September 4, 2024

Just The Essentials: A New Free Learning Series for Amigos Member Libraries
Over the next membership year, Amigos will introduce a new series of Essentials online learning sessions available for free to Amigos member libraries.

This Essentials series starts with our upcoming The Essentials: Customer Service on October 2nd. This series is designed to cover a range of perennial topics for library staff at all levels. Future sessions will explore workplace communication, teaching and presenting in the profession, and more.  

The Amigos Continuing Education Services team hopes these topics will help address some topics of broad interest and encourage more staff at member libraries to join Amigos for a training opportunity. The Essentials series joins Amigos’ Know & Go and Online Conferences as another member benefit to support staff development and growth. 

Questions or suggestions for future Essentials offerings? Contact us at learning@amigos.org. 

Fall Training Preview with Naomi Gonzales

Naomi Gonzales is the Library Services Trainer and Missouri Libraries 2 Go (MOLIB2GO) Coordinator at Amigos. We asked Naomi to answer a few questions for us as we look ahead to our Fall schedule.

What course are you most excited to teach this quarter (and why)?

I’m really looking forward to teaching Design Thinking for Libraries in November. User experience and human-centered design are topics that really interest me, and it’s been a while since I’ve immersed myself in them. I’m ready to reacquaint myself with the content and translate it into a way that’s helpful for librarians in different types of libraries. 

What course would you most like to take this quarter (and why)?

Creative Survey Design: Crafting Survey Instruments to Meet Your Library’s Research and Evaluation Needs, taught by Dr. Kawanna Bright. Libraries use surveys all the time and I’m really looking forward to learning the essentials of good survey design! 

How are you spending your training time? What are you learning about right now?

Right now, I’m enrolled in an instructional design course and it’s really interesting! Like most library skills, instruction is something I’ve just picked up along the way, but learning formal ISD practices is encouraging me to think critically about how I want to teach and shape my upcoming classes. 

How did you start out training in libraries - and how are you continuing to grow as a trainer?

I’ve been doing some form of training in libraries since grad school. As a student worker in an engineering library, I would teach short sessions on how to use specific databases for students. This kind of work has continued my whole career. Now that I am learning instructional design best practices, I plan to incorporate more intentional activities in my sessions to help users retain what they learned - I hope Amigos members will notice the difference!

Amy Martin to Present Opening Keynote at "Examining the Library User Experience". Reserve Your Seat Today!
In a service-minded profession like libraries, it is easy to fall into the habit of meeting a user's immediate need without thinking twice. But how often do librarians and library staff consider the entire experience of the user from start to finish? Is there a way to meet or improve the experience of users from the moment their interaction with the library begins? 

Register today to explore ways libraries can improve the overall experience of their virtual or physical space at Examining the Library User Experience. Amy Martin, long-time advocate for human centered design and digital empowerment in libraries and government, will present the opening keynote. Amy currently serves as the Digital Services Project Manager for San Francisco Digital and Data Services.

Taking place on October 16, 2024, this Amigos Online Conference will feature presentations on topics ranging from usability studies to accessibility improvements, to what works and what doesn't. 

This conference along with all Amigos online topical conferences, Know & Go sessions, and Community Conversations are free to Amigos members.

Why Hyku? Why a Repository Solution?
Over the past year, Amigos has been diligently working on a new service for libraries, a repository solution that uses Hyku.

With specific input from board members, Amigos has honed in on an institutional repository service (IR). IR solutions allow academic institutions to keep and host faculty and graduate student work, including books, articles, theses, dissertations, and research.

While well-known repository providers are available, most are expensive for small- to mid-sized academic libraries or require a local IT staff to implement and maintain the software. Hyku facilitates a consortial approach, where libraries share the costs and the technology infrastructure through Amigos.

By choosing Hyku, Amigos can now support not only academic libraries looking for their IR solution but any library looking for a place to host files.

Over the next year, we invite you to learn more about Hyku and attend a free informational session with Amigos. 

For more information about Amigos' Hyku service, contact technologysolutions@amigos.org.

Easy Access to Online Conference Recordings 

Amigos' online conferences provide convenient and meaningful learning opportunities, bringing together insightful keynote speakers with practical concurrent sessions from leaders across Amigos member libraries and experts from across the profession.

Online conferences are a free benefit for Amigos member libraries.



Register today for access to recent conference recordings:

• Leading. Partnering. Connecting. The Amigos Member Conference 2024

• Creative Solutions in Cataloging, Acquisitions, and Resources Management

• Reimagining Libraries: Exploring the AI & VR Revolution in Library Services

Please Note: Attendees registered for the live event already have access to the past conference recordings. To view the recordings, login with the credentials provided for attending the live conference. 

Upcoming Learning Sessions

Archives, Preservation & Digitization

• Introduction to Preservation (October 15)
• Introduction to Archival Practice (October 22)
• Doing Digital Preservation (November 11)
• Intermediate Archives (November 20)

Hyku

• Discover Hyku: Empowering Libraries with Open-Source Repository Solutions (September 23; November 11)

Management and Leadership

• Creative Survey Design: Crafting Survey Instruments to Meet Your Library’s Research and Evaluation Needs (September 19)
• The Essentials: Customer Service (October 2)
• Dealing with Difficult Interactions (October 8)
• Know & Go: Tips for Cover Letters, Resumes, and Interviews (October 21)
• Design Thinking in Libraries (November 19)

Marketing and Outreach

• Creating a Social Media Policy (October 3)
• Know & Go: Quick and Easy Tips for Using Canva (October 7)
• Creating a Library Marketing Plan (October 15)
• Developing a Social Media Strategy (November 6)
• Event Planning 101 (November 7)
• Developing Community Support and Building Creative Partnerships (November 13)
• Foundations of Intellectual Freedom (December 13)

Programming & Services

• Know & Go: Cemetery Searching for Genealogical and Local History Research (October 28)
• Volunteers in the Library (October 29)

Reference

• Know & Go: Health Literacy in Libraries (September 16)
• Conducting the Reference Interview (October 30)

User Experience

• Beyond Accessibility Basics (September 26)
• Examining the Library User Experience (October 16)

Interested in More?

Amigos will provide on-request training sessions designed specifically to meet your library's needs. On-request training can be an effective way to meet specific and specialized training needs. Contact learning@amigos.org for more information.