WMRLS Website Classics ~ A Look Back

Read about WMRLS History on Wikipedia

WMRLS Website Classics

• Library Lesson Plans

Copyright Information ~ A WMRLS Website Classic

• Association of Research Libraries (ARL) ~ This organization promotes equitable access to, and effective use of, recorded knowledge.
• CONFU - The Conference on Fair Use ~ Sponsored by ARL
• Copyright Crash Course ~ Includes: a Copyright Crash course, Complying with the DMCA, Fair Use Guidelines and much, much more
•  Copyright Implementation Manual ~ Provided by the Redlands (CA) Unified School District.
• The Copyright Website ~ This site endeavors to provide real world, practical and relevant copyright information of interest to everyone.     
• Duration f Copyright ~ When works pass into the public domain
• Fair Use Check List  ~ Developed by Columbia University Libraries/Information Services
• Fair Use Guidelines For Educational Multimedia ~ eloped during the Conference on Fair Use
• Intellectual Property ~ An international look at copyright issues
• Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) ~ LCA consists of five major library associations that cooperate to address copyright issues that affect libraries and their patrons.
• Permission Template ~ Permission Template for requesting use of copyrighted material
• Questions and Answers on Copyright for the Campus Community ~ ©2006  National Association of College Stores

How Can A Textbook Be Free? Keeping Higher Education Affordable With Open Resources

 Date:  Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Time:  1:30 – 4:00 p.m.

Location:  Room 163C, Campus Center, UMass Amherst

Panel discussion on Open Educational Resources hosted by UMass Amherst Libraries.  The panel will include Stephen Carson from MIT OpenCourseWare, and Eric Frank ’92 and Michael Boezi from Flat World Knowledge.  More info: http://bit.ly/freetextbook.  RSVP on Facebook

Author Reading at Greenfield Public Library

Upcoming events at the Greenfield Public Library

Friday Night Films Celebrates Pixar Animation; July 16-August 13!

Super Cold Science with the Boston Science Museum's Traveling Program; Thursday, July 15; 3pm

Glue and Go Costumes with Holly Cleeland; Tuesday, July 20; 4pm

Animal Behaviors with Rachel Roberts; Wednesday, July 21; 3:30pm

Writing Poems from Nature: Workshop for Adults with Jeannine Atkins; Tuesday, July 27; 6:30pm

Life2Poetry: Workshop for Teens with Jeannine Atkins; Thursday, July 29; 3pm

Rock Band for Teens; Tuesday, August 3; 2-4:30pm

Rock Band for Adults; Tuesday, August 3; 5:30-8pm

For more information on any of these programs, check our website at greenfieldpubliclibrary.org

Regional Services in the Short Term

The following message was posted to the WMRLS email discussion list on June 28, 2010:

Dear Western MA Library Community:

On July 1, 2010, WMRLS will cease to operate as a Regional Library System as it joins with the other regions in forming the new Massachusetts Library System (MLS). Please be aware that, for FY11, our headquarters in Whately is still available for you to visit for many of the services you have been accustomed to using. We expect MLS will use the building to provide continuing education workshops, meetings and computer lab trainings. Delivery will continue for FY11 as you’ve always known it, performed by the same wonderful drivers and trucks you are familiar with. Advisory services will also continue, but at reduced levels. Access to the Springfield Republican online, as well as the statewide Gale and ProQuest databases, will continue. Interlibrary loan for items not available through C/W MARS will be handled through the Thomas Crane Library in Quincy. Training sessions have been offered to introduce member libraries to new procedures.

The Whately building, for now, will be very sparsely staffed and the doors will be locked for security purposes. We ask you to call ahead to schedule a visit if you want to access some of the other services available at the Whately facility, such as:

• Materials remaining from the WMRLS collection are available for you to select for your own needs through July 9.
• The “Got Books” container is still located in the parking lot for you to recycle library materials you would like to discard.
• The self-service CD / DVD disc cleaner is here for you to use to repair and refresh items needing attention.

For now, the toll free phone number remains (800) 282-7755. The extensions to use are 117 for Mary King (mking@wmrls.org), 130 for Shirley MacLean (smaclean@wmrls.org), and 105 for Wes Hamilton (wes@wmrls.org). Contact information will likely change in the future. MLS will keep you informed.

From all of us at WMRLS, we wish you all the best. It has been deeply gratifying to have served Western MA libraries for almost 50 years. Please get involved with the Massachusetts Library System (www.masslibsystem.org) and make sure it is aware of your needs for support and services.

Sincerely,
John Ramsay
Regional Administrator

SURVEY FROM THE FRIENDS OF WMRLS

The Western Mass. Regional Library System will cease to exist as of June 30, 2010.

The Executive Board of the Friends of WMRLS has been talking about how the Friends might continue in its role of advocacy. We won’t be able to advocate for WMRLS anymore, but we believe our libraries in the 4 counties of Western Mass. will need a voice. Before we put lots of energy into reorganizing and refocusing, we’d like to get some sense from library staff and library users in Western Mass. as to how much support we could count on. To that end, we have created a brief survey.

Western Massachusetts Library Advocacy Survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZZBHJKZ

Please take a couple of minutes to respond to the survey so that we can know how to proceed. Your thoughts are valuable to us. Thank you.

Questions can be emailed to Lynn Coakley at Lcoakley@stcc.edu

Friday Night Films at the Greenfield Public Library

Permaculture Program at Greenfield Public Library

More Photos of WMRLS Staff Appreciation Day ~ June 15, 2010

Thank you to Karen Stinchfield, Director of the Cushman Library in Bernardston, for sharing her pictures of our recent WMRLS Staff Appreciation Day.

Brigadoon June 26, 2010 @GPL