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Mosio Launches Mobile Donations Initiative for Libraries: SMS Text Messaging Donations to Help Non-Profit Libraries Raise Funds

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 11:00

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, March 11, 2010 — Mosio's Text a Librarian, the leader in text messaging solutions for libraries, today announced its mobile donations initiative to assist non-profit libraries and library organizations in setting up mobile fundraising campaigns via SMS text messaging.

"The success of the Text For Haiti campaign provided mainstream exposure to the collective impact of micro-donations and the effectiveness of fundraising through text messaging" said Noel Chandler, Mosio's CEO. "Mobile donations are an excellent use of SMS technology. We're using our experience and relationships in the wireless industry to help libraries implement a new method of raising awareness and funds."

Library budgets are being slashed while patron visits and demand for services have soared. Mobile donations offer a unique opportunity for libraries to augment existing public fundraising efforts. Individuals in the community can give to their library in manageable donations of $5-$10 through a simple mobile technology.

Text messaging is the most widely used form of mobile communication in the world. Americans are now texting twice as much as they are talking on their cell phones. Organizations interested in taking advantage of SMS technologies need to determine which mobile solutions best serve their audience, resources and budget.

"Navigating your way through mobile services can be a daunting process and mobile donations are no different," said Jay Sachdev, Mosio's CTO. "Our goal is to help make it as easy as possible for libraries to add text messaging to their existing fundraising campaigns."

To learn more about Mosio’s mobile donations initiative for libraries, please visit www.textalibrarian.com/mobiledonations.

About Mosio's Text a Librarian
Text a Librarian is a mobile reference service technology developed specifically for libraries. Built on Mosio’s award-winning mobile questions and answers platform, Text a Librarian enables libraries to reach more patrons on the go through their mobile phones. For more information regarding Text a Librarian, please visit www.textalibrarian.com

About Mosio
Mosio is a mobile technologies agency providing messaging and mobile web solutions for businesses and organizations to connect with customers who are on-the-go. Mosio provides interactive mobile strategy and development services utilizing text messaging and mobile web applications to amplify marketing programs, increase business efficiencies and drive information engagement. www.mosio.com

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

JSTOR Current Scholarship Program Reaches 100 Journals

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 15:13

We are very pleased to announce that seven new publishers have recently joined the Current Scholarship Program. While work continues to sign additional publishers and titles to the Program, with these new partners, libraries will be able to license and provide their users with access to the current issues of at least 100 journals on the JSTOR platform beginning in 2011.

The publishers that recently joined the Program include:

Association for the Study of African American Life and History

Michigan Historical Review, Central Michigan University

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Massachusetts Historical Society

Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture

University of Nebraska Press

Western Historical Quarterly, Utah State University

These publishers bring a wealth of ground-breaking scholarship to the Program. Titles include The William & Mary Quarterly and The Journal of African American History, as well as other core publications in African American Studies, Feminist Studies, and History.

We are very excited to have these publishers working with us to improve access to current journal content. Librarians and users tell us consistently that adding current issues to JSTOR is important to them, and we know that more is better. Reaching 100 titles is a first step, and we continue to strive to grow the Program with partners who share our commitment to serving the needs of libraries, faculty, and students.

A final list of publishers and titles that will be available in the Current Scholarship Program for the 2011 subscription year will be coming soon, and pricing for the current issues of these journals will be available in early summer. In the meantime, as you begin your collection development planning for next year, a presentation from ALA Midwinter about the Program benefits for libraries and details about how your institution will be able to license titles in the Program is available online. You can also contact us directly.

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

EBSCO Publishing Releases Fish, Fisheries & Aquatic Biodiversity Worldwide™ and Waters & Oceans Worldwide™

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 14:48

~ Databases Merged to Create Two Resources for Fish & Aquatic Biology Studies and International Water Research ~

IPSWICH, Mass. — March 10, 2010 — EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) is announcing the release of Fish, Fisheries & Aquatic Biodiversity Worldwide™ (FFAB) and Waters & Oceans Worldwide™ (WOW). These new databases represent database combinations which have never been attempted. Each database covers an extensive timeframe and comprehensive geographic coverage of regions & water bodies as well as complete world coverage of all aquatic issues. FFAB and WOW are highly significant resources for researchers in both freshwater and marine environments, and to researchers working on both the living and non-living aspects of all aquatic environments.

Fish, Fisheries & Aquatic Biodiversity Worldwide (FFAB)
Fish, Fisheries & Aquatic Biodiversity Worldwide covers research and management issues relating to all aspects of ichthyology, fisheries, aquatic biology/ecology, and aquaculture. The database includes content from Fish & Fisheries Worldwide, and Aquatic Biology, Aquaculture & Fisheries Resources (ABAFR). Fish & Fisheries Worldwide was formerly a NISC South Africa database available on the EBSCOhost® platform, while Aquatic Biology, Aquaculture & Fisheries Resources was formerly a NISC US database. In October 2008, EBSCO purchased NISC, Inc. including ABAFR. With the addition of other 19 databases including FISHLIT, Aquatic Biology Citations, Fisheries Review, the Fishing Industry Research Index and a database from the WorldFish Center’s Library, this database aggregation includes some of the world’s major fish and fisheries databases.

Fish, Fisheries & Aquatic Biodiversity Worldwide includes research on aquaculture species ranging from culture and propagation to genetics, behavior, ecology and habitat. As a result of merging all of these resources, the expanded database offers more than one million citations and abstracts dating back to the 1970s.

Waters & Oceans Worldwide (WOW)
With comprehensive world coverage, of both freshwater and marine environments, Waters & Oceans Worldwide includes research ranging from surface and groundwater to coastal and offshore engineering to pollution and water treatment, records date back to the 1970s and earlier. This resource includes all content from Water Resources Worldwide, a former a NISC South Africa database available on the EBSCOhost platform, encompassing six of the world’s major water resource databases: WATERLIT, The Freshwater Biological Association Library Catalogue, The International Water Management Institute Database, AQUAREF, ACQUIRE and Delft Hydro. In addition to these resources, Waters & Oceans Worldwide also includes Marine, Oceanographic and Freshwater Resource (MOFR), another database formerly available from NISC US and acquired by EBSCO including Hydroarchive and the databases of the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory and the oceanographic Library in Southampton. The combination of these databases offers a tremendous increase in content with records growing from 854,840 to over 1,850,000.

FFAB and WOW are two of many environment databases available from EBSCO Publishing and provide comprehensive and unique coverage.

About EBSCO Publishing
EBSCO Publishing is the world’s premier database aggregator, offering a suite of nearly 300 full-text and secondary research databases. Through a library of tens of thousands of full-text journals, magazines, books, monographs, reports and various other publication types from renowned publishers, EBSCO serves the content needs of all researchers (Academic, Medical, K-12, Public Library, Corporate, Government, etc.). The company’s product lines include proprietary databases such as Academic Search™, Business Source®, CINAHL®, DynaMed™, Literary Reference Center™, MasterFILE™, NoveList®, SocINDEX™ and SPORTDiscus™ as well as dozens of leading licensed databases such as ATLA Religion Database™, EconLit, INSPEC®, MEDLINE®, MLA International Bibliography, The Philosopher’s Index™, PsycARTICLES® and PsycINFO®. Databases are powered by EBSCOhost®, the most-used for-fee electronic resource in libraries around the world.

EBSCO is the provider of EBSCO Discovery Service™ a core collection of locally-indexed metadata creating a unified index of an institution’s resources within a single, customizable search point—detailed metadata from important content sources, OPAC loading, EBSCOhost database indexing and full text and metadata from institutional repositories and special collections (www.ebscohost.com/discovery). For more information, visit the EBSCO Publishing Web site at: www.ebscohost.com, or contact: information@ebscohost.com. EBSCO Publishing is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., one of the largest privately held companies in the United States.

###
For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Public Relations Manager
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebscohost.com

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

Toronto Book Fans to get "First Bite" of All - Canadian Vampire Anthology - BYOG (Bring your own garlic!)

Tue, 03/09/2010 - 20:24

Kelley Armstrong, Tanya Huff, Claude Lalumière, Mary E. Choo, Sandra Kasturi, Bradley Media Release
For Immediate Release

Toronto Book Fans to get "First Bite" of All - Canadian Vampire Anthology - BYOG (Bring your own garlic!)

