Vermont Independent Media Conversation: July 12th in Montpelier

Some great things are going on in media among us and around us here in the green mountains. It’s not surprising for us to have fertile ground to till in the area of independent media, but what if we stopped, just for a moment, to consider where we’re headed – together. Please join other interested people to do just that on the afternoon of July 12th in downtown Montpelier.

Are there opportunities, needs, desires we share? You are invited to an initial conversation – a brainstorming session, perhaps – to talk about the future and the now. And if you think there are others who should be invited, please pass along this invitation. All are welcome.

Vermont Independent Media Conversation
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Montpelier City Hall
1:30-4:00pm

Agenda in development
1. Introductions

2. Some questions to address:Does independence mean anarchy? How can independent Vermont media outlets work together?
What are the assets we currently share? How can independent media assist Vermont communities building and maintaining community links? How do we increase real news about communities? Can we move toward collaboration in creative ways?

3. What should our next steps be?

Want more information? Have questions? Email scottc@retn.org.
Or just show up and bring things up.

If you know anyone who should be invited to this conversation, please ask them to join us.

Scott Campitelli
Executive Director & Program Manager
RETN – Regional Educational Technology Network
http://www.retn.org
scottc@retn.org
ph – 802.654.7980 ext 26
media center at:
208 Flynn Avenue, Suite 2K
Burlington, Vermont

Volunteers Needed for NELA Conference in Burlington 2011

The New England Library Association is holding its annual conference in Burlington in October 2011. The NELA conference committee is busy making preparations and need help from some Vermonters to assistant in designing programs and making connections with Vermont’s resources.

NELA is in need of about four Vermonters to join the conference committee for program planning. Any previous experience with conferences would be helpful, but not necessary. In particular they are looking for assistance with local contacts, help in learning about Vermont resources and advertising the conference to Vermont library workers. There will be a minimum of travel, the majority of the work will be done by email, etc. The expected dates and locations of meetings are as follows; January 14 in Leominster Massachusetts area, February 24 virtual on web, April 1 in Burlington Vermont and June 6 in Wilton New Hampshire.

For more information and to volunteer please contact Mary Ann List– NELA Conference Chair at malist@cityofportsmouth.com , 603-766-1710 or Mary Ann Rupert –NELA Conference Manager at marupert@pobox.com, 603-654-3533.

Interested in having an MLIS student for an intern?

The Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Rhode Island invites library and information service organizations to register possible professional field experiences (PFE) on their PFE database. This database is intended to help students in the Professional Field Experience (LSC 595) course locate placement sites, and to help potential host institutions attract appropriate student interns.

Students taking LSC 595 (Professional Field Experience) must complete forty-five hours of work for each credit. Students may take the course for anywhere from one to six credits. Details regarding the course may be seen at http://www.uri.edu/artsci/lsc/Academics/Courses/PFE.html. Instructions for viewing the PFE database are also given on this page.

A PFE may be primarily service oriented. For example, the student might work on the Reference Desk and teach information literacy courses in an academic library or the student could catalog new entries in the digital collection of archival institution. The PFE could also be project oriented, where a student could develop a new website or redesign an existing website for a public library or work on a research project for a corporate library. The PFE may also involve a combination of service and projects. The details of each PFE are worked out cooperatively between the student, the supervising library, and the full-time faculty member teaching the course.

If you would like to be listed in the PFE database, please complete the Site Supervisor’s Form at http://www.uri.edu/artsci/lsc/Academics/Courses/PFE/SiteSupervisorForm.pdf and send it to GSLIS as indicated on the form. The full-time faculty member teaching LSC 595 will be happy to work with you and the student to try to find a good match for the PFE.

Save the date! Videoconferencing in Libraries

More information coming soon.

Within Reach: A live videoconference connecting all parts of Vermont to each other and the world.

September 21, 2010
1:45 – 3:45 pm
At all VIT sites

Learn how videoconferencing brings the world to your library. Be prepared to be excited and engaged by the possibilities that videoconferencing affords.

Learn about funding opportunities. Discover how you can take advantage of available sources including help with grant writing.

Learn about videoconferencing from a librarian who has been connected for years. Meet with inspiration from Wilma Kakie Glover-Koomson The reference librarian/IT manager Haverstraw King’s Daughter Public Library, Garnerville, New York.

Learn about the connection to the Library of Congress. Experience how programs will benefit your community from Judy Graves, Digital Projects Coordinator- Library of Congress.

Come discover how the future for your library is… Within Reach.

*For directions to the VIT sites visit www.vitlink.org

Enter to win a $250 grant to buy library books.

Sisters in Crime-New England members know the difficulties that New England libraries face these days, and we want to help. Enter to win a $250 grant to buy library books. Just send us a photo of an exhibit of at least three books by authors who are members of Sisters in Crime-New England. Your library will be entered for our quarterly drawings for a $250 check—PLUS autographed books from our SinC-NE members! Get details at www.sincne.org.

Who are we? We’re Sisters in Crime-New England, the regional chapter of the nationwide organization, Sisters in Crime.

In 1986, women wrote 40% of the mysteries and got 15% of the reviews in the New York Times. That year Sisters in Crime was founded to “combat discrimination against women in the mystery field, to raise awareness of the contributions of female authors, and to promote the professional advancement of women who write mysteries.” We are authors, agents, booksellers, editors, librarians, critics, and readers. Brothers in Crime are welcome. The national organization now boasts over 3000 members, including authors, fans, librarians, booksellers, and pre-published writers.

