Lifelong Education @ Desktop is pleased to announce the recipient of the Winter 2007 LE@Der Award, given to continuing education coordinators or LE@D course administrators who do an exemplary job of using LE@D courses with their constituency.

The award for Winter, 2007 goes to Carolyn Davidson and the North Texas Regional Library System. Dr. Arlita Harris presented the award in Fort Worth on December 6, 2007.

NTRLS was an early adapter of LE@D courses

The LE@Der Award was created to recognize exemplary use of UNT’s Lifelong Education @ Desktop tutorials in providing a combination of online and face-to-face continuing education for library staff. 

The North Texas Regional Library System, with Ms. Davidson as Continuing Education Consultant, was an early adapter of LE@D courses for the library staff in their 20-county service region, when funding to create the courses was provided by IMLS in 2003.

NTRLS has provided easy access to the free LE@D online tutorials by posting the course codes on their website and making the 1.5 to 3-hour online courses available to any library staff member in the region at any time.

LE@D courses have been approved for continuing education units from the Texas Education Agency and certification of library practitioners by the Western Council of State Libraries and most state libraries. 

NTRLS has also provided 50% scholarships for the post-masters courses offered online by Lifelong Education @ Desktop.  These 8-week facilitated online courses in Budget and Finance, Fundraising and Grantwriting, and Planning and Management of Buildings are part of the Certified Public Library Administration Program of ALA-APA, but can be taken by any librarian. 

Ms. Davidson is now scheduling LE@D courses of the month with online facilitated discussions among library staff in the NTRLS area.  Due to distances between libraries, it is difficult for the staff in the 20-county area to get together for face-to-face training.  Through online staff development opportunities, they can discuss issues together without closing their libraries and driving for several hours to attend training sessions. 

Carolyn Davidson Biography

Carolyn Davidson is currently the Assistant Director for the North Texas Regional Library System. She received her MLS from the University of North Texas, and has worked in a variety of libraries including public, academic and corporate.  She oversees the consulting and continuing education services for a twenty county area with seventy four member libraries. 

Carolyn has made it a professional goal to provide quality services to all libraries and library staff and has worked hard to develop partnerships throughout Texas.   She was a TALL Texan Class of 2006. 

Before becoming a librarian, Carolyn was a social worker in the Dallas/Fort Worth area for ten years.  She has strong public service experience working with a very diverse public.  She began training while as a social worker, and has been heavily involved in continuing education and staff development conferences for over twenty years. 

Carolyn's passion is training and teaching new ideas and skills.  She understands how many librarians in rural areas have difficulty in finding quality workshops that are convenient for them to attend.  This is one reason she has embraced the LE@D program and other unique professional development opportunities. 

She is currently very involved in providing image audits, space planning, collection analysis and other consulting services to libraries.  In addition she is a True Colors® certified trainer and provides team-building workshops throughout Texas.