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Crossroads
The monthly newsletter
from WebJunction.
August 2013
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L.E.A.R.N. bus
patrons at the library; still photo from the Whitehall Public Library LEARN
bus video.
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Programming for
Community Connections
The
programs that libraries offer to the public are vital to their connections
with the communities they serve. The range of programming ideas is
impressive, with some very tech-focused, some traditionally book-focused,
and everything in between. This month we offer a taste of that variety and
hope it engenders new ideas for your library.
Key Resources:
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Preparing
Libraries for the Affordable Care Act
As the splash page
at HealthCare.gov says: "The Health Insurance Marketplace is coming
soon." To help libraries prepare for that imminent reality,
WebJunction and partners at ZeroDivide have launched a new
project to provide information regarding opportunities and resources to
connect patrons to health and wellness information. On July 26, WebJunction
hosted the webinar Libraries & Health Insurance – Preparing for
October 1, which was attended by over 1000 individuals eager to
learn more about existing ACA resources and expectations for local library
engagement as the country prepares for the October 1, 2013 open enrollment
date. Many resources are already in place and more are on the way.
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Home page of HealthCare.gov.
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Happy hour learner; photo courtesy of Susan Green, Charlotte
Mecklenburg Library, Charlotte, NC.
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A Happy Hour for
Library Staff Learning
Happiness is
contagious and so is inspiration. When Jami Carter, director of the Tooele
Library (UT) delivered a webinar on her compelling Self-Directed Achievement
program, at least one attendee was inspired to spin off her own brand of
the innovative staff development idea—Happy Hour. As soon as the webinar
had concluded, Susan
Green, branch manager for the Morrison Regional branch of
the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library (NC), walked around her library and
talked to every employee she could find, asking them, "If you had one
hour per week for self-directed training, ...can you think of something you
would work on?" The response was enthusiastic. Now, six months later,
Green can report that her staff love Happy Hour.
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Spotlight on
Digital Literacy Resources
Digital literacy
is infused throughout WebJunction, reflected in resources developed through
participation in a number of programs and projects. Recent efforts include
participation in EveryoneOn and Edge, ongoing efforts with Digital
Inclusion and Building Digital Communities, and the resources created
through Project Compass, which included a focus on the digital literacy
skills required in workforce development. In addition, we periodically
publish articles and news, offer webinars, and collect other quality resource links to help libraries at all
levels build essential digital literacy skills in their communities. Now
you’ll find all these resources and links collected in one place.
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Geek the Library Hands; photo courtesy of Julie Hildebrand,
Independence Public Library, Kansas.
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Geek the Library
Makes a Difference in Kansas
Geek the Library
is featured in Campaigns that Made a Difference 2013,
a superb publication that resulted from a 2013 ALA Emerging Leaders
project. Under the sponsorship of PLA, five emerging leaders set out to
discover nine examples of successful public awareness campaigns in public
libraries around the country. For Independence
Public Library (page 22), it was the Geek the Library
campaign that helped the library connect with the community and provide
"the jolt of positivity that a library and community needed in the
middle of a deep recession." Julie Hildebrand, director of this small
Kansas library, appreciated the campaign resources. "What made this
program so appealing for us is that everything was on their website.
Everything was already at your fingertips. We never would have pulled it
off ourselves."
Learn more about
how the Geek the Library program can make a difference for your library at
the next informational webinar on August 13.
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Big Shift: the
E-Book Ecosystem
As demand for
e-books in public libraries has risen, access has not kept apace. While
publishers and distributors have been trying to figure out the best new
business models for selling e-books, libraries have sometimes been caught
in the middle of their business deliberations and have historically not
fared well against the consumer when it comes to buying e-books. In August
of 2012, OCLC received a planning grant from the Institute of Museum and
Library Services (IMLS) to work with public library leaders to research the
e-book ecosystem, survey public libraries about e-book use and reach, and
work toward strategies to expand e-book access in public libraries. The
work is now summarized in the Big Shift report.
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Spotlight
on WebJunction Partners
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WebJunction Partners Lead Library Programming
We like to
highlight some of the great work that is going in our WebJunction Partner states. This month, we
included their stories in the feature article Programming to the Core.
Look for the WebJunction icon to read more about these programs shared by
our partners.
From WebJunction-Florida:
Book Vending
Machines: The Florida Division of Library &
Information Services produced a webinar to highlight three libraries in
Florida that have deployed book vending machines.
From WebJunction-Idaho:
SPLAT Reaches Out in
Idaho: Nine members of Idaho Commission for Libraries’
Special Project Library Action Team (SPLAT) visited four libraries in
southeast Idaho this summer to share their tech and digital knowledge with
library staff and members from the local communities.
From WebJunction-Pennsylvania
Get on the
L.E.A.R.N. Bus: The Whitehall (PA) Public Library
sponsors regular bus transportation so that recently resettled refugees
have an opportunity to visit the library, sign up for library cards, check
out materials, use the computers, and participate in Family Night
Storytime.
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A library worker reloads and scans items for their book
vending machine; still photo from the Florida Division of Library &
Information Services webinar.
