NELA ITS Spring Workshop

Hi Everyone!

Hold the date of Friday, June 17, 2011 for the annual New England Library Association Information Technology Section’s Spring Event. This year our theme is mobile technology. More details, including about our great speakers, will be sent out in the next few weeks.

Marilyn Borgendale
2011 NELA ITS Chair

IRS Provides Assistance for People With Disabilities

Hundreds of the most popular federal tax forms and publications are available for download from IRS.gov for sight impaired individuals. These products range from talking tax forms to Braille formats, and are accessible using screen reading software, refreshable Braille displays and voice recognition software. Click on the links below to download these forms and publications:

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The Amelia Bloomer Project

Joy Worland, the director of the Joslin Memorial Library in Waitsfield, highly recommends The Amelia Bloomer Project, a project of the Feminist Task Force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association. Founded in 2002, its mission is to select and recommend quality feminist books for ages birth to eighteen. The committee of seven public, school and academic librarians from all over the country recently met at the ALA Midwinter Conference to create this year’s list.

Joy has been following this project since she first heard of it when working on her MLS, so  was thrilled to get to participate this year, spending hours with smart, opinionated, passionate committee members evaluating over 100 books to create this year’s list of 68 books.

The list is a diverse compilation including a picture book about a girl sherpa, a graphic novel about a girl fencer with the potential to save the world, a zine of advice for teen girls, and many more works of fiction and non-fiction exploring and celebrating the stories of resilient and inspiring girls and women.

For more about the project and the complete 2011 list, go to http://ameliabloomer.wordpress.com/

Vermont Online Library/Gale Database Training

Please join the wonderful Stacey Knibloe from Gale for webinars on the Vermont Online Library/Gale Databases. There will be four sessions. If you cannot attend on the day of the event, do not fret, an archive will be available.

Click on the title to register. I will send webinar instructions the day before each session.

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Materials Review Sessions: Spring Dates and then Some Changes

At the Materials Review Sessions, Youth Services Consultant Grace Greene orally reviews about 75 recently published books and also displays hundreds more titles that have been favorably reviewed by volunteer Vermont reviewers or, in the case of nonfiction, the review media. All books, with the reviews taped inside, are available for perusal so librarians can see what they are getting before they order. Grace will do two “live” sessions of Materials Review this spring, one in Northfield and one at the Georgia Public Library (in lieu of Milton which is renovating), and three sessions on DVD. RETN will record the Northfield presentation, and that recording will be shown in the other three locations. The books, with the reviews inserted in them, will accompany the DVD, so participants at all sites will have access to all the books. The schedule is as follows:

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VLA Public Libraries Calendar Project

DEADLINE EXTENDED!

We invite your participation in creating a full-color wall calendar that celebrates, educates about, and fund raises for our Vermont public libraries.

A home-grown venture, the 2012 VLA Public Libraries Calendar Project arose from the desire to spread the word about all that our vibrant libraries have to offer. Our Calendar Project team includes Marti Fiske, Vermont Library Association (vermontlibraries.org) president and head librarian of Williston’s Dorothy Alling Memorial Library; Marcy Kass, award-winning Williston graphic designer (marcykassdesign.com) and library trustee at the DAML; and Andy Duback, Williston-based, award-winning photographer (andyduback.com). The calendar will be printed in Vermont as well.

Each month will showcase a different library, hopefully one from each county in Vermont. Along with a spacious and inviting calendar, each month will feature:

For more information and submit the survey online (by 1/24/11 1/26/11) please go to http://marcykassdesign.com/vlacalendarproject/index.html

NETSL Award – Call for Nominations

Is there a technical services librarian in your life who has inspired you? Do you have a colleague who has tackled today’s challenges in technical services and triumphed? Do you know a person who leads the way in innovation, collaboration, or data integration? Is there someone you know who puts the service in technical services? If you know of a person who merits any or all of these descriptions, please tell us. We ask you to include documents of support along with the name of your nominee. The requirements are outlined below. The successful nominee will be presented with the award at the NETSL Annual Spring Conference 2020 Vision:  A New Decade for Technical Services, Friday, April 8, 2011 , at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.  Details of the conference can be found at http://nela.camp9.org/netsl/conference

Deadline for nominations is Friday, February 18, 2011

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