News from November, 2009

Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian

Looking to receive free books for your library?  The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Library Association (ALA) would like to invite public and school (K-12) libraries to apply for the We the People Bookshelf grant.  Part of NEH's We the People program, the Bookshelf is a grant program that encourages young people to read and understand great literature while exploring themes in American history.

This year, NEH is offering 4,000 sets of classic books for young readers on the theme, "A More Perfect Union."  To apply, complete the online application by describing how your library will create a theme-related program that highlights the Bookshelf titles.  The application is available by clicking here and should take less than one hour to complete.  The 17 titles included in the set are (titles marked with an asterisk are also available in Spanish translation):

• Kindergarten to Grade 3 -- Tico and the Golden Wings by Leo Lionni; When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson by Pam Munoz Ryan; A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution* by Betsy and Giulio Maestro
• Grades 4 to 6 -- Cesar: Yes, We Can!* by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand; Darby by Jonathon Scott Fuqua; Eagle Song by Joseph Bruchac; The Great Little Madison by Jean Fritz
• Grades 7 to 8 -- Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson; Hitch by Jeanette Ingold; Lincoln Shot: A President's Life Remembered by Barry Denenberg; Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Beals
• Grades 9 to 12 -- American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic by Joseph Ellis; Carver: A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson; Killer Angels* by Michael Shaara; Lincoln in His Own Words by Milton Melzer; Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose; The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. DuBois
• Bonus -- The Civil War: A Film by Ken Burns (includes rights to show the series to public audiences); The Civil War: An Illustrated History by Geoffrey Ward, Ric Burns, and Ken Burns; Declaring Independence: The Origin and Influence of America's Founding Document edited by Christian Y. Dupont

Applicants will have the option to submit an application on behalf of a single library or to apply on behalf of multiple locations within a system or district.  Guidelines, programming ideas and the online application will be available here until January 29, 2010.  Please share this information with other school (K-12) and public libraries.  If you have any questions, contact the ALA Public Programs Office at publicprograms@ala.org.

Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian

The ALA Public Programs Office, a unit that promotes leadership, resources, training, and networking opportunities that help thousands of librarians nationwide, has a few ways that your library can embrace its role as a community cultural center.

Discussion Lists
Stay informed about grant opportunities by subscribing to ALA's Public Programs Office notification list by sending an email to publicprograms@ala.org with "Public Programs Discussion List" in the subject line.

ProgrammingLibrarian.org
Visit ProgrammingLibrarian.org to discover resources to help your library create community and cultural programs.

Sara Jaffarian School Library Program Award for Exemplary Humanities Programming
Awarded annually, this award recognizes a school library or media center that serves children K-8 that conducted an excellent humanities program during the prior school year.  The selected program will receive a $4,000 cash award, a plaque to be awarded at the 2010 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., and promotion of the winning program as a model for other school libraries.  For more information or to download an application, visit www.ala.org/jaffarianaward.  Nominations accepted through December 15, 2009.

Jonya Pacey, Help Desk Manager

The first EnvisionWare fee payment was made by a patron using a credit card at 2:58 p.m today. This is in addition to the patrons from the Chatfield Brass Band Music Lending Library as they have been using this since early summer.

I am eager to hear from the new users of this convenience - is it easy? Are library staff getting questions from their borrowers that they can't answer after checking SELCO's ECommerce page ? We'd like this to be a success for you so please let us know at the Help Desk if you have any questions.

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

The SELCO Board meeting was held on October 27, 2009. The SELCO Board is made up of representatives from all parts of the SELCO region and meets once a quarter; in January, April, July and October.  The meeting video has been split into six segments for ease of viewing.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

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 Kirby Johnson, Cataloging Librarian.

Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian

The Friends of the Lake City Public Library group was awarded the Evy Nordley Award – Honorable Mention for the Best Project by Friends on October 15th, 2009 at the Minnesota Library Association Conference in St. Cloud, MN.  The Evy Nordley Award for Best Project by Friends, available through the Minnesota Association of Library Friends (MALF) , is an award that recognizes the importance of successful Friends of the Library projects around the state.  Friends of the Library organizations that are current members of MALF may apply.

