No. 06-35                                                                                                                  September 1, 2006

• CAROL HENDRIX, Administration

Hurray! The New York State $14Million Construction Grant applications and other information are now available.

Information and applications for this grant are available on the website:

http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/construc/grants.htm    or you may contact me via email or telephone for a printed copy and I’ll put it in your delivery bag.

SHPO information and forms are not on the website but are available from FLLS. Please let me know if you would like the forms sent to your library ASAP.

Please be aware that there are several new requirements that must be adhered to for this grant to be eligible for submission.  A memo is being sent to all library directors ( via delivery bag) and board presidents (via US Mail) with more information. 

 Thank you.

 

•  JAN AGUIRRE, Specialist & Training Coordinator

Polaris “Tip of the Week”

Have you ever wondered what the Sort Results box in the Find Tool does?

 

When you conduct a search and the Sort Results box is NOT checked, results are not sorted at all. See below

 

In order to sort alphabetically, you would have to click on the Title header and then only the 34 records displayed are sorted. To sort all 201 records, they would need to be retrieved first using Control Shift A. However, when the Sort Results box is checked, all 201 items are sorted alphabetically immediately. See below

 

 Fall Training date schedule

Listed below is the schedule of Fall Training dates, locations and topics. If you are interested in attending any of these sessions, please register by the deadline. There is a maximum of 10 participants per session and a minimum of 5. If the minimum is not reached by the deadline, the workshop will be cancelled.

If you still want input on which electronic databases are taught, please fill out the survey at http://www.flls.org/cns/survey/traininggrantsurvey.htm

They will be chosen and confirmed by 9/5.

Sessions will also be scheduled demonstrating the changes and enhancements in the new release of Polaris 3.3 as soon as it's released and loaded on the training server.

Location	Date	Day	Deadline to Register	Workshop Topic
FLLS	9/8/06	Fri	9/6	Reporting Services
CAN	9/11/06	Mon	9/7	Reporting Services
MCGR	9/13/06	Wed	9/11	Reporting Services
TRU	9/20/06	Wed	9/18	Reporting Services
WEED	9/27/06	Wed	9/25	Reporting Services
CAN	9/25/06	Mon	9/21	Novel Databases
MCGR	10/4/06	Wed	10/2	Novel Databases
FLLS	10/13/06	Fri	10/11	Novel Databases
CAN	10/16/06	Mon	10/13	Novel Databases
TRU	10/18/06	Wed	10/16	Novel Databases
FLLS	10/20/06	Fri	10/18	Novel Databases
WEED	10/25/06	Wed	10/23	Novel Databases
MCGR	11/1/06	Wed	10/30	Novel Databases
TRU	11/8/06	Wed	11/6	Novel Databases
WEED	11/10/06	Fri	11/8	Novel Databases

The workshop on Reporting Services gives a more in depth look at all the reports available in Polaris. Detailed descriptions of each report, suggested times to run the reports and reasons why you should run them will be explained. Tips on printing sections and/or specific pages in several formats will be discussed. Exporting options, including why and when to use certain formats will be demonstrated as well as a few formatting tips using Excel.

Also demonstrated will be simple basic reports you can run using the Find Tool and how and when to schedule specific reports to run automatically.

These session will run from 9 am - Noon

The Novel Database workshop will be taught by Reference Librarian Jennifer Schlossberg from TCPL. Several Databases will be demonstrated based on results from the Gates Grant Training Survey. These session will run from 9 am - 11 am.

 

•  LINDA BEINS, ILL/Reference Coordinator

Recycled Reference Books

If you are interested in receiving any of these previously owned reference books for your library, email Linda Beins no later than September 15.

 Ø            American Jewish Yearbook (2004)

Ø            America’s Top-Rated Smaller Cities: a Statistical Profile (2004/05)

Ø            Federal Directory & Federal Regional Directory (2005) 2 vols.

Ø            Financial Institutions Directory (July – Dec., 2005)

Ø            International Who’s Who (2006)

Ø            Nations of the World: a Political, Economic & Business Handbook (2004)

 Database Trial – LearningExpress.com

Please review this interactive test preparation site for both academic and career exams. It has unlimited access to online self-paced courses in preparation for:

• elementary, middle school and high school math, reading and writing skills improvement

• college and graduate school entrance and some advanced placement exams

•  TOEFL and GED exams

• US Citizenship exam

• careers as a firefighter, police officer, emt, paramedic, postal worker, cosmetologist, nursing, journeymen, real estate, in the military (ASVAB), etc.

Learning Express also includes e-book versions of study and test preparation guides, as well as parent guides for elementary school aged children and home-schooling parents.  The history of your test preparation materials is maintained in MyAccount (top right of screen).

Access LearningExpressLibrary, at www.learningexpresslibrary.com/evaluation, and enter the 14-digit username and password provided below.

Your Username is:  99552 plus the first 9 digits of your home phone number (Ex.  If your home phone number is 607-123-4567, your username would be 99552607123456)

Your Password is:  Trial

Please share your comments on how useful the LearningExpress database would be to your patrons with me before September 20.

