SJRLC Connections

New and Upcoming classes/webinars for Sept/Oct

We have a variety of workshops, both webinar and f2f on deck for September and October. Choose from:

• Sept 10: Reader's Advisory with Novelist (EBSCO Webinar)
• Sept 14: Homework Help with Ebsco (EBSCO Webinar)
• Sept 23: Usability Webinar: How Usable is Your Library? (SJRLC Webinar)
• Sept 24: Cloud Computing: An Introduction
• Oct 6:     Ebsco: Business Resources (EBSCO Webinar)
• Oct 13:   Patron Resume and Interview Workshops in a Box
• Oct 27:   Ebsco: Literary Reference Center  (EBSCO Webinar)

Click on the links above for complete information and registration.   Complete course schedule is available at: http://www.sjrlc.org/CE . 

Course for October still being added, so stay tuned!

A+ Partnership for Teens Event: Resources from the day

On August 19th we held our 3rd annual A+ Partnership for Teens event at the Gloucester County Library.  We had two wonderful programs from Jennifer Hubert (Booktalking the Reading Rants Way) and Mary Lewis (Advocacy).  

 

Even if you weren't able to attend you may find the resources valuable. They are available at: http://sjrlcaplus.pbworks.com/aplus09.

1. Booktalk Handouts (Jennifer Hubert)
   1. Book Talk Brainstorm
   2. Booktalking The Reading Rants Way
   3. Online Booktalk Resources
   4. Why Booktalk.pdf
       
2. Advocacy Handout (Mary Lewis)
   1. Planning Guide for Advocacy
       
3. Pictures from the Day

Thanks again to our presenters, Jennifer Hubert and Mary Lewis, and to Jennifer Boyce (Atlantic City PL) and Christen Orbanus (Camden Co. Lib) for updating us on the status of their Teen Spaces.  And of course a big thanks to the wonderful staff at Gloucester County Library for offering us their wonderful meeting room in Mullica Hill and providing so much assistance.

QandANJ launches a text reference pilot!

QandANJ.org launched its text reference pilot project this week! Five QandANJ libraries are participating in the year long project that will test their customers’ interest in using text messaging to ask reference questions.

Participating libraries include Atlantic Cape Community College Library, Newark Public Library, Princeton Public Library, Vineland Public Library and William Paterson University Library. QandANJ is covering the cost of Mosio’s Text a Librarian software – the best we’ve found for this application. Each subscription includes one microboard (online location to view incoming texts) and each library’s own text keyword. All texts go to the same phone number (66746, which spells Mosio) and patrons start the body of their text with the library’s keyword to route it to the correct library microboard. Patron info is private and anonymous.

The Mosio Software has many useful elements, including a feature that translates a message out of shortened “text speak” to full words! A reports function in the software will allow statistical analysis of the library’s text message reference services. Above all, the software is very easy to use.

The patrons text their questions, but the librarians type their answers via a web interface (kind of like the QandANJ chat monitor). Libraries can set the system so that incoming text messages generate emails to certain librarians’ email addresses. Alternately, the library can route their text questions through their existing IM systems (Meebo, Pidgin, etc.).

Unlike the cooperative model of QandANJ, only librarians at each participating library will see their own patrons. There will be no back up in this pilot project as each library answers only their own texts. What type of questions will be coming through the text platform is part of the experiment.

Participating libraries and QandANJ staff are very excited to see what happens in the coming year! For more information, please visit the participating libraries’ web pages.

