the library!
Three staff from Devonport were doing the program but it surprised me that we did not work together much. We helped each other out occasionally but not as much as I expected.
It does make me wonder about how some of the full-time staff would fit the program in as they would have less 'give' in their week. perhaps we need to organise relief for anyone who wants to do the program. This would be expensive but if agreed to, would be a real sign that management was supportive. I would also like to see senior and middle managements' names up there on the tracking log as a sign of commitment to the process.
As far as the SLT is concerned, I think we would have to allow any branch library staff involved some relief time (extra hours, as most are not full-time) to complete it. They are too busy to be able to find time to do something like this. I am also trying to think how to best support them in terms of encouragement/allowing for questions. Perhaps we 'guinea pigs' could be allocated to particular people and contact them to see how they are getting on. It is not the same as being on the spot to help but it is the best I can think of. Having a widely geographically dispersed staff does have its challenges.
I guess I am also concerned with the branches' line speeds and capabilities for loading images. That was a fair frustration for me even at a 'city' library and I think that would need to be checked for the little branches. Devonport is just about to get its line capacity upgraded to similar to Hobart and Launceston libraries which should(!) make the process quicker.
Branch staff would certainly benefit from learning a number of these skills as many move towards being 'library and online access centres'. Many libraries and online access centres are currently co-located in buildings and the move is to integrate them even further. I would suggest that perhaps online access centre co-ordinators also be offered the chance to do the program. There is friction between access centre co-ordinators and library staff in some locations so this may need to be managed carefully if access centre staff did take part.
Overall, I enjoyed the experience and hope more SLT staff can take part. We need to be keeping up reasonably well with the sorts of things that are on offer in the cyberworld. Now I'm waiting for Library 3.0 although I suspect you guys have probably had enough already!
