SELCO Librarian

Helping our Neighbors to the South

mpherson — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:03:35

Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian

In June, the Cedar Rapids Public Library was completely destroyed due to massive flooding in the Cedar Valley. Not only was the library destroyed, but the majority of downtown businesses and homes. Although the town is slowly rebuilding, some people are still without homes and jobless. According to the Cedar Rapids Public Library Website, "the destruction at the 85,000 square foot library, which occupies a square block in the city's central business district, is believed to be the largest public library disaster in the U.S."

On June 20, 2008, I put a call out to all SELCO and SELS members and SELCO staff asking for donations, and the response was overwhelming. People around the region donated fiction, nonfiction, children's books, DVDs, etc. I don't know how many boxes I had stacked in my office labeled "CR FLOOD," but it was a lot! I was back in the Cedar Rapids area two weekends ago, and I helped sort each and every box and counted every item you donated to the library in need. Overall, the SELCO/SELS region donated just under 1,000 items!

It's a time for giving thanks, and I just wanted to let you know how much I am thankful for working in such a wonderful and giving region. You have truly helped out your neighbors to the South! Hats off to you all! Happy Thanksgiving!

Visit to Kingsland Schools

mscott — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:19:33

Michael Scott, Assistant Director

On November 7th, I had the opportunity to visit the Kingsland Schools. The school district includes the cities of Wykoff and Spring Valley, Minnesota. I started the day at 6:30 AM at the Middle School in Wykoff. There I met Laura Gudmundson, the media specialist for the school district. Laura begins her day at 6 AM at the Kingsland Middle School, preparing for the school day, helping students check out library materials, and teaching computer course to middle school students. Students at the middle school are in grades 5th - 8th.

The middle school media center is a fairly large space with seating and public access computers for students as well as a collection of books and journals. Strengths of the collection include a strong historical fiction and "country" books (books about a particular country.) Laura stated that the country books can be difficult to find, especially about certain areas of the world. Accelerated Reader is used in the school district as well and these materials are clearly marked in the collection to be easily found. Kingsland Schools is not a SELCO Online Library but the media centers are on a shared ILS system, Destiny from Follett. Connected to the library is a computer lab where Laura teaches computer and techology courses, including courses in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint as well as keyboarding.

Later in the day, after visits to other libraries in Preston, I arrived at the Kingsland Elementary and High Schools in Spring Valley. The elementary school was added to the high school and opened in the fall of 2008. The media center is a shared space with the high school and elementary parts located at opposite ends of a large room. During my visit, the staff was preparing for a Scholastic Book Fair and were busy setting up displays of books and other materials. The high school portion of the media center had a large number of computers for students' use as well as a collection of fiction and nonfiction books. The elementary portion was still being assembled (waiting on shelving) but does have a storytime/reading area for students and a centrally located information desk. Oh, and for a bit of nostalgia, I even saw a collection of filmstrips, complete with CASSETTES for sound. Just to be fair, Laura has tried to get rid of the filmstrips but teachers still use them (plus, it is difficult to find them in another media format.)

I wanted to say a special thank you to Laura and her staff at Kingsland for welcoming me to their media centers. Laura is interested in finding out what other media specialists in the region are doing with regards to other teaching duties (besides being a media specialist) and sharing helpful tips with one another. You can certainly contact Laura directly (gudmundson.laura@kingsland.k12.mn.us) or feel free to send out information via the SELS_K12 email distribution list maintained at SELCO.

MLA: 2008 Best Projects by Library Friends

ahutton — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:42:10

Ann B. Hutton, Executive Director

In honor of longtime library supporter, Evy Nordley, The Minnesota Association of Library Friends, recognizes "best" projects by Friends each year at the Library Friends & Advocates Day held during the annual Minnesota Library Association Conference. This year's top Evy Nordley Award for Best Project by Friends went to the Friends of the Rogers Public Library. Friends of the Detroit Lakes and the Wayzata Public Libraries received honorary recognition.

Senior Tech Day @ Rogers Library

The Friends of the Rogers Public Library sponsored Senior Tech Day offered an opportunity for seniors interested in technology to learn how it can be used for lifelong learning and family connectedness. The Friends partnered with Best Buy of Rogers to demo five items seniors are serious about using; MP3 players, digital cameras, cell phones, high definition TVs and laptops.

Judy Hanson, Friend of the Rogers Public Library, and Tim Hiller, Best Buy Business Library Professional, receiving the MALF 2008 Evy Nordley Award for Best Project by Friends.

Used Cookbook Sale Hosted by Becker County Friends of the Library

The Friends raised funds for the Detroit Lakes Public Library and created a way for cookbook collectors to reduce the size of their personal collections by hosting a used cookbook sale. The Friends collected and sorted over 1,500 cookbooks, selling over 500 and raising nearly $1,000.

Picnic at Wayzata Library: Monarchs, Mariposa y Mexico

The third annual summer picnic in celebration of the Wayzata Children's Garden boasted over over 500 attendees of all ages. Monachs, Mariposa y Mexico included arts activities and educational exercises about butterflies all amid songs and dancing. The Wayzata Library has been selected as an official monarch butterfly way station. Monarchs summer in Wayzata then return to Mexico, which gives the picnic its theme.

Inspired by 23 Things on a Stick presentation at MLA Conference

jonya — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 06:38:06

Jonya Pacey, Help Desk Manager

This is the kind of experiment that can't be easily undone. So it's more like a change or a decision, I guess.

It involves FaceBook and something I heard at MLA. One of the sessions, about 23 Things on a Stick, contained a presentation by a Ramsey County librarian who joined FaceBook with six of her coworkers at other branches, as they could use this as a tool to communicate. The premise is to both build community and to tap into each other's knowledge when doing reference work and similar library tasks. Shortly after the presenter created her account, her family found and friended her - all 30 of them.

I found that a great story. I'm already a member of the MLA group on FaceBook, and used that to start friending the professional people I already know. I am exploring the friends' lists of library-involved people I already have friended, looking for those connections in the network. I had to think first about mixing my professional life with the rest of what I do, including the times I get whiney about working out, and decided that just about everything I do on FaceBook is mirrored on some other Web 2.0 venue. Anyone in the library community could have found my casual adventures in living via my blogs or my LiveJournal acccounts, or googled me, or looked for me on flick'r. And soon - LibraryThing.

During these few days, however, it has changed my update postings. Already, I am more thoughtful as to what I tell people; I don't know how long that will last but I believe I will never be unaware of the entirety of my audience. But I've always been aware of the real people on the other side of the screen. The experiment comes from fully embracing the opportunity to network and build community - that's the advertising, isn't it? That my network intermingles with other people's networks and as snippets of information are shared, usefulness happens. People find jobs, find new friends, find answers.

The next step is to move the intellectual nature of my network to face-to-face meetings, to tap into web-based friendliness and support in real time. But maybe that is organic and impossible to predict. I will find out. See you online!

Crossposted to my personal blogs.

Final Countdown Day 3 at MLA

mpherson — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:21:31

Jeanne Steinbrink, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient
Austin Public Library

The Eight Keys to Library Effectiveness: Consultant Sandra Nelson's message targeted what libraries will need to do to survive. While her message was not always what we wanted to hear (Phoenix Library sustained a 42% cut), it is what we needed to hear. Libraries will be making tough choices in the next few years on whether to cut costs or services. With touch economic times library use will increase while resources will decrease. Libraries need to take their focus away from what they think a library should be to focusing on user needs and wants. This means shifting resources to popular items instead of reference materials and difficult to use databases, by making data-based decisions by determining the greatest value for the dollar spent (cost per use).

