Amigos Member Conference 2022: Building the New Library Team - schedule

Session Description:
The presenters will share details of St. Louis County Library's work in supporting their workforce navigating a changing landscape with employee engagement committees, surveys, direct communication with leadership and more.

Session Description:
Sure, hiring is hard, but it’s a very necessary evil. How can we make the experience better and more inclusive for the library AND the candidates? This session will walk you through each step from the perspective of a recent search committee chair and the candidate who accepted the position. Those steps include: drafting a job advertisement, recruiting, candidate review, interviews, making the offer, and onboarding.

Session Description:
Access Services personnel describe the benefits and challenges of moving the Reference Desk from a different floor to the Circulation Desk, while still maintaining separate functions. The presenters will provide a brief history of faculty/staff roles at both desks prior to the move and discuss how the relocation affected those roles. The presenters will also discuss cross-training of faculty, staff, and student employees, as well as unexpected bumps in the road.

Session Description:
The pandemic has proven challenging for even the most resilient library employees. Students’ learning experiences were flipped on their head, faculty and instructors had to transition entire course loads overnight, and as usual, reliance on the library skyrocketed. For many library leaders, these pressures grew exponentially as fellow employees sought guidance on how to continue teaching and supporting learners/patrons while facing challenges of their own. This session stems from the experiences of one such instruction coordinator after leading a team of instruction librarians through projects, goals, assessment, and change in a period like none other.

The presenter will discuss her own transformation process and the results of that process. Special focus will be placed on facilitating patience, empathy, and self-forgiveness among library employees. Additionally, evidence will be presented for supporting the whole employee through the lens of adult learning, trauma-informed care, and Human Resource Development theories. After sharing her personal experience, the presenter will facilitate a discussion among attendees about their own experiences, expectations, and the general role of the leader in order to expand the concept of library leadership. Next the presenter will outline a number of freely available resources to support attendees' leadership efforts.

Finally, the group will collaborate on the creation of a shared portfolio including theories, concepts, tools, and other resources for future use and support. This collaboration will be completely voluntary through a cloud-based platform such as Google Drive or Forms and will simultaneously create a network of library professionals willing to support one another throughout their leadership transformations. Attendees will leave the session armed with a support system and a range of resources, ready to begin their own transformations in order to support the whole library employee.

Session Description:
In an atmosphere of constant change, organizations of all types need to be nimble. The Mary and Jeff Bell Library is still adjusting to a recent ILS migration, is preparing to switch to a new book vendor, and starting plans for a major weeding project. And, oh yeah, a global pandemic caused a few changes along the way. This presentation describes how the Resource Management & Discovery department at the Bell Library has deliberately restructured multiple times as workflow needs have evolved, creating a culture of organizational flexibility and of embracing change.

Session Description:
Teams help build comradery among employees, and create opportunities for collaboration, support, and accountability that can motivate employees to perform better on projects. Inclusive teams generate new ideas and insights due to the diverse perspectives on the team. Inclusive teams also motivate individual employees to perform better, and promote inclusion among library staff.

Session Description:
In March 2020, library employees at Texas A&M University-Central Texas were suddenly working from home, a jolting experience that some thought would be a disaster. Contrary to expectations, we found that these flexible arrangements were a benefit that contributed to employee retention, even in the face of stagnant wages. In fact, coming out of the pandemic, the majority of our staff expressed a strong preference to continue to work from home at least part-time. As a result, we implemented long-term strategies to accommodate extended, widespread flexible work arrangements at all levels, including for administrators, librarians, and part-time staff. Through this initiative, we found that flexible work arrangements bring positive changes in the work culture by promoting wellness and work-life balance.

In this presentation, we will discuss our experiences implementing this initiative during the past year, and how these arrangements have worked post COVID. This includes both the positive changes, as well as the challenges we’ve faced. We will provide attendees with concrete recommendations to maximize the benefits and minimize the drawbacks, based on our own experiences. We will also discuss how these arrangements help retain staff, keep them motivated, and protect against burnout. We will include a variety of flexible arrangements to provide many options for potential implementation, including how we have allowed some part-timers to work from home in a limited capacity.

Session Description:
Have budget cuts and staffing freezes had an impact at your library? Ours too! Over the past two years, the Lubbock Christian University library has gone from a staff of nine full-time employees to five full-time, one distance, and one part-time. During this transition we have had to retool all but one of those positions. Learn from our triumphs and mistakes as we discuss the steps to take in remaking roles, how to avoid pitfalls, and how to troubleshoot any issues that may arise.

Session Description:
Taking time at the beginning with new employees could pay off in the end. This session will look at an organized approach to help new employees have a great start in their new positions.

Session Description:
The talent shortage facing libraries today requires hiring managers to rethink their approach to teambuilding. This is exacerbated by the changing skills landscape facing the information profession as our services transition to a digital-first environment. Join library technology executive Tony Zanders for a moderated panel discussion on the global trends reshaping library organizational development. Joined by administrators from two Skilltype libraries, the group will share how each of their organizations is incorporating data to help inform key decisions whether to recruit from outside or reskill from within. Attendees will takeaway a clear understanding of the issues leading to what is arguably the greatest redefinition of librarianship in history. Hiring managers will learn how access to better data help saves time and money when managing potential openings. Library workers will learn how to remove the guesswork from their career development process.