Friday Notes
Archive

November 10, 2006

New Friday Notes: notes for next week

The life so short, the craft so long to learn

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Check out the NEILSA main page at: http://neilsa.org

THE LSA:

Hennen?s American Public Library Ratings 2006 (PDF file)
Naperville (Ill.) and North Canton (Ohio) Public Libraries repeated this year as the top-ranked libraries in their population categories, while Santa Clara County (Calif.) Library makes its return to the top after slipping to second last year. In their categories, Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Public Library leaped to number one from number four last year, while Monroe County (Ind.) Public Library rose to the number two spot from fifth. See the top 10 libraries in each population category from 1999 to 2006 on Thomas J. Hennen?s HAPLR website....
American Libraries 37 (Nov. 2006): 40?42

Congrats go to:

CE:

The next LIBRARY 101 is set for December 12^th

Kid Safety on the Internet - November 20 9:00 - 12 noon Waterloo Public Library A & B - If you want copies of the CD's you must get registration in NOW.

Fee: NO Charge, Registration now open on the state CE catalog.

You wouldn't let kids ride their bike/drive a car on the roads & highways without training, why let them do so on the Internet super highway?

Parents of Literacy Partners - Overview

March 19 & 26, 2007 -- Locations & Fee TBD
Parents are critical to children's readiness for reading, learning, and school. Public librarians have a key role in helping parents learn how to help their children prepare. Mary Cameron will take participants through an overview of a parent-training model that librarians can use with teachers to train parents on early literacy strategies. A more detailed training will be scheduled for those making a commitmentto participate in the project at a later date.

Grow Your Own @ your library grants
PLA is now accepting applications for its popular ?Grow Your Own @ your library? institutional scholarship. This year, PLA will award nine public libraries with grants of $8,000 each to be distributed to staff members who are working to obtain a master?s degree in library and information science. One library from each of the nine Public Library Data Service (PLDS) population categories will be selected....

Great CE delivered right to your desktop! Registration for YALSA's fall session of e-courses opened Aug. 21st. The session will run from Oct. 2-30. The courses are meant to be the equivalent of a full day workshop. The cost is $135 for YALSA members, $175 for ALA members, and $195 for non members. To register go to www.ala.org/yalsa. Three courses will be offered, full discriptions in New Friday Notes 08/25/2006:

PLA announces new start dates for e-learning courses
E-Learning @ PLA,? the online education program of the Public Library Association, will offer five new start dates for two of its popular courses. New Planning for Results and Creating Policies for Results will each be offered five times between September 2006 and April 2007....

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

NEW: Streaming Audio Preview of OPAL online events coming in July (playback time: 6 minutes) NEW: Streaming Video Introduction to OPAL (Windows Media Video file; playback time 2 minutes, 39 seconds)

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.

STUFF:

2) Arnolds Park Library Shares Senior Story: Thanks to Sue Sup at Arnolds Park Public Library for sharing this story. Arnolds Park P.L. makes a deliberate effort to capitalize on those ?teachable moments? when users need computer instruction and the staff is right there to help. Sue describes a very rewarding teachable moment with a senior patron who has a son stationed in Iraq. ??We?ve been visited several times each week by an older woman (Betty) who has a son in Iraq. He asked her ?Mom, please learn how to email me.? At the beginning, she had no idea how to get started. At first, Betty asked that we literally do all the typing for her. But talk about stick-to-it-tiveness! She quickly caught on and is now learning from the library staff how to send pictures of herself and scenes of back home to her son. We learn all about Iraq as we worry with her and laugh with her?Betty is a joy to have around!? Sue submitted this anecdote to Renaissance, a newsletter from the Elderbridge Agency on Aging. Nice way to tell the library?s story to outside audiences!

FROM: The EyeOpener NWILSA

Washington Office debuts on Flickr
The ALA Washington Office made its debut November 1 on Flickr, the popular photo-sharing website. Photos currently posted show interior and exterior views of the ALA offices on the ground, first, and second floors of the Pacific House, located at 1615 New Hampshire Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C....

Teens vote for favorite YA book
Teen readers across the country voted Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Scholastic, 2005) by J. K. Rowling as their favorite book to take the number-one spot on the annual Teens? Top Ten, sponsored by YALSA. Stephanie Meyer?s Twilight (Little, Brown, 2005) came in second place. The vote took place during Teen Read Week, October 15?21, and gave teens an opportunity to voice their choice of the best new young adult books....

