Holiday Info for Interlibrary Loan Staff

The University of Minnesota will closed from Dec. 24, 2010 until Jan. 2, 2011. Minitex will be maintaining essential services and have some staff working in the office Dec. 28-30. Outside of those Minitex hours nobody will be monitoring the MnLINK ILL list for reports of problems with the MnLINK Gateway or VDX. Through our public lists we have directed people to contact their ILL dept. should they encounter MnLINK problems. If your ILL dept. is closed during this period you may want to have someone else hold this information.

If there is a system problem you will need to contact OCLC support to report the problem. You can contact OCLC support at the following number.

800-848-5878 ext. 1415

After they connect you to the extension, tell them you are calling on behalf of MnLINK and describe your problem.

Jobs & Small Business Webinar

WebJunction and MELSA kick off free Jobs and Small Business Webinar Series on January 27

Starting in January and extending through May, WebJunction will be hosting a series of webinars produced by MELSA, the Metropolitan Library Service Agency in Minnesota, on topics related to serving the workforce in your community. The first event in this new Jobs and Small Business Webinar Series will focus on Understanding Unemployment Insurance and Its Impact On Your Customers.

This webinar will take place on January 27, from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. We will be joined by an Unemployment Insurance Specialist from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, who will explain out how the service works. In addition, Alice Neve, Public Service Manager at St. Paul Public Library, will describe how your library can support UI customers. Using her library as an example, she will describe how to collaborate with local UI offices, analyze challenges and implement solutions throughout your library system. This webinar is free and open to all.

Go here to register. Use the timezone converter to find the time in your local timezone.

Book Fair at Mountain Iron Buhl High School

The public is invited to a Holiday Scholastic Book Fair, sponsored by the
MIB Student Council, Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 13th & 14th from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The Mt. Iron-Buhl Junior/Senior High School Book Fair will be located in the High School Library, door #4. Proceeds support the school libraries! Reading Saves the Day!
For more information, check out the website.

Public Libraries & the Internet

Public Libraries and the Internet State Profiles is a great resource available to library staff for state and national data on library use for employment, e-government, and community access to internet, technology and information in ready to go handout format. Find the data you want and easily turn it into a pdf file.

Minnesota iTunes U

Governor Tim Pawlenty announced today the availability of professional development and classroom resources for teachers on iTunes U, a dedicated area within the iTunes Store .

“After parents, teachers are the most important factor in the success of our children at school,” Governor Pawlenty said. “Through Q Comp, and iTunes U, we are giving teachers more tools and incentives to be even better.”

While the press release did not specify an exact link for Minnesota on iTunes, I did find one available via Twitter. From someone tweeting as the Minnesota Department of Education, the tweet reads :

"Minnesota on iTunes U brings education beyond the classroom & allows students & teachers to learn anywhere, anytime http://ht.ly/3lZc2"

Clicking on the shortened web link given above will load the Minnesota iTunes info on your already installed iTunes application so you can see what is available.

Coming Attraction: Journey Stories

Journey Stories is a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution that opened in May 2009 in Illinois, Kansas, Mississippi, North Dakota and Oklahoma. The exhibition explores the mobile nature of Americans -- why we move, how we move, and what that says about us. In tours coordinated by state humanities councils, the exhibition will visit up to 30 states and 180 communities through 2015. From Ellis Island to the Orphan Trains, come learn the stories of our immigrant ancestors.

It's coming to the Minnesota Discovery Center (formerly known as Ironworld) January 29, 2011 in cooperation with the Minnesota Humanities Center.

Update: Minnesota Library Futures Initiative

Wondering what the latest is from the Minnesota Library Futures Initiative? The Minnesota Library Futurists hit the ground running after the successful kickoff event with Michael Rogers and Christine Lind Hage on October 18^th. The 23 participants have been busy getting to know one another, while also developing a plan for focus areas, upcoming meetings, and other logistics.

The Futurists will meet once a month as a large group to discuss, think, and learn about the following focus areas: collaboration, Minnesota in 2025, technology, marketing and promotion, education and information literacy, and organizational structure/physical and virtual spaces. At the end of the series, the group will revisit collaboration and look at Minnesota Libraries in 2025. The timeline will allow for careful examination of all topics, and will be flexible to construct outcomes.

The last meeting, held on November 19^th, focused on collaboration in libraries. The guest speaker was Chris Olson, MELSA’s Executive Director. Olson shared tips for the collaborative process, and tied them to examples from his own collaborative work. The group would like to thank Olson for his contribution to the day. The remainder of the day was used to develop a plan for going forward. With the help of Facilitator, Donna Rae Scheffert, the Futurists agreed on the aforementioned focus areas, and assigned themselves to work on at least one of the seven focus areas. In addition, several internal workgroups, such as the Communications Committee and the Logistics Committee, have been created.

