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A group of SILL participants in Ohangwena, Namibia.

SILL Team in Port Au Prince, Haiti

SILL Participants in Yangon, Myanmar

Participants celebrating in Oshana, Namibia

SILL Team in Yangon, Myanmar

Icebreaker activity in Thimphu, Bhutan

Introducing: Strengthening Innovative Library Leaders (SILL)

An innovative 2-day leadership training program for public and community librarians around the world. The curriculum was developed by the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs with great assistance from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and library training providers around the world.

Librarians Need Leadership Training: Leadership Style, Innovation, Planning, and Communication

Free

Anyone in the world can use the SILL curriculum for free. All of the materials are available to download on this site.

Interactive

Instead of lengthy lectures, SILL contains group activities, self-assessments, discussions, and individual exercises.

Customizable

We encourage you to translate and adapt the materials so they best fit with your local context. All of the materials are available in the Creative Commons license.

Multimedia Toolkit

Training videos and photos are available for trainers so they can better prepare to facilitate the SILL program.

Comments from SILL Participants:

“Leadership for Librarians workshop is invaluable for my life and for my work. I learned different leadership styles we did not know throughout my life. Most important thing is what kind of leadership style I am using most of the time and my weakness in the leadership in my team and how to adjust my leadership style. The most I like the course is how to write a goal and observe to use how, when, for whom, what like a journalist…We did many programs in the past but we did not have concrete plan and did not work systematically with time line and work allocation. After attending the leadership course, I registered what kind of communication style I use when I work with team and others. Now I can apply the theory to practice in my work.   -Myanmar training participant

I was so impressed with the manual and the way it was created…The notes are also on the power point, you can read and see what do I need to do at this point.Trainer in Namibia

The way they [the topics] were presented was very good. Not hypothetical. You are told something and you have an exercise practically. That picks up your speed of understanding. When you do something physical it takes long to forget. If you just listen, you go home and tomorrow you forget. I like the way you blended theoretical and practical for each topic. It helped us comprehend and it will stick for a long time.Participant in Namibia

I liked the innovative way of learning. […] This is best way to facilitate people without the stress. This kind of training is very interactive and easy to remember.”  –Myanmar training participant

The material is very flexible and easy to adapt to our own cultural traits.”   -SILL Trainer in Armenia

I am not a leader type. But here I have already come up with the will to change my style to be a leader and to be confident when expressing ideas. A desire was born inside of me to see myself as a leader and to act like one. I will be more confident when making suggestions. I will try to change myself as much as I can.

– SILL Participant in Armenia

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