Archive for the ‘General interest’ Category

Call for Presenters– 2010 Very Important Paraprofessional (VIP) Workshop

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

The Very Important Paraprofessional Workshop will be back in 2010 stronger than ever before!  We are soliciting applications for presenters for the 2010 VIP Workshop that will be held on Friday, May 14th at St. Petersburg College EpiCenter.

If you have presented before or if you haven’t before but want to now, please apply!  Share your talents with the State’s paraprofessional workforce.

The Session Proposal Form is available on the TBLC website at www.tblc.org/vipworkshop.shtml.  Proposals are due by December 14, 2009.

Contact Beth Farmer at farmerb@tblc.org for more information.

Get your geek on

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

igeekwormsnewblog

Geek the Library is a community-based public awareness campaign designed to highlight the vital role of public libraries for individuals and communities, and raise awareness about the critical funding issues they face.

The website, which uses ”geek” as a verb, encourages the public to share what they geek, and the answers range from worms to football to schooners and beyond. This public awareness campaign shows that everyone is passionate about something — yep, even worms — and that the library supports them all.

So what do YOU geek?

ResumeMaker offers discount and free trial

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

ResumeMaker is offering a group discount free trial period to TBLC members. See below for more details, and contact Vickie Frost at (813) 622-8252 (ext. 224) for more information.

ResumeMaker helps job seekers write professional resumes and search millions of job openings from one location.  Quick-and-easy step-by-step wizards quide patrons through building resumes and cover letters, without assistance from Library Staff.  ResumeMaker provides everything patrons need to create, store, and distribute top-quality resumes and cover letters, and keep track of contacts, companies, data, and documents that contribute to finding a job.

ResumeMaker’s career resources include virtual interview practice, interview tips, expert job search advice, and an internet job finder – linking job seekers to over 60 job boards across the country from one screen.  Job finder gadget sits on the computer screen and instantly notifies a patron when a job is posted that meets their specific criteria. 

ResumeMaker has been rated the #1 selling resume writing and career development solution for the last 10 years.  ResumeMaker is published by Individual Software, Inc., a 26 year old company, with a rich history of designing and publishing software solutions for education and business. 

ResumeMaker is a popular solution for libraries because it is easy for patrons to use, requires little or no help from library staff, and has thousand of professional samples, cover letters, and phrases written by certified resume writers.  It is the only software solution designed for the broad demographic base of patrons served by libraries, from entry level to the most seasoned professionals, in almost every conceivable market sector and industry.

Librarians now add social work to their resumes

Monday, June 8th, 2009

times-article

By Will Van Sant, Times Staff Writer

Librarians have an image problem — stern face, thick round glasses, “shush!” —- which they parody with Web sites like Warrior Librarian, Macho Librarians with Guns, Librarian Avengers.

Now, harsh reality has swept aside self-mocking pretensions to comic book greatness and turned librarians into real, if largely unsung, heros of the recession.

Take mild-mannered David Stoner.

Trained to help adults discover the trial of Socrates and sixth graders track the Oregon Trail, he now spends half his time in the trenches of a battered economy. There his job is far more urgent: helping people who need jobs, food stamps or Medicaid.

“These days, it’s really social work in some respects,” said Stoner, who directs adult services for the Clearwater Public Library System. “And it’s really satisfying to see how much you are helping.”

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Photo and article courtesy of the St. Petersburg Times.

YALSA’s SummerSlam Reading Jam

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

Attention public librarians!

YALSA and World Wrestling Entertainment® have joined forces for the SummerSlam Reading Jam, a pilot project with two great prizes: your library could win $1,000 for teen and tween materials for your library’s collection and two of your tween and teen library patrons can win a free trip for two to WWE’s SummerSlam pay-per-view event in Los Angeles.

Here’s how it works:

·         Sign up online! The first 500 libraries to register for the pilot project will receive mini-posters courtesy the WWE. The deadline to sign up for the SummerSlam Reading Jam is June 8 (although registration will close once 500 libraries have signed up for the pilot project).

·         Check ’em out! Each librarian who signs up will receive 25 WWE mini-posters, which should be distributed to any library patrons between the ages of 10 and 18 who take out two books between June 24 and July 16. The posters are all numbered. Distribute all your posters by July 16.

