In our ongoing effort to continue building new and innovative solutions for our members, LYRASIS sought your feedback and input on how to improve the landscape for professional development and training. Based on what we learned, we created LYRASIS Learning as our continuing education program that gives you access to the entire catalog of LYRASIS archived training as well as unlimited live classes, all for one easy, yearly price. This new platform is an exciting way to meet all your training needs, and allows your entire staff to take the same classes, and as many as they would like throughout the year with no additional cost to you.

We are continuing to build the LYRASIS Learning library and are excited to introduce all new classes taught by expert instructors from the School of Information at San Jose State University (SJSU). The SJSU instructors are nationally regarded professionals with deep expertise in both the fundamentals of collections, as well as new and emerging topics in the field. Classes cover timely topics in the information professions and we will be adding more options in the coming weeks.

New classes presented by SJSU through LYRASIS Learning:

The Emerging Future: Technology Issues and Trends

The technology landscape changes rapidly, and it’s difficult to know which technology is best for your organization and users. This webinar brings focus to the planning skills that are needed to understand the needs of your community and create a technology plan that fits the needs of your users and budget. Librarians and information professionals must recognize and monitor the technologically astute people, organizations, and publications that report on technology issues and trends.

The Problems with Working in a Group

Sometimes it seems like you could work more effectively if you completed a project on your own. Research proves that the decisions and products made by a group that practices effective communication techniques are consistently better than those made by individuals. The Abilene Paradox, GroupThink, and the Nominal Group Technique will be offered as models to recognize and avoid group pitfalls, and suggestions for improving group or committee work will be offered.

Facilitating Conflict

Disagreements and misunderstandings occur in small and large groups, and often the conflicts are ignored or mismanaged. Although there is no magic formula to insure conflict-free interactions, this webinar will suggest some strategies that can be used to improve communication and minimize conflicts.

Design Think Your Way to a Better Library

This two-hour webinar introduces participants to design thinking through the exploration of a process that begins with an empathic approach to problem finding that leads to a thoughtful solution. Attendees will gain familiarity with the different phases of the design thinking process through examples of how they are applied in a library environment. While there are other methods leading to decisions for making libraries better, design thinking lends itself to staff engagement opportunities for collaborative problem finding and solving.

Pass it On: Social Media and Word-of-Mouth-Marketing

Create a buzz about the programs and services at your library through social media and word-of-mouth marketing. Learn how to craft 1-minute marketing messages to share online, f2f, inside or outside the library, and understand how to plan for an effective social media marketing campaign.

Bias and Culture Matters: Part 1 of the Cultural Intelligence Series

Those of us who work in libraries encounter differing cultures regularly, as our world is very diverse. Both internally with colleagues and staff, and externally with the patrons which we serve, culture matters. Culture matters in attracting and retaining library and information professionals and for developing inclusive work environments. We need to develop an understanding of cultural identities and their impact on thinking and behavior at both the individual and team level. Understanding biases and enhancing our own cultural awareness are the critical first steps in creating diverse, inclusive, and equitable organizations.

Cultural Intelligence: What it is and Why it Matters: Part 2 of the Cultural Intelligence Series

Our libraries are very diverse. Whether you work across international borders or interact with diversity closer to home, we deal with uniqueness and differences. Culture matters in how we market ourselves, how we market to our patrons, and ultimately can make the difference between whether you thrive or flounder when faced with an intercultural situation. Cultural intelligence is a form of intelligence that draws upon the ability to reformulate one’s concept of self and others. It can be integrated with other forms of intelligence and applies to any cultural context (i.e., diversity initiatives, organizational culture, generational culture, gender culture, etc.).

Applying Cultural Intelligence in Libraries and Next Steps: Part 3 of the Cultural Intelligence Series

Cultural intelligence is the capability to function effectively across various cultural contexts (Ang & Van Dyne, 2008). It can be integrated with other forms of intelligence and applies to any cultural context (i.e., diversity initiatives, organizational culture, generational culture, gender culture, etc.). Within Part 2: “Cultural Intelligence: What it is and Why it Matters” participants learned about the cultural intelligence model. This class builds upon that session in further examining how we can apply cultural intelligence within our libraries and begin to see it in action. Participants will have the opportunity to create their own development plan based on their own assessment and begin developing action steps toward improving their own cultural intelligence.