#LISprochat lead-in - topic & questions for Mon Jun 5 2017

via PDPics

TOPIC

Dealing with difficult library users

Having recently had a situation myself where I wasn't sure exactly how to navigate the issue I was having I thought that a chat on dealing with difficult patrons might be timely. Whether it's grumpy patrons, people who don't want to follow policy, people who make you uncomfortable for whatever reason, or even just vocal people with very different viewpoints to yours we've all had at least one encounter with a patron that could have been labelled as difficult. There are a lot of articles out there about dealing with difficult people in a customer service role, here are 4 that directly relate to the issue in libraries:

1. MLA2010: Black Belt Librarians: Dealing with Difficult Patrons by Brian Herzog at Swiss Army Librarian
2. The #@%& Joys of Library Work by Roz Warren in Metropolis
3. Dealing With Difficult Patrons by Jessica Olin at Letters to a Young Librarian
4. How to Deal with the Grumpy Patron by Gina Martinez in Library Worklife

QUESTIONS

We post the questions here in advance of the chat so you can decide whether or not this topic is of interest to you and/or prepare your answers in advance.

Q1 How do you deal with an angry/belligerent patron who is argumentative during your interaction with them?

Q2 Have you ever been made to feel physically unsafe/uncomfortable during an interaction with a patron? How did you deal with it? What changes were made to policies if any because of it?

Q3 What do you do if a patron is loudly espousing a belief of an inflammatory nature in a public space that could make you or other patrons upset?

Q4 How do you deal with disrespectful patrons? i.e. the patrons who don't respect libraries or library workers for whatever reason.

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING IN ON TWITTER AT 9 PM ET MONDAY, JUNE 5 USING THE #LISPROCHAT HASHTAG. 

#LISprochat lead-in - topic & questions for Mon May 22 2017

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TOPIC

Dealing with gaps in your resume

Just a reminder Leigh will be hosting the chats for the month of May, Lauren is currently adventuring in England. For the second chat of the month, she's chosen the topic of dealing with resume gaps. Her inspiration is Gaps in Your Resume: Addressing an Interruption in Your Career Path by John Lehner on LIScaeer.com. 

QUESTIONS

We post the questions here in advance of the chat so you can decide whether or not this topic is of interest to you and/or prepare your answers in advance.

Q1 Have you ever had to deal with a gap on your resume, please share your experience!

Q2 If asked in an interview, how do you explain a gap on your resume?

Q3 Do you do anything different on your resume to deal with a gap? What do you do?

Q4 What advice do you have for handling a gap on a resume?

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING IN ON TWITTER AT 9 PM ET MONDAY, MAY 22 USING THE #LISPROCHAT HASHTAG. 

#LISprochat lead-in - topic & questions for Mon May 8 2017

via Nick Youngson

TOPIC

Ageism in the Workplace

Leigh will be hosting the chats for the month of May. For the first chat of the month, she's chosen the topic of ageism in the workplace. Her inspiration is Baby Face in the Workplace by Veronica Leigh Milliner on INALJ. This is a really interesting topic because it affects us all, we feel it early in our career when we're young, and we feel it when we're late into our careers as well. 

QUESTIONS

We post the questions here in advance of the chat so you can decide whether or not this topic is of interest to you and/or prepare your answers in advance.

Q1. Have you ever had to deal with ageism in the workplace? Please share your experience!

Q2. What kind of work still needs to be done regarding patron’s biases towards librarians and within libraries themselves?

Q3. What steps are you taking in your library or community to address ageism?

Q4. What advice do you have for librarians and info pros on handling ageism in the workplace?

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING IN ON TWITTER AT 9 PM ET MONDAY, MAY 8 USING THE #LISPROCHAT HASHTAG. 

#LISprochat lead-in - topic & questions for Mon Apr 24 2017

via Giulia Forsythe

TOPIC

Libraries, LIS pros & the Open Movement

I’m currently taking the Introduction to OERs course that Library Juice Academy (#LJAOER) offers because Open Educational Resources and the Open Movement, in general, are becoming big topics of conversation in my workplace and in my entire province. Given the discussions happening in my course I can tell it’s happening elsewhere too so I thought we could have this week’s chat be about the open movement and libraries. Our inspiration article/source, therefore, is The Open Movement: What Libraries Can Do a 2015 conference presentation by Sheila Corrall. Another source you can check out is my Notes from #ONOERlibrarians day @ Ryerson University during the one-day conference I attended in March.

