In this thread, we are going to only look at the costs and benefits of different types of training. We will start with one sample training need, and your professor will bring in one or two more during the week, depending on how quickly the class moves through the material. As a group, let’s compile all of the costs and benefits we can think of for each training event or process. Then, as a team, we’ll come up with a cost-benefit analysis or return on investment proposal for each training event. Assumptions of dollar figures will have to be made.

Training Event 1: You are the library director of a large public law school’s library. Over 300 students use the library on any given week, and you also service local attorneys (who pay a monthly fee of $45 for the right to use the library). The library fee for students is set by the school’s board of directors, and it is $450 per student per year. The school has 900 students (about 350 first-year, 300 second-year, and 250 third-year students). There are 250 local attorneys currently paying library fees, but a market of 8,000 lawyers exist in the area who are potential future customers.

A new service is being rolled out to lawyers and law students called BriefLaw. This service is a brief database of all appellate court cases and briefs that have been used in all appellate courts throughout the country. Access to the database is in pilot form and is only available through select law schools. This is a government service. Only one law school per state will have access to BriefLaw for the first year, and then it will slowly roll out to other schools and eventually onto WestLaw and Lexis (planned for about 3 years from now if things go well.)

Training for librarians on how to use the service will cost about $1,250 per librarian for the class itself. Travel from the university to the training location in Washington D.C. will cost about $2,500 per librarian, including airfare, food, hotels, and other travel costs. Training will last 1 week (5 days) and is only offered once. You are trying to determine all of the costs of the training, as well as the return on investment. The library is supported by the law school but also has to pay for many of its own expenses through income from book fines and student and attorney fees. You estimate that next year’s budget will be about 25% from your income, and you are hoping this new service will entice more attorneys to sign up for the service. You are considering a bifurcated fee where attorneys who want just the library services continue to pay $45 per month but those who want both services will pay $75 per month.

From what you can tell, the training for using BriefLaw has a steep learning curve. It is really complicated to set a proper query to get briefs to pull up on topics. The technology itself has many steps. It is likely you are going to have to devote at least two full-time librarians to training students and attorneys on how to use BriefLaw, as well as helping them with the service.

You have 15 full-time librarians on staff, 22 part-time librarians, and 20 student assistants. Discuss in your first post, or respond to a classmate, about the following.

1. The costs of training, both explicit and implicit
2. The benefits of training, both explicit and implicit
3. The opportunity potential of doing this training
4. The opportunity costs of not doing this training

Your instructor will bring in more questions throughout the week.

DQ 2

Download the individual development plan template from Doc Sharing and begin thinking about how you would fill it out if you were going to submit it to your boss at work, your boss at your last job, or your boss at a job you would like to have in the future. Start filling it out, because it will help you start thinking about why employees fill these out and how complicated it might be to have a discussion with an employee about this form.

For your first post, think about three things that an employee would need to have available to him or her in order to complete the IDP. These could be information about self, about future jobs, and so forth. Think about some questions you would want to ask your supervisor before having to submit a completed IDP form. Also think about some concerns you would have about putting information down on this form.

In your first post, provide information about the following.

1. Which section of the form do you feel you would need more information about to fill it in? What information do you need?
2. What are your two top questions you want to ask your supervisor before filling out this form?
3. What are your two top concerns you have about filling out this form?

For your second post, reply to one classmate with a very brief e-mail providing him or her with answers to his or her questions and providing reasons why he or she should not be concerned about filling out the form. Assume you are your classmate’s supervisor. (For organizational purposes, pick the person who posted directly above you to reply to. If you are first, you get to reply to anyone.)

Your instructor will have more questions for you throughout the week.