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February 23, 2007

NJLA Activities for the Week of Feb. 26, 2007

Get Involved With NJLA. Here's what happening this week.

Monday, Feb. 26 NJLA Investments Committee. Somerset County Library, Bridgewater at 10:00 am. For more information contact Mark Titus, chair at mtitus@hclibrary.us

Wednesday, Feb. 28 NJLA Professional Development Committee. Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative Office at 10:00. For more information contact Peter Bromberg at bromberg@sjrlc.org

Thursday, March 1 NJLA Personnel Administration Committee. Willingboro Public Library at 10:00 am. For more information contact Dale Spindel, Committee co-chair at dale@lmxac.org or Karen Yannetta, Committee co-chair at kyannetta@bernardsvillelibrary.org

Friday, March 2 NJLA College and University Section/ACRL New Jersey Chapter.
Meeting teleconferences from Montclair State University and Rutgers, New Brunswick at 10:00 am. Members can attend either location.

For more information contact Nicole Cooke, Section President at cooken@mail.montclair.edu

Friday, March 2, NJLA Public Policy Committee at Princeton Public Library at 10:00. For more information contact John Hurley, committee chair at jhurley@woodbridgelibrary.org

Posted by tumulty at 3:48 PM | Comments (0)
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February 21, 2007

Let's Get In Some Nominations From New Jersey

ALA-APA is looking for some great library workers. We have plenty here in New Jersey, so why not nominate them. This is a terrific way to recognize outstanding library staff. See below for details:

Submit a Star for National Library Workers Day on April 17, 2007

CHICAGO - Start the celebration early for National Library Workers Day (NLWD) by submitting information about your favorite worker and what makes him or her special to the NLWD Stars Web site - www.ala-apa.org/about/nlwdstarsform.html. NLWD is celebrated on Tuesday, April 17, during the American Library Association (ALA)-sponsored National Library Week.

NLWD is sponsored by ALA-APA: the Organization for the Advancement of Library Workers, which advocates for improving the salaries and status of librarians and support staff.
NLWD Stars will be featured on the National Library Workers Day site for one year. Stars will also be honored at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC. Download the free NLWD poster from http://www.ala-apa.org/about/nlwd_poster.pdf, which tells patrons, trustees, and colleagues how to submit a Star. Self-nominations are accepted.

The deadline for submission is April 17.

NLWD is a day for library staff, users, administrators and Friends groups to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers. Ideas for how to celebrate in your library are here: http://www.ala-apa.org/about/ideas.html and http://www.ala-apa.org/about/NLWDflyer07.pdf (large file).

Proud of the work you do? Shop at the ALA-APA NLWD Online Store - http://www.cafepress.com/ala_apa - for t-shirts, buttons, mugs and posters that proclaim “Libraries Work Because We Do”.

Libraries are encouraged to use National Library Workers Day to focus on the value of their staff: individuals or units responsible for the number of materials selected, acquired, cataloged, checked out and back in, and shelved; for handling requests and sending them to other libraries; for answering reference questions; for planning, publicizing and presenting programs; for developing and maintaining the library's Web site; for managing the library and for other elements of library service.

Customizable tools and materials in English and Spanish to help libraries promote National Library Workers Day in their local media are available on the ALA-APA Web site at www.ala-apa.org/about/nlwd.html.
The list of NLWD Stars, will be updated weekly. Contact the ALA-APA Office to tell us how you will be celebrating - 800-545-2433, x2424 or jgrady@ala.org.

Equal Pay Day, on April 24, 2007, is closely related to NLWD because libraries are staffed predominately by women, and library workers tend to be underpaid. Equal Pay Day highlights the gap between the wages of men and women. For more information, see the NCPE website at www.pay-equity.org.

National Library Week (April 15-21) press materials, programming suggestions and display ideas can be found on the ALA Web site at http://www.ala.org/ala/pio/natlibraryweek/nlw.htm in both English and Spanish. The theme for 2007 is “Come Together @ your library®.” The site includes a link to National Library Week products available from ALA Graphics, including posters, bookmarks and key chains.
Let’s celebrate the wonderful work of library employees on that day because, after all, Libraries Work Because We Do.

