After the the first RDA class, the catalogers and I (Becky. Kristi and with help from Cindy) evaluated the class and decide to break the class into two separate offerings.
Each cataloger may choose which class they feel is appropriate for their cataloging level. Both classes fulfill your RDA cataloging requirement. Each classes will last approximately 3 to 4 hours. …
On Friday the Minnesota House will take up the bonding bill on the floor. The bill as it emerged from committee did not include any funding for libraries. However, Rep. Alice Hausman, chief author of the bill, has posted an amendment to the bill online that would appropriate $1.5 million for Library Accessibility and Improvement Grants. …
The House and Senate conferees for the Legacy bill have been appointed.
Please contact them and urge them to support the House position on Legacy funding for regional public libraries.
The House maintains the current funding level of $3 million per year, whereas the Senate reduces it to $1 million per year. With the Senate version, SELCO would go from $308,016 it received in FY2013 to $96,000 in FY2014, …
| As a part of its 25th anniversary season, the Minnesota Book Awards is proud to announce a new literary map of our state: From Main Street to Your Street: Minnesota Writers on the Map, featuring more than 100 writers from historical to modern times, whose contributions to the state’s literary legacy are profound. Copies of the map will be available in public libraries beginning at the end of May. In early June, the map will move online with more information on each of the authors listed, and new interactive elements. There will be links to the Minnesota Historical Society’s author biographies pages, as well. This project was produced in partnership with the Minnesota Historical Society and Explore Minnesota, and made possible by funds from Minnesota’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund through a designation from the Council of Regional Public Library System Administrators (CRPLSA), Explore Minnesota, and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. |
|
Circulation privileges in Horizon control how long items check out, what your fine rates are, and twelve other circulation rules in use in our region. There is a Horizon: Behind the Screens episode to go along with this post.
Every location has distinct privileges, meaning you have your own default value and exception views. Exceptions are based on item location, BTYPEs and ITYPEs only. …
As previously discussed, we are migrating data and virtual servers to a new Storage Area Network this week. Work is still progressing. It's fair to say that the migration is taking a good deal longer than anyone at SELCO or our vendors expected. We are, however, making progress.
In consultation with Davenport Group, the vendor for this project, we have decided to take a break after three long nights of work. …
The House conferees for the Legacy bill were appointed this morning.
Please contact them and urge them to support the House position on Legacy funding for regional public libraries.
The House maintains the current funding level of $3 million per year, whereas the Senate reduces it to $1 million per year. With the Senate version, SELCO would go from $308,016 it received in FY2013 to $96,000 in FY2014, …
The following information was sent via e-mail on May 15, 2013 from Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Lobbyist. Additional linked information added.
With just a few days left in the legislative session, final decisions are starting to be made on budget bills.
Minitex/MnLINK
Great news! The higher education conference committee reached agreement on the omnibus higher ed bill this evening (May 15, 2013) and it includes the $300, …
Legacy funding for SELCO's cultural programming is in jeopardy of being reduced by 2/3.
In FY2013, SELCO received $308,016 but under the proposed Senate Legacy bill that amount would be reduced to $96,000 in FY2014, greatly affecting SELCO's ability to support local programming efforts.
Call or email your Senator today and share your story about Library Legacy activities in your community. …
![]()
It's no longer a mystery! The Mystery Reader's Advisory Workshop has been rescheduled! Join us on Tuesday, June 11, 2013, 12:30-3:30 p.m. at the SELCO Headquarters! Check out the agenda below!
