Find your storytelling voice by enrolling in the latest LibraryU addition to the WJIL Catalog – There will Always Be Storytellers. Use a new series of programs from the State Library of Kansas to find out more about Everyday Ethics for Libraries and plan to register for the upcoming  webinar mySkills, myFuture: A Free Tool for Job Seekers.

Contents: Resources | Courses and Learning | Community | What could I do with…? | What’s New RSS Feed

“What’s New” RSS Feed

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Resources

Everyday Ethics for Libraries

This series of programs presented by the Kansas Regional Library Systems and the State Library of Kansas, Division of Library Development explores how library professional ethics, as presented in the Library Bill of Rights, along with intellectual freedom concerns and privacy, impact library operations, collection development, policies, planning and customer service.  Resources  linked here include a video overview by Pat Wagner, a national library trainer and 9 additional webinar archives accompanied by supplementary resources covering the following topics:

• Everyday Ethics for Libraries: An Overview by Pat Wagner (Online video serices and handouts)
• Ethics of Facebook, Brenda Hough, Northeast Kansas Library System.
• Serial Killer in the Library, Paul Hawkins, director South Central Kansas Library System.
• Ethics of Collection Development, Angie Maycock, ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom.
• Ethics of Weeding, Harry Willems and Chris Rippel, Central Kansas Library System.
• Are You Trustee-Worthy? - Ethics for Trustees, Gina Millsap, Director, Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library.
• Ethics of Answering Questions, Lisa Kelly, Director of Information Services, Nebraska Library Commission.
• The Ethics of Access, Kim Rutter, Southeast Kansas Library System.
• Can Mary Kay or VITA Use the Meeting Room, Carol Barta, North Central Kansas Libraries System, Lee Dobratz, Council Grove Public Library and Jamie Kelley, Marysville Public Library
• A Wrap-Up with Pat Wagner, Pattern Research, Inc.
• Path: [Library Management » Customer Service & Interpersonal Skills]

CONTENTdm Metadata Working Group’s Best Practices Guide

• This document represents the efforts to develop best practices guidelines for providing metadata both useful to the local community and suitable for harvesting externally.
• Path: [Library Services » Technical Services » Digitization & Preservation]

Preserving and Conserving Archived Photographs: An Annotated Bibliography

• Photographs have been as important a tool for the teaching and understanding of history as diaries and journals, and conserving or preserving these priceless artifacts of exact images of history has been, and will continue to be, a critical task for whoever has been charged with storing, monitoring, and keeping well-preserved original photographs for the enjoyment of public viewing or the research of authors, historians, and more. This bibliography includes articles that detail important programs and procedures for minimizing the deterioration of photographs and have, for the most part, been published between the years 2000-2010, with a few relevant articles from the 1990’s, that were written to relate modern techniques used in recent history to preserve, maintain, and store non-digital photographic images. The articles were chosen to display both time-tested methods of preservation that have been used for decades and those that are still used today. 
• Path: [Library Services » Technical Services » Digitization & Preservation]

Courses and Learning

All courses listed are free to eligible and registered users of WJIL.

There Will Always Be Storytellers - New LibraryU Course on WebJunction Illinois

• What does it mean to be a Storyteller? As an experienced Storyteller, Nancy Tolson will help you find the story, identify your storytelling style, then give you practical tips on how to adorn and make that story personal. Along the way she will share some of her favorite stories with you to inspire and spark your own creativity. This course is intended for anyone who would like to increase their ability to tell captivating, enlightening and inspiring stories to audiences of all ages. Don’t miss this latest LibraryU addition to the WJIL Course Catalog.

Upcoming WebJunction Webinars

(All webinars are free of charge. Click on the links below for additional information and registration)

• The Rural Library Trustee: Roles, Responsibilities and Relationships, Sept. 14, 2010
• Real Library Solutions Using Competencies, Sept. 16, 2010
• Using Technology to Move Your Small/Rural Library Forward, Sept. 21, 2010
• mySkills, myFuture: A New Tool for Job Seekers, Sept. 29, 2010

Community

This fall resolve to build your network of colleagues on WebJunction Illinois. Use the following resources to help you find and add “Friends,” then log in and go to your “My WebJunction” tab to view your “Updates.” From here you can follow what your friends are doing on WJIL to help you hunt down the latest discussions, best courses, and helpful resources on the site. 

• WJIL Registration and Social Networking
• Find and Add Friends on WJIL

What Could I do with…”There will Always Be Storytellers”?

