Wednesday, December 19, 2007

SirsiDynix Institute Event Archives

If you're like me, you just can't make it through the holidays without thinking about library training. It's a good thing there are free one-hour web conference replays from the SirsiDynix Institute Event Archives that are accessible from your PC at anytime.

Some recent web conferences include:
Check out more than 90 other topics today from the SirsiDynix Institute.

Ben Franklin Exhibit comes to Jacksonville Public Library

The American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office, in collaboration with the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is pleased to announce that 40 public and academic libraries have been selected to host the traveling exhibition, Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World.

Jacksonville Public Library is the only library in Florida that will be hosting this exhibit. It will be in Jacksonville from June 4 - July 25, 2008.

The exhibit will give public audiences the opportunity to explore and to talk about Franklin's life, his contributions to the founding of this country, and his high standards for work, citizenship, and contribution to community. It will look at his background, his self-education, and his philosophical and religious beliefs and their effect on his work and life. It will show Franklin in the context of the eighteenth century and as a product of his times -- a brilliant and rather unconventional product of his times -- rather than as the venerable bespectacled and grandfatherly figure with whom we are all familiar.

The traveling panel exhibit consisting of six sections of colorful, freestanding photo-panels incorporating representations of artifacts from the original Franklin exhibition.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

FLA seeks Leadership Intern and Fellows

The Florida Library Association (FLA) is accepting nominations until January 31, 2008 for their Leadership Intern and Fellows program. These two positions can give you an opportunity to gain experience working as part of an elected governing body and learn more about our state association.

A Leadership Intern is an individual who may be new to working in a library and to the concept of Association involvement.

A Leadership Fellow is an individual who has library experience and who wants to explore ways of becoming more involved in organizational governance, programming, and initiatives of the Florida Library Association.

  • All candidates must be members of the Florida Library Association.
  • Candidates must have the approval of their employers and are expected to attend all FLA Board meetings and the FLA Annual Conference.
  • Appointments are for one year (April 2008 - April 2009).
If you are interested, contact Brad at NEFLIN.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Ideas needed for NEFLIN's PERKY Planning Day

NEFLIN members,

The NEFLIN staff are meeting next Thursday for our annual Planning Day. We are asking that you send ideas for new services or items that we might include in upcoming grant applications.

If you miss getting this to us by Thursday, don't fret. We will be working on our grants all the way up to the deadline of March 15, 2008. So if you read this before then and have an idea...send it in.

A little about the "Perky" Planning Day. PERKY stands for "Promote, Expand, Retire, Keep, (and Y because we like you)". Each of the NEFLIN staff evaluate all of our current services against these criteria. We would then decide to promote a service that is underused, expand a service that is catching on, keep a service at its current level, or retire a service that is no longer valuable to our members.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

NEFLIN Continuing Education Committee Meets

The NEFLIN Continuing Education Committee met on Wednesday, December 12 at NEFLIN HQ in Orange Park. The committee is made up of library staff from public, academic, special and school libraries and come from different locations throughout our territory.

Among the topics discussed were the results from the NEFLIN 2007 Annual Survey, the Fall and Winter Workshop Schedules, the re-designed NEFLIN Website and developing a basic cataloging class for paraprofessional staff. Future library tour suggestions and 2008-09 Grant Project ideas were solicited. The committee brainstormed about producing and sharing YouTube tutorials for library staff and patrons that could be posted on the NEFLIN website.

The NEFLIN CE Committee meets every other month to give suggestions and input, make recommendations to and work closely with the CE Coordinator, and help promote NEFLIN’s training and support services mission. If you are interested in joining us, committee openings will be announced in summer 2008.

NEFLIN Book Club Workshop featured in Booklist Online Blog

On Tuesday, December 11, great book club ideas were shared in the NEFLIN workshop "Common Grounds: Book Clubs for New and Experienced Readers and Leaders" led by trainer Kaite Mediatore Stover. Kaite, a librarian from the Kansas City Public Library is also a Booklist columnist and blogger. The workshop and several NEFLIN participants were featured in her blog called BookGroupBuzz.

Kaite will be back in the Spring to present "Programming to Promote Reading" which will focus on low cost and no-cost programming ideas for encouraging reading as a leisure activity in your library.
Watch for details soon!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Changes at FLA

Change is in the air at the Florida Library Association.

Congratulations to Harold George of St. Johns County Public Library who was recently elected to the FLA Executive Board. Harold will serve as Director from 2008-2010. Other new officers are Wendy Breeden, Vice-President/President Elect, Alan Kornblau, Treasurer, Pamela Grigg, Director, Corinne Jorgensen, ALA Councilor, and Debra Sears, SELA Representative. The new officers will be installed at the FLA Annual Conference on April 25, 2008.

