Carpe Hootem

Don't let tight budgets keep you from pursuing professional development opportunities. Consider applying for one of two CE scholarships, sponsored by the WLA Foundation and available to WLA members. Applications are due June 1, 2010 (a change from the previous September 15 due date).

George Bauer Continuing Education Scholarship ($800)
Available to a person employed in a library in Wisconsin, or someone who works with library employees in those communities,to attend a conference or other continuing education program within or outside Wisconsin.

Gloria Hoegh Scholarship for Rural Librarians ($1,050)
Available to a person employed in a library in a Wisconsin community with a population of 5,000 or less, or someone who works with library employees in those communities, to attend a conference or other continuing education program within or outside Wisconsin.

Details on the scholarships and copies of the application forms are available here.

Youth Services Librarian: Kimberly-Little Chute Public Library seeks a creative, service-oriented person with excellent communication skills to provide a broad range of public services to children and young adults. Responsibilities for this position include planning and implementing programs for children and young adults, developing collections and services, providing readers’ advisory and reference services, and participating in community-wide efforts in support of young people. This position supervises the Youth Services Assistant and Summer Students and is scheduled for 30 hours per week. Some evening and Saturday hours may be required.

Qualifications: MLS from an ALA-accredited program OR a Bachelor’s Degree in education or related field with experience in a public library or school setting. Experience in supervision and knowledge of Innovative Interfaces Millennium Integrated Library System desired. All employees of the library must reside within 10 miles of the Kimberly Municipal Complex at 515 W. Kimberly Avenue, Kimberly, Wisconsin. Compensation: $17.50 per hour; paid vacation; health, life & retirement benefits.

Kimberly-Little Chute Public Library serves the villages of Kimberly and Little Chute, Wisconsin, nestled in the Fox Valley. Enjoy small town life with the convenience of city amenities offered nearby in Appleton and Green Bay. Our enthusiastic, hard-working staff seeks to provide the best service possible while having fun in the process. The Library is a member of the Outagamie Waupaca Library System and participates in the shared online catalog, InfoSoup. The Kimberly-Little Chute Public Library is an equal-opportunity employer.

Send letter of application with resume and three references to Beth Carpenter, Library Director, at bcarpent@mail.owls.lib.wi.us. Applications must be submitted online. A complete job description can be found on the library website at http://www.kimlit.org/. Application deadline: Wednesday, April 7, 2010.

The Clintonville Public Library is currently accepting applications for a Library Technician position. This is a part time non-benefited position that averages 15 hours per week including daytime, evening, and weekend hours. Work involves checking library materials in and out, assisting people with the online catalog, answering the telephone, processing library materials, and other duties as assigned. Qualified candidates must have keyboarding and filing experience. Starting pay is $8.59 per hour with an increase after a six month orientation period. Application forms are available at the library. Position open immediately. Applications will be accepted until position is filled. Contact Library Director Kathy Mitchell for further information.

Clintonville Public Library
75 Hemlock Street
Clintonville, WI 54929
Phone: 715-823-4563
Fax: 715-823-7134
Email: cpl@mail.owls.lib.wi.us

The following six NISO webinars are available to OWLS members through an agreement with WiLS. Bring your lunch to the Nest and watch them with us, or OWLS members can log in remotely (details to come). All webinars are 12:00-1:30 CST.

RFID in Libraries: Standards and Expanding Use - April 14th

It's in the Mail: Best Practices for Resource Sharing - May 12th

Measure, Assess, Improve, Repeat: Using Library Performance Metrics - Sept 8th

Count Me In: Measuring Individual Item Usage - Sept 15th

It's Only as Good as the Metadata: Improving OpenURL and Knowledgebase Quality - Oct 13th

Unprecedented Interaction: Providing Accessibility for the Disabled - Dec 8th

Check here for updates and registration: http://www.owlsweb.info/ce/classes.asp?x=2

"Free Speech and Banned Books" presented by Chris Crutcher
Monday, April 12, 2010, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Location: Appleton Public Library Meeting Rooms
Sponsored by: Fox Valley Library Council for members

11:00am - Noon: Presentation
Noon - 1:00pm: Lunch

RSVP to Sue Vater Olsen (svater@mail.owls.lib.wi.us) with the following:
1) Attending both presentation and lunch or presentation only
2) Vegetarian or non-vegetarian lunch
3) Any special needs

(1 contact hours for recertification)

On Thursday, April 8th at the Appleton Public Library, OWLS will facilitate a discussion of Facebook pages for libraries. If your library does not have a Facebook page yet, join us in the morning to discuss why you might (or might not) want a Facebook presence and how to get started.

