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Nominate Librarians for LYRASIS Awards

By Donna DiMichele | April 7, 2011

LYRASIS 2011 Excellence Award

The LYRASIS 2011 Excellence Award will honor one individual who has made a significant and exceptional contribution in areas central to LYRASIS’ vision of strengthening libraries through collaboration, creative solutions, and leadership for libraries. The 2011 winner will receive a $1500 cash award.  Nominate an individual for the LYRASIS Excellence award.

LYRASIS 2011 NextGen Librarian Award

The LYRASIS 2011 NextGen Librarian Award will honor two librarians who are rising leaders in the library industry and demonstrate an innovative and fresh approach to the profession. The winners will each receive an iPad. Nominate a librarian for the NextGen Librarian Librarian Award.

The deadline is April 30, 2011. Self-nominations are not accepted. The winners will be announced in June 2011

Topics: News & Information | Comments Off on Nominate Librarians for LYRASIS Awards

School Libraries Essential to STEM Learning

By Donna DiMichele | April 5, 2011

Studies suggest that interactive resources like models, videos, images, data sets and manipulatives, many of which are freely available to school libraries as open content through the web are important for learning science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts.  Florida State University, School of Library & Information Studies is using an IMLS grant to explore how school librarians can make it easier for students and their teachers to use digital content to support STEM learning.  The project investigates how librarians are currently using open content STEM resources and develops a tool that allows librarians to easily create catalog records for digital materials. (Source IMLS April 4, 2011)

Overview of grant project

Topics: News & Information | Comments Off on School Libraries Essential to STEM Learning

Archives in a public library? Join a community!

By Donna DiMichele | April 4, 2011

Here is an important community for any public libraries that hold archives and/or special collections

The Public Library Archives/Special Collections Forum (PLASC) became officially active in February of 2010. A Roundtable of the Society of American Archivists*, the PLASC serves to encourage advocacy for and education about archival, manuscript, local history, genealogy, and other historic and special collections within public libraries of all sizes. The PLASC Roundtable provides an arena for discussion and dissemination of best practices of the archival, library, museum and history fields; and works to support the informational, historical, and cultural interests which converge in public library archives and special collections.

*You do not have to be a member of the Society of American Archivists to participate!

Join the online community or read the Newsletter.

Topics: News & Information, Preservation, Resources | Comments Off on Archives in a public library? Join a community!

How Blind People See the Internet

By karen | April 4, 2011

Technolog on MSNBC has posted an informative, easy to read article on how a person who is blind “sees” the internet.  The internet and web design has evolved considerably and the plethora of new devices further complicates the task of making websites accessible.  New tools provide new opportunities for the blind to access the internet, and new obstacles as well.  How easy is it for the blind to read your website?

Topics: News & Information, Technology | Comments Off on How Blind People See the Internet

Free Web Development Courses

By karen | April 1, 2011

Need to design and publish a web site but don’t know much on the topic? Get started off on the right foot with the freshly updated “Web Development Fundamentals” course via WebJunction. The course covers how to use HTML and CSS to develop web site content and even explains clearly how DHTML, XHTML, XML, and JavaScript can fit into your web site implementation. It also introduces you to advanced web techniques such as developing for mobile devices, client and server scripting, and how to manage and connect to databases.  WebJunction has lots more  Web Design and Web Development courses available in the RI WebJunction catalog, so check ’em out!

WebJunction courses are free to all WebJunction RI members.  And membership in WebJunction is free.  From the time you sign up for a course, you are free to complete it over the next year.  Free, free, free – does it get any better than that?  And there’s a lot more courses available on WebJunction RI.

And while you’re there, check out the new Learning Paths on the bottomof the course page . . . but more on that later . . .

Topics: Continuing Education, Resources, Technology | Comments Off on Free Web Development Courses

Preservation Assistance Grants

By Donna DiMichele | March 30, 2011

Don’t Miss This Opportunity – Grant Funding Available for Preservation!

NEH Preservation Assistance Grants
Application Deadline: May 3, 2011

The National Endowment for Humanities Division of Preservation and Access has offered Preservation Assistance Grants (PAG) for more than a decade. These grants help small and mid-sized institutions improve their ability to preserve and care for humanities collections. Grants are for up to $6,000.

Eligible Grant Acitivities Include :
– General preservation assessments
– Consultations with preservation professionals
– Preservation education and training

Complete NEH PAG information and guidelines

Question for NEH?
Contact the Division of Preservation and Access
(202) 606-8570
preservation@neh.gov

Topics: Grants, Preservation, Resources | Comments Off on Preservation Assistance Grants

Mango your way to ALA!

By karen | March 29, 2011

Mango is looking for 8 teams of Mango fanatics and will sponsor their way to ALA! Just send a video telling Mango about your team, why you love Mango, and why they should pick you.  If you’re chosen, Mango will not only help you get there, they’ll give you a chance to compete in exciting Mango challenges and win fabulous prizes along the way!

Rules and more information about the contest are available on the Mango website.  Entry deadline is April 17, 2011.

While we’re talking about Mango, in January they added 11 new languages:

The ever-growing Mango Languages are available to all RI residents on AskRI.org.  Any Rhode Island library staff going to ALA should stop by the hopping Mango booth and let our friends at Mango (especially our rep Marco) know how much they enjoy Mango-ing.  And don’t forget to visit our other AskRI partners, too!

Topics: ALA, News & Information | Comments Off on Mango your way to ALA!

