SJRLC Connections

EBSCO offers five scholarships to attend 2010 ALA Midwinter Meeting

2009-11-12T10:53:54-05:00

EBSCO offers five scholarships to attend 2010 ALA Midwinter Meeting

(and seven scholarships to annual)

CHICAGO - The American Library Association (ALA) and EBSCO are partnering to offer five scholarships for librarians to attend the 2010 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston. The meeting takes place Jan. 15-19, 2010, and offers an opportunity for continuing education, meetings and interaction with colleagues.
Each EBSCO scholarship will be in the amount of $1,500, and one of the five scholarships will be awarded to a first-time conference attendee. The scholarship money is to be used for conference registration, travel and expenses.

Deadline for Midwinter entry is Nov. 23, 2009, The deadline for the Annual Conference Scholarship entry is December 1, 2009. Application information can be found at: www.ala.org/ala/awardsgrants/awardsrecords/ebscosponsorship/ebscosponsorship.cfm.

Midwinter Scholarship recipients will be notified no later than Dec. 15, 2009.

To apply, candidates must complete the application criteria and submit an essay that answers the following question: “What do you believe to be the biggest challenge in managing electronic resources in libraries today, and what solutions do you envision?” Essays and applications will be judged by a jury designated by ALA.

EBSCOhost Mobile and Alerts Setup Enhancements

2009-11-10T13:01:03-05:00

An exciting announcement from EbscoHost

We are excited to announce that the anticipated new interface for mobile users, EBSCOhost Mobile, is here! The new EBSCOhost application is tailor-made for the smaller screens of mobile devices, and offers the most important EBSCOhost features and functionality, right in the palm of your hand! To get started on using your mobile device to access your EBSCOhost resources, simply review this FAQ and learn about:

the many features of EBSCOhost Mobile
how to access the application
which devices are supported

Once you have created a profile in EBSCOadmin for EBSCOhost Mobile, this new interface will be available to all users who have access to your account. To help you alert your users, we have created posters that you can download and print; one of which includes a special, customizable message field. If you (or your library administrator) need assistance setting up a new profile for EBSCOhost Mobile, please communicate with EBSCO's Technical Support Representatives online, via EBSCO's Support Form, and remember to allow one to two weeks for setup time. For more information, please see this top story.

Also new on EBSCOhost are several enhancements to streamline the Alerts creation process, described here.

Visit EBSCO's Support Site (http://support.ebsco.com) to learn about all of EBSCO's products, search among thousands of FAQs, and download tutorials, Help Sheets or User Guides.

"Are You Crazy?" aka "A Library's Journey into the Teen All Night Lock-In"

2009-11-05T14:56:53-05:00

Justin: I’ll start off by saying this. It’s been two weeks since our Teen Library Lock-In ended and I’m not sure if I’ve recovered yet. My brain is still a bit fuzzy and I still don’t think I’ve caught up on sleep. If I tend to ramble or get lost when I’m talking, we’ll just blame it on that. You got my back Melissa?

Melissa: I’ll watch your back if you watch mine. I’m still sort of in a sleep-induced coma.

The Initial Idea

Justin: My Teen Advisory Board kept on talking about how they wanted to spend the night in the library. I thought they were sort of crazy at first, but the longer I thought about it the more it seemed like a really great idea. And I had this feeling that the teens would freak out and love the program. I did some research on how these types of events were structured. I must say that without the guidance of the teen librarians at both the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library and the Willingboro Public Library I wouldn’t have ever got our Library Lock-In off the ground. I borrowed bits and pieces from their lock-in programs and created an outline and a permission slip. With these two things in hand, I had something to give my directors.

Melissa: One of the biggest concerns we had when constructing the Cape May County Library Teen Lock-In was how to keep our participants entertained and out of trouble. We decided that the best way to go about this was to implement activities such as an Library Olympics and a scavenger hunt, combined with an ongoing marathon of Harry Potter movies, crafts, and computer access, as well as continuous usage of our video game systems, such as the Wii, Playstation 3, and Xbox.

Justin: The idea was to start the lock in right after our weekly game night ended. The games would already be set up and I thought gaming, especially Rock Band, would be a good community building game where the kids could get to know one another. After the scheduled events such as the library Olympics and the scavenger hunt, things got a bit looser. We had one room dedicated to a Harry Potter movie marathon, the video games still set up, one room for tabletop gaming, and crafts in the children’s room. We wanted to have some structure to the program but at the same time let teens be teens and have some random (and very supervised) fun.

