Gaylord Library Automation News

Automation Celebration … Ringing in the 21st Century

at Gaylord Library in South Hadley

All are invited to celebrate the completion of Gaylord Library’s long-awaited Follett automation project. Please join us on Friday, December 7 at 7 pm to be entertained by the Renaissance Ringers handbell choir and enjoy light refreshments. Parking available in MHC staff lot adjacent to the library. Sponsored by Gaylord Friends.


~ Christine Quigley, Director, Gaylord Memorial Library

Library Address: 47 College Street, South Hadley

West Stockbridge Public Library Open House

On Saturday November 3 I attended an open house at the new library in West Stockbridge, a town of 1450. The library is part of a renovated school building in which all municipal departments are now located. This beautiful space has lots of natural light, a beautiful open circulation desk, four public internet workstations, a separate staff work area, and a small meeting room. There are also bookshelves on wheels in the children’s/YA area that can be pushed to the sides of the room to create space for an audience during programs, a great idea that trustees discovered while on a library tour of the New Marlborough Public Library.

Photos include: Library Director Alison (A.J.)Cole, trustee chair Nancy Hearn and an unidentified patron; the bright and colorful children’s area---can you spot Brutus???; and A.J. with her therapy/READ dog Owen.

~ Mary King, WMRLS

LibraryThing and New WMRLS Professional Titles

Is a picture worth a thousand words? You decide. We recently posted the titles of all new titles that have been added to the WMRLS Professional Collection on LibraryThing "the world's largest online bookclub". This enables you, the viewer, to see the cover of the book in a list or a book cover format as well as manipulate the data to view by author, title, ISBN, and more!

Check out the WMRLS LibraryThing webpage!

Check out the WMRLS Professional Materials Available for Loan From WMRLS webpage!

~ Janet Eckert, WMRLS

One Minute Book Review

watch video

YouTube Video Description: "The Yarn Harlot -Stephanie Pearl-McPhee offers sage advice in her small but delightful non-fiction book "Meditations for Women who Knit Too Much". The audiobook version is also great, because you can knit while you listen. If you are a knitter, this will validate everything you have always believed about your art/craft/hobby/obsession. And if you don't knit - well, maybe you should give it a try?"

Copyright © 2007 YouTube, Inc.

South Hadley Library Online Survey

The South Hadley Public Library, as part of our Strategic Planning process, is conducting a seven question survey to evaluate our community's needs. We know of several WMRLS librarians that use our library for personal or professional needs - if you are one please fill out our survey!

• Direct direct link to the survey
• Or it may be accessed from the library's homepage.

Thank you.

~ Joe Rodio, South Hadley Public Library Director

Annual Educators' Night with Michael Thompson

Annual Educators’ Night with Michael Thompson

Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
November 30, 2007
4:30 - 6:30 pm
Free. Reservations required.

(2 PDPs) Join nationally and internationally-renowned consultant, author, and psychologist, Michael Thompson as he explores the complex world of children and childhood in contemporary American culture. Book signing to follow.
All educators welcome; free materials for libraries and classroom. Reservations required (413) 658-1126. Space is limited.

Please join me in helping to spread the word about the Museum’s annual Night for Educators. This year Michael Thompson will speak in conjunction with the Museum’s exhibition, Children Should Be Seen: The Image of the Child in American Picture Book Art. See below for details to share with others. Please forward to all those you think might be interested in hearing this wonderful speaker who has written and presented extensively on such topic as

· The nature of boys: strengths and vulnerabilities

· Friendship development, popularity and social cruelty

· Adolescent development

Information about Michael:

Michael Thompson, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist, lecturer, consultant and former seventh grade teacher. He conducts workshops on the development of boys and social cruelty in childhood for both public and private schools across the United States. He is the author of Speaking of Boys and coauthor, with Dan Kindlon, Ph.D., of The New York Times bestseller Raising Cain. The father of a daughter and a son, he and his wife observe children’s friendships from their home in Arlington, Massachusetts.

