Index
- LearningExpress training sessions scheduled Dec. 12 & 19
- Time to update SCLS directory information
- Date changed for HOLA Hispanic Outreach Workshop
- Member/Staff News
- Deerfield hosts 1st Annual Speed Stacking Night
- SCLS will pay $100 toward WLA membership for directors
- Doing what we can do
- Computational Linguistics Olympiad scheduled Feb. 5 in Madison
- Continuing Education Calendar
LearningExpress training sessions scheduled Dec. 12 & 19
As you know, we are preparing for the January launch of the online test preparation resource LearningExpress Library, which can be used by students and adults alike to achieve their academic and career goals.
Whether a library user is an elementary or middle school student interested in skills improvement, a high school student preparing for an advanced placement test or the ACT or SAT, or an adult preparing to take any number of professional exams, LearningExpress Library will be of interest to them. In fact, there are more than 300 practice exams.
To help familiarize library staff with this new resource, we have scheduled two online training sessions. The first will be held Dec. 12 at 9:30 a.m. and the second will be Dec. 19 at 1:30 p.m. Both will be conducted online by LearningExpresss Library using a tool called WebEx. Well in advance of attending either December training session you should test your computer’s WebEx compatibility at www.learningexpressllc.com/webextest.cfm. Click on the “Test Now” button near the bottom of the page, and when prompted to install the plug-in be sure to follow all on-screen directions. If you have problems on a LINK computer contact the Help Desk at (608) 266-6394. If you have problems on a non-LINK computer contact Kerri Hilbelink. To minimize potential issues, please use Internet Explorer for the WebEx sessions. Instructions for logging in to the December sessions will be sent via e-mail.
In addition to the December sessions, we have scheduled a Jan. 18 OPAL session with Lisa Mettauer from Madison Public Library.
During December, LearningExpress Library will be available to library staff members for review. To obtain the necessary LearningExpress Library log-in directions, visit the “Resources For SCLS Public Libraries Only” page next week (Dec. 3-7) at www.scls.info/pro/.
Promotional Materials will be available in December at www.scls.info/pr/lel/, and SCLS will provide these materials at no cost to member libraries.
If you’ve forgotten your password for the SCLS professional page, or if you have questions about LearningExpress Library, contact Cheryl Becker, SCLS public library administration consultant.
Time to update SCLS directory information
As the end of the year nears, it's once again time to update information in our online Detailed Directory of Public Libraries. This information is used to produce the print version of the SCLS Directory of Public Libraries, so it’s important that libraries review and update information by Dec. 21, 2007.
Simply select your library from the list at www.scls.info/pro/directory.html. When you've identified changes that need to be made, or confirmed that your library's information is correct, complete the form for updating the directory by clicking on the link above the library list (or you can go directly to http://app.formassembly.com/forms/view/2803).
It's important that libraries submit this form even if making no changes. Simply enter your library's name and type "No Changes" in the first address field. This ensures that we know each library's information has been reviewed. Please do not reply by email.
Date changed for ¡HOLA! Hispanic Outreach Workshop
Due to a variety of factors, the ¡HOLA! Workshop scheduled for Dec. 5, 2007, has been re-scheduled for Feb. 22, 2008, from 9:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. at SCLS Administration Offices, 5250 E. Terrace Drive, Suite A-2, Madison.
Conducted by Marcia Sarnowski, library consultant for the Winding Rivers Library System, the workshop is intended to empower your staff to meet the library service needs of Spanish speakers in your communities. Using resources, case studies, web sites and action plans, participants will gain useful tips and tools for reaching out to Spanish speakers near your library. Lunch will be provided.
This ¡HOLA! Project workshop is part of WebJunction's Spanish Language Outreach Program made possible by a grant to Wisconsin from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and administered by the Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning (DLTCL). The WebJunction workshops provide library staff with information about proven marketing techniques, understanding cultural differences, and providing technology training and partnering with local community organizations serving Spanish speakers.
If you have questions, contact Jean Anderson, SCLS continuing education coordinator.
The new issue of Libraries@UW-Madison has been posted at http://devweb.library.wisc.edu/newsletter/.
