Presented at LILAC 2010

1. Developing the
developers: skills,
knowledge and behaviours
for the 21st
century IL
practitioner
Wendy Mears, Learning and Teaching Librarian,
Open University
March 2010

2. Training needs analysis: why
now?
• Financial cuts across UK HE sector
• Educational technologies
• Changes to course production methods
• Deliver increased ROI on library content

3. Training needs analysis:
designed for engagement
• Thorough horizon scanning informed survey design
• Anonymous private reflection on training needs
• Focus groups structure
• Feeding back to group

4. What gaps in skills,
knowledge and behaviours
(SKBs) were identified?
• High importance, high priority and urgent training
need AND high proportion of personal need
• Influencing and persuasion skills
• Understanding of teaching, learning and assessment,
and the ability to make a case in pedagogic terms
• Marketing and advocacy skills to promote library
resources and services in terms of their value to courses

5. What SKB gaps were
identified?
• High importance, high priority and urgent training
need AND mixed proportion of personal need
• Personal confidence and assertiveness in dealing with
clients
• Ability to create generic information literacy materials

6. What SKB gaps were
identified?
• High importance, high priority and urgent training
need with a lower personal need
• Customer services skills, including handling enquiries, in
both virtual and physical environments
• Willingness and ability to identify own personal and
professional strengths and weaknesses

7. What gaps were identified?
• Important but less urgent, or with only few people
identifying strong personal need
• Knowledge of students’ use of technology
• Adaptability, flexibility and the ability to cope with change
• Practical skills for delivering training
• Awareness of and ability to evaluate usefulness of new
technologies
• Presentation skills
• Customer relationship management and relationship
building
• Different technical skills gaps

8. Workforce development plan:
ten recommendations
• Act on the following
recommendations
• Consider recommendations of
recent digital literacies skills project
• L & T librarians to take OU’s own
course - evolving information
professional?
• Formal education course for some or
all L & T librarians?
• Review and update job descriptions
• Develop detailed competencies for
key skills
• Keep watching brief on emerging
technologies – training needs arising
from this?
• Do L & T librarians need further
training in latest IL thinking?
• Research support skills development
• Revisit 2007 workforce development
plan

9. Two year plan for delivery
M 1-2 Develop generic set of ‘products’
Identify individual training needs
M3 Define the content for IL training
M4 Identify IL benefits in pedagogic terms – workshop
Soft sales and marketing techniques – workshop
Clarify research support – knowledge sharing workshop
M5 Set quantitative targets and report quarterly progress
M 6-
18
Apply the ‘soft sales’ and ‘marketing’ techniques learnt
M12 Interim formative evaluation

10. Balancing priorities and
budgets
• Identified priorities
–Influencing; marketing and advocacy skills
–Pedagogic understanding
• Staff development budget
–2% of library’s total budget
–Tied to individual – 8 days p.a. FTE for AR
–HR identify common themes

11. What we were doing already..
• Staff development hour
• Knowledge sharing WIKI;
SKIP; monthly team meetings
• Helpdesk induction and
training program
• Conference attendance
evaluation and feedback
• Appraisal process
• Mentoring
• Frequent external
speakers
• University training events

12. New initiatives and
approaches
• Using internal skills and expertise, especially the ILU
• Using OU skills and expertise
• Bringing in external expertise to address large scale
training needs
• Supporting external training attendance
• Supporting external qualifications

13. Information Literacy Unit
support
• Provide guidance in learning design
• Have created OU courses
–TU120 Going Beyond Google
–CPD course: The evolving information professional
• Working with other OU units on training design
• Reviewing other internal and external courses

14. How we manage expectations
• L&T librarians
• Library leadership team
• Faculty
• PVC for learning and teaching
• University expectations

15. Measuring outcomes
• Direct training outcomes; improved skill levels and
changed behaviours
• Ultimate outcomes are increased IL integration
• Delivery of skills across University curriculum
• Independent library users

16. Four months in – progress so
far
• Training needs defined
• Work plan agreed
• Exploring options; adapting existing practice; exploiting
opportunities
• Outcomes – expectations and reality

17. The Library & Learning Resources
Centre
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
www.open.ac.uk/library