Friday Notes
Archive

February 10, 2006

New Friday Notes: notes for next week

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Summer Library Program Workshop, Feb. 13 - Upper Iowa Univ.-Fayette
Summer Library Program Workshop, Feb. 16 - Grundy Center Community Center
For more registration information se under CE

In case you missed it: (From Monday Morning Eyeopener)

Newbery and Caldecott Award Winners Announced: From classic literature of yesterday to what may be classic literature of tomorrow, ALA has announced the 2006 Newbery and Caldecott Awards. The John Newbery Medal is given each year for distinguished writing for children; the ’06 winner is Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins. The Randolph Caldecott Award is given each year for distinguished illustration in children’s picture books; the ’06 winner is The Hello, Goodbye Window illustrated by Chris Raschka and written by Norton Juster. For a complete listing of the Newbery and Caldecott award winners through the years, as well as other notable achievements in children’s literature, including the first-time Dr. Seuss Beginning Reader Award, visit ALA’s website: http://www.ala.org/ala/pio/presscentera/piopresskits/alamidwintermeeting2006/alaawards06.htm

The following is a forward from Bud Carruthers, AV Coop. These changes have been in the works for years, but by this message, it looks like the deadlines have been set. These changes in TVs will probably affect all our lives, so thought it might be interesting for you to know what is going on.

The FCC has notified US television broadcasters that the standard for transmitting TV over-the-air shall change from analog to digital. The three main types of digital TV are Standard Definition ("good", offering the same resolution as the traditional analog system), Enhanced Definition ("better"), and High Definition ("best").

As of early 2006, it appears that analog over-the-air broadcasts will be shut down February 17, 2009, causing every analog TV hooked up to an ordinary antenna to be unable to receive TV stations. The TV could be made functional again by hooking up a digital tuner box between the existing antenna and the TV's antenna-input terminals. Or the viewer could buy a new digital TV. Most viewers will not be affected, as this change will probably not immediately affect cable television and satellite television customers, since those are not over-the-air (RF or Radio-Frequency) transmissions. It is estimated that about 60 million TV's in the US are hooked up solely to antennas. Congress is arranging to offer cash vouchers ( at least this report says so ), for the purchase of digital tuners, available to people unable to buy new digital TV's.

This is the first time in over 50 years that the entire standard for TV transmission has changed. The last major TV transmission standard change was when color was added. That time, the change was backwards-compatible, meaning that black-and-white TV's still worked. This time the change is not backwards-compatible.

Why am I sending this to you??? Because eventually it will affect us all and some of us sooner .... like today. Last week one of my large screen TV vendors called to let me know that as of February 28th, 2006, manufacturers of TV's 25" and larger could only produce TV's with a "Digital Tuner", or no tuner at all. The FCC mandate also requires manufacturers to get rid of all their stock of "Analog" tuner TVs larger than 25" and the FCC will or may impose a fine for manufacturers found with those machines in stock after March 1, 2006.

So, manufacturers have sold their current stock of analog TV's to large dealers who are selling to places like Best Buy, Circuit City, etc... who do not want to get caught with a large stock of these products either.

The Good news may be that consumers should be able to find a bargain on TV's incorporating analog tuners that are over 25" in size. And, if you are not using these TV's to get over-the-air broadcasts then purchasing these analog tuner units won't bother you a bit. In the future you will be able to purchase a digital tuner converter box, if you would need it.

The Bad news, for the IEC AV/Computer Co-op, is that our vendors are running out or have run out of stock for these units. I have been in contact with all of our vendors and they have very few, if any, of these machines available. I have a bid out right now for the Spring 2006 IEC AV/Computer co-op. I will probably have to re-bid the large TV's later in the spring. By doing so these products may not show up in the AV catalog right away so keep checking the online catalog or give us a call for an update.

It looks like the new digital tuner models for 25" or larger TV's won't be available to ship until late March or early April. Basic information on these may not even be available until the middle of March. Manufacturers of TV's smaller than 25" can continue to produce and stock these products until spring of 2007. At that time we may experience this same problem again.

I am including a link that gives you more information on this topic that, I think, is interesting reading....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_television_in_the_United_States

Call or email me if you have questions or need a large screen TV before Spring 2006.

Bud Carruthers, IEC Coordinator x1157
3601 West Avenue Road, Box 1065
Burlington, Ia 52601
319-753-6561
319-752-7525 Fax
bcarruth@aea16.k12.ia.us

Judy Jones, State Library of Iowa
Consultant

Kens COMMENT: Let us all pray they don't screw it up like e-rate.

