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June
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ANOTHER MONTH … ANOTHER HAT!
It’s June Dairy Month in Wisconsin; the President of the WVLS Board, Sandi
Cihlar, is a member of the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board; cows are fun (I know
that ‘cuz Elsie told me so when I was a child); milk and cheese and ice cream
are very good. Take advantage of the statewide celebration and attend a dairy
breakfast in your area or at least wear your big, yellow cheesehead for
something other than a Packer game!
LIBRARIES ARE VALUABLE COMMUNITY ASSETS
I noticed on the Rural Libraries page of the Web Junction online newsletter
that a call went out for single-word definitions of rural libraries. Responses
included the following: Indispensable…Vital… Frugal…
Fundamental…Awesome…Resourceful…Central…Innovative …Inspiring…Outstanding… But
then, you all knew that already, didn’t you? An idea: have a contest in your
local library and ask your patrons to describe your library in one word. Publish
their descriptions in your local paper – spread the word about how valuable your
patrons think you are in their lives.
PATIENCE AND FORTITUDE
These words are common attributes of library folks but they are also the
names of the world-renowned pair of marble lions that stand outside the majestic
New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan.
During the 1930s, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia gave the lions their names for the
qualities he felt New Yorkers would need to survive the economic depression.
OCTOTHORPE – is the name of the # symbol. Try to work that into your next trivia session!
WVLS SERVICES SURVEY
Thanks to all who responded to the recent survey of WVLS services. We will
be studying the results as we develop our system plan for 2007 and beyond. There
were really no great surprises, i.e., most of you want to continue/expand
current services.
-- Heather Eldred
2nd
NORTHWOODS CONFERENCE
for
LIBRARY FRIENDS, SUPPORTERS & Volunteers
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September 30, 2006 |
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Mark your calendars NOW!
The topics "fundraising" and "book sales" generated a great deal of interest and enthusiasm at the first Northwoods Conference for Library Friends, Supporters & Volunteers, so the Friends of the Marathon County Public Library and the Wisconsin Valley Library Service (WVLS) have decided that these issues will be the focus of the second Northwoods Conference.
WATCH for more information!
Conference updates will be announced via: WISPUBLIB (the Wisconsin public library listserv); the WVLS web site at
http://wvls.lib.wi.us/Workshops/workshop.html; the WVLS monthly newsletter, The Lamplighter; and mailings to public library systems, public libraries and Friends groups.AUDIOBOOKS ON THE GO
Other Times & Places
 | Blood Red Horse by K.M. Grant (Recorded Books) |
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| The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer (Recorded Books) |
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| The Teacher’s Funeral by Richard Peck |
Classics
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| Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (Audio Bookshelf) |
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| The Call of the Wild by Jack London (Recorded Books) |
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| A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Recorded Books) |
Family & Community
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| Bindi Babes and Bollywood Babes by Narinder Dhami (Listening Library) |
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| Flush by Carl Hiaasen (Listening Library) |
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| The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera (Bolinda Audio) |
Fantastic Worlds
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| The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; and The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (Listening Library) |
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| Time Stops for No Mouse; The Sands of Time; and No Time Like Show Time by Michael Hoeye (Listening Library) |
For a complete list of all 50 family-friendly titles, complete with annotations and links to AudioFile’s reviews, visit http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/abotg06_dl.html. The list is also available as a convenient, eye-catching, printable PDF that may be shared with library patrons either via your library web site, as an email announcement, or as a copied promotional handout.
NEW!
SPANISH LANGUAGE COURT
FORMS AVAILABLE
The purpose of the forms is to make it easier for interpreters to translate the information for court users who have limited English proficiency. Each form contains a disclaimer in both Spanish and English, which states the "form does not replace the need for an interpreter, any colloquies mandated by law, or the responsibility of court and counsel to ensure that persons with limited English proficiency fully comprehend their rights and obligations." There are currently 33 certified Spanish-language court interpreters in Wisconsin.
According to Attorney Carmel Capati, Manager of the Court Interpreter
Program, there are plans for additional circuit court forms to be translated.
The committee hopes to have several juvenile and CHIPS forms translated into
Spanish and to translate forms into Hmong.
