volume #5 issue#13

March 27, 2008

Prairie Views: the newsletter of the Prairie Area Library System

System News

Deadline Reminder
This is a reminder that the Deadline to pass the Barcode test for those libraries and staff members that were new to Sirsi is June 30, 2008. There is one testing day a month scheduled through June. The dates are Thursday, March 20th; Wednesday, April 23rd; Friday, May 16th; and Tuesday, June 10th. These dates are in CLEO. Please do not wait until the last minute to take the test. Also, there will be 2 sessions of the Match and Catalog class offered at the Rockford Service Center in April. The dates are Tuesday, April 15th from 12:30 to 4 pm and Wednesday, April 16th from 9 to 12:30. This class will help you identify records that match your items.
If you have any questions, please contact Merideth Willett at meridethw@palsnet.info or ext. 2357 or John Slanicky at johns@palsnet.info or ext. 2716.

Events/Continuous Learning
CLeO: All continuous learning events sponsored by PALS are open to all staff or representatives of member libraries. Registration is required for all PALS continuous learning programs. To register, visit the PALS CLeO at http://www.palsnet.info/events/

Information on registration, how to set up a CLeO account, and PALS procedures for continuous learning can be found on the PALS website at: http://www.palsnet.info/services/cl/default.asp

PALS Events by Month

Another Piece of the Puzzle that makes up PALS Day 2008
Morning Session 9:45 - 10:40 - The Illinois Humanities Council Program Officer, Ryan M. Lewis will be on hand to introduce the work of the IHC - an independent nonprofit grant-making educational organization - paying special attention to community based programs like the Road Scholars Speakers Bureau, Museum on Main Street, and the Grants Program. Ryan will be introducing a special edition of the Road Scholars Speakers Bureau that will be available through 2009 call the Lincoln Road Scholars. Learn how to access funds from one of the few statewide grant making organizations in the Prairie State so that you can program for your communities cheaply and efficiently.

Afternoon Session 2:30 - 3:30 - Then in an afternoon session hear Lincoln Road Scholars, storyteller, author and naturalist Brian "Fox" Ellis. He will be presenting Lincoln Tales Tall and True. His presentation will trace Lincoln's rise from Prairie State rail-splitter to America's favorite president. Brian will use a blend of history and humor that will attempt to disentangle the man from the myth. Brian "Fox" Ellis steps into the character of Austin Gullaher, a childhood friend of Lincoln, to allow audiences to go back in time and meet Lincoln during many facets of our famous Presidents life.
Brian is also an author of nine books including Learning From the Land: Teaching Ecology Through Stories and Activities and a new children's picture book, The Web at Dragonfly Pond. These books will also be available for sale that day.
These two sessions are guaranteed to educate and entertain!
Go to a http://www.palsnet.info/events for more information on all the exciting programs that will be presented at PALS Day 2008.

Match and Catalog Class
$10 Workshop Fee
* Tuesday, April 15th at the Rockford Service Center 12:30-4 pm
* Wednesday, April 16th at the Rockford Service Center 9 am-12:30 pm

This class is aimed at providing attendees with the basic matching skills to meet the following barcoders competencies from the Illinois Statewide Cataloging Standards:
• Have a basic understanding of cataloging terminology • Know where to look on the resource for cataloging information, i.e., the prescribed sources of information • Know how to interpret a bibliographic record • Know how to choose the correct bibliographic record that matches a resource

Prerequisite: none
Presenter: Jennifer Davis
$10.00 workshop fee
Jennifer Davis is retired from St. Ambrose University, O’Keefe Library, in Davenport, IA, where she was the Head of Technical Services supervising cataloging, acquisitions, serials, and processing. Jennifer believes in the importance of Technical Services to the patron – her motto - if we don't do it right, the patron won't find it.

CANCELLATION POLICY: If you are not able to attend, please cancel your reservation by 9:00 am two working days (Monday-Friday) prior to the class date or you will be billed. If you have questions, contact Merideth Willett at meridethw@palsnet.info or at (877) 542-7257 ext.3257.

