The VLA Paraprofessional Forum’s Executive Board is pleased to announce that the VLAPF 2008 Mini-Conference will feature guest speakers Nikki Giovanni and Doug Martin.  This event will be held on Friday, September 26, on the Virginia Tech Campus in Torgersen Hall.

The day’s events will begin with Dr. Douglas Martin who will also give a tour of the campus including the memorial to the victims of April 16, 2007.  He will also provide a tour of the University Library which will include a display of memorabilia from Special Collections related to the events of April 16, 2007.  Dr. Douglas Martin, who is Director of the University Benefits Program, has been with Virginia Tech for 38 years.  Dr. Martin received his undergraduate and master’s degrees and his doctorate from Virginia Tech.  Dr. Martin, who is knowledgeable about the history and culture of the University, will provide an interesting and informative tour of Virginia Tech’s campus.

Following a buffet lunch, there will be a presentation by world-renowned poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator Nikki Giovanni.  Ms. Giovanni is a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech where she has taught English classes since 1987.  An award-winning author of over 30 books for both adults and children, Ms. Giovanni is well-known and respected for her willingness to address issues relating to civil rights and equality in education.  With the numerous honors and awards received for her literary achievements and her personal accomplishments, Ms. Giovanni is in a class by herself.  Her presentation will be one that is extra-ordinary and memorable.

The registration flyer is available on the VLA website (PDF).  The Mini-Conference Committee Co-Chairs for this event are VLAPF Executive Board members Jean Quibble, a retiree from Virginia Tech’s University Libraries, and Marion Eaton who is employed at Virginia Tech’s University Libraries.  For additional information about this event contact Marion Eaton at (540) 231-5139 or email her at eatonma@vt.edu.

• Venue: 2008 Annual Conference
• Place: Anaheim CA
• Dates: June 26-July 2, 2008

The VLA April 2008 Newsletter is now available online.

This edition includes VLA candidate statements.

Dutch designer Jelte van Geest’s RFID-enabled robotic chair is for Openbare Bibliotheek Endhoven, and it’s fantastic. What you do is swipe your RFID-enabled library card in front of the chair’s sensor, which then follows you (or your card) around the library so you always have somewhere to sit. Once you cross a line near the checkout counter, the chair returns back to its docking station to re-juice and get ready for the next guy’s ass. The video after the jump illustrates how it works. [Momeld via Technabob via DVICE]

From Gizmoto

Whether you’ve been able to come to VLA Region V Programs or not, you can now see what’s been going on by using YouTube! Check out the VLA Region V Committee channel on YouTube for video highlights from our programs and brown bags.

So far we’ve got our Spring Program Talking (About) Books: Off the Record featured. Included is a brief talk from Roger Corriveau of Recorded Books on how his company creates audiobooks, exceprts from a panel on library Book Discussions, with real-life advice from four Virginia Librarians, and an entertaining look at the life of a narrator from author, writer and audiobook narrator CJ Critt. Give our channel a look!

(Chicago) The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), is pleased to announce the Web sites added this spring to Great Web Sites for Kids (www.ala.org/greatsites), its online resource containing hundreds of links to commendable Web sites for children.

Great Web Sites for Kids (GWS) features links to valuable Web sites of interest to children, organized by subject headings such as animals; literature and languages; mathematics and computers; the arts; and history and biography. There is also a special section with sites of interest to parents, caregivers and teachers and an area devoted to sites in Spanish.  The ALSC Great Web Sites for Kids Committee maintains and updates the site.

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The College & Research Libraries section of VLA is proud to offer the opportunity to listen online (WMA) to a portion of its annual spring program. The 2008 VLACRL spring program, titled Studying Students: Inviting a Fresh Perspective on Your Library, was held May 19 at Sweet Briar College and featured keynote speaker Susan Gibbons from the University of Rochester. 

Here is a recording of the afternoon session, featuring Mary Ellen Spencer (Head, Research and Instructional Services, Virginia Commonwealth University) and Matt Ball (Outreach and Student Services Librarian, University of Virginia) speaking about their library student advisory committees. Also available is the Powerpoint presentation from Spencer. undergrad-advisory-cmte-vcu-libraries (PDF)

On the audio recording, Spencer speaks from 0:00 to 26:30; Ball speaks from 26:30 to 40:45, and then they take questions from the audience for the remainder of the time.

We’d love to hear your feedback as to whether the recording and presentation materials are useful to you. This is the first time we’ve made available online a part of our program, and we need your feedback to help decide whether it’s something we want do again in the future. Please contact VLACRL chair Luke Vilelle at lvilelle@hollins.edu or 540-362-6592 with any comments you might have.

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SLIS will hold an Open House for prospective students on Saturday,

 June 14th, from 10:00 AM to 12 noon at the Tuckahoe Area Library in

Richmond, Virginia. Come learn about our program and about the

admissions process.

