Staff Development Day February 10(9am-5pm)

The Austin Public Library conducted a remote Staff Development Day. All staff were required to attend this fully-remote program. I believe there were close to 400 people in attendance! They provided me with a laptop so that I could attend from home. They also gave us all navy "Keep Austin Reading" sweatshirts for the event. At the outset, the assistant library director unveiled APL's new mission statement: "to inspire all to discover, learn, and create."

The theme for this Staff Development Day, the first of four to be conducted this year, was "Literacy." The sessions all focused on different types of literacy--reading, health civic, financial, cultural, adult basic, digital literacy, etc. The day began with a welcome and overview, and included wo morning keynote speakers, an after-lunch keynote speaker, and an afternoon keynote speaker--these were Michelle Hutson-Crawford (Director of K-12 Educaiton for United Way of Greater Austin), Kassi Kincaid (Founder and Program Director), Evelyn of "Evelyn from the Internets," and Dr, David Lankes of the University of Texas iSchool. I also attended two break-out sessions that I chose from among many selections; the first was an introduction to reference services and the second provided the basics of how to dispose of analog and digital information (either destroy or preserve in the archives) and included a history of the APL using photos and footage from the Austin History Center!

Overall, this was a wonderfully organized Staff Development Day and I was thrilled to be a part of it. The speakers were inspiring and made me proud to be part of the Austin Public Library, even if I am just an intern at this point!

Maria-Elena Cigarroa

Supervisor: Jennifer Hecker

General Schedule: Sundays (11-6); Thursdays (2:00-6:00); Fridays (12:30-5:30)