SJRLC Connections

Super Library Supervisor Spring Series I Open for Registration

The New Jersey Library Network presents:"Super Supervisor - Series One: Stepping Up To Supervisor"   

Series One includes five full-day (9:30 am - 3:30 pm) workshops.

TARGET AUDIENCE 

Library staff who are currently supervisors, but became supervisors within the past five years. (More experienced supervisors are welcome, if this is their first supervisory training.) 

LOCATION:  

 Rahway Public Library. 

COST:    

$250 Per Participant    (includes lunch and materials for all five sessions) 

DATES:  

• Thurs. April 2 - What it Means to be a Supervisor 
• Thurs. April 16 - Organzing Your Time and Space Effectively 
• Thurs. May 7 - Conflict Resolution 
• Thurs. May 21 - Communications 
•  Thurs. June 4 - Personnel Documentation and Evaluation 

 REGISTER EARLY! SPACE IS LIMITED TO 25 PARTICIPANTS 

• Deadline for registration is March 20, 2009. 
• To register, first call the Highlands Regional Library Cooperative at 973-664-1776 to secure your place and then send in your registration form. 
• A copy of the flyer with the registration form can be found at:  http://www.hrlc.org/sls/sls1-spring09.pdf

HOLD THIS DATE FOR FUNDRAISING WORKSHOP: March 25, 9:30-12:30

Fundraising Workshop: March 25, 9:30-12:30

• Fundraising Workshop: March 25, 9:30-12:30
• Description: Fundraising workshop led by former professional fundraiser Brett Bonfield, Director of the Collingswood Public Library
• Location: Cherry Hill Public Library Meeting Room
• Other Information: Registration opening soon.  Stay tuned!

NJ State Library Launches Web Site for Residents to “Get Help!”

NJ State Library Launches Web Site for Residents to “Get Help!”

February 23, 2009, Trenton, NJ - As the New Jersey economy weakens, unemployment figures increase and family incomes shrink, the New Jersey State Library has launched a new Web site designed to make it easier for residents to connect to state programs, services and agencies that can help them during these tough economic times. “Many New Jerseyans are facing severe financial and employment challenges and the place they are turning to for assistance and resources is their local library,” said Norma Blake, New Jersey State Librarian.

 “Librarians from all over New Jersey are reporting more people than ever before coming in to use computers; check out books and DVDs; and attend computer, financial and job search classes. This new Web site will link residents to a number of tools that will help save money and avoid frustration by taking them directly to the agencies that can be of assistance,” Blake added.

The site, http://gethelp.njlibraries.org, has categories listing Work Tools, Financial Tools, Housing Tools, Health Tools and Parental Tools, as well as Tools for Seniors. Users will find resources to help them pay their bills, avoid foreclosure, get job assistance or file for Medicaid.

 “I encourage residents to use this site and to visit their local libraries to get forms and apply for jobs, programs and benefits on-line. While you are there, check out the other things your library has to offer, such as free recreational and educational programs, or the latest books and movies,” Blake said.  “Our libraries are working hard to offer resources that help supplement the family budget and save communities money.”

The New Jersey State Library has three bureaus: the Library Development Bureau (LDB), the NJ Library for the Blind and Handicapped (NJLBH) and the State Library Information Center (SLIC). The State Library connects people with information through its service to libraries, government and people with special needs. The State Library, which is affiliated with Thomas Edison State College, coordinates, promotes and funds the New Jersey Library Network, of which we are a proud member.  

Sustainable Jersey: Possible Source of Funding for Municipalities and an Opportunity for Libraries

Sustainable Jersey is a certification program for municipalities that want to go green. Funds will be made available in grants to mayors in the near future to help municipalities get certified as sustainable communities.

Many towns will create green teams in order to plan for this program. It is a good opportunity for library directors or their representative to offer to serve on the green team so that libraries can become involved in this sustainability effort. This program includes energy audits for municipal facilities, community carbon footprinting, green purchasing programs,and a lot of other things that libraries could be involved in. This program is going to be announced in a press conference at the State House on February 26th with funding announcements to come later.

The Web site for this program is www.SustainableJersey.com. Mayors can register their communities on this Web site and announcements on the program and funding updates will be posted here.

 Tina Keresztury,  Associate State Librarian, NJ State Library

Try out Career Cruising

Career Cruising is a bilingual interactive career resource designed for people of all ages. 

We have a trial set up through March 31^st. It seems like an apropos time to try it out with your customers.

You can learn more about the product at http://www.careercruising.com/ or click here for an electronic version of their brochure.

Here is the access information you can use to log into the bilingual (English & Spanish) version of the Career Cruising website for further exploration and evaluation.

