Index
- Anderson certified to lead crisis prevention classes
- Continuing Education survey now available
- Member/Staff News
- October CEs address leadership, happiness at work
- New OverDrive app is here
- Knight Foundation seeks library ideas in News Challenge
- Register for free webinar about 2015 Money Smart Week @ your library
- Tip sheets, video highlight importance of library reading programs
- ALSC selects more Great Websites for Kids
- Continuing Education Calendar
Anderson certified to lead crisis prevention classes
Jean Anderson, SCLS Continuing Education Consultant, is a Certified Instructor for the Crisis Prevention Institute’s (CPI) Prepare Training program. The core focus of this program is to promote a culture of Respect, Service, and Safety at Work.
As a certified instructor, Jean can customize this program for your library and train your staff to safely manage disruptive patrons and situations. This interactive program includes role playing, discussions, and laughter.
If you’re interested in having this training as part of a staff inservice, contact Jean.
Continuing Education survey now available
Right below my Read Responsibly poster from Unshelved is a new 2015 calendar. Right now, the calendar is full of the meetings, annual conferences, and a few Continuing Education programs. I need your help to fill the 2015 (and plan for 2016) schedule with programs that work for you.
Please take a few minutes to complete this survey about your CE and training needs. If you know of speakers or presenters, please share that with me, too. Thanks for your input!
--from Jean Anderson, SCLS Continuing Education Consultant
Jane Jorgenson, the Home Services Coordinator at Madison Public Library, had a review published in the Sept. 12, 2014, issue of Library Journal. Titled “A World of Firsts,” which is a genre spotlight about New Adult literature. Jane is a longtime reviewer for Library Journal. You can read her review on the Library Journal website.
October CEs address leadership, happiness at work
The following two October continuing education programs should be of particular interest to library staff members across the South Central Library System.
Lead the Revolution: Leading Change by Changing Leaders
Public libraries have unique potential to create opportunities for those they serve: opportunities for growth, learning, and literacy; community and civic engagement; exposure to the joy of discovery and to the challenge of new ideas. We live in an era when equitable access to these opportunities is shrinking and threats to public libraries are growing. This is our call to arms. Now is the time for a library leadership revolution.
Before libraries can successfully combat these challenges, they first need to be healthy organizations. The long-term success of libraries has to start from within. This workshop will introduce library employees to the leadership skills they need to fortify themselves, each other, and the cultures of their organizations. From developing leadership self-awareness to navigating constant change to creating an environment in which employees are encouraged to support each other, the focus of this program will be on developing strong employees and strong organizations. Participants will leave better prepared to take on the challenges facing the modern public library and to help start the library leadership revolution.
This program, to be held Oct. 7 from 9:15 a.m. until 12:15 p.m. at Fitchburg Public Library, will feature presenters Rachel G. Rubin, Director of Bexley (OH) Public Library, and Felton Thomas, Jr., Director of the Cleveland (OH) Public Library. (register)
Happy at Work: Staff Development Day 2014
Scheduled from 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. at Olbrich Gardens in Madison, this day will feature the following two presentations:
- “Happy Patrons: Cultivating Service at Your Library” with Raina Bloom, Librarian at College Library, UW-Madison -- This session will cover a variety of topics, including definitions, a discussion of the words we use to refer to people who use libraries, challenging patrons, and inclusive service. This will be an interactive session that will rely on reflective writing and discussion practices. We hope you will finish this session with new ideas and energy to make service at your library the best it can be.
- “Happiness; Because I Can” with Christi Andringa, Speaker, Writer, Fitness Professional – This session is about skillfully designing a life of happiness to increase productivity; both personally and professionally. Happy people aren't lucky, nor does happiness fall out of the sky. It's a big game played for high stakes. Happy people have more confidence, better relationships, make more money, achieve their goals more often and experience more satisfaction in life.
There will be a $12 fee for lunch, and vegetarian options will be available. Please contact Jean Anderson with any other dietary needs. Checks may be made payable to SCLS and sent to Heidi Moe at SCLS Headquarters or paid the day of the event. (register)
OverDrive consumers will be glad to hear that a new version of the OverDrive app for Android, iOS (iPhone/iPad/iPod touch), and Windows 8 is here!
This update features the long-awaited elimination of the Adobe Authorization step from the app installation process -- one of your most frequently requested enhancements. This change should significantly reduce library support questions and provide excellent benefits to users like syncing reading progress across multiple devices and saving libraries and common searches.
First-time users will now be prompted to create an OverDrive account. There is no change for existing users who already have an Adobe ID or OverDrive account associated with their OverDrive app, even after they update to the newest version.
Users under the age of 13 can anonymously authorize the OverDrive app without creating an OverDrive account.
OverDrive v3.2 also includes the following updates:
- The app name has been shortened from “OverDrive Media Console” to “OverDrive.” To support the new name, the app website has moved to http://app.overdrive.com.
- Users will be able to return Open EPUB titles before the end of their lending period. All formats that the app supports can now be returned before expiration.
OverDrive Help articles and videos have been updated to reflect the updates in OverDrive 3.2.