ABOUT THE STATE - ILA

Our lobbyists notified the ILA Governmental Affairs Committee that three Iowa Department of Education bills came out last night and are available now online. They are the DE's "teacher quality" bills - and they include the reinstatement of the teacher librarian requirement and an expansion of the definition of "teacher" to include teacher librarians (which allows teacher librarians to receive benefits under the student achievement and teacher quality program). The bills also allow school districts to get supplemental aid to cover the cost of adding new teacher librarian positions. The bill numbers are SSB 3106, 3107, 3108 (to see bills go to this site and enter bill number http://www.legis.state.ia.us/aspx/Cool-ICE/DisplayBills.htm). All are almost identical (the differences don't affect ou r sections). We need to tell our legislators that ILA and Iowa librarians support these bills, in fact they are one of the planks in the ILA Legislative Agenda. To contact your legislators please see the Legislative website http://www.legis.state.ia.us/aspx/Legislators/LegislatorInfo.aspx.

Senate Study Bill 3085, a bill changing provisions of Iowa’s property tax law, has been introduced. This bill is very similar to last year's original House File 847, the property tax bill that passed the House last year with seventy-some YES votes. That bill contained two major parts - a section that would tie the commercial & industrial property classes into the residential & agriculture land rollback, and a section that would declare essential services and force a local government to preserve those services first when making cuts. In SSB3085, like last year’s bill, public libraries are not defined as essential services. The bill reads:

For purposes of this section, "essential services"

4 18 means law enforcement, fire protection service, emergency

4 19 medical services, street lights, water, sewage and sewage

4 20 disposal, garbage pickup and garbage disposal, landfills,

4 21 roads and road maintenance, streets and street maintenance,

4 22 bridges and bridge maintenance, sidewalks and sidewalk

4 23 maintenance, snow removal, and local emergency management to

4 24 the extent such essential services are mandated by statute or

4 25 have been provided

ILA’s lobbyists and the Government Affairs Committee are tracking this bill and will keep you informed, especially if we need to contact legislators in relation to this bill.

Duncan Stewart, ILA Governmental Affairs Committee chair

ABOUT THE LSA:

• February 22 - ILA Lobby from home day
• March 8 ILA Legislative Day - Yes we expect to take two vans to DM, check at the NEILSA CE registration for a ride.

Thanks to the Gates Foundation Staying Connected grant, the State Library is pleased to offer public libraries a new optional service - hosting your library's Web site and e-mail. This service will make it possible for a public library to easily create its own Web site, using page templates developed by the State Library. The Web sites will be preloaded with local information specific to each library, including hours, location, links to local catalogs, and trustees. Library customers will be able to access statewide resources such as EbscoHost through their local library's Web site.

Through the e-mail hosting service, regardless of the Internet Service Provider (ISP), each public library will be able to have consistent and stable e-mail addresses making it easier to communicate with customers. In other words, when a library changes ISPs, the library's e-mail address will remain the same.

A letter about this project will be mailed to all public library directors and board presidents later in February. We know that you and your board will need time and more information before deciding whether to take advantage of this new service. Therefore, on Friday, March 17, 9:00 to 11:00 a.m., there will be an information session over the ICN. At this session, library directors and board members will have an opportunity to preview the Web site templates and get your questions answered.

Information about ICN locations and registration for the information session will be available at a later date. Be watching for the letter formally announcing this new service. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please let me know.

Sandy Dixon
Program Director Library Development

Dunkerton now has a Friends of the Library. We have revised our Bylaws to fit our organization and gone over our Articles of Incorporation and have the papers to begin filing for our 501 (c) 3. Our biggest hurdle was getting a full slate of officers for our Board of Directors and this was accomplished at our meeting Tuesday evening. Raising the money for all the filing fees, etc. was done at our annual Community Christmas Concert. Our attorney put together our Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation, pro bono. This really helped us out in how much money we had to raise. Now we have just about everything in place so that I can start writing grants for our new library. I'm really excited about our progress with our Friends.

Jan Peterson, Library Director
Dunkerton Public Library

Don't know what to do with all those books you can't sell, think circulation desk. http://www.vestaldesign.com/projects/bookbar/

The Book Bar [Vestal Design]

CE:

These are the dates/locations of the 5 Staying Connected/Rural Sustainability training that we will be doing. I will be getting training on the Rural Sustainability grant at the end of this month, so you will be getting more information on the program in March. If you have the opportunity to mention these up-coming Institutes to your libraries, I would really appreciate it.

