Join WMLA on FaceBook

The Western Massachusetts Library Advocates (WMLA) has a new FaceBook page!  (Thank you Betty Purington Johnson!)  It's a great way to stay current on events and news from WMLA.  Like us - we're hoping to have over 100 friends by Friday, November 30.  Share information about your libraries and check it for updates as we move into our primary legislative season.
You can also take a look at our background information, our projects, and membership information on the WMLA website.

November is Family Literacy Month

November is Family Literacy Month both nationally and here in Massachusetts. If you are conducting family programs this month, please let Shelley know so the MBLC can post this information on their portal site http://libraries.state.ma.us/.

Family Literacy Month is sponsored by the Massachusetts Family Literacy Consortium  and its partner agencies including the Department of Early Education and Care  and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education  and the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. 

This is a terrific opportunity for everyone to get good publicity and help raise awareness about how libraries support literacy and offer many family programs across the Commonwealth!  Let Shelley know what your library is offering.

Contact:  Shelley Quezada, Consultant, Library Services to the Unserved, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, shelley.quezada@state.ma.us

Environmental Monitoring

The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) has been providing environmental monitoring services free of charge to libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and town offices for sixteen years.  Normally two dataloggers are installed inside and one outside.  However, depending on the institution’s needs, more than three can be installed.  There are now openings on the waiting list starting in August 2013.  If you have never had this done, have done major renovations or changes to your facility since monitoring was done previously, or have moved into a new facility no later than this past summer, you might want to think about monitoring.  A description of the program is at http://mblc.state.ma.us/advisory/preservation/monitoring.php.

If you are interested in participating, please respond with the following information:

Name

Institution

Address

Phone #

Fax #

Email address

If you have any questions, please contact Gregor Trinkaus-Randall, Preservation Specialist,

Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, gregor.trinkaus-randall@state.ma.us, www.mass.gov/mblc

BOOK IT for the South Hadley Public Library 10/28/12

Great turnout for our 1st Annual BOOK IT for the library 5K Race/Walk!

Take Action: Build Community Support

The MLS and MBLC, partnering MLA, MLTA, MFOL, MSLA, WMLA and CCILA, know how important advocacy is to our libraries.  Through formal and informal presentations, you will learn the tools, skills, and the stories that create an easy 3-level approach to building support for your library.  Nancy Rea will provide the formal tools and guide you through practical exercises that will develop your message and advocacy plan.  Next John Ramsay and Eric Poulin will provide the real-life successes and challenges they have faced while building advocacy in their communities.  We also want to hear your stories.

You too, can take action and bring a buddy!   Two are always better than one!  This program is appropriate for library administration and staff, trustees and other governing boards, Friends groups and local community members.

• Saturday October 27, MFOL/MLTA Joint Annual Conference at Worcester Technical High School (Go to mlta-online.org to find out more and register.)
• Thursday, November 1, from 3 - 5p.m. at the Osterville Public Library, Osterville MA
• Thursday, November 15, from 6 - 8p.m. at the Bushnell-Sage Memorial Library, Sheffield MA

Register for the Osterville and Sheffield events through the MLS website:  masslibsystem.org

Contact Deb Hoadley at 866-927-7228 ext 309
Or email dhoadley@masslibsystem.org for more information

Open Access Week

 UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES AND PARTNERS HOST

OPEN ACCESS WEEK OCTOBER 22-26

Amherst, MA – 2012 Open Access Week, a global event in its sixth year, will be held from October 22 to October 26.  The UMass Amherst Libraries will host a series of events relevant to open access, copyright and fair use, data sharing, electronic theses and dissertations, and sustainability.  All events are free and open to the public.  The full schedule is available at http://scholarworks.umass.edu/oa/2012/.

Monday, October 22: Open Access Week Kickoff Webcast

Perspectives on Open Access: Practice, Progress and Pitfalls

Matt Sheridan

Du Bois Library, Floor 26

Time: 4:00 – 5:30pm

Panel discussion on Open Access via webcast (sponsored by SPARC and the World Bank).  A distinguished panel of speakers comprised of experts from the broad range of stakeholders in the Open Access movement: researchers, students, policy makers, publishers and academics. The following guest speakers will discuss why Open Access is an imperative to them, and to their work:

• Michael Carroll, Professor of Law, American University, and founding Board Member, Creative Commons 

• Matt Cooper, President, National Association of Graduate-Professional Students 

• Maricel Kann, Professor, University of Maryland, member, PubMed Central National Advisory Committee, NIH

• Carlos Rossel, Publisher, The World Bank

• Neil Thakur, Special Assistant to the Deputy Director, Extramural Research, National Institutes of Health (NIH)

The panel will be moderated by Heather Joseph, Executive Director, SPARC, with ample time for questions from audience members.

