Fall Children's Literacy Festivities • 2007 Librarian of the Year • Best Small Library in America • NWLS Board of Trustees Meeting Agenda • RSS Basics • Useful URLs • Reflection

September 15 NWLS Board of Trustees Meeting, 10:00 a.m., Weiss Community Library, Hayward

September 17 Supervisory Skills for Library Leaders, Managers, Trustrees and Staff, 10:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m., Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, Ashland

September 27 Puppetry in the Library, 10:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m., Telemark Resort, Cable

September 27-28 Northwest Children's Book Conference, Telemark Resort, Cable

September 29 Library Advocacy at the State Level for Library Trustees and Directors, 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., NWLS

October 16-19 Wisconsin Library Association Conference, Regency Suites and KI Convention Center, Green Bay

October 25 Merlin Consortium Meeting, 10:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., NWLS

UW-Madison SLIS Continuing Education Courses in Madison.
Visit the School of Library and Information Studies for more information. Online Courses: (Technical courses are also offered)

Travel Opportunity February 28 - March 9: Books and Beauty in Western Ireland

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Fall Children's Literacy Festivities
September 27 - 28, Telemark Resort, Cable, WI

Puppetry in the Library, 10:00 - 2:30 Thursday September 27 at Telemark Resort, is sponsored by NWLS at no cost to those not attending the Children's Book Conference events. Susan Santner will demonstrate the joy of bringing a hand puppet to life for children in your library. Susan Santner is the Outreach Program Manager for Continuing Education Services in the School of Library and Information Studies, UW-Madison. She combined her love of children’s literature with her passion for the theatre during 17 years working in youth services. Please contact Linda Stobbe to register for this event.

The Fifth Annual Northwest Wisconsin Children's Book Conference at Telemark Resort is a fall gala of children's literature and progamming for teachers, librarians, writers, illustrators, and children's literature enthusiasts. Continuing the tradition established by the Spooner Memorial Library, Telemark Educational Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Redbery Books is dedicated to providing outstanding sessions, speakers, authors, exhibits, networking opportunities, and more:

• CCBC, Cooperative Children's Book Center
• Joan Dungey, educator
• Joleen Henneman, environmental educator
• Bob Kann, author, entertainer, educator
• Katie McKy, author, storyteller
• Paul Mitchell, editor
• Steve and Vicki Palmquist, literary consultants
• Marsha Qualey, author
• Rob Reid, author, lecturer
• Susan Santner, storyteller, puppeteer
• Stuart Stotts, author, storyteller, songwriter
• Damian Vraniak, psychologist

Events will begin Thursday, September 27 with a preconference workshop for writers and educators followed by a reception, dinner, and a special evening with CCBC to honor some of the finest examples of children's literature. Friday's events will include breakfast, 16 concurrent sessions, author banquet, vendors, and book signings. Visit the Telemark Resort and Convension Center for a conference schedule and registration form.

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2007 Librarian of the Year
From Library Journal, 1/15/2007

Over a dozen years as director of Maryland’s Washington County Free Library (WCFL), Hagerstown, Mary Baykan convinced county officials to take the library budget up to the more than $4 million it is now. Meanwhile, on the state level, she was the spearhead of the initiative to hire a nationally known pollster, Potomac, Inc., to survey Maryland residents about their perceptions of libraries. The survey found that libraries were rated their most desired community asset. Then, as legislation chair of the Maryland Library Association (MLA), Baykan persuaded the state’s library workers to take that message to legislators. That resulted in the largest increase in library support in the state’s history. A dollar per capita increase in library support was voted every year for four years, and the budgets of the state’s regional libraries were doubled. In an unprecedented show of support, the bill passed unanimously by both houses of the Maryland legislature and was signed by the governor. Money for capital projects, renovating libraries and building new ones—something the state had not done before—was approved next.

The results of the 2003 Potomac, Inc., survey gave each county its own set of statistics. Librarians used survey results to demonstrate to county councils, city officials, and other leaders the value of libraries. “We have never seen a stronger sense of advocacy in any poll. It gave us a very effective tool and helped us build a very strong political force,” Baykan says.

