New NEFLIN Spring Schedule Available

View the Monthly Calendar List or Complete List of Workshops

Or view and print the Spring Schedule here

Highlights:

For Everyone:
*Herding Kittens: How to Have Influence When You Don't Have Power or Authority
*Mumford Library Books - Tour
*Evaluating Your Strengths and Identifying Areas for Further Learning: SLA Webinar

For Youth Services:
*The Art of Storytelling in the Caribbean
*Keeping Up With Pop Culture
*Splashing Through Puddles of Poetry
*Young Adult Interest Group: Young Adult Readers Advisory
*Storytime Made Simple

For Public Services:
20 Questions: Reference Resources Live Online Series

• Business Resources - April 29
• History Resources - May 13
• US Government Resources - June 17
• Ready Reference - July15
• Science Resources - August 19

*Adult Programming Interest Group
*Classroom Management Techniques for Librarians (2 days) Live Online
*Digital Camera 101 for Library Programs and Services
*Music Reference
*Programming to Promote Reading
*Readers Advisory - Gainesville and Ocala
*Reference Interest Group: Reference 2.0

For Technology:
*The Accidental Technology Trainer
*The Bells and Whistles of Blogs and Wikis
*Gentle Intro to Library IT #3
*Library Technologies Interest Group
*RSS Feeds: The Future of Information Delivery: SLA Webinars Part 1 and Part 2
*Word 2007 in Gainesville - Level 1 and Level 2

For Technical Services:
*Book Blitz II (2 days)
*Music Collection Development and Acquisitions

For Administration:
*Managing Within the Law
*Getting the Most Out of Your Friends Organization
*Positive PR When the Spotlight is on Your Library
*Understanding and Mapping Florida Communities

FLA Scholarship Auction needs you

to make a basket!

Three Florida Library Association scholarships are awarded each year to Florida graduate school students. Funding for the scholarship program comes from donations and an annual Silent Auction held at the FLA Conference. This year’s conference is April 22-25, 2008 at the Tradewinds Beach Resort and Conference Center, St Pete Beach, FL.

The silent auction items will available Wednesday and Thursday in the Exhibit Hall and at the President’s Reception on the evening of Thursday, April 24. We’re drumming up some friendly competition among libraries to make the event a lot of fun! The Scholarship Committee is asking that libraries, individuals, businesses, Friends’ groups, and anyone else who is interested participate by donating a themed basket. Please consider creating a basket for this worthwhile event.

Here’s how it works:

Return your completed form by April 1, 2008 to:
Mary C. Brown (Union County Public Library)

Put together a great basket on a theme of your choice.

Bring your basket with a copy of the completed form you mailed to FLA conference registration desk no later than Wednesday, April 23 at noon. We are displaying the actual baskets this year so you will need to have them available by that time.

If you have questions, contact Mary C. Brown at marycb@neflin.org or call 386-496-3432

Teen Tech Week 2008

Tune in @ Your Library

March 2-8, 2008

Teen Tech Week is a national initiative sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association and is aimed at teens, their parents, educators and other concerned adults. The purpose of the initiative is to ensure that teens are competent and ethical users of technologies, especially those that are offered through libraries such as DVDs, databases, audiobooks, and videogames. Teen Tech Week encourages teens to use libraries' nonprint resources for education and recreation, and to recognize that librarians are qualified, trusted professionals in the field of information technology. Teen Tech Week began in 2007 and has a general theme of Get Connected @ your library. The 2008 celebration is March 2-8.

St. Johns County Public Library is hosting Tune in @ Your Library! DDR, Guitar Hero, Singing Star, music & movies swaps, anime club, music surveys & more will be part of this weeks programs just for teens.

What does your library have planned for Teen Tech Week? Post your ideas on the Young Adult Interest Group wiki (password=neflin).

New Multimedia Lending Library Materials Available

Check out these recent additions to NEFLIN's Multimedia Lending Library. Request any title or view the entire list of available MLL materials.

Reading With Babies - 18 minute DVD
The Read To Me Program offers a hands-on series of activities and supervised practice sessions that guide teen parents and other moms to read with their babies. The program includes six basic workshops. Each one focuses on a new way into the world of books for very young children along with stategies to encourage parents to read with their babies and toddlers.


