June Course Promotions

Celebrate Juneteenth

Juneteenth

Course Date: On Demand

Description: 10 min

Description: Discover Juneteenth's historical significance, contemporary relevance, and enduring impact, fostering conversations on social justice and encouraging community participation in celebrations.

Click here to register for the course.

Embracing Other Cultures: Juneteenth

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 5 min

Description: Understanding standing and embracing other cultures is a key part of creating an inclusive workplace free of bias and stereotypes. This course provides an overview of the African American holiday – Juneteeth. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. On June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden declared Juneteenth an official federal holiday. Celebrating Juneteenth typically offers a wide range of activities – from public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation to singing traditional songs and reading the works of famous African American writers and poets. Other Juneteenth celebrations often include street fairs, cookouts, family reunions, park parties, historical re-enactments and Miss Juneteenth contests. Red food and drinks are also a common feature of the Juneteenth holiday as a symbol of the blood that was shed by slaves.

Click here to register for the course.

Pride Month

LGBTQ+ Pride Month (U.S.)

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 7 min

Description: LGBTQ+ Pride Month is an annual month-long observation in the United States. Learning about and celebrating cultures different from your own is a way to foster inclusion, empathy, and allyship in both your work environment and community. In this course, you’ll receive an overview of the significance and origins of Pride Month. You’ll also learn the role allyship and advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community plays in fostering inclusive spaces. By the end of this course, you’ll be able to identify ways to participate in the observation.

Click here to register for the course.

Celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride Month at Work

Course Date: On Demand 

Description: 10 min

Description: June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. Recognizing and celebrating Pride Month at work is one way to make a conscious effort to value your team’s diversity, and efforts like that help teams perform better. Discover some of the history of Pride Month, what it celebrates, strategies to show your support, and some essential vocabulary to help you talk about and celebrate Pride Month in a meaningful and respectful way.

Click here to register for the course.

Summer Reading 2024

Don’t forget, if you want to review the 2024 Summer Reading training, the video and Beanstack instructions will be available all summer long in MetroU! Use the link below or search Summer Reading 2024 in the library. 

Summer Reading 2024 Training for Guest Service Staff

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 20 min

Description: The purpose of Summer Reading training is to provide you with the necessary tools and information to help guests, and ultimately, reach our Summer Reading goals. Your assistance helps us ensure a successful program for our community!

Click here to register for the course.

Summer Reading 2024 Training for Department Staff

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 20 min

Description: The purpose of Summer Reading training is to provide the necessary tools and information to staff to help guests, and ultimately, reach our Summer Reading goals. Your assistance helps us ensure a successful program for our community!

Click here to register for the course.

Unattended children: How to talk to parents about their children’s behavior

Course Duration: 1 hr

Description: Welcome to our 1-hour training on Unattended Children: How to talk to parents about their children's behavior. This webinar was originally presented in February 2021 as part of our ongoing monthly trainings.

Click here to register for the course.

Programming for Children and Teens

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 52 min

Description: A webinar presented by Parkland Regional Library System.

Click here to register for the course.

Creating a Safe Environment for Kids

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 20 min

Description:Kids don’t always think before they act. And they don't know what things can hurt them. So, it’s up to you to keep them safe. When working with kids, the decisions you make and actions you do—or don't—take can be the difference between a child having fun or getting hurt. This kind of responsibility can be scary. But, taking steps to create a safe place can help protect kids while they are in your care. By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to: Identify safety concerns Provide appropriate supervision Monitor children’s health and wellness.

Click here to register for the course.

Storytime 101: Storytime for Beginners

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 1 hr 

Description: This tutorial is meant to support those who are new to storytime. It covers basic skills, like preparing for storytime, reading books out loud, using props and music, and engaging adults and children. Each section has an interactive module filled with useful information, examples, and videos.

Click here to register for the course.

Database Training

 We have a collection of quick videos available in MetroU over many of our databases available to guests. We’ve highlighted a few new additions below, including training on our recently added database LOTE4Kids! Available by search or under the *MLS Databases topic section. 

