WebJunction: An Online Center for Learning and Training

WebJunction Background The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s U.S. Library Program –46,000 computers –11,000 libraries in the United States and Canada –Five-year initiative –Targeting public libraries serving less-affluent communities May 2002: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded OCLC and partners a three-year grant Purpose: –Carry forward the Foundation’s work –Build a Web-based, public access computing community for learning and training and supporting each other

Our Philosophy Read Learn Join In!

Community Partner Program Pilot Program: Began in June, 2004 for the State Libraries of Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, New Mexico, and Washington. Customized Content and Services Co-Branded Service: Users will be able to navigate between Community Partner web sites and the global WebJunction Localized Content: Community Partners will be able to customize content for the libraries they serve. Community Specific Forums: Members will continue to be able to access the global forums as well as partner specific forums Community Specific Learning Center: Members will continue to be able to access the global course catalog as well as partner specific courses.

WebJunction Quick Stats 115,000+ Unique Visitors 11,287 Registered Members Top 10 States: Texas – 477 Ohio – 459 Michigan – 419 Washington – 493 Illinois – 359 Florida – 399 Iowa – 373 California – 373 New York – 328 Colorado Pennsylvania – 328

Members by Job Role

Members by Population Served

WebJunction Learning Center Online courses, downloadable lessons, training tips and other tools

Learning Center Statistics Self-paced Online Courses are popular: 9577 total enrollments in Learning Center by 3520 unique learners WebJunction’s… –Certificate of Completion at end of course Troubleshooting: 460 enrollments Searching the Web: 489 Browsing the WWW: 316 Evaluating Web Sites: 251 Media Relations: 124 Designing a Library Web Site: 153 Popular Third-party Courses: HTML: 284 Intro to PCs: 287 Windows Office 2000: 293

New: E-Train Clearinghouse Creation funded through IMLS Searchable database of digital courses and programs offered through schools of Information Science, state libraries, regional associations Information on grants and scholarships Working on user requirements now Beta release in June 2005 Final release in September, 2005 Content development with partners begins in October

New: Community Partner Program Distributed Learning Management Course registration and management Course authoring Course catalogs User registration and management Reporting and evaluation

New: “Workshop Central” Building Communities of Interest at WJ Spanish Language Outreach WebJunction.org/Spanish Possibilities in future: Rural Library Sustainability

Future Plans for the Learning Center More self-paced online courses New Tools for training delivery Synchronous Learning Tools Ability to offer cohort-based, pre-set programs Managing Public Access Computers Program (MPAC) Learning/training content and skills assessments in 5 areas: Technology, Resource Development, Planning, Advocacy, Training Ability for libraries to get a snapshot of staff skills needed to sustain public access computing

Presenter Elizabeth Kellison, Program Manager, WebJunction