Read to Me: 30 minute VHS and Guidebook
The Read To Me Program offers a hands-on series of activities and supervised practice sessions that guide teen parents and other moms to read with their babies. The program includes six basic workshops. Each one focuses on a new way into the world of books for very young children along with stategies to encourage parents to read with their babies and toddlers.



Power Plugs: Slides that Win!: CD-ROM
This CDROM is packed with tips and tricks from two pros. It is packed with presentation tips, PowerPoint tips, delivery tips, and usable examples. "Slides That Win!" was created using PowerPoint so you can actually modify and reuse the examples. You read a guideline, then see a good and bad example. You can instantly apply the tips, tricks and guidelines to your presentation.


SPI: Successful Partnership Investigation: DVD
Let the detectives of Library Video Network's Successful Partnership Investigations Unit show you how to create your own partnerships that work for both parties. By following real-life examples from Wyoming, Colorado, and Maryland, you'll learn the pitfalls of creating partnerships and how to avoid them in creating your own partnerships.

Are you a Smallball or Powerball library?

Vickie Lepore, Librarian and Coordinator of Library Research at Lake City Community College, attended NEFLIN's Measuring Your Impact: Using Evaluation to Demonstrate Value workshop taught by trainer Dale Prince and then evaluated her library using baseball analogies learned in the class. See her blog article on smallball vs. powerball libraries.

SOLINET and PALINET talk Merger

Two of the OCLC Regional Networks are in talks to combine their two organizations. PALINET and SOLINET representatives met last week and are moving forward with their intention to combine the two organizations, subject to the approval of their respective memberships.

Solinet is the regional network covering Florida, and nine other southern states. Palinet operates out of Philadelphia and covers the mid-Atlantic area. (Check out this map)

Some proposed benefits of this merger:
* A stronger library community - Over 3000 diverse member organizations.

* Expanded education curriculum - An expanded curriculum in topics ranging from next generation library catalogs to collection management for digital libraries and more.

* More consortial savings opportunities - Even greater volume discounts on electronic resources and other products and services.

* Technology leadership - Expertise in the latest library technologies from expert staff and library leaders at institutions throughout the combined membership.

* Increased capacity for innovation - Development of essential new programs through increased operating efficiencies.

A FAQ is available. Stay tuned to this channel for further information as it's available.

Vote for Tiki

Suwannee River Regional Library is one of the top ten finalists in Demco's You and Your Booktruck contest. The grand prize is a book cart and a $200 DEMCO gift certificate, 1st prize is a $150 gift certificate and 2nd prize is a $100 gift certificate.

I'm leaning towards the tiki hut but hey, vote for your favorite. Voting ends February 29th and winners will be announced on March 5th.

Congrats to Suwannee!

Solinet and OCLC Potpourri

Last week I had the opportunity to make the fun drive across I-10 to Tallahassee for the Solinet Florida Users Group Meeting. It was definitely worth the trip and hopefully next year we can host this meeting in the NEFLIN region.

The Solinet Update by Robert Aaron, the Senior Library Consultant for Florida, was one of the highlights of the day for me. Some things that might be of interest...

• Solinet is going green - there will be no more print schedule (it's available online)
• SAMM08 - May 8-9 in Atlanta
• the Solinet website has undergone a major revision
• when making purchases - don't forget to check and see if Solinet has negotiated a discount through their Library Products program (some products I thought were interesting - Early Literacy Station a turnkey computer for kids and bLogistics who take your discards and turns them into cash)

Great presentation by Karen Schneider, the Free Range Librarian - We have a blog! Now what? Karen spoke to why blog, what makes a good blog, and she gave some examples of interesting sites which she promised to blog about.... Here are some of the ideas I took away from her presentation...

• You don't need a blog if you know how to connect to your users
• Have a plan before you start - who is your user? where do you link from? who writes it? what do you include? what do you write about? do you need a policy? how will you staff it? what fits for your organization?
• How to keep up with it - evergreen (pile up stuff), plan and calendar posts, communicate that you're taking a break
• What you might include - book reviews, link loads
• What gets people's attention - title as question, recruit good writers (and editors), crazier the title, the higher the spike in readership, readable and engaging
• Libraries using blogs and flickr to document construction
• Some libraries are doing a great job of tagging in del.icio.us

Finally, the OCLC Update by Danny Overstreet provided some interesting info about what's coming from OCLC.