“In the beginning was the word and it was oral. As long as we have been in existence we have found ways to communicate and probably right after drawing pictures within caves, in the dirt, and carving up trees; once we realized that charades caused frustration when team members couldn’t figure out that a dinosaur was about to eat the village, oral communication came into affect. And from that time to today stories about family, adventure, wars, births, and just living have been told from one person to another, from one village to the other and so on and so forth.”

So begins the latest LibraryU addition to the WJIL Course Catalog – There Will Always Be Storytellers. You don’t have to be a Children’s Librarian to enroll in this course, you just have to love a story. Enroll today and start your storytelling journey.

What are the best practices and planning for a digitization project? How can your staff gain the skills needed to launch or maintain a digital project and what are the implications of launching a long term digital preservation system in your organization? Get the answers to these questions and more below.

Contents: Resources | Courses and Learning | Community | What could I do with…? | What’s New RSS Feed

“What’s New” RSS Feed

Want the latest “What’s New @ WJIL” to come to you? Add the RSS feed to your blog reader.
[http://webjunctionworks.org/il/blog/index.php/category/new-wj-il/feed/

Resources

Best Practices and Planning for Digitization Projects

• The success of a project is generally in proportion to the time spent in planning the project. To help you avoid some of the pitfalls here are some recommendations and resources for planning a digital imaging project.
• Path: [Library Services » Technical Services » Digitization & Preservation]

Competencies for Preservation

• Preservation covers a wide range of activities: repairing the physical damage to well-used materials; transforming physical materials into digital format; or preserving the historic record or other notable resource collections. Use this list to help your staff achieve competency.
• Path: [Library Services » Technical Services » Digitization & Preservation]

Book Repair Videos

• Students at UNC have created three short videos: a pam folder procedure, tip-in procedure, and four-flap enclosures.  It’s much easier to learn from what you see and hear than to read and follow diagrams and wonder if you’re doing it right
• Path: [Library Services » Technical Services » Digitization & Preservation]

Glossary of Scanning and Digital Imaging Terms

• Alyce Scott  from the Illinois State Library helps explain some of the most common and confusing terms used in digitization projects.
• Path: [Library Services » Technical Services » Digitization & Preservation]

Bite-Size Digital History Webinar

• Learn to use Microsoft PhotoStory 3 to create digital history documentaries in this recorded webinar.
• [Library Services » Technical Services » Digitization & Preservation]

Digital Illinois

• Visit this WJIL page under the Featured Statewide Initiatives to find out more about digitization projects in Illinois including a “Descriptive Survey of Illinios Digital Collections.”
• [Illinois Center » Featured Statewide Initiatives » Digital Illinois]

Courses and Learning

Capturing History: Digitization Projects

• Computers have been around for a generation, now, and a lot of matierial is available through digital media. However, there is still a lot of valuable information left to be digitized. This tutorial covers the basics of scanning and will improve your understanding of the issues involved with digitization projects, including copyright issues, equipment, terms, funding. So, before breaking out the scanners, spend a couple of hours reviewing what you need to know in order to make your digitization project a success

All courses listed above are free to eligible and registered users of WJIL.

Community

Digitization and Preservation Symposium, August 25, 1:00 – 3:00 pm CT

Join colleagues for a two-hour symposium that will feature four presentations on current trends and practical approaches to library digitization and preservation projects. Guest panelists will address:

• Designing a digital preservation system using a framework that includes all stakeholders, from library administrators to archivists to IT workers to vendors.
• The difference between access and preservation tools, and why we need to consider both.
• Harvesting social networking websites for preservation.
• The organizational “long-view” of preservation resources, technology, costs and policies.

What Could I do with…Digitization Learning Opportunities”?

Have you always wanted your library to get involved in digitization but were unsure of how to begin or what you need to know?  Use the WJIL learning opportunities listed above to jump start your digitization experience. Enroll in the free WJIL course Capturing History: Digitization Projects and learn a bit about the basics of scanning then register and plan to attend the Digitization and Preservation Synposium to find out more about the long view of the technology, costs and policies associated with a digitization and preservation program.

In an attempt to narrow down the fire hose of opportunity to a more targeted stream of continuous learning we have now added links to a series of Course Sets covering some of the most popular subject areas.

Course Sets consist of a linked list of WJIL courses that will lead the user through a targeted curriculum path. Topics such as Library Leadership, New Library Director and Library Basics are some of the first Course Sets we are providing. Using the suggested courses will assist you in a more proactive approach to your online continuing education.

