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June 20, 2007

International Librarianship

Posted on behalf of Lisa Coats--

On June 14th the Reference Section presented a program hosted by Monmouth University Library. It was attended by 26 people including librarians from public, medical, special and academic libraries, as well as a few library science students.

After a networking session over coffee, Lisa Coats, a Librarian at MU Library and a member of the Reference Section, gave a tour of the library. Part of the beautiful building was originally a summer ‘cottage’ designed for Murry and Leonie Guggenheim in 1903 and completed in 1905. Leonie passed away in 1959 (Murry died in 1939) and the estate was conveyed to then Monmouth College in 1960. Some modifications were made to convert the home into a library and it was dedicated as the Murry and Leonie Guggenheim Memorial Library on September 24, 1961. In 1978 it was entered into the National Register of Historic Places.

Years later, after the completion of a 14 million dollar restoration and renovation project completed in 2005, the mansion is finally more equipped to house a university collection, while maintaining much of the original structure for administrative, circulation, and reference space. It is now known as the Monmouth University Library, though many of the offices, study rooms and the Library Café are considered part of the “Guggenheim Wing”.

The tour concluded in the Instructional Lab where Dr. Ravindra Sharma, the Dean of MU Library, spoke on the development of international librarianship and its importance in the twenty-first century. Dr. Sharma began his talk by giving a brief introduction on the beginning of libraries and presented the history of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). He also espoused on his visits to libraries in Asia, Africa, Middle East, Mexico, Northern Ireland, and France. Dr. Sharma encouraged the attendees to get involved with IFLA, read and write for journals on international librarianship, and to urge the American Library Association (ALA) to focus more on librarianship outside of the United States. He entertained questions at the end of his talk and joined the group for lunch where he continued the discussion.

The NJLA Reference Section would like to thank Dr. Sharma for speaking and for hosting this successful event.

Posted by reference at 4:26 PM | Comments (0)
Category: Reference

Take 5 Minutes - Support Emergency Legislation to Remove Municipal Libraries from the Levy Cap....

Go! Do it! NOW!

Support emergency legislation to remove municipal libraries from the levy cap . . .
THERE IS A VOTE TOMORROW!

I just wanted to share the link to look up your legislator - it is EASY! You can look on the right side by alphabetical list, municipality, district, etc...

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp

You get your district and you click on that to see the people and contact info.

I JUST CALLED them - I have always e-mailed in these cases but today I CALLED because I had just been in one of the webinars on WebJunction for the Spanish Language Outreach Program with some people who talked about advocating.
PHONE CALLS ARE MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE than e-mails!

It only took me about 5 minutes!
The people are nice! They want these calls.

I identified myself as a librarian living and/or working in the district and asked for them to support the emergency legislation to remove municipal libraries from the levy cap. I said there is a vote tomorrow. They already knew what I was talking about! They took my name and seemed very interested to hear from me.

You either leave a message or talk to an assistant who takes the information.

REALLY - it took me less than five minute total for me to call three people!

PLEASE CALL!

Original message from Pat Tumulty:

CRITICAL UPDATE, MUNICIPAL CAP LEVY EXEMPTION.

We need your assistance right now to contact your NJ State Senators. Not tomorrow. Right now. Please ask your state senator to support emergency legislation which would allow an adjustment to levy cap calculations for local public library funding.

When the new municipal cap levy legislation was passed this year, municipal libraries were included as part of the calculation for the levy cap. This, unfortunately, created an inequity for the 245 communities which support municipal libraries. Communities which support county libraries have library expenditures excluded from the municipal levy because county libraries are funded by a dedicated tax and, therefore, outside the levy cap.

New Jersey League of Municipalities, the New Jersey Library Association and the NJ State Library have been working for a month on what we hoped would be a solution to this issue by adding language to state budget bill. Unfortunately, we were told last Friday, that this solution would not work and that we would need legislation. We must correct this inequity before July 1 because urban communities begin a new budget year on that date and would become subject to the levy cap. All other communities will be impacted with the budgets beginning on Jan. 1, 2008.

The Assembly, under the leadership of Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman, will consider emergency legislation to exempt municipal libraries from the cap legislation TOMORROW- Thursday, June 21. We have every indication that there is support for this legislation.