• new logo and brand identity with a complete overhaul of the website
• the newest study from OCLC, Sharing, Privacy & Trust in our Networked World reports that 13% of the public thinks it’s the role of the library to create social networking sites for their communities
• WorldCat Registry is a free Web tool that provides a single location from which any library can manage and distribute data that describes its institutional identity and services
• WorldCat Selection allows for integrated, automated, online selection of materials
• WorldCat Identities which can be reached from "About the Author" links beneath the Details tab of an item record, presents a profile of a particular person or company based on bibliographic information and associations stored in WorldCat.
• Add library materials to your social bookmarks at sites such as Digg, Del.icio.us and Facebook using the AddThis widget available on item record pages
• WorldCat Local is coming....

Interested in learning more about the services available from Solinet?

• Check out the Florida User Group website
• Attend SAMM08 - The Transformed Library - May 8-9 in Atlanta (Keynote by Michael Stephens and closing by Karen Schneider)
• Read Check It Out! A SOLINET Blog for Informed Members

Link Love

Link Love is posting a link to information on sites or blogs that you enjoy, admire, or find useful. Here we go!

National Library Week is coming up, and ALA has done much of the "heavy lifting" by putting together sample press releases and letters to the editor to get some stories in your local newspaper. All you have to do is add your library's name, address and phone number in the blanks then fax, email, or send to your local newspaper. They even have a spot where you can add information about any programs you are hosting.


Peter Bromberg, a library consortia colleague, has a great post at Library Garden with his Top 10 links to help you Give Effective Presentations. He spotlights at #1 a favorite site of mine, Presentation Zen.


The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative (RRSI) was started to advocate for a complete rethink of the way libraries conduct resource sharing in the context of the global internet revolution. In order to showcase resource sharing innovation, the RRSI has created an award to encourage libraries and librarians to make changes in how they do resource sharing and improve service to users. Up to three winning submissions will be awarded a cash prize of $1,000 each. To be considered for the award, please submit a description of the user-centric service change you have made that has improved resource sharing in your library.


NEFLIN is hosting two focus groups via conference call next week. We are looking for groups of approximately 8-10 reference librarians from our public libraries to participate in conversations about health and consumer health reference through the use of the Florida Electronic Library.

• Thursday, February 28 from 11am - 12noon on the phone
• Thursday, February 28 from 1pm - 2pm on the phone

E-mail register@neflin.org if you would like to participate.

The Association of College and Research Libraries, Florida Chapter (FACRL) is accepting proposals for the 2008 Fall Program to be held at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville on Friday, November 7, 2008. Theme of the 2008 Fall Program is “Proving Your Worth and Adding Value to your Institution”. Format and details for proposals can be found on the FACRL Web site.

The Jacksonville Public Library has recently launched a MySpace page for their teen users.


Last week's episode of Lost. A suave, debonair, Sayid. More on the Oceanic 6. Wow!!! If you missed it, you must watch it online.

Want Free Books, CDs, DVDs?

The Lee County Public Library System in Ft. Myers recently partnered with local stores to place "faux" library cards along side their gift cards. The cards promised "Free Books, CDs, DVDs, Internet Access and More". The back of the card instructed you to take it to any local public library branch to exchange for a library card.

I contacted the folks at Lee County and Heather O'Connell, Community Relations Coordinator, was nice enough to send over the press release and a faux card. You can contact Heather for more information via e-mail or phone (239) 461-2924.

Also, I scanned the front and back of the faux card so you can see what they look like.

Friday Fun: Test Your Tech Type

The folks at Pew Internet have a quick 10 question test for people to see what kind of technology user they are.

Thanks to Ty's post at Library Garden which clued me in to the quiz being available.

Library Spaces: Future Needs - free webinar

The next College of DuPage program and the first in the Library Challenges and Opportunities Series is:

• Library Spaces: Future Needs
• Friday, March 7
• 12:00 noon - 1:30 pm ET

Space is usually the most difficult to solve constraint on delivering library services. This program will explore current and future space needs and address how best to configure current space to meet new services.

