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.

This is just a reminder asking you to let us know if your libraries or staff experience damage from Tropical Storm Fay, particularly if assistance is needed or you need to communicate to the library community. Email cparker@tblc.org or call (813) 622-8252 (ext. 222) if you have anything to report.

We’re hoping that our member libraries, their staff, and our region make it through this uneventfully.

Charlie

By Carl Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: April 26, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — Read all about it! The Pasco County Library System has been named Library of the Year by the Florida Library Association.

Libraries Director Linda Allen said the statewide honor recognizes how far the libraries here have come since she came on board 21 years ago.

Allen credited her hard-working staff for bringing the award to Pasco. “It didn’t have anything to do with me. It was them.”

Even during the Internet age, the Pasco libraries continue to expand, Allen emphasized. Patrons often compliment the varied programs, she said.

“All our indicators are way up this year,” Allen said. Overall circulation is up 4 percent over last year. Internet use on library computers alone is up 19 percent. “Program attendance is way up.” Computer classes typically are full.

This is the second time a library in Pasco County has won Library of the Year honors from the FLA. The New Port Richey Public Library was named the first winner of the award, in 2006.

Innovative programming for children, teens, and adults helped clinch this year’s award for Pasco County libraries, Allen said.

Allen cited programs such as Battle of the Bands XI, the Children’s Adaptive Toy Collection, for special-needs children, and literary speed dating for reading lovers, an innovative adult reading club program. Downloadable books and classical music are proving popular, she said.

The library system has turned a page since its humble origins, Allen recalled.

When Allen came here, in 1987, “there was no library system,” she recalled. “There were four very, very small libraries pretty much operating independently.”

Without centralized ordering of books, staff at one library branch had no way of knowing what books another branch stocked. Most books had been donated, so many tomes were old and out of date, she remembers. Computers were unheard of at a library.

“I thought this would look good on my resume,” Allen said about accepting a job here in 1987, never intending to stay long.

“I forgot to leave,” Allen said with a chuckle after 21 years with Pasco libraries. “That’s an indication of how much fun it is to work here.”

Eventually, the Pasco Library System grew, thanks in large part of a voter-approved bond issue that funded library construction.

Now, however, Allen is bracing for possible budget cuts of about 10 percent. The spending cuts are a result of recent state measures intended to reduce local government property taxes.

As a result, “Nothing is set in stone yet,” Allen said.

Attrition of staff from retirements is the first step toward tightening the library budget belt. Five positions are frozen now, Allen said.

She has no doubts that Pasco libraries will adapt and endure.

Allen and Assistant Libraries Director Stephen Kershner picked up the award last night at the Florida Library Association annual conference, in St. Petersburg.

In the near future, Charles Parker, executive director of the Tampa Bay Library Consortium and the president of the state association, will visit Pasco County to make a presentation, Allen said.

I’m very sorry to inform of the passing of Dr. Maria Chavez-Hernandez, associate professor at the College of Information , Florida State University.  For those of you who may not have known, she had a long fight with cancer and could not fight any longer to live.

Dr. Chavez-Hernandez was an active champion of library services and LIS education for minorities, and was recently honored by the Florida Library Association with an award bearing her name.

As posted in the College of Information website: “The Florida Library Association (FLA) announced an award honoring Dr. Maria Chavez-Hernandez of the FSU College of Information last week (January 8). The ‘Maria Chavez-Hernandez Libraries Change Peoples Lives Award’ will celebrate the ‘dynamic spirit of her work in expanding the opportunities of information access to under-served and immigrant populations’ by recognizing librarians who have ‘made a demonstrably positive and big difference in the lives of Florida ’s library users.’”

Her family was with her and were able to say goodbye.  She will surely be missed by many.