11:30 a.m. -- Pizza Lunch
12:30-1:05 p.m. -- Crime Mysteries with LaVonne Beach, LaCrescent Public Library
1:05-1:10 p.m. -- Break
1:10-1:45 p.m. -- Unique Mysteries with Stephanie Hall, Meinders Community Library in Pipestone, …
| You're invited to the Minnesota Writers' Map reception! Tuesday May 21, 6:30 p.m. Minnesota History Center, Heffelfinger Room 345 Kellogg Boulevard West Saint Paul RSVP by Friday, May 17 Beverages and hors d’oeuvres will be provided. Please join the Minnesota Book Awards, Explore Minnesota, … |
The Senate Legacy Bill (SF 1051), authored by Senator Richard Cohen (D-St. Paul), was unveiled in the Senate Subcommittee on Legacy on Thursday, May 9, 2013, and included funding for $1 million/year for regional public libraries. This amount is a major reduction from the $3 million/year currently allocated to regional public libraries. In the House companion bill, [HF 1183|https://www. …

A new grant competition will award $150,000 to libraries, museums, and other nonprofits to provide hands-on learning opportunities this summer for youth across the country to help make the online experience more civil, safe and empowering. The Project:Connect Summer Youth Programming Competition is administered by the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC), …
The following information was sent via e-mail on May 12, 2013 from Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Lobbyist. Additional linked information added.
It's crunch time. The Legislature must adjourn on May 20, 2013 -- one week from Monday.
Budget Deal
Today (May 12, 2013) the Governor and legislative leaders announced that they have agreed on a budget deal. …
SELCO is migrating to a new Storage Area Network (SAN) during the week of May 13, 2013. The SAN stores all SELCO data and the virtual servers that provide most of our services. A few points to be aware of:
- The SAN was assembled and installed last week. This week, we are migrating all data and virtual servers from the old SAN to the new.
- A technician from Davenport Group, the SAN vendor, will be present to assist us in carrying out the migration. …
PC Reliance is the offline circulation capturing tool associated with Horizon. This is an optional program loaded onto circulation workstations so that your staff can easily continue to check out items to patrons during network outages. There is a Horizon: Behind the Screens episode to accompany it.
PC Reliance records patron barcodes and the item barcodes the patron is taking out with them. It can also produce a receipt, if you wish, and if you have set it up correctly, …
This post is about understanding how we manage your calendars and pull lists. This post should help you understand why these are two separate actions in Horizon. There is a Horizon Behind the Screens episode to accompany it.
Although weekly schedules do not change very often, we work with you to assure your annual holiday and other closed dates into Horizon are accurate. We can add in unexpected dates, such as snow dates, …
The Group 2 OCLC Project Kickoff that was scheduled for today will be postponed to a later date. With several folks unable to attend due to closed libraries, no power, or anything else that this crazy May snow is wreaking havoc with, we will find a new date in the next week or so to have that kickoff. Cheryl will be in contact with those of you who are in that group of libraries.
The Circulation training class, scheduled for today from 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM has been cancelled. We will look at re-scheduling this for a later date.
I can't believe I'm even writing this on May 2, 2013, but with the horrible road conditions around the region and travel not advised almost everywhere, we are cancelling Delivery for today. We plan to resume regular Delivery on Friday, May 3, 2013 when we hope to be able to safely deliver your tubs. Stay safe!
Continuing on with our OCLC reclamation project, over 400 boxes of books were picked up from SELCO on Monday April 29 by Better Futures Minnesota formerly known as Network for Better Futures. Rushford-Peterson School and Red Wing Public Library were 2 additional stops made on Friday April 26 with over 30 boxes each. Better Futures Minnesota will attempt to resale the books, give some to local prisons, …

National Science Foundation "Pushing the Limit" Programming Grant
If your Friends group represents a small and rural Minnesota library looking to bolster its Adult programming offerings in the S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields, the National Science Foundation wants to work with you!
Last year, in a special pilot program, …
The following information was sent via e-mail on April 29, 2013 from Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Lobbyist. Additional linked information added.
The Legislature must adjourn three weeks from today (April 29, 2013). Most of the omnibus budget bills were passed on the floor of the House and Senate last week (week of April 22, 2013). Conference committees are in the process of being appointed and will begin meeting later this week. …
The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library is pleased to announce the winners of the 25th annual Minnesota Book Awards announced and presented on Saturday, April 13. More than 800 people gathered in St. Paul for the award ceremony hosted by author and comedienne Lorna Landvik. The winners of the 2013 Minnesota Book Awards are:
… |
There's a new program on SELCOtv! What does that mean? is a very short (about a minute) program featuring definitions of library and technology terms. Ever wondered what Jonya means when she refers to SQL? Or tried to explain what digitization means to your Board? What does that mean? is the show for you.
