In This Issue: 07.11.08
Another Look at Resource Sharing • ALA Privacy Initiative • Effective Lobbying • Family Literacy National Grant • Children's Books Grant • LSTA Grants • National Children's Choice Book Awards • The Value of Summer Reading • Merlin Favorites • Board of Trustees Meeting • Tools for Librarians • Useful URLs • Reflection
C A L E N D A R
July 19 NWLS Board of Trustees Meeting, NWLS, 10:00
August 20 Merlin and Directors Meeting, 10:00 - 2:30
August 25 Library 2.0, NWLS, 10:00 - 2:30
UW-Madison SLIS Continuing Education Fall Online Library Courses:
- Readers' Advisory in the Library, September 8 - November 28
- Genealogy Library Services, September 8 - October 3
- Collection Development, September 17 - December 10
- Basic Public Library Management, September 22 - December 12
- Library 2.0: 101, September 29 - October 26
C U R R E N T . E V E N T S
Another Look at Resource Sharing
From Jim Trojanowski, NWLS Director - It has been nearly two years since I wrote an article for Streams titled, “What Sharing Means.” In that piece, written in response to a complaint by a patron who was frustrated by the often months-long wait she endured in getting materials from some libraries, I encouraged libraries to share their collections more openly and to recognize the fundamental way in which Merlin has changed the way patrons perceive library service. That article is available here http://nwls.wislib.org//streams/septtwo.htm
My opinion hasn’t changed. I remain strongly committed in my belief that Merlin has changed the way patrons perceive public library service. Libraries that join Merlin have an obligation to share materials in their collections promptly and freely. I admit, however, that the article ignored other ways in which Merlin has changed the nature of resource sharing. One of these is collection development and it is a topic that demands exploration.
If we believe that patrons consider the Merlin catalog the means by which they gain access to a single collection held in 27 libraries, we must recognize that the very nature of collection development has changed. Purchasing decisions made at each library affect the patrons of every library within the shared system. As a result, we see collection development as a Merlin-wide issue, not strictly a local one.
Collection development policies can no longer be developed without recognizing how they affect other Merlin libraries. For example, if a library decides not to collect popular films or to reduce the number of copies of best-sellers it purchases, its patrons simply request them through Merlin. This increases the waiting time for popular items at all Merlin libraries.
Just as the collection development policies of each Merlin library affect all other members, so do their collection development budgets. If a library fails to budget adequately for new materials, its patrons find them in Merlin, creating additional demand on other libraries’ collections.
Unfortunately, expenditures for new materials declined among Northern Waters member libraries by $44,500 (8%) from 2003-2007, and nine libraries cut collection expenditures by more than 10% during this period. If this trend continues patrons will face longer and longer waiting lists for popular items.
Recognizing collection development as an important aspect of resource sharing within Merlin is an important step, but where do we go from here? It is relatively easy for library directors to verify that their collection development policies are current and to make every reasonable effort to purchase materials that are in demand within their communities.
Streams includes a list of items in Merlin with the most holds. Librarians should use the list as a collection development tool, taking special care to order those items most frequently requested by their patrons. Another collection development tool available to librarians is the ability to run a list of their patrons’ Merlin holds and sort them by title. The library can compare this list to its holdings and purchase new titles or additional copies of high-demand materials as necessary.
Few library budgets are growing as quickly as costs are, making it difficult for most libraries to find new money for collection development. It is troubling, however, that expenditures for new materials are decreasing even as the cost for these materials grows.
At some point, the Merlin Consortium may wish to discuss cooperative collection development in order to stretch limited resources as far as possible and provide the best possible services to patrons. These types of efforts have proven difficult in the past because they require the participation and cooperation of all members of the consortium.
The fact remains that the nature of collection development changed with the establishment of Merlin just as the nature of sharing did. Merlin members must recognize this fact by purchasing new materials both in adequate numbers and of the type in demand by their patrons if Merlin’s potential is to be met.
ALA Privacy Initiative
From the Office for Intellectual Freedom - ALA's new privacy rights initiative, "Privacy for All: Rallying Americans to Defend Our Freedoms," is intended to inspire library patrons to stand with librarians as they fight to usher in privacy standards in the digital age. The initiative responds to ALA Council's resolution calling for a national conversation on privacy, passed at the 2006 Annual Conference in New Orleans.
