Friday, May 02, 2003

Friday Notes 2.  An on-line resource for NEILSA Librarians Other LSA blogs: SWILSA House blog at: http://www.swilsa.blogspot.com DEADLINES & DATES: I'll try to list all the upcoming dates of importance here, you will have to mine for the details.  Upcoming Grant Application Deadlines The State Library is offering FY04 LSTA Competitive Grants to Iowa libraries. The grants are intended to assist libraries in pioneering innovative services, programs and technologies and to share the knowledge learned from that experience with other libraries. The State Library will distribute funding for competitive grants to libraries for projects that focus on "Information Literacy" and/or "Telling the Library Story." These are priorities of the Iowa Commission of Libraries, as well as the Plan of Service for the State Library and Library Service Areas. The deadline for grant applications is August 1, 2003. The projects will run from November 1, 2003 to June 30, 2005. There will be two ICN information sessions on June 17 and June 18 for those interested in the application. More information on these sessions will be announced in the future. The grant handbook, application and guidelines are located at http://www.silo.lib.ia.us/for-ia-libraries/LSTA/FY04/index.htm. All IMLS grant and award program deadlines can be viewed at: http://www.imls.gov/grants/dedln/index.htm     County Meetings Scheduled: If your county meeting is not on the schedule please contact NEILSA •    Allamakee County Meeting •    Black Hawk County Meeting - When called - seldom •    Bremer County Meeting - •    Buchanan County Meeting - •    Butler County Meeting  - •    Chickasaw County Meeting •    Clayton County Meeting -Oct. 14, 2003 7:30 (?)  in Strawberry Poit •    Delaware County Meeting - May 13, 2003 @ 7:00  Edgewood P L •    Dubuque County •    Fayette County Meeting - Oct. 23, 2003 @ 1:00 Haweye PL •    Grundy County Meeting - All meetings start at 9:00 am - 2003 schedule         6/28 @ Grundy Center, 10/27 @ Reinbeck •    Howard County Meeting   - •    Winneshiek County Meeting - November 6, 2003 @ 7:00 Decorah •    CE: July 7 Oelwein  & 8 Waverly (tentative) "Spring" Confluence 7th Topic - Grants 8th Topic - Telling the Library Story         Using volunteers in the library  More - program in development Special Workshops: One & two hour workshops at Fall & Spring county meetings, item specific workshops. June 27th for "Library 101"     OTHER CE: You must register with the listed provider.  Usually you will need to submit a "Learning Activity Written Summery" Which is now available as on online form that you can submit electronically. It may be found at: http://www.silo.lib.ia.us/for-ia-libraries/continuing-ed/online-learningactivitywrittensummary.htm This is the form to complete if you want continuing education credit for attending a teleconference and/or watching a videotape of a national teleconference or a library related continuing education program.   Complete details about recertfication are available at http://www.silo.lib.ia.us/for-ia-libraries/continuing-ed/recertification.html             Self-Directed Learning Opportunities: http://www.silo.lib.ia.us/Certification/alternate.htm ANNOUNCEMENTS: Just a reminder that you can use the Virtual Backup Reference service for those reference questions your patrons have asked that you can't answer locally. The service is for Iowa public librarians (not for the public, alas--not enough resources for that yet!) and you can find the link to connect to the service on the ILSA website (which is up again!!): http://www.ilsa.lib.ia.us/VBR/VBRlogin.htm Karen Burns, Administrator - Southwest Iowa Library Service Area Denver P.L. will be closed from May 10 through June 2. They are moving into new building. IF I knew how to make this blink and roll it would be doing that - CONGRATULATIONS Denver PL ISLA (edited) On behalf of the Iowa Small Library Association, I would like to invite you to attend the ISLA Spring Meeting on Friday, May 16, 2003 at the James Kennedy Public Library in Dyersville. Registration begins at 9:00 am with meeting itself scheduled to start at 9:30 am. The morning will include updates from the State Library, the Iowa Library Association, and the Library Service Areas; a brief business meeting, and informal networking. The afternoon will be a program called "From Policy to Procedure: Documenting What Really Goes on at Your Library" presented by Dawn Hayslett. Lunch will be a "tea" at the Dyer-Botsford Doll Museum, just across the street from the library.  