il 2006: Cultivating Tech-Savvy Library Staff: Competencies & Tips

Sarah and David presented a kickass session on technology competencies and keeping techies happy. The have both made their presentations available online (Sarah’s is here, David’s is here) so instead of recapping the stuff I noted from their slides, I’ll recap the highlights for me:

Technology Competencies: a Path to Training, Sarah Houghton-Jan
Sarah talks a lot about technology competencies on her blog, which I read dutifully, but I guess the importance of tech competencies didn’t really hit home to me until I was in a room, listening to her draw out the details (which she did exceptionally well!). Three opening points made a lot of sense to me:

• technology competencies are a list of things that staff need to know in order to do their jobs
• you don’t need competencies if every single staff member is an expert on everything
• don’t need competencies if every single staff member is a self-directed learner

Obviously, no one can claim either of the last two points to be true at their institutions, hence the importance of fleshing out a list of technology competencies for your staff! Have a look at her presentation for more details on the questions to ask, the competencies cycle, getting staff buy-in, brainstorming activities, tips for organizing your competencies and, finally, some words about competency assessment.

10 Ways to Keep Techies Happy, David King
David’s slides, while great, don’t do justice to his fun, entertaining, and slightly irreverent presentation style! Here are my top three ways to keep techies happy from David’s excellent list of 10:

• Do your part – don’t automatically assume it’s a techie task just because it’s on a computer (anyone can pick up and move a computer!)
• Tell them when you don’t get it – this goes for both techies & non-techies. Don’t pretend to understand what the other is talking about (if you actually don’t!) and don’t let your lack of knowledge be a scapegoat for not trying something. Amen!
• Admit that we’re all geeks – we’re all experts in that little part of the library in which we operate (there are cataloguing geeks, interlibrary loan geeks, reference geeks, instruction geeks, etc. You get the idea!). Let’s collaborate to build something better!