 Directions to the library may be found on their web site:

http://www.co.henrico.va.us/library/Branches/tudir.html

We are saddened to share the news that our friend and colleague, Steve Cisler, passed away on Thursday morning, May 15th.

Steve joined the Center in 2007 as Project Manager for the KnowledeX program, which is focused on research and development in communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing in virtual communities. The first constituencies considered in the program were the Laureates in the “Technology Benefiting Humanity” awards program (which the Center has judged since 2001) and the participants in the Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) program. At the time of his passing Steve was actively involved in the creation of an innovative online environment to serve these communities, and coordinating the production of videos for nine Tech Laureates by community volunteers.

Prior to the Center, Steve had a long and distinguished career as a librarian, first in a public library and then as a Senior Researcher in the library at Apple Computer, where he also headed the Apple Library of Tomorrow program. He supported a wide range of community networking projects, served on the board of the Internet Society, and was among the first people lobbying for the allocation of radio spectrum for wireless computer networks—an effort that led to the establishment of the 802.11b standard commonly used today.

In the early 90’s Steve Cisler worked for Apple as their “Apple Library of Tomorrow” digital libraries guy. Steve saw the Internet as a great place for public libraries even then. He had been involved in WAIS, Gopher and other projects. At a VLA annual conference Steve Cisler heard about Steve Helm’s work at the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library offering broadband access to the Internet via the Blacksburg Electronic Village project. Steve Cisler quickly offered offered to donate an Apple server, software, and a digital digital camera to assist MFRL with bringing local non-profit oraganizations into their own web space on BEV.

Steve was not only interested in technology, but he also cared deeply about the social consequences of technology innovations and their impact on cultures and peoples with limited or no access. Part of this interest can be traced to the time he spent in Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer early in his career, and later in the Coast Guard stationed in Puerto Rico. In 2003 Steve undertook a long road trip throughout the United States to explore what living “off the grid” was like—no email, no cell phones, no Internet access. Like he did in all his travels, he wrote thoughtful and insightful travelogues and published them on the web (his off-grid chronicles were posted by friends and family while he traveled), leaving us with a wonderful record of his time and presence.

Steve is survived by his wife Nancy, sons Erik and Geoff, daughters-in-law Tiffany and Karen, twin granddaughters Anna and Lena, and countless friends all over the world who have started to assemble a multimedia tribute in his memory. A memorial service has been planned by the family to take place on Monday, June 2nd at 4:00pm in Sanborn Park (16055 Sanborn Road, Saratoga, California 95070). In lieu of flowers, Steve’s family requests that donations be made in his memory to the Friends of African Village Libraries (www.favl.org; P.O Box 9053, San Jose, CA 95109-3533).

The VLA February-March Newsletter is now available online.

Libraries Win Second Round against National Security Letters “I’m grateful that I am able now to talk about what happened to me, so that other libraries can learn how they can fight back from these overreaching demands,” Internet Archive founder and digital librarian Brewster Kahle stated May 7, two days after records were unsealed documenting his six-month legal battle to force the FBI to withdraw a National Security Letter because it sought details of several patrons’ archive use without a court order. The disclosure about the existence of Internet Archive v. Mukasey came two days after the records were unsealed about Kahle’s federal complaint against the Justice Department.
As legal counsel representing the digital library, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation named themselves as co-plaintiffs because the gag order that has accompanied NSLs since the 2001 enactment of the Patriot Act also forbids legal counsel from
speaking about any aspect of such a case. (more…)

CHICAGO – For a second consecutive year, Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell’s award-winning “And Tango Makes Three,” a children’s book about two male penguins caring for an orphaned egg, tops the list of American Library Association’s (ALA) 10 Most Challenged Books of 2007.

Three books are new to the list “Olive’s Ocean,” by Kevin Henkes; “The Golden Compass,” by Philip Pullman; and “TTYL,” by Lauren Myracle.

“Free access to information is a core American value that should be protected,” said Judith F. Krug, director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom. “Not every book is right for each reader, but an individual’s interpretation of a book should not take away my right to select reading materials for my family or myself.”

For more than 15 years, the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has received reports on book challenges. A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school, requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness. In 2007 the OIF received 420 reports on efforts to abolish materials from school curriculum and library bookshelves. 

Public libraries, schools and school libraries report challenges to OIF, but a majority of challenges go unreported.