Deerfield hosts 1st Annual Speed Stacking Night
You may not know what “speed stacking” is. In fact, you may never have heard of it. But forty-one Deerfield residents gathered Nov. 26 at the Deerfield Public library for the 1st Annual Speed Stacking Night to participate in a relatively new sport that is gaining in popularity.
Four local youths presented a video and gave a demonstration of speed stacking, which involves stacking 12 plastic cups in small pyramids. A typical competition uses a stack sequence of 3-6-3, then 6-6, and finally 1-10-1. You begin with the cups in three piles, one cup inside the other. You quickly take them out and build two pyramids of three and one pyramid of six. You then restack the cups inside each other and build two pyramids of six cups. The final step is to restack the cups inside each other and then build one pyramid of 10 cups with one off at each side, then restack the cups inside each other. The fast competitors do this in less than 7 seconds.
Click on the photo to see more from the Deerfield event. To learn more about speed stacking, visit YouTube and search for speed stacking
The program was funded in part from a grant from the Madison Community Foundation to help Deerfield Public Library expand its collection and programming in the area of Sports and Fitness.
SCLS will pay $100 toward WLA membership for directors
It's that time of year again! SCLS will pay up to $100 toward the WLA membership of directors of SCLS member libraries, or their designees. If your WLA membership expires at the end of the year, you should be receiving your renewal notice sometime between now and the end of the year.
To take advantage of this offer, simply complete your renewal form and mail it by Dec. 31, 2007, to Jean Anderson, SCLS continuing education coordinator, 5250 East Terrace Drive, Suite A-2, Madison, WI, 53718-8345. If your membership dues exceed $100, please include a check made out to SCLS for the difference. If your WLA membership expires at some other time of year, just follow these same procedures whenever you receive your renewal form.
If you have questions, please contact Jean Anderson.
Cheryl Becker, SCLS public library administration consultant, ran across this item this week and thought it might be food for thought. It comes from the blog lis.dom (Laura Crossett on the LIS domain). Consider these snippets from the Nov. 14 post.
- "I think libraries still offer many, many things that aren’t readily available to many people.”
- "If you’re a small and poor library, just consider making one book in your monthly book order something off the beaten track, or one book every other month, if it’s a month when James Patterson has two new ones out that you have to buy. When you think about ‘going where your users are,’ also try to think about going where they aren’t, and then figuring out a way to lead them there.”
- "We don’t beat Google by trying to best Google. We beat Google by being the thing -- the things, really -- that Google can never be."
You can read the complete entry at www.newrambler.net/lisdom/204.
Computational Linguistics Olympiad scheduled Feb. 5 in Madison
The School of Library and Information Studies at the UW-Madison is inviting area high school students to participate in the 2008 North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad Open (NALCO) competition on Feb. 5, 2008. This is similar to events that have taken place in Russia and Eastern Europe for 40 years, but has only recently been implemented in the US.
The Madison location for 2008 NACLO is Edgewood High School, 2219 Monroe St. Specific questions about the Madison-based local competition can be directed to Catherine Arnott Smith, assistant professor, School of Library and Information Studies, UW-Madison, at [email protected].
This event as an opportunity for students who are interested in languages and speech technologies to exercise their talents and problem-solving skills in a good-natured competitive event. For many students (and teachers as well) linguistics -- and computational linguistics in particular -- is a rather unknown academic discipline. This event raises students' awareness of the discipline, including the incredible variety and beauty of the world's languages, while challenging their natural problem-solving and analytic skills. It is one of the few opportunities students have to meld cross-cultural awareness with technical interests.
NACLO is currently sponsored by the US National Science Foundation, Google, the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (NAACL), and Cambridge University Press. Top scorers in the Open Competition on Feb. 5 will be eligible to compete in an Invitational Competition on March 11, 2008. Winners of the Invitational will be eligible to compete in the International Linguistics Olympiad (ILO) in Bulgaria. In 2007 NACLO winners represented the USA at the ILO in St. Petersburg Russia. At that event, the US participants achieved the highest score in the individual competition, and tied for first place in the team competition
For more information, or to register, visit www.naclo.cs.cmu.edu.