Ask Us Anything: Engaging Library Staff in Ongoing Change

Abstract

When the University of Toronto Libraries transitioned to our new Library Services Platform (LSP) in 2021, we were in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. Most of the staff at our dozens of libraries were working partially or entirely from home. The in-person training we had planned had to be reconfigured for remote delivery. We opted for a flipped-classroom model: our functional teams prepared videos demonstrating the basic actions and things people had to be able to do, followed by synchronous sessions where attendees could ask questions. But as the go-live day was approaching, we were worried that people might not be prepared (or might not feel prepared—which, while not the same thing, can be just as detrimental).