Libraries are becoming America's living room and we need to draw new patrons in b y providing them with what they want, not what we think they need. We need to learn from the competition (Google, Netflix, Amazon). And we need to do this by providing excellent customer service--greeting people, anticipating their needs and not just sitting at the "desk" but having roaming librarians. Collaboration will be another key to survival by coordinating activities with groups such as the Park and Rec., daycare providers, and by enlisting the help and support of advocates.

I Can't Understand You! was presented by St. Thomas ESL teacher Karen Batdorf. She noted how Minnesota's population has changed in the past thirty years--with the influx of Vietnamese, Hmong, Russian, Somali and Hispanic. We face not only language barriers, but also cultural differences. Some of these people groups have only just recently developed a written language. While library staff struggle sometimes with trying to understand the limited English when serving these groups, Karen helped us to realize the struggle most of them have gone through to come to the United States as immigrants, refugees from war zones, or asylum seekers who have often been victims of violence or torture.

Instead of thinking, "Oh, no, I have to help this patron," think "I choose to help this patron because it may be their only positive interaction today." Empathy will help us overcome our annoyance and fear.

Lunch Speaker
We were treated again to Sandra Nelson in her presentation Everyone is Getting Crabbier! In tough economic times everyone is stressed by working harder with less time and resources.

People mirror behavior. We can choose how we will interact. When you know tough times are coming, plan ahead. Then instead of cutting across the board, you can decide what services are most important and work to provide them. To accomplish this constructively you must plan ahead and simplify by getting rid of the clutter (such as vertical files) and the things we do that have high cost but are of little value.

Final Thoughts
Thanks to SELCO for the scholarship to attend this excellent conference. The 2008 MLA conference was like a well-oiled machine, with each part working effectively for the whole. The organization behind the facilities, meals, conference speakers, and other peripherals caused each part to fit together perfectly. We can use this conference as an example for our libraries. Concentrate on what is important and do it with excellence.

Day 3 at MLA

Alake — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:33:08

Aimee Lake, SELCO Finance Manager

Day 3 of MLA was again an informative one for me. The first session was a presentation of Web Junction by Michael Porter, a Web Junction rep. Michael, aka Libraryman, definitely made it a fun session with his humor and enthusiasm. I had been familiar with Web Junction before, but I had never looked around the site much. It offers some very valuable resources in allowing librarians around the state to talk and share their experiences and ideas. The site also has an array of class offerings for librarians from library management and services to technology and how-to's on application software. By simply becoming a Web Junction Minnesota member, these courses are available free of charge.

The second session I attended was Minnesota Library Funding presented by Ken Behringer, Director of the Dakota County Library and Peg Werner, Director of the Viking Library System. As the SELCO Finance Manager, I am pretty much chin-deep in funding on a daily basis. However, that does not necessarily mean I've got the nitty gritty of Minnesota library funding down to a tee. There are several elements that go into the formulas for library funding and with economic and political shifts, those elements have the potential to change dramatically from year to year. Ken Behringer did an excellent job of presenting the background and detail on minimum level of local support and Maintenance of Effort. After his presentation, I definitely feel I have a much firmer grasp of these concepts. Peg Werner then presented state statute language change recommendations by the Minnesota Library Funding Committee. The recommendations address the following:

The difficulty in handling double digit increases or decreases in ANTC in several subsequent years.
When LGA/CPA are cut, library directors are placed in a bind because they cannot offer cuts to their departments as can other members of the local team.
Capital expenses are too narrowly defined.
The timeline for new or pilot projects is too short.
There are times when funding bodies would like to contribute more to libraries or other library systems but cannot for "fear of being caught in MOE".
State funding has not kept pace with county funding for regional public library systems.

Overall, I had a great experience at MLA. It was very worthwhile for me and I've brought home a lot to share with my community and apply to my SELCO responsibilities.

MLA Day 2 - Everybody Get on the Bus

Alake — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:58:56

Aimee Lake, SELCO Finance Manager

Day 2 at MLA was a very full, information-filled day, but I think the most meaningful session for me was Everybody Get on the Bus presented by Jim Connor of the Trustee College.

Mr. Connor focused on the importance of all types of libraries working and advocating together as well as working closely with their communities for future sustainability. People do not demand library service as a part of their daily life and that is the challenge to librarians: to change that mentality. Libraries are perceived as a luxury, not a necessity, and Mr. Connor offered several points for libraries to work to change that perception:

Change our approach to how we get funding: Don't just ask for it, earn it with service and program offerings, responding to patron needs and by getting involved in the community.
Be more aware of the resources available in our system to assist our patrons. We should be aware of what's happening in the community and patron needs should be preempted.
Libraries need to be convinced of their value before convincing others.
Our most important asset is accessibility.

Final day at MLA 2008

mscott — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:06:31

Michael Scott, Assistant Director

The final day of the 2008 Minnesota Library Association was a great way to cap off a successful conference. I started the morning by attending the Public Libraries Division Business Meeting at 7 AM (OK, admit that I was NOT there right at 7 AM!) PLD is the largest division within MLA and the group was busy discussing the need to improve its involvement in the organization. I'm all for members being involved in an organization to make it successful!

I attended two conference sessions on Friday: What Do College Students Learn in High School About Research? and Minnesota Library Funding - Issues, Solutions, Compromise. The session about college students was interesting to me as I went into the session thinking that there was definitely an opportunity for collaboration between academic librarians and their colleagues in school media centers and public libraries. I was not disappointed! A number of academic librarians were in attendance and added to the conversation about the need to improve bibliographic instruction and help students improve their research skills. The speaker, Kellian Clink from Minnesota State University, Mankato, had surveyed 12 "feeder" schools to the University and received responses from 6 schools. A few things she found in her work was that teaching about information skills was competing with teaching about technology skills and book budgets were stagnant at best. Certainly no surprises there! I think what I took away from this session was that there is certainly an opportunity for the different types of libraries--academic, public, and school-- to work together to ensure that students will be successful in developing good research skills.

The Minnesota library funding session was a very good session on a (possibly) dry subject: funding for libraries. A brief presentation on how funding is done in Minnesota for libraries helped me further understand the complex process for this to be accomplished and the need to review how it is done so that libraries can continue to receive the funding they need.

The conference ended with Sandra Nelson's keynote on Why is Everyone so Crabby?: How to Help People Evolve Your Organization into One of Excellence. Sandra did a good job at helping us all look at the stressors in our lives, how to deal with them and keep our perspective, and make our workplaces less stressful and more enjoyable places to work. Always a good reminder!

Overall, I did enjoy the conference and the sessions that I attended. I also learned that I have a backup career in case the library gig doesn't work out -- ice cream man!

MLA Day 3

ajacobsen — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 20:09:19

Aurora Jacobsen, Information Services Librarian

The final day of the conference I attended the two morning sessions as well as the final luncheon keynote.

The first session I attended were a session on Web Junction. I had expected to hear Chystie Hill give the presentation, but she evidently fell too ill and was replaced with Michael Porter. I've heard Michael Porter speak before, and he lived up to his reputation. I love his self-effacing style and his lobbying for a "Minnesota Curling Librarians" Group on WebJunction. Most of the contents of the session were review for me, but it served as a reminder that I need to return to the site and to continue to be active.

The session afterwards, on funding, begain with a review of the funding laws in the state and ended with a discussion of Maintenance of Effort and the efforts of the library community to make the rules more flexible in the future.

The final session was another good reminder. "Everyone Is Getting Crabbier" was a session on how to minimize stress in our lives.

A good conference, all in all. Like all good conferences, I came home with some new passion to resume work but also physically exhausted.

