Link Love

A little love as we head into the Halloween weekend.
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The Library 101 Project

Enjoy the video. Stay for the content. All the links in the following paragraph are worth your time.

• Have you heard the song and seen the music video?
  

• Have you read any of the 23 essays from some of the greatest minds in Libraryland?
  

• Have you looked at the carefully selected list of 101 hyperlinked resources that share critically important things to think about and know in order to ensure a vibrant future for libraries, even as technology changes the information access and community landscapes?

(Did I mention David Lee King is returning to Jax to teach for NEFLIN in December? Emerging Trends and Change is Good are both free of charge!)

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Do You Know a Mover & Shaker?

Our ninth annual Movers & Shakers will profile 50 or more up-and-comers who are innovative, creative, and making a difference. Let us know who you think should be included. From librarians to vendors to others who work in the library field, Movers & Shakers 2010 will celebrate the new professionals moving our libraries ahead. Nominations due November 9.

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Social Media Burnout. Social media; Facebook, Twitter, etc, can be part of your job and/or life. Here are some good tips to make sure you strike a balance when using these tools.

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10 Cool Things you can do with a USB Flash Drive.

I learned 10 new things, since I only use the flash drive as a portable hard drive.

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Google rolled out Google Music this week. Details here.

They have partnered with a variety of music sites to provide clips and full-length songs. I was surprised that the sound quality of the streaming audio is pretty darn good.

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Tease me! The just released teaser for Season 8 of "24". Jack Bauer still kicks butt...as a grandpa.

Library Tour: Library Partnership Neighborhood Resource Center, Gainesville

Join us for a tour of the new Library Partnership Neighborhood Resource Center in Gainesville. The Alachua County Library District is involved in a collaborative with the Partnership for Strong Families, Department of Children and Families, Casey Family Programs and United Way that is focusing on families in a specific area of northeast Gainesville, Florida. The library and the Partnership for Strong Families share a facility and as a collaborative offer programs that involve many organizational partners such as Healthy Start, Early Learning Coalition, Choices, and Florida Works just to name a few. This concept is unique and the only one in the state.

Hosts: Anita Jenkins, Library Manager and Carressa Hutchinson, Resource Center Coordinator

Thursday, December 4, 2:00 - 3:00 pm

Location: Library Partnership Neighborhood Resource Center

1130 NE 16th Avenue, Gainesville, Florida 32609

Register today at http://bit.ly/1tjyVe

Mobile Library Services - Online Conference

A reasonable price and interesting focus on "mobile library services" highlights this upcoming online conference.
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More people than ever are using mobile devices for a wide variety of purposes including communication, internet access, text messaging, and entertainment. It is important that libraries provide mobile services as handheld use increases.

More people than 2,000 people attended the first ever Handheld Librarian Conference in July 2009 which featured a wide array of collaboration, learning and networking activities focused on Mobile Library Services!

The Handheld Librarian 2 will continue the dialog with a 2-day online conference scheduled for February 17-18, 2010 and is now accepting registrations at http://www.handheldlibrarian.org

The program -- sponsored by Alliance Library System, and LearningTimes -- will include a series of wonderful keynote and featured speakers collection of available resources, discussions boards, and access to the recording of all live events for one year after the conference.

The conference will feature three exciting keynote talks:

· Joan K. Lippincott from the Coalition for Networked Information speaking about “Mobilizing Libraries for Today’s Students”

· Joe Murphy from Yale University speaking about “This is Now: The Mobile Library”

· Tom Peters of TAP Information Services, addressing “Morphing with Mobile”

Registration for the conference is $69 per individual or $119 for a group. LIS students can register for $29.

“With the avalanche of new mobile devices and applications, the Handheld Librarian 2 online conference will be a golden opportunity for library land to cost effectively learn how to reach a whole new audience,” said Kitty Pope, ALS Executive Director.

For more information on the conference, go to the conference site at http://www.handheldlibrarian.org.