·         Win prizes! Two lucky poster holders each will receive a Grand Prize of a free trip for two to WWE’s SummerSlam pay-per-view event in Los Angeles, Calif., on August 23, 2009. In addition, they will receive $200 in spending money. WWE will also be giving away 10 copies of the WWE Encyclopedia, which recently made the New York Times Bestseller list. The libraries that distributed the winning posters for the two Grand Prizes will each receive a stipend of $1,000 from WWE for teen and tween materials for your library’s collection.

Full details and the official rules are available here.  (Contest open only to those who reside in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.)

And don’t forget to sign up for the WrestleMania® Reading Challenge, which launches during Teen Read Week in October. Registration is available through Teen Read Week registration through July 31.

Contact Stephanie (Stevie) Kuenn at skuenn@ala.org with questions.

TBLC offers new free video to members

Monday, May 18th, 2009

TBLC maintains a collection of free videos that are available to all our members, and we’ve just added a new title.

Supervisory Solutions: 6 skills you need to succeed in management
Do you often feel a little overwhelmed in your role as manager or supervisor? Do you feel that others have unreasonable expectations of you now that you’re “part of management”? While that’s not necessarily fair, it’s usually a fact.

Chances are that you got into management because you excelled at what you were doing. You had mastered a special set of skills. Along the way, others noticed your healthy ambition, desire to lead, and maybe even a natural gift to teach others. All of those skills helped you get to this point. Now, what does it take to survive and succeed in this new management role?

Presented by Janet Kirch.

Click here to request this video or view all available titles.

Amazon Announces the Kindle DX—Third-Generation Ebook Reader

Friday, May 15th, 2009

This post is courtesy of Information Today, Inc.

On May 7, just three months after introducing the second-generation Kindle, Amazon officially announced its rumored third-generation ebook reader, the Kindle DX, expected for release this summer (http://amazon.com/kindledx).

The announcement of the product, still in early beta, was made at Manhattan’s Pace University by Amazon’s Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. This “deluxe” Kindle version offers a much larger (9.7″) viewing screen, added storage capacity, and E Ink’s 16 shades of gray, allowing a reading experience “like printed words on paper because the screen works using real ink and doesn’t use a backlight, eliminating the eyestrain and glare associated with other electronic displays.” Offering storage for up to 3,500 books, from a catalog of more than 280,000 titles in the Kindle Store, the new Kindle DX will also offer editions of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post and textbooks from a variety of major academic publishers.

The new features include a built-in Adobe Reader Mobile PDF capability as well. The system appears, from pictures and prototypes, to be well-designed. “Cookbooks, computer books, and textbooks-anything highly formatted-also shine on the Kindle DX. Carry all your documents and your whole library in one slender package,” Bezos explained. The price tag of $489 is $130 more than the Kindle 2 system, and it seems to have many wondering whether the added functionality will be enough to make the Kindle the future for printed materials.

Amazon’s Cinthia Portugal notes that “Over time, we believe that analog reading, be it paper books, magazines, newspapers, etc., will be replaced by digital. The responsibility is ours, though, to continue making the digital reading experience better than the physical experience.” The Kindle DX, Amazon believes, is a step in the right direction.

Click here for the rest of the article.

Relocating your library

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Kent Holle, formally with Professional Movers, is now with a library relocation company called Flood Brothers. Many of our members have used the services of Professional Movers to assemble and prepare collections for relocation, for long-term storage, for painting and recarpeting projects, and much more. Now Flood Brothers is available for all your moving needs.

Visit www.floodbrothers.net or contact Kent Holle at 813-917-8160 or Kent.Holle@Floodbrothers.net for more information.

Thorndike Press discounts for TBLC members

Friday, May 8th, 2009

Thorndike Press offers the following discounts to TBLC members. If you are interested, email sherry.cookson@cengage.com. Use promo code L2790 and mention that you are a TBLC member.

***

Thorndike Press, part of Gale/Cengage Learning, is the World’s Largest Publisher of Large Print Books. We offer over 1,200 individual titles a year to choose from, at a 20% discount, and shipping is FREE!

