NEILSA - Friday Notes Archive

Iowa Library Association Governmental Affairs Committee Legislative Alert
Dear Iowa library advocates, our lobbyists in Des Moines are telling us that the final decisions about ILA priorities will come down to decisions made by legislative leadership and the Governor in the session’s close-down negotiations. Some legislators have heard from Iowa library supporters , but many have not!

NOW IS THE TIME TO FINISH THE JOB WE STARTED IN JANUARY
You responded enthusiastically to earlier calls to contact Legislators, but we need to keep the pressure on until the session ends. Please call, email, or visit your Representative and Senator today. Thank them for their support of Iowa libraries and tell them that we still need their support on these issues:

Support the Governor’s $315,000 increase for Enrich Iowa—an example of how you use EI funds would be great.

Support the Governor’s $200,000 increase for the State Library--funding is down 28% since FY01 –their materials budget has been cut by 93.4% and they have lost five state library staff positions (15%) in that time. This has a dramatic impact on the ability of the State Library to assist local communities and maintain a current collection and offer databases to libraries. This increase, as requested by the Governor, would restore almost half of the funding cut since FY01.

Add $50,000 to the Library Service Areas budget—this is vital to Iowa’s small and rural libraries. The LSA budgets are down by 16% - and these are the people that keep librarians current on new technologies and help libraries innovate, collaborate and share services (things that help us maximize our funding). During the last five years, LSAs have had to eliminate 8 staff positions. This little bit of money goes a very long way.

Restore the requirement that each school district in Iowa have a teacher librarian on staff—studies show that Iowa children read at higher levels and score better on standardized tests in districts with teacher librarians. Both the Iowa State Education Association and the School Administrators of Iowa support this requirement.

Oppose the Real Property-Related Services and industrial/commercial tax rollback provisions—let Iowa communities decide which services they want to fund and don’t undercut local tax bases by rolling back industrial/commercial property taxes.

THIS IS THE CRUNCH TIME! ILA CANNOT MAKE THESE CONTACTS FOR YOU, WE NEED OUR SUPPORTERS TO GET ON THE PHONE, SEND EMAILS, AND VISIT THEIR LEGISLATORS AT HOME TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL LEGISLATIVE SESSION.

Helping students with online resources!
Deadline to register was Tuesday, April 11.
Summary:
Where Keystone AEA in Elkader rooms D2 & 3
When April 17 Session 1:00 – 4:00
Registration DEADLINE April 11, registration limited to 20 people
Registration at State Library of Iowa ce catalog at: http://www.silo.lib.ia.us/cgi-bin/cecat/
CE’s 3 to 5 [3 for the class 2 extra for the homework]
Fee $15.00 Coffee & break materials will be supplied (chocolate)

Homework (for 2 ce’s) You will select a real question asked by a student, you will then go to each of the resources to see what kind of information you can find. To document your quest you will print off one (1) page and send the entire packet to NEILSA for a certificate for the homework credits.

Stuff:
You are invited to provide links you found too.

You may have heard mention of the latest study from OCLC entitled Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources. The “Perceptions Report,” for short, was the focus of a session at the PLA conference last month. The report summarizes findings from an international study on the information-seeking habits and preferences of consumers in 6 countries. The entire survey was done online and solicited 3,300 responses from the U.S., Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, and the UK.

Many of the findings indicate that, while most information consumers value libraries and view them as places to learn and borrow printed books, people are still largely unaware of the rich electronic content they can access through their libraries. Here are just a few of the findings:

93% said that Google provides worthwhile information
84% begin their search for information on the Internet
70% of the U.S. population is online daily, at work and at home
51% are using instant messaging
30% have never heard the term ‘online databases’

So what could your library do with this information? The entire “Perceptions Report” is online as a PDF file here:

www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm Note that the PDF document is 286 pages, but a paper copy is available for purchase for only $19.00 from the OCLC website as well. The questions are already there, developed by a team of professional researchers at OCLC Market Research and Harris Interactive, INC. Libraries could adapt the questions for use in local surveys See how answers from your community compare with the national findings. Consider what this might mean in terms of marketing the library’s electronic resources like EBSCO, FirstSearch, etc. Think about how this might fit into your library’s long-range plan. The “Perceptions Report” is interesting, important reading if you’re up for “keeping current in library land!” More on PLA sessions next week…

FROM: The Eyeopener NWILSA Newsletter (Lightly edited.)

NASA Kid’s Club website offers K-4 interactive games
The NASA Kid’s Club site serves a dual purpose. Children can play games at home for entertainment, and educators can use it as a fun way to reach students in the classroom, the library, during after-school programs, or anywhere children and computers are together....
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Apr. 6

National Poetry Month suggestions from RIF
April is National Poetry Month, and Reading Is Fundamental offers some tips on rhyming and reading in the library.... Reading Is Fundamental

http://pcworld.co.nz/pcworld/pcw.nsf/feature/142E5093938674D5CC25714B0074ABDA Microsoft readies search services to rival Google [New Zealand PC World Magazine]

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