Pat Tumulty, NJLA Executive Director
ptumulty@njla.org

Posted by tumulty at 7:24 PM | Comments (0)
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February 16, 2007

NJLA Activities for the week of Feb. 19, 2007

Get involved with NJLA.

As the NJLA Executive Director, I will be posting NJLA events for the upcoming week. This is my first entry to the blog, so be patient with me.

Monday, Feb. 19, NJLA Office closed for the Presidents' Day.

Tuesday, Feb. 20, NJLA Executive Board Meeting. Our second "Cyber" meeting. Locations will be Cherry Hill Public Library and William Paterson University. All are welcome.

Wednesday, Feb. 21, NJLA Membership Committee will be holding an online meeting. For further information contact Eric Zino at zino@PALINET.org

Thursday, Feb. 22 NJLA Technical Services Section Meeting., Fairleigh Dickinson University, For further information contact Susan Muntz at muntz@bccls.org

-- Pat Tumulty

Posted by tumulty at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)
Category: Executive Director

February 6, 2007

2007 Garden State Teen Book Award Winners!

At the January YA Services Section meeting, Kimberly Paone announced the winners of the 2007 Garden State Teen Book Awards. The winning titles in each category are:

Fiction, Grades 6-8: Al Capone Does My Shirts, by Gennifer Choldenko

Fiction, Grades 9-12: Splintering, by Eireann Corrigan

Nonfiction, Grades 6-12: The Book of Bunny Suicides, by Andy Riley

Congratulations to the three winners, who will be honored at a special luncheon at NJLA's Spring Conference in April.

Posted by at 2:01 PM | Comments (0)
Category: GSTBA

The American Community Survey from the U.S. Census

“Helping you make informed decisions” is a motto of the Census Bureau, just as it is a mission of libraries. As the country undergoes rapid demographic changes, decennial census figures do not represent current realities, so, to create a better basis for decision making, the American Community Survey came into being. On August 8, 2006, at the Camden County Library, November 13, 2006, at the CJRLC office, and on January 25, 2007, at the Morris County Library, Whittona Burrell, from the Bureau’s Philadelphia office, which covers southern New Jersey, and Rosemarie Fogarty, from the New York office, which takes care of northern New Jersey, explained the aims, data collection methods, and use of the ACS. The programs were cosponsored by the NJLA Reference Section, SJRLC, CJRLC and HRLC.

Because awareness of the American Community Survey is not widespread, many citizens receiving forms fear privacy invasion and other scams. Librarians are asked to spread the word that this is a legitimate endeavor, benefiting communities. As with all Census surveys, responding is mandatory.

No longer will the Census “long form” be distributed; the continuously compiled American Community Survey replaces it. About three million addresses are selected annually. Demographic, economic, housing, and social characteristics of geographic areas in the United States and Puerto Rico can be researched. Librarians planning services and collections will take particular interest in data about age, education, language spoken at home, disability status, time required to commute to work, race, gender, sexual orientation, and income level, but much more detail is provided in narrative form, tables, and maps.

Comparisons between the previous Census reports and the American Community Survey will have to be made with care. For example, the decennial Census surveys people, while the ACS concerns itself with households. Rewording of questions means that, for example, reports of income are not quite comparable, as the decennial Census asked about income in the previous calendar year, while the ACS asks about the previous twelve months, and, since the forms are distributed throughout the year, those months can be very different from January through December. The ACS inquires as to residence during the previous two months, while the decennial Census generally looks at a person’s usual residence (college towns will have different numbers). Data from the ACS is available for geographic areas with a total population of at least 65,000; smaller communities must wait until 2008 and every three years thereafter for compilations of data about their environments.

In spite of some inconsistencies, the American Community Survey promises to serve as a powerful new tool. Visit www.census.gov/acs/www to try it out. For more information or guidance, especially in respect to New Jersey information, contact either the New Jersey State Library, www.njstatelib.org/Ask_a_Librarian/ask_jerseyana.php or refdesk@njstatelib.org or The Newark Public Library, 973-733-7775 or reference@npl.org . For additional assistance, please be in touch with The Newark Public Library Reference Desk, 973-733-7779 or reference@npl.org, or regional Census offices, Philadelphia.Regional.Office@census.gov or new.york.regional.office@census.gov .

Leslie Kahn
Newark Public Library

Posted by mowyn at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)
Category: Reference