Please don’t forget to go to http://webjunction.org/vt-ce for the Vermont Continuing Education Group.

After July 1 you will continue to have access to any courses in which you are enrolled, through your My Courses page, up to one year from enrollment date.

We encourage you to take advantage of the remaining allotment of courses available on WJ-VT through the end of June. If you have already enrolled in a number of courses, but have not finished them, we encourage you to hold off on enrolling in more courses at this time, in order to give an opportunity for other VT library staff to enroll in a course.

The VT Dept. of Libraries is looking at options for continuing to provide free/discounted courses to library staff in VT through WebJunction and other sources. More information will be available in the coming weeks. Content, discussions and calendar of events previously located under the VT Continuing Education tab will soon be found on the VT Continuing Education group on WJ Central. The group can be found at http://www.webjunction.org/833.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact mara.siegel@mail.dol.state.vt.us (802) 828-3261.

Thursday, December 4, 2008
9:30-12:00
Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston

Participants will learn the basic steps of creating a marketing plan using information from “Crash Course in Marketing for Libraries” by Susan Webreck Alman and the Certified Public Library Administration marketing course taught by Wayne Piper. Guest speaker Elizabeth Bluemle, co-owner of the Flying Pig Book Store, will share book store tips for merchandising and marketing outside and within the building. Bring along examples of your successful library marketing experiences to share with the group.

It is highly recommended that participants purchase and review “Crash Course in Marketing for Libraries” by Susan Webreck Alman before attending the workshop. ($30, ISBN-10: 1591584302, ISBN-13: 978-1591584308) This book outlines a marketing plan in less than 58 pages, with several appendices of real-life examples.

Contact Marti Fiske for information and to register, marti@williston.lib.vt.us or 802-878-4918. This workshop is sponsored by the Public Libraries Section of the Vermont Library Association.

October 7 (2-3 pm) (EST)
Visual Design: Theory & Best Practices for Library Websites (WebJunction)

Today, our users/patrons expect visually engaging and informative websites. The fonts, images, colors and styles of your web pages should support your mission, content, publicity and service goals. Join presenter Michael Leach as he highlights both theory and best practices that support a visually engaging website—what fonts should you choose; which styles work best for content presentation; what types of images and graphics convey information better; and how do colors influence users’ perceptions and use of a website.

For more information and to register for this program, visit:
http://evanced.info/webjunction/evanced/eventcalendar.asp

October 8 (2-3 pm) (EST)
Capturing Struggling and Reluctant Readers (Library Journal)

This informative webcast will bring together a panel of experts in reading, media center services, and children’s literacy, including school librarians, educators, and a representative from Capstone Press and Stone Arch Books to cover a range of processes, programs, and ideas that can bolster reading skills, comprehension, and literacy in the K-6 library and classroom. Attendees will learn best practices to engage struggling and reluctant readers, discover multi-level reading resources for classroom and school library integration, and pick up techniques and programming ideas that will encourage the use of fiction and nonfiction. Time will be reserved for Q&A at the end of the webcast.

For more information and to register for this program, visit:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/webcasts/48747/Webcasts.html

October 8 (2-3 pm) (EST)
Using MaintainIT Resources for Technology Training (MaintainIT)

Do you train library staff to use technology? If you do, please consider attending this free one hour webinar. Learn about resources for trainers and hear about training happening in the field.

For more information and to register for this program, visit:
https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/schedule/display.do?rfe=7sdkia97utgq&udc=8yml38uymdo1

October 9 (2-3 pm) (EST)
TWO Goal Posts: Library & Community (WebJuntion Rural Library Sustainability)

WebJunction and The Association for Rural and Small Libraries presents a free hour-long webinar focused on a topic important to the work of sustaining Rural and Small libraries. Jim Connor and Ellen Miller will facilitate, and will be joined by another veteran trustee, Patricia Fisher. Find out why you need to keep your eyes on TWO goal posts—the library and the community.

For more information and to register for this program, visit:
http://evanced.info/webjunction/evanced/eventcalendar.asp

October 10 (2-3 pm) (EST)
Structures for Facilitating Faculty Teaching Other Faculty Members (TLT Webinar)

Free webinar for academic librarians who work with faculty members.

For more information and to register for this program, visit:
http://www.tltgroup.org/calendar.htm

October 14 (1-2 pm) (EST)
Latinos and Public Library Perceptions (WebJuntion Spanish Language Outreach)

WebJunction, in partnership with the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, recently published a research report detailing the results of a six-state telephone survey of over 2,860 adult Latinos completed in early 2008. Learn about the findings and implications of the study from WebJunction’s Laura Staley and researchers from TRPI.

For more information and to register for this program, visit:
http://evanced.info/webjunction/evanced/eventcalendar.asp

October 15 (2-3 pm) (EST)
Conflict in a Peaceful Library (WebJunction)

Conflict happens! Many of us try to avoid it, some fight with it, some seem to enjoy it and still others seem to handle it with tact and skill. What*s the secret to effectively handling situations of conflict? How can we de-emotionalize ourselves to the situations so that we don’t get caught up in them? Join Andrew Sanderbeck as he explores our dealings with others in the library by defining the conflict situation and using one of three approaches to successfully handle or resolve it. If you don*t like to be yelled at by other people, you*ll really enjoy this fun and interactive webinar.