Mars to get its first library
The writings of A. E. van Vogt wouldn?t be mistaken for Giller Prize material, but the late Canadian pioneer of science fiction has earned that genre?s ultimate tribute. His 1950 short story ?Enchanted Village? about an astronaut?s nightmarish mission to Mars (which appeared in Other Worlds, July 1950) will be blasted into space by NASA next August in the Phoenix Mars lander, along with works by such sci-fi luminaries as Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, to form ?the Red Planet?s first library.?...
Ottawa (Ont.) Citizen, Nov. 2

Google Book Search: A review
University of Hawaii LIS Professor Péter Jacsó reviews the functionality and value of Google Book Search (GBS), launched in 2004 under the name Google Print, compared with Amazon?s Search Inside the Book feature. He writes: ?Time and again I found top notch, ready reference sources in GBS with limited preview option which are not searchable through Amazon?s SIB subset. . . [but] beyond simple keyword searching, Google?s software seems to be cognitively challenged, to put it nicely, and hinders access to the content, which would deserve at least a functional and half as smart software as Amazon has.?...
Péter?s Digital Reference Shelf, Nov.

My avatar wears tight jeans
Michael Stephens shares five things he learned at the Internet Librarian Conference in Monterey, California, October 23?25. One was to put experience first: ?David King pointed out some good and bad Web experiences, and he urged the crowd to think about how users experience library websites [PDF file of presentation]. He also called for a quick turnaround timeline for web redesigns. We can?t take 1?2 years to implement these changes.?...
ALA TechSource blog, Oct. 31

IM reference talking points
Chicago-area librarian Aaron Schmidt offers some reasons why instant messaging might be a good tool for reference services: ?Don?t worry, people aren?t going to get mad if you?re helping people online when they walk up as long as you explain what you?re doing. Use those moments to promote your service!? The University of Guelph Library has already started using it....
Walking Paper blog, Nov. 2

The 10 hottest IT trends
The Innovation Lab in Aarhus, Denmark, offers its take on the most-discussed issues in research, product development, and service designs in the field of information technology?among them customer-made innovations, geo-awareness, virtual worlds, web video, digital product placement, and humanitarian technology....
Innovation Lab

Many young adults burning out on social websites
If you believe the buzz, the latest incarnation of the Web is all about sharing, connecting, and community. But even as the phenomenon continues to swell, the effort to maintain an active social life on the Web is taking its toll. Some have grown tired of what once was novel. Some feel bombarded by unsolicited messages, friend requests, and advertisements. And some are cutting back....
San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 2

Avid gamer Jenny Levine has authored the latest issue of Library Technology Reports, with the theme ?Gaming and Libraries: Intersection of Services.?

PW?s 100 best books of the year
Publishers Weekly released its annual list of 100 best books of the year, divided by review category and arranged alphabetically. There are big books (The Road by Cormac McCarthy) and not so big books (Now Is the Hour by Tom Spanbauer), and books the editors wanted to call attention to (The Unfinished Novel and Other Stories by Valerie Martin)....
Publishers Weekly, Nov. 6

Library Company celebrates 275 years
In November 1731, Benjamin Franklin and 50 of his friends started the country?s first successful public circulating library so that people of moderate means, the 25-year-old Franklin included, could better themselves through reading. Over 500,000 volumes later, the Library Company of Philadelphia, now a world-renowned independent research library, is turning 275....
Library Company of Philadelphia, Nov. 8

School Library Journal Summit in Chicago
Joan Frye Williams?s keynote address at the School Library Journal Summit November 4 offered suggestions on how to ?Make Sense of the Future.? One tip was on cutting out jargon: ?Civilians (those outside of the library world) have no idea what we?re saying. Instead of ?Reference Desk,? put up a sign that reads, ?Homework Insurance: I Can Make Sure You Ace Your Class!??...
AASL Blog, Nov. 5

30 positive uses of social networking + 1
This compilation (PDF file) puts together in one place each of the posts on the YALSA blog in October about how social networking can be a positive force in teen lives. The ?extra? post which really makes it 31 is a wrap-up of the 30 days of posts....
YALSA Blog, Nov. 2

