ILA Best Practices

Building Home Grown Genealogy Services

ilabestpractices — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:42:30 +0000

Is providing genealogy help @ your library becoming a service priority? Here are some successful services and programs the Algonquin Area Public Library is providing to support residents looking to “discover their roots.”

Laying the groundwork for successful genealogy programming starts with identifying someone who has been doing their own family research, is “genealogy friendly” and willing to share their expertise with the public. Start by asking your own staff; call another library, a local historical or genealogical society from the surrounding community for free or inexpensive speakers. Reference librarians Virginia Freyre and Kristen McCallum are our resident experts and teachers. They have created a first class genealogy collection and program repertoire over the last 8 years of books, classes, workshops, brochures, speakers, online resources, a web page and half hour consultations for the “Clueless about Genealogy!” We are close to becoming an affiliate Family History Center (LDS) to process patron requests for microfilm from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

Our beginner classes are traditionally scheduled early in the year. The original Genealogy 101 class covered the basics of where to start, searching census records, locating vital records, military records and immigration and naturalization resources. Students loved the notebook we provided with handouts on each topic presented. The wealth of information presented is often overwhelming to beginners so Kristen and Virginia redesigned their class. The original 101 class was expanded to a 3 week session limited to 30 students titled Genealogy Bootcamp. They discovered that step by step instruction, building on the previous week’s lesson, by using case studies, assigning homework, and giving quizzes helped the new “recruits” increase their understanding of the research process. Information was provided about other genealogical programs, workshops, and conferences and attendance was encouraged for additional learning opportunities.

Our most popular program always filled to capacity is our After-Hours Genealogy Workshop. For the last 5 years, in April and November on a Friday night from 4:30-10:30pm Kristen and Virginia provide genealogy enthusiasts independent research time on our computers, technical and research assistance and occasional “expert” volunteers from the local genealogical society. The evening begins with a short presentation on a general topic of interest, snacks and drinks are provided, use of our computers, access to Ancestry and other databases, and unlimited free printing. October and November is a good time to schedule an after hours program to take advantage of the State of Illinois’s free trial access to electronic resources during their annual Try-it Illinois.

Two years ago they created the monthly Genealogical Lecture Series by choosing a regular day and time, ours is 3^rd Tuesdays at 7pm (excluding July, August and December), to increase appeal to novices, seasoned researchers and increase attendance. We continue to schedule a variety of topics and speakers; Ethnic research strategies (Polish, German, Irish, English, Scottish, Swedish, etc.), Genealogy computer program comparisons of Family Tree Maker & Roots Magic, Online resource demonstration and instruction for Ancestry and Heritage Quest, FamilySearch.org Experts (LDS), Immigration & Naturalization, Marriage Records, Collateral Relations, Cemetery Research, Writing Your Family History, Old Photograph identification and restoration and Local History.

Contact Vicky Tobias at the Algonquin Area Public Library for more information.

Ten Good Tips for Making Staff Days Strategic

ilabestpractices — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:41:06 +0000

1. Have the staff members at all levels share what they appreciate about each other in very specific ways. In small groups, have staff discuss the things that others do that make life and work easier for them. Be sure to record these comments and post them afterwards. Be sure that feedback gets back to others.

2. Have people talk about what they like about working at the library and why they have made this their work. What is working for them right now? Have people share what’s working for the patron and what successes have occurred this year? Also discuss the challenges they may face in the future.

3. Discuss in an involved way what the future direction for the library should be in programs, services, processes, facility, human resources etc.

4. Identify what are the future trends in facility, programs, technology, and materials. Bring a local author to talk about books.

5. Provide opportunities for leaders from the community to address what they see are the critical issues they are facing and how those could be helped by the library.

6. Provide for an open exchange of information between the staff, board, and leaders. Bringing a moderator may help here.

7. Teach a few vital skills necessary for the library to be a success (learning about a new technology, handling patron complaints, dealing with teens etc.)

8. Be sure to follow-up on questions, concerns, ideas and/or suggestions for change that are mentioned.

9. Provide opportunities for staff skits on a day in the life of your department or your most unusual reference or patron request.

10. Do let the staff know that they are appreciated and solicit their feedback on how the day went. Thank all those who helped with the day.

By:

Dan Wiseman, Managing Partner
Wiseman Consulting and Training Inc.
133 W. Palatine Rd. Suite 202
Palatine, IL 60067
847-221-5197 (Home Office)
847-902-9034 (Dan Cell)
connect@wisemanconsulting.com
www.wisemanconsulting.com

Please Send Us Your Success Stories

ilabestpractices — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:07:09 +0000

Let us know the Best Practices in your Library! Email your blog posts to kdurov@prpl.org or send us a message on Facebook.

HBR Best Practices Blog

ilabestpractices — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 22:39:30 +0000

The bloggers at Harvard Business Review provide best practices for managers in a variety of settings. Topics covered include feedback, networking, new hires, team players, and what to do when you’ve made a mistake. http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/

Best Practices Wiki

ilabestpractices — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:32:47 +0000

To learn of other libraries’ successes and to post your own, follow the Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki at http://www.libsuccess.org/ Its creator is Meredith Farkas, however the wiki belongs to the library community.

Reorganizing! Getting it Together!

ilabestpractices — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:10:47 +0000

The ILA Best Practices Committee is reorganizing and is active once again. We are reestablishing this blog to publicize best practices around Illinois and in the library profession. We are hoping you will share yours with the rest of us!
We look forward to hearing from you.

Robin & Anne

Moraine Valley Literacy Expectations

ilabestpractices — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:07:57 +0000

The Communications and Library faculty of the Moraine Valley Community College have developed an Information Literacy Expectations page. The site fosters a better understanding of Information Literacy by helping students understand how to locate, evaluate, and use materials for assignments and projects. Faculty resources contain links to documents and videos useful for teaching different skills.

TribLocal Gets the Word Out

ilabestpractices — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:43:53 +0000

Need a new promotional idea? Try TribLocal and get the word out about programs, library activities, or anything you want your community to know about. TribLocal will post your stories, events, and photos. Go to TribLocal.com, register, and start submitting!

Migrating Website to a Content Management System

ilabestpractices — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:19:53 +0000

With our new website, we wanted to be able to take advantage of features that would make the site useful to our community – RSS feeds for users to subscribe to that list the new books recently cataloged, blogs for our library gaming groups, and forums for virtual book clubs. We did not want to code this all by hand. We needed a Content Management System (CMS) that did the hard work for us and allowed us to focus on producing and managing the content.

What CMS to choose? Following our research, we chose Drupal (www.drupal.org) as our CMS. We developed an internal committee of a representative from each department to migrate the relevant information from the old site to the new. It took just two months to go from installing the software to launching the new website. Now we have a site that is current, uses new technologies and is easy to maintain. Submitted by Tim Jarzemsky, Director & Head of Computer Services, Bloomingdale Public Library

Internet Express Station

ilabestpractices — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:17:05 +0000

Because we are a small (ish) library, we do not have very many internet stations. The Board decided to restrict them to city resident card-holders only. However, the staff recognized that many of the visitors who come through are also stopping in on their way to shop or dine. Rather than give a negative impression of our city, we established an Internet Express station. For 20 minutes anyone can quickly check their email. It has proven to be very popular (we average over 200 visits per month). Plus we get positive feedback from library visitors who are very appreciative. Out of town businessmen and college students are our best customers. Submitted by Deborah Owen, Fairview Heights Public Library