Category: Conference 2007

May 11, 2007

15 Fantastic Freebies in 50 Minutes from Janie L. Hermann and Bob Keith

Posted on behalf of my good friend and fellow-blogger, Janie L. Hermann -

The slides for the presentation given at NJLA this year by Janie and Bob Keith are available archived at SlideShare. (PS SlideShare is really cool - check it out! - AJK).

Janie has also graciously made them available for quick and easy viewing here on the Library Garden blog! Enjoy!


Posted by Amy Kearns at 4:18 PM | Comments (0)

May 1, 2007

Play It Forward: Helene Blowers at the 2007 NJLA Conference:

Thanks to Leslie Kahn, Newark Public Library, for sharing her thoughts on Helene Blowers' presentations at NJLA

In an age of Accountability and Consequences (both usually conceived in terms not quite favorable to trusting our colleagues), Helene Blowers, Director of Technology at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, in North Carolina worked with her colleagues to inject more joy of learning into the workplace, where we spend so much time. Ongoing scanning of our environments and learning how best to interact with their rich diversity is now intrinsic to library work, and we want to feel, not overwhelmed, but wowed by new opportunities.

In her first program at the NJLA 2007 conference, on Tuesday, April 24th, Ms. Blowers discussed “Core Competencies in the Era of Library 2.0.” At her library, “The 4 E’s” have been developed as a framework for staff development:

These E’s of Education become, not just e’s, but ease and fluid functioning of activities so that staff and public can share and create knowledge, community, and general welfare and happiness…with energy and enthusiasm –and fun.

The more we expose ourselves to innovations, the more we discover about ourselves, tapping previously unexplored talents and interests, even as we notice where we may feel like strangers in a strange land (thereby cultivating compassion for others in the same boat). Helene Blowers’ Tuesday afternoon program at the conference. “Discovering Library 2.0 Through Learning 2.0” was revelatory. Libraries have always been about sharing (traditionally communities sharing books), and Helene Blowers has just taken this cooperation to another dimension of collective intelligence, as staff encourage each other’s learning programs of 15 minutes a day of exploration.

As we engage with technologies and each other, Helene Blowers always emphasizes play. Just as libraries offer education and entertainment, now librarians and other staff are also having fun: and happy employees are good employees. Administrators will be pleased too at the very low cost of Learning 2.0.

To get a better sense of her insights into lifelong learning, library esprit de corps, and the intersection (and teamwork) of individual journeys and the future of libraries—please visit her wonderful blog, Library Bytes, at www.librarybytes.com and see the April 23 link to slides from her NJLA presentations:

More information is at:

Posted by at 3:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The State of the State Library

First of all, I think this was a brilliant program title and I think it should be given on a consistent basis in some format or forum. There seems to be a "The State of the ______" for everything - and The State of the State Library is just so perfect!

Norma Blake - who I'm proud to say is one of the few (if not the only) State Librarians with a blog! - presented on many aspects of the State Library and the New Jersey Library Network .

Nancy Dowd (who has a fantastic blog The "M" Word - Marketing Libraries!) was the moderator and kept the excitement level high with quizzes and prizes, and Kathleen Moeller-Peiffer, the new Associate State Librarian and Director of the New Jersey Library Development Bureau was on-hand to tell us all the information every New Jersey librarian needs to know!

And, in case you didn't know, the State Library was among five libraries honored for outstanding YouTube library-related video production at the Computers in Libraries Conference 2007 as part of the first InfoTubey Awards.
Check out the video here!

And keep your eyes on the Library Development Bureau - they have a YouTube / Comic Contest coming soon!

Posted by Amy Kearns at 12:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Helene Blowers: Adopt a Continuous Play Strategy!

Helene Blowers presented Core Competencies and Core Values in the Era of Library 2.0 and also Discovering Library 2.0 and has made the slides of these two NJLA Conference 2007 presentations available via a great sharing site called SlideShare.net.- You can access them through her site LibraryBytes which I highly recommend you keep your eyes on!

Read on for more on these two presentations ....