Please note that this class isn’t just for people taking the Barcode Test or members of PrairieCat. It is a class to help people look for records that match the items they are adding to their library.

Continuing Education Elsewhere in the State

Audio Description Workshop
Audio description is a great method for making non-verbal visual information (such as digital photographs) accessible to blind and low-vision users. Everyone is welcome to attend this upcoming free online workshop. There is no need to register.
For links to this and other upcoming OPAL online events, please visit http://www.opal-online.org/progschrono.htm
Monday, April 7, 2008 at noon Central time.

This workshop will cover the purpose, techniques, and value of Audio Description (AD), a narrative technique that makes visual images more accessible to blind and low-vision people by producing written and audible descriptions of non-verbal visual information, such as digital photographs, television programs, motion pictures, and live events. Please note: This workshop will last approximately 2.5 hours.

"Online Marketing for Libraries"
Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 1:00 pm Central time.
Presented by Sarah Houghton-Jan
Host: TAP Information Services
Online Location: OPAL Online Auditorium
Join Sarah Houghton-Jan, the Librarian in Black blogger, in exploring how libraries can market their collections and services online. In the Web 2.0 environment, libray staff need to think about outreach differently. Users spend more time online in both solitary and social endeavors. This session will cover how to find potential users online and reach out to them with the services and resources they need. Attendees will go away with a lengthy checklist of ideas to take back to their libraries to successfully create an ongoing online marketing plan. Please note: This program will last approximately 90 minutes.

"Technology Training and Competencies for Libraries"
Thursday, May 15, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. Central time.
Presented by Sarah Houghton-Jan
Host: TAP Information Services
Online Location: OPAL Online Auditorium
Join Sarah Houghton-Jan, the Librarian in Black blogger, in exploring how libraries can provide tech training for staff. Every library on the planet struggles with technology training for staff. In this session, learn how to create a set of useful technology competencies, catered to your individual library and its technologies. Also learn how to use these competencies, and the staff's assessments, to build a self-sustaining staff technology training program. You will hear about the purpose and benefits of competencies and technology training, get a review of the process of creating competencies lists, and the implementation process, including assessment. Please note: This program will last approximately 90 minutes.

Member News

Bettendorf Public Library Foundation Doodle Day 2008
What do Jay Leno, Bobby Knight, Mary Higgins Clark, and Cookie Monster have in common? All are among the doodles received to date for the Bettendorf Public Library Foundation’s 2008 Doodle Day! Every two years, the Bettendorf Public Library Foundation hosts a unique fundraiser on its campus that continues to spark interest in well-known authors, actors, musical stars, political figures and athletes. The venue is a fun - action packed - silent and live auction of celebrity doodles. Exciting doodles continue to arrive daily. Some of the doodles received so far include Woody Allen, Paul Anka, Dave Barry, Jim Belushi, Yogi Berra, Norman Birdwell, Betsy Byars, Ken Follett, Marvin Hamlisch, Mary Higgins Clark, Lyn Johnston, Bobby Knight, Dean Koontz, Jay Leno, Al Pacino, Barbara Park, Jodi Picoult, Mark Spitz and even our friends on Sesame Street – Big Bird and Cookie Monster.

Mark your calendars for this year’s Author and Celebrity Doodle Day to be held on Thursday, October 16 from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm at the Bettendorf Public Library. It is free and open to the public. Join us for hors d’oeuvres and bid on a doodle by your favorite author or celebrity. There are still sponsorship opportunities available for both individuals and organizations. You can receive more information about being a sponsor by calling Maleeta Christman at (563) 344-4182. Doodles may be viewed on line at http://www.bettendorflibrary.com beginning the middle of April. These will be frequently updated as new doodles arrive, so check back often.
Mission of the Bettendorf Public Library Foundation: Raising money to support, enhance and preserve Bettendorf Public Library programs and services.

Moline Downtown Library Reopens
The Moline Public Downtown Library will reopen its doors on Monday, March 31.
Library hours will be Monday – Thursday, 9:00 am-5:30 pm, Saturday, 9:00-5:00, and closed Friday and Sunday.

