Documentation As a Tool for Training and Communication Sara Spiegel AJL NYMA Cataloging Workshop 2005

Documentation of Our Library Work Two parts to our discussion: Plan, Collect and Disseminate & Tools for training and Communication Definition: “Documentation is a set of written documents that support our Library work”

Plan, Collect and Disseminate The first step is to plan an overall program of documentation which includes the following: a. General: information about the department. b. Local practices. c. Flow charts or Step by step activities.

Cont. d. Decisions – current and ongoing. e. Training materials. f. Instructions for how to use your online system g. Internet sites of other departments and other related organizations.

Plan a. General information : Staff information. Mission statement of the department. Information about the library online system. Information about standards, other utilities networks. b. Local practices : Changes that were decided by the professional members of the dept. which other staff members are supposed to follow.

Plan c. Flow charts or Step by step : Very important to create documents that will show how the items in our department and how our activities are “moving” from one stage to another OR from one person to another. SEE handout no. 1 & no. 2

Plan d. Decisions : During any given year any department departments are making decisions and creating local practices. Write it down at the end of each meeting. Put together a file and arrange it by date and after few months transfer it to subject arrangement.

Plan e. Training Materials will include all training handouts, PPP and transparencies that supported any training activity. For example; while installing a new version for a new ILS, many PPP were created, they are very valid information to present to new employees.

Plan f. Instructions of how to use your system : For example many cataloging departments are using screens from their ILS system to explain how a certain function work in their ILS system. You use ctrl+print screen from your ILS and copy and paste it to your document. This is known as “screen capture”.

Plan g. Internet links to other similar department Departments’ web sites for comparison of instructions. Internet links to LC and cataloging utilities networks.

Collect Collect every type of information, instructions that were done in your department. You’ll be surprise what is accumulated During a year..

Collect Identify other organizations' web pages. Especially those that your staff use their documentation. Such as LC, OCLC, RLIN and Getty Museum. Be more specific and link to web pages that are helpful in daily work: such as LC Language web page. Etc...

Disseminate Create a web page of your department which will include all of the above. Things to consider while creating this web page are: Dynamic web page – how often do you update? Content Style and graphic Ease of use

PlanCollectDisseminate General informationMission of department Staff Information Create your own web page OR another web presence. Issues to consider: Team work. Style and graphic. Password yes or no? Who will edit? How often do you edit? DecisionsDecision after each meeting Step by Step or flow charts All flow charts Summary of our documentation project

Cont. PlanCollectDisseminate Training materials Collect all Power Point presentations, collect all handouts, collect all That were done for training staff members. Scan information to your web site

Cont. PlanCollectDisseminate Documents describing your ILS Instructions of how to performs functions in your ILS Secure a section on your library web site. Links to cataloging utilities Networks Links to LC,OCLC and RLIN Links to other cataloging departments Choose few cataloging departments

Documentation as a Tool a. Training b. Communication Training: Training is very is an ongoing process in every library. It is done one on one, in groups and online.

Training No matter how you do your training you have to supplement it with documentation and the questions are: What do we really need to prepare and give for a particular training? Do we need more training materials?

Training In order for us to discuss how we use our documentation as training tool: Check [handout no.3] – I call it the YES + No Flow chart: This is short questionnaire that will generate a need to use documentation as a training tool.

Documentation as a Tool for Communication Communication In this section I like to emphasize how while creating a set of documents, we really use it to improve our communication: to demonstrate I like to give example from our daily life? When you have a written decision versus when you have an oral decision? When you are undecided?

Cont. We should look at it as a management tool. Case study 1: New employee…is given instructions how to use our OPAC??? Case study 2: Staff member is using.. a written documentation will help us in our verbal and non verbal communication.

Measure Your Documentation Project Measure and evaluate for: Content Style and appearance Use by new staff members Use by your staff

Measure your project: Ask yourself; Do we use it? Do we update it often? Do we rely on the documents that we have created? Is it a work in progress?

JTS Technical Services Documentation Project (work in progress) Check our JTSTECH on pbwiki

Questions? Questions ???? Questions