Thing #23: Wrapping up

Well, here's the end of the program. But not the end of ongoing learning. It's been interesting to note that even with technologies I was already using regularly (flickr, Delicious) there were aspects I hadn't yet explored - I still need to go back again and revisit some of those in more depth. And there were of course plenty of new things I discovered in the course of the program.

I was struck earlier today by a comment from another staff member here that showed exactly why a program like this is important: he wanted more training in a particular service offered by the library, and he wanted those of us already familiar with it to provide it. Seems reasonable, and we do try to provide such training. But in fact it's impossible for us to provide training in everything we do to every member of a staff as large as ours. And it would be even more difficult for us to provide training in all of the basic skills that support those things. That being the case, it's absolutely critical for staff to assume a high level of responsibility for their own ongoing training. The other side of the coin is that it's equally critical for administrators to support such training (and ensure that individual supervisors support it as well) by allowing staff time for self-directed training.

The difficulty of providing such time for staff leads to the main thing I would suggest changing in future programs of this type: allow more time for people to complete the program. I'm aware that as we approach the deadline, only a fraction of the staff here who started the program are close to finishing, and that is, unfortunately, likely to make them reluctant to participate the next time around.

For myself, I certainly would participate in another such program, if at all possible.