If you are interested in promoting ELM, the Electronic Library for Minnesota, take a look at the article in today’s Alexandria Echo Press (MN), Learn about one of the state’s best kept secrets.
It’s a great example of local promotion of the ELM databases to the public, written by Betty Ann Hegland, Reference Librarian, Douglas County Library.
Many thanks to Sara Galligan, Ramsey County Law Library, for preparing this entry:
Do patrons appear in your library as a first step in their search for legal help? If so, self help resources are available on court and legal aid websites. Public librarians can help promote self help legal information, including online materials for low literacy and non-English speaking users. The organizations creating these resources know that self help resources CAN assist litigants who are unrepresented in court. The Ramsey County Law Library has created “Self-Help Legal Resources—A Guide for Minnesota Public Librarians” to assist librarians in answering legal reference questions. The 3-page guide provides current legal resources and referrals to attorneys.
Do you feel challenged by zealous patrons who try to badger librarians for legal advice? Learn how to avoid the unauthorized practice of law by reading the chapter, “Legal Reference vs. Legal Advice”, from SCALL’s Locating the Law: A Handbook for Non-Law Librarians, 5th Ed. (2009).
Librarians can also refer patrons to attorneys. Referring patrons to attorneys for help is a good option for those who want to pay, but low and no-cost attorney resources are also available. Public defender and legal aid attorneys are available when parties meet certain low income requirements. In addition, free and low cost services are available through self help clinics, courts and legal services organizations.
Any thoughts or concerns about your legal information seekers? Feel free to contact the Ramsey County Law Library, the Minnesota State Law Library, or any of the metro area county law libraries to discuss legal reference. Collaboration between public libraries and law libraries helps promote access to new legal resources that are specifically created for the general public.
Sara Galligan
Ramsey County Law Library Director
651-266-8391
Marilyn Cathcart and the MLIS program at St. Kate’s are looking for your input if you supervise graduates of St. Kate’s.
The MLIS Program at St. Catherine University is in candidacy for accreditation by the American Library Association. As part of the accreditation process and, most importantly, as a way to remain informed by library practitioners, the Program is asking for your help in assessing recent library school graduates. If you supervise any library school graduate who has received the degree within the past five years, please take a few moments to respond to the Program¹s short survey. The survey will be active until December 4.
We really appreciate knowing about your experiences and are grateful for the many ways you support the St. Catherine MLIS Program.
The 5-7 minute survey asks you to provide your view of the skills needed by new professional librarians. Results will not be linked to individuals or organizations.
You’ve watched them, maybe even tried to make one yourself. Short videos are a great way to explain concepts and ideas and Common Craft specializes in this. Common Craft’s explanatory video series “In Plain English” covers topics like green, money, society and technology. There’s a brand new one on Cloud Computing.
On November 18 at 11am PST, TechSoup is offering a free webinar on using videos in training. Stephanie Gerding will interview Lee LeFever from Common Craft to learn more about their videos and how they are created. Librarians will talk about using these videos to support the needs of their community. Register here.
You can see other scheduled and archived TechSoup.org Talks here.
For resources on Veterans Day, including history, teacher guide, poster gallery and VA Kids site (K-5 and 6-12th grade), visit the Veterans Day site, sponsored by the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, http://www1.va.gov/opa/vetsday/.
Two Minnesota library staff have been selected for the prestigious 2010 ALA Emerging Leaders program.
Cody Hanson, Technology Librarian, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis, sponsored by LITA
Cynthia Matthias, Teen Services Librarian, Hennepin County Libraries, sponsored by the Minnesota Library Association
The Emerging Leaders program is a leadership development program for newer library workers from across the country. 100 library staff were selected for the 2010 program.
Both Cody and Cynthia have been busy. Read the ALA Tech Source blog for a recent posting, Cody Hanson: Highlights of the 2009 LITA Forum. View Cynthia Matthias’ presentation from the 2009 MLA Conference, Developing Best Practices for Innovative Technology Programming.
For more details about the program, including selection criteria and application information, click here. For a complete list of the Emerging Leaders class of 2010, click here.
Congrats to both of you and to your libraries!
East Central Regional Library (ECRL) begins a month-long 50 anniversary celebration with an open house 2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m., November 5, at the Cambridge Public Library. Music and refreshments will precede a short program at 4 p.m. featuring Bill Asp, ECRL director between 1967 and 1970 and a former State Librarian. Per ECRL website: “Patrons, local City and County officials are invited to join State Legislators, State Librarian, Suzanne Miller, and present and former library staff for this momentous occasion.”
Each of the other 13 branches will have its own celebration with entertainment and refreshments. Access the calendar of events here.
The counties that East Central Regional Library encompasses and the years that they joined are: Aitkin (1964), Chisago (1970), Isanti (1959), Kanabec (1967), Mille Lacs (1959) and Pine (1959).
Congratulations to ECRL for a long history of service to the residents of the region and for a well-organized model celebration!
School library media specialist and Robbinsdale schools program director for media and instruction technology, Jane Prestebak, was quoted in yesterday’s Star Tribune article, “Interactive boards get screened in class”. *
Jane and her district are working to find out whether interactive whiteboards make a difference in student achievement. See the article for the details. Jane clarified by email that she and her staff are involved in several aspects of the grant and implementation process.
District Media Services does much of the background work for finding, researching, preparing and submitting grants. We ensure that those we hire to coordinate and train have the resources they need to be successful. We will ensure that reporting is completed. In most of our grants, I sometimes participate in training, especially teaching about research process. I run around and take pictures and collect stories to use in promotional materials. (The photo they used was one that I took–not a great photo to be sure, but better than none.) I read a lot of stuff about technology so that when an opportunity arises, I have data to support an application.
How cool is that? interactive whiteboards are hot right now and it’s great to see a Minnesota school library media specialist involved in pragmatic research on student impact and quoted in the press. If other school library media specialists are involved in current research, add a comment or send me a note!
“We really overestimated the number of people who had easy access and familiarity with the Internet” – Joel Spoonheim of Minneapolis, pilot program coordinator (p. A4)
If the project had partnered with the public library and local nonprofits with public access computers would the results have been different? Since public libraries provide Internet access and one-on-one assistance to patrons in use of computers and the Internet, this may have made a difference in adult use of the online project calculator.
The online project calculator is the assessment tool used in the AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project in Albert Lea, MN this year. Project organizers expected 5000 participants to login twice to measure impact, but “only 1300 used it at least once”, according to the article.
Spoonheim was also quoted as saying, “I don’t think we’ll have the same problem if we go next to a larger city,….” Hmmm, he hasn’t seen the statistics on access to computers and the Internet. Greater Minnesota access is lower than metro area access, however, Internet access and use vary by income, educational attainment, age, ethnic/cultural group, and sometimes neighborhood.
Blue Zones author, Dan Buettner of Minneapolis, set up this amazing project in Albert Lea to test his Vitality Project concepts – adopt proven lifestyle changes to live a long healthy life. (Dan spoke about his work at a Minnesota Library Foundation fund-raising event earlier this year.)
Read the full article on Albert Lea’s otherwise positive experience with living in the Blue Zone. ”Changing a Way of Life”, StarTribune (Minneapolis, MN), October 13, 2009, p.1A, 4A.
This is primarily for those within relatively short driving distance to St. Cloud.
The St. Cloud State University James W. Miller Resource Learning Center hosts a Lewis & Clark exhibit through December 11. The attachment is a flyer for a free educators’ workshop, 6:00-7:30 p.m., October 28 that focuses on working the history into curriculum.