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Library Services

Library Management, Library Services, Webinar
Digitization & Preservation Online Symposium
August 23rd, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?
We’re gearing up for Wednesday’s special 2-hour Digitization & Preservation Symposium, from 2:00-4:00 pm Eastern and we hope you can join us! The session will feature presentations on current trends and practical approaches to library digitization and preservation projects. One of the presenters unfortunately had to cancel due to a family emergency, but we’ll have plenty of time for the other presentations and extra time for your questions and comments.

Panelists include:
- Sarah McHugh, Statewide Projects Librarian, Montana State Library, including Montana Memory Project.
- Amy Rudersdorf, Director of the Digital Information Management Program, State Library of North Carolina and lecturer at San Jose State University, School of Library & Information Science.
- Taylor Surface, Senior Product Manager, Digital Collection Services, OCLC.
Register and preview resources »
Community Building, Library Services
Libraries as Lifelines to Economic Recovery
August 20th, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?

A Year with Project Compass

The PNLA/WLA 2010 conference in picturesque Victoria BC provided my first opportunity to give a retrospective report on Project Compass, the year-long, IMLS-funded program to work with State Libraries and focus on building public library capacity to meets the needs of a workforce in crisis. After a whirlwind year, I could start to take a few steps back and look at what we (the big WE of state and public libraries all over the country) have accomplished in response to the economic downturn and the dramatic increases in demand for library services.

My slide presentation describes the scope, goals and phases of the overall project, and then focuses on the past, ongoing and future actions of the states represented at the Pacific Northwest conference—Idaho, Montana and Washington. To get the full-throated understanding of all the amazing work that State Libraries are doing, browse the list of Showcases presented by participants at the Project Compass summits. Nobody is resting on their laurels either, as evidenced by the list of projects that are being implemented in the coming year.

The most rewarding aspect of the year with Project Compass has been engaging in a vibrant knowledge exchange with the library community, not just with participants at the in-person and online summits, but with library people everywhere. From those who attended my conference session, I got to hear perspectives from the front lines and from rural libraries about what was needed to serve job-seekers. I hadn’t heard before about the need for wifi printers so users could print directly from their laptops and not have to queue up for the public computers. Or the need for space in small libraries; job-seeking can be an all-day effort and the job-seekers impact the tiny spaces of many rural libraries.

For ongoing connections, there is the community of practice for Workforce Resources on WebJunction. This section burgeoned since the start of the project. It is truly a community effort with lots of room for continued growth. If you’re on Twitter, use the #libs4jobs hashtag to broadcast news and events about the library-workforce connections. If you’re not a tweeter, you can still see freshly updated posts in the Twitter badge on the main section page.

Stay tuned for Year Two. Project Compass continues to augment public library services to the unemployed with a follow-on grant from IMLS.
Library Management, Library Services, Webinar
Webinar: Prepare and Respond: Partnering with Local Emergency Management
July 30th, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?

Free hour-long webinar on August 3, 2:00 pm Eastern.

Libraries are looking for ways to be better prepared for disaster response and recovery. Join guest presenter Lauren Mandel, research coordinator at the Information Use Management & Policy Institute at Florida State University’s College of Communication and Information, as she introduces a new key service role, Get to Know Your Emergency Operations Center (EOC), to the existing Hurricane Preparedness & Response for Florida Public Libraries Project. The Florida-based project helps libraries throughout the U.S. serve their communities through partnerships with fellow responders (e.g., emergency management, local government and other agencies) and become a safe haven, recovery center, information hub and evacuee resource. Come learn how this project can inform your library’s disaster preparedness plan and how your library can play an important role in community preparedness and recovery by working with your EOC. With updates to service roles and resources since the project’s fall webinar and relevance to any sort of partnership development, you won’t want to miss this session!

Register Now »
Community Building, Library Services, Marketing, News, Webinar
Libraries grow community economies
July 29th, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?

Free 30-minute webinar series on three Tuesday afternoons in August: 17th, 24th, 31st

Communities across the country are pursuing a burgeoning strategy known as economic gardening, which works to stimulate the development of small business with the goal of growing a healthy, community-scale economy. Libraries can be key players in supporting and facilitating their success. This Libraries and Economic Development webinar series will expand your thinking about the powerful connection. Your host for the series is Shelley Walchak, a mover-and-shaker with the official title of Library Community Programs Senior Consultant at the Colorado State Library.

Webinar 1: How to Make Your Library Entrepreneur-Friendly
Tuesday, Aug 17, 4pm Eastern/1pm Pacific

Christine Hamilton-Pennell literally wrote the book. She is an articulate proponent of libraries’ support for local entrepreneurs. Learn specific steps your library can take to connect with and support its local business community. If you’re at all intrigued by the concept of economic gardening, this webinar is a must-see. Hamilton-Pennell introduces the strategies and lays the groundwork for their practical application, which will be covered in the following two webinars.

Webinar 2: Turning Your Databases into Business for Your Customers
Tuesday, Aug 24, 4pm Eastern/1pm Pacific

Your library may already have the tools at hand (or close by) to help stimulate economic development in your community and you don’t have to be a trained business reference librarian to use them. Presenters Terry Zarsky and Kathleen Rainwater will give a guided tour through the best databases for small business information.

Webinar 3: Going to Your Customer – Outreach and Strategic Partnerships
Tuesday, Aug 31, 4pm Eastern/1pm Pacific

How do you let the business community know that your library is primed and ready to help? Presenters Suzanne Kaller and Colbe Galston will talk about how to get the word out to Chambers of Commerce, small business development centers, community groups and government entities.

For more information and to access archives and registration:
http://www.webjunction.org/workforce-resources/articles/content/103122377
Library Services, Webinar
Webinar: Florida Libraries Re-tooling Frontline Staff
May 27th, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?

Knowing how to find and use e-government resources is critical for patrons who need access to information related to unemployment, food stamps, Medicaid, tax forms, health and housing; and many are asking their public library to help them navigate this information. To meet these new and increased demands on frontline staff, libraries in Florida are collaborating with government agencies and social service organizations to provide the best service possible to patrons. Join us for this webinar on Thursday, June 3, at 1 pm Eastern with representatives of Florida libraries, who will share their strategies used to educate both the public and frontline staff on how to access this information and their experiences building partnerships with other agencies in their communities to respond to workforce development needs. Presenters include Nancy Fredericks, E-Government Librarian, Pasco County Public Library Cooperative; Karen Clinton Brown, Library Program Specialist, State Library and Archives of Florida; Sol M. Hirsch, Library Director and Otto C. Pleil, Reference Librarian from the Alachua County Library District.

View Archive »
Community Building, Library Services, Online Collaboration
Tweets for workforce recovery
April 14th, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?
There are myriad ways in which libraries are helping people pull through the economic crisis. Recent reports verify this role. ALA’s State of American Libraries 2010 and the Opportunity for All report from the Gates Foundation/IMLS-funded US Impact Study provide statistical substance to what library staff know first-hand: “Recession drives more Americans to libraries in search of employment resources.”

WebJunction is building a community of practice around libraries and workforce recovery. We want to surface all the mega and micro resources, strategies, or stories to let the world know how libraries and their staff throw out the lifeline to the community in tough times.

Here are four ways to share what you know:
1. The fastest way is through your Twitter account, using the #libs4jobs hashtag. You can see the accumulated tweets by searching for the hashtag in Twitter or following the live feed on the Workforce Resources overview page.
2. Jump in to any of the discussions or start one of your own. Current topics include Partnerships with workforce centers and the IMLS 21st Century Skills.
3. Add to this list of workforce resource websites that libraries have created to help staff and patrons find what they need. It’s a wiki —you know how to wiki, don’t you?
4. Write up a story, short or long, about the impact you or your library has had on a patron. Post it in the documents section or send it to WebJunction to post on your behalf. We know there are big and little success stories occurring every day. We’d like to put them all together as evidence of the amazing power of libraries.
What is your story?
Library Services, News, Technology Planning, groups
Group Update: Yes, your PAC does have IMPACT!
April 6th, 2010 | Permalink | 1 Comment
UPDATE: Register for the upcoming May 18 webinar with the research team!

