The SELCO Librarian Blog from October, 2009

Anita Bruggeman, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Austin Public Library

COMMUNITY COLLABORATIONS with Melissa Brechon, Ann Hutton, Barbara Jauquet-Kalinoski, Murray Wilson
One of the reasons I wanted to attend this session was the fact that Ann Hutton and Melissa Brechon were two of the presenters.  I knew that this would probably be way over my head but I always feel that learning something new makes you a better person.

There was a lot of ideas presented and it would be impossible to remember everything that they shared with us.Ann Hutton discussed ways to come up with good ideas regarding advocacy.  Their group had sent out a survey and 861 came back.  On this survey they asked if they were interested in advocacy.  150 wanted to talk about it.  They discussed several great projects and 17 were focused on advocacy.  Ann said that alot of things were consistent with the collaborative adventure.  Collaboration is very organic and we shouldn't expect to obtain all of our goals.  Collaboration partnerships happen over a long period of time.  There needs to be a plan in place.  We shouldn't start a partnership thinking all is going to be glamorous.   We shouldn't make assumptions as to how you think people are going to react.  Good communication is very important.  There is always a chance that you will run into barriers.  Be consistent with your message and make sure that it goes to everyone.  Keep your message simple. Don't assume that you know everything that is happening.  Share the glory.

Ann has always been a great speaker to listen to.  I was fascinated about what she had to say.

REAL PROJECTS IN REAL LIBRARIES with Murray Wilson.  Dakota County Library in Lakeville call the Heritage Branch sponsored "One Book/One Lakeville" were everyone read the same book.  This was a community wide reading event using a book as a vehicle to get people to connect with their neighbors and community.  The book that they chose was "Population 485" written by Michael Perry who is a local author.  The book talks about small town experiences similar to what Lakeville used to be.  The scope of the program was to create events focused around the book.  They had a community gathering with a potluck.  Several groups and organizations partnered with the library.  They were from Education, Government, Cultural, Business, Civic, Friends of the library and the mayor. 

This was quite an undertaking with several events scheduled to have everyone participate.  They had a downtown celebration, high school presentation, book discussions, story times for children, history of the community, along with the potlucks and a final author event.  They had a great turnout and the committees spent a lot of time preparing for the program.  Sounded like it was a lot of fun.
Sorry, I was out of the room when Barbara gave her presentation.

MELISSA BRECHON CARVER COUNTYLIBRARY:  The session was almost over with so Melissa's presentation had to be short.  Melissa talked about how for many years she had knocked on school doors trying to get them to partnership with the libraries.  The schools didn't want anything to do with it.  Now with the financial crunch, the schools are now interested.  In 2006 District 112 and the CarverCountylibrary did partnership combing library staff and resource ideas with the school graphics in order to reach children in the schools.  Last year they had over 300 third graders attend in the freshman center and this year they had over 1000 attend in the ChaskaHigh School.  Last years theme was "What can I do to make it better today".  The library collaborated with the schools on how to write and illustrate a book.  Also did a community read "3 cups of Tea".  Next years theme will be "Simple Life Lessons".  Melissa stated that this is a Phenomenal thing to see how this program has grown.  She firmly believes in partnering with the schools.

I would definitely rate this session with a very high mark.  I enjoyed it alot.

FAMILY READS:  Connecting Parents & Children with Books with Kathleen James and Maggie Snow:

This was a fun session.  Lots of ideas along with handouts made this a very interesting program.  They surprised us with a few pop quizzes throughout the presentation.  They talked about how reading for pleasure makes good things happen and gave great examples such as:  reading comprehension improves, writing improves, vocabulary improves along with spelling and grammar improvements.  I was surprised to learn that children's interest in reading for fun drops significantly at the age of 8.    Girls are more likely than boys to have positive attitudes about reading and to regularly engage in reading for fun.
There was discussion on why kids don't read.  Parents say that the children need to get their homework done, don't have time, too tired to spend time reading, while the kids say  that they have trouble finding books that they like, too much homework, don't have time to read and too tired to spend time reading.  There was discussion on where kids get book suggestions from.  Alot of great reading resources were presented where the kids could get help from the library as well as the internet.

Some of the Do's and Don't for finding books kids want to read are:  Do offer a variety of books, do let them choose their own books, do respect their choices, do take them to the library and don't give up!  It's never too late to get your children interested in reading.

Also a very good session that I would give a high score to.

Jonya Pacey, Help Desk Manager

This is a bit late for an MLA Conference post but I did want to share one more of the sessions I attended. Rebecca Patton, Arrowhead Library System, on behalf of Carol Johnson, College of St. Catherine, reported on the ALA-APA LSSCP . This is a nationally-available certification program for library support staff, a portable, portfolio-based program managed by ALA-APA. It may be acknowledged by other states' libraries which I feel is the primary difference when compared with the Minnesota certification program. The Minnesota certification competencies were examined as LSSCPs were being developed, and Carol Johnson has created a comparison of the two sets of competencies. These were shared at this meeting.

LSSCP is scheduled to begin accepting applicants in January, 2010

In 2003, I was at COPE III, an ALA Congress that created a definite list of goals based on the considered opinions of a wide sample of the greater library community. This national certification was something that we identified at that time as a definite need, and it is with great pleasure that I see it move forward. 

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

This recording is from the SELCO Advisory Committee meeting held on October 13, 2009. The SELCO Advisory Committee is made up of the directors from all of the public libraries in the SELCO region. The group meets 6 times per year in February, April, June, August, October, and December.  The meeting video has been broken into 3 parts for ease of viewing.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

Ann Hutton, Executive Director, highlights the discussion points of the SELCO Quarterly Board Meeting held on Tuesday, October 27, 2009. The Board Recap is a regular program posted once a month after Board & Executive Committee Meetings.

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

This is a recording of the October 22, 2009 meeting of the SELCO ILS Operations & Technology Policy Joint Committee.  It has been split into 4 sections for your viewing convenience.

Part 1

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

Effective Monday, November 02, 2009, patrons of all SELCO Online Libraries will have the option of paying Horizon fines and fees online with any major credit card.   This will be a Basic Service for SELCO's online libraries, with no additional Automation Fees.  This episode of SELCOtv is targeted at library staff to help their users navigate our online payment system, EnvisionWare.

We will be publishing another video this week which is targeted at patrons. It will be available to be embedded onto individual library's homepages, if desired.

Kim Edson, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Rochester Public Library

Donovan Lambright , Automation Librarian

LibLime , the best known company providing support for the open source ILS Koha , recently announced plans for Koha Enterprise.  Mark Ranum, Director of Plum Creek Library System , has provided a great summary of the controversy sparked in the library community by this action and graciously gave me permission to post it here:

The announcement of LibLime's Koha Enterprise product on September 11 was a shock to many of us expecting more "open" access to this open source product.

LibLime Announces LibLime Enterprise Koha

Since that announcement, there have been several articles and dozens/hundreds of comments on what this means for potential customers who were waiting for Koha to be consortia-ready.  The Library Journal article linked below and the two commentaries from Marshall Breeding and Kathryn Greenhill give the best of these perspectives so far.

Library Journal--LibLime's "Enterprise Koha Prompts Frank Conversations on Open Source Issues

Kathryn Greenhill--The Koha fork and being the change you want to see

Marshall Breeding--An open letter to the Koha community

The prospect of a forked codebase and transparency of Koha open source modules clearly represents potential problems for a community of users who do not want to be limited to the LibLime business model.

Jamie Stanley, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Northfield Public Library

From the MLA Conference Session Meet the Middle East held on Thursday, October 15, 2009.

When Mary Kunesh-Podein married a Lebanese man during the Lebanese Civil War she became aware of the dearth of picture books in English on the political struggles in the Middle East.

Experiences with her own children and children in the inner city schools she has worked in as a Librarian, have led Mary to seek out books on topics not only on political struggles, but also on many other aspects of life and culture in this area of the world as well as others.

Since 1970, the number of immigrants within the United States from Middle Eastern countries has tripled and now stands at around 1.5 million people.  The influx of new Americans, and an increase in understanding of social and global issues by the American public has led to the publishing of many more books about other countries around the world, including those in the Middle East.

As a Librarian, Mary looks for books on other countries, including those in the Middle East that challenge students to make sense of complex issues such as war, terrorism, immigration and the Islamic faith..  These books, while written for children, are often suitable for adults with little or no understanding of these subjects.

For some immigrant children, quality picture books can provide cultural validation and the vehicle through which they can share with others experiences they are unable to express in words.

A review of some titles for younger and older readers was provided during this presentation, as well as an examination of a few useful online database sites.

Jamie Stanley, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Northfield Public Library

From the MLA Conference Session:  Excellence in Customer Service: A "Standard" Approach held on Thursday, October 15, 2009:

James Lund, the Director of the Red Wing Public Library is on a mission, seeking to share his vision with the library community about what he believes lies at the heart of high quality customer service in the public library setting.  It is a work ethos grounded not in policy, but in an all encompassing belief system based upon the concept of building relationships, serving others,  and the "Do unto others... " golden rule. 

A couple of tenets of this ethos include such concepts as the need to cultivate and maintain relationships with customers, and having staff take ownership of a problem and try to resolve it as quickly and expeditiously as possible. 

Andy Stehr, Circulation Services Manager at the Rochester Public Library has taken a more pragmatic approach in addressing the concept of customer service standards.  He believes that written standards help staff understand what is expected of them when serving the public, and that they also serve as a manifesto for the public so that they know what level of service they can expect. Rather than reinventing the wheel Andy suggested that when developing customer service standards it is acceptable to use prior documentation.  This includes anything written that address such subjects as codes of conduct, the library mission and its core values. 

Andy suggested that another useful reason for having written standards is that they allow staff to discuss more objectively potentially difficult topics related to work performance.   Both James and Andy addressed the goal of how to foster excellent customer service from two widely differing perspectives and provided a good counterpoint to each other.

