To the POWER Library community,

Below is a restatement of a message which was sent to all libraries in February as a reminder that subscriptions to some POWER Library databases will end as of June 30.

Here is a list of the current resources available through the POWER Library interface and when the current contract for each ends.

NoveList and NoveList K-8 June 30, 2010
SIRS Discoverer June 30, 2010
Wilson Biography Bank June 30, 2010

ABI Inform December 31, 2010
AP Multimedia Archive December 31, 2010
Auto Repair December 31, 2010
Consumer Health Complete December 31, 2010
Contemporary Authors December 31, 2010
Infotrac Newsstand December 31, 2010
Wilson Web December 31, 2010

The results of this year’s budget process will guide the decisions to be made regarding databases for 2011, and we will let you know about those decisions as soon as the information is available. In the meantime, vendors of the databases which will no longer available after June 30
may be contacted at the addresses provided below if you are interested in direct subscriptions. In some cases discounted pricing will be provided to Access PA/POWER Library participants.

EBSCO
Please contact: Jillian Cole at EBSCO Publishing to subscribe to NoveList: jcole@ebscohost.com or 800-653-2726 Ext. 2599

ProQuest
Please contact: Mike Chmelewski, Sr. Field Account Executive at Proquest to subscribe to SIRS Discoverer: mike.chmelewski@proquest.com or 800-521-0600 x2524; also, Sharon Dugan, Inside Account Executive, sharon.dugan@proquest.com or 800-521-0600 ext 7208

Wilson
Please contact: Jo Seik, Sales Representative at Wilson to subscribe to Wilson Biography Bank: jseik@hwwilson.com or 800-367-6770 x 2274

PA Child Welfare Training Program
403 E. Winding Hill Road
Mechanicsburg, PA 17055.

“Recognizing and Responding to Child Neglect” This three-hour workshop will assist professionals to identify, report, and prevent child neglect. The training will help participants to recognize signs of neglect in children and parents or other caregivers, determine when and how to make a referral, understand General Protective Services and agency procedures, and develop prevention and intervention strategies.

“Responding to Disclosures of Child Abuse” This three-hour workshop is designed to help professionals understand the importance of their reactions to a disclosure of child abuse and to assist them in fashioning a response that is sensitive to the child as well as mindful of the obligation not to taint the child’s memory through suggestion, coaching, or coercion.

Professionals who provide services to children may attend one or both sessions, but registration is required by Tuesday, June 15. Registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis as space is limited. Both sessions are free and include resource materials.

For more information: PFSA Training Flyer 062310
For registration form: PFSA Registration Form 062310
Website: www.pa-fsa.org
Questions: contact jgroeneveld@pa-fsa.org

Harrisburg PATTAN
6340 Flank Drive
Harrisburg, PA

Do you want to improve your organization’s ability to reach the Russian, Chinese and Indian communities or develop enticing, culturally appropriate promotional materials and strategies?

This workshop is designed to be an informative and enjoyable experience for library staff serving a multiethnic customer base. The presenter uses humor and the participants’ shared experience to illustrate the value of cultural competence when working with patrons from diverse cultural backgrounds. There will also be guidelines given on how to reach out effectively to culturally diverse members of your community, to learn how to create partnerships with organizations in your target communities and utilize their information networks to get your message across successfully.

Ingrid Betancourt, Coordinator of Multicultural Collections and Services at the Newark Public Library in New Jersey, will be the workshop trainer.

Please copy the attachment: Multicultural Workshops Russian Chinese Indian ’10 fill in the registration information and send it with $10.00 check payable to Altoona Area Public Library to Kerrsia Shemory at the address on the registration form. Please remember to write your email address on the form.

Send in your registration early-deadline is May 24, 2010. There is a limit of 30 participants per workshop.

The topic of the workshop is A Day Late, A Dollar Short & No One Left to Call? Managing Time, Money and Resources in the Public Library. The speaker is Pat Wagner of Pattern Research in Denver, Colorado.

