Training : How do you do it and how can we help?

How are you training your new staff to use KLAS—and how can we help?

We will continue to post Key Note blog posts and weekly tips, tricks, and questions on the discussion forum, and we hope these posts will be both a resource for you and a jumping-off point for you to share and collaborate on resources and methods with each other. But there’s more coming!

I have a lot of ideas about different materials and resources that I could create, but I want to make sure that I’m putting my time into the projects that will benefit you. Check out this Key Note blog post on Training Support to find out what we're considering, then chime in here.

Some questions to get you started: How do you train your staff? What materials do you already use or what materials would you like to have? What are your needs or wants in terms of evaluation, continuing education, certification?

I don't have any official training program set-up for my library. I work individually with new staff and volunteers to teach them what they need to know based on their job duties. It would be nice to have a more formal training plan in place.

I have, in the past, used the videos posted on KLAS Users. However, there was a time when we couldn't install the necessary player to see the videos. With the last few hires we've made, I didn't use the videos because they wasn't really anything relevant for their job duties.

The only thing I do consistently is to have each new staff member set-up their own patron account to learn how to use the patron module. Otherwise, most of it is on the job training. And then they come to me with questions as they have them.

I have also downloaded some of the hands-on training handouts to use for training. I think that could be a good option, to have a worksheet for staff to use to work through items in a certain module. They could be broken down by staff function - Reader Advisor, Cataloger, etc.

I would have to discuss budget with our director, but it might also be nice to have customized videos to use for staff.

This is great info--thank you!

If we do make some updated videos, I'll be sure to look into how they're formatted and posted to make them as easy-to-access as possible. I know there have been some changes in what is widely supported since the old videos were posted.

Setting up their own patron accounts sounds like a great way for new staff to get used to the patron module. Would a hands-on training handout (or something similar) specifically on that topic be useful, or is the way you do it now working fine as-is?

One of the things I am supposed to be working on is an RA manual to use for training. I had started one several years ago and only got through inputting applications. So I print out those pages to give them a step-by-step guide to entering apps. That's worked so far.

We do some initial training side-by-side to show how to navigate the module that a new employee will be using, and then coworkers will offer further clarification as questions arise. I have also quick whipped up some instructions for employees to learn a new skill to assist me with projects, like editing records to add ratings from our RUB libraries. I would appreciate something more formal, and the Scavenger Hunt idea is intriguing. Perhaps also a best practices document for certain functions, like adding a new patron to KLAS.

I've gotten a lot out of the two webinars that were offered. Since they're recorded, people can also access them after the fact if they ever need the information in the future.

I would like to continue the conversation with these questions:

1. What are your favorite KLAS training resources and methods?
2. What have you found to be the most effective resource to train new staff? What challenges have you had?
3. How do you keep established employees up to date on new features and functionality in KLAS? What keeps you from doing continuing KLAS training?