About This Project

In 2007, as part of my role as Computer Class Coordinator at Vancouver Community Library in the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District, I started working with the other libraries in our district to bring computer classes to their patrons. Prior to 2007, computer classes were only offered at the main branch in downtown Vancouver, Washington. Because the FVRL District is spread out over three counties and over one hundred miles, it wasn’t realistic to expect that patrons would want to drive to the main branch for computer classes, even if they were free.

In 2007 we had a variety of elements come together that made taking classes to the branches more realistic.

Here we come to a kind of “parting of two ways,” in that in the case of our library, our computer classes are organized centrally for the most part.  The other way to do it would be for each library to do it’s own classes.  There’s no law against doing that, of course, but as any branch librarian can tell you, there often isn’t time enough in the day to add one more thing.

Libraries that have a larger central branch may have greater opportunity to have some one person dedicated to the task of bringing computer classes out to its branches, whereas other libraries and library systems will be in the position of taking care of themselves.  Whichever the case, organizing a regular class and making it a reality can be time consuming and there are many things that can pop up to distract/derail you.

Every branch in our district is unique. All different sizes, different communities, different computer set-ups, different librarians.

Every librarian at every branch has different expectations, ideas, and ways of communicating.

Every arrangement of computers has different pros and cons for creating a class environment.

Every library has different hours of operation.

The list goes on. To get a class started at a branch, there were a lot of things that needed to be figured out, explained, discussed, gone over, etc. I discovered that email is a terrible way to present ideas. Email is great when you want to say “I’ll see you tomorrow at 3pm” and terrible for saying “I want to bring a computer class to your branch. Here are some things that I’m thinking…”

This blog and these pages are designed to show my continuing process of bringing computer classes into unique environments. There are photos of the “classrooms,” sample forms, and probably (eventually) the host of unforeseen roadblocks that sprang up and were (hopefully) circumvented. Some of these roadblocks are specific to our library system or district, in terms of the types of computer software we use, travel distances and so forth. In any case, my hope is to provide a document that will be helpful to other librarians in preparing computer classes for their own branches, or for preparing classes that travel to neighboring libraries and places in the community.