LOTE4Kids

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 15 min

Description: L.O.T.E online for kids! offers kids the opportunity to listen to stories in different languages., There are over 45 different languages to choose from and each story can be listened to in the chosen language or in English.

Click here to register for the course.

GovInfo Phobia

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 1 hr

Description: You’ve just been asked a question about a bill in Congress, or perhaps about the history of a law, or maybe even a census question. You know that the answer is online, but just how exactly can you answer it? You know you can type words into Google, but you want to provide an authoritative answer, the best answer. This webinar will help give you a bit of guidance on where to go on the web and how to think about difficult questions. We will focus on the workings of Congress, basic legal questions, statistical and census questions, and even patents. Join us for a stimulating discussion that will make you more confident the next time you are asked about government information.

Click here to register for the course.

LearningExpress - Learn Something New

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 20 min

Description: LearningExpress Library contains study guides and practice tests to help you prepare for career- and school-related tests (GED, ACT, SAT, ASVAB, CDL, NCLEX-RN, etc), job and career resources to help you search for a job, write a resume, and guide you through the interview process, and self-paced tutorials for computer and internet basics.

Click here to register for the course.

Oxford Art Online

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 5 min

Description: Oxford Art Online offers access to the most authoritative, inclusive, and easily searchable online art resources available today including Grove Dictionary of Art and Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Includes over 200,000 articles that span ancient to contemporary art and architecture, as well as over 19,000 images of works of art, structures, plans, and artist signatures.

Click here to register for the course.

What's new from Ryan Dowd?

Supporting Transgender Individuals: A Conversation with Ben Greene

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 1 hr 30 min

Description: Ben Greene is a transgender advocate and educator who has spoken internationally on topics surrounding transgender inclusion. After coming out at 15 in a small town, Ben has devoted his career to spreading empathy, education, and storytelling around the trans experience, and has spoken for companies, hospitals, schools, religious organizations, and government entities sharing what it means to be transgender and how to show up as an ally. He is a fierce advocate for transgender youth, regularly speaking in their defense at the Missouri State Capitol, and is publishing a book for parents and families of transgender youth. He is passionate about educating others from a place of compassion—no matter where they’re starting from.

Click here to register for the course.

Migrants: A Conversation with Sheri Laigle about the current crisis (and how your organization can help)

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 1 hr 

Description: Welcome to our 60-minute training on Migrants: A conversation with Sheri Laigle about the current crisis (and how your organization can help). This webinar was originally presented in April 2024 as part of our ongoing monthly trainings. Sheri Laigle is the Director of Social Services at HIAS, a Jewish humanitarian organization committed to helping refugees and asylum seekers in the Washington, DC and New York metropolitan areas. Prior to her role at HIAS, Sheri worked as a therapist at Trauma Services, a program of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, for 17 years. In that position, she served victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and other forms of trauma and interpersonal or gender-based violence. Bilingual in French and English, Sheri has worked extensively with the African immigrant population throughout her career. She was the co-founder and organizer of the African Women’s Empowerment Workshop, an annual conference for African immigrant women, from 2008 to 2019.

Click here to register for the course.

Autism: A Conversation with Carly Danesh-Jones

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 1 hr 

Description: Welcome to our 1-hour training on Autism: A Conversation with Carly Danesh-Jones. This webinar was originally presented in February 2024 as part of our ongoing monthly trainings. Carly Danesh-Jones, MBE, is an autistic woman and advocate, shaping policy and practice related to autistic women and girls since 2008. Over the last 15 years, her books, films and advocacy campaigned for greater acceptance, equality of diagnosis, education and safeguarding of autistic women globally. She was the first British autistic women to address the UN on rights in 2014. Her influential book on safeguarding autistic girls was distributed to all the UK police forces in 2021. Carly was awarded an MBE for her services to the autistic community in 2017 and recognized with a honorary doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University in 2022. Carly shares her experience of how homelessness and autism intersect after previously being homeless as a teenage mother. Upon completion of the training, your certificate will be available to save or print.

Click here to register for the course.

Niche Academy Highlights

What is Niche Academy? Niche Academy is an open-source online learning platform made for libraries. The platform has content from over 2 thousand libraries across the U.S., and courses are added monthly to MetroU!