MLA Day 2

ajacobsen — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:22:01

Aurora Jacobsen, Information Services Librarian

Day 2 of the conference was the fullest day. I began at 8:00 am with a Legislative Update with the MLA lobbyist, Elaine Keefe, Mark Ranum of Plum Creek and Mike Bloomberg of Augsburg College. Keefe discussed the political and financial climate of the stateand Ranum discussed the MLA potical platform for MLA this year. Keefe's presentation was a sobering reminder of the tough budget year facing our state and a reminder that many programs will be cut.

I followed this session with a session on MILE, the MLA Institute for Leadership Excellence. The panel discussion featured a series of questions for past participants and mentors. The session gave a good overview of the experiences MILE provides and certainly seems like a valuable experience for its participants.

Following a lunch I was lucky enough to share with former Assistant Director Barbar Misselt, I attended "Creating a Jimmy Choo Staff Wiki on a Shoestring Budget" presented by Rochester Public Library's Brian Lind. He went into some depth about the process the library went through to arrive at their staff wiki. The steps Rochester Public Library followed were:

Decided to migrate to a Wiki
Formed a Wiki task force
Divided up info by division
Took six months to migrate all info
Developed help tools
Trained users
Introduced Wiki to staff

Lind also discussed the types of wikis available, giving an overview of what to consider in wiki software as well as a good pro and con summary of 5 of the most recognized wiki software.

Slide 13

The final list Lind left the crowd with was the 8 commandments of Wiki implementation, which are as follows:

1. Make things findable without using the search box
2. Choose Navigation links wisely
3. Think about ALL users
4. Use specific language
5. One page – multiple links
6. Choose a realistic timeline to get going
7. Link to redundant information from your public website
8. Understand your Wiki won’t be perfect

Lind's presentation can be found in full here.

My final session of the day was "Everyone Get on the Bus" with Jim Connor. The session focused on how librarians needed to be advocates for libraries of all types. Interestingly enough, I couldn't help but comment on the similarity between some of his advice and the recent OCLC From Awareness to Funding report and I found that Connor has worked with OCLC on these funding issues. Some of the most thought provoking things Connor mentioned in the session:

Talk library everywhere you go, everything you do.
To convince your city council it’s important, you must convince yourself of the library's value and why the library is important to every one in your community. You must be ready to clearly explain the library's value at a moment's notice.
Asking for money for your library is selfish but asking for money for libraries because they serve a need is different.
The library's Board of Trustees should be its advocates. They should be taking the budget to the funding authority as a group.

All in all, it was a full day of valuable information.

Final MLA Thoughts

mpherson — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:44:52

Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian

By the final day at the MLA Conference, my brain is so full of new information and I'm just exhausted!

This morning, I had breakfast with a few library friends I haven't seen since college. It's always fun to catch up with others in your field at these conferences!

I also attended a session on Minnesota Library Funding. I found this session particularly interesting because my new position deals with advocacy, and I want to make sure I'm aware of the past, present, and future history regarding funding for Minnesota's libraries. The panel of members from the Minnesota Library Funding Committee discussed recommended changes to the statutory language which was very interesting.

Next up--Sandra Nelson's Luncheon Keynote presentation titled "Why Everyone is So Crabby?: How to Help People Evolve Your Organization Into One of Excellence." I actually read one of her books while I was attending graduate school and really liked it--Managing for Results: Effective Resource Allocation for Public Libraries.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time up in Bloomington! I learned lots of great things that I will be bringing back to my own work environment and I had the chance to mingle and put together faces with the names that I frequently see. Can't wait for MLA next year in St. Cloud!!

Another Long Full Day at MLA: Day 2

mpherson — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:43:00

Jeanne M. Steinbrink, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient
Austin Public Library

Morning Sessions
My first session early this morning was Harnessing Google to Accomplish Daily Tasks, presented by Kristen Mastel, Outreach and Instruction Librarian at the U of M. Kristen presented a quick review of tools available on Google, but she said you can find similar tools at Yahoo and other search engines. Basically, I am the office financial person at the Austin Public Library but wear many other hats, so I am always looking for ways to be more efficient and make better use of my time. One thing that tends to get squeezed out is taking time to find useful tools on the Internet, so attending library conferences is a good way for me to hear about practical tools without having to do the legwork.

Kristen's presentation briefly covered Google Docs, Google Custom Search Engine, iGoogle, Google Notebook, Google Sites, and Google Alert, plus several others. One tool that caught my attention was Google Docs, which is web-based word processing similar to Word. The plus side is that Google Docs lets you prepare a document and then allow others to access it directly to edit it, yet keeps track of all revisions. This is a nice alternative to preparing a Word document and sending it as an attachment, and chance losing track of the most recent edit. It seems like a great tool for collaborative ventures.

Another feature I liked was iGoogle, which matches up nicely with my "I hate shopping" attitude of "get me in, get me what I need, and get me out as soon as possible." I like to have a place for everything and everything in its place, so I can grab exactly what I need when I need it. (I think I fell under the "thorough" personality type in yesterday's session on Negativity in the Workplace.) The iGoogle feature is a handy dandy tool to help me in my quest for efficiency. You customize a personal homepage on iGoogle for one stop shopping: RSS feeds, bloglines notifier, to-do list, local weather, news--you name it. (At an earlier session they talked about Google Calendar--another tool I intend to pursue.)

Overall it was a fun way to see "what's out there" and still get my work done at the library.

Friends Sharing Ideas was the late morning session sponsored by MALF (Minnesota Association of Library Friends). I am a book addict--not only have I worked at the Austin library for over 20 years, but I feed my addiction outside of work by buying a book almost every other week. Needless to say I am also a member of the Friends of the Austin Public Library. So whenever there is an opportunity to hear other Friends talk about ideas to support libraries, I am there.

MALF co-presenters Joan Larson and Barbi Byers led the session. Joan started the presentation by asking what Minnesota Friends groups were doing that was new and exciting (besides book sales). I am less bashful than I used to be, so I offered to go first by talking (bragging actually) about our Friends of the Austin Public Library's book project. We published Austin Remembers in 2006 with stories from over 150 local authors ranging in age from 9 to 98 in celebration with Austin's sesquicentennial. This year through the efforts of our book editor, Joan Claire Graham, we collaborated with the Friends of that Albert Lea Public Library and garnered a 2008 Minnesota Sesquicentennial Legacy Grant to bring our book and Albert Lea's book Albert Lea Remembers to the stage in the fall as an original musical. What a hit!

Many other great ideas surfaced at this session: donating books and operating a library at a county jail, a "Love Your Library" fundraising campaign, adding a line to county tax statements with the option to donate to the Library Foundation, a bridal show fundraiser, chocolate events combined with silent auctions, "Come Read with me (at the public library)" where volunteers work weekly with young readers to improve their reading skills, library staff appreciation breakfast, "Antiques Roadshow" type events, renting library atriums and terraces for special non-library events, and working with local businesses to wrap Christmas presents were some of the ways Friends were helping libraries raise funds and community awareness. And then there were book sales, and book sales, and book sales. One innovative library saved the "better" books for a special Christmas sale complete with cider, goodies and music. Many libraries have a "friends-only" pre-sale book sale or book "coupon" specials with paid memberships. Overall this was a great brainstorming session.

Afternoon Sessions
I was on a "Friends of the Library" roll so I attended Communication Strategies for Friends of the Library led by Sally Lederer from MELSA and Margie Schuster, who oversees the Friends group in the Hennepin County. Sally discussed the basic communication strategy of Who? How? and What?

Decide "Who?" your audience is and find the best way to reach them. You may be trying to reach faithful library users, schools, your city/county elected officials, or legislators.