Alan Kirk Gray, Assistant Director of Operations for the Darien (CT) Public Library, brings together a panel of prominent architects whose focus is on libraries to discuss how library spaces can reflect the role of today's libraries. Alan has consulted on the development of appropriate, innovative library spaces, and is currently responsible for the planning and construction of a new Darien Public Library building. He will be joined by Elisabeth Martin and Jeffrey Hoover, noted architects whose focus is on library planning and design.

The panelists will address design and function in all types of libraries, and explore creative ways of configuring current and future library space to meet new services. Join us for an enlightening discussion about making the most of current library spaces, and take a look at some of the more innovative library spaces today.

Register here to receive access information.

Check out all upcoming College of DuPage programs

Through LSTA funding from the State Library & Archives of Florida, the award-winning College of DuPage Programs are again available for free to Florida libraries via streaming video and satellite downlink. Register as an Individual Desktop Viewer or Site Host.

PLA Virtual Conference

I have been meaning to add this to the Blog since last week. Of course, by now other folks have blogged about this topic, and will explain it more clearly and eloquently than myself.

Thus I direct you to the The Librarian in Black who has a detailed post regarding the upcoming "Virtual Conference" for those who cannot attend the Public Library Association (PLA) Conference next month in Minneapolis.

Ask a Librarian on your Cell Phone

...while we are talking about Ask a Librarian, here is another new innovation for that service. Ask a Librarian Mobile makes this service available via your cell phone. Check it out!

We've Got Gertrude

The Director’s Chair video contest was open to Florida high school students to create a 30-second video promoting Ask-a-Librarian for a chance to win some great prizes.

Contest winners have been announced and NEFLIN congratulates Director Jake from from Fernandina Beach High School in Nassau County who received third place and a Zen V Plus Digital Audio Player Jukebox for the video We've Got Gertrude.

Two Things for you Library Admin Types

Thing 1.
If your library currently participates in the FLIN interlibrary loan network you need to update your membership by signing a new agreement. Here is the letter and agreement form sent to you by the State Librarian. The deadline for sending in the signed agreement is February 29, 2008. I would be glad to field questions on this at 904-278-5620 or via e-mail.

Thing 2.
The Suncom phone system used by State of Florida Agencies and many affiliated organizations within the state, like NEFLIN, is undergoing a major change. Suncom numbers will no longer function as of April 1, 2008.

You can still call NEFLIN at 904-278-5620, but not at NEFLIN's Suncom number of 894-5620. All calls for those institutions using Suncom as their phone provider will require 10 digit dialing. You can direct questions about this to the Florida Department of Management Services Helpdesk at 1-850-487-1746.

YouTube for training

NEFLIN's Techies got together today for their quarterly meeting. They were joined by members of the Staff Development Interest Group and spent much of the meeting discussing options for providing staff and patron training through various online medium. Lots of discussion about how to put up training via YouTube and then how to get county IT folks to link to YouTube. All this in an effort to create a stronger grant for NEFLIN.

Jae Bass of St. Johns County Public Library posted a recap to their wiki, which I edited a bit (Thanks Jae!).These meetings are open to any NEFLIN member and are incredibly interesting. All things technology are fair game for discussion and someone in the group is bound to have an answer for you. Monitor the group's Wiki for information about their next meeting.

NEFLIN Technology Interest Group Wiki (password = neflin)

New Movie focuses on Public Libraries

Emilio Estevez is beginning work on his new film The Public. It takes place in a public library and focuses on "the issue of libraries becoming de facto shelters for the homeless".

Read the details at the Hollywood Reporter website.

Developing a Disaster Response Plan for ILL Services

Heather Campbell of the Jacksonville Public Library has agreed to share all her fantastic materials from her presentation at the Florida Resource Sharing Conference held this past December.

First off is her Powerpoint Presentation on "Developing a Disaster Response Plan for ILL Services". Then a Word document with supporting materials.

Thanks again, Heather!

Blog Post of the Month!

The votes are in and the winner for Best Blog Post for the month of January is...The Union County Public Library Groundbreaking!

Each month we will highlight one post on the NEFLIN Blog as the "post of the month" in case you may have missed something especially noteworthy.


January 24, 2008.

A new member library is being built! Stephanie and I had the pleasure of attending yesterday's ground breaking ceremony for a new library in Union County.

