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You may have seen the buzz about our newest WebJunction Partners…perhaps you’ve even visited their sites. If not, I’m pleased to share the news that library staff in three additional states: Missouri, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania now have access to courses, articles, discussions and a state-specific professional network that will keep their skills up-to-date and help their libraries stay relevant to current user needs.
If you’re part of the library community in one of these states, update your WebJunction account today and request to be affiliated with your state’s WebJunction site on the “My Affiliations” tab as you edit your account.
The Secretary of Agriculture announced in a 1/26/10 press release that the department has designated $100 million in USDA Rural Development Community Facilities funding for public libraries. The program will provide educational opportunities and improve public services in rural communities.
Applications are handled by USDA Rural Development field offices. To reach the USDA Rural Development contact for a specific state, visit www.rurdev.usda.gov/ – adding the two-letter initial of the state to the end of the URL.
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:
Longtime member Mary Beth Sancomb-Moranis known throughout the WebJunction community for her commitment to creating libraries that best serve patron information needs. I was pleased to see this KAAL news story showcasing her newest project, the University of Minnesota Rochester Library and Information Commons. Be sure to watch the video (right panel of the news story) to catch a glimpse of Mary Beth and to hear her articulate how libraries are changing in this virtual age. Way to go, Mary Beth!
Are you or your WebJunction friends making the news? Please, do tell!
Thanks to our TechSoup for Libraries friends for sharing news of this great opportunity!
Submit your library’s digital story during TechSoup Global’s Digital Storytelling Challenge open now through October 16th. What a great opportunity to showcase all the great work your library is doing, win prizes and end up with a great PR piece to use in ongoing advocacy efforts!
Tell your library’s story in a 5-panel image story on Flickr or a 60 second YouTube video or GoldMail audio-visual message. You’ll be in the running to win one of the many fabulous prizes including a FlipVideo camera, Adobe software, mp3 players and more!
“But wait, I’ve never made a video before. And I have no photo skills.”
No experience is required! Whether you’re a first-time storyteller or video veteran, they’ve got resources and tools from the webinar sessions here, here, and here, to help guide you along the way.
“I don’t know if we have the time–or the budget–to do it.”
The good news is that digital storytelling doesn’t have to be expensive. They’ve listed a number of free and low cost tools you can use to create your story.
“Help! I’m trying to work on my digital story and I’m running into difficulty.”
Never fear–the expert hosts from the Digital Storytelling webinars will be available in the TechSoup forums during the Challenge, so don’t be shy about posting any questions you have.
I’m bringing story back! How do I submit it?
Visit the Challenge page for instructions on how to submit your story! While you’re there, you can see additional details about the Challenge guidelines, judging, and prizes.
How to Stay Informed and Contact :
Stay tuned on the event website, register to receive email announcements, and follow the action on Twitter #tsdigs. If you would like to get in touch directly feel free to contact the TechSoup Team: tsdigs@techsoupglobal.org. They’re eager to help!
Just like the library computer software this course talks about, our online courses often need updating too. All of our learning providers work hard to keep their courses up to date. And so in our spare minutes here (We probably have about as many of those as you do), we have also been updating some of our own WebJunction courses that have been on extended vacation over the past several months because they were beginning to show their age.
This week, we are re-releasing a really useful one for those of you out there who have been thrust into a technology support and planning role for your library. The course: Updating and Upgrading Library Computer Software, walks you through the process of evaluating patron or staff needs with costs, time and hidden drawbacks involved in updating a given piece of software on a public or staff computer. It provides a framework for coming to the right decision for your specific situation, whether you are working with free plugins, paid-for applications, or even operating systems.
You’ll take away some valuable tools that should immediately help with your library’s technology planning and PAC software maintenance efforts, including some handy checklists of questions to ask for different software situations.
IMPORTANT NOTE: As always, if you are a member of one of our WebJunction Partners, chances are you have free or discounted access to this course through their catalog. In that case, instead of using the links above, go first to the Partner site, then to the Courses tab and will find this course listed under Technology (general) > Public Access Computing.
Sarah Washburn’s post on The September Project blog reminded me that it’s time find out what libraries are doing this year to celebrate our various freedoms and especially our freedom to read. In addition to the September Project libraries, check out some of the other ways you can raise awareness about Banned Books Week, September 26-October 3:
Share about your Banned Books Week celebrations below in comments or in this discussion on WebJunction or consider posting your materials related to banned books or resources for responding to challenges to library materials in the Intellectual Freedom topic area.
In September of 2007, the Association for Rural and Small Libraries (ARSL) was a new organization. Having just separated from Clarion University because of the impending retirement of Professor Bernard Vavrek, and the university’s subsequent decision to discontinue the Center for the Study of Rural Librarianship, ARSL’s 12-member board was meeting that fall for the first time.According to Patty Hector, 2008-2009 ARSL board president, “We were fairly overwhelmed by the massive amount of activity that needed to be addressed and decisions that needed to be made in a very short period of time.”
About this same time, WebJunction approached ARSL with the offer to use follow-on funding from the Gates Foundation’s Rural Sustainability Project. The idea was to support ARSL’s website on WebJunction.org, and make WebJunction tools available to the ARSL board at no charge. The board accepted the offer of support as they helped the association get off the ground.Since then, ARSL has been using the webjunction.org/arsl page as their primary home page, along with ARSL BCR pages that allow memberships and conference registrations to happen as a link to that page.
I’ve worked closely with the team who managed our Rural Library Sustainability project since its inception, and served on ARSL’s board as an ex-officio member since February. In my time with ARSL’s board I’ve had a unique opportunity to observe an exciting time in the history of their organization’s development. Every member of the ARSL board has made great strides in developing an organization that’s truly poised and responsive to the rural and small library members they serve. It has been a great pleasure to get to know the ARSL board members and to be a small part of this work.
Two years later, ARSL is no longer a new organization. They have many things well-established now and are looking to step out into new directions. One of their areas of focus over the coming year is to look for ways to define their unique identity, and to be more responsive to their members. One way they plan to do this is to launch an all new, independent website.The vision for this site is that it be a dynamic space that captures ARSL’s personality and mission in a way that is appealing and relevant their members.Elements of this website, including the new ARSL logo, were unveiled at their annual conference this weekend.
We are very excited about this development for ARSL and look forward to seeing the new site evolve. We also look forward to finding new ways to partner with ARSL in the coming year, as we each strive towards a common mission of working together to meet the needs in small and rural libraries. Co-sponsoring webinar programs is one idea, but there are so many other possibilities.
WebJunction will continue our focus on public access computing support for rural and small libraries. We’ll publish our Rural Update with news and announcements of special interest to those working in small and rural libraries. We’ll also keep you posted when we have rural-focused programs, webinars, or new content posted to the site. WebJunction will remain a great resource for people to find and connect with one another to support whatever you’re working on in your library. If you have ideas for topics, programs, or other things you might need, as always, please let us know.
There’s a new group on WebJunction created by and for UAE School Librarians. The group’s creator describes it as a “resource and information sharing group for school librarians working in English medium schools in the United Arab Emirates.” Welcome to all the UAE librarians…19 of you became WJ members in June!
And with UAE in the group spotlight, what better time to share some exciting news about WebJunction staffer, Zola Maddison. She has accepted an offer to serve as the Coordinator of the Learning Enhancement Center at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. While all in the WebJunction family, members, partners and staff, will miss her greatly, we’re excited for this new chapter in Zola’s career and we know that she’ll remain an active member on the site! Zola has this to share:
As many of you know, I’ve been interested in global libraries for a long time. While I can’t remember a time I didn’t have the travel bug, I think this cross-section of interests really grew from my experiences as a foreign exchange student in Indonesia during Suharto’s regime. That was where I first saw information access as a means of political power (and if you’re ever having a hard time falling asleep, you can read my article on the topic). While I was in “library school,” I concurrently completed a certificate in International Development, Policy and Management. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to work with libraries across the US, Canada, South Africa and Guatemala.
I am incredibly excited about this opportunity, but am equally sad to leave my WebJunction family. I hope you’ll keep me connected through WebJunction (zmaddison).
Zola joined WebJunction about two years ago as a Special Projects Coordinator and quickly moved into her current role as a Partner Services Consultant. She has been working with our State Library partners since November 2007 has led efforts to showcase our partners as thought leaders in the e-learning and online community space.
Throughout her time here, Zola’s interest in working with international libraries has also been apparent as she presented at the IFLA conference in South Africa, received sponsorship for the ALA Emerging Leaders program from the International Relations Round Table, and onboarded WebJunction’s first international partner, BC Libraries.
If you’re attending ALA, be sure to stop and congratulate her, and know that we won’t let her stray far from the WebJunction fold! I’ve already got her on my list of prospective webinar presenters…I see a session on international librarianship coming soon!
I feel like I’ve spent much of the winter and spring planting competency seeds and I’m finally seeing the seedlings push up the soil and greet the light of day. So here’s what’s growing in the WebJunction competency garden …
♣ The Competency Index
Competency Index for the Library Field is a compilation of competency statements that address a broad spectrum of library practice and service. We aggregated and de-duped twelve leading competency sets from the field and then subjected them to a vigorous review by subject matter expert practitioners. We invite you to download the resulting publication and remix and reinvent it in whatever way best serves your library’s size, structure, and personnel development needs.
♣ Competency-course-content connections
We have integrated a fourth set of competencies from the Index with the WebJunction catalog—The Personal/Interpersonal competencies. Also referred to as soft skills, foundational or behavioral competencies, they apply to most job roles and form the underpinning of effective and stellar practice and service. Start on the Competencies tab of the WebJunction Courses page and discover connections to courses and resources aligned with specific skills and knowledge statements. You can also explore learning opportunities related to library management, core technology, and systems & IT.
♣ Competency evaluations
The results are in from the two competency evaluations WebJunction conducted in March and April. We asked respondents from across the field to evaluate themselves on a selection of skills and knowledge statements for library management and technology. Read the summaries and look for the detailed results in the PDF attached to each summary.
We’re rounding out the alphabet of member contributions posted to WebJunction this year, in celebration of our 6th anniversary. Please take the time to recognize these valuable and practical contributions from your library colleagues, and remember to post your own resources, templates, cases studies, etc. This simple activity is what solves problems, improves our skills, and moves the library field forward. Here’s to another year of online collaboration!
And here’s another installment of fresh WebJunction member contributions as promised in our birthday post. In case you’ve missed it, we’re sharing a sampled list of content that’s been posted to the site this past year. Here’s a third set of articles covering from M to S.
You can join in our anniversary celebration by posting to WebJunction a new document about something *you* learned or experienced this past year. Your lesson learned serves as useful advice for your colleagues in Libraryland.
As promised in yesterday’s birthday post, we’re sharing a sampled list of content that’s been posted to WebJunction this past year. Here’s a second installment covering articles from E to L.
You can join in our anniversary celebration by posting to WebJunction a new document about something *you* learned or experienced this past year. Your lesson learned serves as useful advice for your colleagues in Libraryland.
Today, May 12, marks the sixth anniversary of WebJunction’s initial launch. Our celebration of this occasion is one of gratitude. We are grateful for your help in building the site and for telling us what you need. We thank you for you work with WebJunction projects, such as the Spanish Language Outreach and Rural Library Sustainability Projects. We are especially grateful for your continued commitment to sustaining libraries.
Since 2003, the WebJunction community has grown to more than 40,000 members and 16 partner sites. To keep apace with this evolution, WebJunction has updated its mission and vision statements.
Our new mission is: “WebJunction bridges the barriers to learning by providing open, affordable, online learning communities. Our members take courses, attend events, share knowledge, and network with others – all in an environment that fosters collaboration and mutual support.”
And our vision: “WebJunction will be the place where the worldwide library profession gathers to build the knowledge, skills, and support we need to power relevant, vibrant libraries.”
Much has happened in the past year in WebJunction Land, as this year-in-pictures slideshow will attest…
We also saw a lot of new content posted to WebJunction.org during this past year. We’ll share a sampled list of that new content throughout the week.
You can join in our anniversary celebration by posting to WebJunction a new document about something *you* learned or experienced this past year. Your lesson learned could serve as useful advice for your colleagues in Libraryland.
Have you been wondering where in the world is LibraryU?
Well, LibraryU has been given new life on WebJunction in the form of 14 refreshed and reformatted online modules on topics tailored to the needs of libraries. Begun as an Illinois cooperative grant project over five years ago, LibraryU was launched to create and deliver online learning for library staff. During that time, they registered over 11,000 users. WebJunction is proud to be able to provide an ongoing, sustainable home so these valuable courses would not end up lost in cyberspace.
Visit the LibraryU section of the course catalog to see details and to enroll in any of these courses:
Directors ASK! (Administrator-Secret-Knowledge!): this course is offered at a 50% discount for the month of February
Keep It Simple: Developing a Marketing Plan for Your Library
Motivating Messages for Your Library
Merchandising that Works
Introduction to Cataloging for Non-Catalogers
Shelving with Library of Congress (LC) Classification
Shelving with Dewey
Readers Advisory Services
Weeding the Library Collection
Planning Story Time for Children
Dealing with Angry Patrons
Basic Web-based Reference
Accompanying the Young Reader: Helping the Read Choose Appropriate Books
You Can Do It: A Recipe for Designing Web-based Instruction
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is known throughout the WebJunction community for her commitment to creating libraries that best serve patron information needs. I was pleased to see this 