To help kick off the initiative, the Office for Intellectual Freedom sponsored a panel at this year's ALA Annual Conference with a stimulating discussion about privacy, libraries, and society. "Privacy: Is It Time for a Revolution?" featured author Cory Doctorow, Wired senior writer Dan Roth, and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse director Beth Givens in a discussion about the state of privacy in the 21st century. How can we get people thinking about the importance of privacy? Panelists made a compelling case for how important it is to guard against a steady societal erosion of privacy.
In conjunction with the program, the Office for Intellectual Freedom has just launched an online survey for librarians, library users, and others about the issues related to privacy today. Please visit http://www.privacyrevolution.org and take this (short) survey today! [Note: the survey will only be online for a couple of weeks, so don't delay!]
Effective Lobbying
From Lynn Blumenstein, Library Journal, June 30, 2008 - Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the American Library Association (ALA) Washington Office, presented “Lobbying for Operational Expenses” at the ALA Annual Conference. She emphasized the importance of making alliances and offering a vision of how improved funding would impact library services.
Sheketoff urged librarians to broadly define their community—including businesses, children, stay-at-home moms, and immigrants—she acknowledged that such constituencies all pose different challenges. However, she said, “No matter what your community needs, the library is the answer.”
Know who makes the financial decisions in your community, Sheketoff said, and get to know their staff. Invite them to library programs. Business people often can best understand a library’s budget concerns. Tap library supporters who have personal connections with decision makers.
She reminded listeners of the "five-p" rule: “Prior preparation prevents poor performance.” In order to make the most out of your pitch, said Sheketoff, try and link a data point with an anecdote and, guess what, stories with children are best.
Offer the public a vision of what they can have and let them know the consequences of limited budgets. Show gratitude for what you do get, but also talk about what you could accomplish with more.
“I can guarantee you that legislators don’t know what you could do with the resources you deserve," Sheketoff observed. "You have to make them understand. It’s your job.”
Family Literacy National Grant
From Channel Weekly , July 10, 2008 - The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy's National Grant Program's goal is to develop and expand family literacy efforts, and to support the development of literacy programs that build families of readers. The program provides grants for projects that support the development of literacy skills for adult primary care givers and their children. Eligible instructional literacy programs must have been in existence at least two years and include one or more of the following components: literacy for adults, parent education, literacy or pre-literacy instruction for children pre-K to grade 3, and intergenerational literacy activities.
A total of $650,000 will be awarded for grants of up to $65,000. The application deadline is September 5, 2008. Application guidelines and grant program details are available on the Foundation's website.
Children's Books Grant
From Channel Weekly , July 10, 2008 - Lois Lenski, the 1946 Newbery medalist for "Strawberry Girl," had a life-long concern that good books be available to all children. In pursuit of this goal, she established a foundation to provide grants to public libraries, school libraries, and non-profit agencies serving disadvantaged populations.
The Lois Lenski Covey Foundation, Inc. annually awards grants to rural and urban, public and school libraries serving at-risk children. The Foundation gives priority to applications from libraries and agencies with real need and limited book budgets. Funds are earmarked for purchasing books for young people, and are not intended for administrative or operational use. Previously awarded grants have ranged from $500 to $3000. Successful applicants have proposed purchases to update their children's book collections generally or to expand their holdings in specific areas. Additional information and the grant application is available online at http://www.loislenskicovey.org/GrantApp2008.PDF.
LSTA Grants
Three information sessions were held in June 2008 for those interested in applying for an LSTA grant. Information on the LSTA program and 2009 grant categories is available in the LSTA Information and Guidelines for Wisconsin. Individual public libraries, as well as systems, are eligible to apply for the grant categories, and first time applicants are encouraged to apply.
The LSTA website has links to instructions and Word document templates for LSTA evaluation and application draft creation. Portions of the draft copy can be copied and pasted into the online grant forms found at http://www3.dpi.wi.gov/FormFinder/. The LSTA grant application form is live. Grant applications are due by September 12, 2008.
Reminder: The 2008 six-month evaluation forms are due by July 31, 2008. Applications and evaluations must be submitted online.
National Children's Choice Book Awards
From the Children's Book Council, May 13, 2008 – The Children’s Book Council (CBC) in association with the CBC Foundation, announced the winners of the first annual Children’s Choice Book Awards at a gala in New York City, hosted by Jon Scieszka, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Children across the country voted for their favorite books, author, and illustrator at bookstores, school libraries, and at www.BookWeekOnline.com. Close to 55,000 votes were received.
