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Staff Development: Professional Development Opportunities

Upcoming Events and New Resources

Association for College and Research Libraries: check out ACRL's Pandemic Resources for Academic Libraries. It has interesting information on the ways in which libraries have responded to COVID.

LinkedIn Learning

USA provides access to LinkedIn Learning which has over 6,000 courses on a variety of topics from employee engagement to software specific training. You need to take the following steps in order to gain  access.

  1. Establish a LinkedIn account at https://www.linkedin.com 
  2. Email the Innovation in Learning Center at ilc@southalabama.edu and tell them you'd like access to LinkedIn Learning.
  3. Once you receive an email from them, follow the directions in the email to activate your access to LinkedIn Learning.
  4. Once you've done that, login to LinkedIn.
  5. Click on the Learning icon at the top of the menu bar to access LinkedIn Learning.

On Campus Resources

These seminars and workshops are available through USA:

Resources for Professional Training

Many sites offer free webinars, videos, and other materials that can be useful for professional development. Here are some that provide resources in a variety of areas:

Professional Development While Working Remotely

If the library needs to shut down again for any reason, library staff can perform a number of professional development activities while working from home. Some of these are listed below and a document is attached that contains more suggestions.

  1. Zoom tutorials: the USA web site has links to a quick start guide, an instruction guide, and tutorials
  2. Spend some with the libraries' databases. Check them out at:
    1. Marx Library Databases & e-Reference
    2. Biomedical Library Resources
  3. Government Documents training: Government resources can be especially vital during the COVID-19 crisis.
  4. New York Times Digital Edition: Setup and learn to use the university's subscription to the New York Times. Once you set up your account you can download and use the app as well.
  5. Springshare Training: These videos are useful if you work on LibGuides. Requires a login.

You can, of course continue to use the other resources on this guide; these suggestions here are just particularly appropriate to the expectations that have been set for at home work.

Association Memberships

Various library associations have roundtables, divisions, and groups that are specifically for discussing the roles of library staff members in the library: