State library offering new continuing education courses

By submitted, 03/25/22 7:10 PM

LITTLE ROCK – The Arkansas State Library will soon be offering a new Continuing Education platform for the Arkansas library community called People Connect Institute, or PCI Webinars, beginning April 1, 2022. PCI Webinars offers four (4) live webinar programs per month on a variety of library-related topics. Live programs are recorded, professionally edited, and made available to the Arkansas State Library on the Niche Academy platform. Participants in the live webinar sessions will receive a professional development certificate from PCI for their records. The Arkansas State Library will be provided access to more than 250 archived webinar programs with 24/7 access from PCI that will be available for the Arkansas library community.

People Connect Institute (PCI) Webinars is owned by Andrew Sanderbeck, who has been developing and conducting training programs for library organizations for more than twenty years. PCI Webinar presentations are filled with proven techniques that attendees can immediately apply. PCI Webinars has provided services for the Arkansas State Library in the past, such as Preparing for the Next Wave of Pandemic-Fatigued Customers in 2021, and most recently, Handling Unwanted Customer Behaviors in Your Library.  Sanderbeck and his team offer webinar trainings that are cutting edge and useful to library communities throughout the nation.

 PCI Webinars is a trusted source for library training and is currently being used by other State Library agencies in Arizona, California, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia for their respective library communities.

“PCI Webinars will offer high quality ongoing professional development from a team of experts to our Arkansas library community.  It is exciting how robust their training is on a variety of topics.  This will give library staff at all levels continued support that can be used to not only strengthen them as library professionals, but also their respective communities, schools, and universities.  It is very important to stay on top of professional development for our libraries in Arkansas,” said Coordinator of Training and Development Janine Jamison-Miller.

 The Continuing Education program provided by the Arkansas State Library, including PCI Webinars, is made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The Arkansas State Library, a division of the Arkansas Department of Education, provides the resources, services, and leadership necessary to meet the educational, informational and cultural needs of the citizens of Arkansas. The Library also provides guidance and support for the development of local public libraries and library services. Visit the library online at www.library.arkansas.gov.