NEILSA - Friday Notes Archive

Stolen from: EYE-OPENER. Very lightly edited.
1) Paperwork Deadlines Looming: Final reports for the Open Access, Access Plus, and Direct State Aid programs are due at the State Library by July 31^st. For Open Access, report the number of in-person checkouts by Open Access customers during FY?06. For Access Plus, report the number of items your library LOANED through interlibrary loan during FY?06. Remember, SILO tracks this statistic for you: from the SILO ILL System menu, choose SYSTEM ACTIVITY SUMMARY REPORT. Here you?ll find a summary of your library?s ILL activity for the year(s) past. And for the Direct State Aid program, report how your library spent its DSA money received last fall.

You?ll find all 3 of these reports on the Library Development pages on the State Library?s website: Click on each of the 3 programs to bring up a blank form. Complete the forms and return them to the State Library?
again, the deadline is July 31^st.

2) Remember to Renew FirstSearch: By now, libraries statewide have received word about FirstSearch renewals. Please make sure your library renews access to FirstSearch by returning the FS Letter of Agreement to Central LSA office in Ankeny. FirstSearch is an incredible package of online resources and if you only use one of the 30+, let it be WORLDCAT.

Don?t let the public?s use of FirstSearch be an issue. You can adjust the administration module to show only those databases wherein you and the public have unlimited searching at no cost. Just using those 10+ databases is worth the ticket price?which is free anyway! Among the databases with unlimited searching are ERIC (education journals) World Almanac, Medline, EBooks and WorldCat. In all the other others, you?ll receive 100 searches per month.

Don?t let publicity be an issue. Click here for a FirstSearch Promotional Toolkit, a variety of printable materials to help you advertise this valuable service to your community.

Don?t let training be an issue. NWILS (make that) NEILSA can bring staff training right to your door?just ask. (Actually, best done on a countywide basis, so ask for that instead J ) And did you know that you can take a self-guided tour from the comfort of your own office? Click here for a closer look at FS features: http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/about/tour/default.htm This is something I use when doing FS training: we step through this tutorial, then move into hands-on practice with sample searches.

So if you?ve not yet renewed access to FirstSearch for another year, please mail "not fax" the FS Letter of Agreement to:

Central Iowa Library Service Area, 1210 NW Prairie Ridge Drive, Ankeny, IA. 50023-1564

Barbara Bush Foundation literacy grants
The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy has announced its 2007 national grant competition. The Foundation?s grant-making program seeks to develop or expand projects that are designed to support the development of literacy skills for adult primary-care givers and their children. A total of approximately $650,000 will be awarded; no grant request should exceed $65,000....
Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, June 26

20 points on excellent library customer service

Now go read Stephen Abram's post about Nordstrom's simple employee handbook customer service statement.

Gather what resonates with you from both of these (there is some definite overlap) and talk about it at your next staff meeting. Discuss it when building your library's mission or service statement. Think about these principles when developing your next strategic plan. Who are we, why are we here, and how can we best make ourselves available and accessible to our users?
FROM: librarian in black

Welcome to the 28E website at Iowa State University
Interlocal agreements in Iowa are governed by chapter 28E of the Iowa statutes. This website is provided as part of a project to build a web-accessible eGovernment information management system that will strengthen existing and future collaboration between local government.

Citizens, local elected officials and local public managers can use the 28E webpage at the Office of the Secretary of State to search for 28E agreements by type of service and type of participating government (e.g., county, municipality, school district). In addition, partners of 28E agreements will now be able to file 28E agreements online, reducing paperwork and enhancing the 28E database.
On this website, managed by Iowa State University, you can view and download

This project was made possible with funding from the IowAccess Board , Iowa Department of Administrative Services, Dr. Kurt Thurmaier and Dr. Yu-Che Chen, Principal Investigators, Iowa State University. The information in this report does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Department of Administrative Services. Other cooperating partners include the Office of the Secretary of State, the Iowa League of Cities, the Iowa State Association of Counties, the Iowa City/County Managers Association, and the School Administrators of Iowa.

Experts agree that accurately counting patron traffic with a people counter is the way you can make sound strategic decisions. With help from a Sensource counter, your library can easily evaluate staffing needs, hours and more. With hard data you can be confident that your decisions are based on facts not guesswork.

Sensing around SenSource's PC-BE5S Series People Counter features wireless, state-of-the-art infrared photoelectric sensors for automatically counting people. There's a battery backup, so counts are saved if power is lost. The counter comes with a 12V DC adaptor, including a 10' cable SenSource, www.sensourceinc.com

All-In-One Non-Directional People Counter with 8 Digit LCD Display
Description:
The SenSource PC-BE5S Series People Counter is a complete system in one easy to install sealed package. The sensor and the reflector generate an invisible beam of light that travels across a maximum distance of 16ft When a person crosses the beam the integral LCD display and optional count recorder or data transmitter increments by +1. This unit counts up regardless of the direction of traffic (entering or exiting). Turning off the power does not reset the counter. It will maintain its count until the magnetic reset tool is used to reset the display or when the count recorder is connected to a PC. This system operates with a safe low voltage 12V DC supply (included).