Each episode is short and sticks to just the facts with a quick, easy to understand definition of the term in question. …
Our eCommerce problem has been resolved. We apologize for this inconvenience.
Greetings! Please save the date for an upcoming summer workshop called Sharing Between Friends on June 18, 2013, 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. at the SELCO Headquarters in Rochester. This day-long workshop will feature Chris Olson, MELSA Director and former Minnesota Association of Library Friends (MALF) President, in the morning. The afternoon session will feature a series of best practices and programs from regional Friends groups and time for sharing and discussion. …
We are experiencing a problem with EnvisionWare, which has made fine/fee payments through My Account in the online catalog unavailable. We are working with the vendor to fix this problem and will send out updates as they become available.
We regret this inconvenience to library patrons.
MnLINK has informed us that the MnLINK Gateway is back up. Some text from their message:
The MnLINK Gateway and VDX are now available to use. You may experience some slowness with request searching or updating requests. The system's indexes are catching up, but we expect this to be OK by tomorrow. You may want to avoid doing large bulk actions today.
Tyler Irvin, Technology Support Librarian
SELCO will be offering the introductory Circulation I class on Thursday, May 2nd, 9:30-12:30 at the SELCO offices; see course description below. To register for the class, go to the CourseWhere site's event posting. If you have never registered for a class before, …
Interested in attending Camp Read-A-Lot? Or know someone who might be? Click HERE to access the 2013 Camp Read-A-Lot flyer for more info! Help us spread the word!
This post is about understanding your collection codes and ITYPEs. There is a Horizon Behind the Screens episode to accompany it.
Collection codes help your patrons find items in your library. Optimally for the patrons, you have one collection code per set of shelves to make that clear – that can be the entire back wall of shelves or it can be the first column of shelving and half of the next. …
Tyler Irvin, Technology Support Librarian
As it happens everywhere, from the Twitter FailWhale to George Takei crashing a website by a Facebook mention, occasionally systems go down unexpectedly. This happens here at the SELCO now and then as well. When something like this happens, we have a variety of methods to get the message out there.
The primary method of contact now that we switched to Google Apps is through email. …
![]()
Good morning! It's no longer a mystery! The Mystery Reader's Advisory Workshop has been rescheduled! Join us on Tuesday, June 11, 2013, 12:30-3:30 p.m. at the SELCO Headquarters! Check out the agenda below!
11:30 a.m. -- Pizza Lunch
12:30-1:05 p.m. -- Crime Mysteries with LaVonne Beach, LaCrescent Public Library
1:05-1:10 p.m. -- Break
1:10-1:45 p.m. -- Unique Mysteries with Stephanie Hall, …
The MnLINK Gateway will be going down for a software upgrade on Monday April 22, 2013 around 9:00 PM. We expect the system to return Tuesday April 23 around noon. Thank you for your patience during the downtime.
SELCO is happy to announce registration is open for our 5th Annual Camp Read-a-Lot on August 6, 2013, focusing on literature for Grades 2-5! This year, we are hosting Camp at Cascade Meadow Wetlands & Environmental Science Center in Rochester. Heidi Hammond from St. Catherine University and Gail Nordstrom from Viking Library System will discuss the selection process for the Caldecott Award, …
The following information was sent via e-mail on April 17, 2013 from Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Lobbyist. Additional linked information added.
Total Operating Capital
Doug Tomhave, technology director for the South St. Paul Schools, recently raised a concern that a provision brought forward by the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) to prohibit using total operating capital to pay for annual licensing fees for software might prohibit paying for licensing fees for electronic texts and library media resources. I communicated that concern to MDE's government relations staff. After some conversation, MDE agreed to drop the language about annual licensing fees.
Google is reporting that their outage this morning has been resolved. Gmail and other Google Apps should be working normally now. If your experience differs, please contact the SELCO Help Desk.