Having watched Helene Blowers' webinar Learning 2.0 : Make "play" your New Year's resolution on the SirsiDynixInstitute as a sort-of "assignment" for a committee I am on, I was very excited to realize that she would be presenting at NJLA!

That webinar introduced me to the Learning 2.0 program she created for the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, which was a great success and has been duplicated (freely, as kindly made available for the taking by Ms. Blowers) in many places. In two seperate sessions at the conference, Ms. Blowers presented Core Competencies and Core Values in the Era of Library 2.0 and also Discovering Library 2.0.

It sounds to me like Helene Blowers has a fantastic job: Technology Director! And I am sure that working for or with her must be a lot of fun - afterall this is the woman who says,

"...librarians really do need to adopt a “continuous play strategy” in order to keep their skills and knowledge fresh."

CORE COMPETENCIES, CORE VALUES IN THE ERA OF LIBRARY 2.0

I think the important "take-aways" here are:

- A big change, or "technology wave," has already occurred - it's happened and now we need to provide staff with some development programs to give them the ability to cope
- This staff development must be a continuous process since new employees come in
- Start with the basics and build from there, i.e., using e-mail, the intranet, printing, saving, etc.
- Make the training system-wide so everyone knows this is a really important initiative with support from the "higher-ups;" it is a priority
- If you put technology in, you should "build-in" a component for getting staff comfortable with it
- Enable and empower employees by educating them in these ways!

Take a look at the slides to see the staff development system that was implemented (and very successful!) at PLCMC. Libraries have core competencies for many things, but we need one for technology too. Maybe you can adopt this model for your library.

DISCOVERING LIBRARY 2.0

Helene Blowers created a Learning 2.0 program for the staff at PLCMC with the goal of giving staff exposure to (not neccesarily mastery over) these new Web 2.0 tools.

The focus was EXPOSING staff to new tools; ENCOURAGING play; EMPOWERING individuals; EXPANDING their knowledge toolbox; and ELIMINATING fear.

She created a list of "23 Things" for the staff to do to give them exposure to tools such as blogging, photo-sharing, rss feeds, tagging, and maybe most importantly, how to become life-long learners so that they develop methods for keeping themselves "in the loop" as more new things come down the road at them.

The driving force behind this approach is to develop an effective way of motivating and guiding self-paced actitivies so you get the most bang for your training buck!

Take a look at the slides from this presentation and yes, you can "steal this program" and try it in your own library!

Posted by Amy Kearns at 11:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 30, 2007

GSTBA Luncheon

Gennifer Choldenko cited an article in the San Francisco Chronicle as the inspiration for her GSTBA winner, Al Capone Does my Shirts. The article made mention of children who lived on Alcatraz while it operated as a prison (the premise of the book revolves around 12-year-old Moose and his family who move to Alcatraz when his father gets a job as an electrician). Gennifer began her research, interviewing former inmates. She asked herself, “Why is this my book to write.” Gennifer had an autistic sister and made the connection between prisoners trapped behind bars and autistic people trapped in their minds, hence the autistic character in Al Capone (Moose’s sister). It took her 5 years and 6 major revisions before the book was ready. She credits her editor for the fabulous outcome. I met Gennifer in the Author’s Alley and she is just lovely.

Eireann Corrigan appreciated receiving the GSTBA in the 9 - 12 grade category for Splintering because it was teen selected. As primarily a teacher and then a writer, Corrigan stressed the importance of YA librarians and commented on its changing and increasingly important role in the lives of young people, citing teen spaces as a refuge. As a high school teacher, she loves directing kids to good books and telling them why they are good; Librarians help kids choose what books will become important to them.

Bruce Coville touched on many important issues intermittently acting the storyteller. He cited children’s books as the last refuge of good role models. In the absence of parental presence in a consumer driven society, Librarians now act as the Guardians of Dreams. He also pointed out the absence of male role models asking: who teaches children to read? Who reviews books? Who works in librarians? The answer is, of course, that women predominately fill these roles. “If we valued our children, ball players would be paid like teachers and librarians, and teachers and librarians would be paid like ball players.” Children as actually despised by our culture. Today, they are consumers, stripped of any opportunity to meaningfully contribute to society. Currency is power. Adult men have power, kids have none and women are in the middle. We live in a short-term society where real power is long term. Coville urged children’s authors to find the balance between action/comedy (preferred by males) and relationship/interaction (preferred by females) to take children to new places with their storytelling, and for us all to remember, our disapproval is a powerful influence to young minds.

