Tasman District Libraries

As you can imagine, with a system that is spread out over a wide area and with a varied population, training is essential. But it was difficult for Glennis to find courses that built skills for all her staff.

"Getting training that is at an appropriate level for a range of different needs is always a challenge,” remarks Glennis. “We have a moderate turnover of staff at all levels, so we have people come to us with zero library experience and zero library qualifications.”

“Also, we're not one of New Zealand's main centers. So, any training that our professional organizations might put on tends not to be near us. We need to travel to it, and that gets to be costly to send very many people.”

“In the past, we've done readers’ advisory training with our collection managers, leading two-day courses. Getting all staff together for discussions was always logistically challenging because of our distance and our need to keep libraries open. It was also very time-consuming for our collections team. While worthwhile, we don't tend to do that often.”

That’s why Glennis purchased a subscription to Learn with NoveList. The subscription allows all staff members to take self-paced courses that will teach them how to connect with their readers and community. Glennis can train new employees and long-time staff alike, and she and her staff get access to all new courses and exclusive course content.

Library staff are busy. It can be difficult for leaders to get staff engaged with new training. Glennis and her collection managers knew that, so they took a systematic and specific approach to introducing Learn with NoveList. 

First, Glennis made sure that taking courses was a part of every staff member’s professional development plan for the year. Then, she helped them focus on starting with a few key courses from the extensive catalog. 

“When it launched, it happened to coincide with the start of a new year for us,” explains Glennis. “My collection managers and I had a look to see what we would recommend as a basic suite of courses that everyone should take first. I sent out a list of courses and told staff, ‘Here's what I want you to prioritize.’”

Glennis says, not long after Learn with NoveList launched at her library, she began to hear back from staff who were taking courses.

“Within the first few weeks, I had an email from one of the team in our Taika library who said how fantastic the resource was,” exclaims Glennis. “As somebody who was new to libraries and had never worked in a library before, to have some professional-level training like this and to have something that gave her an understanding and a different perspective was really valuable.”

“I had another staff member who’s worked with us for some time tell me that, before taking the Crash Course in True Crime course, she thought, ‘I don't know what all the fuss about True Crime is. Why would anyone want to read that?’ And she said the training absolutely woke her up to what the True Crime genre is! She has read a few and enjoyed them herself.”

Glennis says the cost-effective nature of Learn with NoveList is one of the reasons she loves the learning platform.