How does this impact book prices? Well, according to the March 2006 issue of School Library Journal (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6311760.html), book prices for preschool to grade four, and nonfiction for grades five and up have risen sharply, while prices for adult nonfiction hardcover books have actually decreased. Following are the average prices for books in 2006:
| 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | ||
| Children’s and YA Titles: Hardcover (Source: School Library Journal) | ||||
| Average price (all titles) | $19.31 | $20.52 | $21.60 | |
| Preschool to grade four | $17.51 | $18.92 | $21.60 | |
| Grade five and up (fiction) | $16.84 | $16.85 | $16.87 | |
| Grade five and up (nonfiction) | $23.25 | $24.92 | $26.81 | |
| Adult Titles: Hardcover (Source: Bowker’s Books in Print) | ||||
| Fiction (excluding special editions, etc.) | $24.81 | $24.95 | -NA- | |
| Nonfiction | $41.07 | $36.86 | -NA- | |
| Nonfiction (prices include single-volume reference titles) | $73.64 | $70.72 | -NA- | |
| Adult Titles: Paperback (excluding mass market) (Source: Bowker’s Books in Print) | ||||
| Fiction | $14.95 | $18.63 | -NA- | |
| Nonfiction (prices include reference and related resources) | $27.38 | $33.81 | -NA- | |
FREE!
Winner of the 2006 HALL OF FAME AWARD: The Harry Potter Audiobook Series by
J.K. Rowling (Listening Library)
Winner of the: 2006 SPECIAL JUDGES’ AWARD FOR SPANISH LANGUAGE TITLES: El
Codigo Da Vinci by Dan Brown (FonoLibro Inc.)
The complete listing of audio winners in a dynamic, multimedia document is available at http://www.audiopub.org/files/public/TheAudiesWinnersRelease2006.pdf Provided as an Adobe Acrobat PDF, you may post this document to a library web site and/or listen to sound clips and read reviews online.
MAKE YOUR LOST FLASH
DRIVE EASY TO RETURN
But what happens if you lose your flash drive? How would anyone be able to tell who it belongs to? Here’s a tip from a reader of Ask MetaFilter (http://ask.metafilter.com/): "First thing I would do with a new USB stick (or Flash memory card of any kind) is rename the drive to my mobile phone number, and create a text file with my contact information called REWARD IF FOUND.TXT." What a great idea! And easy to do. Another reader does something similar, but less high tech: "I put mine on a split ring with a small address tag."
For more ideas on how to make your flash drive easily returnable if lost, along with other tips on using a USB drive, go to Ask MetaFilter’s "What is on your USB memory stick?" at http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/37230.
(Tidbits, newsletter of the Outagamie-Waupaca Library System; May 2006 – USB Drive Special Edition; http://www.owlsweb.info/tidbits/2006/may.asp; used with permission.)
FREE!
EngagedPatrons.org (http://www.engagedpatrons.org/) offers library event registration tools, blogs, feedback mechanisms, RSS feeds, and custom web-enabled databases. Prospective clients select a service and answer some questions about their library, including customization options. Since all services are hosted at Peterson’s site, selected libraries receive a URL to link from the library’s web site to the new service.
Since launching the site on April 20, 2006, over 53 libraries have started
using EngagedPatrons.org and Peterson has received offers from other librarians,
including Hennepin colleagues, to help. Peterson is already working on a
readers’ advisory tool that facilitates online book discussions and wants to
extend the philosophy of Web 2.0 – the ability of library web site visitors to
interact with other library web site visitors or library staff – in the future.
-- Matt Rosendahl; Director of the Milltown Public Library (Milltown, WI)"Just because we are a small library doesn’t mean that we can’t offer professional services…We have just started using [EngagedPatrons.org] and so far – I LOVE it! With their help I can continually update our upcoming events [on the library’s web site] without having to invest in a copy of FrontPage or hiring a web consultant. The other benefit is that they remove events after they have occurred so that there are no old postings left on the website."
EDITOR’S NOTE: If you have any questions about EngagedPatrons.org and how their services might benefit your library, please feel free to contact Matt Rosendahl at the Milltown Public Library (61 W Main Street; Milltown, WI 54848); by phone at 715/825-2313 or email at milltownpl@ifls.lib.wi.us.