Visit the newly redesigned WJIL Course Catalog page to see all Course Sets currently available as well as easier access to Illinois Course Catalog Quick Links.

Because WebJunction Illinois is always adding content and constantly expanding, the redesign is intended to try and help users more quickly identify relevant and new content. Take particular note of the following as you explore.

1. We have now added a section of Featured Resources below the Top Story  which will rotate highlighting a variety of resources, courses and other learning opportunities.

2. You will now find the feed from BlogJunction Illinois, the Quick Links and a variety of link icons such as L2, Facebook and Twitter on the right hand side of the homepage with a feed of upcoming calendar events below that.

3. Be sure to check out one of the most interesting areas of the redesign – our Most Popular and New on WebJunction areas. As you might expect, the first one points out some of the resources, courses and areas of the site which have received the most traffic in recent weeks and the second surfaces new content that has been added. These will change periodically also.

Take advantage of the summer lull and explore WJIL and the homepage redesign so you can get the most out of this great resource.

How to Make the Most of WebJunction,  July 29, 2010

NOTE: This webinar will be focused on the resources and navigation for the WebJunction global site at http://webjunction.org. However, please note that if you are a registered user of WebJunction Illinois (http://il.webjunction.org) attendance at this webinar is still encouraged since many of the resources and navigation are the same for both sites.

So you’ve created your free WebJunction member account, browsed the website, but are feeling a bit overwhelmed? Come join this special webinar where you’ll discover how to use the tools and resources on WebJunction to find answers and solve problems for your library. Learn how to work collaboratively with colleagues using groups; keep a finger on the pulse of new documents and discussions posted by members; know where to go to ask your own questions and how to share your expertise with other library staff. This session will help anyone who has said, “I know there is a lot to WebJunction, but I just haven’t had time to explore.” We’ll give you the top tips and show you all the steps for making WebJunction work for you.

Tips and Tools for Technology Planning, July 20, 2010

A technology plan can help you budget and better plan for future technology acquisitions, but with everything else you do all day, who has the time? Come to this TechSoup and WebJunction presentation where Kendra Morgan and Elliot Harmon will share tips, tools, and tales from folks working in libraries and other nonprofits who’ve crafted their own tech plans without too much discomfort.

In this webinar, you’ll:

• Hear about best practices for technology planning
• Get tips for writing clear and manageable goals and objectives
• Learn about tools that can help you through the planning process

The Rural Library Trustee: Roles, Responsibilities and Relationships, September 14, 2010

How do library trustees get trained? How are director and trustee roles defined to ensure a healthy library organization? How are trustee relationships cultivated both in and outside the library circle? Join this webinar to explore these and other questions related to library trustees that will provide you with practical ideas and tactical strategies to support and advocate for your library organization as a trustee, or library director in a small or rural community. This webinar is brought to you by ARSL (Association for Rural and Small Libraries) and featuring presenters: Sally Gardner Reed, Executive Director ALTAFF (Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations); Kim Armentrout, Library of Virginia; and Jim Minges, Director of the Northeast Kansas Library System.

In order to help you maximize your time online we will be providing a series of subject guides listing the courses available to WJIL registered users on selected topics, starting with marketing and useful marketing skills. Click on the course names below for a description and to enroll. You must be an eligible and registered user of WJIL to enroll in these courses for free.

• Advanced Business Communication – Effective Business Communication
• Advanced Business Communication – Business Writing for Results
• Competitive Factors in Strategic Marketing
• Creating a Marketing Campaign
• Customer Satisfaction: Analysis and Implementation
• Delivering the Message
• Developing Customer Satisfaction Surveys
• Developing Motivating Messages
• Discovering What Your Customers Want
• Elements of Marketing Strategy
• E-Mail as a Marketing Tool
• Fundamentals of Exceptional Customer Service
• Identifying Your Customers Expectations
• Keep it Simple: Developing a Marketing Plan
• Keeping Your Library Looking Good
• Merchandising that Works
• The Online Branding Environment
• Principles of Marketing – Fundamentals of Marketing
• Retailing Methods and Techniques in Libraries
• Using Surveys to Measure Customer Satisfaction
• Web 2.0 Fundamentals
• Writing a Marketing Plan: Phase 1

These subjects were identified by Library System Consulting staff as consistent areas of importance for Illinois Public Libraries.  The table provides links to resources, courses and webinars available on WebJunction Illinois relevant to these topics.