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Results of July Readers' Poll on Preferred Formats for
Summer Reading
In the heat of
summer reading season, we asked about your preferred reading format for the
beach, campsite or other summer destinations. As responses rolled in during
the month, there was a neck-and-neck tie between "pack an ereading
device and print
books" and "only print books and magazines." But as of July
31, the print-only crowd eked out the lead by two votes. The modest vote for
packing only electronic devices was impacted by the large number of
respondents who expressed their very practical concerns for the preservation
of devices in the face of sand, water, and possible theft. (Is that a
subliminal vote for the power of print?)
Many readers added
specific comments about their preferences, with roughly equal numbers of
champions in these categories: pro-ereader/device, pro-codex/print, format
agnostic/ambivalent, and purely practical. A sampling of the more emphatic
comments:
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"If I can't read it on my
phone, it's probably not gonna happen"
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"I'll always love print
books!"
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"I am equally at home reading
print or e."
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"Wouldn't take a device to
the beach, SAND, WATER."
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Register
for Upcoming WebJunction Webinars
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Where Teens and Technology
Meet: engaging teens with digital media
August 8, 2013
At
Howard County Library System’s HiTech Digital Media Lab, teens are
developing critical 21st century skills and being guided toward careers
in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Founded on
innovative teaching methods which demonstrate that teens learn most
effectively through hands-on projects and peer-to-peer communications,
HiTech provides curriculum that is both self-paced and structured,
offering an array of classes and projects for youth to select. The
community response has been remarkable. Youth are on waiting lists to
register for opportunities to explore and learn about STEM principles
while having fun in the process.
Presented
by Angela Brade,
Chief Operating Officer, Support Services, Howard County Library System
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Marketing Libraries: What the
not-for-profits can learn from the lots-of-profit
August 29, 2013
You
built it and promoted it, but they didn’t come? Libraries can learn from
marketing strategies that for-profit organizations use. Get beyond the
one-off approach to promotion. Explore how to build "ambient
awareness," establishing your library as an authoritative source and
a definitive provider of services for the community. Learn how to use
social media not only for communication, but as a tool to monitor and
document the impact of the Library. Get your whole team onboard to tell
the library’s convincing story of its impact on your community.
Presented
by: Ned Potter,
author of the Library Marketing Toolkit, speaker and
academic librarian at the University of York, UK
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Building a Digital Dodge City
September 10, 2013
Building
a digitally inclusive community requires buy-in and engagement from all
sectors, with libraries playing a lead role alongside government,
schools, businesses, and individuals. Using the principles and steps in Building Digital Communities: A Framework for
Action, Dodge City (Kansas) is engaging stakeholders, aligning
interests, setting community-wide goals and developing demonstration
projects. Join us for a conversation with the Dodge City leadership team
discussing why they have prioritized a community-wide initiative, what
the challenges are in working with multiple sectors (with diverging
goals!), what they expect from the project and what they recommend to
others considering a similar path.
Presented
by:
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Cathy
Reeves, director, Dodge City Public
Library
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Jane
Longmeyer, Public Relations manager,
City of Dodge City
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Greta
Clark, professor, director of
Multicultural Education, Dodge City Community College
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Leaving Fort Ref: Frontiers of
Embedded Librarianship
September 24, 2013
At
the innovative Douglas County (Colo.) Libraries, librarians don’t just
wait for the questions to come to them. They leave the building and embed the public library in the
community. Through a series of projects and experiments, the Douglas
County librarians have explored a new dimension of modern reference
service, one that places their expertise at points of need to respond to
the questions the public didn’t take to the library. By helping to define
and answer questions in context, the embedded librarians add value to
their community.
Presented
by: Jamie LaRue,
director, Coble
Galston, business librarian and Amy Long, Parker
Library manager, Douglas County Libraries (CO)
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Listing of Other Training Events
Training opportunities from
non-WebJunction sources are compiled monthly and shared by Jamie Markus,
Library Development Manager for the Wyoming State Library.
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Recent Webinar Archives
Listen
to these most recent programs:
Listing of All Webinar Archives
If
you missed any of our live webinar programs, you can view and listen to
the recording at any time on WebJunction. All of WebJunction's webinar archives
are now listed on one page. Use the list in the right column to browse by
topic.
Thanks to our Partners
Through
the generous support of the following state library agencies, WebJunction
offers webinar programs for free to all who wish to attend:
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Florida
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Idaho
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Illinois
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Indiana
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Maine
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Minnesota
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Mississippi
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Montana
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North
Carolina
·
Ohio
·
Pennsylvania
·
Texas
·
Virginia
·
Washington
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Join the Discussion
WJ
members are sharing library news and resources in our satellite
communities on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Join in! 
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New to WebJunction?
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About
this Newsletter
Crossroads is a free publication produced by WebJunction, distributed
monthly in an electronic format. To subscribe, go to webjunction.org and enter your email
address.
Please feel free to pass Crossroads along to your friends; we do ask,
however, that you keep the newsletter intact and forward it in its
entirety.
Crossroads and WebJunction.org will not sell or otherwise make available
to outside parties the information provided by Website users and
newsletter subscribers. Crossroads is distributed using a third-party
service provider.
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OCLC
respects your privacy
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©2013
OCLC
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OCLC 6565
Kilgour Place, Dublin OH USA 43017-3395
oclc@oclc.org 1-614-764-6000
1-800-848-5878 (USA)
ISSN 1552-36165
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