If you already have a Facebook page, join us at 11:00 for ideas on what to post, and how to maintain a consistent Facebook presence with limited time. We hope you will share your own Facebook experiences, challenges and best practices with the group.

Finally, if you are ready to jump right in, come back after lunch and build your Facebook page with help from Bradley and Evan. Registration for the afternoon workshop is limited, and this session will require some homework before you arrive, so sign up early.

9:15 – 10:45        Part 1: Starting a Facebook Page: Why and How?

10:45 – 11:00      Coffee and snacks

11:00 – 11:45      Part 2: Care and Feeding of a Facebook Page: Balancing Content and Effort

11:45 – 12:30      Discussion: Share your experiences with library Facebook pages. What’s working? What's not working?

12:30 – 1:30        Break for lunch

1:30 – 3:30           Part 3: Set up your page

Register for Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, or any combination of the three here.

Drop by drop, or Drupal by Drupal, we are making progress with new OWLS web sites. On February 8th New London went live with their new site and just before Christmas, Seymour launched their new web site. If you have not visited them yet, take a look! OWLS is also hosting the new Fox Cities Book Festival site. This is a Drupal site designed by Beth Carpenter using the software program Artisteer http://www.artisteer.com. I have a copy of Artisteer at OWLS that I have been playing around with, so if you would like to learn more about the program let me know. Last year we also had five other libraries move over to Drupal. The five libraries are:

• Manawa
• Marion
• Hortonville
• Scandinavia
• Iola

I will be working my way through my list of libraries this spring and summer.  I've given up try to predict how long each site will take, but we are making progress and will get to the end of the list eventually!

While not influenced by OWLS moving to Drupal (as far as I know) I saw that the New York Public Library also launched a new Drupal based web site in December. This short YoubTube video introduces their site. As a large, multi-branched library, their needs (and resources) may be different than a smaller library, but I thought the video raised some issues appropriate to any size library. One point was that they did interviews to determine what information users were looking for when they visited their web site. How to use the library was one of the top responses and thus the top link on their site under Home. This seems like something libraries often don't promote prominently on their web sites. I also think it is interesting how little actual information is on the home page and how much space is dedicated to generally promoting the library and it's mission -- Discover, Get Inspired, Meet the Challenge, Inspiring lifelong learning, Strengthening our communities etc...  I'm actually not sure yet what I think of the design, but I find it helpful to look at different sites like this and try to figure out how effective or not they are.

That's enough for now -- I have to get back to working on more Drupal sites. Libraries still waiting, thank you for your patience! Please contact me any time for Drupal questions or updates.

Three BadgerLunch webinars will be held in March on the topic of Health and Medicine:

March 11 -- Consumer Health Complete
TO REGISTER: http://tinyurl.com/yfrztks

March 18 -- Health Resources from Britannica Online
TO REGISTER: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/960603880

March 25 -- Nursing Collection/AltHealthWatch/Medline from EBSCO
TO REGISTER: http://tinyurl.com/yjbbdmt

All BadgerLunch Webinars are Thursdays at noon and last 30-45 minutes. These webinars are free. An archive of previous sessions can be found at www.badgerlink.net/training.html.

On Wednesday, May 5, 2010 at the James J. Siebers Memorial Library in Kimberly, Cooperative Children's Book Center librarians Merri Lindgren and Megan Schliesman will highlight some of the books in "CCBC Choices 2010".

9:00 AM --Arrive/Browse

9:30-11:00 AM --  Great New Books for Children (Birth - Grade 5)

11:00-1:00 PM --  Browse/Lunch

1:00-2:15 PM --  Great New Books for Older Children and Teens (Grades 6-12)

2:15-3:00 PM -- Browse

Lunch will be available for $6. Register for the morning session, afternoon session, or both here: http://www.owlsweb.info/ce/classes.asp?x=1

Please join us in the Nest at OWLS on Tuesday, February 9 at 11:00am for Books R Us. This month's genre is Romance. Not sure what to read? Check out these lists:

Bookletters Romance titles on InfoSoup
2009 Rita and Golden Heart Finalists
All About Romance
Booklist's Top 10 Romance Fiction 2009
Top 100 Romance Novels by The Romance Reader

I will be reviewing Dogs and Goddesses by Jennifer Crusie, Anne Stuart, and Lani Diane Rich.