Refer to the attached brochure for more information and registration form: MultiDistrict 2010

Morning Session: Basic Literacy
What is Literacy? The ability to use printed and written information in society to achieve one’s goals and develop one’s potential.

Check your forms and information brochures. Use increased spacing, bigger clear fonts, and more graphics and symbols to help those with lower literacy skills navigate your library.

Medicare forms are written at grade level 14. Imagine how hard it would be for someone with low literacy skills to get the services they need.

Many people with low literacy skills don’t know or won’t admit they have a problem, but low literacy makes doing everything much more difficult.

The ratio of budget funds spent on school age students vs. adult learners is 10-1. Literacy programs are not well funded and may be asked to serve fewer people in the future because of funding limitations.

Try your hand at this quiz: A quiz to help you learn facts about literacy

Some facts:
-Of the 200,000,000 adults in America, 43,000,000 have not finished high school. 18% of adults in PA have not finished high school.
-Illiteracy costs U.S. Businesses $225 billion each year in lost productivity.
-50% of Americans are unable to read a book at the 8th grade level.
-44% of adults in the U.S. can’t read well enough to fill out an application, read a food label, or read a story to a child.

Your local literacy council receives some of their funding through the PA Department of Education’s Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE).
Literacy agencies in PA have seen a 25% cut in funding over 2 years.
Literacy programs attempt to justify the outcomes of their work by meeting EFL (Educational Functional Level) goals.

Check out www.paacesite.org for the PA Association for Adult Continuing Education.

Adult learners can be “scared” of schools and libraries because they represent places they have not had success before. It’s not always the most comfortable environment to start in.

Learn about Tutors of Literacy: http://www.tlcliteracy.org/
This agency gives training to volunteer tutors.

Check out the resources from proliteracy.org
Great materials to download and much more information about Literacy from The National Institute for Literacy: http://www.nifl.gov/

Need to find your local literacy council? Make a contact and talk about partnership opportunities today:
local area Literacy Council Contact Sheet
Adams County: literacydirectory.org
Perry County: http://www.perryliteracy.com/
York County Literacy Council: http://www.yorkliteracy.org/

Afternoon Session: WilsonWeb
Much of what was learned can be easily shared by using the training videos available here: http://hwwilson.com/power/

What follows are some local highlights and tips for actions you can take:
-Contact your local Product Manager for details on how to customize your library’s WilsonWeb account.
-Librarians can get access to statistics, link Wilson holdings to your OPAC to show whether or not your library owns the item. Try out the ADM module.
-Encourage all of your staff and board members to spend some time using the resource. Try some searches and see the results you get.
-Sign up for an account in MyWilsonWeb. All users can do this to save searches, send articles, and take advantage of services that will send new content that matches your searches. (Perhaps your library could share an account for your reference librarians to track how Wilson has been useful with patrons?)

Shortcuts to Greatness: Or Ten Things That Great Libraries Know and Maybe You Don’t
1) Interesting examples of things other libraries are doing to reach out to and involve the community.
2) Examples of visions statements that were interesting (I thought most of them were more like tag lines than vision statements).
3) I enjoyed reading the qualities of a leader – these slides could be interesting in the assessment of leadership within an organization. I also enjoyed the slides on job descriptions. different approach!
1. Connect to customers–affection, respect, heartfelt connection.
2. Look cool–facilities, website, people
3. Humor important.
-awesome handouts from this powerpoint.
-shake it up.
-look at vision!

Books: The Top 5 of the Top 5
Different classification of new books
1. New authors.
2. Trends in books.
3. Share your favorite books with patrons. Read widely and become very familiar with collection.

