PLA Blog

It’s not too late to register for this Continuing Education Course from PLA!

Politics and Networking
Florida Library Association
Orlando, FL
November 13-14, 2007

Librarians need to understand their local political environment and network effectively with politicians in order to thrive in their communities. Participants in this training will learn how to:

• Assess local political issues, explain how local decisions are made, and know how federal, state and local statutes, ordinances and resolutions affect local decision-making.
• Identify key players, build coalitions and work collaboratively.
• Develop negotiation and conflict resolution skills, and understand how values and ethics influence political effectiveness.

Click here for a full class description and instructor bio.

Course Fee:

• $250 for PLA members and partners
• $300 for ALA members
• $400 for non-members

Register Now for Politics and Networking!

PLA has extended the application deadline for the 3M Leadership Institute to November 16. Applications may be submitted through an online form available at www.pla.org. PLA will notify applicants of their acceptance by the end of November.

Presented by PLA and 3M, a PLA partner, the Leadership Institute is a daylong preconference focused on developing leaders and encouraging change within the library profession. Participants will learn how to set a strategy for change, how to handle various challenges and what innovations will best implement, drive and define change. The preconference will be held on Tuesday, March 25, preceding PLA 2008, PLA’s 12th National Conference in Minneapolis.

Registration is limited for this free event. Submit your application today to have the best chance of being selected for this special opportunity from PLA.

ALA is encouraging public libraries to participate in the 2007-2008 Public Library Funding and Technology Access online survey. The survey provides an important opportunity for libraries to share information on computer and Internet resources and infrastructure, as well as funding, technology training and other uses of public libraries, such as providing public access technology centers in their communities. The current year’s online survey, available at http://survey.pnmi.com, will be available through Nov. 25, 2007.

“This survey is vital to all of us-data from past studies have been used in Congressional testimony, by the U.S. Census Bureau and by national and local media,” said ALA Office for Research & Statistics Director Denise M. Davis. “The success of the survey rests largely on the overall and individual state response rates. We encourage all public libraries to log on and help us create the most complete picture possible of technology in our nation’s public libraries. Our thanks also to all the libraries that already have completed the survey.”

The study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and ALA, continues work begun by John Carlo Bertot and Charles R. McClure in 1994. It provides important information for policymakers, the ALA and library advocates regarding public library Internet and public computing needs and issues.

More information, including results from the 2007 study, is available online at http://www.ala.org/plinternetfunding.

In response to the fires in Southern California and the resulting damage to personal and public collections, the Library of Congress has updated its preservation Web page on emergency care.

Information about whom to contact for guidance, as well as how to protect and salvage collections and, most important, where to go for supplies and aid, can be found at “Fire Recovery for Collections,” http://www.loc.gov/preserv/emergprep/fire.html, or at “Emergency Preparedness: Introduction,” http://www.loc.gov/preserv/emergprep/prepare.html.

In addition to destroying collections, fire can also damage them significantly. Collections can be scorched, singed, embrittled, discolored or soiled by soot and smoke. Water used to extinguish fires can cause staining, discoloration and ink or color “bleeding.” Water from hoses and sprinkler systems can cause some materials to stick together, as well as germinate mold growth. Normally, the Library of Congress recommends that collection salvage be left to experts such as conservators or commercial salvage firms specializing in the field. These experts understand the nature of materials, and know which types of collection items might be damaged even further by well-intended but misguided salvage attempts.

The Library can direct people to various places for help, such as the American Institute for Conservation’s Web site for “Finding a Conservator” and the Heritage Preservation Foundation’s emergency resources page.

In addition, the Library of Congress engages in training and research projects to advance emergency mitigation. For instance, Library staff members occasionally offer salvage training, and the Library’s scientific research laboratory assesses various salvage and fire suppression systems. Also, the Library’s Web site has video demonstrations of collection salvage techniques for water-damaged materials.

For protection of collections, including its own, the Library advocates a well-developed “Continuity of Operations Plan” that addresses preservation and emergency planning, mitigation, response, recovery and salvage of collections. The Library also supports the spirit of the “MayDay Initiative,” created by the Society of American Archivists, which promotes awareness of emergency mitigation activities each May.

For more information, visit the Library of Congress Preservation Directorate’s site at http://www.loc.gov/preserv/.

The executive board of the Association of Library Trustees and Advocates (ALTA) agreed at the 2007 fall planning session to work with board members from Friends of Libraries U.S.A. (FOLUSA) to determine whether and how a partnership might benefit both groups and, most importantly, America’s libraries. ALTA is one of the American Library Association’s (ALA) oldest divisions with its inception in 1890. FOLUSA, a younger organization, began within ALA in 1979 and became an independent organization based in Philadelphia in 1984.
“This is a bold new step for ALTA,” said President Don Roalkvam. “Our association developed a sweeping new plan for the future last year and this potential opportunity meshes well with our vision to grow membership, create new partnerships, and strengthen our voice for advocacy.”
During the next year, members of both organizations’ boards will work together to design possible governance structures that embrace both the Trustee and the Friends sectors, determine a viable dues structure that encourages continued and growing membership, and find ways to engage corporate members to join them in advocacy.
“This is certainly an idea whose time has come,” said Emily Sheketoff, executive director of ALA’s Washington Office. Our most powerful advocates for libraries are those that support them and use them – in other words, Trustees, Friends, and the library’s corporate community.”
(more)

As the planning continues, the boards of both organizations are committed to ensuring that the distinctive and important roles both groups play in the library community are preserved and that benefits to Trustees and Friends will continue to grow. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work with ALTA as interim director,” said Sally G. Reed, executive director of FOLUSA. “I honestly believe that libraries are strengthened when Trustees, Friends and members of the library corporate community join forces to enhance and preserve our libraries.”
Immediate plans are underway to work with the Public Library Association, the Library Administration and Management Association, and the Association of College and Research Libraries with the goal of bringing all trustee boards and Friends groups into the new partnership.
FOLUSA is a national organization with approximately 3,500 Friends group, Trustee, Foundation and individual members representing hundreds of thousands of library supporters. For more than 25 years FOLUSA has offered training, support, and idea sharing for library supporters around the country.