• Atlantic  Cape Community College Library http://www.atlantic.edu/library/askLibrarian.htm

• Newark Public Library http://www.npl.org/Pages/Collections/textus.html

• Princeton Public Library http://www.princeton.lib.nj.us/

• Vineland Public Library http://www.vinelandlibrary.org

• William  Paterson University Library http://www.wpunj.edu/library/

JerseyCat User Group sessions

JerseyCat User Group sessions will be offered to JerseyCat participants in October. A session is planned for each region to discuss recent changes to JerseyCat, to look ahead to the future of JerseyCat, and to talk about opportunities for JerseyCat members. It is important for the JerseyCat community to come together for these sessions to provide communication and learning among the users of the system. If your library uses JerseyCat as a borrower or a lender,it is important for someone to attend one of these sessions.
The schedule for the sessions is:

Highlands Region - Tuesday, October 20 - Morris County Library Highlands Region - Wednesday, October 21 - Ridgewood Public Library Central Region - Thursday, October 22 - Monmouth County Library Infolink Region - Tuesday, October 27 - Woodbridge Public Library South Region - Wednesday, October 28 - Cherry Hill Public Library

All sessions will be from 10:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

To register go to:
https://secure.thriva.com/Reg/Form.aspx?IDTD=1607587&IDRPH=1659115

If you have any questions, please contact Scherelene Schatz, sschatz@njstatelib.org or call me at 609-278-2640, Extension 158.

Mystery Book Buzz: A Free Webinar from Library Journal

Mystery Book Buzz: A Free Webinar from Library Journal

 Wednesday, August 26, 2009, from 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. Eastern

Register here 
 (Note: If this time doesn’t fit your schedule, you can find this and other programs in the Library Journal archive at http://www.libraryjournal.com/webcasts.)  

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Mystery fiction is high on the list of public library patrons—and the genre is as broad as it is deep. While detective fiction may be the most popular form of mystery fiction, there are dozens of other variations that keep these avid readers returning to the library again and again, including thrillers, cozies, romantic suspense, and good old police procedurals.

A well-known readers’ advisory consultant, Joyce Saricks, has written that “mysteries tend to be in-depth examinations of human nature, probing the why almost as frequently as the who and how. They are also morality plays, and justice, or the restoration of order, is at the heart of the solution in Mysteries. When ‘legal justice’ is not an option, investigators take the law into their own hands. As they do in most genre fiction, readers expect the good guys to win and the bad guys to be punished.”

Library foot traffic is up all around the country and so is circulation. Help your library patro ns escape momentarily from the stress and anxiety of the current economic situation by filling the library shelves with the latest titles from their favorite mystery writers!

Join the 60-minute Mystery Book Buzz webcast sponsored by four leading publishers who will introduce the best of their Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 titles, as well as important midlist and back-in-print titles.

Featured Panelists 

•  HarperCollins Publishers, Virginia Stanley, Director of Library Marketing 
•  Houghton Mifflin, Katrina Kruse, Marketing Manager 
•  Poisoned Pen Press, Barbara G. Peters, Senior Editor 
•  Severn House, Edwin Burkhalter, Chairman 
•  Moderator: Wilda Williams, Fiction Editor, Library Journal 

Register here 
 (Note: If this time doesn’t fit your schedule, you can find this and other programs in the Library Journal archive at http://www.libraryjournal.com/webcasts.)   

Ref, Tech & Tango: Adult Services in Action (Adult Services Forum)

 

 

Save this date!

October 28, 2009

9 AM – 3 PM

NJLA Reference, IT, and
Administration & Management Sections and the
Readers Advisory Roundtable

present

Adult Services Forum:

An opportunity for adult services librarians to gather together for the purpose of networking and exchanging ideas and views on important issues of the day.

Monmouth County Library Headquarters
125 Symmes Drive
Manalapan, NJ 07726

For a copy of the flyer:
http://njla.pbworks.com/f/Adult+Services+Forum-save+date.pdf  

Watch for more information coming soon!

 

Current Sponsors include the NJLA Reference, IT, and Administration & Management Sections and the Readers Advisory Roundtable.

Other sponsors are in the works and will be announced soon

Workshop: SERVING NEW JERSEY’S GLBT COMMUNITY

Save the Date!!!

 

The New Jersey State Library, INFOLINK and The INFOLINK Diversity Committee present

 

SERVING NEW JERSEY’S

GLBT COMMUNITY

 

Wednesday, October, 14, 2009

10:30 am - 4:00 pm, Location: TBA, Registration Fee: $40

(Registration, Refreshments, Networking at 10:00 am & lunch included)

 

[ Flyer in .pdf format ]

http://www.infolink.org/services/education_and_training/flyers/GLBT_SaveTheDate.pdf

 

INFOLINK is very pleased to partner with the New Jersey State Library to offer a statewide forum on ways multi-type libraries can serve New Jersey’s GLBT community (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender). We acknowledge the work of our forum speakers, NJLA’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Intersexed Roundtable and ALA’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table.