At their October meeting, the FLA Executive Board voted to open an FLA office in 2008 and staff it with FLA employees (a full time Executive Director and a part time bookkeeper/administrative assistant). Ruth O'Donnell, current Executive Director will be leaving in June 2008 to resume consulting. Interested, or know someone who might be suited for this position?

Don't forget, it's FLA renewal time - the new membership year begins January 1.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

UF Microfilm Sales Program Returns

This was passed on to me by Cathy at UF.


"The University of Florida microfilm sales program has recently undergone a significant revitalization. Policies and procedures were updated and streamlined to increase efficiency and decrease turn around time. The price of one reel of 35 mm film is $55. Please see our microfilm sales web page at http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/preserve/microfilm_sales/index.html for details.

UF has a significant collection of city, county and regional newspapers from Florida on microfilm from the early 1900’s up to December of 2004. From January of 2005 forward, newspapers are being imaged and many are available online at http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/UFDC/?c=fdnl1

I am the Microfilm Sales coordinator for the program. If you would like to order any film from UF or find out what titles we may have that you need in your collection, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me."

Cathy Martyniak, Chair

Preservation Dept. University of Florida, Smathers Libraries

(352) 273-2830 cathy@uflib.ufl.edu

Monday, December 10, 2007

New Report on Social Networks and Privacy

George Needham, OCLC's Vice-President of Member Services, was at NEFLIN on August 1 and previewed this report. Now we get to see the final version.

Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Network World is a very interesting read. The Report Highlights section gives you some nice bite-size nuggets to chew on:

The Web community has migrated from using the Internet to building it.
In 2005, just 16% of respondents used blogs; today that number approaches 50%. Approximately a quarter of the general public respondents have created Web pages and used chat rooms and social networking sites. The Internet’s readers are rapidly becoming its authors.

The emergence of a new classification of “social” Web sites is changing the construction and culture of the Web. In these shared spaces, users are not only the audience, but they create content, design pages and architect entirely new social networks. We have moved from an Internet built by a few thousand authors to one constructed by millions.

The general public respondents are more likely to have used a social networking or social media site (28%) than to have searched for or borrowed items from a library Web site (20%).


Much of what takes place on social spaces is motivated by a desire to increase personal interaction. My friends use the same site (66%) is the top criteria in using a social networking site.
To network or to meet new people, The Web site is fun and to be part of a group or community are also top social networking site selection criteria.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Library Tour: Bradford County Public Library

On Thursday, December 6, a group of NEFLIN members enjoyed a tour of the new Bradford County Public Library which had its grand opening on October 26. Library Director Phalbe Henriksen showed us the library and shared stories of her experiences bringing it to completion after 12 years of planning.

At 20,000 square feet, the beautiful new environmentally "green" library is five times the size of the old building and features a spacious Cracker-style interior with 25 foot ceilings, natural lighting, bamboo-inspired ceiling fans and vertical shades, and large niches and wall space for future art work and museum pieces that will be displayed. The tropically hued carpet is complemented by bold accent walls throughout the building. A joint use classroom with Santa Fe Community College, computer lab and large meeting room are other features there were not possible in the old cramped library building. The new room will be the location of a NEFLIN Storytelling workshop in March.

The library was busy with patrons, computer users and students coming in after school. We look forward to many years of happy use for the Bradford County Public Library.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

St. Johns Staff Development Day

Yesterday St. Johns County Public Library System had a Celebration of Their Past, Present and Future in the St. Johns County Convention Center at World Golf Village. It began with a look at the library system's past by Karen Harvey, author of several books about St. Augustine's history. Members of the audience added their recollections, including a story from a Friend of the Library (and current staff member) about moving from a store front into the stand alone Bartram Trail branch, "we thought we had died and gone to heaven. And when the renovated, we knew we were in heaven." These are the Friends every library needs! This was followed by a presentation on the Future of Libraries by Larry Dennis, Dean of the FSU College of Information.

The fabulous cuban themed lunch included a slide presentation highlighting staff activities throughout the year. Lunch was followed by a true celebration of the past, present and future that included recognition of every staff member for their years of service, the passing of the baton to the Debra Rhodes Gibson, the new library director, and recognition of speakers with the presentation of a book donated to the library in their honor (what a great idea!!)

As many of you know, the library's director, Mary Jane Little, will be retiring in January 2008. There was a special tribute to Mary Jane including comments from her thanking four people who have been instrumental in her success, Paul Donovan (FSU), Dean Harold Goldstein (FSU), former County Administrator Nick Meiszer and current Assistant County Administrator for Community Services Jerry Cameron. This was followed by a comments from several friends and colleagues and the presentation of a beautiful rocking chair by the county commissioners.

