For example, if you are interested in the ILEAD U grant, subscribing to the RSS feed on the ILEAD U page will feed you any changes to the page including content, discussions and document posting.  Take advantage of this quick and easy way to keep up to speed with WJIL happenings.

Find more information here. (Note: MHI stands for “median household income”). USDA will host a webinar soon so public libraries can learn more and ask questions.

To assure fast and effective response, webjunction.illinois@gmail.com is monitored by the WebJunction Illinois Assistant with back-up monitoring by LCLS staff and Independent Contractors. The WebJunction Illinois Assistant will either resolve your question or as needed, refer it to the appropriate person for completion. Please update your contact information to reflect our new e-mail address

The award, issued by the Illinois Library Association, is to thank Secretary White for his leadership in instituting the Barack Obama license plate initiative, as well as for helping to promote Illinois libraries. At the Rally, Secretary White spoke of libraries’ struggles in the face of the recent budget cuts, and called on the library community to ask legislators to commit to opposing additional funding cuts.

ALL DAY festival & Stone Soup Dinner. Seating is limited, so be sure to order your tickets from the Dominican box office soon. 

Featuring three internationally recognized storytellers:

• Carol Birch of Connecticut, a master of the literary tale!
• Jim May of Illinois, founder of the Illinois Storytelling Festival who tells in the tradition of Mark Twain and Will Rogers!
• Tim Tingle of Texas who authored the collection of stories Walking the Choctaw Road.

AND a celebration of Illinois Storytelling with:

• Fred Berchtold, Sea Beast Puppet Company, Margaret Burk, Zane Chait, Lynne Clayton, Janice Del Negro, Donna Dettman, Suzie Garfield, Velma Gladney, Linda Gorham, Loren Hecht, Carol Kerman, Lainie Levin, Holly Nagel, Nancy Shapiro-Pikelny, Marie Ringenberg, Joshua Safford, Mike Speller, Megan Stepniewski, Jane Stenson, Susan Stone, Eric Swanson, Andy Talley, Janet Thompson and Megan Wells.

For festival schedule, prices, location, parking and all else, go to www.storytelling.org

“We know that libraries are making important contributions to the nation’s economic recovery, and IMLS is committed to helping those libraries help their communities get back to work,” said Anne-Imelda M. Radice, IMLS Director. “We admire this grant because of the educational opportunities it will provide and the relationships between libraries and economic and workforce development agencies that it will foster.” 

“In North Carolina, we have established real collaborations in communities across the state between public libraries and local workforce development organizations, which together support job seekers in everything from basic computer skills to applying for jobs online,” said Mary L. Boone, State Librarian of North Carolina. “We are delighted to partner with IMLS and WebJunction to share what we have learned with our colleagues around the country.” The State Library of North Carolina was one of the state library agencies that stepped forward earlier this year to coordinate a highly successful statewide library education program in response to the economic downturn. Members of SLNC’s staff who were instrumental in that state’s success will contribute significantly to the national project. 

The partners will develop and host an online training module — available to everyone — that adapts the North Carolina workshop curriculum and experience. A core feature of the program will be online conversations at WebJunction.org for state library administrators to explore new ideas for supporting local public library staff to deliver workforce services. All regional workshops and the online training module will be supported by follow-on programming. This will provide participants with the resources and support they need to assist local public libraries as they respond to urgent patron demands.  

“Severe unemployment strikes at the core of any community, and libraries work hard to respond to these community needs,” said Cathy De Rosa, Vice President, Marketing, OCLC. “We are pleased to work with IMLS and the State Library of North Carolina to help respond to those needs. This program allows us to support communities and individuals working to cope with unemployment and to support libraries as they work to provide essential infrastructure and services for national economic recovery.”  

Project goals include dissemination of services, programs, and partnerships to support the unemployed; greater capacity in state library agencies to support their local public libraries; and broader understanding and support outside the library field for the workforce development role that libraries have in responding to the crisis. 

About the Institute of Museum and Library Services

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute’s mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development. To learn more about the Institute, please visit www.imls.gov. 

About WebJunction

Since 2003, WebJunction has helped nearly 50,000 library staff build their job skills by partnering with state library agencies and other library service organizations to deliver cost-effective staff training and development programs. WebJunction’s vision is to be the place where the worldwide library profession gathers to build the knowledge, skills, and support it needs to power relevant, vibrant libraries. Based in Seattle, Washington, and Dublin, Ohio, WebJunction is supported in part by OCLC, grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the library community. More information is available at www.webjunction.org.

Effective July 1, 2009, all U.S. members will now connect directly with OCLC for product support. OCLC has centralized its capacity to provide direct product support to member libraries throughout the U.S. OCLC teams of product support specialists are available to help maximize application and use of OCLC products and services by providing quality, consistent service. OCLC has also added a team of consultative service librarians, who are dedicated to providing libraries with more ongoing support, such as helping to structure and streamline a library’s workflow, and help coordinate the batchloading of a library’s records into WorldCat.

OCLC also has announced that it has launched its new online Training Portal, which allows members to access, manage and track their OCLC learning online through a single Web interface. If you are a registered user of WebJunction Illinois, you may use the same login and password to access the OCLC Training Portal. Once you sign in, add the OCLC Training Portal as one of your Affiliations by clicking on the “Edit Account.”