The Lake City Friends of the Library applied for this award, along with ten other groups, highlighting the Lake City Reads project of 2009.  Dewey, the Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World , was selected by vote by the community as the book for the project.  The Lake City Friends not only sponsored a book discussion, a movie night featuring The Incredible Journey, and offering books for sale, they also partnered with the local Humane Society and held a community pet parade.  To tie along with the theme, the Friends conducted a photo contest where people submitted photos of their pets which were then published in a calendar and sold to community members.

Here is a quote from Dorothy Perkins, co-President of the Lake City Friends of the Library :  "We are in the process of fighting for a new facility and, from the numbers of supportive letters to the editor in our local newspaper, we believe the book had an impact.  We were pleased to be awarded an honorable mention and a $250 prize."

Congrats, Lake City Friends!

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

If you have patrons coming into the library with medical reference questions, you need a good, reliable source to answer them. Written by the Mayo Clinic staff, MayoClinic.com is a great resource to answer questions about diseases, treatments and much more.

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

The AquaBrowser Users Group Meeting is a group that meets on an irregular basis to discuss changes and updates to our iPac to AquaBrowser conversion.  This meeting took place on November 5, 2009 and covered the upcoming library & patron testing roll-out & testing of this new online catalog.  It has been broken into 3 parts.

Part 1

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

The Librarians' Index to the Internet (lii.com) is a wonderful resource when you're looking for reliable, librarian-recommended websites on a wide variety of topics.  This episode of SELCOtv takes a look at this valuable, annotated index.

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

Facebook is known for its wide variety of games and other fun applications, but it also has many apps that are useful to librarians and our patrons.  CiteMe is one such app - it allows a Facebook user to enter in a book's title, author or ISBN and it returns a citation for the work in five different styles, including APA and MLA.

Michael Scott, Assistant Director

I had the opportunity to visit the Media Center at Grand Meadow Schools on November 2, 2009.  This visit was scheduled in the late afternoon as Grand Meadow Schools Media Specialist Charlie Sparks invited me down during the school's Scholastic Book Fair.

The Grand Meadow Schools are all contained on one campus and composed of five domes.  Yes, you read that right, DOMES.  Several reasons are given for the unique design of the school including a 25% reduction in energy and maintenance costs and a safer building literally impervious to weather type disasters (click here for more information.)  The school definitely stands out on Minnesota Highway 16 in Grand Meadow as all 5 domes are painted in the school colors of purple and white.

The Media Center is located in a dome located between the Elementary and Secondary domes.  The space feels very large with a very high ceiling (complete with a skylight ) and is round.  However, unlike many of the classrooms throughout the school, the walls in the Media Center have been modified so that regular library shelving could be placed flush against it.  (Most classrooms in the school do not have "squared" off walls, thus the outside "walls" actually follow the curve of the dome.  To see what I mean, check out this elementary classroom.)  The day I visited the Media Center was during their Book Fair so the space had been rearranged a bit to accomodate Book Fair materials.  The collection is for all students in the school (K-12) and shelving runs along the most of the outer wall of the Media Center as well as through out the interior space.  There is a large amount of seating available for classes, including the raised seating "box" popular with the elementary students.  Adorning the walls of the Media Center are quilts that have been created by Charlie's wife including this beautiful The Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt .  There is a large information desk located near the center of the Media Center as well as two small office/storage areas.  Charlie also gave me a tour of the school to check out the other domes.  I also learned a new word:  cafetorium.  The cafetorium is a combination cafeteria and auditorium, complete with a large stage and seating for a few hundred people.  There is also a dome that houses the gymnasium, as well as domes for the elementary and secondary schools as well as an "arts" dome where the art, music, and industrial arts departments are housed.

The Media Center is a busy place in the Grand Meadows Schools even with the addition of the Book Fair.  All elementary classes have regularly scheduled time at the media center and secondary classes use it on an as-needed basis, though all students have access to the Media Center before and after school.  It doesn't hurt either that the Media Center is located in the middle of the school and is thought of as the hub.