After all the guests left staff moved on to the portion of the day just for them. Because so many changes are in store as Mary Jane leaves, they brought in Carol Price to lead them through The Change Challenge - a 4-step process.

The day ended with door prizes for EVERYONE! It was a wonderful day of celebration. Staff seemed pumped up and ready to go take on the world once again.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Patty's Paris Report

NEFLIN Friends,

I traveled to Paris, France over the Thanksgiving holiday and had a wonderful time. The weather was cold and there was a transit strike on during most of the time I was there, but it is so beautiful and there is so much to see I had a great time.

I traveled solo and joined a Rick Steves tour group, getting to know people from all over the US (my roommate was a teacher from Seattle). Our hotel was very near to the Eiffel Tower and Rue Cler. My sightseeing included the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, the Grand Palais, Musee Carnavalet (Paris history), Sainte Chapelle, Musee Cluny, Les Invalides (including the World War I and II museum), Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, the Marais district and the Latin Quarter, Versailles, many beautiful churches, and a cruise on the Seine. The food, shopping and people were all superb.

There was a lot I didn't have time to do and have a list of places to visit or return to for my next trip.

Personal Learning Experience Webinar - 12/5/07

Start You Up! The Personal Learning Experience for Library Staff and other Busy Professionals
Wednesday, December 5, 2007 from 2-3pm ET

The new term "Personal Learning Experience" refers to a concept of highly individualized, non-structured e-learning built by the user to meet his or her own needs. Also known as a "PLE," it can be a mix of educational computer software or applications, Internet pages, Web 2.0 tools and creativity. During this webinar, look at the most popular start pages like iGoogle, Netvibes and Pageflakes, and learn how to create your own private, educational website about almost any topic you choose! Presented by Marianne Lenox, Huntsville Madison County Public Library Staff Training and Development Coordinator.

Note that registration for this webinar is optional. If you wish to register and receive email reminders with instructions for attending, please visit the WebJunction Calendar of Events. Otherwise you may follow these instructions to attend.

WebJunction is pleased to announce that the Learning Webinars are now closed captioned! Captioning will be available for both the live event and when viewing the recording.

Friday, November 30, 2007

Resource Sharing Conference coming up in Orlando

Florida Resource Sharing Conference
Orlando, FL
December 12 - 14, 2007

Click here for the conference announcement

Join your resource sharing colleagues for this three day event. Topics include interlibrary loan and resource sharing discussion, circulation, work flow and staff training, networking, copyright, and continuing education.

The event locations are the University of Central Florida Library (Day 1 Pre-Conference) and the Rosen College of Hospitality Management (Days 2 & 3 Conference), both in Orlando, Florida.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Last Chance for December Training

It's your last chance to get in some training before the end of the year. There are just a few workshops on NEFLIN's schedule in December but take advantage of them while you can.
And check out all the great workshops scheduled for the new year.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Amazon.com Gift Certificate Winners!

These NEFLIN members were the first to find four hidden Amazon.com Gift Certificates hidden on the new NEFLIN website. Thanks to everyone for checking out the new website and blog. Don't forget to bookmark both!

Florence Turcotte, University of Florida - $10
Mary Brown, Union County Public Library - $20
Katrina Evans, Columbia County Public Library - $30
Felicia Petrone, Alachua County Public Library - $40

Monday, November 26, 2007

Return on your NEFLIN Investment

Each year NEFLIN prepares a "Return on Investment" (ROI) report for each member library.

We are pleased to report the average ROI for a member library this past year was 15 times what the library paid in membership dues!

A sample ROI is here. Copies of your library's actual ROI report can be provided by contacting Brad at NEFLIN.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Suwannee Library Pimps Their Bookcart

Suwannee River Regional Library was named "Runner-Up" at the second annual "Pimp My Bookcart" contest.

The library comic Unshelved selected Suwannee from among 129 entries for the Pig Out On Reading bookcart.

Congrats!

Monday, November 19, 2007

Leadership Institute off to great start



NEFLIN is once again managing Sunshine State Library Leadership Institute for the State Library and Archives. Session 1 of the 2007-08 Institute went off without a hitch this month and we're looking forward to nine more sessions and 'graduating' a strong group of emerging leaders.

This year's participants are meeting in Ruskin and Port Orange for sessions led by Jill Canono from the State Library & Archives. Jill was joined at session 1 by Chris Wright who used his research in enneagrams to lead the discussion on how personality traits affect our working relationships.