For more information and to register for this program, visit:
http://evanced.info/webjunction/evanced/eventcalendar.asp

October 16 (2-2:30 pm) (EST)
Get Your Game On (MaintainIT Cookbook Webinar)

Join Lori Reed for “Get Your Game On: Quick Tips to Start a Gaming Program in Your Library”. Lori is Employee Learning Coordinator at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg, will lead this fast-paced and interactive session introducing the idea of gaming programs in libraries. Hear what others have done, share your experiences, and think about what you might want to do in the future. Take 30 minutes out of your day to learn from the experiences of others and get something started. This is a part of the MaintainIT Cookbook webinar series where contributors to the Cookbooks share their insights, their secrets, and what you can do to get started with projects like theirs.

For more information and to register for this program, visit:
http://evanced.info/webjunction/evanced/eventcalendar.asp

October 23 (2-3 pm) (EST)
Refugees 101 (WebJunction)

In 1975 the United States began accepting large numbers of refugees in response to the Fall of Saigon. Over the next 33 years approximately 2.6 million refugees have been resettled in this country, and many of these individuals are now using our libraries. Join Valerie Wonder, Immigrant & Refugee Programs Manager at Seattle Public Library (WA) and Homa Naficy Manager of Multicultural Education and Outreach Services at Hartford Public Library (CT) as they provide an overview of refugee resettlement in the United States including information on recent refugee populations. She will also highlight some successful approaches to serving refugees in public libraries. Before working for SPL, Valerie was the Community Programs Manager for the International Rescue Committee’s Seattle office where she specialized in refugee services.

For more information and to register for this program, visit:
http://evanced.info/webjunction/evanced/eventcalendar.asp

October 24 (4-5:30 pm) (EST)
Cooperation for the Collection: Integrating ILL and Acquisitions Workflows (BCR)

As budgets get tighter and users more savvy, many libraries are blurring the line between resource sharing and collection development by purchasing items requested on interlibrary loan rather than requesting them through traditional resource sharing models. In this Free Friday Forum, we will host a panel of librarians who currently have programs based on this model. Panelists will discuss the costs and benefits of and their experience with purchase-on-demand programs. The session will also have time for questions from the attendees.

For more information and to register for this program, visit:
http://www.bcr.org/training/schedule/programdetail.php?programid=272

Judith Flint’s example gives me hope – despite the challenges on both sides of the border and in the wider world as our necessary war on terror continues. While I have never met her – and probably never will – I am confident that to the children and families in Randolph she is a true friend.

Read the commentary at VPR or hear the podcast.

There’s one week left till the launch of the summer session of Vermont’s 23 Things. Get your garden planted and join us on June 23rd!

For those of you who are still working on the winter session of Vermont’s 23 Things, I will be turning off the links on The 23 Things page on Wednesday, June 18th for construction and turning the first few back on June 23rd. I will then unveil the rest of the weeks a few at a time. (If this causes any problems for anyone, please let me know ASAP.)

For those of you who intend to participate, you will register for the program when you do Thing 4 (Register your blog.)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Vermont’s 23 Things…

If you’ve ever been curious about blogs, wikis, flickr, RSS, MySpace, and YouTube, but haven’t gone beyond looking up their definitions, Vermont’s 23 Things is a chance to explore those tools (and more!)

Vermont’s 23 Things is a self-directed online learning program that will introduce you to many Web 2.0 tools. It will encourage you to play with them and see how they can be useful in your library (or personally).

To see more, click on Vermont’s 23 Things or cut and paste vermontlibrarieslearn.wordpress.com into your browser window.

Please distribute this e-mail among your co-workers and I apologize for any duplicate postings.

If you have any questions about Vermont’s 23 Things, please contact Mara Siegel.
e-mail: mara.siegel@mail.dol.state.vt.us
phone: 828-3261

I especially want to get in a few thanks to folks who really brightened up my conference:

• My DOL colleagues who did their stints at the exhibit with me, especially Teresa Faust who stuck in there during the quiet times and, as always, had plenty of good cheer and humor to contribute to the conversation.
• Kit Greening our WebJunction Partner Development Manager who came to the conference to spend some time with us at the exhibit and to get us thinking about the changes that will be coming on Webjunction later this summer
• Jean Fournier from St. Johnsbury Academy who always lifts my spirits and has such interesting things to discuss.
• Larraby Fellows who was kind to cheer me on for setting up the VLC2008 Flickr group and to encourage the VLC2008 tagging. Some photos other than my own have started showing up and Larraaby tells me that we should also be seeing the photos taken by the “official” conference photographer.
• Jerry Carbone for the brief but very useful conversation that we had about the linux public access workstations in his library, Brooks Memorial in Brattleboro, and about his library using TechAtlas to do their technology planning.
• Marjorie Shane for getting tracking down our paperwork for the exhibit and staying on it with the conference Internet provider to get my connection up and running.
• Anyone and everyone who humored me by answering my stock question, “So what fun things have you been doing at the conference?”

I still need to get in and clean up some of the pictures on Flickr, add some descriptions, remove the really poor ones, and fill in some names.  Maybe I will have a chance to do that next week when I head to lovely Dublin, Ohio to spend some time with other WebJunction community partners playing in the new WJ sandbox.

After a lovely walk on the Burlington waterfront, I arrived back at the hotel in time to join the “still standing” team for the pub trivia event. Unfortunately we were not the winning team. That honor went to the “Bat Girls.”

Now I am off to see if I can get some pics of actual sessions during my brief escape from the exhibit hall.