Advanced Black Belt Librarians: The Top Ten Security Issues in Public Libraries
-Try a periodic review at staff meetings on how to handle security issues.
-Try 30-30-30 as a way to increase awareness: for 30 days every 30 minutes, stop for 30 seconds and observe what’s going on in the library. When staff try this, it will raise their level of awareness of what is going on around them.
-Enforce rules based on customer behavior rather than customer appearance.
-It’s about communication not confrontation.
-Use a clip board for potential problems, security incident report, problem log.
-Staff should not enforce rules based on appearance. They should enforce rules based on behavior!
-keep procedures simple and hold people accountable to follow them.
-hire and train the right staff for the right public positions.
-bad guys will find the shortcomings in your policies.
-staff is paid to think: let them use common sense to handle the situation when they can.
-blackbeltlibrarians.com
-The conflict that often exists between policy and common sense.
-Consistency of policy and enforcement is important.
-Front line staff fear problems of their bend the rules if even for a practical exception.
-Have CLEAR procedures to go with the policies
-Keep a security log/incident sheet
-Use walkarounds as a deterrent.
-Constant awareness is necessary, especially with reduced staff
-Documentation can help catch problems before they happen
-Keep rules SIMPLE.
-Spin rules positively on signs

Adrift or Right on Target: Perspectives on Floating Collections
-Peer Driven Quality Improvement Team (PDQI) made the project work.
-Biggest benefit: Fewer copies needed because holds were directed to the audience who needed them.
-How you set up your ILS is key to getting delivery benefits. How is location considered in the holds queue?
-small collections of “no holds” items is okay. What would be wrong with a No-Holds policy on the NEW items for 3 months? That way those people with an immediate need to have the item could buy it at the bookstore and donate it to us?
-It should be a priority for new ILS selection that the system can differentiate between items with a hold list and items that are simply a delivery selection. -Systemwide uniform weeding policies are important!
-All collection management decisions are important in floating collections for long-term success.
-Can rules be set up to allow “floating” only to certain branches?
-Could upcounty float just to upcounty and downcounty float just to downcounty on collections like DVDs or things that package differently?
-”Weeding Branch” concept!
-A greater way to loan books and save on budget
-Specific Webreporter report assists in weeding and moving materials.
-Floating collections results in greater circulation of fewer copies.
-Libraries created a grid that helped determine the number of copies purchased and where they start.
-Still depend on library staff for unique library needs.

Cracking the Code: Beyond Dewey: Words Vs. Numbers
Forcing patrons to translate what is in their mind into Dewey is bad customer service.
Bookshelves should be on wheels!
Libraries using Words vs. Dewey numbers are more popular materials based
WorkThink Grid concept, translating BISAC to unique spine labeling
Libraries using Words for classification are doing so in conjunction with a physical move to a ‘community center’ design.
Signage/displays is the key to finding materials. Word-based systems can work. Need a user map.
Molly Moyer: Retired Bookseller/Librarian: Dewey is predictable, familiar, and “easy” for librarians. Bookstores arrange things very differently.
Focus on shelving, display, furniture, signage (fonts that are readable up close and far away and words that users use), and collection.
1. map of the library w/ the various sections labeled
2. put as few barriers as possible between book and patron
3. Shore’s point of library as a ‘third place’
- images on signage (numbers scare patrons)
- shelving by subject using WordThink

S.Y.A.S.S. Save Your After School Sanity
1. Vetting workshop presenters wasn’t done very well with this session. 2. There are still a lot of librarians out there who are perpetuating the stereotypical librarian. 3. Only one presenter had any truly sensible things to say on this panel, and she read everything. This was a really poor presentation.
1. some people don’t really like or understand teens 2. there seems to be a lack of creativity in looking at this issue 3. negative attitudes are going to beget negative behavior
-The presenters are scared of teens. -There are many bad ideas. -Sure, sometimes there are problems with behavior, but patrolling with a billy club won’t solve them.