Donovan Lambright , Automation Librarian

Yesterday, 10-22-2009, was a big day for Windows fans:  Windows 7 Release Day.   And even if you weren't excited enough to throw a Windows 7 house party , it's possible that you're wondering about SELCO's plans for the new operating system.

SELCO has no plans to immediately support Windows 7.  Now that it's officially out, we will give it a spin and, barring problems with any SELCO-supported services, offer support in 6 to 12 months.  Should we learn of any incompatibilities, we will decide how to proceed based on the nature of the issue.

As you may already know, SELCO currently supports Windows 2000, XP Professional, and Vista.  All PCs purchased through SELCO's Cooperative Technology Purchases come with Vista unless the PC is to be used with Pharos, which doesn't work with Vista.  Those PCs are supplied with XP Professional.  This will still be true for PCs purchased in the current Cooperative Technology Purchase .  It will also be true for PCs leased through the PC Leasing Value Added Service in 2010.

Please contact the SELCO Help Desk with any questions regarding Windows 7 and PC support.

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

SELCO staff have a variety of job titles and responsibilities.  In this SELCOtv mini-series, we'll meet staff members and find out what they do here at SELCO on a day-to-day basis.  This episode introduces you to Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian II.

Jamie Stanley, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Northfield Public Library

A lively discussion ensued as each of the panel members in this session (Kimberly Edson, Tim Hayes and James Lund) addressed the following questions:

1.  What is your organization doing to address budget shortfalls?

2.  How and what strategies have you developed for dealing with these shortfalls?

3.  How have you developed supported (political capital) within your community and when do you expend this political capital?

All panel members expressed the belief that they will experience budget shortfalls for the next two fiscal cycles, but that not all libraries will experience the same level of pain.  In some cases, smaller, rural libraries may be in a better budget position than larger, more urban systems.

I found that one of the most interesting aspects of this session was the high degree to which public libraries have to think strategically about who their budget allies are, and who presents a potential challenge to them fiscally.  This scenario is further complicated by such considerations as election cycles, complex funding formulas, and shifting public sentiment at local, county and state levels.

Library budgets have gotten so tight, that library managers are being forced to reevaluate all services and procedures on virtually every level through a cost/benefit lens.  For example, is it worthwhile investing staff time and library materials to recoup overdue fine money?  Some may posit that these evaluations are not necessarily bad, but rather impose discipline in library operations akin to that employed in business

Whether the library manager chooses a go along to get along strategy or whether they have chosen to draw the proverbial line in the sand and prefer to confront budget competitors, it became clear to me during the course of this session, that for all public library managers defending library budgets has become as important as developing library budgets.

Jamie Stanley, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Northfield Public Library

In January, 2009 the Wescott Branch of the Dakota County Library System reopened its doors after a major space renovation. With limited funds, and an understanding that they library building would not expand, library administration used the building renovation as an opportunity to evaluate existing all library operations and space utilization.  The goal was to make changes within the library that would meet, perhaps anticipate future needs of staff and patrons.   Two employees from the architectural firm retained to undertake the renovation work, along with Eric Austen, the Cluster Manager for the Wescott Library presented a slide show that contrasted the changes before and after the renovation.

Considerable thought was given by the architects about to how to enhance the lighting in the library without detracting from the beautiful wood paneling that was a signature feature of the building.  The open floor plan of the library also presented acoustic challenges that required addressing, and still remain an issue.

An important goal was to create a transparency in the library that allows patrons entering the building to navigate their way through the library easily.  To this end, sightlines have been created, staffed services areas have been carefully placed in the library to optimize the use of paraprofessional and professional staff, and the careful use of color and furniture has been employed to both delineate and/or unify areas within the library.

At the end of this workshop, I was reminded that to a considerable degree, the quality of our work life is defined by the spaces we inhabit while on the job.

Ann Hutton, Executive Director

Nancy Carlson , beloved children's author and illustrator, shared that her lifelong dream was to be an artist.   While doing undergraduate work she discovered that she might also be a writer. Although her first story at UMD got an A for content she received an F for mechanics after using grammar symbols that did not exist.  She complimented the work of editors who make her look so very good. 

Sharing details of how work progresses from idea to finished volume, the Sharon Lerner Lecture luncheon theme came to life as she responded to the question, Where Do Book Ideas Come From?  "They come from everywhere!" Nancy encouraged everyone interested in writing to "write from your own life, your own experiences."

Carlson keeps a constant stable of story characters each with certain describable and identifiable personalities (all of which are available in SELCO library collections ).   For example, George is the character always getting into trouble.  Even when working with a well-known character, theme books are harder to write as there is not a plot to move along the story so the artwork must be strong enough to make the reader want to turn the page.

She admits to being a terribly speller and not the best artist despite her wild popularity as a children's book illustrator.  However, she has a talent for taking very complex concepts and making them understandable for children.  Her current commitment this year is to imagination and shares a drawing-a-day on her blog .

Nancy Carlson keynoted an MLA conference breakfast as the Sharon Lerner Lecture guest speaker sponsored by Lerner Publishing . 

Check out Nancy's website for information about her books, her art and where you can meet her.

Follow @drawstuff on Twitter.

Check her Drawing-a-Day posts.

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

Have you ever been stumped by a patron looking for information on their favorite movie or actor?  Internet Movie Database (IMDB) is a great reference source to find out all kinds of movie information and trivia.

Bonnie Adams, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Kasson Public Library

Crossposted at the Kasson Public Library blog

Bonnie Adams, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Kasson Public Library

Crossposted at the Kasson Public Library blog

Bonnie Adams, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Kasson Public Library

Crossposted at the Kasson Public Library blog

Thanks to Pacey, a employee and avid user helped us with how to set up an account, use groups or fan pages, and how to link with existing twitter and blog accounts.

stated that you should know ahead of time what your focus of the account will be personal or professional and the pages should be uniform and could be branded to the library. Rochester Public Library has one for their teens, and other promote upcoming programs.

I have toyed with ever since I finished the 23 Things on A Stick program and saw the huge potential to reach teens a group I feel is under served in our library. But with the huge demands on teens they find it hard to come to the library for information, books or programs. You also have to get on their social calenders early. I am hoping we can start small and have a presence so they will know what we have to offer them.
I will continue to ponder this and hopefully have a product sometime early next year.

Anita Bruggeman, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Austin Public Library

I attend the awards banquet tonight. It started out to be quite lively and fun filled night until a librarian became quite ill. She had to be transported by ambulance but seemed to be doing better by the time that they took her to the hospital. We all wish her well.

EXCELLENCE IN CUSTOMER SERVICE: A "STANDARD" APPROACH: WITH JAMES R. LUND, ANDY STEHR AND KIMBERLY EDSON
James Lund started out by talking about setting standards. There is a need to monitor and train staff and hold accountable. Also reward and celebrate.
1. Make it your own.
     Be welcoming, be genuine, be considerate, be knowledgeable, be involved.
2. Everything matters.
     Pay attention to detail. Every detail happens by design, not by default.

James talked about what does our patrons expect from us. Think about what they want. We need to take a fresh look at the physical layout and services. Break down the barriers to access. Have a library card requirement. We need to show that personal touch. Create an environment for an extended stay. Remembering peoples names and what kind of books they read. There is a need to connect personally. Break down the barriers - we need to remember that we are public servants. Libaries should draft a customer service policy. James likes the shelving staff to be able to help patrons. We need to give the same level service every time. 

Both James and Andy gave powerful presentations and lots of information. Andy talked about how important it is to communicate to your staff when starting training. Also at staff meetings continue the discussion on how important the training sessions are. Set the standard for changing behavior. Model it. Expect it.

James stressed that he has told his staff not to wait for the people to come to you, that you go to the people. He wants his staff to be visible to the public. He discussed the use of secret shoppers at his library. He feels that it is a better way to measure staff service when they don't know that the patrons are secret shoppers. 

This session is one that I believe could have had more time because there was alot of questions and really good ideas thrown out on customer service. I took alot of notes and go on and on for a long time all the information that I gathered. Customer service is a very important subject to me and anything that I can learn to make my service to the public more effective is my goal. I would highly recommend this session. Very informing.

VOLUNTEERS CAN HELP LIBRARIES CHANGE LIVES: WITH HEIDI HOLLAND AND MARGIE SCHUSTER
Volunteers can help provide excellent services during the difficult times. Ramsey County has 300 to 400 active volunteers and that does not include the friends group. Heidi said to make sure that you always give the volunteers a smile and say thank you. Margie suggested that getting ready to use volunteers that you need to get ready to articulate your need for volunteers and secure administrative support. 

Most volunteers are 2 to 3 hours a day. Volunteers can do the basic steps and then the staff person can carry the work to the next level. This works well when there is a shortage of staff. 

Some volunteers do homebound delivery, cleaning toys and puppets in the childrens area. Margie handed out a Hennepin County Library Volunteer Need Assessment form. It gives you ideas where volunteers are needed in the library. In our library volunteers are used in a variety of areas such as storytime, using our dvd cleaner to not only clean our dvd's and cd's but also from other libraries in the SELCO region, sorting books for our booksales, mending our materials such as book spines, recovering books, repairing pages ripped out of books, etc. We also use volunteers for calling our patrons for requested items that have been received at our library. We have a small group of very dependable volunteers. 

This was also a very interesting session and both presenters did a great job. I really liked their enthusiasm and I would also recommend this session. 

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: CATHY WURZER, NANCY CARLSON AND SALLY REED: All three speakers did an excellent job on their presentations and I really enjoyed hearing their stories and ideas. The whole conference has been very enjoyable and informative.

One last thing I forgot to mention in my previous report was to do with the session SCARY MONSTERS AND SUPER CREEPS. I found it very fascinating and somewhat a surprise that women in their 30's and 40's are some of the biggest readers of horror. Women going to horror movies has increased. Also there are different types of horror such as graphic novels, inspirational fiction, true crimes non-fiction and the fact that teens are becoming more and more readers of horror such as ofcourse the Twilight series. It pays for us to educate ourselves on readers advisory. Anyway, I had forgotten to add this to that session. Until tomorrow.

