Aubri Keleman of Whatcom County Public Library was born to be a chat librarian. Well honestly she was born to be ANY sort of librarian, but today I want to tell you about one of her evening shifts covering the Ask WA queue for WCLS. Ask WA, you ask, what is Ask WA? Ask WA is a cooperative of public and academic libraries around the state which work together along with librarians around the world to provide 24/7 access to…
My job in the Washington State Library Branch at the Washington State Penitentiary has exposed me to an area of librarianship I never would have thought I was suited for. When I started at the penitentiary library I was green as they say but over the last five years I’ve learned a lot about how to provide library resources to a unique population of individuals. The inmates are from many situations in their lives and those who take advantage of…
When you visit the local history museums, do you find yourself wishing you knew more about those mysterious chipped points under the glass?
Volume 7, September 15, 2011 for the WSL Updates mailing list Topics include: 1) VOLUNTEER ENGAGEMENT WORKSHOPS 2) RETHINKING REFERENCE COLLECTIONS 3) ONLINE NORTHWEST CALLS FOR PROPOSALS 4) SURVEY – PROFESSIONAL IDENTITIES AND SOCIAL NETWORKING 5) FUNDAMENTALS OF PRESERVATION 6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK
Working in prison libraries, we spend time answering “kites” from inmates in the locked units. These kites are usually pretty basic reference questions, but every once in awhile we get one that just make us laugh. Recently one such request was received at the Washington State Penitentiary, from an inmate in the Intensive Management Unit. The information he requested was pretty straight forward until the last line … kite……He got the information he wanted but security concerns prevented library staff…
Volume 7, April 7, 2011 for the WSL Updates mailing list Topics include: 1) MATH AND SCIENCE LITERACY TRAINING FOR LIBRARIANS 2) TARGET STORE GRANTS SUPPORT READING PROGRAMS 3) IFFLA SOCIAL MEDIA SURVEY 4) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK
Volume 7, March 10, 2011 for the WSL Updates mailing list Topics include: 1) DOWNLOADABLE AUDIOBOOKS RENEWAL & RECRUITMENT 2) MANAGING REFERENCE SERVICE IN A SMALL LIBRARY 3) CELEBRATE PRESERVATION WEEK 2011 4) SPRING AHEAD TO PREPARE FOR DISASTERS 5) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK
Did you miss out on the live Ref22 webinar this week? Never fear! All Ref22 sessions are archived and available on the website at Ref22: Archived Sessions. For our October session we had Christa Werle from Sno-Isle Libraries talking about mastering the reference interview. Check it out! Whatever our official status, our users think of us all simply as “the librarian.” Join us during October’s Ref22 to discuss how library staff of all levels can engage (and sometimes disengage) our…
Last Friday I had the pleasure of [virtually] being part of a panel at the WLA / PNLA conference in Victoria. The panel was called “Reference Service Innovations: Present and Future”, and my fellow panelists and I were given some excellent questions to consider. Since I wasn’t sure how the technology would play out (I was a virtual presenter on a panel that was otherwise physically present AT the conference), I recorded the questions with my answers and sent them…
Volume 6, July 29, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list Topics include: 1) UPDATED WSL HARD TIMES GUIDE 2) LESSONS LEARNED FROM RENEW WASHINGTON 3) EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS, RESPONSE AND RECOVERY 4) CORE REFERENCE SKILLS ONLINE COURSE 5) LYRASIS TO BCR TRANSITION TALK 6) SOCIAL NETWORKING FOR FUNDRAISERS 7) PREPARE AND RESPOND – PARTNERING WITH LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT 8) ARCHIVED PRESENTATIONS