Nicole Politi
Young Adult Services
Ocean County Library, Toms River Branch

Posted by at 5:28 PM | Comments (1)

"Let's Mambo at the Library" slides

Just in case you missed Bob Rynkiewicz's presention on “Website Content Management Systems” at the NJLA Conference, he posted the .ppt slides. They are now available on his website, http://www.joomlainlibrary.com/.

- JP (blog.bellepl.org)

Posted by porcaro at 12:58 PM | Comments (0)

April 27, 2007

Incorporating Tutorials Into Library Instruction

Eleonora Dubicki, Monmouth University
Annemarie Roscello, Bergen Community College
Ruth Hamann, Passaic County Community College

Eleonora opened the presentation with an overview of how library instruction has evolved. Lectures and handouts have been replaced by tutorials and hands-on practice. The types of tutorials vary in format from simple handouts such as a PDF on using WilsonWeb, to EBSCO’s Basic Searching Powerpoint slides, to interactive content seen in the University of Wisconsin’s CLUE multimedia tutorial, http://clue.library.wisc.edu/

Annemarie continued with showing a graphic illustrating the most effective learning (75%) takes place when students ‘practice doing.’ She also encouraged us to incorporate gaming into learning as this will engage the learner more. Additional challenging questions posed for the audience were, ‘what can we do to improve learning and retention without becoming programmers?’

Rounding out this presentation, Ruth introduced us to the ARCS Model of Model of Motivation for Instructional design by John Keller. We need to rely on and use the tools of instructional design: attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction as we design and create tutorials for our students.

A discussion of vendor-produced tutorials versus in-house production followed. The User Education Committee of ACRL/NJLA conducted a comprehensive review and evaluation of online database tutorials both vendor-created and library/librarian created. This valuable table was included as a handout. Some sites Ruth showed included the following:
Guess-the-Google, http://grant.robinson.name/projects/guess-the-google/guess-the-google.swf an image guess game.
An engaging tutorial on business research from Baruch College: http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/tutorials/zicklin/research/

posted by Chris Herz, Gloucester County College

Posted by at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)

More Captivating Your Audience

The session was a smorgasbord of how librarians are using Captivate in a variety of teaching settings. Four presentations were packed into the 50-minute allotted time. This User Education Committee sponsored-session gave a great value for your limited conference time! I opened the program with the following:

Creating Image Movies: More Than a Simple Slideshow
Chris Herz, Gloucester County College

Instead of PowerPoint use Captivate to create an image movie. To the resulting movie you may enhance the images with text captions, highlight boxes, and audio. The timeline feature in Captivate gives you director control of your movie.

Captivating First-Year Students: A Different Take on a Web Tour.
Leslie Murtha, Princeton University

Leslie gave an overview of the time it took from learning Captivate to its implementation in rolling out a polished, finished tutorial for first year students. While it is a tour of the library’s website, it also introduces students to its digital resources. Leslie's Captivate project can be viewed here:
http://library.princeton.edu/help/openhouse/


What Makes a Journal Scholarly?
Eileen Stec, Rutgers University

Eileen engaged the audience much as she does her students by inviting us to recall a sporting event and asking some questions leading us to the concept of the rule-enforcer, the referee. Eileen’s presentation can be viewed:
http://rci.rutgers.edu/~estec/presentations/njla2007.htm
A title Eileen recommended:
Conrad, R. & Donaldson, J. A. (2004). Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Captivate Tutorials, We Can Build Them But What Are We Going to Do With Them?
William Vincenti and Nicole Cooke, Montclair University

Bill discussed their experience with getting familiar with Captivate and then his and Nicole’s sales pitch to their Reference Dept. and Administration to garner support for the project.
Both their tutorial, Finding Periodicals, and their presentation are available here: http://blake.montclair.edu/~vincentiw/Captivate/FindPeriodical/

posted by Chris Herz, Gloucester County College

Posted by at 9:32 AM | Comments (0)

