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Future of Illinois Library Cooperation (FILC) Draft Plan Adopted
August 31st, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?

from the ILA Newsletter, Vol. 3, Issue #24

At its meeting today on Friday, 27 August, ILA’s Executive Committee reviewed and adopted a draft plan addressing priorities for statewide cooperation to best serve Illinois residents. The plan was developed with input from more than 70 representatives of the Illinois library community that attended a summit meeting in the fall of 2009.

The FILC plan’s top two service priorities — delivery and shared catalogs — are in agreement with priority areas identified by the Illinois State Library and Illinois Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White. The other three areas addressed in priority order are group purchasing, library and professional development, and advocacy and marketing. The plan provides description of current services in each of the five areas, along with short-term adjustments and longer-term goals, along with recommended next steps.

FILC co-chairs Dee Brennan and Donna Dziedzic will present the draft to Illinois State Library leadership on Wednesday, 1 September. At the invitation of Illinois State Library Director Anne Craig, the plan will be shared with the Illinois State Library Advisory Committee in Springfield on Thursday, 2 September. We anticipate the plan will be posted on the ILA Web site, shortly after Labor Day.

Additional presentations to other related organizations will be scheduled throughout September, culminating in a presentation at the ILA Membership Meeting, Wednesday, 29 September, Grand Ballroom, Navy Pier, Chicago.
Continuous Learning, ILA Updates, News
ILA to Host Inaugural Virtual Conference
August 31st, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?

The Illinois Library Association will be holding its first-ever virtual conference on Wednesday, 29 September. The program will feature highlights from the 2010 ILA Annual Conference, with a focus on partnerships and planning.

If you are unable to attend this year’s conference, the virtual conference is a convenient and affordable way to stay abreast of current trends and issues. Virtual sessions will be recorded and available for viewing on your own schedule, making them a valuable tool for ongoing professional development.

Attendees of the 2010 ILA Annual Conference at Navy Pier will be able to access the sessions free of charge, providing additional value to your conference registration. For more information, and to register, visit the ILA Virtual Conference Web site.
News
Library Systems Update: Merger Design Team to Meet
August 26th, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?

Merger Design Team to Meet

In response to the ongoing financial crisis facing the State of Illinois, five library systems have conducted joint planning discussions and have decided to seek a merger of the organizations in order to develop one strong and sustainable organization. Each library system has signed a Letter of Intent, indicating their willingness to develop one strong and sustainable organization to meet the need of their member libraries. To create this new entity, each library system board has appointed representatives to a Merger Design Team who will meet over the next nine months to create a proposal for a new library system.

The Merger Design Team will work with a nonprofit merger consultant to develop a comprehensive merger proposal including a new governance structure and the identification of core system services. The first meeting of the Merger Design Team is scheduled for Wednesday, September 1, 2010, 7 p.m. at the Metropolitan Library System.
News
Library Systems Update: Southern Systems Planning Meeting
August 24th, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?

The first meeting of the official planning panel for the restructuring of the four southern systems was held on Thursday, August 12 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Effingham. Of particular note are the four subcommittees formed to work on specific issues. Those committees are: Strategic Planning, Legal Governance & Membership, Delivery, and Resource Sharing. Full notes on the meeting will be posted in the next several days on the Cooperation Today website under the tab of ”Systems Planning.”

The Southern Systems Planning tab will also guide users to contact information of members of the planning panel. During this planning process, please take advantage of this contact information and share your feelings, reactions, and concerns.

The next meeting will be held in Carterville on Tuesday September 14. Please remember these are public meetings, and anyone is welcome to attend.
News
System Update: Southern System Planning
August 10th, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?

Visit the website Cooperation Today to view an agenda for the August 12 Planning Panels meeting in Effingham.
News
Public Library Annual Reports – Deadline Reminders
August 6th, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?
All Illinois Public Library Annual Reports (IPLAR) should either have been completed and submitted to the Illinois State Library or be “in the process of completion.”

According to Illinois law:
- municipal library (city, town, township, village) annual reports are due 30 days after the close of the fiscal year, and
- district library annual reports are due September 1.
The web based annual report form is located at http://collect.btol.com. More information about the IPLAR is available on the Illinois State Library website.

Username and Password information can be obtained from Becky Hunter, or 217-782-7849. Information about the questions, definitions, content, and edit checks should be directed to Ron Winner, or 217-785-1168. Technology issues should be directed to the Bibliostat Help Desk: 1-866-785-9935.
Grants, Illinois State Library, News
Important Update on ISL Programs and Scholarships
August 6th, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?

The following statement from Illinois State Library Director Anne Craig appeared in the ISL E-News for August 6, 2010

For many years, the State Library has used federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to provide statewide continuing education (CE) programs to the library community. These programs include Synergy, the Illinois Library Leadership Initiative; the Small Public Library Management Institute; the Institute for School and Public Librarians; and the On the Front Lines Conference. LSTA money has also been used to provide 15 scholarships each year to students entering library school.‪‪

As FY11 progresses, my staff and I have determined that we may need all available LSTA funding to preserve Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White’s foremost library priorities: delivery of materials, maintenance of the catalogs at the state’s regional library systems, and the Talking Book libraries. Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes’ website states that the payment cycle is now at 150+ working days, in comparison to about 100 this time last year. Given what we know right now, FY11 will be even more challenging for service providers like the library systems than was FY10. As a result, we have made the difficult decision to put our traditional CE programs and scholarships on hold during FY11, excluding programs already underway and scholarships already announced. One State Library CE program, ILEAD U, is operated with a three-year Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian competitive award; ILEAD U will continue through 2012.

