Find My LibraryTraining
APLS proudly provides continuing education, training courses, professional development, and other unique learning opportunities to library staff and trustees throughout Alabama.
Niche Academy offers on-demand training on a variety of topics.
Click below to browse the Alabama Public Library Service Academies
Live Training Opportunities
Find live library training opportunities in Alabama, online, and nationwide.
New Director's Libguide
This handbook is designed for newly appointed public library directors in Alabama
State Aid Training
This four-part series provides a guide to state aid. Broken into four parts, each video takes about fifteen minutes to complete and includes a printable certificate at the end.
Statistics Training
- Stats Training Guide: The Stats Guide is a quick introduction to navigating the Public Library Survey. It provides tips and advice on using Bibliostat Collect to report your data.
- Monthly Stats Keeper: All public libraries should be keeping up with their statistics on a regular basis. APLS created this spreadsheet to help you with this task. If you enter in monthly data for each element, the spreadsheet automatically totals it so you can easily input your data into the Public Library Survey.
- Daily Stats Keeper: If your library staff prefers to track statistics on a daily basis, we have created this tool to help. It is editable and works just like the Monthly Stats Keeper, except it allows for daily input.
- Camellia Net How to Collect Stats: Overdrive provided instructions on how to pull items and circulation for Camellia Net Members.
- Login to Bibliostat COLLECT: The Public Library Survey is completed online through Bibiostat Collect. Libraries can also access previous years' surveys.
- Bibliostat COLLECT Training Video: This is a demo of the updated Bibliostat Collect website. It can also help introduce new directors to the Public Library Survey.
- Login to Bibliostat CONNECT: Customizable statistics are also available to all public libraries through Bibliostat CONNECT. Library staff must use the same login information as when completing their Public Library Survey. They can gather any data that is collected on the Public Library Survey from libraries all over the country dating back to 1999. Connect also allows libraries to do peer comparisons, meaning that, in addition to viewing data about an individual library, data can be generated to compare libraries of similar sizes and service areas. Data can be formatted into tables or graphs and downloaded into an Excel spreadsheet. This information can be especially useful for spotting trends, planning for the future, and recognizing areas that need improvement versus areas that are successful. The survey should be seen as not just a requirement to receive state aid, but an important tool that libraries can use to their advantage.
- Bibliostat CONNECT Training Video: This is a demo of the updated Bibliostat Connect website. Here you can access all of the data that you reported on the Public Library Survey, as well as see the data other public libraries reported.