U.S. Consumer Book Buying

Summary of a recent webinar, U.S. Consumer Book Buying, put on by Bowker and AAP. Thanks to Sue Polanka for her summary and comments.

A few items that caught my attention:

• 2008 - e-commerce the dominant channel for book sales, beating out brick n mortar. 2009 - so far, large chain bookstores are back at the top

• Before 1975 there were 8 choices for entertainment/info (books was one) - in 2009 there are 21 choices (books still there), more choices = less room for reading books, harder to reach users

• trade market: double digit declines in hardcover/paperback and mass market sales, yet ebooks are up 28%. Cost differential in sales - hardcover vs. eBooks $6.25 price difference

• consumer today wants what they want, when they want it, how they want it

Thinking about Open Source?

If your library is thinking about adopting open source software you will be interested to learn that Lyrasis was just awarded a grant of $192,000 "to plan a support service to assist libraries with the adoption and use of open source software and systems."

"This grant will provide LYRASIS with consulting expertise and dedicated staff resources over a six-month period to assess library needs, develop strategies, and define a plan for establishing a service to support the adoption and use of open source software applications within the library community."

Contact Lyrasis to learn more.

How E-Learning and Distance Education Can Really Help You and Your Library: Live Online

Online education provides inexpensive, quality and convenient library workplace training programs.

Are you overworked, understaffed, and financially overwhelmed? Are you small, poor, and rural? Invest in your staff to improve productivity, consistency, workplace relations, customer service and morale; an affordable way to do more with less by leveraging employee skills. Learn how to use online education, whether you are a library director, HR manager, inhouse trainer, manager, supervisor or employee. Topics include:

• How to make online education work on a limited budget
• The advantages of online education
• Upgrading paraprofessional and part-timers’ skills
• What are the pitfalls, and how to avoid them
• Self-directed learning: why even solo librarians need partners

Virtual Trainer: Pat Wagner, Pattern Research

NEW DATE: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9

10:00 - 11:00 am

FREE for NEFLIN members. You will be emailed access information.

Register at http://bit.ly/2WOm5w

Somer Thompson

It’s my birthday today. I was going to write something funny about a past birthday. However, I am in a somber mood after coming to work this morning and learning that Somer Thompson’s body was found.

We have many readers outside the north Florida area so if you haven’t heard…Somer is a 7 year old girl who was abducted while walking home from school earlier this week, about one mile from the NEFLIN office. Her body was found yesterday in a Georgia landfill.

Jeannie, Patty and I live and work in Orange Park. This is our community. Somer was one of our neighbors, in the truest sense of the word. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family.

Google Analytics

Learn about how to use Google Analytics to report website behavior, such as:

• Where website visitors are coming from (search engines, referring sources, keywords, county, state and city)
• Most popular landing pages and exit pages on your website
• Average page views per visitor
• How frequently visitors come to your site
• Creating goals and seeing goal conversions in your reports
• And much, much more!

Get comfortable with Google Analytics metric definitions and what each report is for. Time will be available at the end of this session to address your specific questions and answers.

Trainer: Morgan Jones, eCommerce Intelligence
Date: Friday, November 13
Time: 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
Location: NEFLIN in Orange Park

Register now at http://bit.ly/1uHYIq

See all NEFLIN training at http://www.neflin.org/registration.php

Free Online Conference in November

I'm amazed that an entire conference can be made available online. (However, this comes from someone who is still in awe of the fax machine.) Thanks to the folks at ALA Learning for posting this on their site.
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LearnTrends 2009

November 17-19, 2009 | Online | Free

The theme/focus this year is on Convergence in Workplace Learning. We will bring together people who look at different aspects of learning and knowledge work to understand better what’s going on in those areas and how we should be thinking about this holistically.

As always, this conference is about getting together interesting people who bring a slightly different perspective and have meaningful conversation around innovation in workplace learning. We typically get more than a thousand people signed up and at least a hundred in each session.