The New England chapter, Scarlet Letters, holds educational meetings for its more than 170 members, writers, readers and mystery fans at various locations throughout the year, and offers networking advice and support to published and pre-published mystery authors. The chapter also offers a Speakers Bureau that can provide individual speakers or groups of writers for libraries and other interested organizations. To find out more about our Speakers Bureau, click here.

This year we’ve added something new: the New England Library Lottery. We’re so excited about the national Sisters in Crime “We Love Libraries” $1,000 monthly lottery that we’ve decided to add a New England version.

All a library has to do to enter is send us a photo of an exhibit of at least three books by authors who are members of Sisters in Crime-New England and the library will be entered for one of our quarterly drawings for a $250 check—PLUS autographed books from our SinC-NE members! You can find a link to SinC-NE’s published members as well as other details on our website, www.sincne.org.

The prize must be used to purchase books, but won’t be restricted to the mystery genre or to those by Sisters in Crime members. What’s more, any New England library scheduling a SinC-NE Speakers Bureau event will be entered in all the quarterly drawings an additional 10 times. The first drawing will be held on September 1st.

A library can use the same photo for the national SinC lottery, so there will be two chances to win! For more information about the national contest, see We Love Libraries.

SinC-NE will be sending this announcement to all New England libraries, and we hope that you will encourage them to enter. And if you have any ideas for other ways that Sisters in Crime-New England and New England libraries can work together, please let me know!

Sheila Connolly, Library Liaison
Sisters in Crime-New England
sheila328@aol.com

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Educational Materials for Citizenship

From: Ted Albers, a community relations officer with the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) in South Burlington. USCIS is the immigration-benefit and services arm of the Federal Government.

You may or may not be aware of some of the hard-copy and online resources that USCIS produces for immigrants who are preparing for the citizenship test. These materials are helpful to ESL and Civics educators as well. These resources are detailed on the websites below.

For libraries, the “Citizenship Toolkit” is probably the most useful for a library, and is a free resource if you register online (it costs $73 if purchased through the Government Printing Office). Even if a library does not serve immigrants, the Toolkit is helpful to social-service providers, students and others for understanding the legal immigration process.

________________________________

To learn about the contents of the Toolkit, and to register, please visit this website:
http://www.citizenshiptoolkit.gov/

Find the online civics and citizenship toolkit here:
http://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/organizations/civics-and-citizenship-toolkit

Find individual study materials for the Citizenship test (the ‘New test’) here. Most of these materials are in the Toolkit.
http://www.uscis.gov/newtest

A “Welcome to the US” guide in many languages is available here.
www.uscis.gov/newimmigrants

A host of other relevant resources are here:
http://www.welcometousa.gov/

For libraries that are in a position to purchase civics and English language materials:
http://bookstore.gpo.gov/collections/const-cit-day.jsp

ALA “American Dream” Resources are here:
http://www.americandreamtoolkit.org/

You can request a 1MB PDF file of a handbook Expanding ESL, Civics and Citizenship Education in Your Community by emailing me a ted.albers@dhs.gov

Ted Albers, USCIS Community Relations, Northeast Regional Office, South Burlington, VT
802-660-5007 Desk

ACRL/NEC Spring 2010 Conference

The Association of College and Research Libraries – New England Chapter (ACRL/NEC) announces its Spring 2010 Conference!

Embracing Our Electronic World: Challenges and Promises for Academic Libraries

Friday, May 14, 2010 @ College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA

Spend a day discussing the impact of our shifting information landscape, the evolving roles of academic libraries and librarians in a networked world, and the opportunities for innovation that come with rapid change. The conference will feature speaker, Lisa Hinchliffe (Vice-President/President-elect of ACRL), presentations from ACRL/NEC Special Interest Groups (http://www.acrlnec.org/sigs/index.php), and will offer opportunities to network with your colleagues and discuss the latest library products and services with our sponsoring vendors.

Looking for a Mentor? Want to Be a Mentor?

ALA has launched MentorConnect in ALA Connect so you can find or become a mentor.

MentorConnect (”MC”) allows ALA members to create mentoring profiles that highlight their expertise and experience. After they’ve joined MC, ALA members can search for a mentor using a variety of criteria (gender, type of library, ethnicity, etc.) and request mentorship. Once created, the mentorship is tracked within MC, with a space for providing and archiving feedback. The system will prompt mentors and mentorees every few months to ensure they are staying in touch.

To learn all about this new service, see Mentoring Starter Questions and Mentoring and MentorConnect FAQ at (http://www.students.ala.org/studentmemberblog/?p=344)

Don Wood
Program Officer
Chapter Relations Office
American Libraries Association
dwood@ala.org
1-800-545-2433, ext. 2429

vcal test post

The Vermont Consortium of Academic Libraries hereby resolves our support for the critical role of libraries and librarians in K-12 education in Vermont and strenuously opposes the proposal made by the Education Quality Standards Commission, appointed by the State Board of Education, to remove all instances of the words “library,” “librarian,” and “library-media specialist” from the Vermont Education Quality Standards.

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