If you would like more details or have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Shirley Vonderhaar, Library Director James Kennedy Public Library 320 1st Ave. E. Dyersville, Iowa 52040 Phone: 563-875-8912 FAX: 563-875-6162 email: svonderhaar@iowatelecom.net or dyersvillelib@iowatelecom.net     In the EYE-OPENER from NWILSA: Good Morning! This time in EYE-OPENER: 1) EBSCOHost Renews in May 2) Clifford Comes to the ICN May 12th 3) Onawa P.L. Moves Ahead with Building Project 4) Phone Book Exchange at NWILS "Spring Fling" 1) EBSCOHost Renews in May: We've recently learned that the EBSCOHost database project for public libraries will continue throughout FY'04 and that the renewal process will begin in May. Look for a renewal form posted on the State Library's website. Luckily, EBSCO base pricing and cost formulas will remain the same for FY'04. That is: for public libraries, the base price to renew EBSCOHost is $25.00, plus an additional .02cents per capita--certainly affordable for even the smallest of libraries. At the point of renewal, you'll have the option of being invoiced yet this fiscal year or choose to be billed after July 1st. Billing will be handled by the State Library. Once all Northwest libraries have renewed EBSCO--or signed up for the first time--(we're hoping for 100% this year!) please remember that NWILS now has  a 3-hour training module on using the EBSCO databases. While we offered 2 days of classes in March, if you need a refresher and want to schedule something like this for your entire county, just let us know. And feel free to call with any questions.             New LINKS of interest: EFF's Cindy Cohn Talks About Patriot Act II http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/25/1326200 From: slashdot@slashdot.org http://www.gslis.mcgill.ca/marginal/mar10-2/opensource.htm OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE AND LIBRARIES [The Marginal Librarian] YOU WROTE: snippets from your e-mails: Hi Friends, I know many of you are scrambling with subscription services. I'd like to recommend National Organization Service--which is in Des Moines. They have a long reputable history and offer a discount of about 12 or 13%. They are cheaper than most because they don't do major publicity. They also have titles like, "Voice of the Hawkeyes", and other regional periodicals that make them unique. They always have a small ad in the ILA Catalyst, and are very supportive of Iowa libraries. I've misplaced their toll free number National Organization Service, Inc. {Here it is Ken (:-{}}} 4515 Fleur Drive, Suite 301 Des Moines, Iowa 50321-2369 Phone: 1-800-747-3032 Wanda Gardner, Decorah CHANGES: Updates – Addresses & such - Calmar Public Library email address the new one is clib@oneota.net  AEA 7 - Regular delivery ends June 2 & 3. Summer delivery begins June 10 & 11 lasting through August 5 & 6. AEA 1 - No items will be accepted for delivery to AEA 1 after May 27. AEA 1 does not have delivery during the summer when school is not in session Items will be accepted for delivery to AEA 1 beginning August 11 & 12     END PLATE: Long Announcements, Supporting Documents, & other "stuff" Media-Presentation Tips & IR-PR Info from Media Training WW April, 2003 TV/Media Tips 1. Don't wear stripes; they dance around on the screen and are distracting. 2. Don't lean back in your chair; you'll look short and fat. 3. Reporters don't have to ask your permission to quote you. 4. Don't audio or videotape an interview in front of a reporter unless you are 99% sure you are going to be mistreated. Speaking/Presentation Tips 5. If you are using a PowerPoint Presentation, speak directly to your audience for at least for 3 minutes before presenting your first slide. 6. Always carry an extra bulb for your PowerPoint projector. 7. Cliches work great with the media but make you sound unintelligent when delivering a speech Crisis Communications 8. Nothing is 100 percent off the record. Notes are made and reviewed by editors, publishers and lawyers. 9. Tough questions don't trip people up. Sloppy answers to easy questions are what do people in. 10. "I don't know, but I will find out and get back to you before deadline" is an infinitely better thing to say to a reporter than making up facts that doesn't turn out to be true. AND – Always - Always - Always have someone pre-appointed to speak for the library, also have a backup for that person.  The appointed person should have some training in "speaking for the library". Make it VERY clear to staff, board members, friends et. al. that by policy only that person may speak for the library.  The policy should also indicate what the penalty is for failure to abide by the policy, e.g. dismissal for a staff person. Of Libraries, Superstores and Lattes April 27, 2003 By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS WE have all heard about the small bookstores forced out of business - at least so they say - by that bookish Goliath, Barnes & Noble. But whoever thought that bookstore giants would pose a threat to libraries? Yet that seems to be the case in at least one part of New York. At 81st and Amsterdam stands the St. Agnes branch of the New York Public Library, a shabby stone edifice where anyone, from a child to a homeless person, can borrow books - free. At 82nd Street and Broadway, just around the corner, is a spiffy Barnes & Noble, covering nearly a whole city block, where buying a few books could set you back a good hunk of your weekly paycheck. Given the options - free library or capitalist bookstore - and the latte at Barnes & Noble notwithstanding, the superior choice seems obvious. But maybe not. Barnes & Noble appears to be thriving, while the library hobbles along. Besotted by consumerism, it seems that we don't feel that our objects of desire, even our objects of intellectual desire, are truly valuable unless we pay for them, and dearly. But blaming the customer alone would be unfair. When