April 26, 2007

Peek-a-boo, We See You: Personal Profiles and Other Publicly Available Information

So you've Googled yourself on the web, and you think that you know everything that's said about you out there in cyberspace. Think again! In the very last session of the conference, Robert Lackie gave us an entertaining, yet scary, look at our lack of privacy in this age of social networking. Robert took two people at random from the class, and knowing only their first name, middle initial, last name and home state, was able to discover each person's age, spouse's name and age, and the names and ages of other family members - some who didn't even live in the same house. Robert then found their addresses and showed us how Live Search will give a bird's eye view of a person's home from any angle. He even showed us his blue car in the parking spot in front of the entrance to his home!

Think the information on your computer is private? The auto fill-in feature that is so convenient on your computer also makes it convenient for an identify thief. While this happens most often with public computers, is your work computer completely secure? Or would it be possible for a passer-by to use your computer to automatically log in to your Amazon or eBay account?

This was a fascinating program, with a host of valuable door prizes (thanks for my tote bag, Robert!)

See the websites described in Robert's presentation.

Posted by mowyn at 2:49 PM | Comments (0)

Garden State Book Awards Luncheon

Bruce Coville was the keynote speaker for the Garden State Book Awards luncheon, and his witty, moving talk was a definite highlight of the conference as a whole. Before his talk on the importance of stories in the lives of young people, Bruce table-hopped throughout the ballroom, meeting and chatting with audience members -- what a great way to warm up the room!

Bruce illustrated his point about how important stories are to children and teens by telling us some great stories from his own childhood -- about how his father, who wasn't much of a reader, sat down to read him Tom Swift; about his 6th grade teacher, who entertained his exuberant writings; and about a man who, through his belief in the power of monarch butterflies, is transformed into a butterfly himself. In short, stories open children's minds to possibilities beyond what they can imagine, and in a world that stifles creativity, this is such an important thing.

Book Award winners Lola Schafer, Barry Danziger (standing in for his late sister, Paula), Eireann Corrigan, and Gennifer Choldenko were also on hand to receive their citations as winners of the Garden State Children's & Teen Book Awards. All gave gracious, charming acceptance speeches.

Posted by at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2007

Tuesday Keynote: Meet Two of the Jane Does from Doe vs. Gonzales

On Tuesday morning New Jersey librarians got to hear the inside scoop on the story of the librarians who challenged the U.S. Patriot Act. Barbara Bailey and Janet Nocek, librarians from Library Connection, a 27-library consortium in the Hartford, Ct. area, shared the story of their experience when their organization was served a National Security Letter by the FBI. They and two other librarians from Library Connection, Peter Chase and George Christian, had their lives turned upside down.

It all started with a call from the FBI, telling them that they were going to be receiving a National Security Letter, and asking who it should be addressed to. A couple of weeks later, the letter was delivered in person to Library Connection's Executive Director, George Christian. The letter, dated in May and delivered in late June, asked for the name of the person using a computer with a specific IP address in a 45-minute time period in February, when someone had sent a questionable e-mail. In addition, there was a gag order attached to the letter. They were not allowed to speak of the letter - in perpetuity. It was also not made clear whether a lawyer could be consulted.

The four librarians knew that they could not fulfill the request, as IP addresses are generated randomly and the records not kept. They would have had to give the names of all users in one library. Since the letter referred to a date four months before, it seemed highly unlikely that there was any immediate danger. They felt that it was a fishing expedition, and that it violated their patrons' rights. After discussion, they decided to go to a lawyer. The Connecticut attorney they consulted sent them to the ACLU.

Their first hearing was held in district court in September. This was shortly after John Ashcroft talked about "hysterical librarians" with their silly concerns about the USA PATRIOT Act being used in libraries. Because of the gag order, they were not allowed to point out that the librarians were far from hysterical. The Library Connection librarians were not allowed to be in the courtroom, and had to watch through closed-circuit TV in a locked room with a security guard. The judge ruled that the letter was unconstitutional, but gave the FBI the right to appeal, which they did at the last possible moment.