Alexis Linoski is working with a colleague to author a book titled Federated Search: A Librarian’s Guide, and while they’ve had a plethora of academic librarian feedback, they’d really like some public librarian feedback. Alex writes:

“We are surveying both library practitioners and the federated search vendors to get a complete picture of what the profession is looking for and what the current / forthcoming options are. This data will be combined with a guide on selecting and implementing a federated search tool. The aim is to illuminate all of the decisions necessary in order to alleviate the pitfalls of the process.”

Take a few minutes to fill out the survey online and give them more of a public librarian perspective on federated search.

What are your thoughts? Is there more you wish the survey let you express, vent, or gush? Post your comments here, we’d love to hear from you.

The Lois Lenski Covey Foundation, Inc. foundation annually awards grants to rural and urban public libraries serving at-risk children. Awards range from $500 to $5,000, and are awarded to libraries with real need and limited book budgets to purchase books for young people. The purchases can be used to expand the greater collection or to focus on specific areas.

The organization does not have its own web site, but the 2-page application, due October 15, 2007, is available for download (.pdf format) thanks to the New York Library Association web site. For more details about the grant, contact Joel D. Sharrow with Moses & Singer LLP at 212-554-7809.

Deborah Schneider, Public Programming Coordinator with the King County Library System, is looking for your feedback on author events:

I will be meeting with a large agency in NY City in October, talking about author events in libraries. They are very interested in knowing how they can help place their authors with libraries across the US.

I would appreciate any suggestions you could send to me, things that have worked for you and things you wish the publishers and agents would do to make booking authors easier for you and your staff.

Send any comments to: dschneid at kcls dot org

You can email Deborah and/or post your comments here.

American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) is pulling out all the stops with this year’s Banned Books Week, September 29–October 6, 2007, by taking the show on the digital road, so to speak, with events and official listings in Web 2.0 spaces like MySpace (no account required to view), Facebook (you need an account to view and join the Banned Books Week group), and Second Life.

For many, these spaces are still unexplored territory. The events of Banned Books Week are a good reason to get yourself oriented and try things out before things get really rockin’ at the kick-off party in Second Life on Saturday, September 29 at 6pm Second Life, which is the same as Pacific Standard Time. The links below are my recommendations for tutorials to help you get started.

Remember, you don’t want to wait until 5 minutes before the party next Saturday to log into Second Life for the first time, or to take advantage of the discussions and networking happening on Facebook, so give yourself ample time to set up accounts and explore!

MySpace:

• You won’t need an account on MySpace to view the information on the Banned Books Week MySpace page, but if you want to add comments to the page, you will need to log in as a member.
• eHow: How to Get Started Using MySpace: A basic step-by-step on how to sign up for an account and get started. You can see all of the how-to articles, which are a quick and easy read, in the eHow MySpace section.

Facebook:

• Take a quick tour: Created by Facebook, click on each of the aspects in the right-hand navigation to get your bearings before you create your account and jump on in.
• A beginner’s guide to Facebook for non-profits: A great basic overview of Facebook and how to get your network on *and* increase visibility in your community by understanding how people use it.
• How to use Facebook without Losing Your Job over it: Good, basic tips on security and use, with a good bit of an insight to just how open the information culture is on Facebook.
• 12 Ways to Use Facebook Professionally: It’s not just for kids!

Second Life:

• You will need to create a free account as well as download and install the free software on your computer before you can log into Second Life. This can take a little while, so give yourself time to get it up and running.
• Spend time on Orientation Island: Which is where you land after you log in the first time, and it’s really worth going through all the exercises. If you’re going into Second Life for a specific event, be sure to log in at an earlier date and time to get yourself oriented and play with your avatar.
• Natalia’s Getting Started in Second Life Guide: This list of tip guides helps you get your bearings, customize your avatar (the digital version of yourself in Second Life), move around, teleport (a quick and easy form of transportation to events), and more. It also gives you some cultural tips and etiquette bits to help you grow from n00b (newbie) to an advanced beginner.
• Top 10 Second Life Tutorial Videos on YouTube and Google: I like this collection of video tutorials because they give you practical tips and a real sense of the Second Life culture. Watch them in order, or pick and choose the ones you need, and they’ll help you explore the virtual world with greater understanding.

Have questions? Want help or a tour? Don’t hesitate to post in the comments here.

It’s that time of year again! Borders Educators Savings week is coming, September 26 to October 2, and librarians (current and retired) are included in the 25% discount offer on books, CDs, DVDs, and cafe (some restrictions do apply, see the site for details). These books can be for your library, or just for you (call it “professional development,” if you like). Simply show proof of “educator status,” and in my past experience, usually a business card or a letter on letterhead from your library is proof enough.

Borders will be honoring educators with a $50,000 donation to First Book, an organization that gives children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books.

Inquire at your local Borders about their special reception celebrating the week on September 28 from 4:00 - 8:00 pm. If you call far enough in advance, perhaps your local store and your library can work out some collaborative programming!