NOTE: Your (friendly) editor is off to ALA Annual Meeting - Atlanta (GA) to learn all about CIPA/NCIPA & other stuff...
Friday Notes 2.
IF you are new to The Friday Notes, see WELCOME - First Post - way at the bottom.
CE: Here's what's coming up in NEILSA: Announcing Confluence
Confluence - confluence KON-floo-uhns, noun:
1. The act of flowing together; the meeting or junction of two or more streams; the place of meeting.
2. Any running together of separate streams or currents; the act of meeting and crowding in a place; hence, a crowd; a coming together of people; a concourse; an assemblage.
"You see this confluence, this great flood of visitors."
--Shakespeare, Timon of Athens
"At the confluence of continents, at the narrow neck of the Nile Valley just before it spreads into the flat water-maze of the Delta, [Cairo]... has always been a place where elements mingle and cultures collide."
--Max Rodenbeck, Cairo: The City Victorious
"[B]y midnight..., units from Winchester and Charlestown entered Harper's Ferry, located at the northern end of the Valley at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers."
--Jeffry D. Wert, A Brotherhood of Valor: The Common Soldiers of the Stonewall Brigade, C.S.A., and the Iron Brigade, U.S.A.
"And the grim course of events he initiates and oversees... comes to seem like an all too natural confluence of character and circumstance. "
--"'Othello': A Spellbinding Interpretation," New York Times, April 11, 1998
Confluence is from Latin confluens, confluentis, flowing together, from confluo, confluere, to flow together, from con-, together + fluo, fluere, to flow.
Copyright © 2002, Lexico LLC. All rights reserved.
FROM: http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=Confluence
Notice:
Confluence will replace the during the year NEILSA ce offerings except, one & two hour workshops at Fall & Spring county meetings, when requested, and 2 roundtables/year.
OTHER CE: You must register with the listed provider.
Check: http://www.silo.lib.ia.us/for_ia_libraries/continuing_ed/index.html
August 21 NCIRLS Snap, Crackle, Pop, in Charles City
Public Library Management I & II http://www.silo.lib.ia.us/Certification/cecat.htm#September
Self-Directed Learning Opportunities: http://www.silo.lib.ia.us/Certification/alternate.htm
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
If you value the services you receive in support of your local library from the State Library and Library Service Areas the time has come for you to make your opinion known to the people who are responsible for funding the services you receive.
This is also the time to ask the canitadates for office to reply to you about library issues - then post the answers on the bulletin board for people to see. Tell the caniditates that you will post their answers or lack of answers.
SEE EYE-OPENER #1) BELOW:
EYE-OPENER from NWILSA:
1) Minnesota State Library Eliminated: In alarming national news, the Minnesota State Library has been eliminated. Minnesota's State Library falls under the Department of Children, Families, and Learning (similar to Iowa's Dept. of Education, where our State Library lives) Due to similar budget woes in Minnesota, departments needed to cut 10%; the Dept. of Children, Families, and Learning decided on a nearly wholesale elimination of the State Library's function and personnel. The State Librarian and many other key staffers were pink-slipped, effective June 28th. Statewide resource sharing networks, statewide continuing education and training, back-up reference support, and coordinated statewide development of library services have been eliminated, with no plans for any other agency to pick up the pieces. Apparently a handful of people remain to distribute state and federal grants. And the Library for the Blind, previously maintained by the State Library, has been transferred to another department.
Minnesota's regional systems are also in jeopardy, since they are largely funded with the State's share of federal LSTA dollars. To put this in context, our State Library uses much of its LSTA money to fund SILO, accreditation, continuing education and the PLM courses, online databases, building consulting grants, the state's newsletter FOOTNOTES, and the Summer Reading Program. LSTA is up for re-authorization and all State Libraries need to submit their LSTA plans by late July. Without a State Library in Minnesota to submit their plan, the regional systems stand to loose that funding. All this points to another sad commentary about the abysmal lack of funding for library service on the local, state, and national level...
[See Editorial comment from Ken below]
2) Estherville P.L. Friends' Flag Project: In a much more upbeat story, Estherville P.L.'s Friends Group coordinates a nice fund-raiser, combining memorial opportunities with Yankee Doodle patriotism. When Estherville Library was expanded, its front entrance was redesigned and moved to another side of the building. The original entrance of the original Carnegie portion is now a balcony. Two years ago, the Estherville Friends Group constructed a large, wooden American flag, which hangs from the balcony each 4th of July. Light bulbs are inserted into the flag, each representing a $5.00 donation, either given in memoriam or to honor someone in the community. Last year, the flag boasted 150 light bulbs, all illuminating the flag during the city's July 4th celebration. This is now an annual event; for more information, contact Carolyn Walz at Estherville P.L. (estpub@ncn.net)
3) Directory Surveys Overdue: Library Directory Surveys for 2002 were due at the State Library on May 15th.