My staff and I believe that funding must be available throughout FY11 to support delivery, the catalogs and the Talking Book Centers. Our patrons have made it clear to all of us that prompt delivery of library materials is their paramount concern. And if our catalogs cease functioning, there will be no materials to deliver. Secretary White is focused on ensuring that resource sharing is supported for the duration of this fiscal crisis and beyond.
Library Systems, News, Resource Sharing
Future of Illinois Library Cooperation: An Update from ILA
August 4th, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?

Article from ILA E-Newsletter, August 3, 2010

The three task forces (Services, Structure, and Funding) presented their final reports to the ILA Executive Board at the Thursday, 29 July board meeting in East Peoria. The task forces made recommendations to define, continue, and/or revamp statewide and regional support for cooperative services especially in the areas of Delivery, Shared Catalogs, and Group Purchasing, as well as at least some level of coordination and support for Advocacy and Marketing, Professional Development, and Serving the Unserved.

Steering Committee Co-chairs Donna Dziedzic and Dee Brennan met with ILA President Gail Bush, project consultant Chris Watkins, and I yesterday (Monday, 2 August), to begin drafting a plan based on the recommendations that will be presented to the ILA Executive Committee on Friday, 27 August. Based on the ILA Executive Committee’s reactions, the results will be compiled into a presentation for the ILA Membership Meeting, Wednesday, 29 September at the 2010 ILA Annual Conference and form the basis for discussions with state agencies, legislators, and other elected officials later in the year.

Updates will continue to be provided in the ILA E-Newsletter and on the ILA Web site on this work as more progress is made in developing a plan.
News, Technology
WebJunction Survey of Library Staff Use of Online Tools
July 21st, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?
Original Post on BlogJunction

In a survey to a random sample of WebJunction members this spring, respondents answered a question on how frequently they used online tools, either in or outside of their professional life. The results were very interesting. Nearly half of the respondents (49%) use email “listservs” daily. One-third of the respondents (35%) use professional or social networking sites daily. A quarter or less of the respondents use the following daily: online news or magazines (21%), blogs (14%), RSS feeds (14%), bookmarking sites (10%), wikis (9%), employment sites (6%) and online courses (3%). A chart in the original post shows the full results.When responses were separated by library type there were some notable differences. Academic library respondents are more likely to use the following online tools daily than public library respondents:
- Email listservs (73% of Academic vs. 44% of Public)
- Professional or social networking sites (44% vs. 32%)
- Blogs (29% vs. 10%)
- RSS feeds (32% vs. 10%)
- Wikis (17% vs. 7%)
Significant differences were found among locations as well. Urban library respondents (72%) are more likely to use email listservs daily than suburban (57%) and rural (45%) library respondents. Also, urban library respondents (18%) are more likely to use RSS feeds daily than rural library respondents (9%). Suburban library respondents (40%) are more likely to use professional or social networking sites daily than urban (31%) and rural (31%) library respondents. It was also reported that more than one quarter (28%) of respondents use web-based content (on blogs, wikis, social networking sites and more) toward professional development.

Finally, when these results were compared with those to a similar question posed to WebJunction members a year ago, there is evidence of some shifts in online tool use. In 2009, 61% of respondents reported using listservs daily, which is 12% higher than this year. Meanwhile, the percent of respondents who report never using social networking sites dropped from 39% to 30%. And online reading seems to have decreased as well, with 11% drops in those who report reading blogs or online news sites daily.

The trend away from email toward social networking sites like Facebook and twitter is not exclusive to library staff: this shift has been reported in the media as happening across the globe. So libraries can expect that patrons will be more likely to want to interact with their library via social networking tools and to expect that their library will support their use of these tools on the publicly accessible computers.
News
Library System Update: Southern Systems
July 19th, 2010 | Permalink | Comment?

Check the Cooperation Today website and click on the Southern System Planning tab for updates on the cooperative planning process between the Lewis & Clark Library System, Lincoln Trail Libraries System and the Rolling Prairie Library System.

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News

News

Future of Illinois Library Cooperation (FILC) Draft Plan Adopted

Continuous Learning, ILA Updates, News

ILA to Host Inaugural Virtual Conference

News

Library Systems Update: Merger Design Team to Meet

News

Library Systems Update: Southern Systems Planning Meeting

News

System Update: Southern System Planning

News

Public Library Annual Reports – Deadline Reminders

Grants, Illinois State Library, News

Important Update on ISL Programs and Scholarships

Library Systems, News, Resource Sharing

Future of Illinois Library Cooperation: An Update from ILA

News, Technology

WebJunction Survey of Library Staff Use of Online Tools

News

Library System Update: Southern Systems