Planning

Justin: Once I got the OK from my directors to have the lock-in, I knew that I had to assemble a REALLY good team of librarians and library associates to help run the event. I sort of felt like I was putting together “The A-Team” of Library Lock In staff members. I knew I had to have the right blend of people who the teens could identify with and not feel intimidated by. I ended up with 7 (counting myself) chaperones for the thirty teens that had signed up. That’s roughly 4 teens to every chaperone, which is something I thought was manageable.

Making it all work

Melissa: As an example of one of our planned activities, I will highlight the obstacle course, which like the scavenger hunt, was created to promote fun activities that would also reflect library usage. For instance in the obstacle course, all participants were told to carry a book on their head, paperback of course, and then proceed to the next activity. Teens had to carry a book on their head, walk with the book while wearing box shoes, crab walk with a book on their stomach, jump down an aisle while still carrying the book and find works written by a variety of author(s), and finally dig though a box filled with scrap paper in order to locate a library card that had a Teen sticker on it. All participants worked in teams and were timed. For the winners, we planned an award ceremony that was similar to the Olympics, complete with medals for first, second, and third place.

The Focus

Justin: Call me a hippy, but I’m all about good and positive vibrations. I always wanted to make sure that both the chaperones and the teens all respected each other and created a positive community.

Melissa: We also wanted to stress to teens the importance of good behavior, and how exceptional actions would be acknowledged and rewarded. We implemented a Good Behavior Chart. Teens were awarded stickers that they could post next to their name in order to win an array of prizes at the end of the night. I have to admit at first we were not sure if this idea would work, or if teens would see the idea as somewhat immature and childish. However, like teens have a tendency of doing, at least for me, they proved to be an exceptional group of young adults. They really went above and beyond to help out the librarians and each other. There was definitely on ongoing competition among the teens, but it was never malicious. They were all super positive and a lot of fun to hang out with.

The Actual Event

Justin: I got into work the day of the event at 4:30 and made sure all the loose ends were tied up by the time we started at 7pm. The first few hours were a bit hectic in getting all the teens together and in one place. Once that was done, we started off on the scheduled events. Some teens didn’t want to join in, so that was a bit difficult in explaining to them that they had to be there and once these things were done they’d have a bit more freedom.

Melissa: Once we were finished with the scheduled events, the Teens were allowed to be in either one of three rooms. They were great about telling us where they were going and we didn’t experience any problems with them disappearing. Most of teens just meandered between games, movies, crafts, and lots and lots of conversations.

Justin: We asked the teens at the beginning of the program to always tell at least one chaperone where they were going. We told them that this was one of the most important things they could do throughout the night. They were amazing

The Aftermath

Justin: The alternate title for this section is “This is what we’ll do differently the next time around.”

We had one incident at the lock in that sounded the alarms. During a game of hide and seek/manhunt, two teens collided with each other. One had glasses on, so the other teen got quite a big gash on their head. It was big enough that stitches were needed. We had to call their parents at 1am and let them know what happened. They came to the library and we had to go to the Emergency Room. I accompanied the teen and the parent there, and 20 minutes later, the teen was all stitched up and ready to go. The parent let the teen come back to the library. I feel like I lucked out on this one. Incident reports had to be filled out and the overall mood of the lock-in really changed after that.

Melissa: Yes, everyone really mellowed out, such as a lot less horsing around, and became more interested in hanging out, talking to one another, and playing video games.

What We Have Learned and What the Teens Taught Us

Melissa: The overall of theme of the entire Lock-In was camaraderie. It was evident from the beginning that there was a relatively wide range of ages and maturity levels, as well as groups and interests. However, throughout the night, it became extremely evident that all the teens were just interested in hanging out with each other in an array of activities. The entire Teen Lock-In produced a fantastic sense of community atmosphere. In all, this event was A LOT OF FUN WITH A GREAT FLOW AND POSITIVE INTERACTION. It was a fantastic opportunity to librarians to get to the teens and vice versa. We have received a great response from teens, parents, and administration. We will definitely plan more Teen Lock-Ins for the future, using the knowledge and lessons we have learned from our initial experiences with this program.

Justin: I thought 30 teens would be manageable, but now that I think about it the next time around I’d limit it to 20, possibly 25 teens and maybe have it twice a year. I also may reconsider having any kind of hide and seek activities since we had a bit of a snafu this last time. But it worked so well and the teens loved it! Agh!

P.S. For those wondering where the title comes from…The most common response to “We’re having an all night sleepover at the library with 30 teens ages 12-18 was “ARE YOU CRAZY?”

P.P.S For even more images from the Lock-In, please visit our Flickr album.

Justin Hoenke is the Teen Librarian for the Cape May County Library. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/justinlibrarian.

Melissa Brisbin is the Media Librarian for the Cape May County Library. You can follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melissabrisbin.

SJRLC 2009 Fall Membership Program & Meeting

2009-10-27T10:11:28-04:00

with
Pat Wagner, Pattern Communication

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
1:00 to 4:00 PM (optional lunch at 12:00*)

Seaview Resort
Absecon, NJ, 609-652-1800 x-4317

COST: FREE!
(see below for details on optional lunch at Seaview

DETAILS AND REGISTRATION

Network - A pattern of human interaction characterized by a process of information exchange usually leading to other human interactions and/or material, service, information, monetary or spiritual exchanges. - Richard Haight

Librarians have always been about networking and never more so than in times of economic trouble. Nationally recognized speaker Pat Wagner will lead us through "The Networking Game", a powerful, practical, and fun experience that will help give us insight into these topics:

How to build coalitions among institutions, agencies and community groups
Reaching out to underserved populations, new immigrants, etc.
The meaning of community
How any library of any type can participate in reinforcing community values for the people they serve

The Networking Game is the art of discovering patterns in the world and making useful connections for ourselves and for others. It is about weaving new options into our safety nets.

About our Speaker
Pat Wagner has worked with Pattern Research, Inc. and its predecessor the Office for Open Network since 1977. She is an educator, trainer, writer and consultant, focusing on personnel, management, leadership, marketing, career and strategic planning issues. She has special interests in conflict management, project management, community outreach and future studies.

AGENDA

Noon - 1:00: Optional Lunch at Seaview* 2:00 - 3:45: Program with Pat Wagner

1:00 - 1:30: Registration, Coffee & Dessert 3:45 - 4:00: Wrap up

1:30 - 2:00: Brief SJRLC Business Meeting

*Optional Lunch at Seaview
Seaview offers a buffet for $22.00 (dining room) or sandwiches/salads for $10-15 (Golf Grill).

Make your lunch reservation by calling 609-652-1800 x-4317 by December 10 (Mention SJRLC.)
If you can't make lunch, you may still join SJRLC for free dessert and coffee before the program.

DETAILS AND REGISTRATION

Free Censorship Exhibit Available

2009-10-21T15:32:22-04:00

A wonderful offer from, Don Parker, Co-coordinator, Long Island Coalition Against Censorship

The Long Island Coalition Against Censorship (www.the-licac.org) is an association of 22 member organizations (16 are libraries and professional library organizations) which have joined together to combat censorship in public libraries and public schools.

We have two mounted sets of our exhibit, “Censorship in Schools and Libraries,” that have circulated in New York state on a monthly basis in eleven of the library systems.. A third set will be available in New Jersey beginning in February 2010. There is no charge for the exhibit .

The 32 examples of censorship are presented on 25” width x 36” height poster boards and each one includes 2 incidents of censorship with an illustration and text. A hanger is provided on the back of each poster board for wall display. The history of censorship in public libraries and schools highlights incidents of censorship that have occurred in the United States during the last 150 years. Included are descriptions of the censorship of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, In the Night Kitchen, The Catcher in the Rye. It also includes among others the novels of Judy Blume, Chris Crutcher and Toni Morrison. The effort to censor the 2007 Newbery prize winning book, The Higher Power of Lucky, has been added to the exhibit. Significant U.S. Supreme Court decisions and lower court decisions are an integral part of the exhibit.

The exhibit includes continuing efforts to censor the popular Harry Potter’s children's books (A few years ago, Harry Potter books were burned in Alamogordo, New Mexico). Added to the exhibit is the decision by the United States Supreme Court requiring public libraries receiving federal funding to install filters on all computers connected to the Internet. In addition .to the new cases, there is an update of cases that have occurred since 1990.

If space is limited, we suggest rotating the panels during the time the exhibit is on display. If you are interested in reserving the exhibit, telephone 516-944-9799/ e-mail coalcen1[at]verizon.net. Excerpts from the exhibit are shown on our web site www.the-licac.org under “Censorship in Schools and Libraries” excerpts.

Don Parker, Co-coordinator

Long Island Coalition Against Censorship

Webinar: Managing Interruptions

2009-10-20T13:40:13-04:00

SJRLC, CJRLC, HRLC and Infolink present

Webinar: Managing Interruptions

Date/Time: Friday, December 4, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM

Cost: $10 Presenter: Andrew Sanderbeck

COMPLETE DETAILS/REGISTRATION INFO:
http://www.sjrlc.org/CE/webinars/managinginterruptions_dec4_09.shtml

It is estimated that we are interrupted every
five to seven minutes that we are at work.

To make matters worse, the average length of our interruptions is five minutes! (Dick Lohr, Taking Control of Your Workday)

This webinar is designed to help you to better control the 4 major interruptions in the workplace (people, telephones, email and social media) by giving you simple, proven and effective tools and techniques for each of the major interruptions of your time and productivity.

Participants of this webinar will learn and begin to master:

How to handle the “in-person” interruptions including the employees and patrons who just want to talk with you and those that always seem to bring you an urgent situation or problem
Suggestions for more effectively handling their daily telephone calls and email
Putting a boundary on social media interruptions while staying connected to colleagues and using an online tool for better communication with your employees and co-workers
Creating a “catch-up” appointment in your schedule each day to keep you in control of your “to-do list”, projects and other important duties

1 CEU Credit will be awarded

COMPLETE DETAILS/REGISTRATION INFO:
http://www.sjrlc.org/CE/webinars/managinginterruptions_dec4_09.shtml

Do More With Less: Continuing Quality Library Services in Times of Budget and Staff Reduction

2009-10-19T16:46:11-04:00

Do More With Less: Continuing Quality

Library Services in Times of Budget and

Staff Reduction

Presented by Andrew Sanderbeck

CLICK TO REGISTER

Wednesday, December 9, 2009
10:00 am - 4:00 pm (9:30 Coffee)
Cost: $40 (Breakfast & Lunch included)

Mount Laurel Library
100 Walt Whitman Avenue, Mount Laurel, NJ 08054
Directions: http://www.mtlaurel.lib.nj.us/about/directions.html

The problem: Budget and other cuts from reliable sources of funding challenge libraries to find ways to continue and improve the quality of their services. Jobs continue to be cut and hiring freezes require existing library employees to fill the gaps. Demands on our collection and our computer and internet resources continue to rise and our patrons evolving needs are requiring library professionals to become experts in new areas of information and technology. Being really good at what we did a few years ago isn’t good enough.

The solution: Finding and utilizing methods and processes to do more with less.

This workshop focuses on the library taking the lead in four areas: Recognizing and taking actionon the evolving need of their patrons; Communicating information about change in a timely manner to the employees and patrons; Working with employees to meet their changing needs and using recognition to keep energy and morale up in the library; Keeping every resource of the library focused on its mission and strategic plan to create a much better tomorrow for the library and its patrons.

Participants of this workshop will learn and begin to master:

Developing and implementing a strategy and action plan for cross functional service delivery
Identifying significant changes in patron needs and how your library can meet those needs
Ways of maintaining and improving employee morale and respect for each other & patrons
Recognizing how we make a difference: How your library can use recognition to keep morale
and spirits high
Reassessing our every move: Examining what works and what doesn’t work in the library to
maximize our resources

5 CEU credits will be awarded for this workshop

CLICK TO REGISTER

About our Presenter

Andrew Sanderbeck is a recognized expert trainer, coach and consultant on leadership and team development, customer service and developing cohesive management teams. He has owned and operated both retail and manufacturing businesses and has taken his life experiences of working with and owning his companies and turned them into gems of applicable knowledge for his clients. Andrew presents for audiences both domestically and internationally conducting training classes in the Caribbean, Europe and the Far East.

Andrew is the founder of The People~Connect Institute, an organization of professionals that work with management and executive teams that value the human potential of their employees while leading purpose driven organizations. He is proud to have earned his certification in experiential facilitation, business coaching and consulting, helping his clients achieve unparalleled levels of productivity from their work groups and teams.

Confidentiality and Library Records: What Are The Rules?

2009-10-19T16:28:55-04:00

WORKSHOP:

Confidentiality and Library

Records: What Are The Rules?

Led by Eileen Palmer,
Executive Director of LMxAC and Chair of the NJ Library Association’s Public Policy Committee

CLICK TO REGISTER

Date: Friday, Nov 20th, 10:00 AM - Noon (9:30 Coffee/Registration)

Location: Mount Laurel Library
Cost: Free, but registration is required

This 2 hour program is designed to introduce the NJ Library confidentiality Law and discuss how this law is applied in our libraries. Attendees are encouraged to bring examples of local policies and procedures and join in the discussion about the real life situations that can make it difficult to uphold this vital law. We will also discuss the USA PATRIOT Act and its impact on requests for library records.

Intended Audience: Frontline staff (including clerks and paraprofessionals) who would like a clear understanding of confidentiality and privacy issues and laws.

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to answer the following questions:

What does the NJ Library Confidentiality Law say?

What is a library record?

What are the common instances where records might be requested?

What impact does the USA PATRIOT Act have on the NJ Library Confidentiality Law?

What is a FISA Court? National Security letter?

2 CEU's Will be given for this workshop

CLICK TO REGISTER

State Library Honored for Communications Excellence

2009-10-14T09:53:59-04:00

via the NJ State Library Newsletter. Congrats Nancy and Gary!

State Library Honored for Communications Excellence

At the 35th Annual JASPER Awards presentation on Friday, October 9, 2009, the NJ State Library received two awards for excellence in communications.

The statewide "Tell Us Your Story Marketing Campaign" received the Gold Award in Public Relations for an Integrated Communications Campaign.

Receiving the Silver Award in Television/Video for TV Campaign with 2 or more commercials was the "Libraries Value in a Down Economy" commercials aired on NJN.

Accepting the awards were Nancy Dowd, Director of Marketing, and Gary Cooper, Public Relations & News Media Contact. Cooper also received a Gold Award in speechwriting.

The awards were presented by the Jersey Shore Public Relations & Advertising Association at the Robert Meyner Reception Center, PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel.

Webinar: Marketing Library Services Using Web 2.0

2009-10-07T14:57:04-04:00

SJRLC Webinar:

Marketing Library Services

Using Web 2.0

Date/Time: November 17, 2009, 10:00-11:30 AM
Cost: $10

Details and Registration:
www.sjrlc.org/CE/webinars/marketing_nov17_09.shtml

Twitter, Facebook, MySpace…
it’s more than having a lot of friends.

Social networking sites are a great way to connect with not only existing library customers but new customers as well.

Learn about the latest tools available to market your programs and services. These tools are free and require little technical skill. Then learn how to develop a simple marketing plan that ensures you use these tools in an effective way. By the end of the program, participants will:

Be able to list the most useful Web 2.0 tools for marketing libraries

Have generated ideas for using Web 2.0 tools for marketing library services

Have a written plan for marketing their library services using web 2.0 tools

Cost: $10

About Our Virtual Trainer: Lori Reed is a learning strategist and consultant to libraries and works as the learning & development coordinator for a large, urban library system where she coordinates the training and development of over 500 employees. With more than fifteen years experience in staff development and training, Lori is a frequent speaker at national library conferences and has been published in library journals.

In 2009, Lori was named one of Library Journal's Movers & Shakers. Lori is the author of LibraryTrainer.com and the managing editor of ALALearning.org. She also serves as the marketing and communication chair for ALA's Learning Round Table. Her passion is in learning and technology and making technology easy for people to understand.

1.5 CEUs Will be awarded for this webinar

A complete course schedule is available at:

http://www.sjrlc.org/CE

AGENDA
Noon - 1:00:	Optional Lunch at Seaview*	2:00 - 3:45:	Program with Pat Wagner
1:00 - 1:30:	Registration, Coffee & Dessert	3:45 - 4:00:	Wrap up
1:30 - 2:00:	Brief SJRLC Business Meeting