Three Days with Sandra Nelson: Policies, Management and Data

Sandra Nelson, most notably known as a leader in the public library arena, will be in the Hudson Valley in October to teach three uniquely different programs for the Ramapo Catskill Library System (RCLS), the Mid-Hudson Library System (MHLS) and Southeastern.

Sandra (www.sandranelson.com) is a library consultant, writer and trainer specializing in library planning and management issues. Her workshops address the unique needs of her clients and reflect her over 30 years of library experience. RCLS is sponsoring a program on Creating Policies for Results: From Chaos to Clarity, based on a book she co-authored for ALA with the same title, on October 5, 2004 at the Middletown Thrall Library (Contact RCLS for details (845)343-1131). Sandra will be at MHLS on October 6th to lead a program on Management Skills for Librarians (Contact MHLS for details (845) 471-6060).

On October 8th, Sandra will teach a program for Southeastern called Sell the Library Story with Statistics. Sandra will present a practical guide to collecting and presenting data that is applicable to all types of libraries. The goal of this program is to help you to take the data already being collected in the library such as gate counts, circulation, usage of electronic resources, or anything else you gather data on in the library and match this data with a purpose that will help to support – promote – advocate for your library. The first part of the program will focus on data that is collected in libraries and matching this data with a purpose. The remainder of the program will focus on presenting this data; presenting it in a way that is beneficial to the library and in Sandra’s words “sells the library story.” The intended audience for this program is librarians and/or library managers who already collect data, but who want to learn to use it more effectively as well as librarians who need to collect more or different data in order better inform specific audiences.

This program will provide participants with the skills they need to:

Complete a data inventory to understand current practice
Determine how data could/should be used
Identify the data elements that are needed
Define and collect the data elements
Develop a plan to use the data to inform specific audiences
Present various kinds of data effectively

Sell the Library Story with Statistics
Date: Friday, October 8, 2004
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Newburgh Free Library Auditorium
Fees:
$115.00 - Library staff from SENYLRC member libraries
$120.00 - Library staff from members of member library systems (MHLS, RCLS, school libraries)
$125.00 - Library staff from libraries outside the Southeastern region
Registration: http://reg.senylrc.org/index.html

By Tessa Killian, Member Services Librarian

Southeastern News Online is published bi-monthly by SENYLRC staff.