Libraries should have received a mailing via US Postal Service from Michael Chernick of the state Legislative Council.  It concerns restrooms and accessibility in public libraries around the state.  It is extremely important that you respond and return the form to Michael Chernick by October 1.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call him at 828-2208 or email mikec@leg.state.vt.us.

This is part of the study the Legislative Council and Joint Fiscal Office were directed to do by the General Assembly in connection with state support of public libraries.  Thank you for your help with this.

Marianne Kotch

Round 2 of 2007 Vermont Public Library Foundation –  Winnie Belle Learned Fund Grants

WINNIE BELLE LEARNED FUND

For Round 2 of the grants the goal is to help the small public libraries of Vermont foster literacy, love of learning, critical analysis and intellectual exploration in their communities, particularly among children of all ages and their families.   The Winnie Belle Learned Fund welcomes applications for grants which will foster these goals in ways that local communities envision for themselves, including but not limited to funding for collections, programming, other related activities and expenses for children and their families.

The Winnie Belle Learned Fund anticipates awarding on a competitive basis up to $20,000 in grants ranging from $500 to $2,500 to help public libraries enrich the intellectual lives of children and families in their communities.

For more information about Winnie Belle Learned, see:
http://www.libraries.vermont.gov/libraries/vplf/wblf.html

Grant guidelines and application forms are available at:
http://www.libraries.vermont.gov/libraries/vplf/vplf.html
 

Mock Caldecott Award Day

Friday, November 16 at Vermont Technical College in Randolph. In the morning Megan Lambert, from the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, MA will talk about the Whole Book Approach and the Caldecott Medal, and in the afternoon we will choose our favorite picture book of the year.  Everyone who registers early will receive a list of picture books to consider well before the program.

Here is the link for the registration form:
http://www.libraries.vermont.gov/LIBRARIES/CBEC/mockcaldecottregistration07.pdf

Registration is limited.

Grace Greene

Highlighting and documenting the experiences of WWII veterans

In conjunction with the newest Ken Burns PBS series, The War, the Vermont Department of Libraries and the Vermont Library Association are partnering with Vermont Public Television (VPT) and a coalition of local organizations to highlight and document the experiences of WWII veterans and their families. At a time when WWII veterans are dying at a rate of approximately 1,000/day nationally, the timing for this campaign couldn’t be better.  Premiering on PBS on September 23 with repeat broadcasts throughout the fall, The War is a seven-part series that examines the myriad ways in which the Second World War touched the lives of every family on every street in every town in America.

Beginning in September and throughout the fall, VPT and the “Vermont WWII Stories” coalition will sponsor:

* Screenings & Discussions
* Teacher Training Workshops
* Classroom Toolkik
* Online Story Collection Tool
* Expanded Programming on VPT  to highlight stories of Vermont veterans
* “In My Own Words,” – A series of spots on VPT (on-air and online http://www.vpt.org) telling the stories of Vermont veterans and their families
* Vermont’s only online, searchable database of WWII enlistees
* And More!      

We encourage you to get involved by preserving Vermont’s culture and heritage. Here’s how libraries can help:

In September, October and November, create special displays of WWII books and relevant materials; display project fliers, referring people to the VPT website for information on how they can become involved. VPT can provide fliers – electronic file or printed copies.

Working with your local historical society and other community organizations, host “Story Collecting Day” (or week) on Saturday, November 10 in conjunction with Veterans Day (November 11.) On this day community members come to the library and enter their stories using the online story collecting tool. Recruit local kids to staff a computer at the library during specific hours and help enter text, scan photos, etc. Look for the link to the project page at www.vpt.org 

Prior to September 23, host a preview screening and discussion with local veterans and their families. VPT can provide a one-hour clip reel in DVD format).

For more information, materials or to get involved, contact Elizabeth Ottinger, Community Outreach Director, Vermont Public Television, 802-654-3688, eottinger@vpt.org.

Marianne Kotch

The Red Clover Award Conference

Registration information is now online!  Deadline to register:  September 19.  This year’s conference features a rare appearance by author/illustrator Steve Jenkins (Actual Size, I See a Kookaburra! and many more award-winning picture books) and Horn Book editor-in-chief Roger Sutton.

A link to the registratio form may be found at:  http://www.mothergooseprograms.org. 
For more information, call or email Nancy, 802-875-2751, ext. 108, nancy@mothergooseprograms.org
Jewish Literature Book Discussion Programs

Several Vermont public libraries have hosted Jewish literature book discussion programs through the American Library Association.  ALA Public Programs Office and Nextbook just announced a new grant initiative for “Let’s Talk About It:  Jewish Literature – Identity and Imagination.”  Participating libraries host a five-part scholar-led discussion series featuring one of six themes.  ALA provides program materials, training, and other resources along with a $2,500 grant to help libraries host the programs. 
For more information, go to http://www.ala.org/publicprograms. 
The deadline for the grant application is Dec. 1, 2007. !

Marianne Kotch

VOL Basics workshop on  8/22/2007

There is still plenty of room in the Vermont Online Library Basics workshop on  8/22/2007 from 1:00 to 3:30  at the Midstate Regional Library in Berlin.

Here’s the link to sign up: http://evanced.info/vtdol/evanced/eventcalendar.asp

Conference November 3, 2007: “Focus on the Customer”

Mark your calendars now for the annual statewide conference for trustees and their librarians sponsored by the VLA’s Vermont Library Trustees Association, with help from the Department of Libraries!  The conference, “Focus on the Customer,” will be held on Saturday, November 3, 2007, at Barre’s Aldrich Public Library, from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm.  Topics to be covered will include customer privacy, customer and staff safety, and branding/marketing.  The cost for the day (including morning coffee, muffins, and lunch) is $16 for members and $20 for nonmembers.  Regional consultants will all have registration forms, and you may register via email, mail, or phone by contacting Marianne Kotch.  Hope to see many of you there to discuss these important issues!

It took me much longer than I liked to get the sessions planned and scheduled, but yesterday and today I conducting two web conferencing sessions (some call them webinars) where I introduced participants to the Live Classroom environment and experimented with some of the tools available.  The recording of the sessions also seemed to work and if you like you can take a look at one of them at this URL: http://208.185.78.171/launcher.cgi?room=vt_train_2007_0808_1332_24 

The audio quality of the recording is only fair and sometimes there are hiccups that skip over a word or two, but the gist of things comes through okay.  If you want to get a sense of how more adept presenters than I have done, Webjunction has recordings of several of their Learning Webinars available online: http://vt.webjunction.org/do/Navigation?category=15543I learned a lot while doing these sessions and now feel like I could do something a little more formal with some real content — not just an intro to how the conferencing system works.  Mara Siegel and I are talking about putting together a session on one or another of the VOL resources.  I also think I will probably do some more informal things that allow people to have a conversation about and experiment with some online tool that interests them.

Thanks again to Rhonda, Mary, and Holly (my fellow experimenters).

Linda Hall’s message about the success of a program by Adam Hall at her library (Solomon Wright Public – Pownal) apparently generated inquiries about how to contact him and we have come up with this link to a page on his website that is geared specifically to schools and libraries: http://www.folksinging.org/schools-libraries.html  Connie at Cabot Public wrote that he was also performing at their library.  Also, Cyndi Candiloro (Readsboro Community Library) wrote about a presentation by Mina Samuels, the  author of Queen of Cups: “A  wonderful speaker she captivated the audience.  She comes highly recommended.  Her fee was very minimial.  If you have other questions please feel free to call me @ 802-423-5460.    Her website is www.thequeenofcups.com.”

If you want to share any of your programming successes, please feel free to tell us about them in the comments to this post.

Programs to bring men into the library

Amy Howlett sent a message with a long list of ideas for programs for men, both tried and true and untried.  She will be putting together a more formal set of programming ideas and posting the to the VT Continuing Ed. Discussions on WebJunctionVT.  Amy’s posting should also include Teresa Faust’s ideas for senior programming that were shared with attendees of Amy’s recent adult programming workshop.

Important Post Office (USPS) Change

Thanks to an alert from Jeremy Green of the Burnham Memorial Library in Colchester, Sybil McShane wrote about the USPS announced on July 19 effective July 30 concerning pick up by mail carriers of packages weighing more than 13 ounces with stamps on them (as opposed to postage meter strips).  The announcement from the post office reads:

Attention Postal Customer

Due to heightened security, the Postal Service™ is revising standards for depositing mail bearing only postage stamps as postage. Currently, all Priority Mail, International Mail, and APO/FPO mail bearing only postage stamps as postage and weighing 16 ounces or more may be:

• Presented to an employee at a Post Office™. 
• Picked up by a mail carrier during a delivery stop or during a scheduled stop made to collect other mail not subject to a pickup fee.

Effective July 30, 2007:

• All mail bearing only postage stamps as postage and weighing more than 13 ounces must be presented to an employee at a Postal Service retail service counter for acceptance. This mail may not be deposited in collection boxes or lobby drops.
• Carriers will no longer pick up any mail weighing more than 13 ounces bearing only postage stamps as postage from customer mailboxes or at a business’ outgoing mail collection point.
• Mail bearing only postage stamps as postage and weighing more than 13 ounces that is not presented to an employee at a Postal Service retail service counter will be returned to the customer.

If you have any additional questions, please call 800-ASK-USPS or contact your local postmaster.

Sybile writes that “This will obviously have an impact on you if you use stamps.  Packages weighing over 13 ounces it appears from this directive will have to be taken to the post office for mailing.

If you are interested the state does have a contract for postage meters with Pitney Bowes which like our book contracts local libraries can take advantage of.  It is effective until October 31, 2007.  A new contract is currently being negotiated.  The link is:

http://www.bgs.state.vt.us/PCA/contract/8896.pdf and http://www.pb.com/states/vermont

You should contact your local postmaster if you have questions.”

Ideas for Senior programming [Theres Faust]

Did your library have a great program geared toward seniors that worked really well? Have you heard a great idea from another library about serving older patrons? I would love to hear these ideas, to share them at upcoming DOL workshops. Please email me. Thanks!

Teresa

Teresa R. Faust
Special Services Consultant, Vermont Department of Libraries
578 Paine Turnpike North, Berlin, VT 05602
802.828.3273     800.479.1711 (in state)
teresa.faust@mail.dol.state.vt.us

Youth Services Grant [Amy Howlett by way of http://library.med.utah.edu/blogs/BHIC/ ]

Disney Minnie Grants Available to Support Youth Service Projects
Deadline: August 30, 2007
The Walt Disney Company ( http://www.disney.com <http://www.disney.com/>  ) and Youth Service America ( http://www.ysa.org <http://www.ysa.org/>  ) have announced grants of up to $500 each to support youth-led service projects. These grants support youth (ages 5-14) in planning and implementing service projects in their community. Teachers, older youth (15-25), youth-leaders, and youth-serving organizations are also eligible to apply, provided that they that engage younger youth (5-14) in planning and implementing the service. Service projects must take place between October 1 and November 26, 2007. Projects can address themes such as the environment, disaster relief, public health and awareness, community education, hunger, literacy, or any issue that youth identify as a community need. http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/10007919/YSA

Historic Preservation Grants  [Marianne Kotch]
Those of you interested in preserving your facilities may be eligible to apply for the 2008 State Historic Preservation Grant program.  In order to be eligible for matching grant for between $1,000 and $15,000, your building must be owned by a municipality or a nonprofit organization and must be listed on or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont.  The deadline for grants is September 29, 2007 (postmark date) or October 2, 2007 (delivery date).    Packets went out early this month.  To request a packet, call the state Division for Historic Preservation at 828-3043.   You can also check their website at http://www.HistoricVermont.org

Core Competecies Webinar[Sheila Kearns]

The direct link to this info is
http://vt.webjunction.org/do/Navigation?category=15543)

Hour-long webinar: July 25, 11:00 AM PDT/2:00 PM EDT

Core Competencies for Library Staff
Free via WebJunction’s Live Space

In this one hour webinar, we will explore competencies for library staff-how defining core competencies builds a foundation for identifying skills and knowledge gaps and leads to targeted training that will help keep libraries viable in the 21st century.

Note:  Also an opportunity to experience the WebJunctions LiveClassroom environment on your own.

Outreach Conference [Grace Greene]

The Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF), in cooperation with the Department of Libraries and the NH State Library, is sponsoring a one day conference on outreach for public librarians and bookmobile folks on September 21 in White River Junction:

Taking It on the Road Outreach Conference for Bookmobile or Library Staff & Volunteers
Friday, September 21, 2007
Briggs Opera House – White River Junction, VT

Co-sponsored by the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF),
New Hampshire State Library & Vermont Department of Libraries

This conference will provide support, inspiration and dozens of creative ideas to the staff and volunteers of bookmobiles and libraries across New Hampshire and Vermont.  Do you want to improve your library and bookmobile outreach activities? Then come join us! Our panelists are experts drawn from libraries and bookmobiles across the Twin States. Their ideas will simply be the starting point for a lively day of sharing stories about what works and what doesn’t. Come with stories, suggestions, and questions. The cost is $5 per person. Space is limited to the first 60 people to register.

For further information an registration details contact
Children’s Literacy Foundation • 1536 Loomis Hill Road • Waterbury Center, VT 05677
phone:  802/244-0944 email: childrens.literacy@verizon.net
To find out more about CLiF, visit www.clifonline.org <http://www.clifonline.org/>

Emerging Leaders[Marrianne Kotch]

The Emerging Leaders Initiative enables 120 new librarians to get on the fast track to ALA and professional leadership. Attendance at two conferences, mentoring, training, and leadership development.

For details go to:
http://wikis.ala.org/emergingleaders/index.php/2008_Emerging_Leaders_Program_Information

Incredible to see the videos submitted by VT libraries for Gale’s Librareo contest.  Thanks to Mary at the Proctor Library (Ascutney/Weathersfield for sharing the URL’s for the videos that her library submitted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doMYr0h-mT4 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k09pw9WZQQo

My simple-minded search on YouTube for ”librareo + vermont”  came up with one other video from Fletcher Memorial Library in Ludlow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWRXRHPuUz8 

 If you know of any others, let me know.  Maybe by then I will figure out if I can embed the video in the blog posting….

Thanks also to Nik Willever for pointing us to the librareo videos submitted by Norman Williams Public Library (NWPL/Woodstock).  You can go directly to the individual NWPL videos using these links:

“BARBARIAN LIBRARIANS”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgTZ-qcyd-Q

“UNEXPECTED”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOME-PTNXOE

“LIBRARY LEE’S LIBRARY OF JAZZ”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNlTqPzcY64

And how about this one from Johnson Elementary School:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO2muSDG7f8 

A big cheer for all the other VT libraries who submitted!!