The case was merged with another case of a New York Internet provider, and was held in New York City. The librarians were allowed to attend this trial, but were told to arrive separately and make no eye contact. The judges were concerned to hear that there was no reference to consulting counsel, and requested that the information that a lawyer could be consulted be added to the letter. This has happened, thanks, at least partially to Library Connection's actions.

Eventually the FBI withdrew its appeal to keep their identities hidden after Federal District Court Judge Janet C. Hall declared the perpetual gag order unconstitutional. The Patriot Act was renewed at this time; the library records issue was not resolved. Although state law states that patron records must be kept private, federal law trumps state law, and makes the state law ineffective.

The time of the trial was very tough for all the librarians. They were not allowed to discuss the case with family, friends or coworkers. George Christian's name was leaked to the press, and his teenager answered the phone one day to have a reporter ask to speak to his Dad about his FBI trial. When "John Doe" won the Connecticut Library Association's Librarian of the Year Award, but they were unable to accept (last week they were finally able to receive the award).

When their identities were revealed, they were afraid of the feedback they would receive. To their surprise, the comments were almost entirely positive. They received phone calls, hugs, flowers and more. Janet Nocek received one e-mail, calling her a "trader" to the United States, but that was the only negative comment.

Nocek and Bailey advised the audience to make sure they have policies in place for when the law comes knocking, and to review them regularly. The ALA website has good information on this in the Intellectual Freedom section. More information on the Patriot Act from the ALA website.

When Joan Bernstein introduced Bailey and Nocek at the beginning of the speech, she called them "heroes in America's war on terror." By the comments and applause at the end of their presentation, it was obvious that the entire audience agreed.

Posted by mowyn at 8:02 PM | Comments (0)

April 24, 2007

Graphic Novels- Not in the closet anymore!



Your guest blogger: Laverne Mann, Reference Librarian/Adult Trainer for the Ewing Branch Library, Mercer Cty Library System. My personal blog is Redhead Fangirl, where I write about comics, graphic novels, librarians, redheads in comics, my MidJersey Comicon, and lots of other stuff!





On a picture perfect spring day, librarians descended on the Ocean Place Resort for the first full day of the NJLA conference. A quick camera phone image shows the view from the conference center in Long Branch, which has gone through a lot of development in the last few years of conferences here. Remember when Ocean Place was the only large building?

I went to 4 sessions, and the keynote today, and I'm going to blog about Graphic Novels: Not in the Closet Anymore!, presented by Saleena Davidson (another redheaded librarian comic fan like myself!) of South Brunswick Public Library and Janet Rosolanko of Hillsborough Public Library.

There were three handouts: TokyoPop rating system [important to all school and public librarians!], some YA and Adult titles with gay characters, and a list of websites.

Janet suggested the title Serving Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Teens, ISBN 978-1-55570-566-4. Paraphrasing, Janet said that while the amount of GN literature is vastly improved and readily available, "a lot of hope but also still homophobia for the average queer teenager, who can experience harassment almost daily.".

For librarians, "adolescence can be a lonely time, and teens look for reflections of themselves, so we need to serve ALL our populations in materials"

Seleena gave an overview from The Gay League- LGBT Comics Timeline, an excellent resource:
Welcome to the GLA Timeline! In these pages we have attempted to catalog the representation of the LGBT community in comic books and comic strips. We start with the earliest days of the format, when gay content could only be hinted at; through to the time of the gay liberation movement when LGBT themes began to appear overtly

This table image shows some of the suggested titles: Y the Last Man, Death, Fun Home, Desire, Antique Bakery.

Saleena also discussed going to the NY Comicon [librarians given free passes- I've taken advantage two years in a row! Great librarian and comic/graphic novel special panels, and you can 'geek-out' completely!] She got a book from PrismComics for $5.95 on LGBT guide to comics.

Actually, I love to see that crossover into NJLA exhibits-- small or indie comics publishers who could promote and sell their work at NJLA...hint, hint...