Website: www.careercruising.com
Username: sjrlc
Password: newjersey

Please feel free to share this information with your colleagues and customers as all are welcome to work with Career Cruising during this trial period. I’d be interested to know what you think in terms of it’s suitability for adults past high school age and its helpfulness for people who are unemployed. Do you have a product that you like better?

What the Stimulus Package Means for Libraries

Thanks to Cheryl O'Connor, Executive Director at Infolink Regional Library Cooperative for sharing this information from the ALA Washington Office regarding the  American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  www.ala.org/knowyourstimulus

 

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Completing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was a long and arduous process for the Obama Administration and the new Congress. Now that President Obama has signed the bill into law, our nation can begin the journey of restoring our economic stability through the programs and initiatives this law will make possible.

 

Throughout the process of creating this law, the library community demonstrated a steadfast commitment to the American public by working to inform our leaders in Washington about the programs and services libraries across the country are providing to help America get back to work, such as assistance with resume building and online job searching as well as free classes to teach the public 21st century job skills.

 

With many opportunities available to libraries through the stimulus bill, the library community must continue our efforts to educate our elected officials on the benefits of investing in libraries – focusing now on the state level.

 

Implementing the law will no doubt be as complex a process as creating it, and for this reason the ALA Washington Office has created www.ala.org/knowyourstimulus as a one-stop source with resources on how to make sure libraries benefit from the package and the most up-to-date information on the stimulus. As information becomes available, the ALA Washington Office will post updates on this page with details, such as how funding will be distributed and how to apply.

 

We have compiled a list of the programs that libraries can benefit from included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. More information will be posted on each section as it becomes available.

 

$7.2 billion for Broadband
This includes $2.5 billion for Rural Utilities Service and $4.7 billion for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) broadband grant program to increase broadband access and usage in underserved areas of the nation. This includes $200 million in competitive grants for expanding public computer capacity at public libraries and community college libraries.  Additionally, this includes $650 million for DTV, of which $90 million may be used by organizations, including libraries, for education and outreach to vulnerable populations including one-on-one assistance for box installation.

 

$53.6 billion for the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund
This program includes $48 billion in block grants allocated among the states.   Out of each state’s allocation, 81.8 percent is reserved for education and 18.2 percent is reserved for the governor to use as he or she sees fit. $39.5 billion for education using existing funding formulas, which can be used for preventing cutbacks, preventing layoffs, school modernization (school libraries will benefit from this), or other purposes and $8.8 billion for state fiscal relief for high-priority needs such as public safety and other critical services (including public libraries), renovation and repairs of public school facilities and institutions of higher education facilities.  Encouraging state officials to invest the funds they receive from Congress in public and school libraries will be critical. It is also important to note that with the billions of dollars states are receiving, there should be no need for drastic state cutbacks in services.

 

An additional $120 million for the Senior Community Service Employment Program
This funding will provide community service jobs at nonprofit and public facilities, including libraries, for an additional 24,000 older Americans. The Senior Community Service Employment Program is a community service and work-based training program for older workers. Program participants are placed in a wide variety of community service positions at non-profit and public facilities, including daycare centers, senior centers, governmental agencies, schools, hospitals, libraries and landscaping centers. There are currently 74 grantees. Grant awards are made to 18 national nonprofit organizations and 56 state and territorial governments. In most states, the governor has selected the State Office on Aging to administer the program. The contact information for all existing grantees is available by going to www.doleta.gov/seniors. Click the contacts link on the right and on that page go to grantees PY 2007.

 

An additional $130 million for the Rural Community Facilities Program
The Community Programs is a division of the Housing and Community Facilities Programs at the United States Department of Agriculture.  Community Programs includes the Community Facilities Guaranteed Loan Program, the Community Facilities Direct Loan Program, and the Community Facilities Grant Program. These programs help develop essential community facilities for public use in rural areas. These facilities include schools, libraries, childcare, hospitals, medical clinics, assisted living facilities, fire and rescue stations, police stations, community centers, public buildings and transportation.

 

Kristin Murphy,Government Relations Specialist

American Library Association - Washington Office

 

 

Grants available from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine

Grants available from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine

News from: Kathleen Moeller-Peiffer, MSLS,Associate State Librarian for Library Development, New Jersey State Library

At the last meeting of the New Jersey Library Network Review Board, the members heard about a grant from this organization that will assist the HealthyNJ.org web site incorporate the “Go Local” function from the National Library of Medicine.