If you work in a library, you’ve experienced it first-hand: people need libraries for Internet access. And now there’s data to prove it! Last year we blogged about the WebJunction group: Does your PAC have IMPACT? and we’re thrilled to share news of their completed research.

The new report, Opportunity for All: How the American Public Benefits from Internet Access at U.S. Libraries, is based on the first, large-scale study of who uses public computers and Internet access in public libraries, the ways library patrons use this free technology service, why they use it, and how it affects their lives. This powerful research was conducted by the University of Washington Information School and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Nearly one-third of Americans age 14 or older – roughly 77 million people – used a public library computer or wireless network to access the Internet in the past year.

Low-income adults are more likely to rely on the public library as their sole access to computers and the Internet than any other income group. Overall, 44 percent of people living below the federal poverty line used computers and the Internet at their public libraries.

Americans across all age groups reported they used library computers and Internet access. Teenagers are the most active users. Half of the nation’s 14- to 18-year-olds reported that they used a library computer during the past year, typically to do school homework.

The use of library technology had significant impact in four critical areas: employment, education, health, and making community connections. In the last 12 months:
- 40 percent of library computer users (an estimated 30 million people) received help with career needs. Among these users, 75 percent reported they searched for a job online. Half of these users filled out an online application or submitted a resume.
- 37 percent focused on health issues. The vast majority of these users (82 percent) logged on to learn about a disease, illness, or medical condition. One-third of these users sought out doctors or health care providers. Of these, about half followed up by making appointments for care.
- 42 percent received help with educational needs. Among these users, 37 percent (an estimated 12 million students) used their local library computer to do homework for a class.
- Library computers linked patrons to their government, communities, and civic organizations. Sixty-percent of users – 43.3 million people – used a library’s computer resources to connect with others.
The report’s findings (over 200 pages worth!) are based on nearly 50,000 surveys – including 3,176 from a national telephone survey and 44,881 web survey responses – from patrons of more than 400 public libraries across the country.

You can access the report, an executive summary, and read more of the press release on WebJunction and on the US IMPACT study website.

And for those of you on the front line, you can stand behind those number to show that YES, your hard work supporting public access computing in libraries does have a *huge* impact!
Advocacy, Library Services, Sustainability
21st Century Skills @ your library
March 16th, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?
I recently read the report published by IMLS, Museums, Libraries, and 21st Century Skills which is a part of an outstanding initiative which “underscores the critical role our nation’s museums and libraries play in helping citizens build such 21st century skills as information, communications and technology literacy, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, civic literacy, and global awareness.”

The initiative includes 3 parts, all available here http://www.imls.gov/about/21stCSkills.shtm:

1. The Online Self-Assessment: a brief interactive survey that quickly analyzes an institution’s 21st century strategies and describes next steps for action.

2. The Report: outlines a vision for the role of libraries and museums in the national dialogue around learning and 21st century skills and includes case studies [be sure to read these case studies!] of innovative audience engagement and 21st century skills practices from across the country.

3. The Self-Assessment Tool: allows museums and libraries to determine where they fit on the continuum of 21st century skills operations and programming.

I found numerous parallels to the efforts of the initiative with those of Project Compass and thought it would be great to start a discussion about the long term goals your library has to support the development of patrons’ 21st Century Skills beyond the current workforce challenged economic climate and on into the future.

The report identifies the differences between 20th and 21st Century skills, and provides a framework including four skills areas:
- Learning and Innovation Skills
- Information, Media, and Technology Skills
- Life and Career Skills
- 21st Century Themes, including: Global Awareness; Financial, Economic, Business, and Entrepreneurial Literacy; Civic Literacy; Health Literacy; Environmental Literacy
You can see the skill sets cover many of the areas we have traditionally focused on. I’m very excited to see how this framework might help libraries clarify our role and forge potential community partnerships to build 21st C. skills in our communities.

I found these 3 quotes to be particularly powerful:

First an overall call to collaboration:

All libraries and museums—and the people they serve—stand to benefit from becoming more intentional and purposeful about accommodating the lifelong learning needs of people in the 21st century, and doing this work collaboratively in alignment with community needs.

And then more focused on learning, specifically the role we as libraries can play in informal learning to help our communities…

Skills like critical thinking and problem solving are not only relevant for K-12 students and schools. There are millions of adult learners not in formal education programs looking to refine workplace skills. Even school-aged children spend the overwhelming majority of their waking hours in non-school settings, and increasingly they spend this time in organized out-of-school settings such as afterschool, museum, and library programs. In these settings, they develop important skills—such as problem solving, collaboration, global awareness, and selfdirection—not only for lifelong learning and everyday activities, but also for use back in K-12 schools and college classrooms.

And I loved this one that encourages us to

view learning from an “ecological perspective” that involves “life-long,” “life-wide,” and “life-deep” experiences.

The report itself is loaded with other excellent information that can both guide programming as well as advocacy efforts, with clear articulation of the critical value of libraries. I’ve yet to dive deep into the assessment tools, but kudos to the task force and team member who pulled together the launch of this outstanding initiative!

Read it and tell me what you think!
Library Services
Local Governments use Libraries to Provide Services
February 11th, 2010 | Permalink | 1 Comment

Recently, there have been a number of studies, grants, presentations, and articles published about how governments are utilizing their public libraries to address local needs and to provide new services to their communities. Many of these are related to job hunting or gaining access to unemployment services. Check out these links to learn more:

Libraries Connect Communities: Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study 2008–2009 – ALA’s most recent report on this project shows that more than 71 percent of libraries report they are the only source of free access to computers and the Internet in their communities. Only 14.6 percent of all libraries indicate they provide no e-government services – down from 25.9 percent two years ago. Two-thirds of public libraries rank job seeking services among the most crucial online services they offer – up from 44 percent two years ago. Handy one page summaries are included for each state. About the study: http://www.ala.org/ala/research/initiatives/plftas/index.cfm.

Advancing Leadership and Innovation in Public Libraries – International City/County Management Association discusses Public Library Innovation grant recipients and links to their projects.

“Online at the Library” was published by Ellen Perlman in Governance Magazine on Oct 20, 2009.

International City and County Management Association Newsletter includes notice and summary about the Libraries Connect Communities report.

Best Practices in Helping Job Seekers in the Library (webinar) – with speakers Bernice Kao, Raye Oldham, Megan Pittsley iincludes links to presentation and materials related to the topic.

Hard Times Resources is a new website supporting librarians and the public developed by the Washington State Library. The team presented at WebJunction’’s Technology Essentials Conference yesterday and a number of other projects are referenced in their presentation materials.

Public Libraries & E-government Services – published Summer 2009, this ALA brief highlights how public library technology supports public access and use of e-government information and resources.

The ning community on Library 2.0 has a group on E-government for Public Libraries.

If you have additional resources to share, please post a comment and we’ll keep building out this list.

Originally published by Valerie at Collaborative Librarianship News. Re-posted and expanded with permission.
Community Building, Library Services, Webinar
Get a bearing on workforce resources
January 27th, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?
WebJunction’s Workforce Resources topic is growing. Since I first introduced it earlier this month, we are building momentum with new documents and links to information.

New:
- Economic Gardening: libraries help to grow local economies
  Find out how libraries can nurture this exciting idea.
- Community and Library Services Analysis Tools
  Analysis worksheets created by Kitty Yancheff of the Humboldt County Library in Eureka, California to assess community and library services to triage social services.
- Speaking of Kitty, she is one of the presenters in Thursday’s (Jan 28) webinar on Libraries and Workforce Recovery. If you miss it, there will be an archive.
- In fact, there’s a collection of links to Webinar Archives related to Economic Recovery.
- There is a new addition to the Impact Studies and Reports document— a link to ALA’s report A Perfect Storm Brewing: Budget cuts threaten public library services at time of increased demand.
Workforce Resources will continue to grow. We welcome your contributions. Tell us what your library is doing to guide patrons toward recovery. Share your stories of patrons who were steered toward success with the help of the library.
Library Services, Webinar
Project Compass: libraries providing direction in tough times
January 5th, 2010 | Permalink | 1 Comment