Dawn Johnson, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Spring Grove Public Library

There were only two sessions today followed by a luncheon keynote address, all were entertaining.  In the first session, Tips on Adult Programming offered several ideas, one of which was iFilms.  The "i" is for independent & international.  The Duluth Public Library has an arrangement through Film Movement to receive a film and it's license (to one public showing), for about $33 each month.  The downside is that she can not select the film; the upside is that a showing fee of about $18 is a lot better than the usual $100 fee.  And she can add the film to her collection after the showing.

The second session I attend this morning was a very high energy, interactive presentation called Terrific Teen Programing in Tight Times.  We were introduced to some fun and crazy ideas for engaging the teens in social and creative activities.  Computer component jewelry, library lock-ins, mini golf fundraisers, Zombie makeup, and graphic novel club, just to name a few.   Oh, and lots of candy too.  There are some resources available through YALSA that can help you get started. 

To wrap up the 2009 MLA Convention, Joe Raiola, senior editor for MAD Magazine regaled us with an entertaining yet thought-provoking view of censorship.  He shared slides of some of MAD's most controversial & outrageous covers and cartoons.  The Banned Books Week mascot should be the gap toothed, grinning, red-headed, Alfred E. Neuman!

Thank you to SELCO, for the scholarship enabling my attendance at this year's convention.  This opportunity for education and networking is unsurpassed.  I look forward to implementing & sharing some of the ideas I gleaned from this experience.

SAVE THE DATE!  October 6-8, 2010.  Next year the MLA Convention will be in Rochester. 

Bonnie Adams, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Kasson Public Library

Crossposted at the Kasson Public Library blog

I heard new ideas and plan to pitch them to my Friends group when I get back. For instance:

1. Have a calling committee that just does calling. Call people for specific programs or help.# Create brochure of what activities the Friends are doing or need help for project. # Book Sales-Have a Silent Auction (have minimum bids) at your sale-use library bags and place best sellers, chocolate, gift cards, etc.# Ask for specific help.

Anita Bruggeman, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Austin Public Library

Before I get started, I would like to thank Jonya for being my MLA go to person. Also want to say thank you to Ann Hutton and SELCO for giving me the opportunity to attend MLA.

TABULA RASA, PART II: TRACIE LESNESKI, ERIC AUSTIN, JEFFREY MANDYCK
A year ago, Dakota County Wescott Library renovated their library with little money. They designed their library to meet tomorrows needs with no building additions and using the existing space. Last year when they presented their program at MLA, several people were intrigued by the library's decision to blend circulation staff with reference staff at a common desk. I was fascinated on how this was all working and the design that they came up with. The need was to reorganize the whole library to be able to better serve the older population, immigrants and declining reference. With the renovation, all of the heating, lighting, cooling systems needed to be replaced. They also want a coffee area. They wanted to improve patron self-efficiency. The budget was pre-established five years ago.

They also faced problems with the ceilings and the childrens area. The building also contained a teen area in the mezzanine. Before the renovation, the library had alot of clutter facing the front entrance. The shelves hid the collection and it was very dark because of the poor lighting. Now they have a clear path to all of the different areas and can look straight thru the library. As you come into the library, you notice the beautiful wood work and a large service desk. Some of the wood work was painted white and actually that helped the area to look larger and even lighter.

The childrens area was opened up and they actually kept most of the furniture and you can see the childrens desk easier.A really neat idea was to move the computer area closer to the front entrance. Originally they had four staff areas. Now the staff have their offices in the mezzanine. Eric pointed out that about 15% of the shelving was sacrificed but alot of it was clutter. He also said that they have cut their reference collection in half. They also designed the distance between the shelves to be wider than usual.
An area that I felt was a great addition is the teen area. It has very bright colors such as lime greens and bright blues. This is very vibrant and inviting. Teen magazines are also shelved in that area. I noticed that with the new lighting that they did not have table lamps. A good idea as far as I am concerned.

I wish I could draw the service desk on this report. The circ staff faces the front entrance and there are two separate reference desks on the opposite side. Actually the reference staff have their backs to the circ desk. Eric pointed out that at first some of the reference staff didn't like it but now they seem to be getting used to it. He theory is that the librarian needs to be attentive and not staring at a computer or working with a bunch of papers. There are no phones at the reference desk.
This was a very fascinating session full of all sorts of information on how to make due with what you have to work with. You can see that the planning was well thought out and carried thru out the library making it a very inviting place to visit. Eric, Tracie and Jeffrey all did an excellent job on presentation and I could go on and on about all of the great information that was presented. I would rate this very high on my list of good sessions that I have attended so far.

SCARY MONSTERS AND SUPER CREEPS: TAKING THE FEAR OUT OF HORROR READERS' ADVISORY WITH JENNIFER BRANNEN
This session was very interesting and full of humor. Jennifer moved along at a very fast pace and sometimes I couldn't get all the information down but she covered alot of areas in a short period of time. She pointed out a fact that I didn't know was that when times are tough, horror circ increases. I was very surprised to hear that. We are seeing the remakes of classic horrow movies.
Jennifer had four great handouts with one called Scary Monsters and Super Creepts: The Horror Booklist. This contains several books written by some of the great horror story tellers. Right now the most popular books are ones that are written about zombies and vampires. She said to make sure that you talk to your patrons that read horror to get new ideas. They are your best reference for getting new titles. The site monsterlibrarian.com is very helpful. At the end of the program, two young horror authors by the name of David Odegaard and S.D. Hintz spoke for a few minutes on why they write horror novels.

We also recieved a great resource list along with quicks tips for making your library more horror reader friendly. To be honest with you, I'm not a horror reader. I like rommance and mysteries but I was fascinated by the title of the program and I'm always looking for new exciting ideas and am willing to try something new. Like I said before, lots and lots of information was given at this session and it was very interesting.

MORE TO COME AFTER THE AWARDS BANQUET!

Bonnie Adams, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Kasson Public Library

Crossposted at the Kasson Public Library blog

At our 7 am breakfast, Author Nancy Carlson (Harriet , Louann Pig, Loudmouth George books) spoke on Where Do Ideas Come From?

Nancy was an outstanding speaker and told us that ideas come from everywhere and we just have to keep our eyes and ears open. For instance at her son's school conference she was told by the teacher that her son knew 101 ways to sit in a chair. She thought great idea for a book Sit Still. She heard around her house It's Not My Fault from her children great book idea. Another book was Harriet's Halloween Candythat talked about hoarding candy and how to share. I must confess I was a lot like her with the Halloween candy and found it hard to share. I loved it when my kids were small, my husband & I raided their Halloween candy while they slept. We only did that till the noticed some was missing.

She said that theme books were the hardest to write: Smile Alot, Think Happy, and Get Up and Go._While they are intriguing and have great illustrations not lots written content. Plot books on the other hand were easier because content was there and illustrations added later:_I like Myself.

I thoroughly enjoyed her presentation_. I_ added information about the Sharon Lerner Lecture.
Lerner Publishing in Minneapolis. Sharon was started as art director for the company and went on to be president of Carolrhoda Book Company. She had a great love for children and children's books and this is a very fitting legacy for her and the company.

Jamie Stanley, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Northfield Public Library

The second session on Wednesday was entitled Copyright Mashed-Up and Remixed and also included the Intellectual Freedom Roundtable Business Meeting.

Paul Goldstein, Laurence Lessig and Brett Gaylor are copyright activists in North America who espouse the belief that current copyright laws in the United States has been rewritten to favor, and protect the profits enjoyed by the few enormous transnational, multimedia conglomerates that hold the majority of copyrights for artistic works of literature, music, and film.
An abbreviated version of a documentary entitled "RiP: A remix manifesto" was presented in this session. In 1998 copyright laws were rewritten such that the copyright ownership of artistic works was changed from fourteen years to the lifetime of the creator plus 70 years.  Corporations in the United States hold copyrights for 95 years.
RiP provided examples of how many commercially successful musicians, including The Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin incorporated the words and/or music of previous blues artists to create new songs.  Copyright activists posit that borrowing, mashing, and remixing the work of previous musicians is a vital part of the artistic process, but current copyright laws have had and will continue to have a major chilling effect on the development of music and other forms of art.
A further irony is that Walt Disney took many works of literature and film in the public domain and built a successful business empire by reworking this material.  Disney Corporation is one of the most litigious corporations in the world, aggressively defending the copyrights it holds nationally and internationally.  Unfortunately, many countries look to current U.S. copyright laws as models to develop their own legislation.
But there are alternatives to the current legal copyright model.  Creative Commons, a copyright cooperative started in Brazil was founded by Laurence Lessig with the intention of providing access to creative works of art that others can utilize without fear of litigation. 
When the band Radiohead left the recording label EMI in 1997, they released their new music via the Internet, and therefore negated the copyright issues inherent in their relationship with EMI.
"RiP: A remix manifesto" is available for viewing in its entirely on the Internet.  It is not copyrighted.

Jamie Stanley, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Northfield Public Library

I attended the Learning Learning and Libraries in the 21st Century conference session with Maggie Snow from Hennepin County Library on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 2:00 PM.

The staff who work in the Youth Services Division at the Hennepin County Library System anticipate that the 21st century public library needs to reposition itself to provide enhanced learning opportunities for youth.
The current definition of literacy is primarily text based and includes the foundational skills of reading, writing, mathematics and science.  But success in the 21st century will be measured by the ability to compete, learn and engage in a global environment and therefore literacy needs to be redefined, and broadened.  The new definition will include information literacy, media literacy, and communications literacy.
A number of  experiential youth programs have been developed by Hennepin County that provide young people with opportunities to work with a variety of communications media that incorporate the expanded definition of literacy. In addition, these programs provided opportunities for collaboration, allowed them to assume a higher degree of autonomy and program development and execution and required them to exercise their creative and critical thinking skills.
This session got me thinking about how the existing paradigms associated with learning and literacy are evolving, and how libraries need to think in broader terms about how they can develop programs and services in the 21st century.