Save the Date - 25th Anniversary Celebration
The Library Board of Trustees and Staff of the Homer Township Public Library cordially invite you to attend our 25 Year Anniversary – Festival of Cultures Celebration, Saturday, June 7, 2008 ~ 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. The day will begin with an anniversary ceremony at 10:00 a.m. followed by cultural entertainment and activities throughout the day. Please honor us with your presence. RSVP by June 2nd to Patti Nakutis – patti@homerlibrary.org or call 708.301.7908 x235. We look forward to seeing you!

Missing Books - members are welcome to post information about materials that are missing in transit. As with all Prairie Views submissions, please send to prairieviews@palsnet.info

I am trying to clean up our in transit records and the following items have been in transit from libraries for a while, your help in tracking them down would be appreciated. Thanks, Cathy Burt, RVLG:

*DVD BRA R copy:1 30050060969119 The Brave One [videorecording] / Redemption Pictures; Silver produced by Susan Downey, Joel Silver; story by Roderick Taylor & Bruce A Taylor; screen play by Roderick. Intransit to RVLG from CLNG belonging to RVLG 2/27/2008
613.28 Ea copy 1. 30050039940241 Protein Power/ Michael R. Eades & Mary Dan Eades Intransit to RVLG from FULG belonging to FULG 9/19/2006
Fic Boe LP copy:1 30050053323308 Wisconsin : Second chances around this romantic story by Andrea Boeshaar Intransit to RVLG from ERIG belonging to ERIG

Freebies/Exchanges/For Sale/Wanted

Prairie Area Library System offers a means for members to share discarded items to needy libraries. Procedures are outlined in the Reference Member Services Guide http://www.palsnet.info/services/reference/reference_guide.asp They are also outlined below.

Libraries wanting to offer up materials can email to Prairie Views, providing the following information:
*Library's name and phone number
*Title(s) of the items discarded

A list will be compiled for inclusion in the weekly Prairie Views newsletter. Anyone interested in freebies are to contact the library directly, (no earlier than Monday following the listing). Members are responsible for making their own arrangements. The PALS van delivery may be available for transporting items, as space and time permits. Contact your Service Center Delivery Manager to arrange for delivery of large shipments.

PALS Members - please remember that you are asked to not request or release any items whether they are Free or For Sale until Monday following the publication of the announcement in Prairie Views. This gives library staff a chance to see the message and request the materials if they are interested. Thanks for your cooperation - we have had several complaints in recent weeks about items being released before Monday.

No Freebies or Exchanges this week.

Job Openings
Jobs can be submitted on the PALS website at http://www.palsnet.info/jobs/ or by sending them to prairieviews@palsnet.info. All jobs submitted by either method will be included in Prairie Views for one week and will be posted for 120 days on the PALS website unless the library posting the job requests that it be removed before 120 days. Visit http://www.palsnet.info/jobs/ to views all the job ads that PALS currently has posted.


Reference Librarian
(Adult Services), Full Time
Batavia Public Library District, located in the beautiful Fox River valley west of Chicago, seeks an energetic, public service-oriented reference librarian for its Adult Services department. Batavia serves a district population of 25,723 from a large (54,000 square feet) facility that opened in 2002. Visit us at http://www.BataviaPublicLibrary.org
* Responsibilities: This full-time (37.5-hour/week) position provides reference and readers’ advisory services; assists patrons in the use of the online catalog, reference databases, and the Internet; leads book discussions; and teaches computer classes. Hours include 1–2 evenings per week and 1–2 weekends per month.
* Qualifications: Required: The successful candidate will have a Master’s degree in library and information science from an ALA-accredited program; at least 1 year of experience in a library of any type; and successful experience in leading book discussions; and will be a team player who works well with others; and endowed with excellent communications skills and strong computer skills.
* Preferred: A minimum of 2 years’ experience in reference and adult services is preferred, preferably in a public library.
* Desired: It would be great if you were fun-loving, tactful, resourceful, and good-humored.
* Compensation: Salary from $40,950 per year ($21.00 per hour), depending upon qualifications, plus a generous benefits package.

