Bókasafnið - 01.06.2014, Page 92

Bókasafnið 38. árg. 2014
92
The focus in the fifth module is on how the majority
of the standard spine­out shelving in the library is mana­
ged, particularly non­fiction. You will practice ways of
using different merchandising techniques to help rea­
ders explore and navigate and make the whole library
more attractive. The practical project looks at managing
new books in a library in different ways. The module
supports you to identify, introduce and support changes
in library routines to bring staff out from behind the
counter to engage with readers on the library floor.
The last module looks at how a library presents and
articulates its role to readers and to organisations outsi­
de the library. It looks at how that message, and what
the library offers partners in practice, might be influ­
enced by a reader­centred approach. Examples and
ideas are offered in support of arguments you may want
to make to influence fundamental changes of policy or
practice in your job. You will find examples of the
practical contribution that reader­centred skills can
make to the work of external partners. You’ll take a new
view of the role of the library online and on social media
and test out a different approach. Finally, this module
offers you a fundamentally different way of organising
library events and you finish the course by organising
one to celebrate.
How long will it take?
You will encounter a wide variety of different learn­
ing methods. Read and reflect is always active as you
are asked for your views, reactions and experience.
Online interactive exercises offer a chance to experi­
ment and practise new skills, then practical exercises
take the experiment into a library of your own choosing
and support you in implementing it with your colleagues.
Your personal Opening the Book mentor is availa­
ble online when you want to discuss work and will give
detailed feedback when you finish every module. Your
mentor is there to stretch your practice and challenge
your thinking as well as to assess your achievements.
You can talk over how you want to apply what you have
learned, and tailor projects to your own work
programme and objectives. There’s a Facebook
discussion group which is open only to interActive
users; graduates, learners and mentors have a safe
space to share ideas and solutions, what worked and
what didn’t. It is really interesting to pick up solutions
from across the world which may apply well to your own
situation.
If a library service buys interActive for a number of
their staff then one or more graduates can take a further
three­module mentoring course in order to become an
internal mentor for their colleagues instead of Opening
the Book acting as mentor. That process asks them to
examine the way they support the learning of their
colleagues and to reflect on their own practice more
deeply. The experience of their learners contributes to
their assessment as a mentor.
As a learner, you will need access to a library to
really benefit from the practical work but you will also
need control over your own timetable so you can put
aside time to follow the course and implement the work.
Each learner has their own workload and timetable into
which they fit the course work. As a guideline, if you
give four hours a week to the work, you could complete
all six modules in around six months. Some learners
have finished in four months, others spread the work
through a year. It will depend on how far you want to
take the work and which aspects are most rewarding for
your own working situation. One thing that your Open­
ing the Book mentor will not do is push you for time
since we don’t know the pressures that you are under.
Taking interActive, like most continuous professional
development, has to be largely self­directed if it is to be
useful and practical.
A valuable element in the whole course is that you
learn and use different methods of measuring your
results. InterActive teaches key methods of measuring
the impact of all your reader­centred work. You will
collect a wide variety of evidence which you will find us­
eful to support your budget applications, your regular
reporting and to measure the outcomes that you deliver.
Throughout the course there are print materials to
download which support a variety of flexible promotions
with lasting interest for readers. The promotions and
projects are all highly sustainable – and there are plenty
of ideas in the course and within the interActive group to
help you take the work further and develop beyond your
initial tryouts.
An international community
So the interActive course is challenging ­ it
will stretch your thinking. At times it may
frustrate and even annoy you. If you make
time to do the work, it will inspire you. We can
guarantee it will refresh your practice and that
your readers will notice.