Well, it was a 13 hour day and I hope this gives you some insight into just one session! Thank you Seleena and Janet! I even sat in front of David Lisa, one of the writers of the new Super Librarian comic, and the Director of the West Long Branch Library. All librarians should get a copy and help promote Super Librarian!

Posted by at 7:55 PM | Comments (0)

Bruce Coville: Experiencing Literature Aurally

brucecoville.jpg
I was very excited to hear that Bruce Coville was coming to the NJLA Conference. For years my kids and I have read and listened to his books. More recently, I have become a fan of his company, Full Cast Audio, and the works they produce. Full Cast Audio is, as the name indicates, a book that is performed by a full cast. But the readings are not dramatic abridgements: they stay true to the original text. As Bruce said in his presentation, full cast narration is like "creating a movie from the book without screwing up the plot."

Bruce is a strong proponent of audiobooks for both adults and children. He became interested in audiobooks during a cross-country trip with his 14-year-old daughter. The books they listened to were a highlight of the trip. Bruce recommended that all families listen to audiobooks on family trips. The family car is the last place where all the family spends time together. Rather than each member being isolated, with kids watching DVDs in the back seat, families can share the joy of listening to audiobooks together. (I know that my family's yearly trip to Maine would have been much less pleasant without the large stack of audiobooks we cart along with us!)

Here is some of the history of the audiobook. The first audiobooks were created 75 years ago by the Foundation for the Blind. In 1952 the first commercial audiobook was recorded. It was Dylan Thomas reading "A Child's Christmas in Wales." In 1975 the first unabridged audiobook was released and the market has only grown since then. One statistic: when the daily commute grows to 45 minutes, the use of audiobooks explode.

Bruce recommended some audiobook companies: Listening Library, Books on Tape, Recorded Books, Harper Collins, BBC Audio, Live Oak Media, and Simon & Schuster. In the past year other companies like Scholastic have begun to release their books on audio.

During the presentation Bruce talked about using audiobooks in schools (although many ideas can also be used in public libraries.) Educators tend to frown on audiobooks. Audiobooks are fun, and there are those that think there shouldn't be pleasure in education, and that if kids are enjoying themselves, they are not working hard enough.

Here are some of Bruce's suggestions for things to do with kids with audiobooks. He gave ten, but although I took notes as fast as I could I only came up with 9. Did anyone else at the presentation get the tenth?

1If a parent comes in and asks for homework, as the child will be out for several days, assign them an audiobook to listen to as a family, and then discuss.

2. If a child is home sick, give him or her an audiobook to listen to. Too much TV is bad for the eyes (and the brain!)

3. Audiobooks are valuable for modeling expressive reading.

4. Books and audiobooks used together have broken the code of how to read.

5. Use audiobooks to teach listening skills.

6. Teachers can buy time by having class listen to audiobook.

7. Audiobooks equalize the classroom experience: all students can enjoy the book at same level, regardless of reading skill.

8. Audiobooks can fill in spaces during the school day.

9. Audiobooks can serve as a reward.

Bruce reminded us that many of the greatest works, like those of Homer, were meant to be heard and that audiobooks were a continuation of this tradition.

Bruce will also be appearing at the Garden State Book Awards Luncheon on Wednesday, and will be autographing books in the bookstore in the afternoon. Check the bookstore for exact times.

More information about Bruce Coville

Posted by mowyn at 7:26 PM | Comments (0)

"My favorite software on the planet."

garwood.jpg
Steve Garwood is a highly quotable man. He gave us Just Push Play! - an introduction to screencasting. Screencasting is the process of recording all of your on-screen activity: mouse movement, typing, clicking, etc., and adding voiceover narration to create a tutorial video. There are lots of applications of screencasting for libraries: show patrons how to renew a book, how to find an article in Ebsco, how to place an ILL - and on and on.

Camtasia is a piece of software that creates screencasts quickly and easily. Says Steve of Camtasia: "I LOVE Camtasia. it is my favorite software on the planet." It costs about $300 and is worth every penny for the ease of use. Steve did a live demo of Camtasia - it really is quite easy to use. Here are some random tips: