TBLC News

The following information is courtesy of SOLINET’s Check it out blog.

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Background:  Florida State University’s Information Use Management & Policy Institute has been awarded a grant to assist communities to better prepare for and recover from hurricanes by better utilizing public libraries. Note the emphasis on how can a public library help their community rather than how can the library restore itself.  See a project summary, LibraryJournal.com article or radio interview for further information.  A key part of the project is to identify public libraries that have helped their communities to better prepare for and recover from hurricanes, and document the roles the libraries played so that other libraries may learn from their experience.

How You Can Help

Initially the project team is looking for three types of information:

Are you experienced? Do you and your public library have experience assisting your community prepare for and recover from a hurricane?  If so, send an e-mail to Project Manager, Joe Ryan <jzryan@earthlink.net>, with the following information: public library contact information [public library name, website url (if the library has), postal address, phone, fax, contact name <e-mail>, job title, phone (if different than library’s)] and a brief description of the role(s) your public library played when helping your community prepare for and recover from a hurricane.  Note: a project team member may contact you for further information.

Experienced library roles that help communities prepare and recover: Can you describe a key role your public library played assisting your community prepare for and recover from a hurricane so that another library could emulate your good work?  If so, send an e-mail to Project Manager, Joe Ryan <jzryan@earthlink.net>, with the following information: role descriptor, paragraph description of the role, what is involved (a step-by-step, chronological, checklist of key tasks to be accomplished), key contacts and resources (including any materials you may have developed, see below), advice, other (anything we forgot to ask you to include) and for additional help (include your contact information­ only if you are willing to be contacted by other libraries). Include your contact information [your name, <e-mail>, job title, phone, public library name, website url (if the library has), postal address, phone, fax] in case we need to contact you.  The project team is trying to identify the range of roles public libraries have played and provide enough information on each role so that other public libraries might play similar roles.

Hurricane preparation & recovery materials: Can you send the project team any materials (or links to them) your public library developed or found useful when assisting your community prepare for and recover from a hurricane?  The materials might include: plans, checklists, policies, procedures, forms, standards, guidelines, recommendations, descriptions, newspaper articles, and best practices.  If so, send an e-mail to Project Manager, Joe Ryan <jzryan@earthlink.net> with material in electronic format or send paper material to Joe Ryan, FSU Information Institute, 142 Collegiate Loop, P.O. Box 3062100, Tallahassee, FL 32306-2100.  Be sure that the material’s author and library name appears on each document.

Gale is extremely pleased to announce that their partnership with Consumers Union of the United States, Inc. has been revised to continue to offer Consumer Reports titles in full-text – but now with no embargo. Through this newly revised license agreement, users will no longer have to wait 90 days to read current issues of Consumer Reports titles through InfoTrac, our renowned periodical program.

Consumers Union (CU) is an expert, independent, nonprofit organization, whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers. Consumers Union publishes Consumer Reports, Consumer Reports on Health, Consumer Reports Money Adviser, ShopSmart Magazine, and Consumer Reports Annual Buying Guide.

Consumer Reports titles can be found in the following acclaimed Gale resources: General OneFile, Academic OneFile, Popular Magazines, Health Reference Center Academic, Business & Company Resource Center and the Student Resource Center products, among others. Full-text for current issues became available without embargo for current InfoTrac subscribers in August.

Access to Consumer Reports is available through the Florida Electronic Library – just click on the image in the Popular Magazines & Journals section.

But let’s not stop there.  My boss at the Sleepy Hollow Public Library often said, “I’d forget my head if it weren’t attached.” 

Well, why not boil all this ID-specific information down to one barcode and have it tattooed—in ink visible only under ultraviolet light—on our foreheads?  With the same data on an RFID tag we could wear as an earring?  Sure, you’d have to stick your head out the window when you went through a Sunpass toll booth.  But that’s a small price to pay for overall annoyance reduction.

Think about it. You’d look perfectly normal. (Well, as normal as you ever look. And it’s not your fault that your mom dresses you funny.)  But you could go anywhere and use anything, so long as you brought your head along.  It would be like the old days, when all your friends recognized you on sight.  Even your imaginary friends.  Only now it would be computers who’d be saying, “Hey!  Que pasa?  Whazzup?”  (They’d actually say “1011010011010…!”  But I thought it would be best to translate.)  And you could leave your billfold at home.

This is not yet a service TBLC is offering. But if there’s enough demand….

–Al Carlson

Newspoke, the Alaska Library Association newsletter, included a nice tribute to John Iliff along with coverage of awarding the first John Iliff Award to the Durham Public Library.

The July-Sept 2008 issue (available here) included a transcription of the speech written by Jean Armour Polly and read by the Public Library Association president to introduce the first annual PLA Polaris Innovation in Technology John Iliff Award, an article about John written by Julie Moore and some nice photos.

John was an inspiring librarian.  He is sorely missed.

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Jeanne Williams, who served as supervisor of the Technical Services Department for Alachua County’s Library System for six years.

Her husband, Mike Williams, has asked us to convey the following message:

I want to thank all of you who sent cards & condolences to my wife, Jeanne Williams, and our family during her illness.  Each and every correspondence meant so very much to her.

Jeanne always spoke so fondly and with such great pride about her years at the Dunedin Library and she never forgot all the wonderful people that she met and worked with.

Thank you so much for you concern and your kindness.

Sincerely,
Mike Williams

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The following information is courtesy of The Gainesville Sun:

Jeanne S. Williams of Gainesville, FL passed away on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at E.T. York Hospice Care Center.

Mrs. Williams was born in New York City, New York to Blake & Gertrude Starnes. She moved to Gainesville from Pinellas County in 2001. Jeanne was Supervisor of the Technical Services Department for Alachua County’s Library System for six years.

She is survived by her husband of 41 years, Michael; sons, Christopher of Marietta, GA, Benjamin and his wife, Tracy, of Old Orchard Beach, M Daniel and his wife, Erinn, of Gainesville; six grandchildren and sister, Susie Starnes of Clearwater, FL.

In lieu of flowers please make contributions to E.T. York Hospice Care Center, 4200 NW 90th Blvd, Gainesville, 32606.

Arrangements are in the care of Forest Meadows Funeral Home, Cemeteries, and Crematory. Please sign guestbook at www.forestmeadowsfh.com.

Through our group purchase program, TBLC members are eligible for a discount on Morningstar Investment Research Center (www.morningstar.com), which provides independent and in-depth recommendations and research on stocks, mutual funds, and exchange traded funds in an easy-to-use, easy-to-understand format.

Morningstar signed us up for a FREE trial period to share with our members until Sept. 15, 2008. To access, visit http://library.morningstar.com/Membership/setup.html and use the following codes:

User name: tampabay
Password: library

Please note that the cost of your subscription to Morningstar will depend on the total number of member libraries that subscribe through TBLC. If you’re interested in a quote, contact Vickie Frost no later than Sept. 20, 2008, at frostv@tblc.org or (813) 622-8252 (ext. 224).

I need to follow up on Beth’s “Sacred Cows?” post.  For years—make that centuries—libraries have been drawing lines around their services.  “Only catalogers can do this!”  “Only reference staff can do this!”  “We serve only this geographic area!”

Piet Hein (whom you will probably Google after you read this) created a short epigrammatic literary form called the “grook.”  Here’s one of them.

On Problems
Our choicest plans have fallen through,
Our airiest castles tumbled over,
Because of lines we neatly drew
And later neatly stumbled over.

We can and will still draw lines to help us define a service or a service population.  But we have to learn to draw them very lightly.  With dry erase markers.  And admit that they may be in the wrong place, even as we are drawing them.  As a guy whose attention span falls somewhere between ‘chipmunk’ and ‘toddler,’ I think this is just fine.  (Usually.  Unless they are my lines.)  But even librarians who are actual grownups need to get comfortable with rapid, seemingly disruptive, change. 

We know the cause (Can you spell WWW?), and we’ve seen some of victims:  the music industry, the auto industry.  Our job is to be smarter and more nimble than they have been.  Hint:  TBLC is here to help with that.

Al

In a recent blog posting about “sacred cows,” Andrew Pace of OCLC questions all of the circulation rules in place in many libraries.  He says “Take a hard look at those systems, folks…Is it time to simplify?”  Read more here.

The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative calls for more open resource sharing in the interlibrary loan world.  The Rethinking Resource Sharing Manifesto says, “Restrictions shall only be imposed as necessary by individual institutions.”

Are we all ready to be more open to relaxing our policies and getting more into the hands of the user, in an easier way? 

Beth

Suncoast Information Specialists and Tampa Theater present “The Hollywood Librarian” on Wednesday, August 27, at 7:30 p.m. All are welcome! Tickets are $9 for adults, $8 for students with ID, and $7 for seniors. Visit www.tampatheatre.org or www.tblc.org/sis/ for details.

Nominations are now open for TBLC’s 2008 Library Champion Award.

The TBLC Library Champion Award recognizes elected or appointed officials in any level of government who have demonstrated exceptional support for and attention to libraries.

The 2007 recipient was Sen. Mike Fasano of New Port Richey.  In the past, we have also honored local officials including Rick Baker, Mayor of St. Petersburg, and Bob English, a Polk County Commissioner.

Voting representatives of any TBLC member library and the TBLC executive director may nominate someone for the Library Champion Award.  The TBLC Board of Directors will review all nominations and select the recipient. 

To nominate an elected or appointed official for this award, send an email to Charlie Parker at cparker@tblc.org by August 22, 2008, with “Library Champion Nomination” in the subject line.  Please include two to three paragraphs about why you believe your favorite official should receive this recognition.