Blended Services Training Programme

Congratulations to yesterday’s graduates of the Mills Blended Services Training Program:

• Laurie Crompton
• Denise Johnston
• Erin Joyce
• Sandy Rosenthal
• Debbie Trebych
• Barb Zingel

Eight months of excellent work have paid off! Celebrate now, and later, watch this space and/or your email for news of debriefings, vendor visits, one-on-one test reviews with Nora in July, etc.

Congratulations and thanks also to the Unit 1, 2 and 3 trainers, all the mentors, to Rhonda for attending every session and catching people up on missed sessions, and to Karen and Anne for their contributions and support.

Sessions to be covered/Trainees

Unit 1: 3 x 2-hour sessions – Sylvia & Ed

• Session 4: Intro to the Library Catalogue
• Session 5: Intro to Finding Articles
• Session 6: Reference Sources

Unit 2: 6 x 2-hour sessions – Sylvia, Mila & Ed

• Session #8: Web
• Session #9: Web II: Academic, Government and Evaluation
• Session #10: Intro to Database Searching
• Session #11: Controlled Vocabulary & Citation Searching
• Session #12: Advanced Searching & Print Indexes
• Session #13: Review

(18 hours total)

Trainers

• Nora
• Andrew
• Susan
• Catherine
• Krista

Preliminary Schedule

Week of April 26

• Session 4: Intro to the Library Catalogue: Sylvia & Ed
  • Trainer: Nora Gaskin
  • Thursday April 29, 2-4 pm
  • Wong e-Classroom
• Session 8: Web: Sylvia, Mila & Ed
  • Trainer: Andrew Colgoni

Week of May 3

• Session 5: Intro to Finding Articles: Sylvia & Ed
  • Trainer: Susan Shepley
• Session 9: Web II: Academic, Government and Evaluation: Sylvia, Mila & Ed
  • Trainer: Krista Godfrey

Week of May 10

• Session 6: Reference Sources: Sylvia & Ed
  • Trainer: Susan Shepley

Week of May 17

• Session 10: Intro to Database Searching: Sylvia, Mila, & Ed
  • Trainer: Andrew Colgoni

Week of May 24

• Session 11: Controlled Vocabulary & Citation Searching: Sylvia, Mila & Ed
  • Trainer: Catherine Baird

Week of May 31

• Session 12: Advanced Searching & Print Indexes: Sylvia, Mila, Debbie & Ed
  • Trainer: Nora Gaskin

Week of June 7

• Session 13: Review: Sylvia, Mila & Ed
  • Trainer: Catherine Baird

Week of June 14, June 21 & June 28

• prep for assessment
• assessment

The assessment on Monday April 26th will consist of the following parts:

• 9:00 – 9:30 am: Technology assessment; everyone together at the same time, working individually, each on their own laptop
• 9:40 am – 12 pm — individual reference interview assessments, including laptop use, 20 minutes each
• 12:00 – 1:00: Lunch Break
• 1:00 – 1:45: Written test — everyone together at the same time, working individually, paper only, no laptops

Post Assessment Results

Karen, Anne and Nora will have individual meetings with people on Tuesday April 27 from 12:30-2 pm in the HR meeting room to go over the results.

Results of Poll re: Assessment Location and Laptops

• Location:
  • Don’t care: 3
  • Connections: 1
  • Wong: 3

So Wong wins on location. We’ll put up flip chart paper on the windows for privacy.

• Computers
  • Don’t care: 3
  • Loaner: 2
  • Macbook: 2

With the assessment in the Wong, a mix of laptops will be possible as long as the loaner laptops can connect wirelessly in the Wong. Derek, Karen and Rhonda will be testing the machines today to make sure they will work.

Here are some links to previously-posted tips, practice assessments and self-tests:

• from March 23/09: Multiple Choice Review Exercises | Answers
• Technology Checklist
• from April 29/09: Trial Assessment | Trial Assessment Answers
• from May 21/09: Study Tips
• last year’s assessment:
  • without answers: BST IF Assessment 2009 No Answers
  • last year’s assessment, with answers
• from Oct. 22/09: Technology Self Assessment

April 8/10 — Susan Shepley & Nora Gaskin

Puzzlers

• BST 17 Puzzler Questions
• some written answers: coming