July 10-11, Buena Vista University, Storm Lake July 13-14, Holiday Inn, Council Bluffs July 17-18, Wartburg College, Waverly July 24-25, St. Ambrose University, Davenport (this is tentative until we can get confirmation of lodging) July 27-28, Central College, Pella
Let me know if you have any questions! Michele
Michele A. Leininger Continuing Education Consultant

Subject: [Iowalib] Teen Summer Library Workshops

March 8 - Legislative Day, three classes (with the opportunity to take two of them) on Legal and Medical libraries, State Data Center (inc brief intro to Iowa Publications Online) and Telling the Library Story.
April 12 - Readers' Advisory for Children and Teens, 9:30-11:30 with a repeat session 3-5
April 17 - Medical Reference and HealthInfo Iowa, 9-11
May 3 - Beginning EBSCOhost, 9-11
May 9-12 - Tech Support on the Fly, 9:00-12:00, in Orange City, Clarinda, Knoxville and Anamosa
May 18 - Advanced EBSCOhost, 9-11

Links:

Learning Activity Written Summary: http://www.silo.lib.ia.us/for-ia-libraries/continuing-ed/online-learningactivitywrittensummary.htm
LSA web site: http://www.ilsa.lib.ia.us/siteindex.htm
NEILSA continuing education http://www.neilsa.org/classes/current.html
NEILSA e-rate Consortia Blog http://www.neilsa.org/cblog/index.cfm
NEILSA monthly calendar - http://www.neilsa.org/ncalendar/ncalendarmonth.cfm
NEILSA web site: http://neilsa.org
NEILSA yearly calendar - http://www.neilsa.org/ncalendar/ncalendar_results.cfm
NEILSA Friday Notes archives at: http://www.neilsa.org/fridays/friday.html
NWILSA Blog: http://nwilsblog.blogspot.com
State Calendar - http://www.silo.lib.ia.us/news/calendars/2005calendar.pdf
State Library CE web site at: http://www.silo.lib.ia.us/for-ia-libraries/continuing-ed/index.html
USAC (e-rate): http://www.sl.universalservice.org/

Due Date:
NEILSA closed dates: 5/29, 7/4, 9/4, 11/10, 11/23 & 24, 12/25 & 26, 1/1/2007

• February 22 - ILA Lobby from home day
• February 24 - App for PLM I & II due
• March 1,2,3 Summer Library Program Workshops
• March 8 ILA Legislative Day
• March 14, 15, 16 Teen Summer Library Workshops
• March 31 Library 101
• April 2-6 National Library Week
• April 4 -- New Hartford 7:00 - Butler County Meeting - ER
• April 4, Howard County at Riceville at 7 pm - KD
• April 17, at Fairbank 7:00 - Buchanan County Meeting - KD
• April 18 at Plainfield 7:30 - Bremer County Meeting - ER
• April 18 - Garnavillo 7:00 Clayton County Meeting - KD
• April 24 - 9:00 a.m., Dike Grundy County Meeting - ER
• June 22 Library 101
• June 24 - 27 - ALA Annual meeting in New Orleans - ER & KD
• July 1 - renew EBSCOhost
• July 20 Lansing 9:30 Allamakee County Association - KD
• July 31 - Reports due: Direct State Aid & Open Access
• August - Applications for PLM I & II due
• August 31 - Enrich Iowa Letter due at SLI
• September - Library Card sign up month
• September 13 Library 101
• September 23 - 30 - Banned Book Week
• September 27 - State Library/LSA Town Meeting (Waterloo Art and Rec Center)
• September 30 - Cataloging Supplement report due at SLI
• October 11 - 13 - ILA Annual Conference in Council Bluffs
• October 15 - 21 Teen Read Week
• October 27 -- Arlington 09:30 Fayette County Meeting
• October 30 - Annual Survey due at SLI
• Nov. 2 at 7:00 p.m. at the Spillville Public Library - Winneshiek County Meeting - KD
• Nov. 3 - ILA Planning Meeting
• November 13 - 19 - Children's Book Week

The State Library's 2006 calendar http://www.silo.lib.ia.us

The fine print stuff
blog - Friday Notes 2 AT - http://radio.weblogs.com/0108327/
EDITORS NOTES:
"x" & "xx" are catalogers shorthand for: x = See & xx = See also

Edited by:
Ken Davenport - NEILSA Consultant davenport@neilsa.org

COPYLEFT NOTICE 2002:
THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS FREE.
It may be copied, distributed and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License published by Michael A at http://dsl.org/copyleft/dsl.txt

COPYRIGHT
Please note: material found on the web should be assumed to be under copyright and is presented here for purposes of education and research only.
NOTE: If credited [via ???] or [from so & so] it is their material and not covered by my "Copyleft" notice. Ken

LIBRARY SERVICE AREA BOARD

Board Meeting March 13, 2005 2:00 p.m., Denver Public Library