FROM: http://www.sensourceinc.com
If you are interested in using the counter, contact Ken at NEILSA to reserve a time slot. If you would like to learn more about how you can use the readings from the counter to better manage the library and to explain to Boards/City Councils your staffing/use decisions we can arrange that at the same time.

CE:

The State Library is now taking registrations for Public Library Management 1 and 2 classes in the CE Catalog

(http://www.statelibraryofiowa.org/cgi-bin/cecat/). PLM 1 will begin on Tuesday, September 12 and PLM 2 will begin on Wednesday, September 6. The registration deadline for both classes is Monday, August 14.

OPAL: Online Programming for All Libraries--And All Library Users

NEW: Streaming Audio Preview

NEW: Streaming Video Introduction

OPAL is an international collaborative effort by libraries of all types to provide web-based programs and training for library users and library staff members.
These live events are held in online rooms where participants can interact via voice-over-IP, text chatting, and synchronized browsing.
Everyone is welcome to participate in OPAL programs. Usually there is no need to register. Nearly all OPAL programs are offered free of charge to participants.
Examples of OPAL public online programs include book discussion programs, interviews, special events, library training, memoir writing workshops, and virtual tours of special digital library collections.
FROM: http://www.opal-online.org/

We are planning a DEMCO Book Repair Workshop for sometime this fall, Ken will still do a workshop at county association meetings if requested and scheduled anead of time.

Iowa Grants Symposium: ?Iowans? Partnering for Progress?

Many public library staff and local city government staff attended this symposium last year and rated it highly. This year the symposium is being extended to include non-profits, academics and others. It promises to be bigger and better that last year so make sure you plan to attend. REGISTER EARLY. Attendance will be capped. To make sure your are included, register today online to hold your spot. The hote is offering state rates for this symposium, so be sure you give the symposium name when you register. Details and registration:

www.iagems.gov

Iowa?s Office of Grants Enterprise Management presents the 2nd Annual Iowa Grant Symposium, ?Iowans? Partnering for Progress?

Wednesday, August 16, 2006 at the Sheraton West Des Moines Hotel

Be sure to join your grant seeking peers from throughout the state at this premier training event on August 16 at the Sheraton West Des Moines Hotel in West Des Moines, Iowa.

The agenda is filled with information relative to all grant seekers.

Some highlights of the agenda include:

Opening session on ?Nonprofit Oversight and the Iowa Principles and Practices for Charitable Nonprofit Excellence? presented by Sandy Boyd and Richard Koontz, Iowa NonProfit Resource Center, University of Iowa

Workshops on proposal writing and grant seeking presented by The Foundation Center

Grants government workshop presented by the US Department of Education

Concurrent workshops will cover the following:

Ø Grants.gov: Find, Apply, Succeed

Ø Do?s and Don?ts of Administering Federal Grants

Ø Funding for Home and Community

Ø Enriching Your Public Programs

Ø Proposal Writing Basics

Ø Grant Seeking Basics

Ø Iowa Community Foundations Capturing the Transfer of Wealth, Providing Community Support

Ø How to Begin! A Proactive Approach to Seeking Grants

Ø Creating a Successful Budget

Ø Using Hard Data to Build Strong Proposals

Ø Corporate, Private and Community Foundation Panel Discussion

$65 registration fee which includes a deluxe continental breakfast, lunch and afternoon break

Register at www.iagems.gov
Questions? Contact Kathy Mabie at www.kathy.mabie@iowa.gov or 515-281-8834

Kathy Mabie Iowa Grants Management Director Iowa Department of Management 515-281-8834 FAX 515-242-5897 www.iagems.gov
FROM:
Judy Jones, State Library of Iowa Consultant

The basics of tagging
Tagging refers to the process by which users assign terms meaningful to them to a resource in the online environment. The rise of social bookmarking websites have skyrocketed tagging systems into the mainstream. Jenn Riley explains what it is, what can be done with it, and who should be using it....
TechEssence, July 8

Videos promoting teen services
The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, has produced several videos that promote its library programs and services to teens. ?Fairy Tales Gone Bad? and others are available for viewing on YouTube....
Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County

Can history be Open Source? Wikipedia and the future of the past
A historical work without owners and with multiple, anonymous authors is almost unimaginable in our professional culture. Yet, quite remarkably, that describes the online encyclopedia known as Wikipedia, which contains 3 million articles (1 million of them in English). Roy Rosenzweig describes the pluses and minuses of its use as a historical encyclopedia....
Journal of American History 93, no.1 (June)

UK libraries in metamorphosis
Three British public libraries were in desperate need of redecoration, upgrading, and transformation. The Love Libraries campaign website shows how the Coldharbour (right), Newquay, and Richmond libraries blossomed into 21st-century facilities within 12 weeks....
Love Libraries

New Aussie biblioblog
Libraries Interact is a new collaborative blog for Australian libraryland. You do not have to be Australian, a librarian, or a blogger to contribute. It welcomes library-related reflections, job postings, notifications of events, pointers to interesting sites, discussion of the biblioblogosphere, and blathering....
Libraries Interact

July 13 is Summer Learning Day
Summer Learning Day is a time for communities to celebrate the importance of high-quality summer learning opportunities in the lives of young people and their families. Host an event in your community on July 13 that showcases your program....
Center for Summer Learning

Botanical, horticultural, and plant libraries
Peruse this useful list of the websites and the online catalogs of CBHL member libraries....
Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries

Free button-maker

We're all always on the hunt for new and easy ways to create quality graphics for our websites, as most of us don't have graphic or web designers on staff with enough of an eye for the visual to make swanky looking things.