The table is available for download in either PDF or Word format by clicking on the previous links, or by going to the Documents Tab of the Public Libraries or information about WebJunction Illinois pages in the Illinois Center of the site.

New Courses

• Web 2.0 Fundamentals
• Windows 7: Getting Started
• Setting up and Securing Windows 7
• Customizing Windows 7
• DOT Drug and Alcohol Awareness

New Documents

• Press Release Tips
• Comparing Online vs. Traditional Office Software
• Are You Trustee – Worthy? Ethics for Trustees [WJ-Kansas]
• Presentations from KLA Virtual Conference [WJ-Kansas] on Graphic Novel Collection Development, Ethics of Facebook and Teens 3.0.
• Questions to Gather Performance Indicators via recent webinar

New or Renewed Discussions

• Library Displays and Signage updates from Carol Kubala
• Steady State tips from Nate Urb
• Workforce Resources
• WordPress for Libraries (wp4lib) including a thread about WP 3.0
• Essays on Academic Librarianship

New Webinar Archives

• Mission Critical: Services to Spanish Speakers
• Opportunity for All: American Public Benefits from Library Internet
• Accidental Leadership with George Needham
• Gadgets: Personal Electronics for your Library
• Competency Success Stories for Your Library

Also check out the schedule for Upcoming Webinars or browse all Webinar Archives

New Groups

These are working groups created by WebJunction members, to allow collaboration around a topic of shared interest. Note that following the links for these Groups will lead you to the WebJunction Global site.

• Windows 7 Public Access Computer project in Workstation Protection
• SWIM Cohort
• Local Area Delivery
• Spanish Language Outreach Course Group
• Floating Collections

For information on creating an Illinois Group see Illinois Groups  and how to Create Illinois Groups.

As our profession contemplates the future of libraries, a recurring theme surfaces: that the public trust and faith in the institution is not so much about information retrieval or document management as it is about the intangibles—the relationships, the place, the environment for learning. It is top-notch customer service that will sustain and grow libraries. In this edition of “What’s New @ WJIL” you’ll find the tools that can help you build a top-notch reputation for customer service in your library.

Contents: Resources | Courses and Learning | Community | What could I do with…? | What’s New RSS Feed

“What’s New” RSS Feed

Want the latest “What’s New @ WJIL” to come to you? Add the RSS feed to your blog reader.
[http://webjunctionworks.org/il/blog/index.php/category/new-wj-il/feed/]

Resources

Pierce County Library System’s “Skills & Qualities”

• This document defines the core skills and qualities every employee needs to be successful through a short, universal list of personal skills or qualities (some call them “behavioral competencies”). This list of skills and qualities serve as the foundation for how Pierce County Library System in Tacoma, Washington handles hiring, evaluation, and staff training.
• Path: [Library Management » Customer Service & Interpersonal Skills]

Customer Service Models for the Special Library

• The author explores three customer service models for the special library – one hour dry cleaners, the grocery store, and the fast food restaurant.Technology Vision Statements
• Path: [Library Management » Customer Service & Interpersonal Skills]

Walking the Talk –  Diversity Workshops

• As part of their continuing committment to celebrating the diversity of library users, staff and community, the Lincoln Trail Libraries System encourage library staff to take advantage of the “Walking the Talk” workshops conducted by Susan O’Halloran. These session are reproduced in streaming video format for broad access. Please visit the Library Diversity website for versions in QuickTime and for additional resources.
• Path: [Library Management » Customer Service & Interpersonal Skills » Diversity]

Difficult Patron Behavior: Success Stories from the WebJunction Community

• From policy to principles, and from chicken soup and comic relief: how WebJunction members handle difficult patron situations.
• Path: [Library Management » Customer Service & Interpersonal Skills » Difficult Patrons]

New Employee Buddy Program

• The New Employee Buddy Program is a program at the library where each new employee is paired up with an experienced employee for the first 30-days of employment.
• [Library Management » Customer Service & Interpersonal Skills » Coworker Relations]

Courses and Learning

You’ll find a great selection of customer service courses in the WJIL Course Catalog under the Customer Service & Interpersonal Skills category—courses such as the following.

• Customers, Confrontation and Conflict
• Identifying Your Customer’s Expectations
• Managing Difficult Patrons with Confidence
• Providing Excellent Customer Service in a Multi-Cultural Environment

All courses listed above are free to eligible and registered users of WJIL.

