March 6, 2010 issue

Prairie Views: Newsletter of the Prairie Area Library System

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SYSTEM NEWS

PALS Day Keynote Speaker - Tracie Hall

The keynote speaker for PALS Day (Thursday, April 22nd) is Tracie Hall, founder and principal of GoodSeed Consulting Group.  She is also an analyst for the Boeing Company's Global Corporate Citizenship Division.  Tracie has worked in several different public libraries, served as Director of ALA's Office for Diversity, and was Assistant Dean of Dominican University's Graduate School of Library and Information Science.  In her presentation "May I Please Blow Up This Reference Desk?", Tracie takes a look at how society has changed and how libraries must adapt their traditional services to meet the contemporary needs of their users.  A library director in a neighboring state who recently hosted Tracie for a staff workshop said, "She was one of the best speakers, if not the best, that we've had in the area.  I recommend her enthusiastically."

 

For more information and registration for PALS Day, go to http://www.librarylearning.info/events/?eventID=9511 for full day registration or http://www.librarylearning.info/events/?eventID=9707 for half day registration.

MEMBER LIBRARY NEWS

Library's high-tech device increases staff efficiency
Bettendorf Library Board rehires director

CONTINUOUS LEARNING

Webinar about Facebook Sponsored by Tech Soup

Many nonprofits and libraries are using Facebook to interact with their constituencies and reach out to new audiences; but what's the best way to get your organization started on this hugely popular social networking site?

Get Started on Facebook 

Thursday, March 11, 10 a.m. Pacific
https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/schedule/display.do?udc=78nswp9hxv3e

Kami Griffiths will interview social media consultant John Haydon, who will cover the essential steps to establishing and managing a successful Facebook presence. Gabe O'Neill of Kids Are Heroes will share lessons learned from developing their Facebook page. Get practical how-to information, learn best practices, ask questions, and leave with action items that will help you create an engaging Facebook presence for your library.

Mentors, Proteges and Strategic Planning: New Courses on WJIL

Three new courses from the UNT LE@D program have been added to the WebJunction Illinois Course Catalog: Mentors and Protégés: Creating Successful Workplace Programs; Strategic Planning: Quick, Cheap, and Decent; Strategic Planning: The Five-Minute Introduction. These online courses are available for free to registered users of WJIL. For more information visit BlogJunction Illinois.

Trendy Topics  2010:  Teens and Technology

Alliance Library System and TAP Information Services are pleased to announce the third in a dynamic monthly series of online workshops librarians can enjoy right at their desktops on hot topics.  The latest conference on Teens and Technology is scheduled for Tuesday, April 13.  Kelly Czarnecki from the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County is the keynote speaker.  She will talk about "A Great Fit: Teens, Technology and Libraries!"  Kelly's talk will take a look at how libraries throughout the country are engaging teens with technology and why. Then she will address ways (low budget!) that libraries can integrate more technology programs and services for teens in their library and community and convince their administrators along the way.

Other speakers for this inspiring  day-long conference include:

Dodie Ownes, Editor of SLJTeen on "Teens and Technology"

Marianne Mancusi, Author of Gamer Girl

Beth Gallaway, Trainer/Consultant on "Jumping on the Gaming Bandwagon: Advocacy, Best Practices and Current Trends"

Angie Green, Alliance Library System, "Digital Literacy"

Cynthia Hart, Virginia Beach Public Library, "Geeking Out @ the Library"

Beth Gallaway, "Web 2.wh0a: Trendy Tech to Use with Teens"

A full informational flyer can be found at http://www.alliancelibrarysystem.com/TrendyTopics/workshop3TrendyTopicsTeensApril2010.pdf.  Register at http://www.eventbee.com/view/trendytopics/event?eid=65537.  Registration for librarians for the one day conference is $40; for students $30; and for groups $100.

 

For more information on these workshops please contact Lori Bell at ALS, lbell@alliancelibrarysystem.com or Tom Peters at TAP Information Services at tpeters@tapinformation.com.

FREEBIES, EXCHANGES & FOR SALE

Free DVD's

They are in great condition, many still in shrink wrap:
Crouching tiger hidden dragon
300
Identity
Kill Bill v. 1
Kill Bill v. 2
Crank
Face off
Minority report
Twisted
Heartbreak kid
O Brother where art thou
Fargo- 3 copies
Buffy the Vampire Slayer- 2 copies
Chucky, the killer
Dirty Harry
Easy rider- 2 copies
The Rocky Horror picture show
Next
If interested, please contact me via email: mkeegan@perulibrary.org
Melissa Keegan

Kishwaukee College Library

Kiswaukee has a complete set of Popular Mechanics magazines from 1990 to the present available to give away.   You will have to make arrangements to pick up.
If interested contact:
Carol Wubbena,
Phone: 815-825-2086 x2250
Email:  cwubbena@kishwaukeecollege.edu

Giveaways

CLC - Contemporary Literary Criticism - brown bound - hardcover - Vols. 1(1973) - Vol. 36 (1986) - inclusive.
If interested, contact:
Barb Peterson
Joliet West HS Library
815 727 6952
bpeterson@jths.org

Free for the taking

A 2010 copy of Gale's National E-mail and Fax Directory, 24th Edition, 3 vols.
If interested, contact:
Mary J. Soucie
Three Rivers Library District
815-467-6200 x303
marys@trpld.org

AROUND THE STATE & NATION

2010 Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award Winners!

