On Veterans Day, Princeton Public Library was closed, but staff did not have the day off. If you walked through Hinds Plaza during the daylight hours on Monday, you may have noticed a fully occupied Community Room. What were library staff members doing while they weren’t checking out and checking in materials, cataloging and ordering for the collection, fielding questions, and helping with computers? It’s no big secret, just our annual Staff Development Day.
A working Staff Development Day committee, with participants from all areas of the library, organizes the day. Believe it or not, with more than 50 staff members spread over three floors, all with a fast-paced and busy daily routine, there are few occasions when we all can connect as a group. Our objectives for the day are to have some fun, get to know each other better, focus on teamwork, exchange ideas and learn stuff. Every year there is a theme (this year’s was “Past, Present, and Future”), food, some friendly competition, lots of interaction, brainstorming, and often a guest speaker. The focus is on communication, collaboration, community, updating skills, excellent library services and innovation. This year, with morning brainstorming about making the library more “green” and sustainable, and exploring the customer journey in the afternoon – with detours into friendly game show competitions – we had another full day and learned lots.
The prize-winning Staff Development Day team, holders of the PPL 2013-2014 Champion Cup.
Want to know a bit more about the folks who work at the library? Check out these infographics.