(Calgary) Toronto book fans will meet some of Canada's top horror writers at the EVOLVE: Vampire Stories of the New Undead book launch event on April 9th, at the World's Biggest Bookstore.

EVOLVE editor Nancy Kilpatrick along with authors Kelley Armstrong, Rio Youers, Claude Lalumière, Kevin Nunn and others - including Natasha Beaulieu (Montreal), and Jerome Stueart (Whitehorse) - will join Toronto's Gemma Files and Sandra Kasturi for the event. Several authors will be flying in from their appearance at the World Horror Convention in Brighton UK to take part in the Toronto launch.

But what is EVOLVE?
Kelley Armstrong, Tanya Huff and twenty-two other Canadian dark fantasy and horror writers re-imagine the future in EVOLVE: Vampire Stories of the New Undead, the first all-Canadian vampire anthology of original fiction - one of the most unusual and compelling collections ever compiled. EVOLVE is published by EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, Canada's largest genre dedicated publisher, who is celebrating their 10th anniversary this year.

"We are really looking forward to this event", says EVOLVE publisher Brian Hades. "We have had some phenomenal coverage of this book, and there is a real buzz for its release right across the country! We are delighted that so many of the authors will be joining us for the party - and it is a great way, as well, to start off our anniversary celebrations!"

Who is in EVOLVE?
EVOLVE: Vampire Stories of the New Undead includes works by: Kelley Armstrong, Tanya Huff, Claude Lalumière, Mary E. Choo, Sandra Kasturi, Bradley Somer, Kevin Cockle, Rebecca Bradley, Heather Clitheroe, Colleen Anderson, Sandra Wickham, Rhea Rose, Ronald Hore, Bev Vincent, Jennifer Greylyn, Steve Vernon, Michael Skeet, Kevin Nunn, Victoria Fisher, Rio Youers, Gemma Files, Natasha Beaulieu, Claude Bolduc, and Jerome Stueart.

About Editor Nancy Kilpatrick
Editor and author Nancy Kilpatrick has penned 18 novels, more than 200 short stories, 5 collections of stories, and has been the editor for 9 other anthologies. Her body of work involves vampires and dark fantasy fiction. She won an Arthur Ellis Award for the best mystery story, is a three times Bram Stoker finalist and a five times finalist for the Aurora Award.

Launch information
EVOLVE: Vampire Stories of the New Undead
World's Biggest Bookstore
(7:00 PM)
20 Edward Street (just off Yonge St., North of Dundas),
Toronto,ON

Book Information
EVOLVE: Vampire Stories of the New Undead
edited by Nancy Kilpatrick
ISBN: 978-1-894063-33-3
$15.95 USA
$16.95 CDN
Pages: 304
Trade Paperback (5.5" x 8.5")

Websites:
http://www.edgewebsite.com/books/evolve/ev-catalog.html (Publisher’s site: sample pdf available)
http://vampires-evolve.com (special limited editions – including coffin edition...see under “Purchase” for details.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEKdqoj53fk&feature=player_embedded (book trailer)
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=237581542711&ref=ts (Evolve Facebook group page.)

For further information, or to set up interviews with Nancy Kilpatrick or any of the EVOLVE authors, please contact:

Janice Shoults
EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing
403.254.0160
events@hadespublications.com

A complete media package is available upon request.

-30-

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

Introducing the newly redesigned BookSaleManager.com

Sun, 03/07/2010 - 10:04

In celebration of our 1 year anniversary, the team at BookSaleManager.com is proud to introduce our newly redesigned site. This latest version is packed with exciting new features that will let users find, share, and save booksales like never before.

Here are some of the exciting new features:
• New Design: We have completely redesigned the look and feel of our site. Over the past year we have received a lot of wonderful feedback from many of the 17,000 unique visitors that came to our site. We have taken that feedback to heart and redesigned the site to have a better look and feel. This redesign represents our commitment to listen to our users. We hope you like it, and if you don’t, let us know why.

• New Account Options: We have implemented two new account features that many users requested.
1. Outlook Support: You can now export sales to your Microsoft Outlook calendar. We are also looking to add other calendar support in the near future.
2. GPS Support: You can now export our database of sales to your GPS devise so you can find sales while on the road.

• New Sharing Options: Find a sale you want your friends to know about? Now you can easily share any sales with your friends on Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. You can also easily tag sales with Digg, Delicious, and a host of other sites.