Michael Scott, Assistant Director

I'm currently attending the 2009 Minnesota Library Association confernece session entitled MnKNOWS - Dig Deeper @ Your Library.  MnKnows is the new portal that has been created by Minitex and the University of Minnnesota Libraries to pull together five resources under one umbrella:

Each of these products are being highlighted in the session by different speakers.  I came in a little late and so far have seen a presentation about Minnesota Reflections, the database of the Minnesota Digital Library.  Marian Rengel from the Minnesota Digital Library gave an overview of the materials available in this database, including photos, plat books, maps, and so on.  Jane Prestebak from the Robbinsdale Schools talked about the Research Project Calculator that students and teachers may use to assist with planning a completing a research project.  Carla Steinberg Pfahl from Minitex gave an overview of the AskMN 24/7 reference service that is available to all Minnesotans and is staffed by librarians from around the state as well as from around the world.  Jennifer Hootman gave a presentation on the Electronic Library of Minnesota (ELM) and all of the new resources databases available.  New items include more science and health resources from EBSCO, Gale, and OCLC as well as an online encyclopedia from Encyclopedia Britannica.  Great resources for all Minnesotans to use to get the information they need for their lives.

Rachel Gray, Infomration Services Librarian

Critical thinking is important for evaluating all resources, but it is especially so when looking at internet sites.  This session looked at different things students and patrons should look at when using a webpage as a source for a research project they are working on.  These things include:

• Authority - Who is the author and what are their creditials?
• Bias - What kind of bias does the page tend towards?
• Date - How recent is this information?  Is there anything newer available?
• Errors - Does the site include factual and verifiable information?

In teaching these critical thinking skills to students, the academic librarians who presented this session had a great quote by Peter Facione what really summed up their entire presentation - "Critical thinking is the opposite of irrational and illogical thinking."

Ann Hutton, Executive Director

While an membership meeting might not be the high point of anyone's conference, it is a necessity and this year's  played to a standing room crowd.  Highlights included:

Report of the President
Ken Behringer, Director of the Dakota County Library and MLA President reported his primary focus this year has been the significant change from a Board hired and managed staff to contracting with a management association.  After letting an RFP for services, the MLA Board unanimously agreed to enter into a new two-year arrangement with Non-Profit Solutions. With a cost of $3,800 per month in 2009 and $4,000 per month in 2010, this will provide the members with a wide range of support and communication.  In addition to managing the annual conference, Non-Profit Solutions will support 10 additional MLA events including Library Legislative Day, the Legislative Forum, and ARLD Day and this support will give the MLA divisions, sections, and roundtables potential options for enriching membership opportunities.

Election Results
As a member of the 2009 Nominating Committee, I announced the newly elected MLA Board Members.

• Vice President/President-Elect     Robin Ewing, St. Cloud State University Library

• Incoming Legislative Chair     Michael Scott, SELCO

• Treasurer     Mic Golden, Great River Regional Library

Bylaws

The Board has done an initial review of the organizational bylaws but rather than approve amendments at this meeting, the membership agreed to delay making changes to allow additional study.

Legislative Initiative
MLA and MEMO will support:

• An allocation of $10 million for Public Library Accessibility and Improvement Grants.

• Capital budget proposals to improve library facilities at Minnesota State Community and Technical College- Moorhead and Minnesota State University - Moorhead and technical college library renovations on eight campuses

• The recommendations of the Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force, and the Information and Technology Literacy Standards.

Resolution
The membership also approved a Resolution on 2009 Reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act "urging its members, Minnesota librarians, Minnesota library trustees, and all library advocates to ask Congress to restore crucial safeguards protecting civil liberties.

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

Brian Lind from the Rochester Public Library offered a session on the IM widget RPL has been using since last September.  They are using LibraryH3lp to offer virtual reference help to their patrons.  Before switching to this application, they used a variety of free IM apps like Yahoo!, MSN and Google.  Using these instant messaging applications was a less than successful endeavor for RPL, with only 1-2 IMs coming in each day. The biggest drawback of these apps is that they required the public to add the library profile to their friends' lists in order to talk to a librarian, which can be very limiting. 

After switching to LibraryH3lp , RPL gets an average of 300 queries each month, and they've had NO publicity on it!  The main reason for this is that they have the widget available in 4 different places on their website: their catalog (on the 0 result page), Reference page , Children's page and Reader Services page.  To staff it, they have all their reference librarians ready and available to answer incoming messages.  The neat thing with this application is that they are able to have anyone who's logged into their computer and the instant messenger software open get alerted when a query comes it.  After someone starts replying, everyone else is notified. 

Rochester is the largest library in SELCO's region, and has the largest staff to be available for this kind of program.  That said,  Brian mentioned that this software application is able to be loaded in many locations and their staffs are able to work cooperatively to answer incoming queries.  This could be a great way for small libraries to work together to provide this service.  Patrons do not need to download software onto their computers, nor do they need to sign-in to this service.  Instead, they just start typing they question in the IM widget on RPL's webpage.  Nice and easy!

LibraryH3lp is not a free application, but it is quite inexpensive.  Other applications that ARE free include MeeboMe , Plugoo and Chatango .  One thing that helped tip the scales in this apps favor for RPL was that LibraryH3lp is that it was created by librarians, for librarians. 

Michael Scott, Assistant Director

I decided to make the dive into technical services one last time at MLA 2009 by attending the session Trends in Technical Services.  This was a combination Technical Services Section business meeting and an update on things happening in the world of technical services.  Presenters discussed various topics that are having an impact on the work of staff in technical services, including digitization and institutional repositories that have tended to be started outside of the library; the electronic vs. print battle that is still happening which is increasingly including books; social cataloging and tagging; discovery layers, and what they're calling Technical Services 2.0.  One of the takeaways from this is that new trends are showing that the skill sets of technical services staff are vital to organize, describe, and provide access to information, no matter the format.

Another part of the presentation was focused on Resource Description & Access (RDA), which is the new standard being developed for information resource description and access.  It is a standard developed for a digital world and is considered consistent, flexible, and extensible.  It is the eventual replacement for AACR2 and is currently on track to become THE standard in late 2010 but stay tuned.  For more information on RDA, click here .

Dawn Johnson, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Spring Grove Public Library

Today I attended a class that no other SELCO members attended.  The session, titled Volunteers Can Help Libraries Change Lives! was conducted by Heidi Holland from Hennepin County Library System and Margie Schuster from Ramsey County Libraries.  Both are volunteer coordinators.  They pointed out some obvious, and some not so obvious, advantages to volunteers in these harsh economic times.  

A few pointers that we can all benefit from when utilizing the talents of volunteers:

• Post signs only within the library, get users of your library that understand the system and love the services.
• Use the application and references like you would for staff positions.
• Issue a volunteer packet when they come for an orientation that contains a staff handbook of policies, procedures and expectations. (written to fit the needs of the volunteer).
• Train them on each task, don't assume they know, even if they say they've done that before.
• Day 1 should be the best day of their life!
• Keep shifts short and be consistant with their schedule.
• Treat volunteers like staff.  Correct them as needed.  Fire them if warranted.
• Celebrate successes.  Recognize their contributions.

The goal of your volunteer workforce should be to free up your staff to perform more patron direct services. The recommended tasks ranged from common (like shelving, support services, bulletin boards and cleaning) to specialized (grant writing, fund-raising and computer tutoring).  

I hope that these tips will be used to help us better serve our patrons throughout the SELCO region.

Michael Scott, Assistant Director

The University of Minnesota's Wilson Library, the Minnesota Historical Society, and Hennepin County Library are partners in providing assistance to National History Day students with projects.  National History Day came to Minnesota in the early 1980s and is the fastest growing social studies program in Minnesota for students in grades 6-12.  Each of the partners have contributed to the partnership to bring together a variety of tools and resources that will allow students to create successful projects.

Wilson Library provides training on a number of research tools and has partnered with Minitex to provide a more streamlined interlibrary loan process for students.  Hennepin County Library has created a History Day page to their Teen Links site which allows students to access to the resources they need in space that all their own.  The Minnesota Historical Society partners with both of these libraries to ensure that students have access to all the tools they need to create projects.  From this project, the Minnesota Historical Society is hopeful that using this partnership as a model that they can move to outstate Minnesota as there are a number of student clusters around the state with high participation in National History Day.  I was energized by this presentation and will investigate how we might apply this type of partnership in the SELCO and SELS region.

Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian

My second day of MLA started with an 8 a.m. presentation.  I presented a session called Camp Read-A-Lot with MELSA's Kathleen James, Hennepin County's Maggie Snow, and Metronet's Ann Walker-Smalley.  We talked about the Camp Read-A-Lot program, and my part focused on how SELCO took the program and fit it to our needs.  Super fun program! 

I attended Excellence in Customer Service: A "Standard" Approach where Red Wing Public Library Director James Lund and Rochester Public Library's Andy Stehr talked about quality of customer service and how the two libraries developed customer service standards to fit the needs of the libraries.  When developing customer service standards, it's important to do the following to make sure you achieve the customer service experience:

• To create a sense of place
• To add value through personal connections
• To transcend the impersonal "box store" experience
• To break down barriers of access
• To cultivate trust

When looking at customer service standards, keep in mind they are important because they:

• Create an expectation for patrons and staff
• Empower staff
• Boost morale -- helps the staff to engage problems and find solutions

The last session of the day was Legislative Update: 2009 Recap and 2010 Session.  This session provided an overview of the 2009 legislative session and discussed the upcoming legislative session.  Nick Dimassis, 2010 MLA Legislative Chair, presented the 2010 MLA/MEMO Legislative Platform.  Elaine Keefe, MLA Lobbyist, gave an overview of the previous session and upcoming hot topics for the 2010 legislature.   

