Feb 4th, 2010
by pollyalida.
Help us protect NY’s libraries and library systems. We need to tell the NYS Legislature to reject the $2.4 million cut in Library Aid Governor David Paterson is proposing in the 2010-2011 Executive Budget. This will be the fifth cut in less than two years and will bring Library Aid down from $102 million in 2007 to $84.5 million in 2010. These cuts combined total an $18 million or 18% reduction in funding for library services. Libraries are part of our safety net—they are essential to life long learning, jobs and opportunity, quality of life and community empowerment.
via: NY’s Libraries: Essential
Visit the web site to:
- sign the petition
- share your story of why your library is essential
- send a letter to your elected officials
- download bookmarks and petitions to get your community involved
- And join the Facebook group too
To place the graphic and link on your own web pages, copy this code.
<a href=”http://www.protectnylibraries.org/”>
<img src=”http://www.nyla.org/content/user_1/NYs-Libraries-Essential-fin.gif” border=”0″ /></a>
Posted in: Libraries, advocacy.
Feb 4th, 2010
by pollyalida.
From findingEducation
New York State Educators:
If you are teacher, librarian or school administrator at a New York public, private or independent school, WE WANT YOU! We are conducting a survey of middle school and high school students’ online research habits, and we’d love for you to participate.
The online surveys are short, painless (we don’t ask sensitive questions), easy to understand and anonymous. They should take about 10 minutes to complete.
Please note: Students will not be asked to provide their names, e-mail addresses or any other identifying information.
Posted in: Schools, education.
Jan 29th, 2010
by pollyalida.
I’m really pleased that Kyle Jones has asked me to collaborate with him on an upcoming issue of Library Technology Reports on “WordPress for Libraries”. Like Kyle, I love working with WordPress and believe it’s a great solution for many different types of libraries and services. For more information on the project, please visit Kyle’s post on his blog, thecorkboard.
Posted in: wordpress.
Jan 28th, 2010
by pollyalida.
A colleague emailed today asking how to get a nice print calendar out of Google Calendar. I have to confess, I’d never clicked on the little PRINT button on top of my calendar to see what the options are.
After fiddling with all the options, I think the AGENDA format prints out with the most useful info.
- Open your Google Calendar
- Select the AGENDA format at the top of the calendar
- Click on the PRINT button on the same row of tabs at the top of the calendar
- Select the range of dates you want to print
- Select other options - include printing descriptions, start and end times, lists of attendees and more.
- Click on SAVE AS at the bottom of that dialog box to create handy, full-color PDF file.
Thanks to a very old Lifehacker post for this tip!
Posted in: google.
Jan 26th, 2010
by pollyalida.
And now you can have one easily and without breaking the bank! LibraryThing announced their new Library Anywhere project at ALA Midwinter last week. Today they’ve posted prices for the service.
Key features listed in their announcement:
- A mobile catalog for any library, up and running in minutes.
- Mobile web and apps for iPhone, Blackberry and Android.
- Cheaper than you’d guess.
- Search, place holds, and more.
- Showcase hours, branches, and events.
- No installation process.
- Works with 90% of current OPACs.
- Comes with an “accessible version” that provides a fully Section 508-compliant version of your existing catalog
- (via LibraryThing)
They’re looking for beta libraries now. This is one of those times that I really wish I was still working in a library and could be part of this. And as a patron, I’d really love it if my own local library got in on this. I’ve been trying to use my library catalog on my phone and it’s not a pretty experience!
Posted in: Libraries, catalogs, mobile.
Tagged: library anywhere · librarything
Jan 13th, 2010
by pollyalida.
I love words and pictures and storytelling. And I love playing with tools that help us tell our stories. So it’s no surprise that I’m having great fun playing with Flickr Poet from Stories in Flight which I discovered last week from a colleague’s flickr stream. Pop in a poem, song lyrics or just random thoughts and see what you get!
Flickr poet pulls in photos from flickr that match your words in some way. Click on “Show Story” over and over to get different interpretations of your words. What a great way to enhance a poetry or storytelling project.
For a school project, it might be more interesting to have students pick out photos themselves and create their own presentations.
Tools to find photos
Finding photos is pretty easy, finding photos that are licensed for reuse under Creative Commons can be a bit more of a challenge. Continue reading →
Posted in: Photos, Poetry, Storytelling, flickr.