Tuesday, October 23

Copyright & Fair Use

Laura Quilter

Du Bois Library, Floor 26

Time: 12:00 – 2:00pm

In this overview of copyright issues for faculty and researchers, we will discuss how copyright affects you:  how to protect and get credit for your work, share what you want to share, and use others’ work.  Special attention will be given to both questions and problems with using other’s work -- relying on fair use, and asking for permission if it’s not a fair use -- and the best ways to manage your own copyrights and licenses.  Q&A and discussion time.  A reception follows the program to welcome Laura Quilter, Copyright and Information Policy Librarian, to the University.

EZID Workshop

Data Working Group

Du Bois Library, Floor 26

Time: 4:00 – 5:00pm

Do you manage or help others manage any kinds of digital objects, such as texts, data sets, terms, or images? Do you need an easy solution to citing and providing access to this kind of work? 

EZID makes it simple for researchers and others to obtain and manage long-term identifiers (DOIs and ARKs) for their digital content. This workshop will cover why data citation and long-term identifiers are important to researchers, how EZID can provide an easy solution for you, and how to get started.

Wednesday, October 24

Open Access, Copyright, and Fair Use for Theses and Dissertations

Meghan Banach Bergin & Laura Quilter

Du Bois Library, Floor 26

Time: 12:30-2:00 pm.  Pizza will be served.  RSVP to mbanach@library.umass.edu by October 19th. 

An overview for graduate students to learn about the benefits of choosing open access for electronic theses and dissertations. Topics include copyright and fair use as it relates to theses and dissertations.  Discussion time will explore graduate students’ thoughts about open access and copyright issues.  The event is co-sponsored by the UMass Amherst Libraries and the Graduate School.  

Sustainability Workshop

Madeleine Charney

Du Bois Library, Floor 26

Time: 3:30 – 5:00pm

The sustainability movement inspires students, faculty and staff in the classroom and across campus.   Learn about Open Educational Resources which allow faculty to tailor their course material and save students money.  The workshop includes a demonstration of the new Campus Sustainability Initiative page on ScholarWorks, the digital repository of UMass Amherst. Q&A time will be given to share ideas about integrating reliable, cost-saving material into the teaching and learning of sustainability. Refreshments will be served.

Thursday, October 25

Wikipedia Loves Libraries: Edit-athon and Workshop

Sarah Hutton

Du Bois Library, Floor 26

Time: 9am – 5:00pm

Sharing Wikimedia’s mission to empower and engage people around the world to collaboratively collect and develop open educational content, and to disseminate it effectively and globally, the University Libraries are partnering with local and regional scholars to host a Wikipedia Edit-athon in the Du Bois Library. 

This Edit-athon event is aimed at sharing the expertise of real-world cultural institutions in Wikipedia, using the expertise of all who attend this event. We’ll be able to access the resources of the UMass Amherst and Five Colleges library system, guided by the expertise of its librarians, with the joint aim of increasing the presence of minority and underrepresented authors, artists, and historical figures in one the world’s largest open access sources of information.  From 9-10:30am, we will offer a workshop for individuals seeking to learn more about how to become a Wikipedia content contributor, including technical aspects of article authorship.  For more information on the Wikipedia Loves Libraries International Initiative:  http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Loves_Libraries  

Friday, October 26

Data Sharing in the Humanities Panel

Data Working Group

Herter Hall, Room 19G
Time: 2:30 - 3:30pm

Data Sharing in the Humanities will discuss the varieties of research data in the Humanities and the merits of and concerns about sharing that data. The panel includes three UMass Amherst Humanities faculty members who will present their perspectives on data and data sharing. The panel will introduce some of the concepts of open access to data, data sharing, and Open Data as they are manifest in the humanities. The event is open to all members of the UMass Amherst community.  Hosted in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts Amherst Digital Humanities Initiative.

Using the WMLA One-Blog – Your One-Spot to Find News about Western MA Library Issues

Did you know that you can search the WMLA One-Blog by entering a term or keyword in that little box on the upper left corner of the blog?  By entering “Road Race,’ for example, you will retrieve entries about the upcoming South Hadley 5K fundraiser road race as well as our Book It to the Library fundraiser for WMRLS several years ago.

Blog authors:  you can also make your articles more accessible by entering labels (tags) for your entries.  As you use or create labels for your articles, your entry will be linked to other articles using those labels.  Entries sharing the same labels are listed alphabetically in the right column of the blog.