Library Management Training: Accelerated Course

After you attend this course, you’ll be able to:

• Understand different management styles and what kind of manager you want to be.
  
• Use cultural competency in your management techniques.
  
• Build a culture of trust and belonging with your staff.
  
• Run an efficient and effective meeting.
  
• Gain communication skills to lead your team through change.
  
• Give difficult and constructive feedback.
  
• Manage conflicts and difficult conversations with confidence.
  
• Identify causes of burnout for yourself and staff.
  
• Advocate for your team within your sphere of influence.
  
• Manage your team through crises.
  
• Create career goals for yourself and advocate for your own professional development.
  
• Use data literacy skills to make informed decisions.
  

Week 1: Thursday, June 5

Course & Workshop Introduction | 11:00-11:20 am ET
An introduction to the weekly assignments, an overview of what to expect from the online workshop in this course, and a chance to complete the course pre-assessment.

Session 1 | 11:20-12:20 pm ET
Foundations of People Management: Becoming a Leader
What kind of manager do you want to be? How do you gain the self-awareness to ensure you can manage yourself as well as your team? And how can you show up authentically without putting on a costume of power? This introduction to the course will showcase different management styles, detail qualities of good leaders, share the foundations of managing a team, and teach you how to foster a culture of relationship building between your staff and yourself.

Speaker:

Krista Beljan, Leadership Consultant at Dame Leadership

Session 2 | 12:20-1:20 pm ET
Foundations of Equity-Centered Leadership
How can your leadership style better serve and support BIPOC, disabled, LGBTQIA+, and neurodivergent staff? What is cultural competence, and what does this mean for staff management, recruitment, and reaching diverse communities? Learn how to create a workplace culture that invites all employees to feel respected and included. You will learn the characteristics of white supremacist and hetero-patriarchal work cultures and tangible ways to avoid them in your management practices. Leave this session with a toolkit for engaging with staff, establishing policies, and reaching diverse communities in ways that center intersectionality, vulnerability, and relationships.

Speaker:

Christina Fuller-Gregory, (she, her) Assistant Director of Libraries at the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities

Lunch Break | 1:20-2:00 pm ET

Session 3 | 2:00-3:00 pm ET
How to Manage People: Team Meetings, Check-ins, Reviews, and Change
How do you run an effective and efficient team meeting? What should - and should not - go into your annual reviews? How often should you have staff meetings and one-on-one check ins, and how should you structure them? And how do you communicate clearly, transparently, and directly with staff, especially regarding changes or challenging situations that might impact their work lives? This week will focus on these questions and provide tangible strategies and templates for streamlining your processes and making the most out of time and communications with your team.

Speaker:

 
Kate Hall, Executive Director, Northbrook Public Library

Session 4 | 3:00-4:00 pm ET
How to Manage People: Difficult Conversations, Feedback, Conflict, and Resistance
How do you give negative feedback to staff? How do you know when to escalate to writing a disciplinary report, and how do you write one? How do you manage interpersonal conflicts on your team, especially in cross-generational teams? And how do you manage and create buy-in with resistant staff? This week will teach you practical skills for managing difficult conversations, diffusing tension on your team, and redirecting, coaching, and building relationships with resistant staff. We’ll also discuss how to create and enforce “people first” policies to help set and manage staff behavior expectations.

Speaker:

 
Catherine B Soehner, Associate Dean and Executive Director, Eccles Health Sciences Library

Optional Interactive Working Session | 4:00-4:30 pm ET
This live, interactive working session will give you an immediate opportunity to process and apply the skills you’ve learned this week. You will be divided into smaller working groups and presented with a prompt, role play, or activity related to this week’s sessions.

Week 2: Thursday, June 12

Workshop Explanation | 11:00-11:15 am ET
An introduction to this week’s assignment and an overview of what to expect from the online workshop in this course.

Session 1 | 11:15-12:15 pm ET
Managing through Burnout and Advocating for Staff
Staff burnout is at an all-time high, and many systemic and stackable issues contribute to staff burnout. How do you support your staff even and especially when the cause of their burnout is out of your direct control? How can you identify what’s causing burnout and advocate for the resources your team needs to help build resilience? And what are ways you can create positive impact within your sphere of influence? This week will focus on these questions and discuss ways to advocate for your staff, including how to “manage up” when needed. We will also cover ways to reduce burnout and create resilience by ensuring your management practices are equitable and inclusive.

Speaker:

 
Kaetrena Davis Kendrick, MSLS, Researcher, Leader, Consultant and Coach

Session 2 | 12:15-1:15 pm ET
Crisis Management and Communications: Showing Up for Your Team and Yourself
Safety and security are top of mind for librarians across the country. How do you manage your team through crises? And how do you communicate clearly and effectively about crises, both internally with your staff and externally with your community and the media? This week will focus on creating safer libraries by ensuring your emergency policies and procedures are up to date and work for you. We will discuss strategies for iterating on and implementing your crisis plans; how to mandate and respond to incident reports; and how to debrief with your team after an event in a trauma-informed way. We will also discuss how to achieve effective internal and external crisis communication.