1st place--City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
2nd place--Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
3rd place-- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Connect with National Library Week

(ALA, CHICAGO) – The Campaign for America’s Libraries wants to know how Communities thrive @ your library. Share your story on the National Library Week community in ALA Connect, the home of the American Library Association’s (ALA) online communities. Celebrating the Communities thrive @ your library theme, the mission of the National Library Week community is to create a community where librarians of all types can communicate their ideas and develop new ways to celebrate and promote National Library Week.

 

Currently available through the National Library Week community are ideas for promoting National Library Week, a print public service announcement (PSA) featuring Neil Gaiman and information on the 2010 Scholastic Library Publishing National Library Week grant winner.

The National Library Week community is open to all. Members are encouraged to post their own programming ideas and discussions. To join, visit http://connect.ala.org/node/85425.

 

For more information on ALA Connect, visit http://connect.ala.org.  Librarians are also encouraged to showcase their National Library Week promotions on ALA’s YouTube and Flickr pages.  Additional online materials focusing on Communities thrive @ your library are available for download at www.ala.org/nlw. They include a proclamation, sample press release and letter-to-the-editor, as well as scripts for use in radio PSAs.

Are you UpNext?

Share your thoughts on the Future of Museums and Libraries Wiki

(IMLS, Washington) The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) invites you to help invent the future of museums and libraries through your participation in UpNext: The Future of Museums and Libraries Wiki. IMLS’s first-ever wiki is a platform where individuals inside and outside of museums, libraries, and related fields can discuss, dissect, expand, and inform the issues outlined in the Future of Museums and Libraries: A Discussion Guide. IMLS will use the knowledge shared in the wiki to help shape the agency’s strategic plan, research directions, publications, convenings, and grant making. The wiki  officially launched on March 3.

GRANT NEWS

 “Let’s Talk About It: Picturing America” brings American experience to life through literature, visual arts

Apply by March 31 to receive $2,000 programming grant
(ALA, CHICAGO) – The American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office announces five new reading and discussion themes based on the popular Let’s Talk About It model and inspired by the National Endowment for the Humanities’ (NEH) Picturing America collection. The Let’s Talk About It: Picturing America series has been developed to support public libraries in their efforts to conduct high quality humanities programs that highlight the Picturing America collection and engage audiences in dynamic, timely conversations about American art and history.

To encourage use of Let’s Talk About: Picturing America, and the Picturing America collection the ALA Public Programs Office and NEH are offering programming grants of $2,000 to 30 public libraries. All public libraries who received the Picturing America collection are eligible to apply by March 31. For more information, and to begin an online application, visit www.programminglibrarian.org/picturingamerica.

ADVOCACY NEWS

We MUST speak up!

"Faint heart ne'er won fair lady,"  Cervantes.  The point here is that you've got to be bold to get what you want and to stay on the radar of those who make decisions that affect our funding and grants.  We simply must tell our elected officials how they can help.

Friday, April 16th offers such an opportunity. Visit our legislators and present them with the stories you gathered on Snapshot Day. Show them how libraries still DO matter, even in this age of the internet!  Some of our libraries have already indicated that they will cover their legislators. Details on the time to meet and where will be sent out before the date when specific information is available.

Some of you might find that the April 16th date doesn’t work. That’s OK. It’s more important to meet and talk with the legislators than to make it happen on that specific date. The General Assembly is scheduled to be out of session on Fridays, so if another Friday works better in your schedule, invite your senator, representative, perhaps even your mayor and councilmen to your library, or, head to their district offices. Please let us know of the time you’ve scheduled, and we’ll pass the information along to your fellow librarians. Send information to inaram@palsnet.info.

Don’t forget to include our best spokesmen of all – our board members and trustees. They’re our champions and as the unpaid citizen volunteers, they’re listened to.

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Prairie Views is the weekly newsletter of the Prairie Area Library System

All subscribers are encouraged to submit contributions and suggestions to prairieviews@palsnet.info. Submissions must be received by Tuesday to appear in the upcoming edition. To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this newsletter, please visit the following link: http://mailman.palsnet.info/mailman/listinfo/pviews