At 1 p.m. CDT on Oct. 26, the Public Library Association (PLA) will host a live, hour-long webinar, “Building Community: Online Tools for Spanish Speakers” as part of PLA’s “Public Libraries at Work” monthly webinar series. During this webinar, participants will learn how to create a library community that welcomes and assists Spanish speakers by blending emerging technologies and social media with in-person services such as programming and reference.

Instructor Loida Garcia-Febo, coordinator, New Americans Program, Queens (N.Y.) Library, will provide successful service examples from libraries in the U.S., Mexico, Colombia and other countries. She’ll also explore the usage of Twitter, Facebook, blogs and wikis, and will include practical ideas that each library can implement to connect with Spanish-speaking library users.

The cost to attend “Building Community: Online Tools for Spanish Speakers” is $28 (PLA Members), $31.50 (ALA Members) and $35 (Nonmembers). Groups of any size can register for $129. The deadline to register is 4:30 p.m. CDT on Oct. 24. Register here.Get more information here.

Registration for PLA’s advocacy training program, Turning the Page 2.0, is open for the autumn course (week of Oct. 31 – week of Dec. 12). Previous participants have enjoyed learning about library advocacy, including Michael Shell from Jacksonville, Florida, who blogged about the importance of community partnership and how Turning the Page 2.0 can help libraries build them.

The January/February 2012 issue of Public Libraries will focus on e-Books. We’re looking for feature articles and shorter opinion pieces on that subject. Take advantage of this opportunity to share with colleagues across the country how your library has navigated this new territory, as well as pitfalls to avoid, and best practices to consider. Feature articles are generally 2500-5000 words and Verso columns (opinion pieces) are 1500 words. For this special issue, we will select three feature articles and two opinion pieces. Please submit by November 18 to be considered for the e-Book issue. All submissions will go through a peer-review process. More information about writing for PL can be found here. Please submit articles via our article submission system. Send queries or requests for more information to PL Editor, Kathleen Hughes, .

The first documentary to look at Bram Stoker and his legendary 1897 gothic novel, “Dracula: The Vampire and the Voivode” will be available on October 4, from Walking Shadows (distributed by Virgil Films & Entertainment). Few mythic figures have ever captured the imagination, nor been as enduringly popular, as Dracula, made famous in Stoker’s novel and sparking the earliest pop culture fascination with vampire folklore. However, much confusion surrounds Count Dracula, the fictional vampire, and Vlad (The Impaler) Draculea III (1431-1476), the voivode, Old Slavonic, meaning ‘one who leads warriors.’ A real-life royal, many believe that Vlad III’s violent six-year rule of Romania and now-familiar surname inspired the famed, fanged figure. Filmed in London, Dublin, and Transylvania, “Dracula: The Vampire and the Voivode” separates fact from fiction, and features interviews with leading experts on the subject.

Dracula: The Vampire and The Voivode
Virgil Films & Entertainment
Genre: Documentary
Not Rated
Format: DVD Only
Running Time: Approximately 84 minutes
Price: $19.99
Available via Amazon.com

Public Libraries (PL) is seeking to fill two columnist vacancies. The first, ‘Passing Notes,’ is a young-adult service themed column. The second, ‘The Wired Library,’ explores Web topics relevant to public librarians. These are unpaid, volunteer positions. You must be a member of PLA and able to turn in six columns a year of approximately 1,200 to 1,500 words in length, either by writing the column or finding someone to write it for you (i.e., a guest columnist on a specific subject). If interested, please send a note to PL Editor, Kathleen Hughes at . Please include some information about your library experience and writing samples or links to writing samples. The PL Advisory Committee will review applications and select the new columnists. Deadline Is November 21, 2011. You can see samples of past issues at www.publiclibrariesonline.org.

Again this year, the Bensenville Community Public Library, Bensenville, IL, will remain open for the entire 24-hours of September 11. From the library’s website: “This is done with the belief that libraries represent the sum of all human knowledge. They represent freedom of expression, celebration of diversity, a playing field that is level, preservation of heritage, and commitment to the future. There may be nothing more antithetical to terrorism, hatred, bigotry, and fanaticism that the American Public Library. We believe that there can be no more fitting tribute, no more appropriate commemoration of September 11, 2001, than for libraries to simply be there. Therefore, the Bensenville Public Library will remain open for the entire twenty-four hours of September 11. Throughout those hours, the library will conduct business as usual: facilitate communication, foster citizenship, promote understanding, and guarantee freedom of access to information.” Get more information at www.librariesremember.net

Last week, along with a remarkable group of partners, I submitted a Beta Sprint proposal for an architectural interface for a Digital Public Library of America.  I’m really proud of this work and I believe it could have a substantial impact on public libraries and other memory institutions like museums and archives.  The design concept was realized by the team at Noll & Tam Architects and Planners, including Chris Noll, Jason Barish, and Abraham Jayson as well as Matthew Williams Design, myself, and considerable conceptual development from Sam Klein and Katie Filbert of the Wikimedia Foundation and the DC Wiki Society.

