ALA-APA News

• Know Any Stellar Library Workers? Time to Nominate Some Stars

  Get ready for this year’s celebration of National Library Workers Day (NLWD) which will be held on Tuesday, April 11, 2017. You can start by nominating stellar library workers. Individuals are encouraged to “submit a star.”  Libraries, communities and organizations are encouraged to hold celebrations and recognize library employees.

  Held each year on the Tuesday of National Library Week, NLWD was established by the American Library Association’s Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA) for the purpose of acknowledging all library … Read the rest

Career Advancement

• Upcoming Continuing Education

  One sure way to increase your chances of getting a promotion or that prime assignment that you’ve been eyeing, is to improve your knowledge and skill level. In coming months, the ALA Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment (HRDR) will be offering several continuing education opportunities to help you do just that. All courses are online, asynchronous sessions with a duration of six (6) weeks.  Anyone may sign up for a course.

  Listed below are details for courses which … Read the rest

HR Practice

• Diversity Doesn’t Stick Without Inclusion

  In recent years, many libraries and organizations as well as colleges and universities have begun to focus on diversity and inclusion. Keeping pace with this trend, the American Library Association’s Task Force on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion has submitted a 50-page Final Report with recommendations for moving the Association forward. What is interesting is that the terms diversity and inclusion are so often lumped together that they are assumed to be the same thing. They are not. In the … Read the rest

Salaries

• Stop Asking New Hires for Salary Histories

  Requesting an applicant’s salary history during the hiring process can severely limit a person’s life-time earning potential — especially women and people of color.  According to this article, doing so assumes that prior salaries were fairly established at previous employers. If an individual faced a pay gap and lost wages at their last job, due to bias or discrimination, the new employer now continues the cycle. This author admonishes employers to pay what the position is worth to their … Read the rest

• 4 Smart Retirement Moves You Can Make Today

  It doesn’t matter if you are 23 or 63, it seems that you will be better prepared for retirement if you start saving as early as possible. One of the things that people can do today to have a comfortable life in their golden years, according to this article, is to create a retirement plan. Research suggests that people are more likely to save more for retirement if they have a plan. Employers can help their employees improve their … Read the rest

Work/Life

• Conquering Negative Thinking

  While many of us may think about bad experiences more often than positive ones, constant negative thinking can get in the way of happiness, add to our stress and worry level and ultimately damage our health. This article offers practical steps to take in order to conquer negative thinking. Included is the suggestion to not try to stop them. This article also explains how acknowledging your negative cycle of thinking and accepting it puts you on the road to overcoming … Read the rest

HR Law

• Does My Employer Have a Right to Tell Me How to Style My Hair?

  Dreadlocks were at the center of a case decided late last year by the federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.  It seems an Alabama company rescinded a job offer because an African American woman refused to cut off her dreadlocks. The author of this article says that “whether the employer’s decision to discriminate or behave in a biased and prejudicial manner was ultimately deemed legal or not, this woman was quietly labeled unattractive, and she lost the means to make … Read the rest

• Manager Mistakes: 3 Key Lessons from the Courtroom

  Would you rather learn a lesson about the proper way to handle employees’ concerns by having to respond to allegations in court, or from reading about others’ mistakes and taking notes?  It seems that it would be smarter—and less expensive—to learn about employment law from others’ mistakes, rather than your own. This article briefly describes three court decisions related to employment law that you might want to include in your manager’s toolbox.… Read the rest