Support Staff: What a Great Resource

Another great day for Joyner Library; the Support Staff: What a Great Resource Conference which is organized and put on by the Joyner SPA Staff Association is a wonderful gift to the library community. I don’t know of any other comparable conference. It is an honor and a pleasure to work with the Joyner staff. Thanks especially to Leigh Butler, Leigh Younce, and Jenna Nadler as well as Melissa Williams, Lynda Werdal, Bill Bunting, and Rita Khazanie—I am sure that there are others who should be recognized and thanked. Emily Blankenship, Gloria Bradshaw, William Gee, Cynthia Jones, Linda Teel, Justin Vaughan, Hazel Walker, Alan Bailey, Ralph Scott, David Hursh, Beth Winstead, Mark Sanders, Tracie Hampton, and Harry Frank served as faculty and presenters for the conference.

It was heartening to see the turn out for the discussion of the Computers in Libraries conference. As I said at the gathering, I learned so much at the conference and increased my awareness of Library 2.0 technology by orders of magnitude. Thanks to Maliha, Carenado, Ann Carol, Justin, Stacy, David, Kendall, Nick, Beth, Rita, and Beth for sharing their thoughts about the conference and highlighting their favorite sessions. I have charged all of the participants to take one thing they heard or saw at the conference and try to incorporate it in their work or our services—I am anxious to see the follow-up. For me, this blog was prompted by my being at the conference.

Many of you have provided your thoughts and comments about the Staff Development Day this past Monday. If you are interested in see the results of the survey, check out the following:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/Report.asp?U=379116072715

I thoroughly enjoyed the day, and it looks like almost everyone else did as well. We will definitely do it again! Saw someone ask for Swing lessons next time—that might be a little outside of my comfort zone. Some people expressed some concern that the day takes away from your busy schedule, but I have always believed that participating in training, development, and team building activities helps you return to your job with more enthusiasm, drive, and excitement & you recoup the time lost through more productive work. Bill & Beth took some photos, and I have asked them to share them with the Library when they get the chance.