Greetings! To celebrate National Poetry Month, SELCO is hosting the Poets at the Library tour around the SELCO region. Check out the updated schedule of events below -- there's still time to see some amazing poets!
| Location |
Poet |
Date |
Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| University Center, Rochester |
Su Smallen |
Thursday, April 18, 2013 |
7 p.m. |
| St. Charles Public Schools |
Laura Purdie Salas |
Thursday, April 25, 2013 |
afternoon |
| St. Charles Public Library |
Laura Purdie Salas |
Thursday, April 25, 2013 |
6:30 p.m. |
| Owatonna Public Library |
Todd Boss |
Tuesday, April 30, 2013 |
7 p.m. |
Hope to see you there!
Update, 04-17-2013, 09:05 PM – Many SELCO users are reporting that Google Apps is working for them again. Having said that, Google's App Status Dashboard still shows them having a partial service disruption. If you can get in, go for it. But we're not sending out a general All-Clear just yet.
Google Apps for Business is down this morning. This is s widespread issue, folks on the [Search Engine Roundtable|http://www.seroundtable.com/comments. …
The latest Delivery Count was done on Monday, March 25, 2013 and 3423 items passed through SELCO Delivery. Compared to the Delivery Count done in March 2012 of 3740, this shows that Delivery decreased in March by 8.5%. This time around, we found that the number of items from schools increased while the number of items coming from public libraries and academic and special libraries decreased slightly. However, …
The following information was sent via e-mail on April 9, 2013 from Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Lobbyist. Additional linked information added.
House Omnibus Education Bill
The House omnibus education bill was posted online this afternoon (April 9, 2013). It maintains current funding for all library appropriations -- Regional Library Basic System Support (RLBSS), …
Greetings! It's time to apply for the 2013 Evy Nordley Minnesota Association of Library Friends (MALF) Best Project Award by a Friends Group. No Friends' project is too big or small -- awards have been given to large scale projects and small smartly-crafted projects. The Evy Nordley Award is given each year at the Minnesota Library Association conference. This year, the award will be given during the 2013 MLA Conference in St. …
Tyler Irvin, Technology Support Librarian
We've had a few emails into the Help Desk over the last few days about Aquabrowser not functioning properly for patrons, namely it not even loading correctly. If a patron contacts you about this, ask what browser they are using. It is very probably Internet Explorer 10 which has known compatibility issues with the Javascript used in Aquabrowser. The quick fix for now is to turn on IE's compatibility mode. If problems persists, …

Happy National Library Week! This year's theme is Communities Matter @ Your Library and it's a perfect opportunity to write your legislators and let them know how important libraries are to you and about the positive differences libraries make in your community! Libraries need your voice! Click HERE to start sharing a personal story about how your public, school, …
Please note that the next Community Collaboration grant deadline is rapidly approaching and is less than a week away. If you are considering applying or are working on an application currently, they are due next Wednesday -April 17th, 2013 at 5pm. Any accompanying print materials should be postmarked or sent in Delivery on or before the 17th as well. Please note that all applications require at least one partner organization. The grant request limit is $7,000.00, …
The following library staff members from around the SELCO/SELS region have been awarded a scholarship to attend this year's Enhancing Quality Staff Symposium:
Emily Soltis - Rochester Public Library
Laurie Kodet - Northfield Public Library
Diana Tallent - Lonsdale Public Library
Kathy Ness - Northfield Public Library
This symposium will be held on May 21, 2013 at the Continuing Education and Conference Center on the U of M/St. Paul campus. …
Good morning! We believe that Horizon is ready for us to use again. Systems checks by SELCO staff passed last night and again this morning, and we have had confirmation from one of our member libraries that a number of items, including things that went into transit and to hold, were successfully checked in.
Of course we are going to be closely monitoring the system this morning, but I feel that we can get back on Horizon now and begin working. …
04-11-2013, 10:05 PM -- SELCO and SirsiDynix staff continue to restore the Horizon database. We are fairly confident that we'll be done with that task later tonight and that should close the book on this problem. Having said that, please watch this space, Facebook, Twitter, or email (Automation Contacts and Directors only) for further information, including an All-Clear when we've confirmed that everything is back to normal. …
All of our episodes for the Minnesota Book Award Finalists have been recorded, edited and made available to you via SELCOtv! The 2013 winners will be announced on Saturday, April 13 at the MNBA awards celebration at The Hilton Minneapolis. You still have a bit of time to hear what SELCO staff thought about all 32 titles in the running.