Health Literacy: a 20th Century Skill

By Donna DiMichele | March 29, 2011

Are you interested in health literacy? Are you a health professional or from a community group and interested in collaborating with libraries to improve health literacy? Then, this webinar is for you.

The NN/LM NER will facilitate a Healthy Literacy “Community of Interest” (COI) for our next contract (May 2011-2016). We hope you might join. The COI is a community of practice of people who share a common interest and want to share their expertise and advance their knowledge by learning from others. Caroline Marshall, Health Sciences Librarian at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut, is the leader for the Health Literacy Community of Interest. Michelle Eberle is the convener.

We hope you can join us for a webinar on Thursday, April 7, 2011 from 10:30 -11:30 AM to learn more about health literacy, the COI, and some recent projects in the New England Region.

Guest speakers will share highlights of health literacy work at their institution. The guest speakers include:

Caroline Marshall, Danbury Hospital, Danbury, CT
Cara Marcus, Faulkner Hospital, Boston, MA
Penny Glassman, UMass Med School Library, Worcester, MA
Please join us! Register and get information how to access the webinar

For more information, contact:
Michelle Eberle, MSLIS, AHIP
Consumer Health Information Coordinator
National Network of Libraries of Medicine, New England Region
University of Massachusetts Medical School
222 Maple Avenue, Shrewsbury, MA 01545
(508) 856-2435 | (800) 338-7657

Topics: 21st Century Skills in Libraries, Continuing Education, Literacy, Resources | Comments Off on Health Literacy: a 20th Century Skill

Watts Program in the History and Culture of the Book

By Donna DiMichele | March 28, 2011

The Watts Program in the History and Culture of the Book at the John Carter Brown Library is presenting two public events in the month of April. These will be the final events of the year for the Watts Program. Please come and bring a friend.

Monday, April 4, 5:30 PM Moveable Books and Book Collecting

Margaret B. Stillwell Prize Evening with Suzanne Karr Schmidt (Brown ’01) the Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow at the Art Institute of Chicago who will give a talk on moveable books in the Renaissance with comparisons to books today. The Stillwell Prize evening is co-sponsored with the John Russell Bartlett Society. It is a prize awarded by the Bartlett Society to RI undergraduates for their book collections. Ms. Karr Schmidt won the prize in 2001. Open to all. Venue: John Carter Brown Library.

Wednesday, April 27 6:00 PM Watts Pecha Kucha

The Book in My LIfe – An eclectic evening of very-short talks by professionals and students to close the Watts Program series on Transformations of the Book.

A wide variety of practitioners and students reveal their thoughts on “The Book in My Life” in a series of Pecha Kucha-style presentations. 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide – the clock is ticking. Expect tales of literature, shelving and entertaining reflections on the eccentricities of paper and ink. Ideal for anyone who’s ever liked a book a little more than they really should have. Moderated by Andrew Losowsky, Watts Program Provocateur-in-Residence. Open to All. Venue: John Carter Brown Library.

For information, contact Lisa Long Feldman

Topics: Events | Comments Off on Watts Program in the History and Culture of the Book

Computers in Libraries, Washington DC

By admin | March 27, 2011

Day 3
I’ve been fascinated with the idea of tagging within the library catalog since I took my cataloging class in library school- in fact, so fascinated that I wrote my final research paper on it. At first I was deeply suspicious, but found that tags can be a wonderful compliment to Library of Congress subject headings and actually encourage catalog use. You may be wondering, how can users’ tags encourage use in the catalog? Wouldn’t that duplicate our cataloging? Shouldn’t only catalogers be able to add to records? Or worse, you may be thinking that it may make cataloging extinct!

It may be helpful to consider where tagging is most useful. We live in an age of the keyword mentality, which is great for Google-ing, but not so great in a catalog. When users do not find what they are looking for, they often give up. The first step in solving this problem is finding what your users actually search for. Most catalogs allow an administrator to look at the user searches. If your users are consistently looking for something one way, and the Library of Congress happens to catalog it a completely different way, this is where a tag could lead to ease of use. A cataloger from the University of Georgia Law School, Suzanne Graham, has actually added a field to her library’s records, a 655 field. This field is internal, and strictly used for additional search terms. Putting the tagged term in a record also allows for reversibility, should current terminology ever change or if the Library of Congress heading changes.

The other side of the tagging spectrum is user tagging. This is done completely by a user within your catalog. These tags are visible and search-able by other users. Some catalogs even offer a “search by tags” option. Gretchen Caserotti, Children’s Librarian at Darien Public Library in Connecticut, has been using these tools for her summer reading program with fantastic results. She encourages her readers to create a signature tag, such as “juliassummerreading,” which allows the kids to not only keep track of what they are reading and have read, but also allows others to see who has read a particular book. If a book is on the list of many, the chances are good that it is a popular book that kids of the same age will enjoy. In Gretchen’s experience, kids get excited about creating something that will live in the library catalog, and encourages catalog use as well as familiarity with searching strategies.

Tagging was designed for ease and efficiency. Like many new technologies, it is important to remember that tagging is used to enhance and not replace. Users will have a difficult time finding what they need if a record is incomplete, whether tagged or not.

I really learned a lot at this conference, and I was sorry that it only lasted three days, as there is certainly enough to talk about for at least three months! If you are interested in this year’s conference, you can find summaries, reactions, and some streaming sessions through LibConf.com.

Topics: 21st Century Skills in Libraries, Future of Libraries, Technology | Comments Off on Computers in Libraries, Washington DC


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