To register, you must first be register to be part of the LearnTrends community and then register on the Conference Event Page.

NEFLIN Annual Survey 2009

Thank you to all who recently completed the NEFLIN Annual Survey. We had 326 completed surveys, which is 30% more than last year. Your input will help us shape and deliver programs and services that are important to you.

If at any time throughout the year you have feedback, training ideas or any comments for NEFLIN, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are always happy to hear from you.

2233 Park Avenue, Suite 402, Orange Park, FL 32073
(904) 278-5620

Training related questions or comments: register@neflin.org
All other questions or comments: office@neflin.org

A Little Link Love

How about 30 places you can get Fabulous Freebies?

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One of the Fabulous Freebies mentions the Global Greeter Network. I have used this twice. Once in Chicago and once in Melbourne. You get a half day or full day tour of the city with a local. This person can specialize in their town's history, architecture, pop culture, etc. You get to fill out a profile of what type of tour you want and they match you with the appropriate tour guide. Highly recommended.

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Interesting post on Stephen Abram's blog. I too would be interested if anyone ever compiles the info about #1 bestsellers.

"I was amazed at this statistic from Seth Godin:

In the 260 weeks from 1966 to 1970, there were only thirteen musical acts responsible for every #1 album on the Billboard charts. In the 260 weeks that accounted for the first half of the 1970s, it was 26.

Has anyone out there ever done a similar number for books? I'll bet between Dan Brown and JK Rowling there's not too many #1 bestselling authors over the last few years either.

Like Seth says, it's crowded at the top. And it sure shows the importance of the long tail."

Quick Access Kiosk

Helene Blowers writes about the new page that was designed to be the main screen on their public access computers. It centralizes many functions in one location (library card sign-up, easy access to electronic resources, my account, etc) for their patrons. It is also customized with branch specific information.

Helene has put up some photos on Flickr so you can clearly see the above image and subtle differences, as each branch in their system can customize this page. Check it out!

NEFLIN Virtual Training in November

HOW E-LEARNING AND DISTANCE EDUCATION CAN REALLY HELP YOU AND YOUR LIBRARY

Monday, November 2, 10:00 - 11:00 am
Online education provides inexpensive, quality and convenient library workplace training programs. Are you overworked, understaffed, and financially overwhelmed? Are you small, poor, and rural? Invest in your staff to improve productivity, consistency, workplace relations, customer service and morale; an affordable way to do more with less by leveraging employee skills. Learn how to use online education, whether you are a library director, HR manager, inhouse trainer, manager, supervisor or employee. Topics include:

• How to make online education work on a limited budget
• The advantages of online education
• Upgrading paraprofessional and part-timers’ skills
• What are the pitfalls, and how to avoid them
• Self-directed learning: why even solo librarians need partners

Virtual Trainer: Pat Wagner, Pattern Research

MARKETING YOUR LIBRARY REFERENCE SERVICE

Monday, November 9, 2:00 - 4:00 pm
Creating the impression in your customers’ minds that your reference service is a vital and useful part of their information seeking process is as much about marketing as it is about offering the tools and services they need. Libraries today are overhauling existing services and introducing many new ones, including new ways to interact with information services – all to fit today’s library users and their lifestyles. Let them know about these efforts and how you can help them. Not sure how? Not sure you need to? Then this is for you! Learning outcomes include:

• Begin an analysis of the marketing need for their services
• Discuss the current marketing tools appropriate for different kinds of libraries
• Design a marketing plan for the reference service
• Design and implement methods to assess the efficacy of the marketing plan

Virtual Trainer: David Greenebaum, Lyrasis

LIBRARY TECHNOLOGIES INTEREST GROUP

Monday, November 16, 10:00 am - 12:00 noon
St. Johns County Public Library System staff will discuss the evolution of their website and how it got to be FLA’s Public Library Website of the Year. Come join the Technology Interest Group and share your own web tips, tricks & great ideas with your colleagues.

