WebJunction: A Librarian’s Best Friend

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  What is WebJunction?

         WebJunction is a site which aims to promote learning among any library staff and ensure that all librarians have access to free knowledge, skills and support in order to be able to manage and promote their libraries in the best way way possible. According to its website, WebJunction has helped over 50 000 library staff build the necessary skills that would help them overcome the daily challenges that libraries bring. [1]

         WebJunction was launched in 2003 and is based in Seatle, Washington and Dublin, Ohio. Its funding comes from various sources: such as the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Institute for Museum and Library Services and other libraries that have partnered with this website. [2]

           Membership is FREE and anybody can sign up (I already did!). WebJunction states that once you register, you will be able to contribute content, participate in discussion forums, take courses and connect with friends and other library members. To customize your experience, you should look to see if your main library is a member of WebJunction. By affiliating with a library that is a member of WebJunction, or any other applicable community you may be interested in, you can then have free access to many of the courses that are offered. Note, however, that if you which to affiliate with another applicable community, approval from that community may be required, in which case, an administrator would have to confirm your registration with that community (which may take a little longer). [3] 

           The advantage of affiliating with a community is that "you will have an additional link added to your My Account area that is your direct access to that site. When you click on that link, you will be directed to the customized portal--with a customized color scheme--that has the potential to offer you specialized content and courses." [4] In other words, depending on what types of courses your library or community has signed up for, you will have access to those extra courses as well. But keep in mind that even without affiliating with a library community or with a library, you can still have access to hundreds of useful articles and webinars. 

What Can WebJunction Offer You? 

Let’s look at what each tab can offer a librarian. Under the Explore Topics tab, you will find four different sections: Leadership,  Library Service,  Technology  and  Staff Training. Lets look at what each of these sections can offer you. 

Under Leadership you will find articles that focus on: 

• Budget and Finance: such as how to deal with budget cuts and challenges,
• Community Relations: such as how to serve the needs of your community,
• Facility Management: which contains articles on how to safely plan the physical space of the library
• Friends & Trustees: how to find groups and volunteers to advocate for the library and find funds
• Marketing: how to advocate for library services
• Organizational Management: how to write vision and mission statements and how to plan in a strategic way Personnel Magement – which includes guides on how to recuit staff and work with volunteers
• Staff and Training Development: ways to manage staff in order to keep up with the new technologies, such as how to train staff on e-book readers among much more! [5]

Under Library Services, you can learn about:

• Customer Service and gain interpersonal skills
• Programming
• Technical Services such as Digitization, Preservation and Collection Development
• Information about Literacy, Internet sources for patrons and virtual reference
• New Research on patron training [6]

Under Technology, you can find articles about each of these topics:

• Computer Skills
• Buying Technology
• Networking and Web Tools
• Security
• Website Development [7]
• Under Staff Training, you will learn about:
• Competencies
• Creating and Delivering Training
• Managing Staff Training
• Resources for Learners [8]

Under Find Training, you will find information about courses that are offered through WebJunction. One drawback is that they no longer sell individual enrolments to the public, but instead, you have to be a member of a library or a community that has partnered with WebJunction, through the Web Junction Partner Program. Librarians who are part of this program can benefit for courses that focus on:

• Library Management
• Personal/Interpersonal Skills
• Communication Skills
• Customer Service Skills
• Ethics and Values
• Leadership and Project Management
• Learning and Personal Growth among others [8]

Under the same tab, you can also find different recorded live Webinar presentations on numerous topics that range from how to develop and maintain e-book policies to how to organize story telling for librarians. These webinars are FREE for EVERYBODY, including members and non-members. [9]

Lastly, under the Member Center, you will find a very helpful User Guide that discusses how to engage on the site! For example, it explains in detail how to:

• Create your own avatar!
• It shows you how to bookmark pages on WebJunction--using the site itself--in order for you to easily find those pages again
• It discusses how to use the Course Catalogue and how to add courses to your cart.
• It shows you how to find and invite your friends to also join this website
• It instructs you how to prepare your computer to watch a Webinar
• It advises you on how to create groups, documents, and how to make recommendations to your friends about the certain content or courses that you may  have found useful
• And it also details how to add articles, presentations and handouts to the site. [10]

What  is the Coolest Aspect about WebJunction?

Its Community Center! Block (2003) in her article, cites WebJunction, who state that “In our community, we recognize our achievements, share news and events, ask reference questions, and make connections with others on our experiences, challenges, and successes with public access computing." [11] She also states that WebJunction encourages its members to submit success stories, their own tips and tutorials, which are then rewarded through an awards program. [12] In other words, any member of the site can contribute with articles, tutorials and presentations!

But then you ask, “How will I know if those articles are legitimate?” Well, you can always learn about who wrote the article, their job description and for which library they work. Every article has attached a picture (optional) of the author, along with that information. For example, some of the main contributors to the articles are the employees of WebJunction, while others are librarians who work for different libraries. [13]

In the end, WebJunction should be bookmarked by every librarian! If your library has partnered with WebJunction, why not sign up through them and have access to even more things? If your library is not a partner, that’s OK because there are plenty of free articles, webinars and discussion forums that you can join! With WebJunction, you can engage in meaningful discussions and can gain support for future learning.

What do you think? Is WebJunction a site that you would bookmark or sign up on? Are you glad to know about it or do you think it’s not a big deal?

If you want to sign up for WebJunction, you can go to www.webjunction.org.

References

[1] WebJunction. WebJunction.org. 2008. Retrieved from http://www.webjunction.org/1

[2] Gutsche, B.” Competency Index for the Library Field.” WebJunction.org. 2009. Retrieved from http://www.webjunction.org/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=67024497&name=DLFE-16500008.pdf p. vii

[3] WebJunction. “Create an Account.” WebJunction.org. 2008. Retrieved from http://www.webjunction.org/accounts/#create_account

[4] WebJunction. “Create an Account.” WebJunction.org. 2008. Retrieved from http://www.webjunction.org/accounts/#create_account

[5] WebJunction. “Explore Topics: Leadership.” WebJunction.org. 2008. Retrieved from http://www.webjunction.org/content/webjunction/explore-topics.html

[6] WebJunction. “Explore Topics: Library Service.” WebJunction.org. 2008. Retrieved from http://www.webjunction.org/content/webjunction/explore-topics.html

[7] WebJunction. “Explore Topics: Technology.” WebJunction.org. 2008. Retrieved from  http://www.webjunction.org/content/webjunction/explore-topics.html

[8] WebJunction. “Course Catalog.” WebJunction.org. 2008. Retrieved from  https://oclc.plateau.com/plateau/user/site/browseCatalog.do

[9] WebJunction. “Webinars.” WebJunction.org. 2008. Retrieved from  http://www.webjunction.org/content/webjunction/explore-topics/for-learners/webinars.html

[10] WebJunction. “Member Center: User Guide.” WebJunction.org. 2008. Retrieved from  http://www.webjunction.org/membercenter/userguide

[11] Block, M. "Gates Foundation and OCLC Announce WebJunction." Information Today, Inc. 19 May 2003. Retrieved from http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbreader.asp?ArticleID=16700

[12] Block, M. "Gates Foundation and OCLC Announce WebJunction."

[13] WebJunction. “About Us.” WebJunction.org. 2008. Retrieved from http://www.webjunction.org/content/webjunction/about-us.html