• Google Map and Directions: Every sale listed on our site will now be fully integrated with Google maps and directions. All listings will show the location of the sale via Google maps directly within the page. Also, below the address for each sale is the option to quickly and easily get step by step directions from any location.

During our first year of operation our site has seen tremendous growth. We listed over 9,000 sales and received over 17,000 unique visitors. With our new design, are building on this strong foundation. In the coming year, we plan to introduce even more exciting new features in our never ending quest to provide the preeminent booksale search experience on the internet.

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

EBSCO Publishing Acquires Expert Publishing—ExPub—Chemical Hazard Information for Environmental Health & Safety Professionals

Fri, 03/05/2010 - 13:55

EBSCO Publishing Acquires Expert Publishing—ExPub—Chemical Hazard Information for Environmental Health & Safety Professionals
~ ChemEXPERT™, ReproEXPERT™, ListEXPERT™, DrugEXPERT™, and MSDSonline®, Offer Chemical Safety and Regulatory Information on Chemical Hazards~

IPSWICH, Mass. — March 5, 2010 — EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) has acquired Expert Publishing (ExPub), the premier provider of up-to-date, decision-support chemical information for the global environmental health & safety (EH&S) community. ExPub databases provide access to millions of documents containing comprehensive human and/or environmental hazard data needed to manage the impact of chemicals in the workplace or on the environment. ExPub databases offer EBSCO a variety of options for enhancing existing databases and creating new resources, as well as offerings that are complementary to current EBSCOhost® databases.

The global implications of recent changes in European chemical regulations, legislative and regulatory efforts in Congress to reform American chemical regulatory polices, and consumer fears about chemicals in consumer products—as evidenced by the recent BPA scare—emphasize the importance of having access to comprehensive and authoritative information on the potential hazards of chemicals.

ExPub provides more than 120 databases containing millions of documents from government and licensed sources covering more than 400,000 unique substances and accessible via 2.25 million chemical names and synonyms. Databases include: ChemEXPERT™, ReproEXPERT™, ListEXPERT™, DrugEXPERT™, and MSDSonline®.

• ChemEXPERT—continually-updated data on thousands of potentially hazardous chemicals
• ReproEXPERT—human reproductive risk data for EH&S professionals who are responsible for managing reproductive hazards in the workplace
• ListEXPERT—regularly-updated data on the over 100,000 chemicals included on hundreds of regulatory and advisory lists from around the world
• DrugEXPERT —environmental health & safety-oriented data on thousands of pharmaceutical substances
• MSDSonline—decision support when trying to understand and manage the impact of introducing new chemicals into the workplace

Companies and agencies that use or regulate chemicals are able to access the latest, up-to-date documents on chemical hazards and toxicology. ExPub databases are designed for organizations that need to research and understand the human health hazards associated with chronic and acute exposures to chemicals in the workplace and the environment. The databases can also be used by those responsible for developing chemical regulatory and trade policies and controls. In addition, the resources are of value to organizations tasked with homeland and facilities security and border control.

Matt Timberlake, president of ExPub says fast, reliable access is essential to the professionals using these databases. “Our users include Hazmat/Emergency Response Personnel, toxicologists, industrial hygienists, physicians, product stewards, safety managers, and other risk assessment professionals. ExPub databases include essential information for emergencies like responding to fires, spills, or chemical explosions, as well as more day-to-day needs like creating and maintaining healthy and compliant workplaces, MSDS authoring, product labeling, regulatory submissions, and developing site safety plans.”

EBSCO Publishing Vice President of Business Development, Mark Herrick says the acquisition is, as with all EBSCO acquisitions, designed to provide for the further support and development of EBSCO databases. “Having ExPub as part of EBSCO will allow us to create even more superior products and give our users access to more content, including some content from the former Environmental Chemistry Information System (ECIS) which we acquired when we purchased the NISC databases. There are also additional plans to develop new resources and provide ExPub content alongside or within existing EBSCOhost databases.”