it comes to marketing, Barnes & Noble is way ahead of public libraries, which our city fathers and mothers have all but written off as services to the poor and downtrodden and researchers, rather than seeing them as temples of knowledge for all. Where Barnes & Noble is well-lighted and clean, the books invitingly displayed, most branch libraries are dim, cluttered and understocked. Just ask Don Bailey, a Texan who moved to the Upper West Side 11 years ago. Being a devoted reader, he immediately checked out his local library, the St. Agnes branch. It was, to put it mildly, a turnoff. "There's something about New York libraries," Mr. Bailey mused. "You don't have a good ambience." The other day, Mr. Bailey, a flutist, natty in white slacks and blue checked shirt, sat in the well-appointed second-floor reading room of Barnes & Noble, obviously modeled after the venerable 42nd Street research library, sipping coffee and reading a hardcover copy of "Stupid White Men," No. 2 on The Times's nonfiction best-seller list. The week before he had sat in the same spot reading "George and Laura: Portrait of an American Marriage." He likes the way Barnes & Noble puts all those hot-off-the-presses books in front, as tips on what to read. As for the two up-to-the-minute books about his fellow Texan, "You wouldn't find those at the library, would you?" he asked. Good question, Mr. Bailey. Around the corner at St. Agnes, Dori Saltzman, young, redheaded, infinitely patient, one of two resident librarians with master's degrees, braves a long line of patrons armed with such questions. At top efficiency, she taps "Stupid White Men" into the computer. "Normally we have two copies, but they're both out. We have 175 copies in the system, and 46 holds. Every single copy is out. People have three weeks for each book, so I'm figuring you could probably get it in about a month." Ditto for "George and Laura." How about "The Hours," stacked like hotcakes at Barnes & Noble? "Oh, that's a wait!" she exclaimed. Any book tied to a movie takes six months to get. "Right now, any book by Virginia Woolf is very hard to get. Prior to the movie, she was not as popular." The precision with which Ms. Saltzman can report what is not available is impressive, and touching. No wonder, if money has anything to do with it. Barnes & Noble at 82nd Street grossed an estimated $10.3 million last year, eight times the average budget for one of the city's 85 branch libraries. And those budgets are being cut by the city for the second year in a row. While Barnes & Noble teaches children to abuse trendy books by dribbling their jelly sandwiches on them, St. Agnes offers unconditional love to the out of print, the unpopular, the best sellers of yesteryear. "How about Dickens?" Ms. Saltzman is asked. "David Copperfield" is out, but "A Tale of Two Cities" is in. Proust? In. Mark Twain? In. Jules Verne. In. Toni Morrison? In. Ralph Ellison. In. Surely, even the poor and downtrodden deserve as much and more. Last year, St. Agnes logged 252,785 visits, like the one by the 9-year-old boy who sidled up to Ms. Saltzman last week and asked for anything on the N.B.A. After a series of no-hits, she found an N.B.A. All-Star Game video at another branch that the boy wanted. "Do you know your number?" she asked, meaning the bar code number on his library card. Amazingly, he did. By heart. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/27/nyregion/27COLM.html?ex=1052556832&;ei=1&en=66e712e0973e5ff3                 Very very funny http://www.millikin.edu/staley/fluff/peep_research.html Peep Research [Millikin University] ................................................................ Library Link of the Day http://www.tk421.net/librarylink/ The fine print stuff blogs - Friday Notes 2 AT -  http://radio.weblogs.com/0108327/ NOTICE – DISCLAIMER - pick one, any one will do. MY disclaimer: Basically my opinions are my own, shared by no one else (sometimes), and are not the opinions of my agency, my board, my co-workers, my parents, siblings, relatives, my dogs or most any other know life form.  Except, of course, those very bright concerned, sensitive, perceptive &, in general, well educated, widely read and cultured individuals who wish to share this peculiar road to ruin, as well as a couple of down & out drugged out beatniks from the good old days. OK?  The "Prime Directive" applies. Edited by: Ken Davenport - NEILSA Consultant davenport@neilsa.org COPYLEFT NOTICE 2002: THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License published by Michael Stutz at http://dsl.org/copyleft/dsl.txt © COPYRIGHT Please note: material found on the web should be assumed to be under copyright and is presented here for purposes of education and research only. NOTE: If credited [via ???] or [from so & so] it is their material and not covered by my "Copyleft" notice.  Ken SOURCE: {Consultant} D:CorelwpdocsFridayNotes0502.wpd  August 2, 2002 BOILER PLATE FOOTNOTES: 1. WARNING: I will be able to give you about a 5 working day warning on deadlines (by e-mail, less otherwise) I have 10 days to reply, if I miss the deadline, well I won't miss, if you miss  ... I'll send it in late but ... 12:13:12 PM    comment []

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