We are less certain of Senate approval, and we have learned that the Senate will cancel next week’s scheduled meetings and recess for the Summer. Therefore, it is imperative that this legislation pass tomorrow.

We must have this emergency legislation enacted in the Senate before the Legislature goes on summer break.

Please contact your State Senator’s legislative office today and tell them you support emergency legislation to remove municipal libraries from the levy cap and that it must be enacted before summer recess.

Pat Tumulty, Executive Director
New Jersey Library Association
ptumulty@njla.org
609-394-8032

UPDATE: Today's letter from Pat Tumulty.

TO: NJLA LISTSERV MEMBERS

FROM: PAT TUMULTY, NJLA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

RE: LEGISLATIVE UPDATE, JUNE 22, 2007

First, what you want to know. Unfortunately, our efforts to get emergency resolutions passed yesterday in the Legislature to remove library funding from the levy cap were unsuccessful. It is my understanding that there will be continued talks about removing libraries through the waiver process which currently exists in the law. We will let you know what is happening as things progress.

Now, let me reflect on the past ten days here in Trenton. I will use that famous phrase,

“ It was the best of times and it was the worst of times.”

On June 13, we became aware that funding for the Knowledge Initiative would be reduced by $ 1 million, a very significant cut in this program. We also became aware that there was a resolution by Assemblyman Russo to remove municipal libraries from the cap levy through budget language. This is something which we supported. Both of these issues were critical to the library community. It just seemed natural that the State Library would take the lead in trying to restore the KI funding and NJLA take the lead with the cap issue. I testified on both of these issues on June 15, 2007. I will make sure that copies of my testimony are on the website shortly.

Susan Kaplan, the manager of the KI program, did an outstanding job organizing testimony regarding the impact of the funding reduction for KI. Supporters attended public hearings on the budget on June 15 and June 18. Unfortunately, no changes in the budget were made but the library community made an impression. Assembly Budget chairman Lou Greenwald said this is a program which really should be expanded and indicated that he would work with the library community on this important issue.

Now, the cap issue. On Friday, June 15, NJLA and the NJ League of Municipalities, through its Executive Director Bill Dressel, prepared a joint letter to Chairman Lou Greenwald indicating we supported the budget resolution to remove library funding from the cap levy. By the end of the day, we told this would not happen in the budget. On Sunday evening, we decided to try plan B and get an emergency resolution passed by both houses of the Legislature and signed by the Governor. This is an extremely difficult and unusual thing to do but we felt it was our only chance. On Monday, June 18th we started with no sponsors and no language but we felt we had legislative support.

I want to explain to you something getting things done in Trenton. You need the complete agreement of the leadership and staff in Assembly, of the leadership and staff in Senate and the Governor’s office. If one of these groups doesn’t want it to happen, it won’t. As advocates, we often don’t know who is actually making the final decision. We were very fortunate to get the support of Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman to sponsor a resolution in the Assembly and Senator Barbara Buono as the Senate sponsor. We understand there was bipartisan in both houses of the Legislature. We had support within the Governor’s office but, in the end, someone didn’t what this to happen last night and without complete agreement it did not come forward.

I want to commend our partner in this effort, Bill Dressel, Executive Director of the NJ League of Municipalities. He was absolutely wonderful. This truly a partnership effort with both organizations sending out legislative alerts to our members on this critical issue. He was everywhere with us on this issue. I hope you will let your municipal officials know who much we appreciate his hard work.

Now, I want to thank all of you who took the time to call or fax your legislators to support KI funding and the cap levy issue. You truly raised the visibility of libraries here in Trenton this week. Please take the time to thank all of the people you contacted on these issues. Let them know their efforts on our behalf were deeply appreciated and that we will need them in the future to support library issues.

I am very disappointed with the outcome of our efforts this week but I am so proud of your efforts to advocate for library services here in New Jersey.

Ok, now into the car to drive to DC. I hope all of you who are going will travel safely. More updates soon and thanks again.