I want to say thank you to Charlie and Pam Hopp, Grand Meadow School Media Center para, for making me feel welcome and allowing me to visit.  To see photos from my visit, check out the Grand Meadow set of photos on SELCO's Flickr site.

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

Donovan Lambright, SELCO's Automation Librarian, talks about the regularly scheduled times set aside for server maintenance.

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 Melanie Olson, ILL & Delivery Assistant.

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

The National Endowment for the Humanities & the American Library Association are offering a grant of books and bonus materials to 4000 libraries that center around the theme "A More Perfect Union".

Rachel  Gray, Information Services Librarian

WolframAlpha.com is tackling the very ambitious goal of making "all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone".  This episode of SELCOtv highlights a couple of ways to access this diverse information to help answer patrons' reference questions.

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

Ann Hutton, SELCO Executive Director, highlights action items and discussion points of the SELCO/SELS Executive Committee Meeting from November 23, 2009. This Board Recap is a regular program once a month after Board & Executive Committee Meetings.

Rachel Gray, Information Services Librarian

This is a recording of the November 19, 2009 meeting of the SELCO ILS Operations & Technology Policy Joint Committee.  This video  has been broken into two parts for ease of viewing.
Part 1

Mollie Pherson, Regional Librarian

On November 12, 2009, Leah Hughes, Children and Youth Program Director for the Minnetonka Center for the Arts , presented her workshop called Library Legacy Programs and Partnerships:  How to Create & Maintain Successful Partnerships and Programs Using Legacy Funds.  Leah’s workshop focused on how library programming including the major arts affects the learning process and provides positive Legacy outcomes.  This workshop was 1 of 12 presented throughout the state. 

She started by giving the group a list of resources for information on Art Education, highlighting three resources she uses on a regular basis:  ARTSEDGE: The Kennedy Center , New Horizons for Learning , and Art Education Partnership (AEP).  Arts Education is a subject in itself – it’s a tool to educate people about something, it’s integral to learning, and students are losing a problem-solving skill set because it is no longer part of some school days.  It’s important for libraries to think about incorporating some type of creative arts programming into regular activities for children.  Creative learning happens through the process of doing – the action process.  It involves emotion and senses and is a mode of self-expression and imagination.  Encourage role-playing, provide an environment for social growth, stimulation, and exercise.  Active learning gets children involved, improves social skills by working collaboratively, and it’s engaging, making them want to continue to learn.

When programming for Teens/Tweens, it’s a hard task as they have many responsibilities like after-school jobs and extra-curricular activities.  Leah suggested giving them specialized classes like metalwork and welding, graphic novels, illustration and writing, etc.  They are looking for specialized experiences that give them leadership opportunities.  Check out The Depot Coffee House in Hopkins – it has a teen-only board and hosts events like bike rallies, open mic nights, and art shows. Programming for adults can be hard, too.  They have restrictions on time and are looking for meaningful programs.  MNCAAN , the Minnesota Creative Arts and Aging Network, is a great resource for ideas.  They have classes and artists go into facilities for programs. 

When looking to partner and create programming for your library, make sure you know who you are programming for and every partner should be bringing something to the table.  There should be shared leadership in the partnership, representation from all parties, and shared goals and expectations.  Not all partnerships have to happen on site---one partner could just provide a space or location to hold the program.  Libraries should interview potential program presenters and ask what kinds of programs he/she have presented in the past, teaching experience, portfolio, and curriculum examples.  Springboard for the Arts has a formula for artists – a recommendation for a pay of artists that one can consult for suggestions.  MNartists.org is a free website for Minnesota artists that contains job boards and proposals – check this resource out if you are looking for a program.

Did you know??:
•    Minnesota is one of the only states that has an arts-specific school – Perpich Center for Arts Education
•    50% of all Kindergarteners in Minnesota are not prepared to be there

Check out Leah’s handout here for more ideas and references.  Wonderful workshop!