If you would like to join our team, please send a letter of interest describing your skills and experience, a detailed résumé, and contact information for at least three professional references to:
Stacey Cisneros
Head of Adult Services
Batavia Public Library
10 S. Batavia Ave.
Batavia, IL 60510-2793.
Electronic submissions (using Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF) to scisneros@bataviapubliclibrary.org are encouraged. Applications received by April 18 will receive first consideration, but applications will continue to be accepted until the position is filled. Batavia Public Library District is an equal-opportunity employer. Inquiries are encouraged from candidates who will enrich and contribute to the cultural and ethnic diversity of the Library.

Technology / Reference Assistant
(Adult Services), Part Time
Batavia Public Library District, located in the beautiful Fox River valley west of Chicago, seeks an energetic, public service-oriented technology/reference assistant for its Adult Services department. Batavia serves a district population of 25,723 from a large (54,000 square feet) facility that opened in 2002. Visit us at www.BataviaPublicLibrary.org
* Responsibilities: This 15-hour/week position signs in patrons for use of public-access computers; assists patrons with use of the Internet, Microsoft Office applications, and printers; monitors use of the public-access computers; teaches computer classes; and provides assistance with computers and copier equipment. Hours include weekday afternoon and evening hours and two Sundays per month.
* Qualifications: Required: The successful candidate will have a high school degree and work experience in a public-service environment; and will be a team player who works well with others; and who is endowed with excellent communications skills; and will be familiar with Windows, Microsoft Office applications, and the Internet.
* Preferred: A Bachelor’s degree is preferred; and coursework in a relevant field is desirable.
* Desired: It would be great if you were fun-loving, tactful, resourceful, and good-humored.
* Compensation: Hourly salary from $10.90, depending upon qualifications.

If you would like to join our team, please send a letter of interest describing your skills and experience, a detailed résumé, and contact information for at least three professional references to:
Stacey Cisneros
Head of Adult Services
Batavia Public Library
10 S. Batavia Ave.
Batavia, IL 60510-2793
Electronic submissions (using Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF) to scisneros@bataviapubliclibrary.org are encouraged. Applications received by April 18 will receive first consideration, but applications will continue to be accepted until the position is filled. Batavia Public Library District is an equal-opportunity employer. Inquiries are encouraged from candidates who will enrich and contribute to the cultural and ethnic diversity of the Library.

Reference and ILL News
No Reference and ILL News this week.

Youth Services and School Library News

The Children's Choice Book Awards
One hallmark of the new Children's Book Week is the inauguration of a national child-selected book awards program: the Children's Choice Book Awards. Since the 1970s, the CBC and the International Reading Association have run a program called Children's Choices. Ten thousand children in five teams across the country spend months reading and evaluating 500-700 books submitted by publishers. Approximately 99 books each year make the final favorites list in each of three grade categories: kindergarten to second grade, third to fourth grade, and fifth to sixth grade. This year, we're opening up the voting to kids everywhere! The top five vote earners in each age group, along with five finalists for favorite author and five for favorite illustrator, are vying to be selected as kids' favorites of the year.
For more information, including how to participate, visit the CBC website.

Public Library News

Terrific Savings on Gale Electronic Database Resources
Public libraries may now subscribe at a discounted rate to a selection of Gale's newest online products through the Library Partnership Trust (LPT). Offer includes Legal Forms (comprehensive or business only), Small Business Resource Center, Demographics Now, Science Resource Center, and Nursing Resource Center. Gale's authoritative electronic resources are essential tools for small business owners, researchers, and students and are accessible 24/7. Choose those resources that are ideal for your patrons. Order two or more products and receive a better discount; subscribe for two years and save even more. For more information or to order, visit the LPT site.

