Workshop registration is booming!

So far we have seen over 230 registrations for workshops through our new Workshop/Event Calendar. Even though the registration system can be a little unforgiving if you have a typo in your email address, we have not seen too many glitches, and Mara Siegel is working hard to stay on top of those.

If you have registered for a workshop you can also try out the Display Personal Schedule link. If you use that link and enter your last name and any confirmation number your received automatically via email when you registered, you will get a list of all of the workshops for which you are registered.

The confirmation number may seem a little long and cryptic, but from what I can tell it is just the date and time of your registration followed by the first two letters of your last name. So if you are obsessive enough to remember the exact minute when you submitted the registration, you might be able to guess it 😉

2007 Continuing Education

The CE Website and Calendar are up and running!

Each year we offer two of the four 5-day workshops required for certification. This year we are teaching Reference and Basic Public Library Administration.

We are also providing a host of technology workshops: Library 2.0: A New Version for the Future, Social Networking: How Software is Changing Our Lives, workshops on VOL, HeritageQuest, and WebJunction, and a new idea for helping motivate people to participate in and complete online workshops called Learning Cohorts for Online Workshops. Other highlights of 2007 include workshops on safety, library facilities, and legal issues (Legal Reference, Copyright, Foundations of the First Amendment). There will be workshops on programming for diverse populations: Adult Programming, Serving Seniors, and Youth Services.Youth services will also supported with the workshops Get a Clue (Summer Reading Program), Graphic Novels 101, Teens, Technology and Libraries, and two workshops focusing on science and math in libraries: The Big Idea and Science and Math for the Summer Reading Program.You may register online for each workshop by using CE Calendar’s registration function, or by mailing in the printed form. Online registration is preferred and is now managed through the calendar which which we hope will provide easy registration.If you mail in an application, please be sure that you use a separate application for each participant and each workshop and that you send it to the person and address listed on the bottom of the form. Shortly after the registration deadline, you will receive a confirmation from the workshop coordinator letting you know if you have been accepted, giving you directions to the site, and any special instructions.

If you have any questions, comments, etc… please contact Mara Siegel, (802) 828-3261, mara.siegel@mail.dol.state.vt.us

 

Planning workshop for February 23

The second workshop in this year’s series based on “The New Planning for Results” by Sandra Nelson (ALA, 2001) will be held on Friday, February 23, 9:30 am-noon, at the Midstate Regional Library, Berlin.  Snow date: March 2.  Attendance at the January workshop which introduced the planning process is helpful, but by no means mandatory.
This month?s topic will be “Working with community data,” and I will cover the following:

• Resources for gathering and analyzing information about your community
• UVM”s Center for Rural Studies and census data
• Trends in Vermont?s population ? blips or reality?
• Holding community meetings to assess community needs and perceptions

The January workshop featured an overview of the planning process as described in Nelson’s book and used by many libraries nationwide.  Good first steps in “Planning to Plan” include reading the manual, thinking about how the process might work in your library, developing a planning calendar and budget (it needn’t cost much), determing who will be on the planning committee, and familiarizing staff and board with the process.  If you couldn’t attend and would like some of the handouts (including my powerpoint presentation), I will be happy to send you some.

All are welcome, including those who are just starting the planning process or those who started planning sometime in the past and want to get back on track.  If you and/or members of your board of trustees or planning committee do plan to attend, please let me know.  Hope to see you there!
Marianne  (828-2320)

Websites of interest to public librarians

Librarians in even the tiniest libraries will want to subscribe to Marylaine Block’s weekly “Neat New Stuff” wherein she points out websites and blogs useful for reference librarians and anybody overwhelmed by the vast amount of information available on the internet.? To subscribe, go to http://marylaine.com/subscribe.html.?

It was via Marylaine that I learned about the following:

• http://homeschoolingandlibraries.wordpress.com – a blog for librarians working with homeschoolers
• http://marylaine.com/5.html – Marylaine’s own list of five great sites (each) for practically any topic
• http://booklust.wetpaint.com – Nancy Pearl’s “Book Lust” wiki with great ideas for readers’ advisory
• http://kimbooktu.wordpress.com/ – A blog featuring cool gadgets for book lovers.

Enjoy!