Multi-Format Professional Development with Softlink and Oliver v5

Whether it’s in a formal course environment, attending an event or webinar, joining an online community, or self-guided learning at your own pace, making the space in your schedule for professional development is vital.

Research even indicates that learning something new could reduce stress in the workplace more than commonly used relaxation techniques.*

For a lot of us, lack of time and resources, means we don’t prioritise professional development and peer collaboration as much as we could.

 

Softlink provides a range of options for school libraries and Oliver users to make learning and sharing with peers even easier.

Conferences

Conferences are a valuable form of professional development, offering presentations and workshops, as well as providing opportunities to connect with other industry professionals and share ideas.

In 2018, Softlink welcomed 160 delegates at the Inaugural Oliver v5 User Conference in Brisbane. In 2019, the User Conference moved to Sydney, with over 270 delegates attending.

Feedback from delegates was fantastic, with many people commenting during the events and online that they found the conferences both professionally valuable and enjoyable due to the great atmosphere and opportunities to meet with like-minded professionals from all around Australia. You can read more about the conferences here and here.

Feature documents (School Libraries Share)

Over the past four years, Softlink has produced nine feature documents that share the voice of school library professionals from across the globe. Based on comments in Softlink’s Annual School Library Survey, these features present a range of topics including innovative ideas, ideas for promoting the library, ideas for school-wide collaboration, and more.

The feature documents are free to download from the Softlink website.

 

Reports from the annual Softlink school library surveys are also available.

Webinars

Webinars provide an excellent opportunity to take part in Professional Development, with the convenience of not having to leave your computer.

Softlink runs numerous support webinars throughout the year that are free for Oliver v5 users. These one-hour sessions cover a range of topics, from basic “Beginner” through to more advanced and school library year calendar specific topics like “New Year Procedures”.

Softlink also makes these webinar recordings available after the webinar. So, if you are unable to attend at the scheduled time you can view the webinar at a time that is convenient for you.

 

Visit our events page to find available support webinars.

Oliver v5 Community Portal

The Oliver v5 Community Portal is an excellent place for both up-skilling and connecting with other Oliver v5 users.

The Oliver v5 Community Portal allows you to:

• Connect with Oliver users from all over the world via the “Ask the Community” feed,
• Join or create a discussion group,
• Customise your community presence,
• Easily access help and training content in multiple formats (including the support webinar recordings).

 

You can learn more about the Oliver v5 Community Portal here.

Social Media and Softlink Education Blog

Social media has its pros and cons but there’s no denying that used responsibly it’s an excellent avenue to share knowledge and ideas.

A quick search on Twitter, for example, will reveal multiple library professional specific groups where ideas are freely shared.

Softlink Education has active Twitter and LinkedIn pages where we share content relevant to School Libraries, including library practices, literacy, digital literacy, advocacy, and more.

You can view our page and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

 

We are also proud to share school library relevant articles, including guest blogger articles like this one - Marketing your school library and yourself – on our Softlink Education Blog.

Case studies

Case studies and user stories are another great way to learn from your peers. Visit the case studies page on the Softlink Education web site or videos on the Resources page to hear from over 50 Oliver v5 and LearnPath schools.