Once you target your audience, ask "How?" to best reach them. You won't reach them all in the same manner or with the same message. You will reach your library users in a different way than you will reach your legislators. Not everyone has e-mail, but some people depend on websites for their information. Search out the best option(s) for your target group.

Once you've decided on your audience and how to reach them, determine "What?" is your key message. Your message needs to be consistent with a specific goal in mind.

The bottom line is that libraries are essential and that the friends, library trustees, and library staff should be sending the same simple message. More members mean a stronger voice to persuade decision makers to continue funding libraries.

The final session was on The First Amendment @ Your Library. Jane Kirklen from the U of M discussed recent abuses of our right to freedom of speech, especially since 911 and the advent of the Patriot Act. She talked extensively on the sometimes inappropriate use of NSLs (National Security Letters) in obtaining information normally protected by data privacy laws.

Another recent trend is "Libel Terrorism." Since libel laws are stricter in other countries than in the United States, what is acceptable here under our First Amendment rights might be considered anti-government and a punishable offense in a foreign country.

In the United States speech on the Internet gets the same protection as other printed speech. This is not so in Internet Restricted Countries (IRCs) who limit their citizens' access to free speech on the Internet.

Jane says she is close to being a First Amendment absolutist in that, "The cure for speech that we detest is more speech." This encourages debate and discussion. If you're upset with something said or written, refute it. We have to be ready to respect the speech that we abhor as well as the speech we love in order to protect our First Amendment rights.

I was torn between attending this session and the session on Inspirational Fiction, however even I couldn't be in two places at once. But I overheard many wonderful comments following the Inspirational Fiction session, so I will have to check it out later on the MLA website.

Another recap of MLA Conference Day 2

rgray — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:17:00

Rachel Gray – Information Services Librarian

I started out the day bright and early at the Lerner Lecture Breakfast. I enjoyed both the food and fellowship before enjoying Will Weaver’s insight on writing YA literature for boys. I have not had a lot of exposure to YA lit, but I was fascinated by how he has tailored his career to these under served young men and boys. He was a great speaker and almost even inspired me to become an author. Almost... He has ablog on writing if you are interested in being inspired by him yourself.

The first breakout session I attended was “Harnessing Google to Harness Daily Tasks” with Kristen Mastel from the UM. While a lot of what she covered was review for me, I still learned quite a bit about Google that I didn’t have any inkling about before. I’ll share a bitGoogle Notebook. This is a great tool that allows you to copy and paste information you find online and add it to your notebook file on Google’s server – all without leaving your browser. All you have to do is to highlight the text you want to save, then hit a button you’ve already downloaded as a plug-in. And *POOF*, the information is saved along with the URL you found it on. You do need a Google account for this, but these are free and easy to setup.

Another session I enjoyed was Jim Connor’s “Everyone on the Bus” presentation. He really made the attendees thing about library sustainability and finding ways to get advocates for the library in the community. I wasn’t surprised to hear him speak about how we are perceived as a luxury, but not a necessity. But I was surprised to hear him say that communities that lose their libraries really lose their hearts and the community slowly dies as people move out of the area. This doesn’t just apply to public libraries, but also to academic and school libraries. He gave all his attendees something to think about.

I have so many more tidbits from today’s conference sessions, but I have to stop here for now. I heartily recommend to any and all MN librarians to attend MLA next year. You do not need to be a MLA member to attend. The next conference will be in St. Cloud from October 14-16 2009, so mark your calendars!

Thursday (Day 2) at the MLA Conference

mscott — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:53:18

Stephanie Silvers, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Harmony Public Library

Here are some notes from the sessions I attended on Thursday (November 20) at the 2008 MLA Conference.

8:00 am – Harnessing Google to Accomplish Daily Tasks

Presenter discussed iGoogle, Google Docs, Google Notebook, and how to use them. I can see how these could be very useful, especially in larger libraries and universities as several people can collaborate on documents without having to email copies back and forth. There are lots of applications that I will be trying out when I get back to Harmony! I am so excited.

10:00 am – When Love Hurts

This was not my original workshop I had planned on attending, but ended up here anyway. We talked about romance novels in the library. Romance novels are the top selling fiction books in the U.S. There are many sub genres of the overall romance genre. Most people though do not want to admit that they read romance novels. Some websites to check out are:

1:30 pm – Guys Read … Make Noise with Boys’ Books

This was a very interesting workshop. They talked about some ways that have worked for them in reaching boys and getting them to read. The most important part is that you really should have a man, perhaps a college student or even a High School Senior leading the boys book discussion group.

3:30 pm. – Inspirational Fiction

Sharon Hincks, an inspirational fiction author talked about this genre of fiction and how it is the second most popular, best selling genre of fiction books, behind romance novels. I didn’t realize the extent that this genre has evolved into and how much it has taken off. It was very inspiring to me as this is the books that I like to read and many of my patrons are also interested in.

MLA: Discover Your Inner Leader @ MILE 2009 and the LMRT Business Meeting

jonya — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:22:25

Jonya Pacey, Help Desk Manager

I spent the first part of the morning talking to people, going through the Silent Auction, more networking, and then stopping back up at my room to work on a couple of tickets assigned to me. So the MILE 2009 session was my first today. I was very pleased that the room was packed and with a strong showing of interested potential attendees. As one of the initial session's graduates in 2005, MILE (Minnesota Institute for Leadership Excellence) has my support and interest and I am thrilled with the success of the 2007 graduates. I see them in strong leadership roles in their libraries, being active in MLA subunits, and advocating for developing leadership skills. MILE is a springboard for anyone wanting to explore their goals and advance their career while getting involved in MLA. As I was not the only SELCO attendee to this session, I will stop here.

Right after this session, I went into the Library Management Round Table business meeting. We spent most of the meeting planning and setting some goals and then for one of them, doing some action steps for me to do right away, over the next few months. And I think this is cool and exciting; we are going to hold a conference call where we can talk about a management topic. The first one was selected today. So LMRT members can call in and talk and I'll take notes, and then get them onto the subunit's blog where people can comment. Then I will send out email encouraging LMRT members to go read and comment, continuing the conversation. So the three areas of communication that seem to be comfortable to a large percentage of library managers - blogging, conference calls, and email - will all be used and hopefully integrated together into a more seamless conversation as time moves on.

MLA: Capital Fundraising Campaign - Part 1

ahutton — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:18:39

Ann B. Hutton, Executive Director

As promised in the title “Taking the Fear Out of Capital Campaign Fundraising,” this session summarized everything you need to know about conducting a successful capital campaign. The program was presented by two nationally accomplished fund raising specialists, Peter Pearson – President of The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library and Morgan Rasmussen – Consultant, Library Strategies.

With years of experience advocating for public funding and successfully requesting private donations to enhance St. Paul Public Library’s programs and services, Peter identified several key factors for successful fundraising.

Time – If the library is planning to break ground in three months, it is too late. Working with major donors requires time to develop personal relationships. Even if such a connection already exists, it may take time for a donor to commit to a significant contribution. Start the campaign 2-3 years before breaking ground. Plan a minimum of 18-24 months for the private or quiet phase of the capital campaign before announcing the broad, community-based campaign soliciting general public support.

IRS approved 501(c)(3) – While individuals may be willing to make small contributions on behalf of good cause without documentation, the tax ramifications of a major donation require accurate accounting records with approved credentials.

Have a track record – Generally, capital campaigns will be more successful if the library or its supporting organizations (Friends and/or Foundation) have already done fundraising. This way you build on previous successes and donor involvement and pride.

Supportive endeavors are successful – Generally, when conducting a capital campaign for brick-and-mortar, whether new construction or major remodeling, donors will support supplemental endeavors such as a book endowment for future collection development or a opening day collection when adding extra space.

