Library Security Summit - Saturday, October 4

MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF LIBRARY COMMISSIONERS PRESENTS
"LIBRARY SECURITY SUMMIT"

On Saturday October 4, 2008, a library security summit will be held at the Lunenburg Public Library. The program will be from 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Recent news articles remind us that public libraries are not immune from many of the safety problems which affect our society today. Libraries experience a wide variety of security issues, including child safety concerns, theft of materials, unruly teens, etc. The "Library Security Summit" will provide an opportunity to hear library administrators and a representative from the law enforcement community speak about providing a safe environment for library users. MBLC Chairman, George Comeau, will moderate a panel of library directors who will talk about security issues at their libraries. A representative from the police will discuss safety awareness for parents, children, and teens. Gregor Trinkaus-Randall, MBLC Preservation Specialist, will discuss steps to minimize the possibility of theft or destruction of library materials, developing security policies and procedures, and facility issues which impact library security.

Everyone is invited to attend including Friends, Trustees, and Library Staff.

Admission is free, however registration is required.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Lunenburg Public Library
1023 Mass. Ave.
Lunenburg, MA 01462-1321
10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

TO REGISTER:
Contact: Maureen Killoran, Head Public Library Advisory Unit
Phone: 1-800-952-7403
Fax: 617-725-0140
E-Mail: Maureen.Killoran@state.ma.us
Mail: MA. Board of Library Commissioners
98 N. Washington St., Suite 401 Boston, MA 02114

Please Register by September 26, 2008. Upon receipt, confirmation will be sent.

Friends of WMRLS Annual Meeting

SAVE THE DATE!

The Friends of WMRLS will hold its Annual Meeting on Friday, October 3 from 10 - 12 at the Wendell Free Library on Wendell Common.

Have you been wishing you could take the time to visit the beautiful Wendell Free Library? Well, here’s your excuse! Wendell Free Library, a Together We Thrive and totally cool small library, will be the location for this year’s Friends of WMRLS, Inc. annual meeting on Friday, October 3rd. The meeting will begin at 10:00 with food and remarks by Rosie Heidkamp, Wendell’s Library Director, about the green design aspects of one of the newest libraries in one of the smallest towns in Western Massachusetts (Wendell has a population of about 1000). After a brief business meeting, Becky Marconi, Together We Thrive grant coordinator, will give a presentation and update on the progress of this LSTA project that WMRLS developed to help small public libraries.

Watch for more information and directions to the Friends of WMRLS annual meeting at Wendell Free Library on Friday October 3!

Databites

You spoke - they listened! In the Fall, Gale Cengage will launch a new interface for the individual Infotrac databases and Powersearch. You may recognize some of the changes as suggestions that were made by western Massachusetts librarians at our training programs, including more visible navigational links and the ability to search within a result list. To get a sneak peak at the new interface, visit http://sizzle.gale.com/ and use your browser's find command to locate "Flash Tour." Check it out and let me know what you think!

BOOKMOBILE UPDATE

Small libraries that receive bookmobile service have been responding to our request that they consider giving up bookmobile visits if their own collections are strong enough to support most of the collection browsing that their patrons do at the local library. With more than 10 libraries offering to either visit regional headquarters to borrow or receive deposits of materials by delivery instead of bookmobile, and with several libraries agreeing to meet the bookmobile at another library instead of at their own buildings, the WMRLS Bookmobile Department is well on its way to developing a shorter, more efficient and less expensive bookmobile schedule.



The bookmobile will not be on the road for much of the month of September to allow the driving staff time to develop new bookmobile routes as well as contact librarians about this new rotation of appointments. The Delivery Department will also be making some changes in delivery routes to keep up with the ever-increasing loads of materials that our member libraries are sharing with each other. We thank our bookmobile libraries for their cooperation in helping us keep this old service running.

Technical Services Roundtable October 7th

Hello Everyone,

You are invited to our next Technical Services Roundtable meeting, at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, October 7th. It will be held at the North Adams Public Library.

Carolyn Platt, of the Jones Library in Amherst, will lead the meeting.

Please RSVP and send agenda items to Carolyn at PlattC@joneslibrary.org.