The National Gardening Association (http://www.garden.org/) and Home Depot (http://www.homedepot.com/) have announced the 24th annual Youth Garden Grant Program. Over the last twenty-four years, NGA’s Youth Garden Grants program has helped more than 1.3 million youngsters reap rewards and vital life lessons from working in gardens and habitats. Schools, youth groups, community centers, camps, clubs, treatment facilities, and intergenerational groups throughout the United States are eligible to apply. Applicants must plan to garden in 2007 with at least fifteen children between the ages of three and 18 years. Previous Youth Garden Grant winners who wish to reapply must wait one year and have significantly expanded their garden programs.Applicants should demonstrate a child-centered plan that emphasizes children/youth learning and working in an outdoor garden. Areas considered for support include educational, environmental, or social programming; leadership; community support; sustainability; innovation, and need. Each winning program will receive educational materials from NGA and a gift card (amount to be determined) from Home Depot.
Program information and application are available at the NGA Kidsgardening
Web site at
http://www.kidsgardening.com/YGG.asp
NEW!
WHAT’S THE RECORD FOR MOST ORGAN TRANSPLANTS IN ONE PROCEDURE?
EMAILS HURT I-Q MORE THAN POT!
But the mental impact of trying to balance a steady inflow of messages with getting on with normal work took its toll, the UK’s Press Association reported. Dr. Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist at King’s College London University, monitored the IQ of workers throughout the day in 80 clinical trials. The results showed that the IQ of those who tried to juggle messages and work fell by 10 points – the equivalent to missing a whole night’s sleep and more than double the 4-point fall seen after smoking marijuana.
"This is a very real and widespread phenomenon," Wilson said.
"The research suggests that we are in danger of being caught up in a 24-hour
‘always on’ society," said David Smith of Hewlett Packard.
(CNN.com; 4/22/05;
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/22/text.iq)
But researchers peering into the brains of those engaged in several tasks at once are concluding what some overworked Americans had begun to suspect that multitasking, which many have embraced as the key to success, is instead a formula for shoddy work, mismanaged time, rote solutions, stress and forgetfulness. Not to mention car crashes, kitchen fires, forgotten children, near-misses in the skies and other dangers of inattention.
So turn off the music, hang up the phone, pull over to the side of the road and take note: When it comes to using your brain to conduct several tasks at one time, "there is no free lunch," says University of Michigan psychologist David E. Meyer. For all but a few mental undertakings are truly routine – it will take more time for the brain to switch among tasks then it would have to complete one and then turn to the other. When the two get squished together, each will be shortchanged, resulting in errors.
And a prolonged jag of extreme multitasking, warns Meyer, may lead to a
shorter attention span, poorer judgment and impaired memory.
WEB SITES OF INTEREST (tourist traps on the information superhighway!)
HOUSEKEEPINGCHANNEL.com (HC)
http://www.housekeepingchannel.com/
This site is a comprehensive resource for "Better, Faster, Healthier"
cleaning and housekeeping. HC exists to help you clean, protect and enhance your
home environment using proven processes and practices from cleaning experts,
professional cleaning services, environmental service professionals, and
organizational and time-management consultants.
LIBRARIES IN SOCIAL NETWORKING SOFTWARE
http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/index.php/2006/05/10/libraries-in-social-networking-software/
An excellent round-up of the discussion in libraryland about whether
or not to establish a library presence in MySpace, FaceBook and other social
networking sites - and how some libraries have used their presence there.
PATRIOT ACT BROCHURE FOR LIBRARY PATRONS
http://www.cal-webs.org/brochure_patriot_act.pdf
The Colorado Association of Libraries’ Intellectual Freedom Committee
has updated its award-winning brochure on the Patriot Act to reflect the changes
made in 2006. Libraries are encouraged to reproduce this flyer (PDF file) and
share the information with their patrons.
SITES ON POISON IVY
(From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2006; http://scout.wisc.edu/; 6/2/06)
PUBLIC RADIO PODCAST DIRECTORY
http://www.publicradiofan.com/podcasts.html
Over 650 podcasts (and growing!) are listed in this comprehensive
directory of podcasts from public radio stations. In addition to the directory,
PRF.com offers a real-time listing (think TV Guide) of what’s on or what
will soon air/stream from public radio stations around the globe. Go directly
from the directory to a live stream of the program. The service can even be
personalized so that you may search and sort stations by name, stations by
language, and programs by name.
TWO WAYS TO SET UP WIRELESS HOTSPOTS: COMPARING APPLES AND ORANGES
http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/mar06/Mutch_Ventura.shtml
There are so many ways to configure wireless hotspots; this article
from Computers in Libraries (March 2006) explains two very different
ones. One is open source with unrestricted access; the other is done with vendor
software and full authentication. You can get a taste of both strategies here
and see which would satisfy your needs.