The Library Lab, or ‘LibLab’, is a system of 11 modules, each of which is a scalable interface for creating and contributing a particular type of knowledge, and all of which are interoperable with one another.  Libraries do a great job of making books and other media available and accessible for their users, but they don’t do as good or consistent a job focusing their users on creating and contributing content.  Probably the best example of consistent content creation in public libraries is children’s craft programs, and even with these the results and products of the programs are rarely published to the web or shared widely.  Quite a few libraries have found corners in which to build public media labs, while others have more robust efforts underway to build information commons that include content creation in their program, and certainly the excellent YouMedia curriculum serves as a guide for the creation of teen and youth content creation spaces across the country.  Still, the big design problem that public libraries face remains in play: our audience is *everyone*, so we must design for *everyone*.  Focusing solely on content creation as a youth activity in libraries, museums, and archives is insufficient.  Our intention with the modular Library Lab system is to create a flexible framework that can be adapted, extended, and configured to support content creation in any public space for any audience.

The modules you see are built with a flexible system of components that can be designed digitally, transmitted to any location, and fabricated using simple tools and methodologies.  The size of the forms allows them to be fabricated from readily available standard materials such as plywood, MDF, plastics, metal, or composite materials as well as different colors or finishes.  All of the design and fabrication techniques are easily adaptable to individual needs, and the processes are also open source and part of the creative commons.  You don’t like something about the existing Library Lab plans, or want to tweak something for your use case?  No problem, this system invites versioning, customization and experimentation.

The Wiki Society of Washington DC is running the very first demonstration Library Lab at the Martin Luther King Jr. DC Public Library from September until the end of December.  This lab calls itself a “hackspace for knowledge”, inviting people to the space to collaborate on projects, run workshops, and involve students.  In the DC LibLab, you won’t yet find fully realized versions of the module designs described here, but you will find implementations of the activities the modules support.  Over the course of the months that the DC LibLab is operating, we’ll be doing hands-on work gathering data and testing the principles as described in the design concept.  This data will provide a feedback loop that informs the design iterations and provides hooks for individuals and institutions to extend and customize the modules and their components for their own use cases.  Please, visit the DC LibLab, volunteer, and participate in these formative moments!  We also invite your commentary on the Library Lab concept in general; librarylab.org will feature forums and opportunities for user feedback very soon.

Check out this quick, informative video from Columbus Metropolitan (Ohio) Library. What a great way to succinctly explain Digital Rights Management issues and how they affect the library’s E-Books collection. What are other libraries doing to help clarify these issues for patrons?

Great Tools for Parents – Great Savings for You. Save up to 50% on kits for young readers.

Help parents foster reading at home by offering these engaging reading kits at your librayr. Each publication below if 40% off through August 31, 2011. Combine it with your 10% ALA discount and you get 50% off! Just use the promotion code “sale11″ when place your order.

*75 of the Best Books for Young Readers – Sale Price: $27.50 (members), $33.00 (nonmembers)
Sold in packets of 25. Item #2009-0002.
An illustrated poster lists some of the very best board books and picture books to read to children from birth through preschool. Includes stickers to add to poster as books are read.

*100 of the Best Books to Read in Kindergarten – Sale Price $37.50 (members), $45.00 (nonmmembers)
Sold in packets of 25. Item #2009-0001.
This kit includes two illustrated, interactive posters (100 Best Books to Read in Kindergarten and 100 More Books to Read in Kindergarten), a parent guide, and bookmarks.

*Nursery Rhymes, Songs, and Fingerplays – Sale Price $32.00 (members), $38.00 (nonmembers)
Sold in packs of 50. Item #701.
A delightful collection of more than 80 of the best rhyming verses for children.

Order online at www.alastore.ala.org or call 866-746-7252. Remember to use “sale11″ to take advantage of this special promotion.

The University of Washington, with generous support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is extending the benefits of the 2009 U.S. IMPACT Study patron web survey by making it available to all public libraries to use in their own data collection, evaluation, and advocacy efforts. Through the survey website, http://impactsurvey.org, public libraries will also benefit from new advocacy tools, including video instruction, to help them communicate the value of public access technology to policy makers.

The University of Washington is currently recruiting 400-600 library systems nationwide to pilot the survey tool and support materials. Pilot libraries will receive support throughout their involvement and will be asked to provide feedback on the process and support materials. Participating libraries must begin their survey fielding period by September 12th. To register your library for the pilot, please visit http://impactsurvey.org. For more information, please visit http://impactsurvey.org or contact the survey coordinator at or (206) 543-4324.

Conducted in 2009, the U.S. IMPACT Study was the first large-scale investigation of the ways library patrons use computers and the Internet at public libraries, why they use it, and how it affects their lives. The study consisted of 4 case studies, a national telephone survey, and an online survey designed to supplement the telephone survey and ensure that PAC (public access computing) users from all walks of life were represented. Over 400 libraries participated in the online survey, which yielded 45,000 responses. The study was instrumental in providing evidence that access to the Internet at U.S. public libraries has a profound and measurable impact on individuals and communities. The study’s second report, “Opportunity for All: How Library Policies and Practices Impact Public Internet Access” was recently released.