Sixty staff from libraries throughout the state applied for the 40 available seats. We're pleased to have nine staff from NEFLIN libraries participating and ten NEFLIN members serving as mentors.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Everyday Advocacy Webinar - Thursday, Nov 29

In Focus Webinar: Everyday Advocacy

A free webinar from WebJunction
Thursday, November 29, 2007
2:00pm ET

Register http://webjunction.org/do/Navigation?category=13496

Advocating for your library does not have to be a strategically planned large-scale event. Advocacy can and should happen every day. Join us to learn how you can turn your customer service policy, internal and external communication plans, and networking agenda into advocacy tools that work for you everyday of the year.

Featured speakers from the state of Wyoming -- Lesley Boughton (State Librarian), Tina Lackey (Marketing Manager at the State Library), Troy Rumpf (Community/Media Relations Manager at the Laramie County Library), and Jamie Markus (Continuing Education Coordinator) -- will share what they've been doing in this arena, and jumpstart our discussion for the day.

You will find instructions for joining this free webinar in addition to archives of past webinars at Rural In Focus.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

New Webmail Available

Since we require a personal email address for anyone who registers for a workshop, NEFLIN does provide free email accounts for any staff who work for one of our member libraries.

Email can be read through WorldClient, the webmail program or downloaded using a number of popular e-mail clients such as Outlook, Eudora, or Thunderbird.

To set up an account, change your password, get assistance configuring your e-mail client, or any other questions about this service email or call us at (904) 278-5620.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Social Bookmarking Webinar - November 13th

A Little More Help from your Friends: Social Bookmarking

A free Webinar from the SirsiDynix Institute

Tuesday, Nov 13, 2007
11:00 a.m. Eastern
Register: http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/seminar_page.php?sid=92


Is there a better way to bookmark? This question has inspired many of us to turn to social bookmarking as a method of keeping track of favorite websites. But if we're having a hard time keeping track of our own information, can adding a social element possibly help the situation? And aren't tags just a messier way of organizing information? Whether "folksonomy" is Greek to you or you've been tagging your bookmarks in del.icio.us since back in the day, this free Webinar session will deliver insight into the broad concepts involved with social classification as well as examining nuts-and-bolts practical applications.

Library Blogs I'm Currently Reading

Some of the library blogs I read on a regular (i.e., at least weekly basis) are:

Stephen's Lighthouse (Stephen Abram)
...and not just because he is the VP of Innovation, but this is a really cool job title.

Library Grants
Always on the lookout for extra $$$.

Library Bytes (Helene Blowers)
Nice mix of technology and library issues.

LISNews
Newsy news. Like a newspaper just filled with library stories.


Pop Goes the Library

Pop Culture and Libraries. Two things I love!


What Library Blogs are you reading?


Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Library Technologies Interest Group Meeting

NEFLIN's Techies got together on Monday for their quarterly meeting. Jae Bass of St. Johns County Public Library sent me a recap, which I edited a bit (Thanks Jae!).

These meetings are open to any NEFLIN member. Monitor the group's Wiki for information about their next meeting.

--------------------------
We discussed thin client technology in libraries (no one is currently using it but there is some interest).

I talked about the Internet Librarian Conference and the continuing push towards integrating Social Software in libraries and that led to some discussion of Myspace use in libraries, including justification and policies since some libraries block Myspace.

Michael Kucsak talked about developing a user survey (he is doing one at UNF) to determine what services users would like in their libraries – I asked if he would share the survey with the group.

We had talked at our first meeting about perhaps trying to develop some universal (at least for Florida) website standards for things like terminology, logo & placement of the Online Library Catalog & Databases, etc…more philosophical discussion occurred yesterday about possible ups & downs of pursuing that.

There was discussion of how important Remote services are & how we should best market those – ie – carve out a “virtual” or e-services section off the website, promote through social software sites such as Myspace, etc.

We also talked about checking out laptops in libraries and I talked about policies & procedures for this at SJCPLS.
-------------------------

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Bradford County Cuts Ribbon on Fabulous New Library


On Friday, October 26 Bradford County Public Library celebrated the grand opening of their new library. Despite the overcast skies and promise of rain, many from the community and around the state came out to show their support. In attendance were Secretary of State Kurt Browning, Representative Aaron Bean, Bernadette Storck, consultant for the project, and architects Jack Hedge and Spryos Drivas.

Located within walking distance of three schools, the new facility is four times the size of the building it replaces. Many of the features in this library are products of the great cooperation between a number of organizations - the computer lab is shared and funded by Santa Fe Community College, the Kiwanis Kids' Zone courtesy of the Kiwanis of Starke, a collection purchased through funds raised as part of an Eagle Scout project, and a retention pond built by the Suwannee River Water Management District.