 

Please join us on October 14 to discover and develop ways to reach out and serve your local GLBT community. We invite you to explore ALA’s GLBTRT link at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/rts/glbtrt/index.cfm to review resources and issues. We hope this will galvanize you to save the date!!

 

Program List

 

·         New Jersey GLBT Community 2009 and Beyond - Allan Kleiman, South Plainfield Public Library

 

·         “So why is being gay so out this season?” (Bruno): Man --& Woman—Magnets @ Your Library, a Discussion of GLBTI Reference & Collection Development - Leslie Kahn, Newark Public Library

 

·         Making Connections - Enola Romano, NJLA LGBTI Roundtable & Allan Kleiman, ALA GLBT Roundtable

 

·         A Special Group for Info Pros: The SLA's GLBT Issues Caucus - Eric Schwarz, SLA GLBTI Caucus

 

·         Programming, Partnerships, Promotion and Pitfalls - Pham Condello, Karla Ivarson & Julie Tozer, Insight Out Focus Team, Ocean County Library

 

·         Programming Options - Joe Da Rold, Plainfield Public Library

 

·         Latino/Spanish Speaking Communities - Raul Gordillo, Queens (NY) Public Library

 

·         Transgendered Community- Michael Waldman, Baruch College, CUNY

 

·         Next Steps:  Developing an Action Plan - Allan Kleiman, South Plainfield Public Library

 

Registration is open on Monday, August 24, 2009 through the INFOLINK Office and will be limited to 100 people.  The complete program descriptions and location (in Middlesex County) information will be also announced on August 24.  Questions? Please contact us at 732-752-7720.

 

 

INFOLINK Regional Library Cooperative and its services are funded by the New Jersey State Library,

which is responsible for the coordination, promotion, and funding of the New Jersey Library Network.

 

 

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Librarians and Twitter

(Note: This post is by new SJRLC blogger Justin Hoenke, Cape May County Teen Librarian.  If you are an SJRLC member and are interested in blogging for "Connections" please email Peter Bromberg at bromberg@sjrlc.org.  If you want to learn more about Twitter, join us for our first SJRLC Webinar, Tweet What?  on August 25.  Details at: http://tinyurl.com/tweetwhat

Over the past few months, I've become an avid Tweeter.  At first I felt sort of overwhelmed by the whole thing.  I thought to myself "who really cares about what I'm doing/thinking/reading/etc?".  I'd jump on Twitter once every few weeks and dip my toes in the water.  It wasn't until I started following a lot of New Jersey librarians that I got to see the big picture. 

I quickly found out that there are A LOT of us librarians on Twitter and that we're all there to support each other and share ideas.  I was instantly hooked.  It was like I was becoming a member of some very rad gang.  The New Jersey Twittering Librarians Club.  Or something like that...

What I love most about the New Jersey librarians who use Twitter is the community that has been created.  Being the only teen librarian for my library, I often felt rather alone with my ideas and plans.   Once I got involved with Twitter and New Jersey librarians, that sense of being alone went away.  Here was a group of like minded individuals who were sharing and collaborating and advancing the library in today's society.

Here are a few pointers for those just starting using Twitter:

1. Share ideas, thoughts, news, articles.  I get most of my library news through Twitter these days. 

2. #followalibrarian is what the Twitter world calls a hash tag.  Librarians recently have started using this hash tag to recommend other librarians that you should follow on Twitter. 

3. To start off, here are just a few New Jersey librarians that I began following when I first signed up.  They were the ones who really helped me see the value that Twitter can have for librarans.