- General Nonfiction reviewed by Rachel Gray, …
With the announcement in June 2011 that the Library of Congress will switch their cataloging standard from AACR2 to RDA on March 31st 2013 the rest of the country has been gearing up to learn, identify and to catalog using RDA. [A few weeks ago the first four SELCO RDA Copy Cataloging Classes were posted.|http://www.selco. …

Unable to attend the PLA Virtual Spring Symposium on March 20, 2013? Not to worry! The entire symposium was recorded and SELCO has been provided access for up to one year to the recorded sessions. To access the recordings, you need to create an INDIVIDUAL login. Instructions for how to access the recordings AND how to set up your individual account can be found on the [SELCO PLA Virtual Spring Symposium 2013 page|http://www. …

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is offering grants to 500 libraries and humanities organizations to develop public programming around a set of four NEH-funded films that explore the history of civil rights in America.
The Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle grant opportunity is open to museums and historical societies, state humanities councils, public, academic, and community college libraries, …
Greetings! To celebrate National Poetry Month in April and the release of the 2013 Poetic Strokes anthology, SELCO will be launching the Poets at the Library tour on Thursday, April 11, 2013 at the University Center, Rochester. Poet Su Smallen will be speaking to attendees about her Minnesota Book Award Poetry finalist, Buddha, Proof, and her other works. Four other locations will host Su and two other poets during the month of April. Please see the schedule of events below:
| Location | Poet |
Date |
Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| University Center, Rochester |
Su Smallen |
Thursday, April 11, 2013 |
7 p.m. |
| Brick House Coffee Shop, Austin in partnership with Austin Public Library |
Su Smallen |
Friday, April 12, 2013 |
7 p.m. |
| St. Charles Public Schools |
Laura Purdie Salas |
Thursday, April 25, 2013 |
afternoon |
| St. Charles Public Library |
Laura Purdie Salas |
Thursday, April 25, 2013 |
6:30 p.m. |
| Owatonna Public Library |
Todd Boss |
Tuesday, April 30, 2013 |
7 p.m. |
Copies of the 2013 Poetic Strokes anthology will arrive at libraries by the end of the week. Click HERE and click on the Poetic Strokes tab for contest winners, a contest report and more! Happy Poetry Reading!

easel on display at the Hokah Public Library
Nestled among the book collection, easel – Experience Art in Southeaster Libraries – is on display at the Hokah Public Library. The Hokah location is the smallest community on the traveling art exhibit schedule. …
DEADLINE IS FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2013 @ 12:00 PM!
SELCO will offer five scholarships of up to $225 to defray the costs of expenses for the Enhancing Quality Staff symposium on Tuesday, May 21, 2013, 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. This conference, presented by the University of Minnesota Libraries, …
Since RDA focuses on relationships it's no surprise that that many of the RDA changes taking place are occurring in the Authority Records for authors, subjects and series. These records work behind the scenes in our ILS to connect records. …
Tyler Irvin, Technology Support Librarian
This morning our eBook vendor, OverDrive, rolled out the new eBook catalog for SELCO's eBook collection. They have provided an introductory page to see what's new. Here's a list of the changes that have been found so far. …

You're invited!! SELCO is hosting a regional Minnesota Book Award 25th Anniversary Gala on Tuesday, May 7, 2013, 5-9 p.m. at the Rochester Civic Theatre. Join acclaimed authors for an evening of readings and discussion, with music as well as book sales, book signings, hors d'oeuvres, desserts, and a cash bar provided by the Rochester Civic Theatre. Featured Minnesota Book Award authors:
If you are interested in attending, please let us know at mnba13@selco.info by April 30th, 2013. This event is FREE and open to the public. SELCO thanks the following co-sponsors: Rochester Civic Theatre, Rochester Public Library, Friends of the Rochester Public Library, Rochester Public Library Foundation and the SELCO Library Foundation.
We are also accepting monetary donations to the SELCO Library Foundation and Silent Auction items for the Gala. Please click HERE to view the donation form! Questions? Give us a call! We hope to see you there!
