A couple of years ago at my Group Health medical center council meeting we had a guest speaker who talked about MRSA and prevention. I figured that, since MRSA has been in the news, I'd schedule her to speak in the library for my staff. Considering it was an "optional" meeting for staff we had a great turn-out (18 people). Eileen Bradshaw, Infection Control Practitioner told us: how MRSA is spread, what it looks like, why we should be concerned, and proper hand-washing (she told us about a funny video on the topic: video link). We did an activity where "fake" germs were spread by shaking hands and then we used black light to see them. She also checked our hands after washing them. It was a fun 1/2 hour.
It was nice to host a program in the library for the staff. Sometimes we are so student focused we forget that helping the staff helps the students. I had one teacher comment that it was great to come to a meeting that was actually informative and interesting! I heard several conversations about proper hygiene throughout the day. Even though the focus was on MRSA, I think that the focus on hand-washing will reduce the colds and flu in our building this year.
Some notes of things I learned: Make sure the presentation is about a topic that the staff has some kind of information need (I had talked it up, and made a fun flyer), make sure that any staff members whose job is related to the topic is on board (I forgot to get the school nurse in the loop early and had to backtrack a bit to make her feel comfortable), have door prizes (I gave away some hand sanitizer).
I felt pretty good about the event and I think I'll try to find another interesting topic to bring to the staff next year. Any ideas?
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I like the idea of having something that is not specifically library or information-related as a topic to bring people into the library. Getting all those staff members there is fantastic! It highlights you as the information professional with information about many topics. I do the usual copyright talk at least once a year, but it's part of the 5-10 minutes I get at every staff meeting. Having a separate event sounds great.
Ideas I'm considering now: having a staff book club, bringing in a KCLS librarian to talk about services they can provide, getting the district video tech person to talk about what he can do to help them use our equipment and district studio, and many more! Thanks for the idea.
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