Belated Tech services roundtable notes

1. Purchasing Co-op deadline March 31; bid by end of April - e-mail

Jan Resnick if necessary.

2. WMRLS Restructuring - process of merger continues; consolidation

of staff and services at the Regional level (47 staff to be reduced to 22); www.wmrls.org has link to merger transition report, with important summary beginning on p. 4; plan should be final by June; WMRLS building will be open for at least a year as delivery hub; MassCat and training will continue; one positive thing is that data bases will be state-wide eventually; MARLS Coop is state-wide already, and it works well.

Facebook: "We Love Western Mass Libraries."

3. FY11 budget - How have individual Tech Services Depts. been

affected? Frustration expressed re: TS staff getting cut, and the difficulty of using subs in TS; also, the difficulty of working as subs in public services, when staff are out sick, on vacation, etc.

4. C/WMARS -Janet Schrader on communicating with CWMARS and

especially when registering for workshops - PLEASE include full name, library name, e-mail and use subject line to state topic or workshop name.

5. CatExpress up for renewal; deadline is very soon. Janet

believes records will still be .99 per record, and it's the same rate for extra records.

6. Migration to Evergreen should be in 18 months. It will only

occur, however, after Serials and Acquisitions modules are ready.

7. RDA will begin to replace AACR2; it might be web-based only,

@$300/yr.

8. Next Meeting: June 9, 2010, 10 a.m. - Belchertown, Clapp

Memorial Library.

Basic Book Repair Workshop on June 19

Congratulations to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) and to MBLC Preservation Specialist, Gregor Trinkaus-Randall who are being honored with the 2008 Award for Outstanding Commitment to the Preservation and Care of Collections, given jointly by the American Institute for Conservatin of Historic and Artistic Works and the Heritage Preservation. ~ Complete information

This morning, Gregor is leading the workshop "Basic Book Repair: Getting It Right - Good In-House Repairs of Library Materials". Several participating librarians have requested that we take photos of this program in order that they can better promote how they continually update their library skills* to best serve their communites.

* One of the many benefits of WMRLS membership is free-of-charge continuing education workshops for member library staff on such topics as basic book repair, reference databases, long range planning, and guidance for library staff in new technologies.

Information 911: Competencies for 21st Century Library Services

The informative PowerPoint presentation titled 911: Competencies for 21st Century Library Services by Tracie Hall is now available for downloading from the Public Library Association website. In addition to 911, PLA is making available selected handouts from a number of its recent National Conference Program. Be sure to check out the PLA 2008 website today!

Handouts include: Ins and Outs of Community Surveys, Libraries as Greenbuildings, Weeders Attract More Readers!, Everyone is Getting Crabbier, and more!

Online Reference Resources - Two Spectacular Websites!

At the recent Online Reference Resources program held at WMRLS, our discussion of outstanding developments in digital technology prompted the sharing of two spectacular websites.

The British Library has scanned nearly a dozen books from their collection and you can actually “turn the pages” and hear the text of these rare works as well as use a magnifying glass to more closely examine these gems! Visit their site at http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html

And at http://www.thebanmappingproject.com/ the Theban Mapping Project has taken years of research and made it available digitally, including 3-D tours of ancient tombs in Thebes and other archaeological wonders! Check it out! Thanks Anna Popp, West Springfield Public Library.

~ Shirley A. Keech, Research & Database Specialist, WMRLS