Category

Statewide Initiatives

Grants, Statewide Initiatives
Connecting to Collections Survey
August 3rd, 2009 | Permalink | Comment?

What do you believe are the most important preservation needs of cultural institutions in Illinois?

The Institute of Museum and Library Services recently awarded the Illinois State Museum Society a “Connecting to Collections” statewide planning grant. The Illinois State Library and Illinois State Archives are part of the consortium that received the grant, and the consortium is conducting a survey to identify the preservation needs of cultural institutions throughout the state.

Please complete this survey by August 7th to ensure that the preservation needs of Illinois institutions can be identified and future funding can be secured to address these needs.

In appreciation of your participation in the survey, your name will be entered in a drawing for a gift package of Illinois products valued at $100.

Following the survey, the consortium will convene a free series of “Connecting to Collections” meetings with stakeholders from around the state to further assess needs and priorities for collections preservation. The first session, “Assessing Environmental Conditions & Collections Care”, will be held Tuesday, August 25th in East Peoria at the Alliance Library System and at several videoconference sights. For more information or to register for this free session visit L2. At least 10 scholarships of up to $200 each will be available for each in-person regional meeting to offset eligible travel expenses. Go here to apply for a scholarship for the in-person session August 25th at ALS. The deadline to apply for a scholarship is August 10th.

For more information on the Illinois “Connecting to Collections” project, please visit the Illinois State Museum website.
Resource Sharing, Statewide Initiatives, Technology
Try-It! Illinois 2008 begins October 1 and runs thru November 30
September 30th, 2008 | Permalink | Comment?

Try-It! Illinois, now in its 9th year, offers the staff and library users of more than 5,000 ILLINET member libraries the opportunity to survey and evaluate a wide variety of electronic resources. Thanks to partnerships between the Illinois State Library and the participating electronic resource vendors, there is no charge for accessing these databases during Try-It! Illinois. To get started, request a login and password.

This year several new vendors have come on board. A sampling of the vendors who have agreed to the trial include: Accessible Archives, OCLC, ProQuest, Greenwood Publishing, The World and I, Standard and Poors, Newsbank, Polling the Nations, CQ Press, Oxford University Press, CABI, EBSCO, ABC-CLIO, Plunkett Research, Taylor and Francis, LearningExpress, Heritage Microfilm, Public Record, Alexander Street Press, Scholastic, Grolier Online, Bookflix, Capstone Publishers, U.S. Business Journal, Value Line, Morningstar, World Book, Encyclopedia Britannica, Facts on File, Thomson Reuters, Web of Knowledge, Rosen Publishing, Naxos USA, Teaching Books, TumbleBooks, Dun and Bradstreet, GALE/CENGAGE, BioOne,and Mango languages.
Continuous Learning, Online Learning, Statewide Initiatives
LibraryU Course Transition News
September 8th, 2008 | Permalink | Comment?
In early October we will begin to transition the LibraryU content to its new home in the WebJunction Illinois Course Catalog. So what does this mean to you as a registered LibraryU user?
- If you are currently a registered user of LibraryU and work in an Illinois Library, after October you will be able to access LibraryU modules through the WebJunction Illinois Course Catalog. You will need to be a registered user of WebJunction Illinois in order to access them for free. NOTE: Not all LibraryU modules will appear initially in the WebJunction Illinois Course Catalog. We will be moving them as they are converted and will make announcements to the Illinois Library Community when they are available.
- If you are currently a registered user of LibraryU and do NOT work in an Illinois Library…after October you will access the LibraryU content through the WebJunction global Course Catalog. You will need to be a registered user of WebJunction in order to access the courses and there will be a small charge for taking a LibraryU course.
- If you are currently a registered user of a WebJunction Community Partner site…after October you may have access to the LibraryU modules through your Community Partner site, however you will need to contact your Community Partner representative for more information
What should I do now?
- Continue to use the LibraryU site and shoot to complete any unfinished modules prior to October 1, 2008.
- Document the LibraryU modules that you have completed by either printing off your Certificates of Completion, or printing your “My Courses” page.
- Register with WebJunction Illinois if you are an employee, trustee or volunteer in an Illinois library.
- Register with WebJunction global if you are not eligible to register for WebJunction Illinois, or register with your WebJunction Community Partner site.
Additional Questions