The “10 Most Challenged Books of 2007″ reflect a range of themes, and consist of the following titles:

1. “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
   Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
2.  “The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier
   Reasons:  Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence 
3. “Olive’s Ocean,” by Kevin Henkes
   Reasons:  Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language
4.  “The Golden Compass,” by Philip Pullman
   Reasons:  Religious Viewpoint
5.  “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain
   Reasons:  Racism
6.  “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker
   Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language,
7.  “TTYL,” by Lauren Myracle
   Reasons:  Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
8.  “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” by Maya Angelou
   Reasons:  Sexually Explicit
9.  “It’s Perfectly Normal,” by Robie Harris
   Reasons:  Sex Education, Sexually Explicit
10.  “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky
    Reasons:  Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

Off the list this year, are two books by author Toni Morrison. “The Bluest Eye” and “Beloved,” both challenged for sexual content and offensive language.

For more information on book challenges and censorship, please visit the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom’s Banned Books Web site at www.ala.org/bbooks.

The Office for Intellectual Freedom is charged with implementing ALA policies concerning the concept of intellectual freedom as embodied in the Library Bill of Rights, the Association’s basic policy on free access to libraries and library materials. The goal of the office is to educate librarians and the general public about the nature and importance of intellectual freedom in libraries.

The Many Faces of Libraries: Fearlessly Evolving to Meet User Needs
May 18-20, 2008

2008 Conference Brochure (PDF)

We are very excited to once again present opportunities for library staff to discuss developments in Virginia’s libraries at the 16th Annual VLA Paraprofessional Conference. From daily challenges public service staff face to philosophical debates on the library’s role in the digital realm, this year’s program offers something for everyone. The conference theme focuses on the myriad ways libraries offer services. Today’s libraries not only offer access to traditional materials as in year’s past, but with more print shifting to electronic format, multimedia’s increasing importance, and library staff becoming ad-hoc referees of trusted web content, libraries have become true gateways to all information sources. How are you dealing with these changes?

What workflow issues and procurement problems are you experiencing? How are you publicizing electronic resources on library web pages?What trends do you see with patron’s requests? Are there additional ways to collaborate with other organizations to serve patrons’ interests and needs? How can we more effectively serve our client base? These and many more questions will be asked and perhaps even answered at the event.

This year’s conference schedule continues past traditions of offering a diverse landscape of workshops. There’s something for everyone whether you’ve attended in the past or this is your first year! Consider joining over 400 colleagues as we discuss new service strategies, new resources, and more effective ways to serve our libraries.

This year’s featured speakers are:

• Sandra G. Treadway, Librarian of Virginia

• Andy Straka, Author

• Kim Weitkamp, Storyteller

To register for the conference, please print the form and send to Linda Hahne or register online by following the link below. For questions regarding registration or to make a payment over the phone, please contact Linda. For all other inquiries, please contact Kim Blaylock or Christopher Dixon for any questions or concerns.

Directions to Koger Center (PDF)

Register Online:

New SOLINET COURSE! Sign up today!

Metadata Standards and Applications

Location: Library of Virginia

Dates: Tuesday, July 29th - Wednesday, July 30th

Time: 9:00 - 4:00

Description

This two-day workshop presents 21st century bibliographic control concepts, including specific metadata standards and applications. The goal of the workshop is to relate what library staff already know about library catalog metadata to digital library metadata, thereby preparing staff to apply their current knowledge to new areas.
Topics covered will include:

• An introduction to digital libraries
• What is metadata?
• Content ’storage’ and retrieval models
• Data creation and management models
• Relationship models
• An overview of metadata standards and applications, interoperability,
• vocabularies, application profiles, quality considerations, and monitoring
• metadata developments.

For more information:

http://www.solinet.net/workshops/ws_details.cfm?doc_id=4049&WKSHPID=26MSA

Cindy S. Church
Continuing Education Consultant
Library of Virginia
804-692-3773
804-692-3771 (fax)
http://www.lva.lib.va.us

Note new email: cindy.church@lva.virginia.gov

319 people responded to the Leadership Development Forum’s survey regarding a training program for managers, supervisors and administrators in Virginia libraries. Thank you for your feedback!

Look for Steven Hartung’s article in the next issue of Virginia Libraries. Click here for the survey results.

The Office for Accreditation has created a Google map that shows the locations of all ALA-accredited LIS schools. The map includes main campus locations as well as other locations where the entire degree can be completed, and it offers links to each school’s entry in the office’s directory of accredited programs.

Bring your lunch, and hear Steven Gerber, Performing Arts Librarian, describe and demonstrate various music resources available at the George Mason University Libraries, or online. He will also announce upcoming MLA workshops on music librarianship.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008
12:00 Noon-1:30 P.M.
George Mason University, Fairfax Campus
Johnson Center
2nd Floor Instruction Room

Information & Registration:
Contact Lene Palmer at
lenep@gmu.edu or 703-993-2667

Directions & Campus Map: http://www.gmu.edu/welcome/Directions-to-GMU.html
Visitor Parking: $2.00/hour

You’re one of those people who, for whatever reason, can’t get enough public television, right? (After all, you read The Chronicle, and PBS really is a fellow traveler.) Maybe it’s the gee-whiz science of NOVA, or the savoir-faire of David Brancaccio on NOW, or maybe you just really like to watch pledge drives.

