Generating Creative and Innovating Ideas: Enhancing Your Creativity
Do you wish you could be more creative in work and life? If you envy those who come up with new and different ideas, but feel that just can’t be you, this self-paced course can help you break through that personal barrier. Creativity isn’t just an inherent talent, it involves specific skills and techniques that can be learned. You may not turn out to be Picasso, but you just might come up with a new way your library can meet its mission!
Based on input from their members and state library partners, WebJunction is making some changes to keep its services affordable and valuable to library staff and library agencies.
Free courses for sponsored members
Beginning July 1, 2011, WebJunction’s online self-paced courses will be available only to those members who are sponsored by their state library through WebJunction’s Partner Program. This means that if you are a registered user of WebJunction Illinois, you will be able to enroll in an unlimited number of courses at no charge by going to the WJIL Course Catalog.
However, as of July 1, you must be signed into WebJunction Illinois with your username and password in order to view the course catalog. The public catalog at http://www.webjunction.org/catalog will be removed. You will access your in-progress courses as usual, by signing into WebJunction Illinois and launching it through your My WebJunction or My Courses page. You will still be able to download a completion certificate for any course you have already completed.
New features for webinars
As a sponsored member, you’ll also receive early notification for future webinars from your state library. And, starting this July, we’ll email you printable certificates for any event that you attend. Webinar programs will continue to be offered for free to all members each month.

Securing funding for the library benefits from a multi-faceted approach: staff are becoming savvy in how to demonstrate the library’s value to the community, seek grants for specific initiatives or projects, organize effective fundraising activities, and pursue strategic partnerships. Explore what WebJunction Illinois has collected to help you in your exploration of those options in this edition of “What’s New @ WJIL.”
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Sampling of Library Funding, Grants and Partnerships
Guide to Selected Funding Resources
From Awareness to Funding: A Study of Library Support in America
Community Relations Resources on WJIL
Winning Library Grants - Webinar Archive
Browse the Discussion Forum on the WJIL Funding page to spark your creativity for this topic – or add your own question for community feedback.
Although we would want it to be different, exploring creative angles for fundraising is very much a part of the current library landscape. If you haven’t already done so, take the chance to talk to your library supporters in the community to convey once again the value of the local library and its services. Then ask them if they are willing to partner with you to brainstorm ideas that will help to ensure that the library and its valuable resources remain available for everyone. You never know until you try!

In order to reach their patrons wherever they are libraries need an online presence. A quality website once required a programmer however with new web design tools and applications non-IT staff can build an attractive, basic website fairly easily. Read more about website development in this edition of “What’s New @ WJIL.”
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Open Source Systems Power Library Websites
Comparing Open Source Content Management Systems
Free Easy Ways to Add a Calendar to Your Website
Tips for Designing (or Redesigning) a Nonprofit website
5 Tips for Dealing with Difficult Patrons Online
Creating a Web Presence for Every Library
Check out the following groups related to website development and join the community for information, discussion and inspiration. (Remember you must be logged in to join a Group).
Everyone’s budget and staff have been cut recently and along with it, the time and money needed for continuing education and learning opportunities. However, learning can still take place in small chunks and when the opportunity arises, such as with this video on 5 Tips for Dealing with Difficult Patrons Online. Pass the link to this short video on to staff and ask them to take just a few minutes to learn something new, then talk about it with others. It will inspire discussion and encourage staff to continue pursuing learning, even in these difficult times.

Library staff have taken on the role of trainer in more ways than ever, to help equip patrons with essential skills such as finding a job, submitting tax forms, legal information, and connecting with family and friends across the miles. In this edition of “What’s New @ WJIL” get the tools and skills you need to develop and make effective use of in-person and online Patron Training.
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Technology Training for Patrons
WebJunction recently placed an open call for library staff to share their patron technology training materials. The result is a repository of free and available resources for your library to use. Topics include...
WebJunction’s Focus on Tackling Tough Patron Questions
San Francisco Public Library Needs Assessment: Report on Findings
Best Practices for Patron Tutorials – San Francisco Public Library
Social Software Training Resources
Online Patron Training: A Project Review
Developing Online Patron Tutorials
Learn Tutorial Creation with Adobe Captivate
WebJunction has collected training materials and resources that have been developed by library staff from around the country. These materials can be downloaded, reused and repurposed by other trainers. Join the Library Community at large and add your own training materials to WebJunction to help grow the resources and contribute to the learning community! Please add your technology training resources to the document tab.
User friendly screencasting software such as Adobe Captivate, Camtasia and Jing have started a revolution in point-of-need, just-in-time patron tutorials. All types of libraries are taking advantage of these tools to develop tutorials that will assist their patrons with common tasks such as catalog searching, renewing materials and using subscription databases. Take a course, attend a webinar or check out what other libraries are doing and join the revolution.
Library Journal’s Michael Kelley reported on the fiscal condition of Illinois Library Systems and interviewed Executive Director Tom Sloan, ILA’s Executive Director Robert Doyle, and other sources in Libraries in Illinois Rethink Key Statewide Infrastructure.

EPUB, Accelerometer, E Ink and Sideloading. If you don’t recognize these words you may need to prepare yourself for the eReader/eBook generation. In this edition of “What’s New @ WJIL” we explore the language, legal issues, troubleshooting and even accessibility of the most recent hot digital trend to hit your library - the eReader.
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Free Resources for Your eReader
Burning Ideas: eBooks and Libraries – A Legal Perspective
Gadget Checklist 2010: for Library Staff, Users and Our Future - WJ Webinar archive
Gadgets: Personal Electronics for Your Library – WJ Webinar archive
Is your staff unsure of themselves when it comes to helping patrons with eBooks and eReaders? Our North Carolina WJ partners have initiated a program to help their library staff become more familiar and comfortable with these new technologies through an eReader “petting zoo” for library staff. Find out how you could duplicate this in your library and community.
Ready or not, eBooks and eReaders do not seem to be a passing technology fad. Recently Amazon.com announced eBook downloads for its Kindle eReader outpaced sales of paperbacks in the United States during the last 3 months of 2010. How will your library respond? Use the resources here to prepare yourself and your staff to assist and connect with patrons around this timely topic.

It’s true the snow is still flying – really flying here in Illinois- but this is still the perfect time to start wishful thoughts for warm weather and the summer reading programming that comes with it. Illinois has a rich tradition of supporting summer reading through the ILA iRead program, but you can still warm up your summer reading program with a creative spark from the resources and ideas listed in this edition of “What’s New @ WJIL.”
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ILA iRead: A Midsummer Knight’s Read
Summer Reading Program ideas from around the nation
On January 20, 2011 several WJ community partners gathered to share ideas and discuss their approach to summer reading programs. Find out what some other states are doing by browsing these links…
Links to blogs, reports, briefs, handouts, and programmatic resources on the subject of reading initiatives and summer reading in particular. Highlights include…
Library Reading Incentive Programs for Summer and Beyond - WJ Webinar
WebJunction Partners Share Summer Reading Program: Webinar Archive
Join the discussion and sharing during the upcoming February 15th WJ Webinar – Library Reading Incentive Programs for Summer and Beyond. Enroll now on L2.
Put a warm smile on your face as you browse the many creative and innovative ideas aimed at helping you develop the best programs and services for summer reading and early childhood literacy. It’s not too early to start. In fact now is the perfect time!
WebJunction Illinois is pleased to announce the addition of a new LibraryU course to the WJIL Catalog. Essential Elements of Interlibrary Loan is a customized course for Illinois libraries authored and developed by Kate Boyle (Metropolitan Library System) and Laura Frizol (LaSalle Public Library). After completing this course the learner should be able to…
In addition to the primary content, this free online course includes value added helpful resources such as a flip book of the ILLINET Interlibrary Loan code, presentations on how to write an ILL policy, interactive content reviews and screencasts of various ILL procedures.
Enroll now and find out more about the Essential Elements of Interlibrary Loan in Illinois! Be sure that you are logged into WJIL before clicking on the course links. Only those who are registered WJIL users logged into the site will see the course listed at $0.
Tired of looking at snow? Stuck inside? Don’t want to go out in the cold? No problem. You can take advantage of a number of online learning opportunities through WebJunction Illinois from the comfort and warmth of your own library or home. Make note of these upcoming free webinars from WebJunction as well as the self-paced courses always available from the WJIL Course Catalog for anytime, anywhere online learning.