Congrats To JPL Achievers

Tracy Pigott, JPL's Training and Development Manager, sent this picture of graduates from the NEFLIN Management Training Institute 2017, August 8. Interim Library Director Jennifer Giltrop and Tracy congratulate these graduates for their professional development accomplishments. JPL staff pictured include: Mia Clark, Alison McCarty, Stephanie Miller, Hongying Song and Raelyn Wiirre; (Shawn Norton, not pictured.) 

Tracy added, "Looking forward, we congratulate Shirdellah Groulx, who was chosen to participate in Year 14 of the Sunshine State Library Leadership Institute (SSLLI) which begins in early October."

All of us add our High Fives to you!

What's SSLLI To Me?

Regency Square Branch Manager Greg Pierce wants to encourage JPL staff to attain a goal he reached recently.  Greg said, "I graduated, July 14, 2017, from the Sunshine State Library Leadership Institute.  It is a life changing experience. Mixing with library staff from various types of libraries throughout Florida, you are exposed to a much larger library community.  The instructors lead you through an inspirational journey; you gain insight into yourself and others all along the way coaching and challenging your internal leader.  'The project' is a part of the experience--a way to put your knowledge to practical use. Learning the processes of project management, encouraged thinking 'out of the box', exposure to a much larger sense of community, networking and mentoring; all of these are true rewards." 

Michelle Petrin Graduates From SSLLI

                            Michelle Petrin is pictured in middle, middle row.

The 12th class of the Sunshine State Library Leadership Institute celebrated their graduation at the State Library in Tallahassee, July 22, 2016.  YS Librarian III for the Highlands Region Michelle Petrin was the sole graduate from JPL.  Michelle said, "Participating in SSLLI was inspiring and transforming for me.  I had a chance to connect with library leaders who have turned around difficult situations and created success stories in their communities.  One of the most valuable takeaways was discovering the importance of understanding your strengths and weaknesses and having the ability to self-correct by learning from mistakes.  It was reassuring to find that sometimes the best leaders are those who evolve and are made over time through challenges, personal courage, setbacks, self-reflection, and an ability to grow.  SSLLI encouraged me to look at my job in a new way and to be better prepared to make tough decisions."

Check out the photos! 

Why Not Apply For Sunshine State Library Leadership?

It's not too soon to start thinking about applying for the Sunshine State Library Leadership Institute (SSLLI) and what project you could propose to accomplish. JPL selects participants in the spring.  The Institute is designed "to assist in preparing library leaders to provide the highest quality library services to the citizens of Florida in the most effective and innovative manner that will meet today's needs and tomorrow's challenges."  

The program application process is competitive and it is an honor to participate.  Each participant has to select a project to complete as part of SSLLI. Don't know what that might include? In the 2013 session, JPL's five participants completed these projects:

Ron Block, Circulation Service Supervisor - His focus: community outreach events. Capitalizing on successful past events, he created a "success  toolkit" to use in future large scale event planning and execution involving partnerships.  Templates were created, including a list of ongoing and potential future event partnerships with contact information, a document to assist with discussion points and mutual advantages for entering into partnerships, sample agreement forms, steps to finalizing event plans, including staffing, materials, CR&M assistance and timelines, event plans with setup information, etc. 

Mia Brack, Children's Librarian at AR - Collected library resources that addressed each of the Common Core State Standards in pre-k - 2nd grade and placed them in a tote for ease of checkout, which ensured that library customers had resources to help children be on target for their grade level.  

Keli Likins, Librarian Senior/Manager, SE Branch - Created a newly designed web page,Teen Created Content. It is  more attractive and holds all the content local teens have created for the library, such as Teen Read Week videos, short story contest entries, photos of art submitted for contests, etc.  The intent is to attract more teens to participate in these kinds of programs by providing a public forum for their work. Keli is not aware of a comparable library website around the country so it could set a trend in teen services to keep the teen user engaged.  

Rebekah Mitchell, Children's Library Associate, Main - She utilized Traveling Tales, JPL's collection of thematic storytime program kits, as a tool to connect the library with our literacy community.  This was done by inviting key members of the community to a launch event for the new Traveling Tales and by creating a training based on the kits.

Eric Soriano, E-Library Specialist, Support Services - His goal was to explore opportunities to initiate and expand current technology education and economic success programs to library customers from diverse cultural, ethnic, and language backgrounds.  He was able to either lead or help organize one special program for Filipino-Americans; two digital literacy special sessions for deaf and hearing impared children in collaboration with UNF's Department of Exceptional, Deaf, and Interpreter Education, and expand computer classes in Spanish to six classes a week in five branches, representing every library region.The program was featured in Spanish language Hola Noticias and Eco Latino as this is the only free program of its kind in town.  He has helped grow the bilingual volunteer base to six active volunteers. The e-government/job search open computer lab at Main also continues to offer assistance in Tagalong, American Sign Language, and Spanish--all well attended.

Got a wonderful project to propose?  Talk to your supervisor about it and apply for the 2014 Sunshine State Library Leadership Institute.