Well, we have good news for you, at least if you are at a college in Virginia. VIVA, the Virtual Library of Virginia, is now providing access to PBS resources for all of its 70 public and private members in higher education. The organization, a consortium of college and university libraries, has licensed 500 hours of PBS programming, in video form, for streaming over the Internet.

But how to keep out interlopers, and ensure that only members get to watch? Seventy colleges with ever-changing populations of students are hard to police. And smaller campuses simply don’t have enough bandwidth for lots of video. So the consortium has begun using InCommon, an “identity management” program developed by Internet2, the university-networking organization.

InCommon acts sort of like a bouncer at a nightclub, checking IDs at a central location and keeping out the riffraff. This allows the University of Virginia, which does have a fair amount of computer power, to host the videos on its servers and stream them out to only the VIVA members. —Josh Fischman

from the Chronicle of Higher Education - April 23, 2008

PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT OF LIBRARY BUILDINGS - Continuing Education course offered by the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Approved by ALA-APA for CPLA candidates. Open to other librarians and information professionals needing training in the planning and management of buildings.

This course will familiarize the student with the basic principles of building planning and management. Topics included are building maintenance and operational procedures, capital and facility development plans, building programs, construction process for new and remodeled buildings, life and safety issues in building operation and planning, technology planning, and post-occupancy evaluation. Upon completion the student be able to employ effective building maintenance and operation procedures, understand and prepare capital improvement and facility development plans, list procedures used in employing architectural, engineering, and consultant assistance in building maintenance and development programs, describe the planning and construction processes for new or renovated facilities, list issues involved in building operation and planning, and describe post-occupancy evaluation procedures.

Dates: May 7 – June 11, 2007
Times: Online synchronous sessions Wednesdays,  4:00 - 6:00 p.m. Central time
*** Please note that the archives of audio and text chat are available if you are unable to attend a synchronous session.
Cost: $300
Instructor: Rose Chenoweth, MLS, Alliance Library System

For additional information and to register:
http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/programs/cpd/CPLA/bldgs.html
Marianne Steadley
Continuing Professional Development Program Director
501 E. Daniel St. Champaign IL 61820
217/244-2751
Fax: 217/244-3302

These sculptures are part of a temporary exhibition by Art 204 Sculpture students. The assignment was to use mostly cardboard to create a figure in any style, for a specific place in the library. The emphasis was both on solving the technical problems of making a human figure and on creativity responding to some aspect of the library experience. Charles Brouwer, Professor of Art.

PALO ALTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–In support of National Library Week, April 13 to 19, 2008, ebrary®, a leading provider of e-content services and technology, today announced that it will provide librarians as well as students and faculty in library science and related programs with complimentary access to its Library Center for one year.

Subsidized by ebrary, the Library Center includes more than 85 full-text e-books covering topics such as digital library development, general collection development, and the history of libraries and librarianship, as well as illustrated guides from the Library of Congress. Contributing publishers include Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Idea Group, Inc., Greenwood Publishing Group, Library of Congress, and MIT Press.

To receive complimentary access, students, faculty, and librarians may register at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=iLchAc260S528_2botn4tcig_3d_3d. (more…)

If you’ve ever been interested in going beyond the traditional survey, and really getting to know why and how students use your libraries, register now for the VLACRL spring program, Studying Students: Inviting a Fresh Perspective on Your Library, to be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 19 at Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Va.

Our keynote speaker, Susan Gibbons, will present in the morning on the groundbreaking anthropological work conducted at the University of Rochester in an attempt to answer the question we have all pondered: “What do students really do when they write their research papers?”

The project helped the River Campus Libraries at Rochester implement changes in three major areas: reference outreach, facilities, and Web services. You can read about their experiences in the 2007 ACRL publication, Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester, co-edited by Gibbons, the libraries’ associate dean of public services and collection development. You may download a PDF copy of the book for free at: http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/downloadables/downloads.cfm.

In the afternoon, Mary Ellen Spencer of Virginia Commonwealth University and Matt Ball of the University of Virginia will speak about their libraries’ student advisory committees. Their experiences in working with these groups will help inspire you to connect with students on your campus.

Registration is $30 for VLACRL members (you qualify for the member rate if you are a member of ACRL or a member of VLA) and $40 for non-members. Lunch is included in the cost.

Registration is now open. To register, contact VLACRL Secretary/Treasurer, Candice Benjes-Small, at cbsmall@radford.edu. She will add your name to the registration list and provide details on payment options. Space is limited, so register early!

Venue: PLA National Conference

Date: March 25-29 2008

Place: Minneapolis, Minesota

More Info