~ Rosemary A. Agoglia,Curator of Education, The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst

Safety in the Library ~ Never Out of Date

WMRLS has long advocated that libraries should ALWAYS have at least 2 people on duty at any time. While this may be difficult for small or branch libraries, it is essential that we provide for the safety of our valuable library workers and library users.

A previous WRapper article on this topic was prompted because I had just returned from a Rural Libraries Conference in Arizona where shock and fear had spread throughout the library community there... a local librarian had just been brutally murdered in her remote library, while working alone, just before the conference began. Within a year, western Massachusetts experienced a similar troubling situation when a local librarian was beaten and assaulted while working alone in her library. Fortunately, in that case, she was able to escape without serious injury, but it was a very unsettling experience for everyone. In our first article we had cautioned that people shouldn't assume “That sort of thing couldn't happen here”. We learned firsthand that such things can happen anywhere. There have been other episodes in other parts of Massachusetts as well.

It is critical that sensible precautions be taken. The following tips should be considered by librarians, trustees, or other governing authorities:

1. Have a second person on hand at all times, especially at opening and closing times. The dynamics of a confrontation are dramatically altered by the presence of another person. In addition to warding off attacks, it is useful to have another person nearby in case someone was to fall down a flight of stairs or suffer a heart attack or other medical emergency.
2. If you cannot provide for a second person, especially at closing times, make sure there is someone waiting for the employee to arrive home and to check up if they don't show up.
3. Install an alarm that sounds directly at the police station or at the emergency dispatch center for the town.
4. Provide an on-person mobile phone or other communications device to use in an emergency, programmed to call the police.
5. Increase lighting inside and outside the library and in parking areas.
6. Cut back landscaping where people can hide.
7. Make sure there is clear visibility between the parking area and the library entrance.
8. Hold regular security awareness sessions for all staff and volunteers.
9. Establish a Crime Watch network with householders and businesses in the library's vicinity.
10. Develop a safety plan with the local police, covering how to deal with problem patrons, how to report an incident, and procedures for entering the library when there are signs of forced entry.

This article was originally printed in the April 2001 edition of WRapper: the newsletter of the Western Massachusetts Regional Library System

~ John Ramsay, Regional Administrator, WMRLS

D'Amour Library's Athenaeum Arts Series - November 16

On Friday, November 16 at 7 pm, the D'Amour Library will screen the movie "The Great Match". This screening is part of D'Amour Library's Athenaeum Arts Series. Admission is free and refreshments will be provided.

Event Description:
"This film tells the adventurous story of three heroes, none of whom have ever met, but who nevertheless have two things in common: firstly, they all live in the farthest-flung corners of the planet and, secondly, they are all three determined to see on TV the final in Japan of the 2002 World Cup between Germany and Brazil. The protagonists in this 'global' comedy are: a family of Mongolian nomads, a camel caravan of Tuareg in the Sahara, and a group of Indios in the Amazon. They all live about 500 kilometres away from the next town - and the next television - making their task a particularly daunting one. Nevertheless, these inventive people possess the resourcefulness and the willpower to achieve their goal." - filmmovement.com

~ Daniel Eckert, D'Amour Library, Western New England College

Library of the future?

I am sending this rather long post in the hopes of collecting thoughts on where libraries fit in to the world of the future. I apologize for the length, but would really appreciate your input as I prepare my final assignments due Nov 26th at URI for this semester. I will also post to listserves. Thanks so very much.
Donna Colson

Hello library bloggers, masyacers, library listserve members, and my colleagues at the Westfield Athenaeum…

Could I trouble you to peruse this rather long post and share your opinions with me? I am a library school student and children’s library employee who is working on creating a blog for my final project in Digital Resources for Children and Teens at the University of Rhode Island and would be grateful for your thoughts. I am actually learning about all of the Web 2.0 technologies for the first time in this class. I participated in Janet Eckert’s Blogging for Beginners workshop recently and absorbed the basics of this piece of social networking in preparation for my own attempt (Thank you Janet). The topic of my 2 final projects, the blog to be the equivalent of 5 print pages, and the facilitation of a weekly discussion thread, will center around the future of libraries and librarians. What do you predict for libraries? Will digital resources, available on the internet take away the need for libraries as we know them? If the physical library is no longer vital to the dissemination of information, will it be cost effective for municipalities to continue to fund their existence? Will computers be our stacks? Change is happening fast and continuous in the library world of technological information sharing…can we keep up? Change is probably the only thing we can be sure of! Will we continue to open our doors to a multi faceted collection of resources in all formats or will we simply be a computer monitor and keyboard?