ADVOCACY: PUBLIC OFFICIALS

Tuesday, November 17, 2:00 - 4:00 pm

Learn how to attract your public officials' attention. This two-hour distance learning session discusses how to pinpoint your officials’ priorities, shape the message you want to communicate, and draw officials into your library to raise the visibility of your resources. Virtual Trainer: Jenny Liberatore, Lyrasis

To register for these and all NEFLIN events, see http://www.neflin.org/registration.php

Book Sales Ahead!

Several NEFLIN member libraries have book sales in the next few weeks. And who doesn't love a book sale?!

The Lake City Community College Library will host their first book sale in more than 30 years with thousands of books, including fiction, non-fiction, reference, young adult and children’s, and we have VHS tapes, record albums, and more. Dates are Saturday, October 31 through Tuesday, November 3. For more information contact Library Executive Director Jim Morris, morrisj@lakecitycc.edu, 386-754-4337.

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The Friends of the Library of the Alachua County Library District will host their semi-annual Book Sale - the largest of its kind in Florida - starting Saturday, October 24 at 9 am and running through Wednesday, October 28 (10 cent day!). Located at 430-B North main Street in Gainesville, the sale includes books, records, games, CDs, DVDs, paintings, magazines, cookbooks and a Collector's Corner. For more information contact the Friends at (352) 375-1676 or folacld@bellsouth.net.

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The Great Jacksonville Book Sale is operated by the Friends of the Jacksonville Public Library and held at the Jacksonville Fairgrounds October 23 - 25 with thousands of items priced between 50 cents and $2. For more information, call (904) 630-2304 or e-mail: sfutch@coj.net

JPL brings home the Gold

Jacksonville Public Library's Literacy Curriculum Project was recently honored as an "LSTA Exemplary Project" by the State Library of Florida. Congrats!
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The Jacksonville Public Library’s adult literacy department has taken teaching strategies and concepts from several nationally recognized programs and created materials to serve lower-level readers. These materials focus on the understanding of syllable division and the sounds created by our six syllable types, concepts often not incorporated into traditional adult literacy programs.

For more information about this project (Volunteers as Special Educators), please contact Sharon Jaskula with the Jacksonville Public Library at 904-630-0353 (sharonh@coj.net).

Millennials in the Library: College of DuPage

The Millennial Generation, Generation Y, Echo Boomers, Digital Natives, and the Trophy Generation are all terms used to describe people born in the United States between the early 1980s and the early 1990s. They have been shaped by a heady mix of culture, politics, and technology. "Millennials" have had an unprecedented exposure to mass media, pop culture, instant communication, and cultural freedom woven together by a complex technological net. It is daunting to try to classify a group of over 70 million people easily. Our teleconference will seek to add nuance to these classifications to help us understand them more fully and answer the questions: Who are Millennials? How can our libraries better serve them as patrons, students, and staff?

Date: Friday, November 13

Time: 12:00 noon - 1:30 pm

Location: On your DESKTOP

Register at http://bit.ly/3Z3Du3

You will receive access information by email prior to the program date

New NEFLIN Site - Library Webinars

Can't get enough NEFLIN goodness with just the Blah, Blah, Blah Blog? Then visit our new site, Library Webinars.

This site has been created to provide library staff with one location for information about upcoming and archived webinars. Add the site to your RSS feed or subscribe to site updates that can be delivered via e-mail.

Webinars provided by NEFLIN are listed separately in our quarterly workshop schedule, and on this blog.

Drop by the new site for a visit...you won't be disappointed!

Link Love - Train Edition

Here is something you don't see often...two special trains are coming to our area soon. They are both worth a look.

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Thomas the Train is coming to Cordele, Georgia later this month. (I took my little ones to this last year and it was a blast! My son now thinks that the Island of Sodor is in Georgia.)

If you have kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, or anyone that loves Thomas, they will remember this trip for a long time.

Check it out!





