Ensuring that all staff members are trained consistently to achieve excellence on the breadth of subjects they need to know is a huge challenge in any library system. Service University is PCPL’s answer. Topics range from circulation and reference essentials to intellectual freedom, marketing strategies, and community services. The 10-week course covers fundamental and specialized services, giving new staff an overview of everything the library does. Staff members take turns teaching classes, giving them opportunities to collaborate with their colleagues and become experts. This model also ensures that the training is cost-effective and sustainable, as there is no need to budget for outside presenters.

Service University’s innovations are twofold:

1. Prioritizing staff training - In a time of tight budgets and limited staff, it is crucial to ensure that staff can do their jobs effectively and efficiently. Service University allows students to attend classes on at least 20 topics, spread out over two and a half months, which minimizes the impact of their absence on individual branches.
2. Peer subject experts - Not only does this model make staff training affordable, but it is empowering for staff to learn from one another and get to know their colleagues and their areas of expertise.

Our proven outcome is that Service University gives staff the knowledge they need to feel confident and capable. They learn all of the services the library offers and have met in-house experts they can use as resources when they encounter something unfamiliar. This results in exceptional and consistent customer service to our community across 27 libraries and over 9,000 square miles. Class evaluations consistently indicate that as a result of Service University, library staff members feel adequately prepared to respond to all kinds of questions, even in subject areas that are not their fields of expertise. When a library system supports staff training in this way, all staff knows that their work is valued and valuable, and they take ownership of the service they provide.