In the News – 2005 Census Figures on Health Insurance Coverage A new report from the Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/hlthins.html  indicates that 1.3 million people, including more than 300,000 children, were added to the roles of the uninsured last year. The uninsured rate in NYS, at 13.9%, is lower than the national average (15.7%) but considerably higher than Minnesota (8.7%). The New York State Child Health Plus Program  http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/chplus/index.htm has

informational material that you can order for distribution to your patrons.

Question of the Week

Last week’s Questions of the Week

1.      How many board certified plastic surgery practices are really in the 90210 (zip code)?

      a) select ReferenceUSA’s US Health database

b) select Custom Search

c) select Geography zip code and Practice Selects – Primary Specialty and select Create Search Form

d) type in 90210 in Geography Selects field and, in the Primary Practice field, highlight, holding down the Ctrl key, Plastic surgery and Plastic surgery, hand surgery

      e)select Search Now!

      You will get a list of 54 plastic surgeons practicing in zip code 90210

 

2.         Which Canadian provinces have a Krispy Kreme Donut store?

a) select ReferenceUSA’s Canadian database

b)  on Quick Search screen, type in “Krispy Kreme” and select Search Now!

       There are 15 Krispy Kreme shops located in the provinces of Alberta, Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec. 
 

3.         Where does my brother-in-law Mark Beins live?

a)      select ReferenceUSA’s Residential database

b)     on Quick Search screen, type in “Beins” (Last Name) and “Mark” (First Name) and highlight All in State field

c)     select Search Now!

        You will get three Mark Beins; my brother-in law is the one in Alpena, MI, just one block from beautiful Lake Huron. If you double click his name you will get a detailed listing and have the option of getting a map or driving directions to his house. Won’t he be surprised!
 

 4.         Can you get a good bagel in Birmingham, AL?

a)       select ReferenceUSA’s Business database

b)      select Custom Search

c)      select YP heading or SIC in Yellow Pages field and City, State in Geographic Selects field and select Create Search Form

d)     on the Search Criteria Fields screen, type in “bagels” in Yellow Pages headings and “Birmingham” (City) and highlight Alabama (State)

e)     on Search Refinement Screen select Bagels in the Closes Matches box

f)       select Search Now!
There is the Crestline Bagel and Pizza in Birmingham, AL but we don’t know how good the bagels are.

  

This week’s Question of the Week

Naguib Mahfouz, 1988 Nobel Prize winner in Literature, died this week. He was “recognized as the Arab world's leading writer of fiction because he has not only produced a whole stream of excellent novels over a period of four decades, but also turned the novel, as a means of societal comment and criticism, into an accessible and accomplished medium.”^{1, 2}

        What works comprise Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy? 

¹    Roger Allen, Arabic Literature and the Nobel Prize, in World Literature Today, Vol. 62, No. 2, Spring, 1988, pp. 201-03 (available through the database Literature Resource Center)

 ²   The Nobel Prize site http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1988/ has additional information, including a March 2006 interview with Naguib Mahfouz and a translation of his Nobel Prize lecture.

  

•  ANNETTE BIRDSALL, Youth Services Coordinator

Summer Reading Updates

September 8^th is the deadline for your summer reading evaluations!  12 libraries have sent theirs in.  Thank you!  You have a green copy in your summer reading packets from March or you can download a new copy.  Link to the summer reading website from our page. Choose the planners tab.  It’s p. 11 of the manual. 

 NYS has joined CSLP a summer reading collaborative. Have you checked the website, prepared for changes? Is the theme a mystery to you? Please contact me if you have questions.  Manuals will be shipped in October 2006 for the 2007 program.  Prizes can be ordered in November!  http://www.cslpreads.org/07.htm

Dates to Remember:

September 11 – Jim Trelease will be speaking at Kulp Auditorium Ithaca, H.S. at 7:30 pm.

September 28 – Graphic Novels Now Workshop.  Please rsvp.  All attending member libraries will receive a copy of Graphic Novels Now.

October 17 – Growing a Reader Workshop – all day workshop/lunch provided.  Promote early literacy skills in your community. Register online only.  http://earlyliteracy.sals.edu

My Schedule
I will be out of the office until Tuesday, September 5^th.  There will be no youth news on September 1^st.  Youth News will resume on Thursday, September 7^th, but I will be out of the office on Friday, September 8^th.  If you need puppets, die-cuts, big books or storytime extensions while I am away please contact, Kate Monacao at kmonaco@flls.org

 
 

•  JULIAN THOMAS, FLLS Trustee, Ford Memorial Library, Ovid

Subject:  Help - Ovid has a dead mouse! 

Ovid needs a *serial* mouse and also a PS2 keyboard.  If anyone has a spare of either of these from a discarded computer, please contact Eilene at  ovidlib@rochester.rr.com    or 607 869 3031 and let her know before sending it - we don't need more than one of each!

 

• DIRECTORS’ ADVISORY COUNCIL (DAC) MEMBERS:

If you have any questions or concerns regarding FLLS library service, you are welcome to contact a DAC member from the list below. 

Janet Steiner, TCPL, Ithaca
Judy Barkee, Ulysses Philomathic Library, Trumansburg
Lois Maki, Newfield Public Library
Kay Zaharis, Cortland Free Library
Mary Frank, Peck Memorial Library, Marathon
Sally Otis, Hazard Library, Poplar Ridge
Stephen Erskine, Seymour Library, Auburn
Beverly Dann, Waverly Free Library.