Addressing Mental Health Challenges at Work

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 60 min

Description: All workplaces and communities face challenges discussing mental health issues and addressing challenging behavior without inadvertently acting in stigmatizing or biased ways. Dan Berstein is a mediator living with bipolar disorder who has spent over a decade adapting conflict resolution best practices to help libraries, government agencies, and companies around the world have empowering mental health discussions. Join Dan to learn equitable ways to address challenging behaviors and trauma-informed accessibility practices - all while preventing accidental mental illness discrimination. Attendees will leave with free tools they can use right away in their daily practice to facilitate empowering, bias-resistant responses to the challenges they face regularly.

Click here to register for the course.

Privacy Audits for Public Libraries

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 60 min

Description: Unprecedented threats to the privacy and security of library patrons have emerged in recent years, from book challenges to online data and general AI advances that can prey on our most vulnerable populations. More than ever, it is critical to protect our patrons from the tremendous risks they face when enjoying the resources within our walls. Join Matt Beckstrom and Brady Lund for this webinar on privacy audits. Matt and Brady will provide a primer on library privacy audits for ensuring the physical and electronic privacy of patrons, including understanding data flows, access, and policy issues. They will further discuss how to train your staff and patrons to be “risk aware” and contribute to the vitality of the library.

Click here to register for the course.

From Diversity to Inclusion: Auditing Your Collection

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 60 min

Description: In this presentation, Kymberlee Powe will help attendees learn what a diversity audit is, why we should audit our collections, why the structure of the publishing industry may make it difficult to cultivate inclusivity, and most importantly, why it’s important to build collections that are diverse AND inclusive.

Click here to register for the course.

Disinformation and the Literary Landscape

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 60 min

Description: We are now living in an age of “fake news.” While is not a new phenomenon, its current iteration has highlighted the various dimensions of how people interact (or do not) with information - information consumption is so much more than people's immediate cognitive processing. Join Nicole Cooke as she addresses our continued and collective battle against misinformation, disinformation, malinformation, and the related literacy concepts that can influence our interactions with information and help us intellectually thrive in a post-truth society.

Click here to register for the course.

Trauma-Informed Services in Libraries

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 60 min

Description: Ever encounter a patron whose behavior or comments leave you wondering, what is wrong with them? Trauma is often a silent unknown event that many people experience. It can affect how people behave and interact with others. In this webinar, Beatriz De La Espriella will cover how trauma can change the brain, the impact it has on individuals, and how trauma-informed services can transform the way we provide services to our patrons and connect with our community. You will leave this presentation with the tools you need to serve patrons with empathy, avoid re-traumatization, and strategies that are vital for self-care when providing trauma-informed services. By the end of the webinar, participants will be able to: Define trauma and the impact trauma and adverse childhood experiences have on the brain and the individual. Identify ways to provide trauma-informed services that avoid re-traumatization. Recognize how to effectively communicate with individuals who may have experienced a traumatic event. Identify strategies to support library staff’s self-care.

Click here to register for the course.

Speaking Volumes: Podcasts for Patrons and Profess

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 60 min

Description: Interested in connecting to your community through storytelling? How about developing an oral history project? Perhaps you’d like a low-barrier way to inform and reach out to patrons? If you’d like to know more, then this webinar is for you! Junior Tidal guides librarians through the lifecycle process of creating a podcast. This includes writing the podcast, recording, and publishing. Participants will learn the basics: how to plan out a podcast, make a recording, and share episodes with listeners.

Click here to register for the course.

Helping Patrons with Social Media

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 60 min

Description: Join Melody Karle to look at the most helpful features and settings for the most popular social media networks. Learn how to help library patrons review privacy settings, how to save & share safely, how to close social media accounts, and generally how a "regular" library patron can make the most of their social media use. In addition, learn how many people look at social media use and why you might need to rethink some of your preconceived notions! There will also be a quick overview of some of the newest platforms gaining popularity this year.

Click here to register for the course.

