Description of the Training Program
The St. Charles City-County Library District Paraprofessional Training Program consists of a sequence of class sessions staged over a 17 week period, or 134 in-class contact hours. The time required to complete evaluative "homework" assignments is estimated at 1.5 to 2 hours per class, thus paraprofessional trainees can expect to spend between 185 to 202 hours in direct participation in training over the four-month sequence. On-desk, mentored training accompanies the class room work to provide practical application of theory and the techniques presented in the lecture formats.
The sequence can essentially be divided into four blocks. The first is orientation, which covers customer service, library operations, public policy, and information access. The second is automation and electronic resources, including hardware, software, and information retrieval techniques. The third is reference services, in which the program concentrates on specific techniques of finding information, verifying it's accuracy, and responding to customer questions with the greatest efficiency. The final block deals with specialty collections and services, including children's services; local history and genealogy; business and government services; and government documents / geographic information systems.
Objectives of the Training Program
- Provide program participants with a well-rounded understanding of the essential techniques of public service, dealing specifically with information access and reference response.
- Blend universally accepted techniques of locating and reporting information, to the specific collections of the St. Charles City-County Library District.
- Provide expert guidance in the form of class room instructors, and on-desk mentors to refine and expand fundamental skills.
- Through the combination of all training methods, develop a level of competence and confidence in the paraprofessional's ability to cope with and respond to the pressures of the library reference desk.
Individual and Program Evaluation
Each paraprofessional is required to successfully complete all phases of the training within one year of classification. Instructors assign comprehensive "homework" as part of each class conducted. The assignment must be completed and turned in to program administrators the week after assignment is made.. The instructor grades and offers constructive criticism to each student's submission. If the completed assignment is not acceptable, the paraprofessional trainee must complete and re-submit it to the instructor.
The mentoring program furnishes professional supervision of the paraprofessional's "real world" experience, augments the theory and practices taught during in-class activities, and evaluates the paraprofessional's on-job performance in defined areas of interest. Mentoring is usually done through a team approach to account for the variations in scheduling.
Paraprofessionals are also expected to evaluate the program itself, and the instructors and instruction methods concurrent with each class. This gives program administrators an up-to-date snapshot of the effectiveness and relevance of the training sequence, and serves to keep the material and manner of presentation fresh and current.