November 17, 2006
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Check out the NEILSA main page at: http://neilsa.org
THE LSA:
Reminder: as libraries move to new email addresses with the PLOW project, they need to let NEILSA know of the change.
New Directors (That NEILSA has been notified about)
Tara Holub, Director
Colesburg Public Library
PO Box 159
Colesburg, IA 52035
colepl@iowatelecom.net
Plainfield - Kim Bigelow
COMMENT: If someone, like the Board, other libraries in the county or the odd comment, does not tell us about a new director NEILSA does not have any way of knowing about a change. If we do not know about a change we can not do anything to help the new person "fit in" or be in compliance with such things as ILL, e-rate, and the like. NEILSA has received a number of complaints from new directors who have just discovered that there is help "out their". It is a Board responability but just as much it is to the advantage of the other libraries in the county to let us know.
Congrats go to:
JAMES KENNEDY PUBLIC LIBRARY Dyersville IA 52040
RICEVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY Riceville IA 50466
DIKE PUBLIC LIBRARY Dike IA 50624
CONRAD PUBLIC LIBRARY Conrad IA
CE:
The next LIBRARY 101 is set for December 12th at West Union - Registration required or site is canceled, other sites by request.
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 may fill in a MOU at the session - you may walk in.
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?
UW-Madison SLIS, Continuing Education Services announces their Winter/Spring 2007 Online Courses. Complete course information and registration instructions may be found on their website, http://www.slis.wisc.edu/continueed
Questions? Contact Anna Palmer (ahpalmer@wisc.edu) or 608-263-4452
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:
FROM: THIS is TRUE: 5 November 2006 Copyright http://www.thisistrue.com
BURNING MAD: When Alton Verm of Conroe, Texas, saw the book his 15-year- old daughter brought home from Caney Creek High School, he was outraged. "It's just all kinds of filth," Verm said. It includes such inflammatory words as "damn" and "hell", and Verm has filed a "Request for Reconsideration of Instructional Materials" with the Conroe Independent School District. He happened to file it during the American Library Association's Banned Book Week. "I want to get the book taken out of the class," he said. The book: Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451", a 1953 novel about a dystopian society where books are banned and burned, freedom of speech is restricted, and critical thought is suppressed. But Verm wouldn't know: he admits he hasn't read the book. (Conroe Courier) ...So let me guess: Verm is a fireman
BURNING IRONY II: Harrisonburg (Va.) High School had a display of banned or "challenged" books to provoke thought about the American Library Association's annual Banned Books Week. "Had" is the key word here: Harrisonburg Schools Superintendent Donald Ford ordered the display removed, since it might encourage students to read them. Books in the display included Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451", "The Diary of Ann Frank" -- and the Bible. (Harrisonburg Daily News-Record) ...And no wonder about the Bible: it includes such words as "damn" and "hell".
Con: Should teachers use Turnitin.com? [Silver Chips Online]
Turnitin.com is designed to prevent theft not only from web resources such as scholarly journals and current events articles, but also from the work of other students. As a result, the subscription site compiles a database of all student work ever submitted in order to prevent students from using materials written by their peers, past and present. In effect, Turnitin.com makes a profit - about 80 cents per student, according to a Bloomberg article - by checking students' work for possible plagiarism and then using that work, without the author's express consent, to augment their database. Their database essentially is filled with student-written work that the web site has no right to use.
Oklahoma bill ties library funds to gay-free kids? collections
On March 15 the Oklahoma House passed by a 60?33 vote a bill that prohibits local funding authorities and library boards from funding their public libraries unless the libraries have ?place[d] all children and young adult materials that contain homosexual or sexually explicit subject matter in a special area [and limited] distribution . . . to adults only.? The bill also specifies that the state library must withhold funds from noncompliant public libraries....
ALA one year later: What it did right, where it needs improvement
Meredith Farkas writes: ?It?s been almost a year since I wrote some posts about gripes I had with ALA and suggestions of how the ALA could do better. At the time, I was seriously considering letting my ALA membership lapse in the fall of 2006. Yet last week, I put $200 on my credit card to renew my membership in ALA, LITA, and NMRT, and to become a new member of ACRL (which I was a member of as a student a while back). What happened? Well . . . a lot.?...
Information Wants to be Free blog, Nov. 11
Evaluating children?s music CDs
Ever aware of my 12th-grade English teacher, who impressed upon me the need to organize and outline, I set out to define what I focus on when I evaluate a new album. When this proved taxing, I did what any self-respecting librarian would do. I turned to the Web, which, surprisingly, yielded almost nothing. Everything I found was pretty dry and not really relevant to the question. In desperation, I decided to make my former teacher happy and create a topic sentence. Here it is....
Bill Harley helps launch ALSC Kids! campaign
When Grammy-nominated children?s singer/storyteller Bill Harley took to the stage November 12 at Boston Public Library to perform, it was no ordinary concert. His message was: ?There?s so much to see, so much to do @ your library.? Harley helped kick off the ALSC Kids! @ your library campaign, a new national effort to raise awareness of all the free resources available for children and families....
More graphic novels in libraries = more challenges
When Amy Crump took over as director of the Marshall Public Library in central Missouri two years ago, she decided to build up the library?s offerings for young adults by buying the literary world?s hot new thing?graphic novels. But libraries are increasingly facing complaints from some parents who are concerned that books with adult content could be read by children attracted to the comic book-like drawings....
Associated Press, Nov. 14
New Sony PRS-500 e-book reader
This year Sony tested the patience of e-book fans by twice delaying the release of its new PRS-500 reading device, originally promised for the spring. The company finally started taking orders over the Web in September, and the gadget can now be purchased at electronics stores and select Borders bookstores. The device holds hundreds of digital books and displays them on a unique ?electronic paper? screen invented by MIT Media Lab researchers....
Technology Review, Nov. 8
Web resources for church librarians
Find help with selecting and purchasing materials, organizing and managing a church library, promotion and fundraising, book care and archiving, sources for supplies and furnishings, computers and library automation, and sources for librarian support and education....
National Church Library Association
Many college students fall short on ICT literacy skills
Despite the assumption that today?s college students are tech savvy and ICT literate, preliminary research (PDF file) released by the Educational Testing Service November 14 shows that many students lack the critical-thinking skills to perform the kinds of information management and research tasks necessary for academic success. ETS reached these conclusions after evaluating the responses of 6,300 students who took the company?s ICT (information and communication technology) Literacy Assessment this year....
Educational Testing Service, Nov. 14
November is American Indian/ Alaska Native Heritage Month
The first American Indian Day was celebrated in May 1916 in New York. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed a joint congressional resolution designating November 1990 as ?National American Indian Heritage Month.? Similar proclamations have been issued every year since 1994. Find out more facts from the Census Bureau....
U.S. Census Bureau, Sept. 20
In order recognize the changing role of school library media programs now and in the future, AASL is developing new learning standards for school library media programs. The division is accepting comments on its first draft through December 8.
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
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 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.
LIBRARY SERVICE AREA BOARD Meeting
The public is encouraged and welcome to attend.
Next meeting Jan. 13, 2007 2:00 p.m., ICN (sites tba)
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