Yet to come in another post – The importance of planning and fundraising in today’s environment.

Cataloging Cartographic Resources - a workshop only a cataloger could love!

ctjohnson — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:57:15

Carla Johnson
Cataloging Services Librarian, SELCO

I can only imagine the rolling eyes and snickers at this title (I say this because of my experiences with non-catalogers). I realize that the thought of entering detailed map information into MARC format does not thrill most people and I have to admit that I wasn't looking forward to sitting through a 3 hour workshop on this topic.

I was pleasantly surprised! Things got off to a slow start as we went over fixed field information, but the session picked up as we moved on to the main body of the MARC record and focused on 2 fields that I was unfamiliar with, the 034 and 255 - Cartographic Mathematical Data (it's fun to say). I learned how to convert a map scale to a representative fraction and where to find that information if I forget. Remember latitute and longitude? Presenter Stacie Traill kept us going with sample maps that she brought in. She went on to talk about physical description, notes, and map subject analysis.

Perhaps I became so engrossed in this session because - ah - well - there's something about cataloging that I enjoy and I love to read maps! Put the two together and it adds up to one great workshop. Most catalogers will appreciate this as well as any library staff having to work with map collections. It was a worthwhile and enjoyable session all around.

2008 MLA, Day 2

mscott — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:46:31

Michael Scott, Assistant Director

Though the day isn't over (but the sessions almost are!) I thought I'd share a few thoughts about Day 2 at MLA. The morning started off with a great session by the author Will Weaver and the value of children's literature and publishing. Will recently made the switch to writing for young people and in particular has targeted his writing to young men. Being a "car" guy, his latest books "Saturday Night Dirt" really reaches out to those young guys who are interested in cars and what he calls "technical literacy" -- they can fix anything. It certainly was motivating to me. Though not a car guy, I certainly grew up around "gear heads" and getting them to read anything is certainly no small feat! Check out his stock car that he takes out to schools: http://www.motornovels.com/

Keeping with the technical services/cataloging theme, I attended the session "Rethinking Tech Services: A Workflow Analysis." Library staff from Macalester College, Minnesota State University (Mankato), and Dakota County discussed how they had done major overhauls to their technical services (i.e. cataloging, serials, acquisitions) functions. If I could take anything away from their presentations (which were all different) it was to continually ask "Why are we doing the things we do and do we need to continue doing them?" They all found ways to add efficiency to their processes, eliminate unneccessary work, and have staff buy-in as well.

Finally, I had the opportunity to see the work being done at Rochester Public Library on developing a staff wiki. Brian Lind from RPL presented "Creating a Jimmy Choo Staff Wiki on a Shoestring Budget." Great presentation and certainly a good solution for RPL to organize all the information their staff needs to access quickly. Certainly makes a wiki worth consideration!

Day 2 was a great day at MLA and I'm looking forward to the MLA Business meeting and the Awards Banquet later this evening.

MLA, Day 1

ajacobsen — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:36:38

Aurora Jacobsen, Information Services Librarian

The most interesting conversation of the day, for me, was definitely LibraryThing. I've used the product a couple of times and I've liked it, but Tim Spaulding really pressed the audience to rethink the way we've not only started cataloging, but also how we've implemented tagging. I really want to see our library catalogs move in a similar direction. I shouldn't have to go to LibraryThing to find Zombie romance books. I want to find those in my library catalog. I also liked his point that most LibraryThing users have read the whole book, rather than a cataloger who is guessing on the subject based on the table of contents. Spaulding also reaffirmed the need for subject headings and their value. He also clearly loves books and libraries, and that always makes such constructive criticism easier to take.

The second session I attended was about the change to RDA and how it will incorporate FRBR. I was glad for a little bit of an introduction, and the seed planted to go and research more. However, I am not a cataloger, so I'll leave more details about this session to the experts.

The final session of the day, for me, was "23 Things: Better Than a Deep Fried Twinkie". Four 23 Things participants presented on their experiences with the 23 Things program. Linda Weinmann from the SELCO region was the first presenter. She did a great job covering Picasa. Of course, not everyone pictures will end up looking like hers, even if they used the tools she demonstrated. That takes photography talent. We also got to hear from a librarian from Concordia that adopted Meebo as an IM client for their users. Tim Johnson of the University of Minnesota libraries covered all of the things he's added to his library's blog as a result of the program. Lynn Wyman of the Ramsey County Library presented on how they implemented the program at their library and mentioned the surprising popularity of Facebook at their institution. Overall, a very exciting session and a good first day at MLA.

MLA Conference Tagged

ahutton — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:01:50

Ann B. Hutton, Executive Director

Interested in seeing all the info posted by SELCO staff and scholarship recipients during this year's Minnesota Library Association Conference? Simply click MLA2008 in the CATEGORIES list on the left and voila!

I served ice cream my first day at MLA 2008!

mscott — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:13:59

Michael Scott, Assistant Director

Well, if that doesn't get some attention, I don't know what will! More on that in minute.

While my first day at MLA was mostly focused on preparing for the 23 Things Party on a Stick: Social Networking in Real Life reception put on by the Multitype Library System Directors, I was able to attend a couple of programs. First, the keynote for the conference, again sponsored by the Multitype Library System Directors, was a presentation Tim Spaulding, the developer of LibraryThing, on the topic of social cataloging and social networking. He created LibraryThing to catalog his own library for his friends and it is now a huge phenomenon! It has some really great features that I truly can see anybody wanting to see in their library's catalog. Things like the possibility of tagging books, DVDs, and other library materials with words that have more meaning to them (cookery, anyone?) or the ability to more easily find a "similar books" or "you might like this" list.

Later in the day I attended a session, Introduction to RDA/FRBR. Frankly, I was a bit scared of this session but as Resource Description & Access and Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records are the items of discussion amongst catalogers, and as the SELCO Cataloging Team reports to me, I thought I should attend. Plus, I was just curious. The update, provided by Chew Chiat Naun from the University of Minnesota Libraries, asked more questions than provided answers. RDA is a new set of cataloging rules being developed while FRBR is a model used in these new rules. Essentially, the goal is to find a way to move cataloging forward to continue to meet the needs of patrons (as well as library staff) to electronically access the materials in libraries. We'll certainly be watching the development here at SELCO.

Finally, I served ice cream during the 23 Things Party on a Stick. Who knew that ice cream bars (note: the Blue Bunny Sundae Crunch Bar was the MOST popular) would be such a hit! Watch the SELCO Flickr site for photos from the party and you'll get to see me at work (and maybe a backup career!) handing out ice cream bars to librarians. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to talk "23 Things" and enjoy ice cream. By the way, all ice cream treats were "on a stick" to fit the theme.

My first day at MLA 2008

mscott — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:57:46

Stephanie Silvers, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Harmony Public Library

The first conference session I went to was AskMN: The Librarian Is In. Most of the information was on statistics and how much it has been used since it came up in April 2008. The website is AskMN.org. It is a service that is available to anyone 24/7. Member libraries staff the time, spending 1 to 1 ½ hours per week on average. You can chat live with a librarian and have an answer within a few minutes at anytime.

The second conference session I attended was 23 Things: Better Than a Deep Fried Twinkie. This session discussed the 23 Things on a Stick program and how it has been used in library settings. It was very interesting to hear how 4 libraries have incorporated it or sections of it into their libraries. Metronet has included in their technology plans and have had their whole staff going through the program. Winona has used the experience with Picaso from Google to make posters for the library. Facebook and Meebo is used in reference services in libraries. I have come away from this with some neat ideas I would like to try in my library.

