Welcome to the LITA IT Proficiency Resources Wiki!

This wiki was set up to support the IT Proficiency for All Library Staff workshop, held as a LITA Preconference on October 4-5, 2007, in Denver, Colorado. It includes links to resources that will be useful for developing lists of IT competencies, sources for tech tips, and online training courses.

IT Competency Sources

(in no particular order)

ALA GODORT E-Competencies: http://www.ala.org/ala/godort/godortcommittees/gitco/ecomp1.htm

California Library Association Technology Core Competencies (pdf): http://www.cla-net.org/included/docs/tech_core_competencies.pdf

Colorado Department of Education Technology Competency Guidelines for Classroom Teachers and School Library Media Specialists: http://www.cde.state.co.us/edtech/download/tgui.pdf (developed in 1999, so some are a bit dated. However, this has a two-level approach, identifying basic and extended competencies)

Maryland Teacher Technology Standards: http://www.mttsonline.org/standards/ (a high level, general approach)

Oakland Library Technology Competencies for Staff: http://www.oaklandlibrary.org/techcomp.htm (developed in 1998, so some are a bit dated. They identify competencies all staff should have, and group other competencies by position)

Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County Information Technology Core Competencies: http://www.plcmc.org/public/learning/plcmccorecomp.pdf (presented in 4 tiers, with basic competencies all staff need, and three other tiers based on position or role)

WebJunction's Technology and Management Competencies for Maintaining Public Access Computers:  http://www.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=15659

David Lee King's revised list of a 2.0 librarian's basic competencies: http://www.davidleeking.com/2007/07/11/basic-competencies-of-a-20-librarian-take-2/

For more competency lists, see: http://www.librarysupportstaff.com/4competency.html (maintained by Mary Neiderlander, a retired library technician)

Training Resources

Microsoft offers free self-paced training courses for Microsoft Office applications at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/FX100565001033.aspx. The courses cover Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Access, Excel, etc.

Many vendors offer onsite training using both demonstration and hands-on approaches. Demonstration-based training accommodates more staff than hands-on Costs vary. Some vendors also have web-tutorials available for individual study.

One of the best ways of improving staff IT proficiency is free (apart from staff time). This makes use of existing staff members' knowledge, and  involves staff helping each other out. Individuals who are quasi-experts for a particular application can serve as a resource for all Library staff.

The Five Weeks to a Social Library course covered blogs, RSS and social bookmarking, wikis,  Flickr and social networking, and selling social software in a library context. The course finished in March 2007, and the content is freely available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike License.

Helene Blowers' Learning 2.0 course, originally developed for staff from the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County Library, involves carrying out 23 Web 2.0 activities, and it has been implemented by a number of other libraries worldwide. The followup, Learning 2.1, is open-ended, and is supported by a Ning network and a wiki.

Other sources

The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US CERT) is a partnership between the Department of Homeland Security and the public and private sectors. Established in 2003 to protect the nation's Internet infrastructure, US CERT coordinates defense against and responses to cyber attacks across the nation. This is a great source for finding security tips to send to your end users: http://www.us-cert.gov/

A government standards resource which is good for cybersecurity practices: http://www.nist.gov

Publications for government that has IT information: http://www.gcn.com, http://www.fcw.com

Basic reference, tutorials: http://www.wikipedia.org

Professional association for SQL server: www.sqlpass.org

Web dicitionary: http://www.webopedia.com

Web developer's site, with free tutorials: http://www.w3schools.com -

Computing and technology, tutorials: http://www.about.com/compute

Weekly IT publication: http://www.eweek.com

Fee-based newsletter: http://www.windowssecrets.com

Reference for programmers and other IT professionals: http://www.safari.oreilly.com

Free source: http://www.phparch.com/webcasts/recordings

www.photobucket.com - Photoshop's web version; not full-featured but doesn't require installation

California Library Association InformationTechnology How To tips: http://www.cla-net.org/aboutcla/it/how_to.php

MaintainIT: resources to support public access computing ing in libraries: http://maintainitproject.org/