Category: Learn Something    

The Library Technical Assistant program at Northampton Community College prepares you to enter the workforce as a paraprofessional capable of employment in a variety of libraries and information centers. All courses are offered online and are available to anyone across the state.

The program’s courses focus particularly on information resources, services for children and management of a small public library. Technical skills in such vital areas as acquisitions, electronic formats and cataloging of all types of materials are addressed. Students in this program are required to perform online research, and visit libraries to investigate print resources and explore types of library services, in addition to reading assigned textbooks.

Although courses can be taken on an as-needed basis to improve skills in specific areas, a specialized diploma is awarded upon completion of 15 LTA credits. Northampton’s Library Technical Assistant courses can be applied toward the Pennsylvania Department of Education certification program for public library assistants and provisional librarians.

Register today! The new semester begins August 25.

Call the Admissions Office at (610)861-5500 for information on registration and course offerings or check our web site at http://www.northampton.edu/distancelearn

This is a list of free YouTube videos for librarians:
100 YouTube Videos for Librarians
Thanks to Jonelle for sharing the link.

Some speakers speak more from the college library perspective, but continue to watch until the terrific passionate speaker, Valerie Gross, of the award-winning Howard County Library in Maryland, speaks about marketing. You will thoroughly enjoy her exciting ideas.

Here is the information you need:
Click on the College of DuPage Press link for the archived streaming video of the May 9th “Tools of Engagement” teleconference. The link will be active for approximately 30 days.

After the 30 days, the program will be moved to the College server where it will be accessible indefinitely.

During the transition time from being hosted by an outside vendor to being hosted on the College server, the link will not work. If you find the link does not work for you after the initial 30 days, simply wait a day or two and try again later. The URL for the archived program will not change when it is moved to its permanent location on the College server.

Thousands of books are misshelved, missing or waiting to be checked in. Learn more about RFID and Security Technologies that organize, locate and process books - with speed and accuracy.

Find out what RFID is, if you need it and how it works. Explore the basics, risks, security and benefits of this technology in your library.

Visit the following website for more information: www.lyponline.com

This information is excerpted from HLSC Newsletter:

What is a Federated Search Engine and How Does it Work?For the past several months, Access PA and POWER Library have alerted you to the statewide WebFeat Enterprise federated search system currently being implemented by HSLC/Access PA and the POWER Library, with the guidance and support of Commonwealth Libraries. What is a federated search engine and how can it work best for you? To help answer these questions, you might want to take a few minutes to perform a literature search for federated search engine using the POWER Library resources available to you. Under General Reference in the POWER Library interface, we selected EBSCOhost. In the EBSCOhost interface, we searched for federated search engine in the following databases: Professional Development Collection, ERIC, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, and the Teacher Reference Center, which resulted in 16 articles, some of which are available in full-text. NOTE: Academic and Special Collection Libraries may access these resources under the Search Other Resources link on the Access PA website.

You might find the following full-text articles of particular interest in helping to understand federated search engines:

F*****ED Searchers? The Debate about Federated Search Engines. By: Fahey, Sue. Feliciter, 2007, Vol. 53 Issue 2, p62-63.

What We’ve Learned FROM DOING Usability Testing ON OPENURL RESOLVERS AND FEDERATED SEARCH ENGINES. By: Cervone, Frank. Computers in Libraries, Oct2005, Vol. 25 Issue 9, p10-14.

Libraries Online: Competing with Search Engines. By: Yahe, Paula. Media &Methods, Jan/Feb2005, Vol. 41 Issue 4, p4-5.

Thoughts About Federated Searching. By: Jacss, Piter. Information Today, Oct2004, Vol. 21 Issue 9, p17-20.

Read an article about recent crimes and violence in Los Angeles, CA libraries.  http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-library25oct25,1,4325441.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

 Think about how you would respond if any of these situations happened in your library.

Do you have a good relationship with local authorities?

What signs should you look for to call for help before a situation escalates?

 How would your staff handle a patron asking to use the library as a refugee from others who want to attack him/her?

Do you find yourself totally overwhelmed with too many tasks to do?  Do you get to the end of the day and wonder why you haven’t finished your projects or gotten the results you desired?  Read this article about How NOT to overspend your time on some activities:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/productivity-tip-how-not-to-overspend-your-time-on-a-task.html

 Learn to do NO MORE than is necessary for expected results. 

In a lot of working meetings when the subject of numbers and calculations comes up, everyone around the table groans and seems to struggle.   Learn tricks from this website to impress everyone around a conference table with your quick math mind (and stop complaining that librarians don’t do math!): http://listverse.com/science/10-easy-arithmetic-tricks/

Target your message to your audience. 

Wyoming did that with a campaign featuring the Mud Flap Girl.   What fun!  See the whole campaign: http://www.wyominglibraries.org/campaign.html

View the following document for some Time Management Tips.

This document reviews the Top Ten Time Stealers and a few remedies for each.

Enjoy a look at these beautiful libraries:  http://www.curiousexpeditions.org/2007/09/a_librophiliacs_love_letter_1.html

Read this article from Library Journal about the use of tags to organize information in a more patron friendly way: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6476403.html 

Here’s an interesting link for your favorites, especially for small and rural libraries without full time technology support:

 http://maintainitproject.org/files/TheJoyofComputing-061807.pdf

The latest version of the Pennsylvania Library Laws is available on the Office of Commonwealth Libraries website. Visit the following link to view this PDF file:
Pennsylvania Library Laws

Also available on this website is the projection of the distribution of
the 2007-2008 Public Library Subsidy. Visit the following link to view this information:
Public Library Subsidy

For more information contact:

Name: Matt Kane
Office: Bureau of Library Development
Email: mkane@state.pa.us
Phone: (717) 783-5743

Read this editorial from Special Libraries Cataloguing in Canada and see if you agree:  http://www.slc.bc.ca/response.htm

Social Bookmarking in Plain English:    http://blip.tv/file/331587

Social Networking in Plain English:  http://blip.tv/file/282928

Wikis in Plain English:  http://blip.tv/file/246821

RSS in Plain English:   http://blip.tv/file/205570

If you missed the Web 2.0 workshop that DCLS offered as a part of its school services program, see this link for all the information.

Learn about blogs, wikis, RSS feeds and much much more.

http://gatesworkshop.wikispaces.com