Friends of WMRLS First Annual BOOK IT TO THE LIBRARY Slide Show

The Republican Editorials: "Region's libraries need our support"

"Region's libraries need our support"


By The Republican Editorials
October 07, 2009, 5:34AM

"Western Massachusetts libraries took more than their fair share of cuts this year as cities and towns struggled to make up for reduced revenues that are the result of the recession...." READ COMPLETE EDITORIAL

The Massachusetts School Library Annual Conference WOWS!

The Massachusetts School Library Association held their annual conference at the Sturbridge Host Hotel on October 4 and 5.  I had the good fortune to attend.  In the coming weeks, my goal is to review the bounty of information that I gathered at this wonderful conference and to share it with WMRLS members via our WMRLS-One-Blog and by weaving the lessons that I have learned into upcoming WMRLS Continuing Education workshops.  ~ Sincerely, Janet Eckert, WMRLS

My first blog post, inspired by MSLA Conference, focuses on two fantastic Web 2.0 resources - Wordle and GoAnimate

GoAnimate:  Laura Beals D'Elia,  Librarian of the Fay School Library in Southborough, conducted an excellent workshop titled "My Favorite Tools".  Laura shared that at the beginning of the school year, each department was alloted 5 minutes to overview the services that they provide to administrators, teachers, students, and parents.  Laura and the team of librarians at the Fay School met this challenge by producing a 5 minute animated video (that is both fun and informative) titled The Library Gadget 3000 [Adobe Flash 10 is required]

Wordle: While I was aware of Wordle, I thought of it as an enhanced Word Art tool (and no more).  In his keynote address titled "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow?  Key Challenges Today for Tomorrow's School Libraries", Dr. Ross Todd utilized Wordle to highlight its "tag cloud" function.  That is, Dr. Todd pasted one library's mission statement into Wordle which immediately showcased the library's serious flaw - the Wordle "tag cloud" clearly showed that this library was promoting itself rather than the services that it provides to its community.  (I decided to test our WMRLS Mission Statement and pasted our Mission's text into a Wordle page.  I am pleased to report that we have passed Dr. Todd's "tag cloud" test in that our services of working with libraries to cooperate, communicate, and share is dominent within our WMRLS Wordle.)

1st Annual Book It to the Library Road Race

The road race on Saturday, October 3, 2009, was a success. Rain poured down on surrounding towns, but not on runners and walkers. Lots of librarians and civilians turned out to support the Western Region and libraries in general. Participants got some fresh air and exercise, met new people, and toured the bookmobile and a delivery van. It was a very rewarding day. If you'd like to see more pictures look a few articles down. If you'd like to see the results, they are listed on the CoolRunning website; the race was sanctioned by US Track & Field. If you'd like more information on conducting such an event, please attend the Friends of WMRLS Annual Meeting this Friday, October 9 at the Bushnell-Sage Library in Sheffield. Registration information in on the Western Region Continuing Education Page.

~ Jan Resnick, Assistant Regional Administrator

DATABITES!

Looking for those HELP screens in the Gale Infotrac database? They are now tucked in the toolbox. Click on the "Toolbox" link at the top of the screen and select "HELP" from the drop-down menu!


Shirley Keech
Research and Database Specialist, WMRLS

Friends of WMRLS Annual Meeting - Friday, October 9 from 10 to noon

Be sure to register online to attend our upcoming Friends of WMRLS Annual Meeting

Friday, October 9 from 10 to noon at the Bushnell-Sage Library in Sheffield

After a brief business meeting Leverett Library Director Linda Wentworth will report on what it took to organize the extremely successful 1st annual BOOK IT TO THE LIBRARY Road Race, which just took place as a fundraiser for WMRLS on October 3. The race was a huge success and lots of fun, so come to learn the nuts and bolts of how you can organize your own community road race! We will also hear from Regional Administrator John Ramsay about what is happening in the budget struggle for regional library systems next year. The Friends of WMRLS support the regional library with monetary donations and organizational help. They advocate for libraries all across Massachusetts and make it possible for all of us to meet with our elected state officials at Legislative Breakfasts and at the State House each spring.

Thank you to each of the sponsors of our First Annual BOOK IT TO THE LIBRARY Road Race!