Buttonator to the rescue! Add this quick free resource, which creates a bevy of quality different looking buttons--all color and font customizable.
FROM: LibrarianInBlack
Featured review:
Books for youth
Cushman, Karen. The Loud Silence of Francine Green. Aug. 2006. 228p. Clarion, hardcover (0-618-50455-9). Grades 6?9. Set in Los Angeles in 1949, Cushman?s latest historical novel captures the terrors and confusions of the McCarthy era. Eighth-grader Francine admires her outspoken, precocious friend Sophie, who was kicked out of public school for painting ?There is no free speech here? on the gymnasium floor....

ALSC offers song download to promote public awareness campaign

To help promote the Association for Library Services to Children?s Kids! @ your library® public awareness campaign, singer, storyteller Bill Harley has written a special song that is now available for download from the American Library Association website.

Four versions of his song are available online for download and use in your community, and the website also includes a lyrics page and sheet music. You can find it all at www.ala.org/ala/alsc/projectspartners/KidsSong.htm. This lively, catchy tune captures the essence of just how much there is to see and do at the library!

The ALSC campaign initiative builds on The Campaign for America's Libraries, the multi-year public awareness and advocacy campaign sponsored by ALA. Kids! @ your library® provides promotion tips, sample press materials, downloadable art and other tools to help local libraries reach out to kids, their parents and caregivers.

For more information on ALSC's Kids! @ your library® Campaign in general, visit www.ala.org/kids.
FROM: ALSC

Homeless residents sue Worcester library over borrowing restrictions
The Legal Assistance Corporation and the American Civil Liberties Union have filed a class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, charging that the Worcester Public Library is unfairly restricting the borrowing privileges of residents who live in homeless shelters....

RFID in libraries: Privacy and confidentiality guidelines
The Intellectual Freedom Committee adopted these guidelines on the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology in libraries at ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans June 27....

New Orleans PL rebuilding campaign
NOPL has been overwhelmed by the generosity of people across the country who have donated an estimated 1 million books of all kinds, conditions, and subjects. (Can anyone use hundreds of Russian grammar books?) They are grateful for the assistance and will put all the books to the most appropriate uses possible. However, due to extreme storage and staff limitations, they are now asking people to help out in other ways....
New Orleans Public Library

MySpace may face legislative crackdown
Politicians July 11 accused MySpace.com and other social-networking sites of failing to protect minors from sexual predators and other malign influences and said a legislative crackdown may be necessary. During a hearing before a House of Representatives subcommittee, lawmakers argued over the merits of compelling schools and libraries to cordon off access to such sites....
CNet News, July 11

Standardcatalogs.com, a free "Clearinghouse" for Collection Development, is now available.

Over the course of a century, librarians have made the Wilson Standard Catalogs a standard resource for help with collection development and maintenance. H.W. Wilson has announced a free service for librarians that will "give back" to the profession--http://www.standardcatalogs.com>.

Standardcatalogs.com is a free clearinghouse for tools for collection development: "Best" lists, Editors' picks, hot topics, periodicals lists, best professional books, librarian home pages and blogs, profiles of editors (and others) who shape the Wilson Standard Catalogs, and more.

The site taps into the expertise of librarians nationwide--those on the Wilson staff, special consultants, and librarians offering their input from the field. "Best" Lists include Libraries' Best Lists, Readers' Best Lists, Committees' Best Lists, Newspapers' Best Lists, as well as, contributions from individuals. An "Editors' Picks" feature focus? on notable titles from Wilson's Children's Catalog, Public Library Catalog, Fiction Catalog, Senior High School Library Catalog, and Middle & Junior High School Library Catalog. Recommended books on hot topics are also highlighted, focusing on issues in the headlines, including topics suggested by Standardcatalogs.com users.

Help with professional development is provided in lists of Best Professional Books for Librarians and links to librarians' home pages that feature useful resources.

Standardcatalogs.com is a continuously evolving tool, welcoming the input of librarians and other information professionals. The site is edited by Raymond Barber, Special Consultant to the Wilson Standard Catalogs and Editor of Senior High School Library Catalog, along with Joseph Miller, H.W. Wilson Director of Cataloging Services. Dr. Barber has worked in school libraries and taught library science at several universities, and has served on the Caldecott, Newbery, and Printz award committees, the Best Books for Young Adults Committee and the Notable Books Council.