Kim Edson, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Rochester Public Library

Developing a Facilities Master Plan-- I found the planning process outline by Ramsey County regarding their facilities master planning process to be very fascinating.  This county studied their service priorities and how they could most efficiently provide those services within their buildings as well as studied the population served by their facilities.  This is an excellent example of how gathering and evaluating essential data lead to a holistic planning process that received support from key constituencies and funding bodies.  The complete master plan may be found at: www.ramsey.lib.mn.us/capitalimprovement.htm.

Association of Minnesota Counties and the League of Minnesota Cities -- The League of Minnesota Cities and the Association of MN Counties provided a legislative update from the city/county perspective.  Hopefully, the slides to their presentation will be posted to the PLD section of the MLA website in the next couple of days.

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

I concentrated on Readers' Advisory sessions today, and attended two sessions on this important public service.  The first one, 50 in 75: RART's Second Annual Blast of Booktalks, was chock full of titles I can't wait to lose myself in.  They included:

• The New Annotated Dracula by Bram Stoker; edited with a forward and notes by Leslie S Klinger (2008).  The classic with historical notes and other tidbits to draw you further into this gothic novel.
• The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime by Jasper Fforde (2005).  This unconventional mystery takes many of Mother Goose's characters and plops them into the mysterious death of Humpty Dumpty.
• Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater by Frank Bruni (2009).  Bruni was a New York Times food critic, and this memoir recounts his early life along with telling some tales of his time as a food critic.
• The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim (2009).  This historic fiction looks at a high-status young lady of Japanese-occupied Koreaduring World War II.  The heroine is surprisingly independent.
• Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter by Susan Nagle (2008).  This is a biography of the only surviving member of the French Royal Family after the French Revolution.  She eventually followed in her mother's footsteps, and became Queen of France.

I wrapped up my morning with Scary Monsters and Super Creeps: Taking the Fear Out of Horror Readers' Advisory.  I have not explored the horror genre since the mid-90s, so I was very surprised at the wide variety of sub-genres it includes; everything from Gothic, encompassing a lot of spooky atmosphere and suspense, to Splatter-Punk which is highly intense and is full of graphic sex and violence.  This wide variety of interests allows for a lot of crossover appeal with other genres, and because of this it appeals to many more readers than one might expect.  The biggest surprise to me from this session was the fact that this was most popular with not only young men, but also to women between 30-40!  

I plan to take on this genre by reading some Max Brooks zombie books and also some books by Christopher Moore, who wrote the book Rosemary's Baby.

Jonya Pacey, Help Desk Manager

I am MLA's annual conference this week. Tomorrow on Thursday I have a presentation and am looking forward to a couple of sessions, but today I chose to help out at this conference. I volunteered at the registration desk and then spent another couple hours monitoring things at the silent auction. Both were good use of my time and also in some ways I won more than I gave, finding that I got to see a lot of really great people again. Everyone checks into the conference, and everyone checks out the silent auction!

Anita Bruggeman, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Austin Public LibraryWOW!! My first full day of MLA and I have lots of notes on the sessions that I have attended so far.

PERSONAL SAFETY FOR LIBRARY WORKERS WITH FRED VOGT: This was a session full of great tips on keeping our library and employees safe. Fred has taught self-defense all over the United States. He has 4 black belts and is the author of the book "See Sally Kick Ass". He started the session quoting crime statistics noting that this year crime rate is coming down but he expects that it will probably rise next year.
Some key areas for library safety are as follows: Have a written security plan along with training. Post library rules. Never count cash in view of the public. Secure cash drawers, keys and purses. Have good key control - don't allow everyone to have access to the keys. Keep staff areas locked at all times. Make sure library areas are cleared before closing. He stressed that no one should be able to enter the building after closing. We should always be aware on what is going on in the building. We should always maintain appropriate demeanor when approaching an angry patron. We need to watch our gestures and never touch. Also a good idea is to keep about two arms length distance from the patron. Keep some kind of documentation on incidents in the library. 4 A's for personal safety are Attitude, Awareness, Avoidance and Action. Be aware of your stance when talking to the patron. Always have one foot in front. Don't stand with both feet together. This gives you a better stance incase that person decides to confront you. We should stand up not sit when a patron is angry. If we are going outside the building, make sure to look left and then right. Be aware of your surroundings.

Fred gave great demostrations on personal safety. We had several hands on safety tips on what to do if someone grabbed us from the back or front or was trying to choke us or drag us into a car. We can use our body as a weapon such as using our head, arms, hands, hips, knees, feet. Elbows work well for women. Women are not good with their fists. Fred also said that we should have emergency numbers in our cell phones such as highway patrol, sheriff and local law enforcement not just 911.
I have several pages of notes on this session. This probably was the best safety class I have ever attended because this covered so many areas to not only keep our libraries safe but our personal self. I would give this session a very high rating.

PRESCRIPTION FOR SUCCESS: CONSUMER HEALTH ON THE WEB: WITH SAMANTHI HEWAKAPUGE
This session covered the web site: www. medlineplus.gov. MedlinePlus web site was created for consumers by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. It is a free health information web site. It covers anything from drug information, medical encyclopedia, spellings and definitions of medical words, directories on where to find doctors, dentists and hospitals and even surgery videos. There is health information for seniors and a household products database. Lots and lots of information on tis web site. Information is available in different languages also. Just by typing in the name of a drug you have questions on can give you the side effects and how this drug reacts to some of the other medicines that you take. There is an area on how to understand your medical bills. Many ways of getting lots of good reliable information. One example that Samanthi gave was that a patient had forgotten what drug he had put in a bottle for traveling. He went on this web site and typed in the name of the medicine. A colored picture of the pills came up with a description of it.
This session was a little hard to follow as her presentation was not working properly and she spoke very softly. She did have several good handouts at her booth in the vendor display.

EASY, CHEAP, FLEXIBLE SCHOOL-AGE PROGRAMING WITH MAGGIE SNOW AND KATHLEEN M. JAMES: This was a fun filled session with lots of good ideas for programming. Both Maggie and Kathleen gave several good examples of great children's books. They talked about how you could have a 20 minute program teaching the kids a new magic trick or a new song. One of the books that they featured as titled, "A Huge hog is a big pig". This book is filled with lots of cute characters and keeps the children guessing whats on the next page. Another couple of titles that they mentioned were "Daring books for girls" and "Dangerous books for Boys". These are great for one hour programs. They also gave an example on how to make a Thaumatrope.

We had some hands on examples on possible activities for children. They are going to compile all of our ideas and then email all who attended the session a copy of them. I really enjoyed this and there was lots of good humor and a fast pace. This was in my opinion a very good session to attend.

Donovan Lambright , Automation Librarian

Having been involved with SELCOtv since its inception in January 2009, I went to this session to pick up as many good ideas on online video as I could find.  And Matthew Lee didn't disappoint, presenting a comprehensive list of points to consider in creating online tutorials.  Much of these full under the heading of "Planning":

• Be clear about your audience
• Be clear about your expected outcomes
• Be clear about your content
• Encourage interaction
• Employ varied design
• Be a resource beyond the tutorial

The biggest takeaway I got was the importance of thinking through your content and structuring the video accordingly.  For example, if you are presenting numerous fact-based pieces of information, make sure you make it possible for a user to skip ahead to the fact he/she is looking for.  It's frustrating having to watch a 10 minute video because you don't know which one minute has the piece of information you need.  Depending on your video-creation platform, you might accomplish this by breaking your video down into short chapters or by using interactive links that allow the viewer to skip ahead to a pre-defined point.

Bonnie Adams, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Kasson Public Library

Crossposted at the Kasson Public Library blog.

What's New in Young Adult Literature with Donna Ni

This workshop was the most disappointing because it was advertised as an overview of this years must read young adult books. Attendees were hoping to actually see and hear about the titles but were informed by the speaker that was not what her session would be. Some people did get up and leave disappointed.

She did a great job of telling the audience about the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). As I already use their lists to buy young adult books I also gleaned information on several new programs that could be beneficial for us in the future.

Michael Scott, Assistant Director

As part of my role at SELCO as supervisor of the Cataloging Team, I feel that keeping up on issues related to cataloging and technical service are important.  So, for the second Conference Session on October 14, I attended a session entitled Shared Authority Control 101: Hints, Tips and Tricks.  The presentation was done by the Cooperating Libraries in Consortium (CLIC) Authority Control group.  The group of presenters talked about how they've worked together for a number of years on authority maintenance for their shared ILS.  Some takeaways that I took from this group was:

• Though they strive for perfection, they know their database isn't perfect
• Mentoring is vital to their survival (and sanity!)
• Authority work continues to be important even in an age of tagging and keyword searching
• The group has a large project they work on together during their annual meeting

This was an excellent program that made me think on a Wednesday afternoon!

Bonnie Adams, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Kasson Public Library

Crossposted at the Kasson Public Library blog.

Putting the You inYouTube-presented by Linda Prybyto, Carver County Librarian, Marcus Lowry, Waconia Librarian and Heather Peterson from Eden Prairie Library.

Each library took a different approach to put tween/teens and videos together to help promote their libraries.
Carver County wrote a grant and received over $10,000 to purchase video cameras, materials and pay for staff time. No Wasterecycling was chosen as the theme and a total six movies. A great overall learning experience but proved to be hard with 5th graders and their knowledge of video cameras, storyboarding and editing. Parents and children were excited to see the finished product but lessons learned by staff of what to do different.
Carver County decided if they did it again the would chose the Canon FS100 video camera for its ease of use and uploading capabilities for any age.
Waconia Library also worked with 5th graders and found storyboard worked well and kept the children on track better.
Eden Prairie took a low cost approach and did not buy cameras, uploading or editing software but instead chose to have YouTube take charge. YouTube has great instructions on how to sign up, use their software, and upload videos. Students in 7-12 competed for the last three years in a contest to have Eden Prairie library features in a YouTube video. Prizes ranged from $100.00 first prize and two $75.00 runner-ups. Seven groups participated and worked well with staff and patrons to produce, direct, star, and perform original musical scores.
These videos from the past years of all three libraries are on YouTube. Just put Eden Prairie, Carver County or Waconia to view these outstanding videos. Eden Prairie http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=eden+prairie+library&search_type=&aq=f
Thank you to the three libraries and the information they gave all of us. I would like to try this with the teens in my library.