4) FirstSearch Agreements Overdue: FirstSearch Letters of Agreement were due at the State Library on May 31st.
Editorial comment from Ken:
IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE --
The State Library of Minnesota is closed, a number of other State Library Agencies (The name for State Libraries country wide) have been threatened and/or severely cut back. If you think it can not happen here remember back one week (see below on blog).
The State Medical Library was salvaged only by the power of the Governor to veto. The Medical Library was headed for the ash can by action of the legislature. The Medical Library is an important part of the mix of services provided to you by the State Library of Iowa.
IT CAN HAPPEN HERE --
Despite the best efforts of both State Library and the Library Service Areas your library is now losing services that you once received at no charge or in a more convenient manner.
For Example: NO Charge statewide databases are now cost shared to you. NO Charge ce is a thing of the past, ce throughout the year is going, (See Confluence above), no charge building planning and help is gone.
At this point no one is planning on doing away with things like SILO, van service, e-rate & more, BUT none of those are things written into the law and paid for by anything but the budgets of the agencies involved. If you don't believe it wait until you see your Enrich Iowa checks for this year and next.
WHAT CAN I DO?
You had better get involved, IF you want to keep the services you have, IF you want services restored, IF you want new services - then you are going to have to get involved. Currently about 5% of the directors and an even smaller number of trustees are carrying everyone on their back. It is going to do no good to keep relying on them, you are going to have to get involved, and not just for legislative days, but for county legislative meetings, letting legislators know what is happening in the library and how the SLI & LSA's are working for you to help you provide services to Iowans. Funding for Open Access and Access plus have been reduced once again, you are only going to get full funding if you demand it, and, demand it as new money not money taken from some other library service. The same thing is true of other services.
As you should know, restoring services is not as cost effective as maintaining them, services you lose now are services going with exiting people and will only be restored when a new person is hired, trained and brought up to speed.
The kind of power that librarians and trustees have is the kind of muscle that comes from exercise- if it is not used, it is lost. Once lost it has to be rebuilt and right now it is gone. Our friends in the legislature and elsewhere in government have been and are being marginalized, it is easy to ignore someone who can not get out the troops and libraries can not be counted upon to get out the troops.
No one is telling you what to say, if you just talk to them about your library and its services and its work providing service to Iowans you can't go wrong. If you encourage your patrons to tell their legislators, city council, county supervisors and others about the service they get then that should do the job up and down the line. IF the services you provide and receive are not worth it then we all deserve to be cut.
BUDGET NOTE: Beware of the claims that "We added X$ to ____ program." It is usually a stolen from Peter to pay Paul scam. Look at the total budget for the local libraries from all sources. ASK about "new" dollars for serving Iowans in libraries.
And plan your spending/income from "state" sources to be 25 - 30 % LESS than last year.
NOTE: With Mr. Sixta's retirement at the end of this month NE will not have anyone to provide No Charge building consulting.
Your local friendly editor has said it before and reminds you once again: With the loss of budget comes the loss of services, NEILSA can no longer pick up or maintain services - the resources both fiscal and human are no longer available.
NEILSA Consortia - CIPA compliance:
Hot topic with no good answers yet. On the 20th when (friendly editor) returns from ALA Annual meeting I hope to have some answers which I will e-mail to the list. If you know anyone who is not currently getting the Friday Notes PLEASE forward the e-mail of the 20th to them. The CIPA/NCIPA policies you will be receiving will require you to, in most cases, revise your AUP & Internet policy/procedures, and make some other changes prior to July 1, 2002. You will get fairly detailed instructions about what you need to do and when on the 20th. At that point I will send a policy check-list, boiler-plate minimal policies and some suggestions as to how to integrate them into your current policies. The 20th e-mail will be sent "return receipt" if you do not return the receipt then I will fax the material on the 22nd and if that does not do it I'll mail on the 24th PLEASE warn staff that this material is not in the file and forget category. IF I do not have the signed FCC Form 479 in hand on July 1, 2002 I can not file your request for discounts.
YOU WROTE: snippets from your e-mails:
|Was that Golden Dollars thing for real?
Announcement: CASH award - The first NEILSA public library librarian/staff member (one per library) to notify me (Ken), via fax, that they read this far will get $5.00 (Linda - Fayette/Arlington) in Gold dollars, the second $4.00 (? - Sumner), Third $3.00 (Jane - Ionia), Forth $2.00 (Cynthia - Green) and Fifth $1.00. Time based on the "time-stamp" of the NEILSA fax.
NOTE: No state dollars were injured or killed for this offer, the funding came from a private source grant administered by NEILSA - Consulting
FEEDBACK:
Survey: Should LSA's go to a "Fee for Service" Model?