Since this organization also funded a grant to the NJ State Library and Jersey Shore Medical Center in 2004 to assist older adults in locating medical information on the web, and since I have heard at previous NJ/LM membership meetings that they would like information on their grant programs made more widely available, the Board asked me to share this information, along with the URL.  

Go to: http://nnlm.gov/mar/funding/ to find out about current grant opportunities, eligibility and other criteria.

Legislative Alert: Library Funding Bill

Legislative Alert: Library Funding Bill

TO:  NJLA LISTSERV MEMBERS
FROM:  PAT TUMULTY, NJLA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
RE:  NEW LEGISLATION 

A3753 was introduced on Monday by Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (District 32). This bill is in response to the League of Municipalities’ recent resolution to lower the minimum funding level for municipal public libraries from 1/3 mill in equalized valuation to 1/6 mill.  Libraries funded at current minimum 1/3 mill could see their funding cut by 50%.

Act now

Passage of this legislation would be disastrous for public library service in our state.  At this time it is imperative that all library supporters contact members of the Assembly and tell them you oppose this bill.  We also request that they not sign-on as a co-sponsor of this legislation.

At this time there is no companion legislation in the Senate but it could be coming. A3753 has been referred to the Assembly Housing and Local Government Committee.  The next committee meeting is scheduled for March 9. Currently, there is no agenda available for this meeting so we don’t know if it will be heard on that date.

Members of the Housing and Local Government Committee are:

Assemblyman Jerry Green (District 22) chair; Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (District 27) vice-chair); Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (District 25); Assemblywoman Nilsa Cruz-Perez (District 5); Assemblyman Frederick Scalera (District 36) and Assemblywoman Charlotte Vandervalk (District 39).  It is essential that libraries represented by these committee members contact them immediately.

Use NJLA’s new Advocacy Tool to make your contacts.  This tool uses Capwiz, an advocacy tool provided through ALA.  Follow this link:

http://capwiz.com/ala/nj/home/

Select the alert titled Library Funding Threatened.

Read the description of the issue and enter your zip code.  If you live in a split district you may have to enter your full address. 

You will then see a screen indicating which legislators will get the email letter you can create with this tool.  Text is provided but you may edit it (in fact we encourage you to do so) to make your message more personal.

Fill in the sender information and send your message.  Remember that anyone may send a message from this system, just provide them the above URL.  The default is to send an email letter but you can opt to print the letter as well.

Share this URL with you trustees, friends, staff and community – anyone may use it!

We will keep you informed of any new information.  Please contact the NJLA office at 609-394-8032 or email me at ptumulty@njla.org if you have any questions or information on this legislation.

 

Reference USA "US Lifstyles" module no longer available

Reference USA  "US Lifstyles" module no longer available

News from Kathleen Moeller-Peiffer, MSLS, Associate State Librarian for Library Development

Last week the NJ State Library announced to the field that a new module, Lifestyle, would be added to our current RefUSA subscription through June 30, 2009. This decision was based upon the facts that RefUSA has proved to be a very successful component of the NJ Knowledge Initiative program; RefUSA technical support and training  have been exceptional over the past 3 ½ years; and RefUSA was giving the module to all NJ libraries and NJKI customers at no charge through June 30, 2009.

However, it quickly became apparent with comments from both the NJ library field and members of the NJKI Task Force that the information available through this module identified NJ residents, their mailing addresses and their buying habits. While this information is of great interest to organizations who wish to do targeted mailings and marketing, it also reveals a great deal about those residents who are our customers.

Therefore, the NJKI Task Force has advised the State Library to remove this module from the NJKI offerings. We have done so effective February 6, 2009.

On a related note, RefUSA has increased the internal downloading for our basic product from 25 to 50 and the anti-scrapping box that your remote patrons have been accustomed to seeing and entering a code each time they went from page to page has been lifted.

If any questions arise concerning this notice please contact Scherelene Schatz in the Library Development Bureau at 609-278-2640 ext. 158, or sschatz@njstatelib.org.

Workshop Registration is Open: How to Tell A Compelling Story

Workshop Registration is Open: How to Tell A Compelling Story

Is your library is looking to gain support from the public, elected officials, media, community organizations or existing customers?  The first place to start is the ability to craft a truly compelling story.

Whether that story is said in 30 seconds or five minutes, if done well, it could help you gain the support of a new champion. This workshop is based on the same format scriptwriters use to tell a story and it is incredibly easy to learn.

The State Library has scheduled workshops for February through April. These workshops are designed so that participants will be able to get personalized help in crafting their stories.

For more information and to register go to: http://nancydowd.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/registration-is-open-how-to-tell-a-compelling-story-workshops/

Questions? Call Nancy at 609-278-2640 x 122 or email: ndowd@njstatelib.org