MEMBER LIBRARY WEEKLY BULLETIN
No. 08-18

May 9, 2008

Reminder:  I will be having foot surgery on May 14, and so my availability to answer questions or provide advice will be limited for several weeks after that.  I will be able to access my e-mail however and may accept some phone calls at home.  If you need speak to me during that period, please call Carol Hendrix, ext. 21 or Marisa Iacobucci, ext. 26 and they will get a message to me. 
 

You may have noticed that a few words have been added to my title above.  I am now the professional piece of the Outreach Department at FLLS.  We will be hiring someone to manage the department and when we do I’ll be sure to introduce her/him to everyone. 

In the meantime, if you have any outreach-related questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.  I can’t promise I’ll know the answers to your questions immediately, but I’ll get back to you if I can’t. ☺

 WebAnywhere - Free Screen Reading Software under Development

WebAnywhere is a web-based screen reader for the web. It requires no special software to be installed on the client machine and, therefore, enables blind people to access the web from any computer they happen to have access to that has a sound card. No $1000 software program required! 

This looks like a great idea!  Learn more about WebAnywhere at:

http://webinsight.cs.washington.edu/projects/webanywhere/

 South Central Regional Library Council

Grant Writing Workshop 

Date/Time:

Thursday, May 29, 2008; 9:30 am – 12:30 pm

Location:  

SCRLC, Downtown Ithaca, NY

Instructor:

Barbara Berger Eden, Cornell University

Registration:

$45/SCRLC members; $55 non-members.

Audience:

Librarians, directors, and support staff from all types of libraries responsible for grant proposal writing and administration.

In these days of stagnant or shrinking budgets, librarians need to identify alternative sources of funding.  One solution to this problem is to develop a successful grants program. Learn how to master writing a grant proposal by attending this workshop.

Barbara Berger Eden, Director, Department of Preservation and Collection Maintenance, Cornell University Library, has been writing proposals for the past twenty years that have covered a wide-spectrum of library projects. She has been the coordinator of projects that have included digitization of special collections to education and training of library staff.
 ************************************************************
South Central Regional Library Council

Grant Writing Workshop, May 29, 2008

Please email dcapalongo@lakenet.org , send or fax this form and payment by 5/15/08 to:

SCRLC, Clinton Hall, 108 N. Cayuga St., Ithaca NY 14850  

Telephone: 607-273-9106  Fax: 607-272-0740

Confirmation and directions will be emailed promptly

Name______________________________________________________________ 

Institution___________________________________________________________ 

Address____________________________________________________________ 

Telephone (day)______________________Emergency*______________________

*Emergency phone (home or cell) will only be used for a last minute change or cancellation. 

Email Address__________________________________________________________ 

REGISTRATION FEE:    Coffee/refreshments are included.

                                        Please make checks payable to SCRLC 

________

$45 per person for SCRLC members, including staff from

  SCRLC-member public and school library systems

________

$55 per person for non-members

 

 

 

MasterCard, Visa, Discover or American Express are accepted 

may be called in if you prefer)

 

 

Card Holder

____________________________ 3 digit code from back _______

Credit Card#

___________________________  Exp Date __________

Signature

___________________________________________

Cancellation Policy: Notification must be received 24 hours before the workshop to avoid a $20.00 processing fee. Prepaid registrations cancelled within 24 hours of the workshop will be issued a credit voucher, less $20.00; all others will be invoiced. 

Refunds cannot be made for "no shows."

 LEGISLATIVE ALERT!

NYLA's 2008 Legislative Priorities includes two bills of special interest to association and small libraries.

Association Libraries to Opt Into State Retirement System (S.7507 Farley/A.10518): 

This bill would allow association public libraries to join the NYS and Local Retirement System upon approval of their Board of Trustees.  If you would benefit from this bill, you need to meet with or send letter to your state legislator asking them to support it and have them contact the Chair of the Senate Civil Service Committee (Lanza) and Chair of the Assembly Governmental Employees (Abbate) to let them know of their support. This bill is being opposed by CSEA so if you really want this to happen you need to take action now.

Dormitory Authority Bonding (S.1684 Farley/A.6256 Eddington): 

This bill, which has passed the Senate for the last four years, would authorize NYLA to bundle small construction projects together ($5 million or less) to submit to the NYS Dormitory Authority for funding.  Currently, every library needs to get their state legislator to pass legislation that allows them to be added to list of eligible libraries to access Dormitory Authority funding.  Unfortunately, smaller libraries with smaller construction projects are discouraged from using the Dormitory Authority because of the high underwriting costs involved, which can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars, making it less affordable to bond through the Dormitory Authority, even though their rates are 2 percentage points lower than you would get from a bank.  By bundling the small construction projects together, NYLA would enable smaller construction projects to be financed at the lower rates available through the Dormitory Authority as well as split the costs of underwriting the bonds among the several library projects bundled together.  The Dormitory Authority also provides construction management services that can help small libraries manage the complicated construction bidding, selection and implementation process.  I encourage you to also meet with or send a letter to your state Assemblymember and have them contact the Chair of the Assembly Library Committee Amy Paulin in support of the bill. 