Library-blog search engine
LISZEN searches the contents of more than 500 library and information science?related blogs. It was developed by Wayne State University LIS student Garrett Hungerford. The LISZEN wiki lists the blogs currently searched....
Library Zen

California?s Local History Digital Resources Project
The California State Library?s Local History Digital Resources Project assists staff in California libraries from Modoc to Calexico to digitize their manuscripts, photographs, and works of art?like Marin County Free Library?s real-photo postcard of a 1905 Kentfield real estate office (above). The California State Library pays for staff members to attend training on digitizing artifacts, provides access to a cataloging tool, offers scanning services for 200 images, and allows $5,000 for costs related to each library?s project....
California State Library, Nov. 6

Strange maps
Map librarians may wish to take note of a blog dedicated to weird and unusual maps. Recent posts show Flash Gordon?s Planet Mongo (right), Greater Finland, Europe?s various North-South divides, the shrinking of New South Wales, the United States of Greater Austria, Europe fits in Brazil, Manhattan neighborhoods, Germany wins World War I, and redrawing the map of the Middle East....
Strange Maps

Comparison guide to MLIS distance-ed programs
Compiled by Mary Thompson at the Ocean County (N.J.) Library, this chart lists in-state and out-of-state costs, residency requirements, credits, contact information, and application deadlines for 21 programs....
Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative

The World?s Fastest Librarian
The World?s Fastest Librarian is a short film (12:52) following Mary (played by Bridget Zinn), a fictional public librarian at the Madison Public Library (played by the University of Wisconsin SLIS Lab Library) as she prepares for the World?s Fastest Librarian Competition. The tongue-in-cheek film was a collaborative project involving over a dozen library school students....
World?s Fastest Librarian

Chronicles of Libraria
David and Daniel Ariew created this video (5:22) as a community service project for the University of Southern Florida Libraries, which are featured prominently. A parody of the Saturday Night Live ?Lazy Sunday? rap video, ?Chronicles of Libraria? has an antiplagiarism theme (with smoothies). As Daniel says, ?Where would we be without the library and the powers of rap??...
YouTube

REPEAT:

Send us an e-photo of your library [flicker it] to post on the NELISA web site, we would like to promote every one of our libraries.

Whats New blog - this is for your use and comments. Let us know what you have been up to. New programs, old programs that worked well, announcements, changes in personell, all the kinds of things that many of you share at county association meetings when you do your Round Robin sessions (some do some don't). The link: http://neilsa.org/weblogs/announcement.php Send announcements to Eunice for inclusion/posting at: riesberg@neilsa.org

Model Trustee By-Laws are at: http://neilsa.org/consulting/boardbylaws.html

LINKS:

Learning Activity Written Summary: http://www.statelibraryofiowa.org/ld/continuing-ed/learnactform/?searchterm=Learning%20Activity
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 DATES:

County Library Association Presidents/Chairs PLEASE send Ken a list of your meetings for 2007 and any spcial activities in which you will be participating, such as county fair, Supervisors Round Robin, Legislative Days et. al.

NEILSA closed dates: 11/23 & 24, 12/25 & 26, 1/1/2007

• November 16 2007 9:30 Fayette County Meeting West Union KD
• November 13 - 19 - Children's Book Week
• November 20 - Kid Safety on the Internet
• November 23 & 24 NEILSA Closed for Thanksgiving
• December 25 & 26 NEILSA Closed for Christmas

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

Traffic Counter available on loan from the NEILSA
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.

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.

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 Meeting
The public is encouraged and welcome to attend.

NEXT NEILSA Board meeting: Nov. 13, 2006 2:00 p.m., Clermont Public Library

Agenda

1. Approval of the Agenda
2. Approval of September Board Minutes
3. Approval of October Bills
4. Open Forum
5. General Business
   1. Personnel policies
      1. Report
   2. Trustee Council
      1. Report
   3. Other
6. AEA Report
7. Community College Report
8. Administrator's Report
   1. New hire
   2. Activities
   3. Other
9. Consultant's Report
1. Update
10. Meeting Dates, Time and Location
    1. Jan. 13, 2007 2:00 p.m., ICN (sites?)
11. Adjourn