QUESTIONS

We post the questions here in advance of the chat so you can decide whether or not this topic is of interest to you and/or prepare your answers in advance.

Q1. What do you already know about the open movement? (e.g. Open Access, Creative Commons, Open Data, Open Source & OERs)

Q2. Is your library/are you specifically already involved with any part(s) of the open movement? Which parts? What are you doing?

Q3. What do you see being the role of libraries and library professionals being in the future of the open movement?

Q4. What suggestions/resources do you have for library pros looking to learn more about/get involved with the open movement?

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING IN ON TWITTER AT 9 PM ET MONDAY, APRIL 24 USING THE #LISPROCHAT HASHTAG. 

#LISprochat lead-in - topic & questions for Mon Apr 10 2017

TOPIC

Figuring out what is good career advice and what isn't

The chat topic for Monday, April 10, 2017's chat is inspired by first and foremost the end of the last #LISprochat where we sort of started talking about this and I mentioned it would be a good topic for a future chat. For some reading on this topic, head over to Alison Green's advice blog Ask a Manager and check out the Bad Advice tag. Alison's got one of the best career advice websites out there.

QUESTIONS

We post the questions here in advance of the chat so you can decide whether or not this topic is of interest to you and/or prepare your answers in advance.

Q1. What's the best advice you ever received, what's the worst?

Q2. What tricks and tips do you have for how you can tell what advice is good or bad? 

Q3. What resources do you use for good advice?

Q4. What are some resources you avoid & tell others to avoid because you know they give bad advice?

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING IN ON TWITTER AT 9 PM ET MONDAY, MARCH 27 USING THE #LISPROCHAT HASHTAG. 

#LISprochat lead-in - topic & questions for Mon Mar 27 2017

TOPIC

Dealing with setbacks in the job search & on the job

The chat topic for Monday, March 27, 2017's chat is actually inspired by three articles: Moving Forward: How to Overcome a Career Failure by Lindsay Danas Cohen at The Muse; Bouncing Back from Job Loss: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Job Hunters by Margie Warrell at Forbes, and How I've Learned to Overcome Setbacks in my Life and Career by Chris Winfield at FastCompany. I couldn't just pick one article that had every aspect I was looking to highlight so that's why this topic has three inspirations

QUESTIONS

We post the questions here in advance of the chat so you can decide whether or not this topic is of interest to you and/or prepare your answers in advance.

Q1. What are your go-to strategies for dealing with a setback during the job search or on the job?

Q2. How do you make peace with setbacks/failures? What kind of feedback do you look for and where?

Q3. Who are your go-to survivors that you look too for inspiration when you're feeling down from a setback?

Q4. What resources and strategies do you have for dealing with stress after a setback in the job search or on the job?

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING IN ON TWITTER AT 9 PM ET MONDAY, MARCH 27 USING THE #LISPROCHAT HASHTAG. 

#LISprochat lead-in - topic & questions for Mon Mar 13 2017

TOPIC

Digital portfolios & personal websites in the LIS industry

The chat topic for Monday, March 13, 2017's chat is inspired by Job Talk Column: The Online Portfolio: No Longer Optional? by Lisa Campbell in NMRT's Footnotes. 

QUESTIONS

We post the questions here in advance of the chat so you can decide whether or not this topic is of interest to you and/or prepare your answers in advance.

Q1. Do you think that digital portfolios/personal websites are necessary for #librarians & #librarytechnicians? Why or why not?

Q2. Do you now, or have you ever had an LIS related personal website or digital portfolio? How did you build it?

Q3. What types of information/items need to be in/on a personal website or digital portfolios?

Q4. What tips, tricks, & tools are there for a #librarian or #librarytechnician looking to build their own site or portfolio?

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING IN ON TWITTER AT 9 PM ET MONDAY, MARCH 13 USING THE #LISPROCHAT HASHTAG. - ALSO, REMEMBER THAT DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME BEGINS IN CANADA/US ON SUNDAY