Adventures at MLA Day 2

mpherson — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:42:50

Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian

I put my volunteer hat on early today and helped with the MLA Silent Auction for a good portion of the morning. What fun!! It was a blast to visit with conference attendees and to make sure all the items were visible and matched up with the correct bidding sheets. AND I got to keep an eye on my own items I'd like to win--I tell ya, the selection is great and I'm getting lots of awesome gift basket ideas from the auction!

After volunteering, I attended Creating a Jimmy Choo Staff Wiki on a Shoestring Budget, presented by Rochester Public Library Reference Librarian Brian Lind. We are thinking of implementing some sort of wiki at SELCO, so his ideas were fabulous not only for me, but for any library staff member that is interested in starting a wiki. You are able to pick a wiki that meets the standards that you have set. The five Wikis Brian talked about were Media Wiki, PB Wiki, Wiki Spaces, Wet Paint Wiki, and Zoho Wiki. There is a website you can visit to see what wiki is right for you--Wiki Matrix. Wiki Matrix and the Wiki Choice Wizard help narrow down what type of wiki you are looking for to perform the job you want it to do.

Brian also presented the "8 Commandments of Wiki Implementation":

1. Make things findable without a search box
2. Choose navigation links wisely
3. Think about ALL users
4. Use specific language
5. One page -- multiple links
6. Choose a realistic timeline to get going
7. Link to redundant information from your public website
8. Understand your wiki won't be perfect

A Wiki does take a lot of work to set up, but in the end, it's super easy to maintain. Overall, A highly enjoyable presentation!!! I'm excited to take the information back to SELCO!

Interesting First Day at My First MLA Conference

Alake — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:13:45

Aimee Lake, SELCO Finance Manager

I have to admit my first day at my first MLA conference was a really great experience. The luncheon keynote by LibraryThing developer Tim Spaulding broadened my perspective and made me reevaluate my initial opinions on the usefulness of the site. I think it offers an invaluable way for readers to share their collections and hopefully widen their scope on materials they choose to read.

The first session I went to was an introduction to RDA/FRBR. As a non-librarian, going to a session on the very detailed inner workings of cataloging had me a little concerned that I’d made a terrible mistake in my choice of sessions (and I was in over my head a good majority of the session). However, I’m still glad I chose this session. This new set of cataloging rules that is being prepared and which could be implemented in as little as two years from now, will have a major impact on the library community. It will require coordination for ILS compatibility, as well as with LC and OCLC for effective training for staff, and a period of testing and evaluation. This is a process I will now be sure to follow to see how things develop.

The second session I attended was a recap of the 23 Things on a Stick program by program participants. They all did a terrific job of presenting what they saw personally as the highlights of their participation in the program and it was fascinating that they each looked at it from such different perspectives. One speaker enjoyed learning the photo sharing tool Picasa and demonstrated some of the functionality of the site. Another discussed how participating in 23 Things together as a library staff affected their working relationships in a positive way. Two other speakers, both from academic libraries, demonstrated how their libraries had implemented an instant messaging service such as Meebo to offer instant internet helplines for their students on their websites. I found this in particular to be a great way to integrate a Web 2.0 tool into library service.

My Day 1 ended at the 23 Things reception where attendees were served ice cream personally from Michael Scott out of an ice cream hand truck complete with umbrella and jingling bells. Can’t get much better than that and I can’t wait to see what Day 2 brings.

A Long Full Day at MLA: Day 1

mpherson — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:11:59

Jeanne M. Steinbrink, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient
Austin Public Library

Preconference
Day 1 started early Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. preconference when I attended Library Security: Everyone's Responsibility. Speakers Ben Trapskin, a senior librarian at Hennepin County, and Jeremy Johnson, a computer forensic evidence technician, kept us awake during the three-hour morning session talking about the transitioning of libraries from being information resources to becoming centers of culture and social gathering places.

Ben Trapskin started his presentation by referring to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Ben emphasized that safety needs were second only to biological and social needs. With the advent of mobile devices such as cell phones and hand-held Internet devices, libraries are less needed as sources of information. Statistics show that 25% of youth are unsupervised at least part of the day, and the Internet and on-line games draw them to the library. Because of the shift to becoming gathering places for socializing and non-quiet activities, libraries have had to change their primary emphasis from providing collections to making library staff and patrons feel secure in the library. Patrons who do not feel the library is a safe environment will not walk through its doors to use its resources.

Jeremy Johnson discussed person crimes (gang activity, criminal sexual conduct such as child porn, e-mail threats) and property crimes (identity theft, selling stolen property on Craig's List) and how these crimes can take place at the library. Computer forensics involves gathering evidence from desktops, laptops, hand-held digital devices, and digital storage (discs, CDs, thumb drives) and is useful for recovering and analyzing data.

Ben talked of the importance of having procedure manuals in place and written policy. They both stressed the importance of documenting incidences to establish patterns of behaviors and getting the police involved early. Their presentation was timely as I am sure we have all seen the changes in the numbers and types of incidences in our libraries.

The noon luncheon featured Tim Spalding with his LibraryThing.com presentation on social cataloging. Tim entertainingly updated those of us new to world of social cataloging, and tenderly stepped on a few library sacred cow toes in the process. While being treated to a great lunch, we learned that LibraryThing offers users a way to personally catalog books they've read. Users can rate the book, tag it by category or subject heading, provide non-traditional catalog information, write a personal review and show cover pictures. LibraryThing helps you find others with similar interests. Tagging lets you search by non-Library of Congress subject headings, such as "chick lit" and you can combine tags to narrow your search. Overall, a fun way to spend my noon hour--but I missed my three mile walk.

Lauren Burnett's early afternoon conference session on Managing Negativity in the Workplace kept us alert as our minds slowed while our stomachs were digesting lunch. Lauren said we usually have six seconds from a trigger to a reaction. She helped us realize when we understand our triggers, we can control our reactions. She taught us how to relax during conflict by standing firmly with shoulders down, arms at our sides and calmly breathing in and out through the nose. She said, "The person conceived to be the calmest is the person conceived to be the most confident." I've been to one of her presentations at an earlier conference and this was a good refresher.

The final Wednesday session I attended was 23 Things: Better Than a Deep Fried Twinkie. It was interesting to hear from the panel of four people who were among the 600 who had finished all 23 Things. Tim Johnson, Erika Rux, Linda Weinmann and Lynn Wyman spoke on the favorite things they learned. Picasa, which is similar to Flickr, had terrific photo editing tools and was also great for creating and printing posters you could use in your library. Another liked www.meeebo.com for linking Aim, Yahoo, Google Talk and MSN IM (instant messaging) accounts. You Tube (watch "The Machine is Using Us") and Google calendar were other useful library tools. Another panelist noted how 23 Things increased staff confidence and their general competency with Web 2.0 tools. Another mentioned how using some of the tools had streamlined his work and how 23 Things created a new social network community. If you haven't finished the 23 Things, it is still available--keep going. Watch for More Things on a Stick in January 2009.

Info and Thoughts from MLA Day 1

mpherson — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:11:04

Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian

I always have so much fun at these conferences because I get to visit with library friends throughout the state that I don't get to see on a regular basis AND I get to learn new and exciting things about what's going on in libraries!

My day started with the keynote speaker luncheon that featured Tim Spalding, founder of LibraryThing. I've been a LibraryThing user for a little over two years now and to listen to Tim speak was really great! To think I can actually compare my personal collection and Thomas Jefferson's personal collection is incredible!

After lunch, I headed to the silent auction. Currently, I'm in a bidding war for a super cool Minnesota Wild Hockey Pack! I hope I win it.