Will I be able to access my LibraryU Course History after October 1st?
- Unfortunately your LibraryU Course History will not be available after October 1st. That is why we are encouraging you to document your Course history with your Certificates of Completion, or by printing off your “My Courses” page.
Will I be able to access the LibraryU courses from the same URL? (http://www.libraryu.org).
- For a period of time we will provide pointers to the new location for LibraryU content. After that, you will need to bookmark the appropriate WebJunction location for you to access LibraryU content. (WebJunction Illlinois, WebJunction, or your Community Partner site). LibraryU courses will still be branded as such, but will be accessed through the WebJunction portals.
Why are you moving the LibraryU courses?
- Thanks to the Illinois State Library, the Illinois Regional Library Systems, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation over 11,000 users to date have been able to enjoy free access to the LibraryU content for more than 5 years. It is now time to find a more sustainable home for the content and fold it in with other Illinois Library Community online continuing education opportunities.
The LibraryU sponsors and staff would like to take this chance to thank all of you who have made LibraryU a successful and useful online learning resource. We look forward to your continued use and to the addition of new LibraryU content through the WebJunction and WebJunction Illinois portals.
News, Resource Sharing, Statewide Initiatives
Illinois WorldCat Local Libraries test Home Borrowing through WorldCat Direct
June 23rd, 2008 | Permalink | Comment?
One of the goals of the WorldCat Local Illinois pilot (the “Statewide Discovery Toolkit” LSTA grant project) is to examine how a home delivery option might be received in Illinois.

To evaluate this service, the Illinois WorldCat pilot will be conducting a three month test of home delivery with OCLC’s WorldCat Direct program, an interlibrary loan service for libraries that wish to offer rapid delivery of books to their patrons. The pilot is designed to analyze the impact and interest of direct delivery with libraries and library users and to evaluate customer satisfaction with the service.

Patrons, from participating pilot libraries, who wish to try the WorldCat Direct option will begin the process by requesting a title through the WorldCat Resource Sharing interface. If the book is available in its inventory, the supplier for this pilot program (Better World Books), will then mail the book directly to the patron’s home address. Later, the patron either returns the book by mail using a prepaid envelope or buys the book directly from the supplier.

Because books are mailed directly to patrons, borrowing libraries save staff time processing requests which can be handled by this service. Delivery tends to be faster than traditional interlibrary loan since the book supplier guarantees a response to ILL requests within 2 days and mails books directly to patrons. The longer loan period of 30 days on all materials also makes this an exciting new option for resource sharing.

Beginning July, 1, 2008, the following libraries will be testing the WorldCat Direct service:
- Champaign Public Library
- Des Plaines Public Library
- Edwardsville Public Library
- Hoopeston Public Library
- Lewis & Clark Library System
- Lincoln Library
- Lincoln Trail Libraries System
- University of Illinois @ Chicago
- University of Illinois @ Springfield
For more information about this project, contact WorldCat Local Project Coordinator Laurie Bartolini.
Statewide Initiatives
PolyTalk Wins Award
June 27th, 2007 | Permalink | Comment?

In June of 2007 the Lincoln Trail Libraries System and was awarded a 2007 Building Better Communities Award for PolyTalk from SirsiDynix. This award recognizes libraries for creative and enterprising uses of technology to improve their user communities.

PolyTalk is managed by the Lincoln Trail Libraries Systemwith LSTA funding

Photo Caption: Joe Sciacca, PolyTalk Project Director; Jan Ison, Executive Director; and Michelle Ralston, PolyTalk Project Coordinator; accept their award from Stephen Abram, VP Innovation, SirsiDynix.