Being Well This Summer

Outdoor Fundamentals: Backpacking and Trip Planning

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 30 min

Description: A backpacking trip can be profoundly enjoyable, provided you plan ahead and pack a few necessities (and leave a few non-essentials at home). Learn how to stay hydrated, eat well, take care of your skin, and protect your feet on the trail. Gain a few safety tips for traveling in a group. This lecture, presented by Elizabeth K. Andre, is from Outdoor Fundamentals: Everything You Need to Know to Stay Safe. Re-discover the great outdoors with tips and tricks to make the most of your next adventure. These lectures include demonstrations in the field of outdoor fundamentals, performed by experienced professionals. These experiments may include dangerous materials and are conducted for informational purposes only, to enhance understanding of the material.

Click here to register for the course.

Outdoor Fundamentals: Clothing and Footwear for Outdoor Adventure

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 25 min

Description: Investigate the world of shell layers, synthetic materials, insulation, and ankle support to help you maintain a comfortable body temperature, manage moisture, and protect your skin. Whether it's a multi-day snow hike or car camping in the desert, Professor Andre shows you how to select just the right clothing and footwear for your next outdoor excursion. This lecture, presented by Elizabeth K. Andre, is from Outdoor Fundamentals: Everything You Need to Know to Stay Safe. Re-discover the great outdoors with tips and tricks to make the most of your next adventure. These lectures include demonstrations in the field of outdoor fundamentals, performed by experienced professionals. These experiments may include dangerous materials and are conducted for informational purposes only, to enhance understanding of the material.

Click here to register for the course.

What to do if Stressed

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 15 min

Description: In this course, Peter Quarry, behavioral expert, provides strategies to help you calm yourself and regain control if you are becoming stressed at work. The pressure on us all to achieve results can result in feelings of stress and being overwhelmed. Peter suggests calming your brain through a simple, effective slow breathing technique; using the “now or later” approach to prioritizing what must be done thereby feeling more in control; and focusing on completing tasks, one at a time, rather than wasting time shifting gears and continuously multi-tasking.

Click here to register for the course.

Tackling Tedious Tasks

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration:  min

Description: This micro-learning course, 'Tackling Tedious Tasks', outlines seven tactics you can employ to overcome even the most cumbersome of activities. If you have been set an achievable, but tedious task, it can be hard to find motivation. This video-based learning is best used to give you the tactics needed to get those tasks completed to a high standard, before allowing you to move on to something you enjoy. This alone will give a true sense of productiveness and accomplishment!

Click here to register for the course.

Heat Awareness: Heat Prevention

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 8 min

Description: This comprehensive course is designed to address the prevention of heat-related illnesses in the workplace. Participants will gain insights into the importance of proactive measures, including proper workplace inspection and assessment, engineering controls, and effective work practices. The training emphasizes the significance of environmental control, personal protective equipment, and specialized thermal conditioning, alongside the critical role of training in recognizing, mitigating, and treating heat exposure risks. The course also highlights the importance of individual responsibility, including hydration, awareness of medication effects, and adherence to preventive measures.

Click here to register for the course.

Dealing with Overload and Burnout

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 20 min

Description: Work overload has become common in many work cultures. It is estimated that up to 70% of people feel overloaded at work. Almost 30% of workers say they are burnt out every day, and 25% see work as the number one cause of stress in their lives. Work related stress can affect health, wellbeing and job performance of individuals and teams as well as impacting the entire organization. In this course Peter Quarry discusses how to deal with work overload.

Click here to register for the course.

Combatting Burnout in Leadership

Course Date: On Demand

Course Duration: 1 hr 15 min

Description: Combatting Burnout in Leadership is an audio-only course. What is burnout, and how can you combat it? This course is part of the Belonging & Leadership series, a collection of podcasts centered around bringing inclusion skills into the workplace so leaders can facilitate a sense of belonging. In this course, Audrey Cavenecia, Chief Content Officer and award-winning Podcast Producer for Pete Carroll, talks with Kelley Bonner, licensed clinical social worker, violence prevention specialist, and workplace culture strategist, about the scientific definition of burnout, and how to protect yourself and your colleagues from it. You’ll learn about the importance of bringing your emotions to work, overcoming imposter syndrome, and how to stay connected in the world of virtual work. After this course, you’ll have the tools and knowledge to combat burnout in your workplace.

Click here to register for the course.