Thalacker Receives Honor From UW-Milwaukee SOIS

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Regional Librarian Reagen Thalacker was honored last weekend at a gala celebrating 50 Distinguished Alumni of UW-Milwaukee School of Information Studies. The award “honors those who, through their lives and work, exemplify the breadth, diversity, culture, and spirit of the School of Information Studies and its research, academics, practice and community engagement.”

“I’ve been fortunate to work in a number of highly different library environments but I’m proudest of the fact that all have been in service to small and rural library communities,” Thalacker said. “Having been raised in a town of less than 300, I know from experience the impact that a small and rural library can have on a person and am pleased that I am now able to work with the current generation of library staff as they make their own mark on these communities.”

SELCO Executive Director Krista Ross said, “We are thrilled to see Reagen’s dedication to the SELCO/SELS member libraries recognized. Her professionalism and attention to detail make her a valuable member of our team.”

Another Minnesota librarian, Great River Regional Library Director Karen Pundsack, was also honored at the gala.

Scholarships Available for the PLA 2018 Conference

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SELCO is pleased to offer two scholarships to attend the Public Library Association 2018 Conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA March 20 – 24, 2018. This is a reimbursable scholarship for up to $2,500. Eligible items for reimbursement may include:

  • registration
  • hotel stay
  • flight
  • meals at the U.S. General Services Administration per diem rates

The application deadline for those interested in being considered for a SELCO scholarship is 12 noon on Friday, September 29, 2017. Please complete the application found here.

In the event there are more than two scholarship applicants, name will be drawn randomly. Please contact Sara Berquam at the SELCO office for additional information.

Scholastic Training Sessions

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Online Libraries of the region have access to the Scholastic Go! databases as part of their online membership. These databases are: Amazing Animals of the World, America the Beautiful, Lands and People, The New Book of Popular Science, and La Nueva Enciclopedia Cumbre. Scholastic itself is offering a number of online training sessions in the near future. Register today to learn more about the product features, use cases, and best practices for implementing them in your library classroom.

Tuesday, September 12
1:00 – 2:00 PM
Click to Register

Wednesday, September 27
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Click to Register

Thursday, October 5
10:00 – 11:00 AM
Click to Register

Monday, October 16
3:00 – 4:00 PM
Click to Register

Wednesday, November 15
2:00 – 3:00 PM
Click to Register

Tuesday, November 28
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Click to Register

Wednesday, January 10
2:00 – 3:00 PM
Click to Register

Pull List and Delivery Important Dates

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The school year is about to begin and as in previous years, the pull list will be turned on and delivery will resume Wednesday Sept 6 (the first Wednesday after Labor Day).
 
Click here for Pull List and Delivery, a document with other important dates for the school year. You will want to keep this handy for reference as MEA and the holidays approach.
 
Please contact the Help Desk if you have any questions. 
helpdesk@selco.info   
866.529.4469 (Toll-free)

 

Student Record Upload Service

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Each year, SELCO offers a free student record upload service to your schools. With the use of this service, you will simply need to send SELCO a copy of your student database and SELCO will import it into Horizon. The process will create new student records and update existing ones.

If you are interested in this service and have never used it before, please contact the SELCO Help Desk (helpdesk@selco.info) to set up the process. The first time it is utilized, your student records will need to be standardized to avoid duplication.

If you have used the service previously and need a refresher on which fields you have used in the past, also contact the Help Desk and we’ll consult our records.

Back to School Packet 2017-18

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With a new school year beginning we have a brand new Back to School Packet for you.  Please see the link below which includes documents with updates and information on:

  • SELCO-SELS Quick Reference
  • Universal Services for Libraries
  • Services for Online Libraries
  • Continuing Education (Save the Date, Free Books Event, ELM Workshops, Practical Librarianship Brochure, Special Collections)
  • Delivery/ILL (Delivery Criteria, Routing Slip, Codes, Routes & Schedule, Pull Lists & Delivery – Important Dates, Handling of MNLINK Items, Delivery RFP)
  • Information Services (Cataloging Update, Citrix Install, Help Desk, Circulation Cheat Sheet, School eBook Program)
  • Legacy (Programs, MNBA Brochure and Bookmark)
 
Print what you need or save a copy of a document to their desktop for a quick reference or even bookmark the this link in your web browser to serve as a sort of one-stop shop for some of the basic SELCO/SELS information. 
 