Bonnie Adams, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Kasson Public Library

Crossposted at the Kasson Public Library blog.

Northern Bright Jewelry Class
WOW!! What a great workshop! Paige told us how she became a designer of purses, jewelry and many more products.
Paige also gave us some background on her love of jewelry and her many beads and buttons. She has beads from India, Africa, Czech Republic just to mention a few. She also explained about how to chose what color, size and amount of beads go best together for a wonderful finished product. It took longer to pick out what we wanted than it did to string it all together.
All six in the class had different taste and style of bracelets and like what each other had designed. We then strung them on elastic thread, learned how to tied it all together, and learned how to best hide the knot. I had such fun I also paid for additional beads to make another beautiful bracelet. I received many compliments on my bracelet for conference-goers Thank you Paige for all of your help!
I would highly recommend this jewelry class to anyone. If you and your friends would like to a project to do together this would be great. Just call her store and make arrangements.
Northern Brights707 W. St. Germain St. St. Cloud, MN 56301 Phone: 320.654.1814 Our hours are Mon-Fri 10-6 & Sat 10-4. Hope to see you soon! http://www.northernbrights.com/
I also included some information on her store.
*About the Northern Brights Store.*The Northern Brights boutique opened in spring of 2007 in a hundred year old building in the Historic Arts District of downtown Saint Cloud, Minnesota. It was a six month journey restoring the building where the store is in the front and the production studio is in the rear. We exposed the original tin ceilings, refurbished the hardwoood maple floors, and hung ceiling fans and crystal chandeliers.
The store is an eclectic mix of the Northern Brights accessory collections, handcrafted jewelry, one-of-a-kind artisans pieces, handmade clothing, fair trade items and other assorted lines of jewelry, scarves, handbags, clothing, gifts and cards. The 13-foot antique counter that the cash register sits on was salvaged from a turn-of-the-century dry goods store in Hibbing, Minnesota. It wouldn't be unusual to see earrings hanging from birdcages, handbags displayed on a garden arbor, or garments hung from wrought-iron screens.

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

I attended the break-out session "Healthy Searching on the Internet: Finding Reliable Consumer Health Information" with Anne Beschnett and Michelle Brasure.  This session highlighted the free website MedlinePlus, which is stocked full of much more information than I expected.   

MedlinePlus not only includes information on around 800 diseases and medical conditions and a medical dictionary and encyclopedia, but it also has 165 interactive tutorials on both tests and conditions along with a very interesting collection of surgery videos.  MedlinePlus also includes resourses on selected conditions in 40 languages, making this a great site to help those who are not native English-speakers.  I look forward to investigating some of the videos and sharing this website with others. 

Another great website they introduced me to is Minnesota Health Information created by The Governor's Health Cabinet and is maintained by the MN Department of Health. This site gives you information about managing your health condition along with tips on buying health care and comparing its cost and quality.  Since this page was specifically developed for Minnesotans, it would be a great place to send any patron looking for information, but I think it is most powerful for new residents to our state.

Bonnie Adams, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Kasson Public Library

Crossposted at the Kasson Public Library blog.

I am at the Minnesota Library Convention (MLA) in St Cloud for the next three days. I received a scholarship to MLA from Southeastern Libraries Cooperating (SELCO ) regional library system. I attend three sessions today along with talking to the many vendors that help support library services. I will blog on this page the first session and blog about the others on other pages.

I attended a pre-conference session on Personal Safety for Library workers by Fred Vogt. Mr. Vogt has also written a book called See Sally Kick Ass a Woman's Guide to Personal Safety. This workshop really opened my eyes on how little time to have to react to a potentially dangerous person or situation. We were told the best way to stand, approach, and what to do with our arms and hands to defuse a situation. Always be prepared and what is your action plan. Mr. Vogt gave us hands on experience along with the lecture of the 4 A's- Attitude, Awareness, Avoidance and Action.

Attitude-90% is nonverbal, stand tall and walk confidently.

Awareness-He used the analogy of how an inside cat acts inside vs when he goes outside. He stops at the doorway and is constantly scanning his surrounding. Mr. Vogt said we should always do likewise. We tend to get into trouble when we become complacent.

Avoidance-650 safety tips were is a book on safety written by speaker.

Action-Verbal and your body as a weapon.
After a short break there was audience participation and I had to go to another workshop and missed the hands on part but heard later he was vey impressive and helpful tips for everyone.

Michael Scott, Assistant Director

After a great keynote by Cathy Wurzer from Minnesota Public Radio and tpt, I attended a conference session by Samanthi Hewakapuge from the Greater Midwest Region (GMR) of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM).  Samanthi is the Consumer Health Coordinator for the GMR and is also has outreach responsibilities for the GMR to Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.  Her presentation was entitled Prescription for Success: Consumer Health on the Web and highlighted resources available from the National Library of Medicine and other reputable and reliable sources. 

Her presentation began with a discussion of the frequently asked questions (FAQs) that her office has put together from interviews and discussions with a variety of librarians.  These FAQs include:

• Descriptions of particular procedures
• Latest treatment for some sort of condition or ailment
• "Everything about" a topic
• The best doctor or hospital
• Drug information
• Herbal information

When patrons arrive at your library to ask these types of questions, quite often the path they've taken from their physician is first to a friend or relative then the library.  Additionally, the question they are asking is quite often not for them but for someone else, so there is the high probability that the information may not be quite correct (think the old "telephone" game.)

A few of the online resources that she highlighted included:

• MedlinePlus
  • Includes a Spanish version of the site
  • Information for seniors
  • Finding clinical trials

• American Academy of Family Practitioners
• DIRLINE , an online directory of health associations
• Lab Tests Online
• Household Products Database

This presentation was very good and has inspired me to try and do a regular update on SELCO Librarian to highlight good consumer health information.  Stay tuned!

Dawn Johnson, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Spring Grove Public Library

Wow!  I hit the ground running today.  I arrived to hear only a portion of the luncheon keynote address, delivered by journalist and author of Tales of the Road; Highway 61, Cathy Wurzer.  A dynamic speaker as well as writer.  Skirting the parade to her signing afterwards, I ran over to the registration desk to checkin for the convention.

The MLA is trying an awesome new ecological approach to handouts this year.  They issued a CD at check-in which includes the majority of slides and handout that are typically given at the door, replacing the reams of paper that are typically gathered at such an event.  This, I soon realized, was a great relief as I had trouble navigating the St. Cloud Civic Center and entered each session with just  enough time to catch the last chair, let alone a handout. 

My first session, Intro. to MLA and the 2009 Conference, was conducted by SELCO's own Rachel Gray (who also happens to be my Blogging Buddy).   She was accompanied by current MLA President, Ken Behringer and ALA Charter Councilor, Melissa Brechon.  Together they offered a brief description of the various committees,  a working knowledge of the MLA, and an overview of the conference agenda.  Nice job Rachel!

Following a short break (during which time I checked out the venders), I  then attended a session presented by Donna Nix, a member of YALSA, called What's New in Young Adult Literature?  A fascinating overview of the various awards and lists pertaining to YA lit. 

It is my intention to attend the Reader's Advisory Round Table annual happy hour tonight. I understand that the opportunity to glean tidbits about favorite reads is worth the price of admission.

I look forward to learning, networking, and blogging again tomorrow.

Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian

I started my first day of MLA in St. Cloud volunteering at the Minnesota Library Foundation (MLF) silent auction.  What a great selection of items!  It's great how MLA members support the 501(c)3 MLF as they provide funding for charitable causes around Minnesota Libraries.  MLF has provided funding for libraries destroyed by tornados, floods, and in other crisis situations. 

My first session of the day was Learning and Libraries in the 21st Century with Hennepin County's Maggie Snow and Jennifer Nelson.  The session focused on the importance of teaching kids skills to move beyond a specific piece of software or technology and the programming Hennepin County has implemented to set kids up for success.  When it comes to programming, some of the techniques mentioned in the workshop were:

• Know what type of learner you are
• Know your audience--how old?  Repeat customers?
• Go with what you know--but don't be afraid to stretch
• Enjoy the process

When programming for children, it's important to focus on the outcomes.  These are some of the questions to ask when looking at programming for children:

• What do we want kids to be able to do when they leave our programs?
• How do we measure changes in behavior, attitudes, and skills?
• Keep it simple--don't need every outcome from every youth in every program

I also attended the Legislative Update for 2009 and 2010.  Joe Matthews from the Association of Minnesota Counties and Jennifer O'Rourke from the League of Minnesota Cities gave information related to how counties and cites viewed the past legislative session and their views of what will happen in the upcoming session.  We are very dependent on our partners in cities and counties for funding a support, and the library community is clearly paying close attention to the challenges cities and counties face.  Cities and counties will be in line for major decreases in state aid as part of a budget balancing package for the projected 2011-2012 session. 

Kim Edson, SELCO-MLA Scholarship Recipient, Rochester Public Library

The MLA annual conference is about to begin.  Check out the agenda at: http://mnlibraryassociation.org/mlaconference/agenda/.

Please note that many handouts are available on this website, too.  If you see a program you are interested in hearing about, please let us know so we may report back to you.  Today, I plan to attend "Developing a Facilities Master Plan" & the program presented by the Association of MN Counties in addition to the Keynote Luncheon featuring Cathy Wurzer.

