I’m thankful to my colleagues who have volunteered to fill in for me at the presentations I was scheduled to do at both the preconference and conference. The week of ALA is also the last week of the Library’s fiscal year. The week before the new, reduced budget begins. Even in the best case scenario there will be more than 100 additional staff laid off and there are plans to merge some departments with the county. The Library won’t know its final budget until city and county officials meet next week to vote on their final budgets. The last two weeks of June will be busy and stressful no matter what the outcome.

This I do know–no matter what the decision–no matter what the budget–I need to be in the office to help our staff (in whatever ways I can) get through this transition. So with that I am sending my regrets to ALA 2010. Please keep the staff and our library customers in your thoughts and prayers.

On a brighter note the Learning Round Table has a fabulous line up of programs for the conference starting with a preconference on e-learning and ending with Battledecks (which I hope someone will record for me)! Check out the list of Learning Round Table programs here: http://bit.ly/cfOBD5

Here’s a video from the end of school celebration. My son is the one with the dance moves!

I’ve been pretty quiet online for the past few months about my personal experiences and feelings in all of this. Instead I’ve channeled my energy into a new website SaveLibraries.org in hopes that advocacy efforts can be shared and aggregated. The site has taken off and has almost become a second full-time job. While maintaining the site keeps me busy and keeps me from thinking too much about my own personal situation, every email, every post, every tweet reminds me that this fight for libraries is far from over.

So it was bittersweet when the local news called me to give an interview about the site. This isn’t the kind of publicity anyone wants to have. Though I am happy to talk about my work and the site, I would much rather focus on the value of libraries. If stories like this can help get the conversation started then the site and my efforts will have succeeded, but we also need to ask ourselves why we need to have this conversation in the first place. The fact that we need to tell people why libraries are valuable is a problem, a big one! It should be obvious in the work we do and the services we offer.

Please note that the site is SaveLibraries.org. WBTV got the link wrong in several of the visuals.

Montreal is a beautiful city and the people are very friendly. I’m amazed at how easily everyone transitions from French to English in conversations. We should strive for this level of personal bilingualism in the US.

I wrote a feature about the new Learning Content Management System launching this month at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. The article tells the story from start to finish of my search for a solution to manage learning when we were faced with not only having less staff but also staff who are busier than ever as our usage soars.

I also want to thank Dick Handshaw and his team at Handshaw, Inc., who donated hosting and support for Luminex Suite for the Library. They have donated resources and precious time to get Lumenix not only up and running but fully integrated with our HR system, PeopleSoft. We need more people and businesses to step forward and help libraries the way Handshaw and his team have!

If you are planning to attend Computers in Libraries next week, I’ll be moderating the Teaching: Technologies & Approaches track on Tuesday. Please drop by and say hello. If you can’t attend check back on this site. I will be blogging notes from the sessions here and tweeting as well.

Here’s the outstanding line up in the track!

TRACK E ● Teaching: Technologies & Approaches
Regency A/B/C/D, Ballroom Level
Speakers share their vast experience to help you select the right tools and methods for your environment and the learners involved. Moderated by Lori Reed, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.

E201 ● LMS: What’s Out There & How to Decide!
10:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Lori Reed, Learning & Development Coordinator, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
Chad Mairn, Information Services Librarian, St. Petersburg College
With so many learning management systems on the market, including the freebies and open-source, where do you start? Reed explains what to expect from an LMS and LCMS (learning content management system), what’s available — from the most popular to the unknown — selection criteria for choosing a system (including factoring in costs for open-source), and how to get buy-in from administration.

E202 ● Reaching Reluctant Learners
11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Jill Hurst-Wahl, Assistant Professor of Practice, Syracuse University School of Information Studies and President, Hurst Associates, Ltd.
Sophia Guevara, Librarian, MLIS Technology Consultant
Veronica Rutter, Collection Development Librarian, New City Library
Andrea Simyak, Instruction and Funding Information Librarian, New Jersey State Library

With the U.S. President totally “connected,” and with many government forms, job applications, and college courses online, being digital is almost required. Sadly, being digital is not the norm for everyone. How do we move late adopters — both staff and library users, including professors, attorneys, or senior citizens — out of their nondigital comfort zones? This session provides tips and techniques for moving them to the online world and describes two different methods instructors used to bring technology into their libraries — structured, weekly, hands-on classes and staff members participating in Technology Tapas, a self-paced, online weekly tutorial modeled after the 23 Things program created by Helene Blowers and implemented at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County. These two radically different instruction methods met the needs of their respective libraries because of the instructors’ determination to overcome the reluctance and fear of their learners.

E203 ● Training in the Cloud or Mobile Labs!
1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.
Maurice Coleman, Technical Trainer, Harford County (Md.) Public Library, & Host, T is for Training (Library Training podcast)
Bobbi Newman, Digital Branch Manager, Chattahoochee Valley Library System
Delores Rondinella, Technology Training Coordinator, Stark County District Library
Jeffery Kreger, Emerging Technologies Systems Administrator, Stark County District Library

Talk about innovative training approaches! Newman and Coleman show how to use “The Cloud” to develop, schedule, organize, market and evaluate training for free or with very minimal expenditure. Rondinella and Kreger describe how Stark County successfully grew a mobile patron/staff training lab. Their overview includes: purchasing and maintenance of the mobile lab and its hardware, policies regarding training and server access (Coping with your IT Department), and developing an effective class curriculum for the community.

E204 ● Virtual Learning & Training: From Classrooms to Communities
2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Alison Miller, Manager, ipl2 Reference Services, Drexel University
Meredith Farkas, Head, Instructional Initiatives, Norwich University

Learning and training occurs in synchronous, asynchronous, and hybrid environments. Miller identifies which category of learner may benefit best from both the type of environment and the delivery methods used. Farkas teaches for San Jose State University’s School of Library and Information Science using Drupal and other social software tools in place of the traditional course management system. She discusses how she uses Web 2.0 technologies to transform the learning experience and how others can harness the power of these technologies in their own teaching.

E205 ● Instructional Technology: It’s a Team Thing
4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Lynda Kellam, Data Services & Government Information Librarian;
Beth Filar Williams, Distance Education Librarian;
Amy Harris, Information Literacy and Reference Librarian;
Hannah Winkler, Libraries’ Digital Designer;
University Libraries, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

During a time of budget crises and belt tightening, new approaches to the instructional librarian role need to be invented. A team approach permits collaboration across departments and skill sets. Hear how one university has a team incorporating the skills of the information literacy librarian, distance education librarian, digital designer, and the data services librarian. This panel discusses how they support instructional technology, accomplish projects without budgetary support, and walk through their workflow for a project to demonstrate how collaboration on a shoestring can work to benefit their users.

It started with an idea…like all projects do.

One of my classes this semester is Media, Culture, and Society. It’s been a great class! For our final project we were each assigned to create a work of pop culture. I knew the project would involve libraries but was not sure how. At one point Tony Tallent and I planned to collaborate on a “Gaga for Libraries” project (imagine a mashup of Flat Stanley with Lady Gaga in libraries).

However in the beginning stages of planning, my own library went into crisis mode as we prepared for an immediate $2 million reduction in our current budget and a looming 50% reduction for the next fiscal year beginning in July.

Last Friday after 148 of my friends and colleagues got “the call” that they were going to be laid off next week, I went to bed hoping to wake up Saturday and realize this had all been a bad dream.

I woke up Saturday and realized it was no dream. I saw how Facebook had become a support system for our staff. I realized that I could either cry or do something.

I immediately turned to my own social networks on Twitter and Facebook for ideas. The domain savelibraries.org was available. Within an hour Blake Carver of LISHost had WordPress up and running thanks to Robin Blum who answered my call for help via Facebook Saturday afternoon.

Heather Braum quickly volunteered to help with the site along with several others.

So let me announce a new resource for libraries, SaveLibraries.org. Our mission is to help raise awareness of the funding crisis libraries are facing. We will serve as an aggregator of news about library budget cuts, closings, and reductions, and compile links to “Save Library” campaigns.

Our slogan is, “When one library is in trouble, ALL libraries are in trouble.” There is a trend happening in this country and it’s one as a society that we should be appalled at. Our libraries represent the freedom and democracy that our country was founded on. Can you think of another place where all are welcome? No matter what your color, religion, or economic status the library is there with open doors.

However when libraries close and communities accept library closings as “the new normal,” then all libraries are in trouble. Other states, other communities, and other politicians are going to get the message that it’s ok. If it was ok for _____________ to close it’s libraries, then it’s ok here.

Well here’s a message. It’s not ok! Especially now. Communities need their libraries more than ever. I realize that we are in a recession. I get that state and local governments are out of money. But as library professionals, it is up to us to come up with a solution. Be a part of the solution!

• We are looking for contributors to the site. Please email us at: savelibs@gmail.com
• Subscribe to the site: http://savelibraries.org
• Show your support with a Twibbon on Twitter and Facebook: http://twibbon.com/join/Save-Libraries
• Join our Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/SaveLibraries
• Help us collect testimonials by emailing them to us or tagging them with “savelibraries.”

Together we can make a difference. Together we can come up with a solution. Together we can save libraries!

http://savelibraries.org/2010/03/it-takes-a-village-to-save-a-library/

I sat at the Library Board of Trustees Meeting last Thursday and watched  County Manager Harry Jones talk about the grim reality facing Mecklenburg County–a $13.2 million in immediate budget cuts across all departments before June 30th and an estimated $85 million shortfall for fiscal year 2010-2011 which begins July 1. You can view Jones’ presentation to the Library Board here: http://bit.ly/dgAZ7U.

After Jones’ presentation Library Director Charles Brown made his recommendation to close 12 libraries and layoff 148 staff members.

As you can imagine library staff were anxiously awaiting the news back at their branches or at home or from wherever they were connected.

I’ve been with the Library for nearly 11-years now and it is fascinating to see the role social media has played in these events. When we faced budget cuts in previous years it took days to get the news. Now with the advent of social media the news was transmitted instantly through Twitter feeds, Facebook, instant messaging, text messaging, and probably through other means that I’m not even aware of.

One former staff member tweeted that his heart was broken over the news.

But out of the meeting came a glimmer of hope when community members and the Library Friends group spoke up and said we can make a difference, we can do this. The tone in the room changed instantly from despair to hope. Before the meeting adjourned a library staff member back at her desk had created the event on Facebook $2 million in one week which aims to raise enough money to keep the 12 libraries open until July.

Since then the Library has raised more than $70,000 in online donations alone! Cash donations collected at libraries will be tallied on Monday.

This weekend saw grassroots efforts sprouting up all over Mecklenburg County with everything from a town-hall meeting to children selling lemonade to support the library.

Lemonade for the Library by Ed McDonald

Not only is the community rallying but staff members are rallying as well. Look for the next post which will show how you can help support the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.