Did you know that the Library of Michigan and the Institute of Museum and library Services (IMLS) provides access to WebJunction free of charge to Michigan library staff? See below for information on upcoming online courses and webinars.

WebJunction’s free, online course catalog has 55 self-paced courses on library topics, as well as over 280 curated webinar recordings ready and available when you are. From to improving storytimes to providing services to older adults and seniors and from community assessment to marketing your programs and services, you’ll find content that meets your needs. Explore the catalog today!

Highlighted Content on WebJunction

• Customer Service in Libraries: Meeting Evolving Needs: Customer service is one of the most consistently popular topics on WebJunction. From attendees at live webinars to users of the content in our Course Catalog, it is clear that customer service is on the minds of library staff. The interest extends beyond how to provide quality service to patrons, to experiencing societal changes and seeking to address new challenges that staff encounter when working. How we provide customer service includes not only how we interact with patrons verbally and respond to their requests, but also how we communicate non-verbally in our interactions, and even how we speak about patrons. Learn more about this topic and our collaboration with the Delaware Division of Libraries to explore the theme in the coming months.
• Summer Reading Champion Videos: The STAR Net team, in partnership with the Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP), are working together to share science and technology related activities and resources to libraries across the nation as part of CSLP’s 2019 summer learning program called “The Universe of Stories.”

Free WebJunction Webinars for You

Upcoming webinars are open for registration. If you can’t attend a live session, all WebJunction webinars are recorded and available for free in the Course Catalog: https://learn.webjunction.org/.

Hooray for Freedom! Part One: Privacy, Confidentiality, and Intellectual Freedom in the Library

Thursday, July 11, 2019 ♦ 3:00 pm Eastern / 12:00 pm Pacific ♦ 60 minutes

Registration: https://www.webjunction.org/events/webjunction/hooray-for-freedom-1.html

Privacy, confidentiality, and intellectual freedom are core values of librarianship that are easy to agree with, but difficult to implement. Hooray for Freedom! will help you assess your professional practice, give you the legal and ethical context to support democracy in your library, and help you identify practical ways to implement improvements.

In this webinar, learners will:

• Gain familiarity with the legal undergirding of intellectual freedom in libraries.
• Recognize methods that help shrink the gap between ethics and practice for libraries of any size.
• Learn strategies to use in real-time situations related to the legal and ethical foundations of library practice.

Hooray for Freedom! Part Two: Developing Policies in Support of Ethical Practice

Thursday, August 8, 2019 ♦ 3:00 pm Eastern / 12:00 pm Pacific ♦ 60 minutes

Registration: https://www.webjunction.org/events/webjunction/hooray-for-freedom-2.html

Building on part one, Hooray for Freedom! Privacy, Confidentiality, and Intellectual Freedom in the Library, this webinar will help you assess your library’s current policies and procedures within a legal context, and help you draft specific policy language. We’ll explore considerations for libraries of all sizes in order to codify the library profession’s values for our institutions.

In this webinar, learners will:

• Increase understanding of the language in, and policy implications for, the 1st and 4th Amendments.
• Learn how to translate legal opinion into policy considerations for libraries.
• Recognize how to avoid policy drafting traps by maintaining focus on mission and purpose.