We also have over 37 Large Print Standing Order Plans. Our editors take the guesswork out of title selection. Using the same collection development criteria that librarians use — like Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly and the New York Times Book Review — they look for well-reviewed and award-winning titles for your Standing Order Plans. Large Print readers want to read what everyone else is reading, and we publish the most New York Times bestsellers available in Large Print, as close as possible to the standard print publications date.

Most Thorndike and Wheeler Standing Orders are discounted at 25% and shipping is always FREE! Standing Orders allow you to bring the best there is in Large Print to your patrons automatically each month.

16-point Plantin
NAVH approved
All titles are complete and unabridged

Simultaneous Publications:

Each year, Thorndike Press will publish approximately 105-120 Large Print bestselling titles simultaneously with the Original Publishers’ Standard Print Edition. This allows you to bring these exciting titles to all your patrons, without the wait!

How to Order:
Phone: 1-800-223-1244, ext. 4 or 1048
Fax: 1-800-558-4676
E-mail: sherry.cookson@cengage.com  
Visit us on the web @ www.gale.cengage.com/thorndike/

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KENNEBEC LARGE PRINT

Kennebec Large Print offers high quality, bestselling titles in the popular softcover format at a more affordable price to help you enhance your Large Print collection just when demand is highest.

Kennebec Large Print offers 4 softcover Standing Orders at a 40% discount and shipping is FREE! But if a Standing Order is not for you, any of the Kennebec Large Print titles can be purchased individually at a 20% discount with FREE shipping. And you can combine these titles with Thorndike, Wheeler, and Five Star titles to meet your Librarian’s Choice Plan commitments.

How to order
Phone: 1-800-223-1244, ext. 4 or 1048
Fax: 800-558-4676
E-mail: sherry.cookson@cengage.com 
Visit us on the web @ www.kennebeclargeprint.com

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FIVE STAR PUBLISHING

Our Five Star (standard print) original fiction titles bring you even more title selection for your patrons, also at 20% and FREE shipping on individual titles!

But if a standing order is the way you want to go, when you sign up for a Five Star standing order, you will receive great original fiction standard print titles by bestselling and award winning authors, as well as fresh and exciting voices in the publishing field. An all our Five Star Standing Orders are offered at a 25% discount, and shipping is always FREE. Our titles are well reviewed by Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly. Save Time and money by signing up today so you can start receiving these fantastic additions to your collection.

How to order
Phone: 1-800-223-1244, ext. 4 or 1048
Fax: 800-558-4676
E-mail: sherry.cookson@cengage.com  
Visit us on the web @ www.gale.cengage.com/fivestar

The people of Florida roared and the state’s leaders listened!

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

On May 3, the House and Senate agreed to fund Florida’s State Aid to Public Libraries program at $21,253,978.

Throughout Florida, folks stepped up, got engaged, and made this happen.  We will never know just how extensive this effort was, but we have seen signs of extensive networks and efforts in Florida’s smallest towns.  There are so many wonderful stories.  So many folks did such innovative and clever things.  And normal Floridians who had never called or e-mailed an official stood up and roared!

Some folks to thank!

-  Senator Crist – He was down there working it with the Conferees.  We asked for his help, and he responded.

-  Rep. Nehr – from Pinellas – and lots of others, who went to the leaders and said you’ve got to do this!

-  Senator Alexander and Rep. Rivera who would not give up on our issue!  And Senator Fasano, Rep. Gloriso, and Rep. Evers who have been there for us since the day one!

-  Secretary Kurt Browning, who has been on the hill, working for us, ably supported by Rivers Buford and Judi Ring.

-  Chris Doolin from the Small County Coaliton – and Danny Hales who has helped keep those folks engaged!  Chris has really been working it!

-  The Florida press corps who picked up our issue and put it out there!

-  Faye Roberts, executive director of FLA, who did a beautiful job communications director, explaining things to the media.

-  Lisa Manners – the Capwiz message count was over 9,000.

-  Tom Sloan and the SEFLIN folks put up a page like Capwiz and handled hundreds of messages.

Charlie Parker
TBLC Executive Director