Marketing as Conversation: How to Interact with Your Community Through Your Website
- Taking pictures of community events and posting on Flikr. – Library service is really all about connecting with people and building relationships.
You have a great chance of success if you can get everyone “on the bus”. Create an environment to facilitate conversation – places where patrons can comment, make suggestions, etc Combine social networking tools to feed off of each other – facebook ties into flickr ties into twitter ties into a blog, etc.
1.flickr can be an amazing tool for capturing both the library and the community and starting online conversations 2. twitter has more uses for the library than I initialy thought. I have an account;need to explore this more in general 3. for me it would be important to “leave space for others” since I tend to like to be the eager beaver librarian who tries to provide all the answers…let it be a conversation, a sharing
How to use social media to get out in the community, be engaged, listening and participating to market services. The need to continue to manage your organization’s online identity. Getting staff to understand that talking with customers via online social media tools is as necessary as talking with people on the phone or in person.
Ask now widget embedded link to a librarian/website. Post building expansion photos on Flickr This stuff takes time.

Inside the Author’s Studio-Seaman interviews Roach
Mary Roach is hilarious!! I’m definitely going to read her next book. She presents her information in a fun and engaging way.
The author is funny. The library has many of her books.
1. learned about Mary Roach and her books 2. her books help take intimidation out of science 3. someone actually has a job title: Curator of Cosmic Dust

LITA’s Top Technology Trends
Will be difficult for libraries to provide e-content due to publishers, copyright and cost.
Individuals can purchase econtent cheaper than libraries.
Lawsuits in the 80′s for libraries to checkout videos started the content wars.
Augmented reality was a new term for me.
Use QR codes to provide addtional content to your patrons.
The iPad will change the face of the eBook industry.
Libraries = Content + Community
Learned what augmented reality
Started thinking about new aspects of digital divide
Libraries can circulate physical formats of digital content.

Cross-Over Readers Advisory
New Readers’ Advisory Handbook – new title Types of books that appeal to teen boys What aspects of teen books appeal to adults
1. learned a lot more about epic fantasy, a genre that I’m interested in and needed to learn more about 2. overall list of book suggestions very helpful 3. I want to read more epic fantasy.
-Books with the Prince award are great cross-overs for adults. -Try a teen/adult reading group for something different. -Teen readers know when you are talking down to them. -Alex Awards for good reading lists for Teens -Try Sci Fi or Fantasy for reluctant readers. It can bring together various age groups.

If You Didn’t Work Here Would You Come Here?
sites.google.com/site/plaportland2010/
1. after hours important for drawing in people
2. e-mail list, blogs, social networking crucial
3. quality programming w/ that liberal arts twist…I liked many of Crosby’s ideas
-20-30 somethings are an important demographic that the library system needs to do more to attract.
-We can take better advantage of modern existing technologies like facebook and twitter to prmote the library among this demographic. Find out what programs would bring this group to the library. Existing book discussion groups are not addressing all demographics.
-Many great ideas for “out of the box” programming
-”Make yourself a missionary for the library”
-Market to group you want to attract Feedback on Twitter After hours are important
-Alcohol and after hours are two key components to attracting 20-30′somethings.
-20-30′somethings are an important demographic for civic support, they pay taxes and vote
-Use Google Alerts to keep track of social networking hits about you
-Ladies night out at the library (making candles, soaps, beauty products), library block parties, art shows, literary speed dating, Green environment resource campaign. These types of events help to join together people interested in specific topics to help form mini-communities for your library.
-Multonamah County uses a “Giant Library Card” in their advertisements/media for good photo opportunities.
-Program Idea: Meet the Past: Have people dress up as historical figures and have someone do interviews. Partner with public television topical areas.
-Offer after hours events, hosted by the library, not always in the library. Staff can plan and promote the event. Local press will cover innovative programs (like dating!) hosted at the library.
-Make yourself a missionary for your library everywhere you go. Marketing from the staff word of mouth makes all the difference.
-Get your staff liking your library Facebook posts and resharing it on their own personal pages.

Sessions include:
• Age and Stages of Teens
• Sex, Lies and Facebook: Privacy in the Era of Social Networking
• Assistive Technology Programs for Pennsylvanians with Disabilities
• Stress and Time Management

There will also be extended sessions on:
• Programming Roundtable
• Disaster Planning
• World Café: Care and Feeding of Boards

More information is available at:
springworkshop2010.htmt

To register online click :
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