Announcing VTCSL, a new listserv for Vermont College and Special Libraries

Created for the College & Special Libraries Section of the Vermont Library Association, VTCSL is a forum for announcements and discussion of topics relevant to academic and special libraries in Vermont.  It is open to anyone interested.

How to subscribe:

  • Send a message to: listserv@list.uvm.edu
  • The text of the message should read: Subscribe vtcsl firstname lastname  (Replace firstname with your first name and lastname with your last name)

Happy Holidays!

Charlotte Gerstein
VLA College & Special Libraries Section President

Time to Renew/Join the VLA for 2010!

The Vermont Library Association (VLA) invites you to join or renew your membership in our organization in 2010. Your membership is vital to the well-being of libraries in Vermont, and to your own professional development. VLA is over 350 members strong, and every new or renewed membership means we can accomplish more for Vermont libraries.

By the way, we ARE having the 116th VLA Conference in 2010 !! It will be a one-day event on Tuesday, May 25, 2010 in Colchester, VT at St. Michael’s College. Registration is limited.  Details will be forthcoming.

As you may know, we support continuing education programs, workshops, and lectures throughout the year, and inform members about these opportunities for growth. We research salary guidelines and provide information to librarians, trustees, and employers. In addition, VLA officers represent our members on the American Library Association Council and the New England Library Association Board. VLA also keeps a keen eye on national issues that affect libraries.

Read more→

Discount Pricing for ALA Midwinter

Hello all,

planning on going to ALA Midwinter this January in Boston? ALA has offered the Green Mountain Library Consortium access to a discounted rate, depending on the number of people entering into this group pricing.

If you are going, please let me know by replying to me at schase@stowelibrary.org by Monday, December 7; if we have enough folks interested in going in order to access the pricing, I will let you know ASAP. Let me know of your interest even if your library is not currently a GMLC member library — academic librarians, especially.

Thanks!

—
Stephanie Chase
Director
Stowe Free Library
Post Office Box 1029
90 Pond Street
Stowe, Vermont 05672
802.253.6145

YALSA is coming to Boston!

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) is coming to Boston! In addition to our special events at ALA Midwinter Meeting (see them all at http://bit.ly/yalsamw2010), we have two pre-Midwinter events on Friday, Jan. 15 that you can attend without registering for Midwinter.

Read more→

Information for Legislative Gatherings

This year the Vermont Library Association’s Government Relations Committee is recommending regional legislative gatherings during November, December and January, when the legislature convenes.

We invite you and your library to participate in these informal gatherings. While the format varies, the gatherings provide an opportunity for Legislators, librarians, and trustees to talk about library issues and the key part that libraries play in Internet access, job searching, and education. It is also an opportunity for us to hear about the legislative process and the agenda before the Legislators.

We need to meet with Legislators this year to thank them for their continued support for the new patron confidentiality law and to remind them that state funding for public libraries continues to be an important issue. Our goal is to keep this at the top of their agenda when state finances are stronger. We also want Legislators to ensure ongoing support for the Department of Libraries’ services to public libraries.

Download the legislative gathering packet.

RDA Slide Show

From Kay Schlueter at Vermont State Colleges

For the uninitiated, RDA (Resource Description and Access) are the
proposed new cataloging rules which tentatively will replace the current
AACR2, rev. cataloging rules now in place. The new rules will be in the
testing mode next year by select libraries, and all of us catalogers wait
with “bated breath” to see if these new rules will fly or not. If they do,
it will signal a major change to how (but never why!) we catalog. This is a slide show from the AUTOCAT listserv explaining RDA.

For those who are not catalogers (but always secretly wanted to be) you might find the slide show interesting as well.

Here is the link:
http://alcts.ala.org/crgwiki/images/1/10/RDA_CLA_Presentation.pdf