Hightlights from Thingamabobs and Doodads Workshop

Over 50 participants gathered for the LILRC sponsored program, Thingamabobs and Doodads: Why Tech Support IS Reference, on Friday, July 23, 2010 at the Plainview-Old Bethpage Public Library.

Guest speakers Holly Hibner and Mary Kelly provided an insightful and humorous look at the close tie between reference questions and technology support.  Our exploration included a number of examples of different situations that both presenters and participants have experienced with regards to technology support questions and some ways to approach them.  Core competencies, making time for technology, and how to communicate with patrons and tech support were also discussed.

Please be sure to view the following slides for useful links to additional resources:

Special thanks to the Plainview-Old Bethpage Public Library for hosting this event.

Thingamabobs and Doodads: Why Tech Support Is Reference

Please be sure to mark your calendars and join LILRC this July with guest speakers Holly Hibner and Mary Kelly for:

Thingamabobs and Doodads: Why Tech Support IS Reference

Date: July 23, 2010
Time: 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Location: Plainview-Old Bethpage Public Library

Public library users often rely on library staff for technology support. This session will describe core technology competencies required by staff, especially at the reference desk. Librarians and support staff will be inspired to provide tech support as a means to market library services and themselves as vital resources to the community.

By the end of this program, participants will be able to:

* list three ways that tech support is essential to the library and its core mission

* list five core technology competencies needed by reference desk staff

* describe how to implement a new strategy for providing technology training to their staff

About the Presenters:

Mary Kelly received an MLIS and MBA from Wayne State University, after which she spent ten years irritating co-workers with grand plans for collection development, library instruction and/or world domination at the Salem-South Lyon District Library. She is currently working as a library consultant, speaker, writer, and substitute librarian at the Plymouth District Library. Although Mary’s issues with OCD have not translated into a well organized desk or home, it has turned into a crusade for collection quality and a ‘clean’ shelf list which carries in her purse. Mary, along with Holly, has turned this obsession loose on the world through the website Awfullibrarybooks.info.

Holly Hibner received an MLIS degree from Wayne State University in 1999. When she’s not changing peoples lives with Mary Kelly on the AwfulLibrary Books blog, she can be found heading up the Adult Services Department at the Plymouth District Library. Always a force to be reckoned with, the community’s reference bulldog, and wannabe technology maven, Hibner struts her stuff around the library looking super cool while doing mobile reference with an iPod Touch. She is still riding high and pulling every ounce of glory out of her 2007 Loleta Fyan Award from the Michigan Library Association.

For additional information, including the registration form, please visit the LILRC Continuing Education Calendar online at: http://www.lilrc.org/calendars/eventdetail.php?eventID=770.

We look forward to seeing you there!