BlogJunction Illinois
A weblog for the WebJunction Illinois community
The December edition of the Illinois Library Association Reporter features an interview with Michael Piper, Reaching Across Illinois Libraries (RAILS) Interim Executive Director and Leslie Bednar, Illinois Heartland Library System (IHLS) Executive Director. The article, “The Next Step for Illinois Library Systems,” includes responses to questions asked by system membership statewide. To read the article [...]
Applications are now being accepted for the FY12 School District Library Grant. Applications and all other information concerning the grant can be found at the Illinois State Library website. This year’s deadline to submit the grant application and signature page is December 30. For questions concerning the grant, please contact Robert Jones at rjones1@ilsos.net, 217-785-1168 [...]
The most recent Library Law newsletter from Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins, Ltd. has been posted. The issue discusses an Open Meetings Act Amendment which becomes effective on January 1, 2012. The amendment to the Open Meetings Act requires an employer who participates in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (“IMRF”) to post on its website, or at [...]
In the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday, WebJunction Illinois would like to thank the Illinois library staff for making this past year such a success. WebJunction reaches libraries across the country in all 50 states. Through October Illinois topped the partner list with 2,234 course enrollments. Illinois also had the third highest number of webinar [...]
The Illinois State Library will host On the Front Lines: Engaging Our Communities next March 12–14 at the University of Illinois-Springfield. On the Front Lines is designed to equip and enlighten “front-line” staff persons with training, technology tools, and techniques that will enable them to effectively and efficiently meet the needs of their patrons. The [...]
This week the Illinois State Library spotlights World Relief Refugee Services, Aurora Public Library. The Family Literacy Program operated by World Relief Refugee Services in cooperation with Aurora Public Library provides a safe and valuable haven where new immigrants to America can grow and learn. Recently, a family with three children arrived in Aurora from [...]
[In this guest blog post, Julie Biando Edwards shares the genesis of the article “Community Centered: 23 Reasons Why Your Library Is the Most Important Place in Town.” The article, written by Edwards, Melissa S. Rauseo, and Kelley Rae Unger, was recently published in Public Libraries and is currently being featured on PublicLibrariesOnline.org.] The genesis [...]
The Illinois State Library’s acclaimed reading program for high school students, Read for a Lifetime, is headed for another successful year! Organizers who haven’t done so are reminded to send in your student participation forms. Forms can be downloaded at the Illinois State Library’s website. Return forms to Jeanne Urbanek, Illinois State Library, Gwendolyn Brooks [...]
The Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White encourages families in Illinois to spend time together reading on the evening of Thursday, November 17, to celebrate the Secretary of State’s annual Family Reading Night. “This special event is a night when parents and children are encouraged to turn off the television, computers, video games [...]
This week the Illinois State Library spotlights the DeWitt-Livingston-McLean Regional Office of Education (ROE #17) in Normal, Illinois. A 44-year-old man recently moved from Chicago to Bloomington and began taking Adult Basic Education/Pre GED classes at ROE. He grew up in the Cabrini-Green housing projects in Chicago where he joined a gang, committed crimes and [...]