If you have not yet seen all the great features, join us for a tour on Thursday, December 6th.

NEFLIN Mini-Grants

As one of the new Strategic Directions in NEFLIN's 2006-2008 Strategic Plan NEFLIN established the Mini-Grant Program to allow NEFLIN member libraries to apply for funds that can be used for any project at their library. NEFLIN Full and Enhanced members were eligible to apply for up to two grants. Each grant application could be funded up to a maximum of $10,000.

Thirty-nine applications, requesting over $250,000, were submitted. The NEFLIN Board of Directors awarded $100,000 to fund 14 projects. The applications that received funding had a clearly defined purpose and detailed how this program will impact the community the library serves.

Congratulations to these NEFLIN members!

  • Clay County Library System. Establish Wireless Internet in all Branch Libraries
  • Flagler College. New Materials for Deaf Education and Deaf Life Collections
  • Jacksonville University. Purchase new Digitization Equipment
  • Lake City Community College. Renovate Library Interior
  • Levy County Public Library System. Enable Remote Hosting of Library Management System
  • Marion County School System. Adding to Large Print Collections at sixteen school libraries
  • Nassau County Public Library. Purchase Authority Records for Catalog
  • St. Johns County Public Library. Laptop Computers for Patrons at Hastings Branch Library
  • Sumter County Library System. Update Basic Juvenile and Reference Collections in all Branches
  • Suwannee River Regional Library. Develop Forty Program Boxes for Children's Programs
  • Suwannee River Regional Library. Establish a Wireless Mobile Computer Lab
  • University of Florida . Digitize Local Oral Histories

Monday, November 5, 2007

FCLA and Levy Public recognized for their Exemplary Projects

Two NEFLIN members were recognized recently from among all the LSTA projects awarded by the State Library in FY2005-06. Only one other library in Florida had their project awarded this designation.

Florida Center for Library Automation for
Opening Archives: Improving Access to Primary Sources in Florida

Levy County Public Library System for their
Levy Library Youth Services Project

Congratulations!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

How to read this blog through an RSS Feed

If you are like me (and I believe you are!), you are short on time and need any way to squeeze a few extra minutes out of the day.

Why not subscribe to the NEFLIN Blog through an RSS Feed? That way you can view the contents of our blog through your web browser and visit when you see an article of interest.

How to subscribe to an RSS feed using Firefox


How to subscribe to an RSS feed using Internet Explorer (video)

A Day at the Movies with NEFLIN

Featuring photos with the stars, the NEFLIN Walk of Fame, Mini-Grant Madness, Susan Granger, and the requisite toys, this year's Annual Meeting was another great success. Highlights of the meeting included
  • the top 10 Return on Investments, led by Suwannee River Regional Library with an ROI of $97,162.
  • announcement of the retirements of three library directors who were instrumental in the creation of NEFLIN - Tom Gunn (Jacksonville University), Mary Jane Little (St. Johns County Public Library) and Carol Turner (University of Florida).
  • a Golden Apple for St. Johns County Public Library (over 250 of their staff attended training)
  • and the installment of Bud Maurer as NEFLIN's new president.

Many thanks to the members of the Continuing Education Committee for their assistance.

Mark you calendar now for the 2008 Annual Meeting on Friday, September 12.

Why is it called the "Blah, Blah, Blah Blog"?

I guess my first stab at an answer would be that we just tend to use the phrase "blah, blah, blah" around the office a lot. Both in print and when yakking to each other.

1. I use it as a placeholder in any document I am writing. "The number of transactions this year was BLAH and this resulted in an increase of BLAH over last year."

2. We think its catchy!


3. The name also denotes that we can blog about pretty much anything, and we will.


Now on to drafting my first "real" blog post. "NEFLIN libraries can look forward to much BLAH as we BLAH and BLAH to increase their BLAH."

Welcome to the NEFLIN Blog

Welcome to the official blog of NEFLIN. The staff at NEFLIN look forward to communicating with you in this new way. Take some time to read the profiles of the staff that will be blogging (located under "The BBB Blog Authors" at the top left of the blog).

Our goal is to update the blog frequently. One of our trainers, Dale Prince, said in a workshop recently that "there are plenty of blog carcasses on the Internet". I took this to mean many blogs have been abandoned or no one visits them anymore because they are not updated. We will try not to be this case.

We would love to have feedback on the blog and its posts. Please leave comments under individual posts or contact any of the NEFLIN staff.

Thanks, and enjoy all our "blah, blah, blah"!