On September 10, 2009, IMLS announced a grant awarded to WebJunction and the State Library of North Carolina to support public libraries’ efforts to meet the urgent and growing demands of our communities as they struggle with the loss of jobs and the needs of the unemployed. The team chose the name of Project Compass as an apt metaphor for the intention of assessing the present situation of workforce development in libraries and for setting direction toward future recovery. The compass is also symbolic of the direction that libraries provide to their patrons and their communities, especially in turbulent times. There is abundant evidence that people are turning to libraries as to the North Star, depending on this community institution to provide guidance through the economic downturn.

Libraries have already responded to the critical needs, creating or augmenting multiple and robust resources and services. The variety of responses to the Library Responses to Economic Tough Times survey brings to light the energetic guidance that is emanating from libraries all over the country. Highlights of the survey responses are captured in the Compass Survey Summary; the details of individual state responses may be read in the collection of Compass Snapshots for each state.

If you have followed any of these links, you’ve had a glimpse of what is a budding resource on WebJunction. In addition to the Project Compass section, which will collect information pertinent to the project and participants, there is a new Workforce Resources topic. This nascent topic area will grow over the coming year. We hope that everyone involved in workforce development issues will help that growth. We are interested in contributions on tools, resources, and services that any library—large or small, state or local— has deployed toward workforce recovery.

WebJunction’s January webinar will focus on Libraries and Workforce Recovery.

Join us on January 28 to learn about successful library programs and best practices that address the increase in patron job-related needs. You’ll hear about strategies for triaging social services and how to analyze your library’s services in relation to existing community social services. You’ll discover new ways to create partnerships with community agencies to leverage workforce development efforts. Finally, you’ll get tips on tactics that can be implemented on a shoestring or non-existent budget to respond to patron workforce development needs.

Register to attend: http://evanced.info/webjunction/evanced/eventsignup.asp?ID=1630

As the Project Compass Coordinator, I welcome everyone’s questions, suggestions, ideas, etc.
Advocacy, Conferences, Library Services, Staff Training
Announcement to Participate in Legal Resources Training Conference
December 1st, 2009 | Permalink | Comment?

With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the National Center for State Courts, the Center-hosted Self-Represented Litigation Network, in cooperation with the Legal Services Corporation, is presenting:
A Training on Public Libraries and Access to Justice
January 11-12, 2010, Austin, Texas

Information on Application Process
With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the National Center for State Courts, the Center-hosted Self-Represented Litigation Network, in cooperation with the Legal Services Corporation, is presenting a two-day conference that addresses how public libraries can improve access to online legal information at libraries. The conference will be a unique opportunity for participants to meet with public librarians and with legal and court experts to discuss strategies for integrating access to legal information into their programs, including how to locate the best content and tools, how to talk about the content with library patrons, how to work with content partners to make sure that needed content is developed, how to share what they have learned statewide, and how to use successful programs to advocate for the importance of public libraries as gateways to government institutions.

The conference organizers plan to select between 10 and 15 teams of two to three people from across the country to attend the conference. These teams will learn about a broad range of currently available print and online, customer-friendly legal tools developed by courts, bar associations, law libraries, and legal aid programs that support people without access to legal aid or counsel. The participants will learn how to access this information, facilitate sharing among libraries and legal agencies and participate in the enhancement and customization of these tools.

Preference will generally be given to teams that include a person who plays a statewide library staff educational or organizational role; a local librarian with a strong interest in expanding the use of public libraries for access to justice; and one of the following: a legal aid staff member; or a court online information expert or member of a self help center currently not using online tools to provide services. Applicant teams are encouraged to put together a group that will be the most effective in their area of service to spread the word in their states. The decision of the selection group will be final.

Conference participants will receive travel and hotel costs (subject to certain caps described in the application). Participants will also be eligible to apply for post-conference funding to implement some of the tools learned at the conference. Such grants, which will range from $750 to $1,000, might be used for travel to conferences at which training would be shared, development of marketing materials, and so on.