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The upcoming holiday movie "Disney's A Christmas Carol" is being promoted with a nationwide train tour. Jacksonville is one of 40 cities that the train will stop at for the day. Tuesday, October 20, 9am-7pm, Amtrack Station, 3570 Clifford Lane, Jacksonville, FL.

"Among the highlights of the tour are authentic artifacts on loan from the Charles Dickens Museum of London; artwork, costumes and props from the film; demonstrations of performance capture technology; and a chance to morph your face into one of the film’s characters using HP TouchSmart PCs. At each stop along the way, a state-of-the-art Disney Digital 3D Theatre will be erected, where guests can get a sneak peek of “Disney’s A Christmas Carol” and see other exclusive behind-the-scenes materials from the movie. The latest details about tour stops and scheduled events are available at www.christmascaroltraintour.com."

Two Workshops from Sherry Norfolk

Don’t miss these workshops with premier trainer Sherry Norfolk – one in Ocala and one in Orange Park. Register today.

Building Blocks to Literacy

"Once Upon a Time!" is the beginning of adventure -- and the beginning of learning. When children hear stories, they are learning vocabulary and syntax, beginning-middle-end, and cause and effect. They are detecting patterns. They’re building brain power. And that’s only the beginning of what happens when a child hears a story! In this fast-paced, hands-on workshop, library staff learn how to create storytelling magic for small children -- what to tell, how to tell it, why it’ll work -- and what to do when all else fails!

Trainer: Sherry Norfolk, Storyteller & Library Consultant
Date: Wednesday, November 4
Time: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Location; Marion County Public Library, 2720 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala, FL 34470

Register today at http://bit.ly/10gFZL

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Before the Skills: Motivating Readers

Motivation leads to skill development which leads to student achievement; without motivation, children simply don’t learn. We will look at why motivation needs to be a priority, how it can be achieved, and ways that teachers, parents and librarians can collaborate towards that goal. In the process, brain-based research relative to why and how to achieve motivation will be discussed. We will provide theory, inspiration and practical applications.

Trainer: Sherry Norfolk, Storyteller & Library Consultant
Date: Thursday, November 5
Time: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Location; NEFLIN, 2233 Park Avenue, Suite 402, Orange Park, FL 32073

Register today at http://bit.ly/6Kd6N

October Highlights from WebJunction

From the October WebJunction Newsletter Hurricane Readiness Webinar On October 21 join guest presenter Joe Ryan, project manager of a new Florida-based initiative to make better use of public libraries for hurricane and disaster preparation and recovery. The project helps libraries address the needs of the broader community through partnerships with fellow emergency responders and to become a safe haven, a recovery center, information hub and evacuee resource. From this webinar you will learn how your library can play an important role in community preparedness and recovery. Become a Master of Disaster In addition to the related webinar and articles, you can also take an online course by LibraryU, Master of Disaster: Developing a Disaster Plan. This approximately one-hour self-paced course covers the three main areas of disaster preparedness that are critical to your library's ability to respond to, and even prevent major and minor disasters: identify potential hazards, devise a course of action, and document your plan.

Upcoming FRBR and Digitization Classes We still have a few open seats in the October 13 and 15 session of FRBR: How it can help you prepare for RDA. The new RDA standard is coming early next year, and this class is a great opportunity to come up to speed (or get refreshed) on FRBR and discuss the ongoing development of RDA. And coming up on November 11 and 12 will be Basic Digitization: Everyday Imaging. This class is a great introduction to all the details involved with using scanners and cameras to digitize materials in your library. Both classes are provided through WebJunction's partnership with Amigos Library Services, and consist of two 2-hour live online sessions that allow for interaction among the participants and instructor, plus a dedicated page on WebJunction for ongoing discussions and support materials.