Donovan Lambright , Automation Librarian

Just got out of my first non-keynote session at the Minnesota Library Association annual conference:  The Effect of Controlled Vocabulary on Keyword Searching.  Tina Gross from St. Cloud State University presented the results of an interesting study on controlled vocabulary and keyword searching.  She and her colleagues looked at a sample of keyword searches in the library's public catalog to determine how many of the bibliographic records retrieved by  those searches would have been lost without controlled subject vocabulary, i.e. subject headings.  They found that approximately one third of the records turned up in the searches were retrieved because the keyword matched a subject heading.  Without those controlled subject headings, those records would not have been found.

A follow-up study found that adding enhanced content, such as summaries and tables of contents, to the bibliographic records changed the search results:

• the number of hits increased
• there was less chance of a search returning no results at all
• the precision of the search results was reduced, i.e. there were more irrelevant results

WARNING:  The next two paragraphs were not part of Tina's presentation; they're my own thoughts (for better or worse)

For me, the take-away from all this is that keyword searching of bibliographic records, even those with enhanced or full-text content, is far more effective when the records also have a controlled set of subject headings.  Adding more searchable elements, such as full-text or user-created tags, increases the number of hits at the cost of adding more hits that are not relevant.  Personally, I don't see this as a reason to exclude these "non-precise" data elements.  While they do reduce the precision of the search, modern public catalogs can provide the patron with tools to deal with it by allowing him/her to sort and filter the search results until he/she finds the right balance between precision and quantity of results.

With controlled language clearly critical but resources to pay people to create it and add it to records limited, the library community needs more studies like this.  We need to locate the balance between cost and benefit in allocating staff time to the creation of controlled language.vocabulary.  Are all subject headings created equal?  Or can we identify those that truly do help the patron while dumping the rest?  Studies like this one are the key to answering this question.

Ann Hutton, Executive Director

The MLA luncheon keynote speaker, Cathy Wurzer, captured the conference theme, Challenges, Choices Changes, all of which were apropos for describing her six year road trip.  She shared that the miles, the people and the stories changed her professionally and personally.  The genesis for this multiple year project was the 1938 WPA Road Guide for Minnesota, part of a national series, and the first tour in that volume is Highway 61.

She set out to make a documentary and admitted the book was an afterthought suggested by the Minnesota Historical Society as a companion piece.  As someone who writes with "sparing language" within her broadcast career, Kathy credited her editor for combing short succinct sentences into longer thoughts and then into paragraphs.  Being a written author is certainly different than being a radio or TV host.

Wurzer admitted it is fun to do news, her chosen profession, but she truly loves road trips and telling the story treasures she uncovers along the way.  Like the day, in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere when she met Boundary Waters resident, poet and long time library supporter, Joanne Hart, who gave Cathy directions to the Outlaw Bridge on the Pigeon River.

Tales of the Road combined Wurzer's talents and passions.  And, with so many stories, she has plans for a part two, Tales of the Road – The Sequel. If you have a story, Kathy is looking for it and you can share it on the Tales of the Road website.  She is even planning a Part 3 which will be a Ken Burns style documentary traveling the entire length of Highway 61 from Grand Portage to New Orleans.

As a final comment on her adventures, she reminded the audience of the importance of stories and encouraged us to gather and record our own.

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

Do you know how to contact you state & federal representatives? Watch this episode to get an easy way to let them know your views on the issues.

Abbey Thompson, Project Librarian

The rest of my trip to the Music Library Association Midwest regional conference was extremely informative and productive! Friday morning we explored the wonderful world of LibGuides. These online reference tools can be an excellent addition to the website of an acadmic library. Best practices were discussed, as well as ways to share LibGuides across various institutions. Lindy Smith from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign presented on issues of browsable media collections, which sparked much discussion. This is obviously a topic that needs to be discussed further, possibly at the national conference. Kirstin Dougan talked about her experience with the ACRL Instruction Immersion Program. She seemed to have gained quite a bit from the intensive program and encouraged us, should the option come available, to go through the program as well. Jennifer Matthews and Robert Fox from the University of Notre Dame, our host institution, gave us a crash course on using the MWMLA wiki, and encouraged more participation from core chapter members. I was interested to see that the MWMLA wiki will soon be moving over to a Confluence wiki, which is the same type that SELCO uses! After all the regular sessions, a tour of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart over on the Notre Dame campus was offered. It is an incredible building and the tour was enjoyed by all. The conference wrapped up on Saturday morning with the Executive and Business Meetings, followed by a short session by Kerri Scannell Baunach from the University of Kentucky called The Joy of Meeting. The presentation focused on how to make meetings more productive within our organizations and some theories behind meeting strategies. The presentation even included a small but entertaining skit, performed by volunteers from within the group, demonstrating the kind of unproductive meeting we have all experienced at some point in our pasts. The final session was a live interview with Richard LeSueur as part of the organization's ongoing Oral History project. As you can see, this conference was packed with great information and it was great to see old friends and catch up with all the chapter news!

Michael Scott, Assistant Director

I had the opportunity to visit the media centers at the Dover-Eyota (D-E) Schools on October 7, 2009.  The district is made up of 2 school buildings located in Eyota, MN:  The High School which houses grades 6-12 and the Elementary School, which houses Kindergarten-5th Grade. 

I started the day at Dover-Eyota High School's Darryl Graham Media Center.  Mr. Graham, the Media Center's namesake, had been a principal at the High School.  I met with District Media Specialist Kathy Martin, my host during my D-E visit.  One of the first things that you notice when you arrive at D-E High School is the grand entrance to the building.  The media center at D-E High is located near this front entrance and is a large, inviting space with large windows that bring in plenty of natural light.  There is a computer classroom located in the Media Center with 29 PCs (D-E has gone with only PCs in their school), a ceiling-mounted projector and pull-down screen.  Though empty when I first arrived at 8 AM, by 9:15 AM when I left, it was in full use.

In addition to computers, the Media Center has a fairly large book collection with a particular emphasis on fiction.  There were a number of study tables and chairs located in the book area which also served the School Board's meeting area.  Another ceiling-mounted projector and pull-down screen had been installed for the School Board meetings and could be used for classes as well.  On the day I visited, this area had been converted into the Scholastic Book Fair.

In addition traditional media center services, the D-E High School Media Center also hosts a reading club called Page Masters (can be found by going to the Dover-Eyota Schools website , clicking on the High School tab, then clicking on the Student Groups/Co-Curricular tab, and finally clicking on Page Masters.)  Page Masters is available to all students with currently 1/3 of the student body participating.  To remain in good standing in the club and receive 2 books for their personal library, students must read read at least one book (newspapers & magazines count too!) per month, read a minimum number of pages per year, as well as participate in the club activities.  Bev Sharp, the High School Media Para, manages the Page Masters program.

In addition to visiting the Media Center, Kathy gave me a quick tour of the High School.  As you can see in the photos I took during my visit, I got to see the large auditorium at the high school.

In the afternoon, I visited the Dover-Eyota Elementary School Media Center.  The media center is located on the ground floor of the Elementary School building.  The space the media center occupies is an unusual shape and even contains a two-story atrium with large picture windows looking out on the play area at the school.  There are 3 computer labs in the Media Center for students.  The Information Desk is located in the center of the Media Center so there is a 360-degree view.  There is a large book collection for students at this media center as well.  On the day I visited, one of the four 4th grade sections was in the Media Center to work on a biography assignment.  Kathy led them through an exercise where students were paired up and they had to conduct interviews with each other to gather enough facts to produce a one to two page entry in a biography collection that Kathy and her staff puts together.  When these students are seniors, they will receive a copy of their biography as a gift.  It was fascinating to see how the students worked on their research and interview skills.  There was constant encouragement from Kathy and Sue Daniels, the Elementary Media Center Para, to "get more facts" so the students could right a thorough biography.  It was a lot fun to watch these students hard at work.

I want to say a big Thank You to Kathy, Bev, and Sue for making me feel so welcome at Dover-Eyota Schools.  To see photos from my visit, please check out the Dover-Eyota set on SELCO's Flickr site.

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

Do you need good, reliable information on the H1N1 flu? SELCO's Assistant Director, Michael Scott, has pull together information from a variety of authoritative documents and websites, and tells us all a bit about this webpage.

Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian

The second half of the Solve That Problem! workshop on September 29 featured Rochester Public Library Director Audrey Betcher and the Continuous Improvement efforts at the Rochester Public Library.  Audrey worked with Michon Rogers and other selected staff members to gather ideas and to figure out a way to make changes using data-driven methods.  The focus was on the actual process, not the people at the library.  Continuous Improvement is not about people---the focus should be on the process. 

Audrey and the staff selected three projects:

•    Shelving – wanted to minimize shelving backlogs
•    Brochures – wanted to streamline the process for cost-effective creation, organization and storage of PR materials at the library
•    Technical Services Processing – wanted to streamline the processes taking place behind the scenes.

The staff collected data in all cases using some of the tools and techniques suggested by Michon and other resources and, with the data collected, the library staff were able to implement some form of change and improved customer service. 

An important reminder – make sure to celebrate your successes! 

To view Audrey's PowerPoint, please click here . 

Abbey Thompson, Project Librarian

Today I drove to the campus of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana to attend the Midwest Chapter meeting of the Music Library Association. I've been involved with this MLA since I was in library school, so the group is very near to dear to my heart. Since last year's meeting I've been serving as the Webmaster for the Midwest chapter - this makes me a board member, so this meeing is both a necessary trip and a joyful one.

Today's agenda was mostly filled with committee meetings. I first attended the cataloging committee meeting, where we discussed such things as WorldCat Local, RDA implementation, and upcoming changes to MARC on the horizon. After that meeting concluded, I sat in on the joint meeting of the Publications & Membership committees. Because I generally can't say no, nor can I leave a conference without getting wrangled into some new committee or another, I'm now the newest member of the Publications committee. It makes sense for me to be a part of the committee, what with my extensive work on the website (which is, itself, a kind of "publication" for the chapter).