The first conference session I attended this afternoon was Managing Negativity at Work. Lauren Burnett, facilitator for and President of the Center for Inner Quality, presented information about how to deal with negative situations in one's life and how to prevent negative situations from occurring. Lauren shared the top 11 causes of negativity in the workplace, saying that if we are all aware of these things, we can possibly prevent a negative situation from occurring:

1. Hurt feelings, seldom given support or positive feedback
2. What you want to do is in conflict with what you feel you should do
3. Not feeling as good about yourself as you'd like
4. Being taken advantage of
5. Hurt feelings, being rejected by others
6. Work criticized by others
7. Being isolated from people
8. Fear of change
9. Taking action too slowly
10. Being forced to lower job standards
11. Negativity has become a habitual pattern

Here are some other interesting ideas she presented:

You have six seconds to hi-jack any negative objects before they affect you.
The person who is perceived as the calmest is the person who is perceived as the most confident.
To calm your own personal negative feelings, think of 3 things that are bugging you, then 2, and then 1. Then, switch the focus to something positive by thinking of 1 positive thing, then 2, then 3.
Exhale to relax your body when in a stressful situation.

She also talked a little about work gossip and how that can totally affect a working environment. She basically said if you have listened to gossip, you have engaged in it (even if you didn't say anything). If you find yourself in an uncomfortable situation, just say straight out, "I'm uncomfortable talking about this" or switch to another common positive topic--avoid becoming "one of them." Lauren said that the supervisor role is key because that person needs to be able to identify the gossipers when things get out of hand and needs to set the standards as to what is acceptable in the workplace. Gossip grows because communication is lacking, so always keep communication between workers flowing. Overall, it was a very interesting presentation!

The second conference session I attended was with Rebecca Patton from the Arrowhead Library System that focused on the Minnesota Library Certification Program. The Minnesota Certification Program is for library staff and is intended to improve the library services in Minnesota and it encourages library staff members to further develop library skills. Although it was a small group (only three people), the session was really informal and informative. Rebecca shared a little bit about the Minnesota Certification program and then guests asked questions about the program. Because I'm on the Certification Steering Committee and I will be a homework reader in the SELCO region, I wanted to know everything I can about the MN Certification program. FYI--If you are interested in participating in the MN Certification and you are in the SELCO region, please contact me and I can help answer any questions you may have about the program.

My last stop this evening will be the 23 Things Party on a Stick between 7:30-8:30 p.m. to do some social networking and grab some Ice Cream on a Stick. Woo hoo!

MLA Conference Orientation

rgray — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:18:37

Rachel Gray - Information Serivces Librarian

The first session I attended after the Luncheon Keynote at MLA this afternoon was the MLA Confrence Orientation. While I have been to Conference the last couple years, I still learned more about the ins and outs of the MLA, and also got some tips for making the most of my conference expereience. The best advice I got from this year's session was to not be afraid to go up to other attendees and introduce myself. Wendy Wendt, current MLA President, credited the networking she has done in the past to where she is today as the director of her local library.

I can see how this works. You meet such a broad range of people at MLA - both newcomers and veterans at a conference like this one. And the library community in Minnesota really isn't as large as we might think sometimes. This networking can be done all year round, not just at an annual conference. Any meeting or training session can be put to good use as a chance to meet more of our collegues. Who know where it may take you!

Tim Spaulding, LibraryThing

jonya — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:14:47

Jonya Pacey, Help Desk Manager

I enjoyed the Wednesday luncheon speaker, Tim Spaulding, LibraryThing.com founder who calls his site a 'social network of some fairly intelligent people." He discussed not just the adding of records into the 'shared mental universe' of LibraryThing, which is all it is, being a metadata database about books, not the books themselves. But also he spoke of the tagging, of the weighted results lists you can pull up, of the Legacy Libraries ("I see dead people's books") and how you can compare your own library to other people's and discover shared interests and common bonds. He shared some of the more interesting tags and how they can be TagMashed to narrow down your results, something it is not easy to do using LoC subject headings. And I found it interesting that he had a great passion for his product and what it had added to the world. He said of tagging "These are real. Tagging tells us what a book means to people and how they see the world." Tagging and reviews are usually written by people who have completed the book and are moved to say something. However, this augments subject headings, it does not replace them. In this room of librarians, he was careful to point this out.

I have a LibraryThing account but did not realize how much I have missed, how much more I could be doing with it. I want to try it out, figure out what would be useful for me and others and teach other people how to use it. So before I go into the Vendor's area for refreshments, I wanted to post this. I will confess I cannot figure out yet how to see the Legacy Library list, of people like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams and Marilyn Monroe's private libraries, but I will.

Studying Library Support

ahutton — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:54:30

Ann B. Hutton, Executive Director

From Awareness to Funding, the most recent report from OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc., affirmed aspects of my own experiences based on years of advocating for libraries and offered some surprises. Primary findings of this lengthy and statistically sound demographic study funded through the generous and continuing support of the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation include:

Library funding support is only marginally related to library visitation

Perceptions of librarians are an important predictor of library funding support

Voters who see the library as a 'transformational' force as opposed to an 'informational' source are more likely to increase taxes in its support.

Cathy De Rosa, OCLC Vice President for the Americas and Global Vice President of Marketing, keynoted a recent MINITEX workshop. She shared the good news that there are increased possibilities to change the trend of flat or decreasing library funding as there is latent support for libraries. However, the challenge will be to shift these latent feelings about the library into real support at a time when there are ever increasing demands on the public sector. Library advocates must do a better job positioning the library as part of local infrastructure.

Two key results did not surprise me. First, the correlation between support for library funding and library visits is fairly low and secondly, the positive impact library staff on funding potential. For years, I have worked with dedicated community residents around southeastern Minnesota who take great pride in their library but are not necessarily among its regular users. While I considered this disconnect between support and use strange, I’ve never rejected the proverbial “gift horse” of their support. Despite a myriad of rules (2-week checkouts for some items, 3-day checkouts for others, different fine rates, etc.) library staff members come to work each day ready and willing to help the library user. And, library customers respond with repeat visits and speaking well of library services.

The response by local elected officials regarding library visits was a surprise. Based on the survey responses, elected officials report 19 library visits a year. While this certainly contradicts anecdotal reports from local library directors and library registration records, the good news in Chapter 3 istates 73% of local elected officials have a positive impression of the library and 77% feel the library provides essential resources that some people could not otherwise afford.

The “Emotional and Intellectual Rewards Framework” graph in Chapter 4 depicts my other surprise. The four-quadrant chart is defined as “Transformation, Information, Purpose, and Escape.” Respondents firmly classify the public library as providing “information with a purpose.” Great – right? We accomplished the goals of so many publicity campaigns denoting the library as an information place. But – no! The report reveals that those willing to spend more money on libraries want the library to transform. Despite publicity that shouted information, library audiences did not make the intuitive leap that possessing information can transform one’s life. After nearly a decade of the @your library campaign, ALA can claim a degree of success but will want to craft a new message based on this OCLC study.

SELCO has copies of From Awareness to Funding in the professional collection and I encourage you to check it out

Music Library Association Midwest Chapter Meeting, Oct. 23-25 2008

athompson — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:16:16

Abbey Thompson, LSTA Project Cataloging Librarian

On October 23rd, I drove down to Kansas City, Missouri for the Midwest chapter meeting of the Music Library Association. While we all know that the library world is a little too full of organizations with the acronym of MLA (the Modern Languages Association, Medical Library Association, Minnesota Library Association, just to name a few), this particular MLA is near and dear to my own heart. Ive been attending various MLA functions since starting library school, and every conference has been nothing less than stellar. This meeting was no different, full of useful information and learning opportunities blended with copious prospects for networking and social interaction with fellow music librarians. The session on providing access to sheet music collections was particularly enlightening, considering my work with the Chatfield Brass Band collection. Though new to this particular chapter (previously I attended chapter meetings in the Southeast region), I felt immediately welcomed and encouraged by my new peers.