The Children’s Choice Book Awards program was created to provide young readers with an opportunity to voice their opinions about the books being written for them and to help develop a reading list that will motivate children to read. The program is a new component of Children’s Book Week, the longest running literacy event in the country.
The Children’s Choice Book Award winners are as follows:
• Kindergarten to Second Grade Book of the Year: Frankie Stein by Lola M. Schaefer
• Third Grade to Fourth Grade Book of the Year: Big Cats by Elaine Landau
• Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year: Encyclopedia Horrifica by Joshua Gee
• Illustrator of the Year Award: Ian Falconer, Olivia Helps with Christmas
• Author of the Year Award: J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The Value of Summer Reading
From Elizabeth Burmaster, State Superintendent - Summer reading is fun, and there's a special value that extends into the school year. Students who read four to six books during the summer return to school ready to learn. Research has shown what teachers have known forever: students who do not engage in educational activities during summer vacation suffer learning loss. That loss can amount to as much as two to three months of learning each year. The greatest learning losses are procedural and factual information, meaning children who don't read in the summer tend to start the school year fuzzy on math and spelling. Summer readers, however, return to school in fall more enthusiastic about reading and learning. Many gain a month of learning by staying engaged and involved during the summer break from school.
It really doesn't matter what kinds of materials children read during vacation; in fact, it's better for youth to pick what they like. Joke books, magazines, mysteries, or sports stories-whatever suits their fancy is best for recreational reading. There are no tests or reports. This reading is at a comfortable level to keep it fun. Still, recreational reading develops vocabulary and builds reading speed and comprehension skills.
There is so much to gain by reading during the summer. I encourage all families to visit the library and "Catch the Reading Bug!"
Merlin Favorites
The following from the Merlin catalog have a waiting list of more than nine people.
holds/copies
14/1 . . . . 21 [videorecording(DVD)]
38/9 . . . . 27 dresses [videorecording(DVD)]
30/4 . . . . 10,000 B.C. [videorecording(DVD)]
10/3 . . . . Are you there vodka? It's me, Chelsea / Chelsea Handler.
21/17 . . . Audition : a memoir / Barbara Walters
20/1 . . . . Be kind rewind [videorecording(DVD)]
10/4 . . . . Before the devil knows you're dead [videorecording(DVD)]
17/4 . . . . Breaking Dawn / Stephenie Meyer
16/0 . . . . Brisingr / Christopher Paolini
24/13 . . . The broken window : a Lincoln Rhyme novel / Jeffery Deaver
54/11 . . . The bucket list [videorecording(DVD)]
11/6 . . . . Can't take my eyes off of you / Judith McNaught
10/5 . . . . Damage control / J. A. Jance
14/7 . . . . The dangerous days of Daniel X / James Patterson ; Michael Ledwidge
32/2 . . . . Definitely, maybe [videorecording(DVD)]
163/31 . . Fearless fourteen : a Stephanie Plum novel / Janet Evanovich
22/9 . . . . Fearless fourteen [sound recording(BookCD)] : a Stephanie Plum novel / Janet Evanovich
38/3 . . . . Fool's gold [videorecording(DVD)]
19/24 . . . The front / Patricia Cornwell
11/8 . . . . The great debaters [videorecording(DVD)]
11/12 . . . The Hollow / Nora Roberts
10/16 . . . The host / Stephenie Meyer
11/5 . . . . I'm not there [videorecording(DVD)]
11/3 . . . . John Adams [videorecording(DVD)]
20/4 . . . . Jumper [videorecording(DVD)]
10/16 . . . The last lecture / Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow
17/7 . . . . Mad money [videorecording)DVD)]
10/1 . . . . Miss Pettigrew lives for a day [videorecording(DVD)]
51/13 . . . National treasure 2. Book of secrets [videorecording(DVD)]
21/16 . . . Nothing to lose / Lee Child
10/1 . . . . Now that's what I call music! 28 [sound recording(MusicCD)]
41/7 . . . . The other Boleyn girl [videorecording(DVD)]
11/2 . . . . Over her dead body [videorecording(DVD)]
22/10 . . . P.S. I love you [videorecording(DVD)]
68/26 . . . Phantom prey / John Sandford
19/15 . . . Plague ship : a novel of the Oregon files / by Clive Cussler ; with Jack Du Brul
23/17 . . . Rogue / Danielle Steel
84/20 . . . Sail / James Patterson and Howard Roughan
12/3 . . . . Say goodbye / Lisa Gardner
21/3 . . . . Semi-pro [videorecording(DVD)]
18/5 . . . . The shack / by William P. Young
28/5 . . . . The Spiderwick chronicles [videorecording(DVD)]
16/5 . . . . Stolen innocence / Elissa Wall with Lisa Pulitze
18/10 . . . The story of Edgar Sawtelle / David Wroblewski
15/21 . . . Sundays at Tiffany's / James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet
12/2 . . . . Sunset / Karen Kingsbury
20/14 . . . TailSpin / Catherine Coulter
38/25 . . . Three cups of tea / Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
33/14 . . . Tribute / Nora Roberts
12/25 . . . Twilight / Stephenie Meyer
21/5 . . . . Untraceable [videorecording(DVD)]
28/2 . . . . Vantage point [videorecording(DVD)]
26/21 . . . The whole truth / David Baldacci
NWLS Board of Trustees Meeting
July 19, 2008,
10:00 a.m.
