Continuing Education Archives

The Sustainable Libraries Initiative’s Sustainable Libraries certification Program (SLCP) provides library leaders with a tested, structured path forward to increase their library’s commitment to environmental stewardship, economic feasibility, and social equity.

In this webinar, learn steps you can take to meet legal requirements and develop a library culture that prioritizes accessibility. Katie Myers, ADA Coordinator at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, will share their ongoing efforts, discuss lessons learned, and provide practical advice that can help you get started identifying regional Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and community resources that provide partnership, collaboration and training.

Even if a library has been focusing on making its website more accessible, PDF files that patrons download are often overlooked. PDF documents are not inherently accessible and require specific effort to make them accessible. In this session, learn concrete actions you can take to make your library’s PDF content accessible.

Join us for an exclusive webinar designed for small library directors and board members seeking to enhance their financial strategies. This focused event will delve into crucial topics such as budget optimization, maximizing levy revenue, and effective cost management.

Whether you're navigating fiscal challenges or aiming to elevate your library's financial health, this event promises insightful discussions, and practical solutions.

Understand your library’s obligations under the Prevailing Wage Act, including when it applies, what the library has to do and when, and what to do when the Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) calls.

Includes information on processes and outcomes of the work of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Learn methods you can implement now to make your library a harder target for eAccessibility complaints.  Learn about the supports a library needs to create and maintain an accessible digital footprint. 

This training program combines theoretical knowledge with practical applications, equipping library professionals with the skills needed to adapt to the changing needs of their communities. This comprehensive program covers four key topics crucial for the modern library landscape: library advocacy, community partnerships, libraries as places of healing, and social-emotional services in libraries.
 

This program will discuss what is Emotional Intelligence. It will help the participant to understand how understanding the emotions of themselves and others can lead to more collaborative and productive work relationships. People managers will gain tools to help them with their own jobs and also to help their direct reports. Come be part of the discussion that employers around the globe are having with people - understanding emotions and building actions for maximum job satisfaction.

This workshop will include a detailed explanation of the six steps in the problem-solving process as well as two techniques to use during that process: brainstorming and decision making. It will then cover the role of the facilitator, knowledge and expertise needed by the facilitator, as well as some of the skills of an effective facilitator. It will also include a detailed handout with information that will be useful to the attendees long after the conclusion of the workshop. 

Desired Learning Outcomes: 

Safety and security incidents in the library and/or exposure to distressing situations can have lasting impacts on library staff. As library leaders, providing debrief support to staff after such events can improve library culture as we prioritize care for staff. This session explores how trauma exposure impacts us and how to identify the signs in others. In addition to understanding the elements of an effective and safe incident debrief, the importance and strategies for communication after a significant incident occurs are also discussed. 

The objective of the presentation is to provide management fundamentals to all people managers, but particularly those who have transitioned to a people manager. As often happens, people are promoted or assigned job duties and then are left to figure out the ‘now what’. Our time together will be a chance to discover those things that all managers want to be doing and need to be doing. It is an honor and a privilege to be a people manager. Let this session help you secure and maintain an engaged team.

Libraries are like airports with continual arrivals and departures of key staff. In order to have takeoffs and landings go smoothly, directors and trustees need to prepare for the departure of a director in times of crisis and otherwise by creating a succession plan. After covering what the current director and board must put in place prior to the landing of a new director, learn how to prepare for the arrival of a new director and the role of trustees in successfully onboarding a new director and gain strategies for how to transition the new director.

With the pandemic fading into the rearview mirror, libraries are looking to the future and hoping to take what we've learned from this challenge with us. It would seem we're at a watershed moment, offering us a chance to drop some old habits and hang onto the new ones.

This program was recorded on October 6, 2022, and runs for approximately one hour.