COMING: Web Junction class co-sponsored by SLI & NEILSA, Thursday October 19, 9 - 12 overflow session 1 - 4 in West Union.  This is an advanced notice we are NOT ready for registration yer, watch the New Friday Notes for registration information.  Class size limited for this class.

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....

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

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.

Google Book Search offers downloadable public domain books
Search engine company Google launched a service August 30 that allows users of Google Book Search to download complete copies of books that are out of copyright. Google scanned the originals from the collections of its library partners?the university libraries at Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Michigan, and California, as well as the New York Public Library....

Noted with sadness: Survival uncertain for Minneapolis branches
Several branches of the Minneapolis Public Library are facing potential closure as the library board of trustees evaluates its 2007 budget and three-year plan. Among the libraries facing termination is the Southeast Community Library, which avoided a similar fate in 2003....

Gates Foundation grant will improve public library connectivity
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded ALA?s Office for Information Technology Policy $525,000 in support of efforts to ensure free public access to the internet in all of America?s public libraries. The three-year general operating grant will allow OITP to help libraries meet an increasing demand for public internet access by supporting their participation in the federal e-rate program....

The five types of content on library websites
David Lee King, Kansas City (Mo.) Public Library acting IT director, classifies the types of content most often presented on library web pages....
David Lee King blog, Aug. 22

Google Book Search joins Banned Books Week
Starting September 12, readers can visit a new site created by Google Book Search that lets users explore 42 of the banned or challenged books that appear on the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century. Interested readers can search or see basic information about these books and then either check for them in local libraries or buy them online....

Google debuts 200-year news archive search
News and history junkies take heart: Google?s new News Archive Search lets you search back over 20 decades worth of historical content, including scads of articles not previously available via the search engine. Google has partnered with news organizations including Time, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Guardian, and the Washington Post, and aggregators including Factiva, LexisNexis, Thomson Gale, and HighBeam Research, to index full-text content going back 200 years....
Search Engine Watch, Sept.

DOPA and the participation gap (PDF file)
Illinois Library Association Executive Director Robert P. Doyle summarizes some practical alternatives for teen online safety that are far less intrusive than the Deleting Online Predators Act (H.R. 5319), passed by the House in July. The article also includes basic rules of online safety for teens and talking points on DOPA for librarians and educators....
ILA Reporter 24, no. 5 (Oct.): 16?21

How to blog a conference
Web information consultant Josh Hallett offers some practical advice on the tools and strategies you might need to provide online coverage of your favorite conference. He writes: ?Not every organization has the luxury of having a large blogging staff (whether paid or volunteers). You might be all on your own, but having some helpers makes a big difference. If you plan to cover everything, your lowest common denominator is the maximum number of breakout sessions.?...
Hyku, Sept. 6

The Wizard Rock movement and literacy
A new music genre called Wizard Rock features songs related to the Harry Potter books, played by bands like the Remus Lupins and Harry and the Potters. Josh Bernstein writes: ?Almost every one of these bands on their Myspace or website mention that one of their goals is to promote literacy. Some even have links to sites or pdfs you can download explaining how to help promote literacy in your own area.?...
Alternative Teen Services, Sept. 8

Six tips to protect your online search privacy
Google, MSN Search, Yahoo!, AOL, and most other search engines collect and store records of your search queries. If these records are revealed to others, they can be embarrassing or even cause great harm. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has developed six privacy tips ranging from the simple to more complicated measures that offer near-complete safety....
Electronic Frontier Foundation, Sept. 12

Wikipedia vs. Britannica: The debate
Can Wikipedia?s everyone?s-an-editor approach produce a reliable resource tool without scholarly oversight? Are traditional encyclopedias like Britannica limited by lack of input? The Wall Street Journal Online invited Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales to discuss the topic with Dale Hoiberg, editor-in-chief of Britannica. The paper published their exchange, carried out over e-mail....
Wall Street Journal, Sept. 12

Library Technology Reports provides library professionals with insightful elucidation, covering technology and technological issues. The upcoming September/October issue features Jenny Levine on ?Gaming and Libraries: Intersection of Services.?

Disasters strike every area of the country and do not spare libraries. Usually there is little or no warning, and the best defense is a plan for effective response. The ALA Library offers a fact sheet that contains links to disaster preparedness websites, conservation, training, and other available resources.

Graphic novels: Suggestions for librarians
ALA?s Office for Intellectual Freedom has prepared a downloadable PDF booklet (with artwork by Sergio Aragonés), in conjunction with the National Coalition Against Censorship and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, that offers tips on how to develop a graphic novel collection, ways to deal with challenges in libraries, and where to shelve them....

Free to members: ?Messaging and Talking with Congress? online course
Designed for both veteran library advocates and those who are new to Capitol Hill, the three-part online course ?Messaging and Talking with Congress: An Interactive Workshop? will help library supporters build or hone effective messages and successfully communicate library needs to Congress. The ALA Washington Office is making this course, led by popular Advocacy Guru Stephanie Vance of AdVanced Consulting, available free to ALA members....

?Worthing Borough Council are closing the public toilets, and the space will become a new IT computer suite in the library.?  ??Goring Library?s Information Techno-loo-gy Boost,? Worthing (UK) Herald, July 31.