This activity is made possible by money from Minnesota's Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund for Library Legacy activities and through a designation by the Council of Regional Public Library Systems Administrators.
Tyler Irvin, Technology Support Librarian
SELCO will be offering the introductory Circulation I class on Tuesday, April 16th 9:30-12:30 at the SELCO offices; see course description below. To register for the class, go to the CourseWhere site's event posting. If you have never registered for a class before, …
THIS IS YOUR ONE WEEK REMINDER!
SELCO is pleased to offer Beyond an Apple a Day: Providing Consumer Health Information at Your Library on Thursday, April 11, 2013, from 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM at the Owatonna Public Library (Note that this is NOT at the SELCO office.) Our presenter for this workshop is Samanthi Hewakapuge (MA, MLS), …

Happy School Library Month to all of the school librarians and media specialists in the SELCO/SELS region!
School Library Month (SLM) is the American Association of School Librarians' (AASL) celebration of school librarians and their programs. …
The order form for the Spring 2013 Cooperative PC Purchase has been posted and an email has been sent to Online Library Directors and Automation Contacts. The deadline for orders is Friday, April 26th, with SELCO placing orders in the first week of May. Equipment installations will be carried out as orders arrive.
<A href="http://www.tfaforms.com/279841" mce_href="http://www.tfaforms.com/279841" target="_blank">http://www.tfaforms.</A> …
SELCO will offer five scholarships of up to $225 to defray the costs of expenses for the Enhancing Quality Staff symposium on Tuesday, May 21, 2013, 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. This conference, presented by the University of Minnesota Libraries, provides an opportunity for library paraprofessionals and support staff to learn about a range of timely professional topics, …
The following information was sent via e-mail on March 29, 2013 from Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Lobbyist. Additional linked information added.
The Legislature is taking its annual Passover/Easter break this week and will return to work on Tuesday, April 2, 2013. At that point the Legislature will have seven weeks to conclude its work before the constitutional adjournment deadline of May 20, 2013.
Committee Deadlines
Last Friday (March 22, 2013) was the second committee deadline. …
THIS IS YOUR TWO WEEK REMINDER!
SELCO is pleased to offer Beyond an Apple a Day: Providing Consumer Health Information at Your Library on Thursday, April 11, 2013, from 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM at the Owatonna Public Library (Note that this is NOT at the SELCO office.) Our presenter for this workshop is Samanthi Hewakapuge (MA, MLS), …
As posted on the ALA Washington Office's District Dispatch blog on March 26, 2013 with additional links added.
As governments continue to move services online, many public libraries need assistance providing the public with the government services that they need. To assist libraries in providing e-government services to patrons, the American Library Association will host the no-cost webinar [Libraries & E-government|https://events-na8.adobeconnect. …
Excerpts from the District Dispatch, online news blog from the American Library Association's Washington Office.
On March 15, 2013, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 803, the Supporting Knowledge and Investing in Lifelong Skills (SKILLS) Act, reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). …
The following information is excerpted from e-mails sent on March 20 & 21, 2013 from Mark Ranum, 2013 MLA Legislative Chair. Additional linked information added.
Date Privacy Bill
The short update is that with the assistance of legislators on the committee and other experts, we have determined that the data privacy protection we are seeking is already in the current law. What follows is the longer update.
We drafted the following language to be included in [MS 13.40 Subd. …

The 2013 Library Technology Conference is underway. SELCO staff members Donovan Lambright, Tyler Irvin, Mike Flores, Terry Glidden, Rachel Gray, and Cheryl Hill are presenters. Stay connected to conference proceedings by following SELCO staff and others as they tweet the news.
Technicians from SELCO and Interstate will conduct maintenance and load tests on our emergency generator between 6:30 AM and 7:00 AM on Friday, March 22, 2013. We do not expect this work to have any impact on SELCO services and are posting this information purely as an FYI.
Good morning! We had our fingers crossed, but with the patchy ice, wind, and blowing snow, we are cancelling today's workshop as we want to ensure everyone's safety. We will keep you posted on a future date and time. Thanks for your patience and be safe out there!