Northern Waters Library Service Headquarters, Ashland
Agenda:
1. Call to order / Roll Call
2. Guest Comments
3. Minutes of the May 17, 2008 Board of Trustees Meeting
4. May and June 2008 NWLS Expenditures
5. June 30, 2008 Financial Statement and Budget Report
6. 2009 County Appropriation Requests
7. 2009 LSTA Grant Applications
8. Travel reimbursement policy
9. NWLS Pay schedule
10. Approval to provide grants of $325 from the Equipment Fund to member libraries toward the cost of routers
11. Director’s Report
12. Other Business
T E C H N O L O G Y
Tools for Librarians
From ILoveLibraries - The following social networking tools provide easy ways for librarians to organize, access, and share information:
1. aNobii: A books community for sharing reviews and recommendations. See what other subscribers are reading to enhance your knowledge of bibliographic instruction. Create your own shelf to share with others based on what is popular in your library.
2. Del.icio.us: With this social bookmarking tool, you can create and organize a custom directory of bookmarks for library patrons with a searching guides to your recommended links.
3. Netvibes: A personalized, customizable start page much like My Yahoo! or iGoogle for creating and sharing pages that can be used for directing patrons to helpful integrated tools such as feed readers, local weather forecasts, a calendar, bookmarks, notes, to-do lists, and multiple searches. It provides support for email as well as several webmail providers, web storage, del.icio.us, Meebo, Flickr photos, podcast support with a built in audio player, and several others. For privacy reasons, only modules with publicly available content can be shared.
4. Connotea: Connotea is a reference tool you can integrate with lots of tools. It alllows you to save, organize and download reference links, with the option to share.
5. LibraryThing: It’s a book club! It’s a library catalog! It’s a book review source! It’s LibraryThing! This social cataloging network allows you to catalog a personal book collection or a true library collection in a Web 2.0 way, integrating tagging and recommendations in a FRBRizable format. You can also create links to display featured books and new books on local websites.
6. lib.rario.us: A social cataloging site for displaying media such as books, audios, and movies for easy access and tracking. Users can catalog their media, discuss the titles, and share information among other users.
U S E F U L . U R Ls
NPR Summer Reading
National Public Radio's reading section provides recommendations, reviews and readings for your summer enjoyment, including fiction, nonfiction, summer cooking, shipwreck and survival, and super heros. For those planning to fly anytime soon, check out the list of books awarded the "Nancy Pearl Wanderlust Award for Great Airplane Reading."
URL:
http://www.npr.org/
The Reading Tub
Dedicated to promoting reading and literacy, the Reading Tub provides reviews for great books you and your children will love to share. Learn about ways to encourage your child's love of reading.
URL: http://www.thereadingtub.com/
Teen Space
The Internet Public Library’s teen section provides information about graphic novels, including the history of graphic novels, novels from Japan, and links to webcomics that your teens will love.
URL: http://www.ipl.org/div/procrast/graphicnovels/
Flamingnet
This young adult book website features preteen and teen books reviewed by young adults.
URL: http://flamingnet.com/
R E F L E C T I O N
Man has responsiblity, not power.
-American Indian Proverb, Tuscarora
Contact NWLS for subscription services or to submit an article for publication: email Marsha at newsletter@nwls.lib.wi.us or call 715-682-2365.
NWLS: 3200 E. Lake Shore Dr. • Ashland, WI 54806 • Phone: (715)682-2365 • Web: http://nwls.wislib.org • Serving libraries in Ashland, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, Iron, Sawyer, Vilas and Washburn Counties.
