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.

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.

• Library Branding - Who Do People Say You Are? Friday, November 30th from 9am - 12noon
• Negotiating in the Workplace without Making Enemies - an SLA webinar you can watch on your desktop until December 12th
• Tour of Bradford County Public Library on Thursday, December 6th from 2-3pm
• Common Grounds: Book Clubs for New and Experienced Readers and Leaders on Tuesday, December 11th from 9am - 4pm
• Market Research for Libraries - an SLA webinar you can watch on your desktop from December 18th until January 16th

And check out all the great workshops scheduled for the new year.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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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.
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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

• Three Rivers Regional Library. Create a Library Website

• Union County Public Library. Kick-off Event for Summer Reading Program

• University of Florida . Digitize Local Oral Histories

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!

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"!