On my 2nd day at the Chattanooga Public Library, I began what has now been 8 months of management/leadership training with Lisa & Dan Nausley at Sandler Training of Chattanooga. After not having much management/leadership training the three years before, I was so happy to have this opportunity.  It has helped me grow as a manager and be a better communicator.  It has also made me realize just how important training and staff development are for libraries.  It is VITAL for us to invest time in our employees as we move ahead.

Inspired by an awesome talk with my co-worker Megan Emery and by these awesome projects done by awesome people, we came up with a way to make sure that the staff working on The 2nd Floor of the Downtown Chattanooga Public Library was all trained and confident with the new services we’ve been rolling out.  Our staff training program will run every Monday starting in January until March 2014.  Every Monday, we’ll focus on a different service area found on The 2nd Floor.  In the end, we hope to get all of our staff up to speed on how to work with our community.

Here’s the email sent out to let folks know about the program:

To get everyone better acquainted with all of the new services happening on The 2nd Floor, we’re going to be running a 12 week staff training program for employees of the 2nd Floor.

WHEN?
Every Monday between 9am-12pm and 2pm-6pm starting on Monday January 6th.

TIME?
We’ll schedule you to be away from your public co-working space so you can focus on training.

THE SCHEDULE
1. All things buttons (with Megan)
2. Creating and Mixing a song (with Justin)
3. Sewing a seam (with Megan)
4. The ins and outs of the 2nd Floor Arcade (with Justin)
5. Making stickers in the vinyl cutter (with Megan)
6. Filming and Editing Movies (with Justin)
7. Making a rainbow bracelet (with Megan)
8. All things laptops (with Justin)
9. Metal Stamping (with Megan)
10. Social Media on The 2nd Floor (with Justin)
11. The 3 D’s of 3D printing (with Justin)
12. How to use the embroidery machine (with Megan)

WHY?
As we move ahead with the 2nd Floor, we want to make sure everyone who works here is well trained and capable of showing the community all about the new services we offer.

As we move ahead, I’ll post updates about this program here!