Being an amateur photographer (meaning I am both untrained and unskilled) I took a bunch of photos. I posted them on NEFLIN's Flickr page.

We also had an opportunity to meet Mr. Wayne Smith, Chairman, Union County Board of County Commissioners. Mr. Smith received NEFLIN's Library Champion Award for 2007 in recognition of his work in getting this new building project underway.

Congratulations to Mary Brown and the staff on Union County Public who will get to be in their new library in 2009!

Self-Check Systems

The February 2008 issue of Computers in Libraries is devoted to the subject of Self-Check Systems. (This was recommended to me yesterday by a member who is "living the life of riley".)

Worth a look if you are in the market for a system. Here is the Table of Contents. One article is available to read for free.

Especially good is the article beginning on page 29 that lists all the vendors who provide self-check systems and detailed information about their pricing, product specs, etc.

Office 2007 - WebJunction Course of the Month

Special price for February, Office 2007 course for $10!

Having trouble untying "the Ribbon"? The new Office package is changing the old interface with new features on an interface now known as the Ribbon. How do you find the commands you already know? What new commands are available in Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Access? Take a look at the changes in Office 2007 and learn how to make the most of them.

This series is for anyone who wants to be able to locate both old and new commands in the Microsoft Office 2007 applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Outlook.

Features:

• Flash and audio provide animated, interactive Lesson Introductions, Activities, and Simulations. audio accompanies each lesson page throughout the course.
• Activities allow learners to apply course concepts in an interactive questioning environment.
• Exercises allow learners to practice in the actual application being studied.
• Simulations teach learners to perform specific tasks in applications through guided, multi-step exercises.
• Find-A-Word allows learners to look up an unfamiliar term in the Glossary, on the Web, or in a dictionary. In addition, it lets them find other occurrences of the term in the same course.
• Search text enables learners to rapidly search all text within a course to easily retrieve information required.
• Courses challenge the learner with a variety of question formats, including multi-step simulations, true/false, multiple choice, and fill-in-the-blank.
• A skill assessment generates a customized learning path based on the results of a pre-test.
• A glossary provides a reference for definitions of unfamiliar terms.
• Bookmarking tracks a learner's progress in a course.

Registration in WebJunction is FREE to all library staff.

For February this Office 2007 course is discounted at $10—less than half price.

Don't have time to take the course? Contact Patty to request Quick Reference Guides. Watch the NEFLIN workshop schedule for Office 2007 training from New Horizons.

"Creating Effective Search Strategies" class offered again in March

A second "Creating Effective Search Strategies" class has been added to the Winter schedule after last week's class filled up with a waiting list.

Sometimes searching databases can be quite frustrating, you know the information is there but just can't find it. Come join us and learn about:

• Identifying appropriate search terms
• Combining search terms appropriately
• Boolean or logical operators
• Truncation and Wildcards
• Proximity Operators
• Limiting a search
• Field searching
• Troubleshooting failed searches

Participants will have an opportunity to practice what they learn about creating search strategies in the Florida Electronic Library databases and a variety of Internet search engines.

Trainer: Stephanie Race, NEFLIN

Register today!

Looking for online E-Government Resources?

Michelle Howard, E-Government Librarian at Pasco County Public Library System, shares their

• E-Government Blog
• as well as a 10-page PDF E-Government Quick Links
• and bookmarks at their del.icio.us site

A Report released by the Information Use Management and Policy Institute, College of Information at Florida State University, identifies issues and proposes strategies for enhanced roles of public libraries in the provision of E-Government.

The Information Institute has established http://www.libraryegov.org/ to increase access to E-Government information and resources for public librarians. It includes an explanation of what E-Government means and has links for local, state and federal resources.

NEFLIN Members on 2008 FLYP Planning Committee

Planning your FLYP programs for next summer and getting great ideas from the 2008 FLYP Manual? You can thank these NEFLIN members who were part of the 2008 Planning Committee and manual contributors:

• Nancy Young, Children’s Services Coordinator for the Marion County Public Library System
• Beverly Schulz, Youth Services and Outreach Coordinator for the Columbia County Public Library
• Anne Snyder, Children’s Librarian for the St. Johns County Public Library System
• Marcia Divack, Public Services Librarian III for the Marion County Public Library System
• Diane H. Johnson, Children’s Librarian for the Nassau County Public Library System