Sample letters can be found on NYLA's Advocacy page - under Advocacy Tools. http://www.nyla.org/index.php?page_id=514

 

Depending on the amount of your first level fine, a patron may be blocked from placing both an in-system hold and an out-of-system hold. A first level fine is the lowest amount of money a patron can owe before they are blocked. If your first level fine is set at $5.00, your patrons will not be blocked as long as they owe no more that $4.99. 

If your patron owes $5.00 or more, this triggers the pop up block at Checkout and when they try to place a hold.

 

If the fine owed is less than what your first level fine is set for, the fine amount still displays in Checkout but it will not block your patron from placing holds and the block would not pop up until they exceed that amount. 

Most libraries currently have the first level fine set to 0 with the exception of Owego who is set at $10, Auburn at $5, Homer at $10 for adults and $5 for children and Moravia is set at $1. If you would like to increase the first level fine for your library so your patrons are not blocked from placing holds if they owe anything over 0, please call the CNS department.
 

HOLDS - New Request Manager Report Procedures 
When you can’t fill a request that is on your Request Manager Report, there will no longer be a “Deny Hold” option. We have recently learned that once you deny a hold in Polaris, you can never fill it even when the item becomes available. 

Please follow the procedures below when you can not fill the hold:

1)    Right click the item on your Request Manager Report

2)    Select Links → Item Record 

3)    If the item can’t be found or is in repair, please change the Circ status (Circulation screen) of the Item Record to reflect its status, for example, In-Repair or Missing;

4)    If the item requested is not holdable, please make sure that that the Request Limit (Cataloging screen) on the Item Record reflects the restrictions you have placed on that item. 

 

DATABASES - Fiction Connection & Patron Books In Print is Now Working!

Thanks to Rex’s persistence, we now have access to these two databases.  Access will require one extra step. After you select, for example, Fiction Connection and authenticate, you will see a page with the following message:

FLLS - Fiction Connection Referral Page

Please click on the link below to be authenticated and redirected to the Bowker Fiction Connection website. This is necessary because of technical limitations at Bowker.

Click on the link on the Referral Page and you will be in Fiction Connection. 

If there is interest, I can arrange for webinars that you and your staff can attend remotely to introduce these new databases to you.

DATABASE TRAINING - Literature & Books databases training will cover the updated Literature Resource Center, and NoveList and Twayne’s Author Series. We will review features and searching techniques for each database with lots of hands-on practice. There are still some seats left at each of these training sites:

      Wed., May 14            Trumansburg (6 openings)
      Fri., May 16               FLLS (3 openings)

 Please bring your library card number with you to the training.
Contact Linda B. with questions and Jan to register. Space is limited to ten at each location.

DATABASES - Health & Wellness Resource Center

Take a look at its new homepage with an enhanced search box, health news stories, and a drug and herbal remedy/symptom search tool. Sign-up at www.gale.com/webevents to participate in a free Webinar one of these Wednesdays at 2 pm on 5/14, 5/28, 6/11, or 6/25.

LAST WEEK’S QUESTION OF THE WEEK: For which book did Junot Diaz receive the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction? Where was he born and from which university did he receive his MFA?

Diaz, Junot, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.1 Diaz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. After immigrating to the United States in 1975, he received his B.A at Rutgers University and a M.F.A from Cornell University.2

1 NoveList

2 "Junot Diaz." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Gale.

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Western writer, Max Brand, is one of many pseudonyms for a man who also wrote historical fiction, crime stories, and wrote and produced several Dr. Kildare movies. What was his given name? 

Submit your own Question of the Week for inclusion in future FLLS Bulletins by emailing me at lbeins@flls.org !
 

FLLS has a manual paper cutter that is up for grabs on a first-come, first-serve basis. The measurements are 25.5” x 27”. This paper cutter is extremely heavy but it does cut paper!  If you are interested, please e-mail me chendrix@flls.org
 

·     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
  • Kay Zaharis, Cortland Free Library
  • Sally Otis, Hazard Library, Poplar Ridge
  • Sheila Anderson, Seymour Library, Auburn
  • Diane Pamel, Southworth Library, Dryden
  • Beverly Dann, Waverly Free Library

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Last updated 05/09/2008