The group’s next meeting will be on December 10^th at the St. Cloud Public Library. The focus for the day is Envisioning Minnesota in 2025. Prior to the meeting, participants are doing a little homework, and are reading and reflecting upon documents related to Minnesota’s projected demographics, economy, education, and politics.

The Futurists are in the process of developing a Minnesota Library Futures Initiative website and blog to be available to the public shortly after the December 10^th meeting. An announcement will be sent via the listservs when the website and blog are available. The group encourages feedback from the library community and will provide an opportunity for this on the website. In the meantime, questions or requests for a Futurist speaker can be emailed to Jenny Turner at jennifer.turner@mnsu.edu.

The Futurists would like to thank the Steering Committee and the larger library community for their continued support. The Futurists are thankful for the opportunity to take part in this process, and also are cognizant of the responsibility that comes with it. More updates and information will be available soon.

Kate Bessey, Information Specialist

Central MN Libraries Exchange (CMLE)

St. Cloud State University, Miller Center 130-D

720 4th Ave. S.

St. Cloud, MN 56301-4498

Video of the presentation by Michael Rogers is available at the Minnesota Futures wiki.

MORE Webinar Information

Once again, Minitex is offering a four-part series relating to core competencies of Minnesota Opportunities for Reference Excellence (MORE). Sessions will occur over a five-week period from 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. on... (Please note there will be no session on Friday, February 4.)

Session 1: January 21, 2011
Session 2: January 28, 2011
Session 3: February 11, 2011
Session 4: February 18, 2011

Registrants must be able to attend all 4 sessions.

This series is interactive and will involve some pre-work and post-work for each session. Participants are required to attend each session to receive a certificate of completion.

The MORE program and these training sessions are geared towards paraprofessionals and/or library staff new to the reference desk. Experienced library staff are welcome to attend. Something new will be learned, and collective knowledge will be shared.

WEEK 1: MORE: The Reference Interview (2 hours)
This webinar will cover what reference is and why it is important. Model reference behaviors (welcoming, paraphrasing, open questions, real information need, follow-up question) and the six pieces of evidence (purpose, deadline, type & amount, who, where, the basic question) will be discussed, examined, and practiced. Legal and ethical issues involving librarianship, along with looking at libraries’ communities, will be examined. Minnesota Volunteer Library Certification competencies for Public Services: Administrative 6 and 7, Direct User Services 3 and 4, Philosophy 2, 7 and 12 will be covered.

WEEK 2: MORE: Evaluating and Examining Electronic Reference Sources (2 hours)
This webinar will cover searching in an electronic environment as well as tips for becoming a better information provider by evaluating and examining electronic reference sources and web sites. Different types of electronic sources will be covered including indexes, directories, full-text resources, the Internet, and virtual reference including e-mail and chat. Minnesota Volunteer Library Certification competencies for Public Services: Administrative 8, Direct User Services 5 will be covered.

WEEK 3: MORE: Evaluating and Examining Print Reference Sources (2 hours)
This webinar will focus on tips and tools for evaluating and examining print reference sources available in your library in order to become a better information provider. It will cover what makes a good print reference source as well as the importance of understanding how these resources are organized. This session covers almanacs, atlases, encyclopedias, ready reference tools, statistical sources, the MN Legislative Manual, and the U.S. Government Manual. Minnesota Volunteer Library Certification competencies for Public Services: Direct User Services 5 will be covered.

WEEK 4: MORE: Readers' Advisory and Library Ethics (2 hours)
This webinar focuses on important aspects of Readers' Advisory Services. It will cover the basics of readers' advisory, including goals and skills of the service, the appeal of books including plot, character, and genre, and performing a readers' advisory interview. It will also cover ongoing places for professional development on the readers' advisory service using print materials, databases, blogs, and other available resources for librarians. It will also touch on ethics and librarianship. Minnesota Volunteer Library Certification competencies for Public Services: Administrative 7, Direct User Services 6 will be covered.

To register please go here.

Integrated Library System Landscape

Yesterday, Marshall Breeding spoke to a group of almost 50 public library and school media center staff members (plus several ALS and NCLC staff) about the current landscape in the integrated library system market. Despite the dicey driving conditions, eighteen ALS member libraries were represented at the meeting, as well as five staff from four school districts.


During the morning session, Mr. Breeding used a PowerPoint presentation that he'd preprared. The presentation is available via his website.

Project Information Literacy

Project Information Literacy (PIL) is a national research study based in the University of Washington Information School. In their ongoing research, they have studied how college students conduct research and find information—their needs, strategies, and workarounds. A November 1, 2010 report Truth Be Told: How College Students Evaluate and Use Information in the Digital Age expands to focus on how students find information and their preferred use of information sources for course work and in their daily lives.

The results may be instructive to not only academic librarians, but to all types of librarians and teachers as well.