Community

Researching Communities to Prepare for the Future

• The Researching Communities to Prepare for the Future study interviewed over 140 residents in 15 communities across Illinois, to discover what communities want from their libraries in the future. Final project reports, resources, templates and methodology are included.
• [Library Management » Customer Service & Interpersonal Skills » Researching

What Could I do with…the PCLS “Skills and Qualities”?

The Pierce County Library System  in Tacoma, Washington has developed a list of core Skills and Qualities that every library employee needs to be successful. Based on such things as “Customer Focus,” “Teamwork” and “Professional Integrity” they have defined what these skills do and don’t look like in the work place in order to better be able to assess potential and current staff.  You may want to use this helpful resource as a starting point in your library to improve customer service and co-worker relationships.

Find out more about how to successfully lead your library through tough times in this edition of “What’s New @ WJIL.”  Explore the WJIL Guide to Organizational Leadership Resources,  learn what competencies are needed to be a leader in times of change and fill your knowledge gaps with free online leadership courses from the WJIL Course Catalog,.

Contents: Resources | Courses and Learning | Community | What could I do with…? | What’s New RSS Feed

“What’s New” RSS Feed

Want the latest “What’s New @ WJIL” to come to you? Add the RSS feed to your blog reader.
[http://webjunctionworks.org/il/blog/index.php/category/new-wj-il/feed/]

Resources

Organizational Management – Guide to Organizational Leadership Resources

• Mission and vision, strategies and decisions, team change management are all a part of leadership. Strengthen your skills in  these areas by exploring the resources in this Guide.
• Path: [Library Management » Organizational Management]

Leadership Competencies

• Scan this list of competencies excerpted from the Competency Index for the Library Field, then go to the WJIL Catalog, click on the Competencies tab and explore the online learning that can help you meet these competencies.

Technology Vision Statements

• Does your library have a vision for what technology should do for your library? Vision statements are a great way to describe where the library wants to be and what it values when choosing new technology.
• Path: [Library Management » Organizational Management]

The Continuous Improvement Approach

• Sara Laughlin and Ray W. Wilson chapter apply the principles of Edward Deming’s continuous improvement process to libraries in this chapter from The Quality Library (2008, ALA Editions).
• Path: [Library Management » Organizational Management]

Getting on Your Community’s Leadership Team

• This excerpt from “The Library Board Strategic Guide: Going to the Next Level” explains why a library should be part of its community’s leadership and planning team — and how to get started in that direction.
• Path: [Library Management » Community Relations]

Courses and Learning

Accidental Leadership with George Needham

• If you missed this May 5 webinar you can still view the full archive and take advantage of the resources to find out more about how to find the internal and external resources you need to lead.

Leadership Eseentials Series

Take advantage of this extensive series of online courses on leadership covering the following topics:

• Motivating Employees
• Communicating Vision
• Building Your Influence as  Leader
• Leading with Emotional Intelligence
• Leading Innovation
• Leading Change
• Creating Your Own Leadership Development Plan

Change Management and Leadership (LE@D)

• Change is a given in 21st century libraries: intrusive, exhilarating, and growing in strength and frequency. Being an effective change agent and coping with change partly depends on your sense of perspective. We cannot promise that this course will either turn back the clock or guarantee that everyone in your library will unquestioningly accept change. However, there are benefits from studying other people’s experiences and some of the effective principles and practices of change management.

Leadership for Libraries: Becoming an Everyday Leader (LE@D)

• Library leadership used to be defined mostly by age, experience, credentials, seniority and tenure, job position or other traditional models of status with the library tribe. Today, leadership skills are required at every level to ensure libraries can respond effectively to the new worlds we live in. The changes won’t wait for a model of top-down responses. We need different models of leadership: Everybody needs to be able to think and act like a leader.

All courses listed above are free to eligible and registered users of WJIL. 

Community

Library Leadership and Management Association

• A division of ALA, the mission of the Library Leadership and Management Association is to encourage and nurture current and future library leaders, and to develop and promote outstanding leadership and management practices. Explore the resources of this organization to find out how the Library community at large is developing leaders.

What Could I do with…the Library Leadership Competencies?

Excerpted from the Competency Index for the Library Field, you can use this list of Library Leadership Competencies  to identify your strenghts and weaknesses as a leader. Then go to the WJIL Catalog, click on the Competencies tab and explore the free online learning under the Library Management/Organizational Leadership area that can help you fill your knowledge gaps in this area.