I look forward to seeing everyone in October

Databites! News and Updates on the Statewide Databases

EMBARGO ENDS!

Gale-Cengage has announced that the 90 day embargo on Consumer Reports has come to and end! You can now search the full text of all the articles in this popular consumer magazine. In fact you can read the September 2008 issue right now in Infotrac's OneFile or General Reference Center Gold.

23 Things

In just 23 days, you can expand your knowledge of the Internet and Web 2.0 via

23 Things!

23 Things are small exercises "to explore and expand your knowledge about the Internet and Web 2.0"[From Learning 2.0 - 23 Things website].

Thank you to the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, North Carolina for originating the 23 Things online learning program.

In Gale’s Academic Onefile there are now audio versions of

• Annals of Internal Medicine
• British Medical Journal
• JAMA
• New England Journal of Medicine
• The Lancet

To access any of these, select “Publication Search’ and search by journal title. Select Audio version and then select the publication date you’re interested in hearing!

Two Thumbs Up for the Common Craft Show

With the goal of making "complex ideas easy to understand using short and simple videos", the Common Craft Show produces both free online videos as well as high resolution commercial videos for sale on a wealth of social media topics including the following titles:

• RSS in Plain English
• Wikis in Plain English
• Social Bookmarking in Plain English
• Twitter in Plain English
• Podcasting in Plain English
• Social Media in Plain English
  
  Posted below is the video Blogs in Plain English:
  
  

ALA Promotes Public Awareness of Libraries

From American Libraries Website:

"This video, played during the Opening General Session of ALA's 2008 Annual Conference in Anaheim, California, highlights the value of public awareness to the library profession. ALA presidents past and future join others in explaining how investing in partnerships, working with celebrities like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Julie Andrews, and using new media platforms like YouTube can result in major media exposure and increased awareness and usage of libraries. Produced by the ALA Public Information Office."

July 29 - Mission House Book Talk in Stockbridge

Mission House Book Talk with Author Rachel Wheeler

Tuesday, July 29th from 6:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. in the Mission House gardens, 19 Main Street, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Join The Trustees of Reservations and the Stockbridge Library to meet the author of a new book about the Stockbridge Mohicans. Author Rachel Wheeler documents the experience of two different communities of Mohican Indians who accepted Christian Missionaries in the mid 18th century. Both communities did so in hopes of surviving the changes brought on by Colonial settlement. In Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Mohicans invited the Congregational Church to send Reverend John Sergeant as the new community’s first missionary while the Shekomeko community in Duchess County, New York accepted the missionaries of the Moravian Church. Both missions had dramatically different results. Rachel Wheeler, in her meticulously researched book, “To Live Upon Hope: Mohicans and Missionaries in the Eighteenth Century Northeast,” explores the differences and every day life experiences of the two communities and their search to maintain their native traditions and morals while embracing the power and adaptation of the Christian colonial reality.



Join the author, Rachel Wheeler, in an evening talk and reception at the Mission House, home of the missionary to the Stockbridge Mohicans. The event will take place on Tuesday, July 29th, from 6:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. in the Mission House gardens, 19 Main Street, Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The alternate location in case of rain will be the Stockbridge Library, 46 Main Street. The event is co-sponsored by The Trustees and The Stockbridge Library Historical Collection and is free to the public, but reservations are recommended. For more information call (413) 298-3239, ext 3000.

~ Barbara Allen Curator ballen@cwmars.org Stockbridge Library, Stockbridge

Shutesbury's MN Spear Memorial Library's Edible Book Contest

Congratulations to the MN Spear Memorial Library for its very successful Edible Book Contest on Sunday, July 13. This event is currently featured on the Recorder.com in an article titled Books they want to sink their teeth into by Arn Albertini [Originally published on July 14,2008]. Below is an extract from Recorder.com:

"The 17 entries ranged from a cake that was a recreation of one of the characters in JK Rowling's 'Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban' to a golf hole made of vegetables inspired by 'Golfing With God: A Novel of Heaven and Earth' by Richard Merullo. The veggie green included a sand trap of humus ringed by mushrooms, a cucumber golf cart with green peppers for the clubs and a cauliflower carved into the shape of God as a golfer."