[OPLINLIST] May's Main Events, from Innovation Cafe to Customer Service Symposium

[Dorothy Sinclair]

"Genuine questions--ones for which we don't already have answers--are open invitations to innovation." (Brown, p.90) 


SWON Libraries' first World Cafe event will be held May 2, 2013 in conjunction with our Regional Spring Luncheon and Membership Meeting. Called Innovation Cafe , we hope to foster important conversations around innovation in libraries. 

What is the World Cafe? 

We all get tied up with solving problems, looking at our 'lack' and trying to manage with what we have. We often feel isolated and alone in dealing with these problems. The World Cafe concept promotes the idea that we can hold meaningful conversations in community, and what can emerge are patterns and understandings that we cannot access while driving to that next 'solution.' 

We hope that our open conversations around genuine questions facilitates further innovations in our libraries and in our communities, for the benefit of everyone. 

At the World Cafe You Can Expect to: 

* Contribute your thinking and experience 
* Listen to understand 
* Connect ideas 
* Listen together for patterns, insights, and deeper questions 

The Innovation Cafe will pose open-ended questions on the topic of innovation in our libraries. We welcome input on question development. Please send along your ideas to melanie at swonlibraries.org . 



For more information about the World Cafe see the book: 
The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter , Juanita Brown, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2005 or visit the World Cafe online . 

Registration: http://tiny.cc/spring_cafe 





Also in May, 


Join your colleagues as we update our customer service skills in a full-day of learning that is interactive and fun. 

You don't just help patrons who walk up to the reference desk. You also help your co-workers. Working well with your co-workers helps the library serve patrons efficiently, but it also helps you get things done more easily. Have you ever worked somewhere with calls transferred to you and you have no idea who's on the other end? Aggravating, right? If you've got an answer, please post it on our Facebook page . 

Learn ways to help your co-workers and your patrons at SWON's Spring Training Symposium (formerly called the Support Staff Symposium). We'll meet at the Dayton Metro Library on May 21 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for a keynote talk and breakout sessions. 

To learn more about the Spring Training Symposium and complete your registration, please go to our calendar: http://tiny.cc/spring_staff 

Come check us out on our calendar at http://tiny.cc/SWON-Calendar 


Website, swonlibraries.org 

Facebook Page SWON Libraries 

Twitter at SWONlibraries 

Tell us what you think and what you would like to see more from us. 

Calendar Snippet 

March Event 	Date 	Location 
Jumpstart your Career in Youth Services Librarianship 	3/16/13 	Kent State University 
Academic SIG - Retention Session I 	3/18/13 	Cincinnati State Technical & Community College 
Using Logic and Reasoning Skills to Express and Impress 	3/19/13 	On line 
Summer Reading Program Workshop - East 	3/20/13 	Clermont County Public Library Union Twp. Branch 
Strategic Planning for Library Professionals 	3/21/13 	On line 
SWON Libraries Office 	3/29/13 	CLOSED 


Contact Information: 
SWON Libraries Consortium 
10250 Alliance Rd. 
Suite 225 
Blue Ash, OH 45242 
513.751.4422 
swonlibraries.org 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.oplin.org/pipermail/oplinlist/attachments/20130313/01233979/attachment-0001.html>