Outreach to the Struggling Workforce The demands on library services have increased in these economic tough times, with libraries everywhere trying to respond to the needs of the unemployed and financially strained members of their community. Through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the State Library of North Carolina and WebJunction are embarking on a project to assist state library agencies as they help to increase the effectiveness of their libraries’ activities, services, and outreach to struggling patrons. We'll be keeping you in touch with this project and the resulting resources throughout the year, so stay tuned to BlogJunction and this newsletter for updates.

Best Small Library in America

Best Small Library in America (Free Webinar)

Wednesday, October 7, 2009, from 2:00-3:00pm EST

Register here

Library Journal’s annual Best Small Library in America Award, sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was created in 2005 to encourage and showcase the exemplary work of libraries serving populations under 25,000. Join a webinar with Nancy Rosenwald, the library director of this year’s winner, the Union County Carnegie Library of South Carolina. The library was recognized for its transformation into an “inclusive, modern, service-oriented, community center.”

Come hear how the strategies and tactics applied over the past three years have brought renewal to library services in this tiny community in spite of its high unemployment rate and the library’s shoestring budget. Nancy will be joined by Library Journal’s executive editor, Rebecca Miller, who will provide an overview of the nomination process and details for next year’s award.

You’ve got until November 2 to nominate your favorite U.S. small library!

(Note: If this time doesn’t fit your schedule, you can find this and other programs in the WebJunction archive at http://www.webjunction.org/events/webinars/webinar-archives.)

Grant for National Library Week

I was pleased to see that all types of libraries can apply for the following grant. If you are doing something fun/interesting for National Library Week, why not apply?

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U.S. libraries of all types are invited to apply for a $3,000 grant that will be awarded to the best public awareness campaign that promotes the theme “Communities thrive @ your library” during National Library Week (April 11-17, 2010).

All proposals must use the “Communities thrive @ your library” theme, which incorporates The Campaign for America's Libraries’ @ your library brand, on promotional and publicity material supporting National Library Week activities.

The grant is sponsored by Scholastic Library Publishing, a division of Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company and is administered by the Public Awareness Committee of the American Library Association (ALA).

The application deadline has been extended to Friday, November 6, 2009.

Collection Development: The New Balancing Act

New technologies have changed the face of collection development in all types of libraries. What is the best way to balance print materials with downloadable music and book files? How do we deal with rapidly changing formats and how do we know when to downsize or eliminate parts of the collection? This workshop will focus on these and other collection development issues that affect libraries in the Internet Age. Workshop objectives include:

• Understand the issues involved in integrating electronic media with physical materials
• Be familiar with techniques like floating collections and using marketing segments to develop collections
• Be familiar with several kinds of downloadable media, including e-films, streaming media and e-books
• Be familiar with methods of demographic and psychographic evaluation

Trainer: Belinda Boon, Kent State University
Date: Thursday, October 15
Time: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm
Location: NEFLIN in Orange Park

Register today at http://bit.ly/95lHs

See all NEFLIN Events at http://www.neflin.org/registration.php

Upcoming State Library Webinars

The State Library is hosting two free webinars in October. Details below.

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"An Online Conversation with the State Librarian".
Tuesday, October 13, 2009. 10-11 am.

State Librarian, Judi Ring, will provide an update of the activities of the State Library and Archives of Florida, including the status of statewide projects and an overview of activities, issues, and programs that impact the Florida library community. Join colleagues from around the state for this free webinar and your opportunity to interact live with your State Librarian.

Register here.

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"E-Government: Statewide Perspectives"

Tuesday, October 27, 2009. 10-11 am.

Libraries of all types report being overwhelmed by public demand for e-government services. Staff are being called on to help citizens use for services for issues ranging from Medicare to immigration to unemployment. For many Floridians, the library is their only link to essential online government services. Join colleagues from libraries around the state as they talk about the always evolving task of providing e-government services to library patrons and how they are meeting the needs in their diverse communities.

Register here.

Best Free Reference Websites

The Reference division of ALA (RUSA) has put out their list of the best free references websites 2009.

I hope you will find some new sources of information on this list. I must admit to only having visited about one-third of these sites myself.