Tonight concluded with the opening session - a musical presentation and slide show about the life and works of American composer Blythe Owen, which was both informative and entertaining. Following that presentation, drinks and snacks were available while we mingled and caught up with old friends. Tradition at this meeting has always been that during this portion of the opening session, some kind of live music would be played. Last year we had a fantastic jazz trio, but this year things went a wee bit differently. In what was either the best or worst idea in the history of this conference, it was decided that as musicians, we should be able to entertain one another: yes, you guessed it, we were provided with a karaoke machine... from show tunes to Snoop Dog, we heard a little bit of everything in the course of the evening. To make it an impromptu fundraiser, one could "donate" $5 to "request" (i.e., force) the vocal stylings of another MLA member. For an additional $10, you could request them to stop singing! I don't know how much money was made, but I think it was an interesting and amusing start to what will prove to be another successful conference.

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

This recording is from the SELCO Board Executive Committee meeting held on September 28, 2009. The SELCO Executive Committee is made up of SELCO Board Officers, including four At-Large members. This has been broken into two segments for ease of viewing.

Part 1

Part 2

Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian

I was able to attend the SELCO-hosted workshop last week called Solve That Problem!, featuring independent consultant Michon D. Rogers and Rochester Public Library Director Audrey Betcher.  The workshop featured basic tools and techniques for defining and resolving organizational issues.  Lots of great interactive exercises and conversation!

During the morning session, folks were asked to pair up and learn about a new way to make an effective decision from the Library's Continuous Improvement Fieldbook by S. Laughlin (ALA, 2003).  Stewartville Public Library Director Pat Johnson and I worked on the Pareto Chart, a very useful tool to help identify the most frequent causes of problems in order to decide where to focus problem-solving efforts.  Here are some key points regarding the Pareto Chart:

•    A Pareto Chart is a visual representation of data arranged in order from most frequently occurring to least frequently occurring---used to sort out priorities.
•    Teams should use this tool to help visualize which few causes account for most of the problems, so they can spend their time improving critical areas.
•    A Pareto Chart provides an objective, comparative measurement of data collected on a problem or area that needs improvement, and it is used to study results of improvement efforts over time.

Pat and I created a scenario for our presentation – The Circulation staff at the Pat & Mollie Public Library conducted a customer survey to see why patrons are returning materials late.  This is Step 1-- to identify the problem that needs to be studied.  The general categories for our Pareto Chart were Bad Weather, Illness, Forgot Due Date, Thought it was Returned by Someone Else, Left Materials at Relatives, and Other. 

Step 2 is to decide on a common unit of measurement, which we found to be the frequency an issue was mentioned in survey responses.  We ran the survey for three months – determining the time period is Step 3.  Gathering the data and putting it into the check sheet format is Step 4 (see below image).

We drew a graph and listed the unit of measure on the vertical (Y) axis and listed the categories from left to right in order of descending frequency on the horizontal (X) axis (the "other" category is always presented last, even if its total is larger than that of other categories).  Step 6 is to draw a bar representing the measure of its frequency, creating the Pareto Chart (see below image).

A very cool tool to help resolve organizational issues!

Rachel Gray, Information Services LibrarianI

Every quarter, SELCO offers its members PCs and computer peripherals in a combined PC purchase.  This fall, for the first time, ordering for the collective purchase is online!  Watch this video and see how easy it is to place an order.

Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian

It's time for Hot Reads!  SELCO is pleased to present the Hot Reads for Cold Nights products for 2010.  We have lowered prices and added items perfect for the winter season!  Take a look and reward your patrons (or staff) with a mug, sweatshirt, tote, or mittens, to name a few!  Click here and place your order today!  Orders must be in by Monday, October 12, so order soon!  Enjoy!

Ann Hutton, Executive Director

One of the joys of attending a statewide conference is running into people you've met before, sometimes in totally different venues.  Dennis Warner created  Beads On One String , a song, a popular children's book and an elementary education unit offering a fun and unique way to address the tough issue of bullying.  Beads On One String focuses on how we are more alike than different and promotes a positive theme for children, faculty and parents. In addition to this offering, singer and songwriter, Dennis Warner offers a blend of music and humor in his concert performances in theaters or festival sitings ranging from small Minnesota communities to Kennedy Center.  He regularly performs in over 100 communities each year.

Ann Hutton, Executive Director

Media specialists Chris Paschke and Lanette Payne from Jefferson Elementary shared their interactive media project on hurricanes sharing how they incorporate library books, puppets, and 2.0 web tools.  The library staff works closely with the classroom teachers and coordinates library activities and curriculum objectives. Lanette starts the creative online process with the kidergarteners using online tools like Kid Pix and continues working with the students moving them from Kids Pix to PowerPoint production in third grad through their fifth grade video project.

Michael Scott, Assistant Director

I had the opportunity to attend a session by Amy Sieve, the media specialist at Northfield Middle School on the first day of the 2009 MEMO Conference held in Rochester, MN.  Her presentation was a description of all of the programs that the media center provides to its students.  All I can say is, "Wow!"

Amy is involved with students in producing a daily 15-minute TV show for Northfield Middle School.  Besides news, weather, and sports, there are also features stories done by students.  Fridays in April will include poetry readings for the TV program.  Some regular features are a segment done by the school's nurse on a variety of topics especially for middle school students.  "Answer Woman" is a segment where student questions are answered.  The students take this program very seriously and pour all they have into producing it.

Another program that the media center provides is The Tattered Pages bookstore.  This bookstore was started as a used bookstore but has grown to include new books as well.  Both St. Olaf & Carleton Colleges donated new books and Carleton donated their used shelving (even setting it up!) for the bookstore.  Students use "play" money to purchase books and they earn this money in a variety of ways.  They can work in the bookstore, choose a job from the "job jar" which lists small jobs that teachers, administrators, etc. make available, or by donating books to the Tattered Pages.  The students really enjoy having the bookstore and make heavy use of it.  Amy stated that even with the bookstore, circulation in the media center saw no impact.

Videostreaming is the latest program that the media center offers.  Many of the TV programs are uploaded to Eduvision and are available on the school's website.  Many of the programs have been popular and in the works is a virtual tour of their school complete with staff interviews.

These are just a few of the great programs that Amy and her staff provides to Northfield Middle School students.  For more information, check out the Northfield Middle School Media Center website .

Ann Hutton, Executive Director

Book Pass is an interactive activity giving students an opportunity to briefly examine a significant number of books or other library media during their visit to the library.  Media Specialist, Jean Norgaard from the Freidell Middle School , shared how she successfully uses Book Pass with her students.  The technique is effective in small groups or an entire class.  Jean adapts the process for the group and the topic.  Instead of passing books among the kids seated in the library as suggested in Joan Allen's book, Teaching for Teaching Content Literacy , she places the books on chairs and then in a literary version of musical chairs, the kids move until the music stops.  She has also created a path through the media center and students stop at a book station when the music stops.  Readers have a few minutes to examine "their" book, and then they identify, title, author, an interesting fact and, hopefully, a fact they did not know. 

Jean works closely with the classroom teachers and coordinates her Book Pass activities to specific subjects and curriculum units.  If the Book Pass examines poetry titles, the list of exploratory questions might identify poetry concepts: alliteration, onomatopeia, or a refrain, within the selection of titles  The Book Pass can be easily used with any topic or subject area, newly arrived titles, science, Maud Hart Lovelace.  Jean also incorporates the Get 5 – Give 5 technique, where students can ask 5 questions (get) and need to answer (give) 5 interesting facts.   The concept would be easily adaptable for younger children examining picture books or adult book groups at the public library. 

Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian

If you are looking to improve your booktalking skills, you need to check out The Power of Book-Talking, a DVD featuring eight great booktalkers.  Viewers will benefit from the live presentations and effective approaches, styles and skills.  The DVD also comes with booktalking tips from the experts--some include:

• Save your best talk for last
• Keep them short
• Borrow other people's talks
• Talk about how the characters feel
• Smile!  Laugh!  Have fun!

This DVD ties in with the SELCO Special Consultants program focusing on service to teens.  To learn more about the Special Consultants program, please click here .  To view The Power of Book-Talking in the SELCO catalog, please click here .

The Minnesota Historical Society (MHS) will offer a series of grant workshops with statewide locations.  If you plan to apply for a Legacy Grant you are encouraged to attend and receive an update on the grant program's details and progress, as well as bring ideas and questions to share with colleagues.  Registration is required for all workshops. Contact Melinda Hutchinson at MHS to register

The Legacy History Grant series will kickoff on Monday October 5, 2009 at the Hennepin County Central Library.  Workshop dates, locations and times upcoming sessions include:

• Oct. 5 - 9 a.m to 1 p.m. - Hennepin County Central Library   (Note: Due to popular demand, this session is full.)

• Oct. 8 – 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. – Clearwater County Historical Society, Shevlin, MN (Highway 2, 7 miles east of Bagley) Lunch provided for freewill offering.

• Oct. 9 – 2 to 6 p.m. – Brown County Historical Society, 2 N. Broadway, New Ulm, MN

• Oct. 19 – 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. – Stevens County Historical Society, 116 West Sixth St., Morris, MN

• Oct. 20 – 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. – Preston Historical Society, Preston, MN

• Oct. 27 --  9 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Minnesota Discovery Center (formerly Iron Range Research Center) 801 SW Highway 169, Chisholm, MN

 
MHS is planning a second workshop in the Twin Cities metro area for mid-October. Watch for announcement of this workshop.
 
MHS has also scheduled two Webinars at which they will discuss the Minnesota Legacy History Grant program.  Webinar registration will be available soon and the webinar dates are:

• Oct. 12 – 10 a.m. to noon.

• Oct. 14 – 2 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

 
MHS expects to have applications materials available to the public in early October.  Watch their Minnesota Legacy History Grants web site and the Minnesota Digital Library web site for more information.
 

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

SELCO has many special collections available to its member libraries, including BiFolkal Kits. These kits were developed for senior programming and were purchased through a LSTA grant back in 1999. Watch this video for more information on the kits and how to check them out for your next senior program!