If you have any questions, please contact OverDrive Support via the Support tab in OverDrive Marketplace.
Knight Foundation seeks library ideas in News Challenge
How can libraries leverage technology to make our communities smarter and stronger?
The Knight Foundation asks that question in its 12th News Challenge, a competition that seeks to accelerate media innovation by funding breakthroughs in news and information. The best ideas will be brought to life with a share of $2.5 million in funding.
“We’re hoping to hear ideas for leveraging the assets that libraries have built: physical spaces open to anyone; professional staff trained in how to seek, retrieve and share information; and a legacy of aiding new readers, new entrepreneurs and new Americans,” the Knight Foundation’s John Bracken blogged recently. “In a digital age we see libraries -- public, university, archival, virtual -- as key for improving Americans’ ability to know about and to be involved with what takes place around them.”
The competition is open to innovators from all industries. In addition to the funding, winners will receive support from Knight’s network of advisors.
The challenge is currently in its initial “Inspiration” phase, during which people post ideas and solicit peer feedback via an online platform.(Check out ideas here) The submission deadline is Sept. 30, 2014.
The Knight Foundation and its advisors will then review submissions and select a group of semifinalists to refine their original proposals. Winners will be announced in January 2015.
The library-centered News Challenge builds upon the last challenge, which sought ideas to strengthen the Internet. In June, the Knight Foundation funded 19 of those projects with $3.47 million.
For more information, visit www.newschallenge.org.
Register for free webinar about 2015 Money Smart Week @ your library
Register today for a free webinar on Oct. 1, 2014, to learn how your library can participate in 2015 Money Smart Week @ your library. The webinar will provide you with resources, promotional materials, programming ideas and ways to partner with others in your community, campus or school to get Money Smart Week going at your library.
Money Smart Week @ your library, April 18-25, 2015, is a national initiative in its fifth year between the American Library Association (ALA) and the Federal Reserve Bank (Chicago) to provide financial literacy programming to help members of your community -- retirees, school kids, college students, everyone -- better manage their personal finances. In 2014 over 700 libraries in 48 states participated.
Learn from veterans and first-timers how Money Smart Week @ your library has been a great success for their libraries and how it can be in yours. Discussions will show how easy it is to convey financial topics to your library users.
Topics presented last year include basic banking services, credit and debt management, estate planning, going green to save, housing/mortgages/foreclosures, going to college, identity theft/investment scams/financial fraud, insurance, kids and money, money management for women, preparing for financial emergencies, retirement planning, small business and entrepreneurship, taxes, teens and money and unemployment and job transitioning.
Visit the Money Smart Week home page of the Federal Reserve Bank (Chicago) for additional details about Money Smart Week.
Contact the ALA Chapter Relations Office at 312-280-3200 for more information on how to participate in Money Smart Week @ your library, April 18-25, 2015. Also visit www.ala.org/offices/money-smart-week.
Tip sheets, video highlight importance of library reading programs
The Public Library Development Team recently published three new resources concerning library reading programs. “Offering Library Reading Programs: Top Ten Tips for Librarians” and “Why library reading programs matter: 10 Tips for Parents & Caregivers” are highly visual information pieces that outline the benefits of library reading programs, such as summer reading programs and 1000 Books Before Kindergarten programs. In addition, a short video tutorial offers a glimpse at why both documents were created and how to use them at your library. You can access both documents and the video at the new Literacy Research webpage on the DPI website: http://pld.dpi.wi.gov/pld_literacy_research.
--from Channel Weekly (Vol. 17, No. 2 –- Sept. 11, 2014)
ALSC selects more Great Websites for Kids
The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, has added more sites to Great Websites for Kids, its online resource containing hundreds of links to exceptional websites for children.
The newly added sites are:
- CBC Kids - http://www.cbc.ca/kids/
- CBeebies - http://www.cbeebies.com/lat-am/
- Classics for Kids - http://www.classicsforkids.com/
- Kids in the House - http://kids.clerk.house.gov/
- Learn. Genetics - http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/
- Learn. Genetics en Español - http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/es/
- Nourish Interactive in Spanish - http://es.nourishinteractive.com/kids
- Sparky the Fire Dog – http://www.sparky.org/
“This round of winners will really enhance our Spanish page, along with a variety of websites for kids interested in everything from government to firehouse dogs,” said Lara Crews, children’s librarian, Forsyth County (N.C.) Public Library and Kimberly Probert Grad, library information supervisor, Brooklyn (N.Y.) Public Library, co-Chairs of the Great Websites for Kids Committee.
Great Web Sites for Kids (GWS) features links to high-quality websites of interest to children 14 years of age and younger, organized into diverse subject headings from arts and astronomy to mathematics and museums and many more. Each site entry includes a brief annotation and a grade-level rating. GWS users can also rate sites, save their favorites for easy access, and share sites via social media and email.
Members of the ALSC GWS Committee review potential sites for inclusion and vote on the sites to be included. They also regularly check the entire site to ensure currency and re-evaluate sites when necessary.