Speaker:

 
Michelle Hamiel, Director of Racial Equity and Community Impact at Urban Libraries Council (ULC)

Lunch Break | 1:15-2:00 pm ET

Session 3 | 2:00-3:00 pm ET
Foundations of Data-Informed Management
How can you collect and analyze data to make informed decisions? What are techniques for data analysis to help streamline the administrative parts of your work? And how can you use data fluency to lead your team more effectively? This week will focus on data fluency and how to manage your branch or department in a way that is aligned with data-driven metrics. You will learn practical tips to recognize your data weak spots and empower you and your team to become more data literate.

Speaker:

 
Lisa Fraser, (she,her) Organizational Strategy Manager, King County Library System

Session 4 | 3:00-4:00 pm ET
Promoting Career Development in Your Staff and Yourself
Studies show that career development is one of the key indicators for staff retention. So how do you promote career development in your staff? And how do you advocate for your own goals and trajectory? In this final week, we will discuss how to mentor and coach your teams to help them build the skills and self-sufficiency they need to move forward in their careers. We will also discuss how to find mentors of your own, as well as career path opportunities for managers and strategies for stretching into a new role whenever you’re ready.

Speaker:

 
Sonia Alcantara-Antoine, CEO, Baltimore County Public Library

Optional Interactive Working Session | 4:00-4:30 pm ET
This live, interactive working session will give you an immediate opportunity to process and apply the skills you’ve learned this week. You will be divided into smaller working groups and presented with a prompt, role play, or activity related to this week’s sessions.

Who should take this course

This course is intended for aspiring and new library managers, or those who feel their training did not adequately prepare them for their library management position.

This will be a 2-week intensive online course and will include:

• Live sessions: Guest speaker presentations by leaders in their field. (All sessions are recorded for on demand access for six months after the course ends.)
  
  
• Facilitated discussions: Audience participation in Q&A and discussion with guest speakers.
  
  
• Interactive working sessions: Optional breakout groups during live sessions to practice skills with peers.
  
  
• Asynchronous workshop: Project-based weekly assignments to connect what you’re learning to your professional life. Includes written feedback from an expert in the field who functions as the workshop facilitator, as well as peer conversation via discussion forums.
  
  
• Early access on-demand resources: Access to a series of past live session archives from Library Journal and School Library Journal courses to explore at your own pace.
  
  
• Online Classroom: The virtual learning platform that holds all course content and is accessible for six months after the course ends.

*Note: You do not have to complete the asynchronous work during these two weeks; it will be open to you for six months. However, the feedback from facilitators will only be available from June 5-June 19. 

Expected time commitment

If you watch the recordings of all sessions and participate in the asynchronous workshop, you'll spend approximately 6-8 hours per week on this course. You'll earn 20 hours of PD credit and a Library Journal certificate of completion.

On-demand access

All live guest speaker sessions are recorded and available on-demand for six months following the initial broadcast as a part of your purchase.

Certificate of completion

Complete the course and earn 20 professional development credit hours. We provide a certificate that is emailed to you.

Accessibility

All guest speaker sessions feature auto captioning and are made available on demand after the initial broadcast. Please email course-support@libraryjournal.com upon registration if you require any special accommodations and we will make our best efforts to facilitate them.

Support

For support with online courses, please contact course-support@libraryjournal.com.

From Spring 2024 Participants:

"Every session was well thought out, shared useful tips, resources and was engaging. Thank you!"

"Loved, Loved, Loved the sessions. I enjoyed the discussion board, the chat with presenters during the sessions and the assignments."

"The course is rewarding, surprisingly so."

"Library Journal's Professional Development Library Management Training: Accelerated Course is worth carving time out of our busy workdays to attend I highly recommend for new managers or those interested in positions of leadership in public libraries. Leaders in our communities joined in during our live sessions to share their expertise, experience and stories with us. Library directors, researchers and business owners presented on interesting and relevant topics including, Managing through Burnout, Promoting Career Development and Navigating difficult conversations. It has been a fun two weeks chatting with other librarians in our fields and learning from senior library managers working in the field. During the live sessions there was an interactive component for participants to ask questions directly to the presenters and hear from other coursemates. It's a go-at-your-pace program, full of resources, ideas and tips about all topics of leadership and library management. If not sure where to start or want to dive a little deeper into the foundations of leadership this is a great course to hear from experts in our field and other professionals on an array of leadership topics that will help build your portfolio."

"I really enjoyed all the speakers, the chance to engage with other managers, and the resource sharing opportunities."

"I liked the live sessions where the presenters gave specific, library-focused actionable ideas."

Discounted rates are available for a limited time only. Secure your tickets now to lock in the best price.

We offer discounts for groups of 3 or more.

For larger groups of 15 or more, we offer the option to apply group rates across multiple courses to receive significant discounts. For more information, select “Bulk Course Credits Packages” in the form below.

Request Discounted Group Pricing

For support with group purchases, please contact groupsales@libraryjournal.com.