New Books and Book Club Tools
At PLA we had the chance to hear Book Guru Nancy Pearl and a panel of publishing people describe their picks and also some new tools. HarperCollins has a library newsletter which can be found at www.harperlibrary.com. You can subscribe there. They promise that all the books discussed today will be in the next issue. Their new releases section (http://www.harpercollins.com/Book/Newreleases.aspx) has a "browse inside" feature that gives you access to the text of some titles. http://www.bookclubgirl.com/ is a site for those working with book clubs. Though the HarperCollins rep talked about it, she assured us that it has books from a variety of publishers. She also mentioned HarperCollins use of Blog Talk Radio with Nancy Pearl scheduled for a session on 30th at 1 pm. Another site mentioned is Early Word (http://www.earlyword.com/) which also has links for Best Seller lists, books to movies, and publishers catalog downloads. As to the specific recommendations, Sandy & I have lists from Random House and Macmillan which we'd be happy to share. There was a local Minnesota Press Milkweed which featured a couple of titles that sounded interesting -- The Pakistani Bride by Bapsi Sidhwa and a reprint Rock Island Line by David Rhodes who also has a new title coming in September -- Driftless -- which features a main character named July Montgomery and is set in Wisconsin.

Mansion Book
The Illinois Executive Mansion Association has generously donated copies of the book "At Home with Illinois Governors: A Social History of the Illinois Executive Mansion" to the Illinois State Library for distribution to all Illinois public libraries and branches. We will be distributing them via regional library systems through Illinois Library Delivery Service (ILDS) in the next few weeks.

Deaf History Month
March 13 to April 15 Go to http://www.folda.net/lib/reading.html to learn more about the program Deaf America Reads and the Deaf Legacy @ Your Library. The “One Book” read is Moments of Truth: Robert R. Davila, the Story of a Deaf Leader, by three co-authors: Harry G. Lang, Oscar P. Cohen and Joseph E. Fischgrund and is published in 2007 by RIT PRESS in Rochester, NY.

Academic Library News

ACRL Launches Chat Series
The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is pleased to announce ACRL OnPoint, a new live chat series. Each informal monthly chat session provides the opportunity to connect with colleagues and experts to discuss an issue of the day in academic and research librarianship.

All ACRL OnPoint chats are free and open to the public. Sessions are unmoderated, 30-45 minutes in length and take place in a Meebo chat room. All chat sessions begin at 1pm CDT. While no registration is necessary to participate, ACRL recommends creating a quick and easy Meebo account for the best experience while participating in ACRL OnPoint discussions.
Full details are available on the ACRL Web site at http://www.acrl.org/ala/acrl/acrlproftools/OnPoint/onpoint.cfm.

Join us on March 27, 2008 for the inaugural ACRL OnPoint chat on the newly mandatory NIH Public Access Policy. The discussion of how libraries are leveraging this new policy on campus will be convened by ACRL Scholarly Communication Committee member Karen Williams and Linda Watson, president of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries. Discuss actions your library is taking or could take, such as educating authors, offering deposit services and partnering with your office of sponsored research. This first chat session is co-sponsored by the Association of Academic Health Science Libraries, the Association of Research Libraries, the Greater Western Library Alliance, and the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC).

Future ACRL OnPoint chats include:
April 2008: Section 108 Study Group Report - Discuss the implications of the recommendations and findings of this forthcoming report (expected in mid-March) for academic libraries.
May 2008: Green Libraries - Share ideas about what libraries are, or could be, doing to meet the growing "greening" of college and university campuses.
June 2008: ACRL 101 - Find your path to participation to get the most out of your ACRL membership and discuss ACRL activities at the 2008 ALA Annual Conference with Associate Director Mary Jane Petrowski.

Visit http://www.acrl.org/ala/acrl/acrlproftools/OnPoint/onpoint.cfm for additional information, including future chat dates, full descriptions and chat transcripts. Send ideas for future ACRL OnPoint chat topics to acrl@ala.org with the subject heading ACRL OnPoint.

Special Library News
No Special Library News this week.

Support Staff News
No Support Staff News this week.

Technology Services News
No Technology Services News this week.

E-Rate Corner
No E-Rate Corner this week.

New Books at PALS
No New Books at PALS.

Library News Around the State & Nation

Best Careers of 2008
Librarian made it to the US News & World Report list of Best Careers of 2008. To see the full list, visit their website.