For additional immediate information, contact Richard Zorza, richard@zorza.net.

Application materials can be found on:
SelfHelpSupport: http://www.selfhelpsupport.org/libraries
WebJunction: http://www.webjunction.org/legal-information/-/articles/content/86970844
Library Services, Marketing
Food for thought (or fear?)
October 27th, 2009 | Permalink | Comment?

I read this post (excerpted below) on Seth Godin’s blog, and it resonated with me–both the specific example of apples and the overall point he was making.

In our industrialized world, people are now afraid of apples. Afraid of buying the wrong kind. Afraid of making a purchasing mistake or some sort of pie mistake.

And they’re afraid of your product and your service. Whatever you sell, there are two big reasons people aren’t buying it:

1. They don’t know about it.

2. They’re afraid of it.

If you can get over those two, then you get the chance to prove that they need it and it’s a good value. But as long as people are afraid of what you sell, you’re stuck.
Library 2.0, Library Services, Online Collaboration, Webinar
The place for Text Message Reference?
October 19th, 2009 | Permalink | 4 Comments
The recent WebJunction Digital Reference Summit (full archive and related resources) included a presentation by Alison Miller about the rise of text message reference services. At the beginning of the session we polled participants and discovered that just 17% of the nearly 200 in attendance were providing text reference services, but that’s sure to change.

Alison provided a wealth of data to illustrate the current trends in mobile reference services and referenced the nearly 100 libraries offering SMS (text) reference service listed on the Library Success Wiki. There were a handful of questions raised during the webinar about whether or not the 160-character limit allows for an adequate reference exhange or if it only serves to provide quick answers to quick queries.

There are multiple responses to these questions in the recent Library Journal article by Ellyssa Kroski which asks, Text Message Reference: Is It Effective? In the article, Ellyssa references interviews with a half a dozen or so academic reference librarians and presents their answer as a resounding YES! She summarized:
- The 160-character limit does not seem to be an impediment; librarians simply send multiple messages or ask patrons to call or come into the library for further help with more complex questions.
- Libraries are receiving a wide variety of questions via text messaging such as troubleshooting, directional, circulation, and reference queries, with some libraries receiving between 50-90 questions per month via patrons’ mobile devices.
- And it doesn’t seem to matter that the reference interview may take multiple text exchanges, according to these librarians—the content and quality of the answers is more important than the medium of delivery.
Whether or not your library is providing text message reference, I think the verdict is clear. The libraries who remain technologically nimble in our changing times are where their users are.
Library Services, News
National Medal for Museum and Library Service
October 14th, 2009 | Permalink | Comment?
Heads should turn and take notice when 10 institutions are awarded the nation’s highest honor for outstanding museum and library service. Thanks to the bloggers at BlogJunction Illinois for the great write up featuring Illinois’ own Gail Borden Public Library. I’ve had the pleasure of connecting with Denise Raleigh, the library’s director of marketing, development and communications and the force behind the StoryTubes project, a collaborative effort with partner libraries and publishers across the country.

The Gail Borden Public Library is the heart and hub of exciting activities in Elgin, Illinois. Its motto, “Learning is a Journey…Start It Here,” has been the inspiration behind many activities, including the Dr. Torres Library Card Challenge, a month-long program that resulted in 8,000 new library cards for local kids; the A Tapestry of Freedom project, which encouraged residents – especially foreign-born patrons – to share their stories of struggle and triumph with fellow Elgin citizens; and the GIANTS: African Dinosaurs and SPACE: Dare to Dream programs that brought to the library prehistoric visitors and objects from far flung galaxies. With all of the fantastic programs and events at the Gail Borden Public Library, community members ask just one question: “What next!”

The full cast of winners are as diverse as the nation’s cultural landscape: small and large, urban and rural. They have one thing in common: they have developed innovative ways to serve their communities.

Winners of the 2009 National Medal for Museum and Library Service are:
Nominations for the 2010 award are due on February 16. Don’t miss this opportunity to showcase your library’s award winning community service!