Category Archives: Uncategorized

Join VLA's Council on Career Development

Cindy Weber invites any and all interested parties to join the VLA Council on Career Development. Based on Cindy’s ongoing Career Development Facilitator training through the American Library Association, the council’s purpose will be to brainstorm ways to utilize career development knowledge, theories, and resources to:

  1. Create an aggregated career development resource list do be housed on the Vermont Library Association’s website.
  2. Develop a career assistance program that will be useful to librarians in all settings.
  3. Provide career development training to those librarians seeking guidance on assisting their patronage and students.

“I foresee the council working with librarians, libraries, schools and universities, community agencies, and the Department of Libraries,” Cindy says. “I think we can all agree that libraries can be useful resources for career development, and this initiative has great potential!”

The first Council on Career Development meeting will be scheduled for the end of March. Look for details on the VTLIBRARIES listserv.

Time to Apply for the New England Library Leadership Symposium (NELLS) 2015

NELLS 2015NELA
August 3-7, 2015
Rolling Ridge Retreat & Conference Center
North Andover, Massachusetts
Facilitator: Maureen Sullivan, ALA Past President
The Vermont Library Association is seeking applicants for Participants (individuals with 3 to 15 years’ experience in libraries) and for Mentors (individuals with 15+ years’ experience in libraries) to represent Vermont.
For more information and to download an application to be a Participant click on this link http://nelib.org/advance-your-career/nells/
Applications are due by March 20.
Mentoring applicants should contact Karson Kiesinger, VLA’s NELA Representative at kkiesinger@nelib.org or 802-442-9051.

ALA Councilor’s Report

Hello from sunny Anaheim! I am happy to again be reporting from annual conference. At the first Council meeting we heard reports of task forces and committees. One report of particular interest was presented by the Digital Content & Libraries Working Group. This is the group that is working with ebook publishers. The group had an initial meeting with publishers in the spring and are now working to create business models and licensing agreements and to find ways to communicate the issues to the library community and the general public. ALA leaders have met with publishers twice more. They will continue to work to increase good access to e-resources.

I was lucky enough to score tickets for the first ever Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction Award presentation. Nominees for the award included Anne Enright, Karen Russell, Russell Banks, James Gleik, Robert Massie, and Manning Marable. Anne Enright won for her new book The Forgotten Waltz and Robert Massie won for Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. ALA hopes this award will become the adult Newbery.

At our second Council meeting we passed a resolution encouraging support for school librarians.

It has been a great pleasure representing Vermont at ALA conferences for the past six years.

Respectfully submitted,

Nancy Wilson

Library Snapshot Day (Any Day April 10 – 16)

Taking place during National Library Week (April 10 – 16), Library Snapshot Day is a great way of documenting all the vital services libraries provide to the citizens of Vermont. For more information, please visit: www.vtlibraryday.wordpress.com
The more libraries we have participating, the better our final statistics will be!  So be sure to join us for this exciting initiative!  We look forward to getting a vision of Vermont libraries!

NEDCC Offers Free Webinar on Preparing Your PAG Application

NEH PRESERVATION ASSISTANCE GRANT (PAG) DEADLINE ANNOUNCED: May 1, 2012

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Preservation Assistance Grants (PAG) help small and mid-sized U.S. institutions improve their ability to preserve and care for their humanities collections, and can serve as the basis for future funding proposals. Grants are for up to $6,000. Don’t miss this opportunity!

NEDCC CAN HELP DEMYSTIFY THE APPLICATION PROCESS:

Free Webinar
WRITING YOUR NEH PRESERVATION ASSISTANCE GRANT
March 22, 2012 from 2-4 PM Eastern time
(Hurry! Seats are limited!)
For more info: http://www.nedcc.org/eblasts/2012PAG.html

Northeast Document Conservation Center
Andover, MA
Preserving Cultural Heritage Collections Since 1973
www.nedcc.org

ALA Councilor’s Report–Part 1

Hello from Dallas. I am very happy to again be reporting on activities at the midwinter meeting of the American Library Association. In this, my final year of serving as your councilor, I will continue to monitor national issues that impact Vermont.

At this conference we are considering a resolution taking a stance against the seemingly secret and arbitrary distribution of ebooks, video, and audio formats by publishers and distributors. The resolution is in draft form now but I hope to report today or tomorrow that we have crafted a strong national response to this practice that withholds content from our customers.

As far as regular ALA business goes, while revenues are down ALA recently purchased Neal- Schumann Publishing in order to expand the ALA publishing arm of the organization, which is actually a good revenue maker for the organization.

Please let me know if you have questions at readmorenow@gmail.com or 802-999-8391

Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Wilson

VOL/Gale Database Training 2/7 & 2/13

Please join the wonderful Stacey Knibloe from Gale for two webinars on the Vermont Online Library/Gale Databases. If you cannot attend on the day of the event, there will be an archive available.
To register, click on the webinar title. I will send the webinar access information and instructions to you the day before each session.
Read more→