Baseball at the Library of Congress
The librarians at the Library of Congress are preparing an interesting online program about their baseball collections. Everyone is welcome to attend. There is no need to register for this free online event.
For links to this an all upcoming OPAL online programs, please visit: http://www.opalonline.org/progschrono.htm
Friday, April 4, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, 1:00 Central, noon Mountain, 11:00 a.m. Pacific, and 6:00 p.m.

The rich and unique holdings of the Library of Congress include many items that document the history of baseball and Americans' fascination with the game. From photographs, personal accounts, films, official games guides, and memorabilia, including baseball cards dating from 1887 -- many of which are available online -- the story of baseball unfolds. With the 2008 Major League Baseball season underway, what better way to celebrate than with an hour spent exploring America's national pastime?

StoryTubes 2008 National Contest
Kids across the United States in Grades 1–6 are invited to participate in a national contest. They can make a two-minute video about their favorite book, upload it to YouTube, go to the StoryTubes website, and submit a link to the uploaded video using the contest entry form before April 20. The four winners in each genre category will win $500 in books and select a school, library, or educational association to receive $1,000 in books. For more information, visit the StoryTubes website.

Man Founds Organization and the World Has 5100 New Libraries Since 2000
John Wood, the Opening Session Speaker at the Public Library Association Conference, went to Nepal to take a break from his fast paced job as a marketing director at Microsoft--no e-mails, phone calls, meetings or commuting. It was that and much more. Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children is the story of Wood's life since he left Microsoft in 1999 to found and work with Room to Read. While the author quipped that he was glad he used the primary title before Bill Gates could claim it and facetiously suggested that Mr. Gates is following in his footsteps now, the problem he describes revolves around changing the world by providing an education for the 115 million primary school aged children who do not now attend school in developing countries. Mr. Wood sees libraries as an essential element in getting those children educated. You can find the facts and figures at http://www.roomtoread.org/, his organization's website. You can also see some of the story at that site. If you want to read more, a signed copy will be in PALS Professional Collection soon after we return from sunny Minneapolis. Another signed copy will be one of the door prizes for a lucky person attending PALS Day on May 7th.

News from Vendors
No News from Vendors this week.

Legislative/Advocacy News

Registering the Easy Way - Illinois Library Day Is Two Weeks Away!
If you’ve not yet done so, it’s not too late to register for Illinois Library Day. Here’s a quick link to make it easy http://www.ila.org/events/regforms/ILD_08.pdf or go to ILA’s website and register online there.

Selected Bills Pending
ILA Supports:
House Bill (HB) 4202, concerns the disposal of academic library materials by amending the State Property Control Act.

House Bill (HB) 4518, sponsored by Representative Frank J. Mautino (D-76, Spring Valley), explains methods to dissolve library districts, which do not meet specific criteria (for example, appropriate, elect library board, hold meetings).This bill specifically applies to PALS libraries. If we don’t speak up and campaign our legislators to pass this, who will?

House Bill (HB) 4527 changes equalization grant language. The bill, requested by the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office and supported by Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-22, Chicago), increases rate from $4.25 to $7.50 per capita; increases minimum grant award to school libraries from $100 to $750. The per capita rate has not been increased since 1979 when the grant was created. The minimum grant level for schools has not been increased since 1994.

Senate Bill (SB) 2321,would provide that the county board may authorize an increase in the county law library fee of not more than (i) $18 in 2008, (ii) $19 in 2009, and (iii) $21 in 2010 and thereafter (now, $13).

For additional information on the legislation, go to http://capwiz.com/ala/il/issues/ and http://capwiz.com/ala/il/issues/?style=D.

Grant News

Don't forget that the deadline for FY2009 LSTA Letters of Intent to the Illinois State Library is Wednesday, April 2!

Just So You Know
No Just So You Know this week.

Prairie Views will be published weekly on Thursdays on the PALS website. PALS member libraries are encouraged to send items for inclusion to prairieviews@palsnet.info by Tuesday of the week you would like your information to appear.

We will send an email reminder each week when the new issue is available on the PALS website. If you do not currently receive email reminders, please send a message to prairieviews@palsnet.info to have your email address added to the reminder mailing list or visit http://mailman.palsnet.info/mailman/listinfo to subscribe or unsubscribe yourself.