What of the role of reference librarian? Is this person behind the desk, with all the answers at her fingertips, being replaced by a virtual librarian…a google avatar? Are reference questions changing…simpler or more complex? Will research be do-it- yourself online? What about the irrelevant and inaccurate information accessed…who will help patrons to evaluate and choose appropriately? Where does information literacy fit into the equation?

We’ve come a long way since the closed stacks of early libraries…our stacks opened to be accessed by all freely during the days of Dewey…I love browsing the shelves and reading a book in my hand…but in the future will we be like the Jetsons sitting in front of a monitor looking to a “Jeeves” for answers to all our questions? If books appear only online will it be the demise of bookstores as well? Is that why they are all going the “Starbucks” and soup and sandwich route? Must we do the same?? With everything else free in the library will the snacks be, too! Will controversial Wikipedia replace the authoritative and accurate World Book and Britannica? As things change in the world, will Wikipedia, with the ability for people to add and modify, be the replacement for the A-Z sets and their print supplement annual yearbooks?

What about our diverse community and their needs? How does the shrinking population of young adult library users affect the future? Should we make more of an effort to meet needs of this younger socially networked community by educating ourselves and others in the uses of Web 2.0 technology and using it to reach out and connect with teens? What do you think of enlisting the help of Web 2.0 savvy teens volunteering or being paid to teach the social networking skills to those of us who, as adults, are unfamiliar?

What will the needs of children be? Will we continue to develop collections of books for check out to share on somebody’s lap or at bedtime? Will we offer storytimes or crafts?

Does the lack of computer knowledge limit access by seniors? Are they being left out of the technological world? As libraries, the people’s universities, can we change that? Should we?

How about school libraries…they have very limited budgets as it is, and many school systems are no longer funding a professional librarian position. Are the media centers disappearing from the essential educational landscape? Thinking about academic college and university libraries when students decide to study together at the library where will they meet? Will the library be physical down the street or will their avatars meet in a library on Second Life??? Online fingertip collaboration within web 2.0’s interactive social sites can expand a study group beyond universities to include real students from around the world. Is that considered virtual?

Will the library be simply a building full of computers for use by all? Will the library be totally virtual accessed from home with no physical space? Will physical isolation be OK in the face of global online interaction? Will we need any face to face human interaction? I have been concerned about students in library school completing their degree online and wondering how they will ever interact with real people in real time. Maybe I shouldn’t worry about them…maybe it’s those of us accustomed to day to day contact that I should worry about. If libraries go entirely digital will they be the ones best equipped to perform the tasks of librarian having had vast experience in online collaborations within Web 2.0, or 3.0 or whatever .0 is to come? If only we had a crystal ball…

What about the privacy libraries promise to protect? By virtue of the nature of the “online beast” participants in social networking seem to devalue their right to privacy…their lives become an open book by choice. Will this be a concern for the future with online stalkers, the Patriot Act, pedophiles all visiting online?

Libraries, whether public or in schools, have enjoyed the role being the heart of their communities. Can we retain that honored position in the future? It can’t be all doom and gloom…I’ve posed an awful lot of questions, and I don’t ask you to answer every single one, but if you could share your thoughts on the library’s future in a nutshell I would really appreciate it.

Many, many thanks.
Donna Colson
University of Rhode Island grad student and
Assistant Youth Services Librarian @ the Westfield Athenaeum

In case you prefer to answer via email to my post about libraries of the future...
dlcolson20032003@yahoo.com
Thanks so much... Donna Colson