Volume 6, October 7, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) NEW DIGITAL COLLECTION – SKAMANIA COUNTY HERITAGE

2) WORKPLACE BULLYING SURVEY

3) EXCEPTIONAL FAMILY LITERACY PROGRAMS RECOGNIZED

4) FREE BOOKS FOR DISCUSSION KITS OR COMMUNITY READS

5) PLA AWARD AND GRANT OPPORTUNITIES

6) ALCTS LIBRARY METADATA POLICY E-FORUM

7) EVALUATING MEDICAL INFORMATION ON THE WEB

8) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

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Did you miss out on the live Ref22 webinar last week? Never fear! All Ref22 sessions are archived and available on the website at Ref22: Archived Sessions.

Last week we had Jen Robinson from the Seattle Public Library talking about serving teens (and other “difficult” patrons) via chat. Check it out!

The September edition of Ref22 is proud to present, “When Teens Attack!: Tips for dealing with 12-year-olds and other difficult customers on chat reference” (presented in High-Definition PowerPoint).

Jen Robinson of The Seattle Public Library attempts to explain the reasons why teens (and tweens) are the way they are, and presents some clever ways to best help the under-18 set via online chat.

Virtual and physical reference librarians and any library staff that regularly serve teens will find this session of interest.

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Volume 6, September 9, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) APPLY FOR A POSITION ON THE LIBRARY COUNCIL OF WASHINGTON

2) REF22 PRESENTS CHAT REFERENCE WITH TEENAGERS

3) HANDS-ON EAUDIOBOOK ORIENTATION SESSIONS

4) IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO REGISTER FOR EARLY LEARNING SYMPOSIUM

5) MY SKILLS MY FUTURE

6) ALCTS RDA E-FORUM

7) YOURS, MINE, OURS – LEADERSHIP THROUGH COLLABORATION

8) FREE ONLINE TRAINING NEXT WEEK

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Volume 6, May 27, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) NO LIBRARY IS AN ISLAND – THE 2010 PNLA/WLA ANNUAL CONFERENCE

2) WASHINGTON LIBRARIES RECEIVE FREE LYRASIS TRIAL MEMBERSHIP

3) BRUSH UP YOUR PR SKILLS – JUNE FIRST TUESDAYS

4) FREE BOOK – GARLIC AND SAPPHIRES

5) TECHNOLOGY AND ITS IMPACT ON THE FUTURE OF LIBRARIES

6) POWER TO THE USER – INTERACTIVE ONLINE REFERENCE SOURCES

7) RE-TOOLING FRONTLINE STAFF WITH E-GOVERNMENT RESOURCES

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Volume 6, May 20, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) RENEW WASHINGTON GRANT CYCLE RE-OPENS

2) THE USER EXPERIENCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY LIBRARY

3) GET INVOLVED IN WASHINGTON’S FUTURE

4) BOOKS FOR CHILDREN GRANTS

5) MISSION CRITICAL – SERVICES TO SPANISH SPEAKERS

6) USING WEB 2.0 TOOLS TO ENHANCE TECHNICAL SERVICES WORK

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Ask-WA Statistics – December, 2009

December tends to be a slower month for Ask-WA, mainly because academic traffic drops off so sharply during the holiday breaks. In numbers:

• Email questions received: 3319
• Chat sessions requested: 3474
• Chat sessions accepted: 2883
• Qwidget requests (% of total): 791 (22.8%)

On a positive note, our answering percentage rose from its dangerously low 74% last month up to 83% in December, which is ideal. The best part is that this higher ratio is due to every cooperative maintaining a good ratio in December (as opposed to one group doing super-well and raising the rest up). Qwidget requests, as a percentage, rose from November to come back up to their average 20-25% level.

The word cloud highlights some of the most-used words left in survey comments throughout December. Some great words this month include: amazing, awesome, prompt, kind, helpful, useful, and wonderful.

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I’ll avoid any cliches about gifts that keep on giving. Instead, I’ll jump straight in and admit that I, like many librarians, am an NPR nerd. I adore NPR for a number of reasons (though I will say that it was Ira Glass who first got me hooked). I also particularly enjoy their segments with librarian Nancy Pearl on book recommendations.

Nancy Pearl was once-upon-a-time the Director of Library Programming at the Seattle Public Library. These days she reads and recommends books to people, on the radio and through her book series, Book Lust. She’s also the only librarian I know of who has their own action figure (side-note: where are the Ranganathan pull-string toys where he recites the 5 laws of library science?).

Nancy Pearl was on Morning Edition this morning with more great recommendations, and all of them look great. There’s something there for everyone, and I recommend taking a look. Don’t stop there, though. While you’re on the site, check out the Best Books of 2009 section. This section has numerous stories and book recommendations, including the best young adult fiction of 2009, top picks from indie booksellers, best five books to share with your friends, best gift books, and more.

And sure, it’s Christmas, and maybe you’ll buy some of these as gifts. Me, I like to use these lists to fill up my reserves at the local public library – something I recommend everyone try. And hey, maybe instead of giving your reader friends books for the holidays, this year you should give them a library card application instead. Because cliche or no, libraries really are gifts that keep on (and on and on and on) giving.

These media mentions are compiled by Brian Zylstra, Deputy Communications Director for the Office of the Secretary of State, and passed along to us.

The following links cover Media Clips provided August 06, 2009 – September 04, 2009.

Children’s Literature 101: How to peruse your library’s collection at home? (Examiner.com)

Ritzville residents submit first entry in Carnegie library state tour (Ritzville Journal, August 6)

Library groundbreaking to open next chapter for Vancouver (Columbian)

Castle Rock library levy too close to call (Longview Daily News)

‘Hungry Monkey’ author at Ballard branch of Seattle Public Library (Seattle Times)

Voters OK Columbia County library measure (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, August 19)

CR library levy appears to have passed (Longview Daily News)

Budget gap to shut down Seattle libraries for a week (The Big Blog/Seattle P-I)

Library seeks to replace retiring director (Olympian)

Seattle libraries close, city employees furloughed (AP/Seattle Times)

Seattle is shrewdly minimizing budget pain for library patrons (Seattle Times editorial)

“Wayfinder” aims to connect Washington libraries’ millions of items (Tacoma Daily Index)

Did we miss a big library story from your area? Let us know!

For more library news, check out our other postings under News and Updates.

Ask-WA Statistics – August, 2009

Ask-WA maintained a busy service during the month of August, with email again outpacing chat service. In numbers:

• Email questions received: 3821
• Chat sessions requested: 3067
• Chat sessions accepted: 2599
• Qwidget requests (% of total): 789 (25.7%)

As a cooperative we maintained an answering percentage of 84.7% for the month, which is lower than in July but remains well over the goal rate of 75%. Keep up the good work! The email aspect of the service remains robust, and outpaced chat for the month. Qwidget traffic remains around 1/4th of the total chat traffic, with the main users continuing to be Seattle Public and UW Libraries.

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These media mentions are compiled by Brian Zylstra, Deputy Communications Director for the Office of the Secretary of State, and passed along to us.

The following links cover Media Clips provided June 01, 2009 – June 26, 2009.

Rediscovering the library (Yakima Herald-Republic, May 30)

Timberland OKs late-book fees (Olympian, May 30)

Grand library road trip starts here (Columbian, May 31)

Mind your manners at the library (Seattle Times editorial)

Free audiobook options for great roadtrips with kids (Examiner)

Library measure trails; service cuts are likely (Olympian)

Fines become fact of life for library system (Olympian editorial)

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