Please share this widely with your staff and should you have any further questions, feel free to contact the office at 507.288.5513.

UPDATE – Web Services Upgrade on Tuesday, August 29

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UPDATE, Aug 29, 10:59 AM – The web services upgrade was successfully completed a few moments ago. Affected services have been successfully tested. We will take down the banner in Enterprise shortly. 

SirsiDynix is performing a Web Services upgrade at 9:00 AM on Tuesday, August 29.  Web Services is the software that enables external services, such as Enterprise, to connect and exchange data with Horizon.

During this upgrade, Horizon will function normally.  Item status information in Enterprise and BookMyne will not be available, though searching and requests will function as usual.  Based on information from SirsiDynix, we expect this upgrade to be completed within an hour (10:00 AM).

Thank you for your patience as we strive to provide the most stable and useful library solutions possible.  Please contact the SELCO Help Desk with any questions on this upgrade.

Applications Open for Media Literacy @ Your Library

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The American Library Association (ALA), in collaboration with the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University, invites public libraries to apply for Media Literacy @ Your Library, a pilot program that will train library workers to help their adult patrons become better news consumers. ALA and the Center for News Literacy will work with teams from five public libraries to adapt existing media literacy training materials to serve the needs of public librarians and the communities they serve.

The cohort teams will attend an in-person training and use their skills to conduct related adult public programs in their communities. Team members will also provide feedback on the training and serve as advisers to, and beta testers for, the development of a corresponding web-based curriculum for the library field.

 

Read the guidelines for Media Literacy @ Your Library or apply online to be part of the cohort. Applications must be received by Sept. 11, 2017.

Selected libraries will receive:

  • An intensive six-month experience that will include training and support for a three-person library team to develop and implement media literacy programming for adult patrons.
  • $1,500 for program-related expenses, such as travel, promotion and public programming costs.
  • In-person media literacy workshop training, to be held on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017, in Chicago.
  • Two nights’ hotel lodging and some meals at the in-person workshop for three library representatives. (Note that travel costs to Chicago are at the library’s expense or must be paid from the $1,500 stipend.)
  • Communications support, access to a community of practice, and technical and programming support.

 

Be part of the 2018 Winter Author Tour!

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Each year SELCO works with local libraries to build regional author tours around Minnesota Book Award (MNBA) finalists and winners, either with a multiple or single author tour.  For Winter 2018, we will be looking to feature authors who recently won in their categories for the 2017 MNBA Awards.  These authors are as follows:

  • Allen Eskens – The Heavens May Fall (Genre Fiction)
  • Peter Geye – Wintering (Novel & Short Story)
  • Shawn Otto – The War on Science… (General Nonfiction)
  • Cheri Register – The Big Marsh… (Minnesota)
  • Sun Yung Shin – Unbearable Splendor (Poetry)
  • Kao Kalia Yang – The Song Poet… (Memoir & Creative Nonfiction)

As you can tell by the names listed, this tour will feature those authors in the Adult categories from last year’s winners roster.  Unfortunately this time around, the tour did not work for those who fell in the youth categories.

In the application we’ll ask you for your top three choices for authors and the top three availability dates for each of the authors.  We’re looking to plan the tour for dates between February 1 – April , 2018.  Here is information regarding the Authors and their Availability.  Please consult these documents prior to making your final selections.

Applications to be a part of the 2018 Winter Author tour will be accepted from August 16-September 13.  Click HERE to apply today!

This project is made possible with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the people of Minnesota for Library Legacy activities.

RESOLVED: Citrix & Horizon Problem This Morning

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NOTE – 08-02-2017, 8:53 AM:  We believe the problem with Citrix and Horizon has been resolved. It is possible that users will have to logout of Citrix and back in before trying Horizon again. If you are still experiencing problems after logging back into Citrix, please contact the Help Desk for further assistance.

We are investigating a problem which is preventing logins to Horizon for many users and limiting access for others. We will send more information out as it becomes available.  Thank you for your patience.