BACKGROUND - In most other places the state/regional agency(s) equal of the Iowa Library Service Areas are called System Libraries or Regional Systems or some such. Nearly all of them operate on a membership/fee for service basis.
As all of you are well aware the last round of budget cuts have finally pushed the LSA's up to the wall, the next round ....
Just as we have told YOU, when the funders do not come up with the funds to make the service available some other source of support will have to be found or developed OR service dropped. Looking around from the LSA point of view, guess where one of those "sources" is?? How would it work we don't know BUT as an example of how it works elsewhere:
CE: Members of the System Library pay $20.00/hour for continuing education Non-members pay retail $65.00 - $120.00/hour for the same class. NOTE: This is an example NOT a proposal.
CHANGES: Updates – Addresses & such - None this week
END PLATE: For those not to busy for a bit of foolishness
The Teacher, Librarian & the Brain
We were all sitting around the dinner table discussing life and the man across from me decided to show his brains.
He says the problem with teachers is "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"
He reminds the other dinner guests that it's true what they say about teachers: Those who can, do; those who can't, teach.
I decide to bite my tongue and resist the temptation to remind the dinner guests that it's also true what they say about lawyers.
Because we're eating, after all, and this is polite company. "I mean, you're a teacher," he says, turning to me. "Be honest. What do you make?"
And I wish he hadn't done that (asked me to be honest) because, you see, I have a policy about honesty and ***-kicking: if you ask for it, I have to let you have it.
You want to know what I make? I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional Medal of Honor, and an A- feel like a slap in the face.
How dare you waste my time with anything less than your very best?
I make parents tremble in fear when I call home: I hope I haven't called at a bad time, I just wanted to talk to you about something Billy said today. Billy said, "Leave the kid alone. I still cry sometimes, don't you?" And it was the noblest act of courage I have ever seen.
I make parents see their children for who they are and what they can be.
You want to know what I make?
I make kids wonder, I make them question. I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it. I make them write. I make them read, read, read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful over and over and over again until they will never misspell either one of those words again.
I make them show all their work in math. And hide it on their final drafts in English.
I make them understand that if you have brains then you follow your heart and if someone ever tries to judge you by what you make, you pay them no attention.
Let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true:
I make a difference in the lives of hundreds of children.
Now what about you? What do you make?
Chastised, but unrepentant Mr. Brain goes for another victim. "Our librarian friend here is soon to be out of a job, the Internet will replace libraries, then what will you do?"
You think you know what I do and that new technologies will replace the professional librarian?
What I do is open the entire world to children.
What I do is provide a place were any person from the lowest of the homeless to the most honored of the professional elite can satisfy their intellectual curiosity.
And I make that place open to all equally.
What I do is provide the largest body of free preschool education in the world.
I make my facility open to all, summer and winter and all week long.
I do homework help in support of the teachers.
I provide materials that the school doesn't.
I make the student of every age aware that there is a difference between data and information.
I make the fact clear that not everything is on the Internet, that much of what is on the net is not available to the "casual" searcher, to the uninitiated or to the unschooled.
I order and organize the sum of mans knowledge and working with my peers share that knowledge with all.
I make tyrants so fearful that the first thing they do is attempt to destroy the libraries.
I make people so brave that they hide the materials from the tyrants at risk of their very lives.
I can make the most simple request from a child seem like the most important question in the world and make the most erudite question from a PhD seem like the simplest question from a child.
I make a safe place for the "latch key" child and a destination for the retired, I do give meaning to a day, week, or life.
I make children wonder and I show them the world.
I make them question and then help them learn to answer their own questions,
I make them criticize and learn and grow.
I make them see a wider world, and often help them develop their own map.
I make them understand that data is not information, and information is not knowledge
I defend intellectual freedom on a daily basis
What do I do, what do I make?:
I terrify the tyrant and make the oppressed brave,
I empower the poor and make the powerful rich beyond goods,
I open the world for the smallest child and make memories come alive once again for the senior,
I collect the world, organize it and make it available to the student, and the writer, and the immigrant, and the Native American, and the reporter, and the novelist, and the casual reader, and the homeless, and the unemployed, and the illiterate, and the academic and EVERYONE else
In the worlds goods neither I nor my teacher colleague collect much, but in what counts we are richer beyond the dreams of the wealthiest of men. Into our hands are put the future, the past and the hope, from our hands go the real wealth of nations.
I can take the most ignorant and make them knowledgeable, but neither I nor my teacher colleague can make a an intellectual pigs ear into a silk purse.
"If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z, X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut."
- Albert Einstein
Einstein was right - sometimes keeping your mouth shut is really the secret!
blogs - Friday Notes 2 AT - http://radio.weblogs.com/0108327/
ALSO AT: http://fridaynotes2.pitas.com
12:53:38 PM 
|
|