June – AUDIOBOOK MONTH – Take this opportunity to promote your audiobook collections, including the downloadable titles from OverDrive! For tips on how to promote audiobooks and an audiobook promotional poster, visit http://www.audiopub.org/files/public/AudiobookMonthposterprint.pdf
June 15 – WVLS Executive Committee meeting – Marathon County Public Library – 9:30 a.m.
WVLS Collection Development Committee meeting – WVLS office – 1:00 p.m.
June 22-28 – ALA Annual Conference – New Orleans, LA – This year there will be two daylong community service efforts to help rebuild New Orleans, plus numerous tour packages. Madeleine Albright is the keynote speaker for the Opening General Session and Caroline Kennedy, author of two books on civil liberties and the president of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, will be the featured speaker at the Closing Session. To register and see a complete listing of program descriptions, go to www.ala.org/ala/eventsandconferencesb/annual/2006a/2006an.htm
July 11-13 – Farm Technology Days. Sheboygan County will be hosting this
3-day event at Quonset Farms LLC, W3018 Wilson-Lima Road, Oostburg. It is the
state’s largest outdoor agricultural show and showcases the latest improvements
in production agriculture, including practical applications of recent research
findings and technological developments. To learn more, visit:
http://www.sheboygan.2006farmtechnologydays.com/index.htm
(Library Connection, newsletter of the Eastern Shores Library System; May
2006)
July 20 – WVLS Board of Trustees meeting – Marathon County Public Library – 9:30 a.m.
July 26-27 – WiLSWorld 2006 Conference – Pyle Center, Madison - $150 for the full conference. Toted as the premier Midwestern library technology conference, the smorgasbord of sessions will appeal to the technically-minded as well as those looking for an executive overview of technology (as well as many of us who lie somewhere in between). For complete information, go to http://www.wils.wisc.edu/wworld/
August 3 – WVLS V-Cat Council meeting – Frances L. Simek Memorial Library, Medford – 9:30 a.m.
August 19 – WVLS Executive Committee meeting – Marathon County Public Library – 9:30 a.m.
September 20-21 – Northwest Wisconsin Children’s Book Conference – Telemark Resort & Convention Center - $95 (register before July 1st and take $10 off!) – 6.5 CEUs – details are at http://www.telemarkeducation.com/bookconference/invite_sitemap.htm
September 20-24 - The Wisconsin Library Association Foundation is again sponsoring a tour to New York City. The group will fly to New York on Midwest Express on September 20 and return on September 24. The cost, which ranges from $719 to $1,249 depending on accommodations, includes airfare, ground transportation, four nights at the Hotel Edison, one theatre ticket and a $25 gift to the WLA Foundation. For additional information, contact Rebecca Roepke, Director of the Cudahy Family Library, at 414-769-2246 or rebecca.roepke@mcfls.org
September 30 – 2nd Northwoods Conference for Library Friends, Supporters & Volunteers – Rothschild Village Community Room (Rothschild, WI). Details forthcoming.
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"People rarely succeed unless they have fun at what they are doing. -- Dale Carnegie (Refdesk thought-of-the-day; 5/17/06)
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ATTENTION: WESSLER SCHOLARSHIPS are available to cover some/all costs associated with attendance at reference and/or interlibrary loan continuing education events. If interested in becoming a Wessler Scholar, contact the WVLS office (715/261-7250) for more information. The application form and more information are available at http://wvls.lib.wi.us/About/wessler.htm
is a monthly newsletter of the Wisconsin
Valley Library Service.
300 N. First
Street / Wausau, WI 54403
Contributions are welcome!
Back issues are available at http://wvls.lib.wi.us/Newsletter/newsindex.htm
(Note: Web links in past issues are not checked for currency and may no
longer work.)
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EDITOR: Marla Sepnafski |
Contributions are welcome!
News items should be submitted by the first of the month.
WVLS serves Clark, Forest, Langlade, Lincoln, Marathon, Oneida, and Taylor counties.
When the most recent issue becomes available, readers are alerted by a notice
posted to WISPUBLIB, or sent an email.
To subscribe to WISPUBLIB, send an email message to wispublib@badger.state.wi.us
In the body of the message (subject line is ignored) type: subscribe WISPUBLIB.
Then send your email. To have The Lamplighter emailed to you without subscribing
to WISPUBLIB, contact Barbara Freimund at 715/261-7252, or email freimund@wvls.lib.wi.us