Pat Tumulty, Executive Director

New Jersey Library Association

ptumulty@njla.org

609-394-8032

Are you a member of NJLA? If not, join today! http://www.njla.org

Posted by Amy Kearns at 2:39 PM | Comments (0)
Category: Legislation & Lobbying

June 15, 2007

Not Attending ALA? Here's an Alternative...

This is posted many places but I want to be sure that no one misses it!
This is FREE and doesn't require you to leave the comfort of your home or use any gas!!!

Not able to attend ALA but still want to find out what's going on in cutting edge technology and social software!? Well check out the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase...

From their page:

The Social Software Showcase is an online unconference occurring on and during the time of ALA Annual 2007.

On this wiki, you will find eleven wonderful presentations on cutting edge technology and social software by librarians and leaders in the field. Regardless of where you are in the world, you will have the opportunity to discuss the presentations here in this space.

We will also be having a face to face roundtable discussion with some of our presenters at ALA Annual in Washington D.C. on Saturday, June 23rd, from 1:30-2:30 in the Renaissance Mayflower Cabinet Room. If you are in D.C. please come and join us.

This wiki will be a work in progress as we iron out a few things, including the embedding of the presentations. But we'll be ready and running before ALA! [end]

This is a revolutionary way of presenting information! Please do check it out.

The presenters include the VERY excellent:

Michael Casey - Library Crunch blog
Michael Porter, aka Library Man! - Library Man blog
Jessamyn West - Librarian.net blog -
Karen Schneider - Free Range Librarian blog
Her post on this.
AND MORE!

You can read another excellent post on this for some more information on the Information Wants to Be Free blog here

The Bigwig Social Software Showcase is here

Check it out! :-)

Happy Weekend!

Posted by Amy Kearns at 9:03 AM | Comments (0)
Category: ALA Library 2.0 Technology

June 8, 2007

YA Services Section Meeting Dates & Locations

Posted on behalf of Jeri Gunther, incoming YA Services Section President:

Attention, teen-serving librarians -- mark your calendars!

The dates and locations for the 2007-2008 meetings of the YA Services Section have been set.

All meetings are on Fridays, as follows:

September 28, at Old Bridge Public Library
November 2, at Old Bridge Public Library
January 25, at South Brunswick Public Library
February 22, at South Brunswick Public Library
March 28, at South Brunswick Public Library
May 2, at South Brunswick Public Library

The September, November, and May meetings begin with coffee at 9:30 AM, followed by our business meeting from 10-12.

The close of the May meeting will be followed by our traditional, delicious annual potluck luncheon.

The January, February, and March meetings include discussion of titles for the 2009 Garden State Teen Book Awards ballot, so coffee is at 9:00, the business meeting begins at 9:30, and GSTBA discussion goes on until we're done.

Hope to see you all there!

Posted by at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)
Category: Young Adult Services

June 3, 2007

Back to the Future

Tomorrow those who attended the Mid-Atlantic Library Futures Conference will reconvene at the Princeton Public Library. We have had a chance to think a bit about all we took in and this should be a great opportunity for us to get together and talk about everything again. We will also brainstorm about what ideas affected us the most and try to discern some paths for NJ to take into the future! I'll be blogging more about that after the meeting.

The hand-outs and materials from the conference are now available. Take a look here.

Posted by Amy Kearns at 11:27 PM | Comments (0)
Category: Library 2.0 Technology

June 1, 2007

Start your Illustrated Literature collection!

Tammy Lee, of the Clark Public Library, spoke persuasively at the NJLA conference about the usefulness of creating a separate collection for longer picture books.

We all know that there are high quality books on our shelves in terms of content and art that, because of their picture book format, don’t often get found by the potential readers who would enjoy them the most.

Time and again, we watch adults steer their children away from picture books, once children become readers, as if there were a stigma associated with picture books.

We librarians can deliver the opposite message by separating longer picture books, or Illustrated Literature, as Tammy Lee refers to them, from the preschool-level picture books.

Start your own library’s Illustrated Literature collection, and get these gems circulating.

Tammy Lee's excellent powerpoint presentation is currently accessible on the NJLA website; check the April 25 presentations here, www.njla.org/conference/2007/presentations/
--
Kathy Muhm
Westfield Memorial Library

Posted by childrens at 6:02 AM | Comments (0)
Category: Children's Services