@wawoodworth, @pbromberg, @sophiebiblio, @redheadfangirl, @tadawes, @janieh, @akearns, @JustinLibrarian, @njla, @nancydowd, @LizB

To encourage this tweeting librarians community even more, I thought I'd organize the first ever New Jersey Librarians Tweetup.  This will give us New Jersey librarians a chance to finally meet up, network, and share even more ideas.

WHEN: Saturday October 3, 2009
TIME: 6:00pm
WHERE: Atlantic City, NJ at the Tropicana

(I'm not 100% sure on restaurants. Where do you think would be best? Click here for the list of restaurants in the Tropicana and leave a comment to let me know! Get back to me by September 18 so I can make reservations!)

WHO IS INVITED? Any librarians that want to make the trek.

If you wouldn't mind, please RSVP by either leaving a comment to this blog post, emailing me at justinthelibrarian (at) gmail dot com or send me a message on Twitter @justinlibrarian.

Photo credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/keiya/ / CC BY 2.0

Cloud Computing: An Introduction

Cloud Computing: An Introduction 

 REGISTER AT: http://tinyurl.com/sjrlccloudcomputing

WHEN: September 24, 9AM - Noon
WHERE: Camden County Library, Voorhees

COST: $20

PRESENTERS: Janie Hermann and Scott Sanecki, Princeton Public Library
Directions to Camden County Library

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Interested in an inexpensive way to share and access your files and documents from anywhere? Then cloud computing might be for you!


Data and services are being migrated to "the cloud" at a rapid rate, but what does this mean for libraries? More importantly, what exactly is the cloud and what are the practical uses that can be applied to improve our own work flow as well as provide service for our patrons?

There is no doubt that cloud computing is changing the way we access and store data. This talk, given by Princeton Public Library’s Scott Sanicki and Janie Hermann, will look at several aspects of cloud computing. Trends and advantages (as well as drawbacks) will be examined and practical advice on how you can take advantage of “computing in the cloud” will be given in this hands-on class.


By the end of this session participants will be able to:

• Understand the basics of the cloud computing model and how it applies to libraries
• Identify identify possible uses of cloud computing for both library staff and patrons alike
• Gain hands-on experience using a few key cloud computing applications.

3 CEU Credits will be given

REGISTER AT: http://tinyurl.com/sjrlccloudcomputing

FREE LIVE ONLINE WEBINAR:

Usability: How Usable is Your Library?

WHEN: Wednesday, Sept 23, 2:00-3:00 PM
WHERE: Online in our new WIMBA Room
SETUP/LOGIN: see: www.sjrlc.org/wimba for setup/login info
REGISTRATION:  http://tinyurl.com/sjrlcusability

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How usable is your library?

Today's libraries are richer in information sources than ever. But the richness of resources adds to the complexity of the overall library experience, which for many was already somewhat complex and, yes, even intimidating. 

For this reason, librarianship has been increasingly turning it's attention to the issue of usability (see articles by David Lee King and Steven Bell for example.)

In this one hour webinar, join Paul Sherman, Past President of the Usability Professionals Association, for a discussion of the concepts of usability, discoverability,learnability, and customer experience, and how these concepts play out in the library environment. 

 

About Our Speaker 

Paul Sherman is founder and principal consultant at Sherman Group User Experience. He has worked in the field of usability and user-centered design for the past 12 years. As a consultant he has conducted usability testing and interface design for banking, accounting and tax preparation applications, Web-based financial planning and portfolio management applications, and ecommerce Web sites.

He is also contributor and editor of the Gower book "Usability Success Stories: How Organizations Improve by Making Easier-to-Use Software and Web Sites," published in October 2006. He writes a regular column for the online user experience magazine "UXmatters" and has presented at conferences around North America as well as Asia, Europe, and South America. He blogs at: http://www.usabilityblog.com and can be reached at paul@shermanux.com.

 

 

Other information:

• REGISTRATION:  http://tinyurl.com/sjrlcusability
• COST: Cost is free, but registration is requested.
• Please configure your computer before logging in for the webinar.  Login/Setup info is available at: www.sjrlc.org/wimba.
• Complete info and FAQ about our Elearning program at: http://www.sjrlc.org/spice/elearning