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, September 2, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) FIRST TUESDAYS PRESENTS the Career Bridge database

2) CONNECTING THE DOTS WEBSITE

3) FIND AN EARLY LEARNING FAIR IN YOUR AREA

4) BOOKS FOR BABIES

5) CIRCLE OF LEARNING SCHOLARSHIPS

6) ALA ANNUAL CONFERENCE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY

7) UPCOMING FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES

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Volume 6, July 22, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) GETTING POLICYMAKERS TO LISTEN – ONE THING THAT *ALWAYS* WORKS

2) AMERICAN HERITAGE PRESERVATION GRANTS

3) INFORMATION LITERACY PROGRAMS FOR LIBRARIANS

4) TO UPGRADE MS OFFICE OR NOT

5) PICTURING AMERICA SCHOOL COLLABORATION PROJECTS

6) LOOK FOR A JOB USING ONLINE SOURCES

7) MATCH YOUR SKILLS TO THE BEST CAREER FOR YOU

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Volume 6, July 1, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) WASHINGTON READS – WASHINGTON AS PLACE

2) FIRST TUESDAYS – ELLUMINATION!

3) FREE ONLINE CLASSES FROM WSL AND AMIGOS

4) WSL OFFERS FUNDING FOR ARSL-ABOS CONFERENCE

5) OPPORTUNITY TO ORDER DISCOUNTED FLIP CAMCORDERS

6) COME TO THE FAIR

7) E-GOVERNMENT TOOLKIT RELEASED

8) TEN SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS & SECRETS

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Volume 6, June 10, 2010 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) BCR TO LYRASIS TRANSITION HAPPENING NOW

2) EARLY LEARNING – TIME IS RUNNING OUT TO HAVE YOUR SAY

3) LOUISA MAY ALCOTT LIBRARY GRANTS

4) FLIP-IN’ OUT @ THE LIBRARY

5) NEW POSSIBILITIES IN COOPERATIVE CATALOGING?

6) TALK UP YOUR VALUE IN 30 TO 60 SECONDS

7) CREATING INVITING LOW COST TEEN SPACES

8) CHRISTIAN FICTION BOOK BUZZ

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The American Library Association released on January 12th a new report detailing economic trends in US libraries and providing an outlook for 2010. Says ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels: “This report was prepared to inform and assist library leaders as they plan in these very difficult times. It succinctly brings together diverse strands of data from the past decade to provide a useful benchmark for the library community and its advocates.”

There’s some great data in the report worth looking at, including some of the following snippets about public libraries:

• 25.4 million Americans reported using their public library more than 20 times in the last year, up from 20.3 million households in 2006.
• The average number of  in-person public  library visits rose to 12.7  in 2009 from 9.1 in 2006.
• Use  of  the  public  library  by  computer  (from  home,  work  or  school)  doubled from 2006 to 2009 (6 times per year, up from 2.9 times in 2006).
• 22% of Americans visited their public library by computer from home, office or school more often in the last 6 months. This percentage may seem low, but it is about 51 million Americans.

The report contains a lot of information about the economic situations of libraries in the past ten years, and uses graphs and charts to help display information in a meaningful way. You can download the full report (or library type-specific reports), and view the full press release, over at the ALA web site.

The last few months I have been reading the emails posted on the ALA Libary Service to Prisoners Forum, and I have been very interested in the different ways the libraries handle the material and what they are able to do in each library. There seems to be a wide range of what the libraries offer, as well as how they are managed.

Here in Washington State we run the prison libraries similar to a public library, but we really don’t have any programs that we offer through the library. This has a lot to do with staffing and funding, as we lack quantity in both of these areas. However, we do have it better then some libraries who do not have any funding at all and rely on donations from other sources. Then I look at libraries like  the correctional libraries that are run by Hennepin County Library in Minnesota. This library manages to find time and funding to print out a newsletter, “Freedom Ticket“, publish inmate poetry books, host author events, writer’s workshops, and more. Does this make us less of a prison library?

I don’t think it does. We provide an essential service to the inmates with books and CDs covering a wide range of interests. Re-entry and education are also  priorities for our library and we do our best to provide the best possible service. Truthfully that is what it all comes down to at a prison library or any library for that matter; providing the best possible service. Libraries that “only” have donated material, have dedicated library staff who take the time to solicit those donations, to process those donations for check out, and to keep them coming to the inmates. Their efforts are appreciated by the inmates and truthfully their patrons are the ones who count in the grand scheme of libraries, even prison libraries.

Not all prison libraries are the same, but all do the best they can with what they have; money and staffing are always nice, but are not always available.

It’s time once again to nominate your favorite librarians for the annual I Love My Librarian award. Up to ten winning librarians will be honored with a $5000 award and will get to represent in New York this December. Here’s the snippet:

Librarians in our nation’s 123,000 libraries make a difference in the lives of millions of Americans every day. Now is your chance to tell us why we should shine the spotlight on a librarian at your public, school, college, community college or university library. Nominate your librarian for the Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award!

You can nominate public, higher academic, and school/media librarians, which leaves you a lot of choices but which means, sadly, you can’t nominate me. Not that you would have, necessarily, but I do like to think you might have considered it, if only briefly.

Nominations close October 9th and winners will be announced in early November. If a librarian has made a difference in your life, this is a great opportunity to make sure they get the recognition they deserve.

Linda Schatz of EdTech Strategies, LLC conducted an webinar through ALA this morning, Wednesday August 5, 2009. This webinar contains tips and advice on completing the application process for BTOP Public Computing Center and Sustainable Adoption Applications. The webinar presents practical advice including:

• when to register;
• what information do you need in advance of filling out the application online;
• reminders to use the Broadband USA site at http://broadbandusa.sc.egov.usda.gov/apply.htm for registering and applying and not to use Grants.gov for either registration or applying;
• tips on how to fill out the application correctly;
• the relationship between E-Rate and BTOP funding;
• many other tips and much other advice.

The presentation is posted on ALA’s Know Your Stimulus Site under the Broadband Resources link. On the Broadband Resources page look for the Guidelines and Strategies heading. Here you will find “Linda Schatz’s Nuts and Bolts Webinar Slide Deck (ppt, pdf)”. Both PowerPoint and Adobe Reader (pdf) versions are available.

The ALA Washington Office today released a document to guide members of the library community who have a serious interest in applying to the Public Computer Center (PCC) funding category of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).

The paper, Public Computer Center Funding Category and Library Proposals, includes text about the PCC funding category from several National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) documents, provides library-specific examples to stimulate the thinking process for applicants from the library community, and reviews the overall BTOP objectives.