I have now been working with SELCO for just over three months, on the Chatfield Brass Band Music Lending Library project. My excitement for the project has only grown in this time, and I particularly wanted to take the opportunity at this conference to spread awareness of this amazing collection and the work that SELCO is doing to make it more accessible. By the end of the weekend, the question that I had answered the most was, without a doubt, What is SELCO? The majority of music librarians work in academic library settings, so to be confronted with a name-badge bearing our unfamiliar acronym, rather than a university or college, was initially baffling to some. Once explanations were made, however, I received nothing but praise and excitement about the project. Most of the people I spoke with had never heard of the Chatfield Brass Band Music Lending Library, and were stunned to hear of the size and scope of the collection. It truly is a unique resource, and I was overjoyed to see such a positive response from these fellow music librarians to both the collection itself and the work that SELCO has done on its behalf. Eliciting this kind of response was truly my goal for the conference to spread the word about the collection and SELCOs role in its transformation. By all accounts, this mission was an overwhelming success.

Pre-Overdue Email Notices in Horizon

dlambright — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:58:04

Donovan Lambright, Automation Librarian

About a week and a half ago, I posted some information about the upcoming Horizon upgrade. I'd like to follow up with some more details about Pre-Overdue Email Notices. As described in my previous post, Pre-Overdue Email Notices:

are email only. Patrons receiving paper notices will not get them.
are optional by Online Library. If you don't want to use them, you don't have to.
go out a few days before the due date with the exact timing determined by each library. The timing can be set by BTYPE.
can be enabled at the time of the upgrade or at a later date. They can also be disabled if the library changes its mind.

A few more details have come to light as we digest the release notes for the upgrade:

Each patron record will have a check box that determines if he/she will get Pre-Overdue Email Notices. If your Online Library chooses to have this functionality enabled, all patrons with your library as their Location will have this checked by a script run against the database.
We're still unclear about what happens after the upgrade. Will you have to manually check this box every time you create a new patron record or will it be checked by default? We don't know yet. If it is not checked by default, we will modify your patron record view to check it automatically for you. That's Plan B. Plan A is that Horizon will take care of it for us. Either way, however, you're covered.
Because this functionality is enabled in each patron record, an Online Library could choose to have only some patrons get Pre-Overdue Email Notices. SELCO does not recommend such an approach without a REALLY good reason. The opportunities for confusion are just too great. A better approach would be to not put email addresses in the record of any patron who you don't want getting Pre-Overdues.

That's it. It's pretty simple, really. Once you decide to enable this functionality, it just works. Like other email notices, you don't have to do anything on a day-to-day basis to send them out.

Based on this information, SELCO would like email from each Online Library to let us know if you want Pre-Overdue Email Notices enabled. If you're not sure or need to talk to your Board or Principal, don't worry. We can turn them on (or off) for you at a later date. Please send your email to preoverdues@selco.info by 12-04-2008. If you have any questions, please contact the SELCO Help Desk.

Another Step in the Fight Against Spam

dlambright — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:24:50

Donovan Lambright, Automation Librarian

In our never-ending attempts to block spam on the SELCO email server, while leaving legitimate email intact, we have taken another step. Last week, we began blocking all email from carefully selected countries known to be spam havens. This is not a step we took lightly. We first considered blocking such email about a year ago and decided against it as too overreaching a solution. Increasingly sophisticated messages, including some inviting recipients to click links to get "Presidential election news", caused us to reconsider.

Having decided to block all messages from spam havens, we consulted a number of lists maintained by anti-spam groups. The highly regard anti-spam group Spamhaus, for example, gave us this top 10 list of spam origin countries:

United States
China
Russian Federation
South Korea
United Kingdom
Germany
India
Brazil
Japan
France

Well, we knew we weren't going to block email from the US. Nevertheless, comparing such lists with the statistics from our spam filter yielded good results. In the end, we decided to block all messages from the following six countries. This table also shows how many messages came to the SELCO email server from each country from 10-14 to 11-13:

Country	Email Messages Sent to SELCO from 10-14-2008 to 11-13-2008	Email Messages Blocked as Spam
Aruba	115	115
Russia	12,000	12,000
Taiwan	4,500	4,500
Hong Kong	350	350
China	12,000	12,000
Ukraine	5,500	5,500

You read that correctly. All of the email received from these countries during the month examined were spam. During this time period, we blocked 212,000 spam messages. Adding up the numbers on this chart, we find that 34,465 came from these six countries. That's about 16%.

It's another step forward.

Want Your Locally Licensed Databases in the New SELCO Catalog?

dlambright — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:23:34

Donovan Lambright, Automation Librarian

As part of our planning for the upcoming AquaBrowser catalog implementation, SELCO is gathering information on research databases purchased locally by Online Libraries. Along with the databases provided by the state and by SELCO, these databases will be searchable in the new catalog. Please return, via email to me, the names of any databases your library has purchased that you would like in the new catalog by Friday, November 21. I realize that MLA is coming up but we need a quick turnaround on this question in order to get contract negotiations moving.

In case you are wondering, locally licensed databases will be searchable only by patrons who are entitled to access. There are several means of achieving this and we are still working out the method that will work best for us. You can rest assured however, that including your databases in the catalog will not automatically make them accessible to the entire region and thus violate your license agreement with the database vendor.

Please contact the SELCO Help Desk with any questions.

Minnesota Library News

mpherson — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:50:27

Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian

Happy Friday!

FYI--The Minnesota Library Day at the Legislature has been announced for 2009! MN Library Day will be held on March 25, 2009. Save the date and spread the word by telling your friends, board members, and supporters. Registration and other information about the day will be forthcoming, so keep checking back for more info.

Also, big news regarding the Cooperative Summer Library Program! The artists have been announced for the 2010 children's and teen programs. Henry Cole will be creating the artwork for the children's 2010 program and Ursula Vernon will be the artist for the teen 2010 program. I know the 2009 SRP program hasn't taken place yet, but the news is exciting nonetheless! If you haven't gone to the 2009 SRP website yet, check it out!

SELCO Librarian

Helping our Neighbors to the South

Visit to Kingsland Schools

MLA: 2008 Best Projects by Library Friends

Inspired by 23 Things on a Stick presentation at MLA Conference

Final Countdown Day 3 at MLA

Day 3 at MLA

MLA Day 2 - Everybody Get on the Bus

Final day at MLA 2008

MLA Day 3

MLA Day 2

Final MLA Thoughts

Another Long Full Day at MLA: Day 2

Another recap of MLA Conference Day 2

Thursday (Day 2) at the MLA Conference

MLA: Discover Your Inner Leader @ MILE 2009 and the LMRT Business Meeting

MLA: Capital Fundraising Campaign - Part 1

Cataloging Cartographic Resources - a workshop only a cataloger could love!

2008 MLA, Day 2

MLA, Day 1

MLA Conference Tagged

I served ice cream my first day at MLA 2008!

My first day at MLA 2008

Adventures at MLA Day 2

More Questions and Answers About the Upcoming Horizon Upgrade

Interesting First Day at My First MLA Conference

A Long Full Day at MLA: Day 1

Info and Thoughts from MLA Day 1

MLA Conference Orientation

Tim Spaulding, LibraryThing

Studying Library Support

Music Library Association Midwest Chapter Meeting, Oct. 23-25 2008

Pre-Overdue Email Notices in Horizon

Another Step in the Fight Against Spam

Want Your Locally Licensed Databases in the New SELCO Catalog?

Minnesota Library News