Those local and state-level accomplishments are more than enough to crown Mary Baykan the 2007 LJ Librarian of the Year, but they are only part of the story. Visit Library Journal to learn more about Mary's contributions to libraries.

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Best Small Library in America
From Library Journal, 11/1/2006

Library Journal's annual award for the Best Small Library in America, cosponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was founded to encourage and showcase the exemplary work of rural libraries. Now in its fourth year, the award honors the public library that most profoundly demonstrates outstanding service to populations of 25,000 or less. The winning library will receive a $15,000 cash award; a feature story in the February 1, 2008, Library Journal; membership and conference costs for two library representatives to attend the Public Library Association Biannual Conference in 2008, and a gala reception at the conference. Nominations are due November 5, 2007. More information is available at Library Journal.

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NWLS Board of Trustees Meeting Agenda
September 15, 2007, 10:00 a.m., Weiss Community Library, Hayward

1. Call to order / Roll Call

2. Guest Comments

3. Approval of the July 21, 2007 meeting minutes

4. July and August 2007 NWLS Expenditures

5. August 2007 Financial Statement and Budget Report

6. September 2007 Budget Amendment

7. 2008 NWLS Budget and Plan of Service

8. 2008 Member Library Agreements

9. 2008 County Service Agreements

10. Superior Public Library 2008 Resource Library Agreement

11. NWLS Pay Scale

12. Personnel Handbook revisions

a. Initial Employment
b. Position Classifications
c. Employer Rights and Responsibilities
d. Performance on the Job

13. Executive Session as authorized by Wisconsin Statutes s. 19.85 (1)c to conduct the Director’s evaluation after which the Board will reconvene in open session.

14. Director’s Report

15. Other Business

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RSS Basics

Most people are interested in revisiting websites for updated information such as news and weather information. Repeatedly checking each website for updated content can be very tedious. Email notification was an early solution to this problem. Unfortunately, email notifications from multiple websites can be overwhelming and mistaken for spam.

RSS reduces the time and effort needed to regularly check favorite websites for updates. The results are an "RSS Feed" presented as a list containing the title, a basic description, and a link to more information. Sometimes all the information you need is a title and description. RSS is a very popular and useful means for communicating.

In order to receive RSS feeds, you must have an aggregator, a feed reader developed to automatically access and organize the results of your feeds. One RSS aggregator is needed to read all of the RSS feeds, be they headlines, alerts, changes, or other notifications. There are a number of aggregators online (many of them free) depending on whether you prefer to access feeds through a browser, an email program, or a standalone application on your personal computer. In addition to being available on your computer, RSS feeds can also be read on handheld computers and cell phones. Feeds accessed through a browser offer the option to be suppressed from public viewing.

It is getting more and more common for websites to have RSS feeds. Feeds are usually indicated by a link to "RSS" or "XML" that will instantly add that feed to your aggregator. Depending on your aggregator, you may instead need to copy and paste the URL of the feed into the program. Simply delete the feed or URL from your aggregator when it is no longer needed.

A short video clip is available from the NWLS Tech Tips blog to show you how RSS feeds work and how to get started!

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Ojibwe Language Resources
From the Minnesota Humanities Center

Ojibwe language guides are available for all ages, with resources for literature, dictionaries, wordlists, grammar and pronunciation, comic books, audios, videos, online language lessons and stories, Ojibwe Immersion programs and more. The Minnesota Humanities Center provides leadership, resources, and programs that advance the study of the humanities and enhance the work of schools, colleges, and cultural organizations.

Google Guide
From Nancy Blakeman, googleguide.com

There's more to searching Google than you think! Google Guide is an online interactive tutorial and reference for experienced users, novices, and everyone in between. I developed Google Guide because I wanted more information about Google's capabilties, features, and services than I found on Google's website. --Nancy Blachman

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"It is a law of nature we overlook, that intellectual versatility is the compensation for change, danger, and trouble."

- H. G. Wells, The Time Machine

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, Wisconsin 54806 · Telephone: 715.682.2365

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