About EBSCO Publishing
EBSCO Publishing is the world’s premier database aggregator serving the content needs of corporations, associations and organizations of all types. EBSCO offers a suite of nearly 300 full-text and secondary research databases providing content from tens of thousands of full-text journals, magazines, books, monographs, reports and various other publication types from renowned publishers. Databases provide information for areas ranging from research & development and corporate learning to departmental and industry-specific topics. EBSCO’s product lines include proprietary databases such as Business Source® Corporate, Business Book Summaries™, Learning Centers™, Business Basics™, Academic Search® R&D, Nonprofit Organization Reference Center™, and Health Library™ as well as dozens of leading licensed databases. Databases are powered by EBSCOhost®, the most-used for-fee electronic resource in libraries around the world, and may be integrated into corporate intranets, portals and learning management systems. For more information, visit the EBSCO Publishing Web site at: www.ebscohost.com, or contact: information@ebscohost.com.

EBSCO Publishing is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., one of the largest privately held companies in the United States.

About Expert Publishing
Expert Publishing (ExPub) aggregates and optimizes chemical hazard information for Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) professionals. Tailored for the Global EH&S community, Expert Publishing's single-point access to millions of documents is used when comprehensive human and/or environmental hazard data is needed to manage the impact of chemicals in the workplace or on the environment.
###
For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Public Relations Manager
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebscohost.com

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

ByWater Solutions Celebrates One Year of Providing Open Source Services to Libraries

Thu, 03/04/2010 - 13:36

March 4, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
staff@bywatersolutions.com

ByWater Solutions Celebrates One Year of Providing Open Source Services to Libraries

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and official Koha support company, celebrated their one year anniversary for providing quality implementation and support services for open source ILS’s such as Koha and Evergreen.

Since its forming in 2009, ByWater Solutions’ management team has tripled in size, and includes Nicole C. Engard, Koha Documentation Manager and author of the popular blog, What I Learned Today, and Ian Walls, Vice President of the Koha users group KUDOS.

In addition to ByWater’s internal growth, the company now supports well over 40 libraries, including the Nelsonville Public Library of Athens, OH; the first to adopt Koha in the U.S. ByWater Solutions services libraries of all types, from public to corporate, and all sizes, from small town to consortiums. They have received an amazing response to the higher levels of service they strive to provide.

Brendan Gallagher, CEO of ByWater, comments on their first year in business: “I could not be happier with the direction our company is headed. We are grateful for the interest we have received from libraries, and are focusing on growing in a way that is commensurate with our ability to provide the personalized service and support our customers have come to expect from us. We have the right team on board to provide the best possible solution for libraries seeking an open source alternative for their ILS.”

About ByWater Solutions:
With over 10 years of experience, ByWater Solutions offers customized hosting, data migration, configuration, installation, training, support options and development of enterprise class open-source library systems. Offering a 24/7 technical helpline, ByWater Solutions’ clients have the support system they need to make their software work for them. ByWater Solutions pledges to share 100% of all developed code to the Koha community for the strengthening and advancement of the Koha ILS. For more information about ByWater Solutions, please visit: www.bywatersolutions.com

About Koha:

Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha's impressive feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. It includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more.

Koha’s OPAC, circ, management and self-checkout interfaces are all based on standards-compliant World Wide Web technologies--XHTML, CSS and Javascript--making Koha a truly platform-independent solution. Koha is distributed under the open-source General Public License (GPL). For more information about Koha, please visit
www.koha-community.org

About Evergreen:
Evergreen is powerful, highly scalable open-source library software. While Evergreen is best known for its unique ability to meet the needs of very large, high-transaction, multi-site consortia, Evergreen also elegantly scales down to the smallest library sites.

Since its debut in September 2006 as the software powering the 270-plus libraries of the Georgia PINES consortium, Evergreen has earned acclaim and praise from users worldwide, including a Technology Collaboration Award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Evergreen now supports hundreds of libraries of every type—public, academic, special, and school media—in 12 states and 2 countries.
For more information about Evergreen, including a list of all known Evergreen installations, please visit www.evergreen-ils.org.

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

First Bibliomation Libraries Live On Evergreen

Thu, 03/04/2010 - 11:03

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Norcross, GA — March 4, 2010
Beacon Falls Public Library and Douglas Library of Hebron are the first members of Connecticut’s Bibliomation consortium to go live with the Evergreen open source ILS. Bibliomation opted to begin the move to Evergreen with a set of five pilot libraries. Slater Public Library, Windham Free Public Library, and Jonathan Trumbull Library will complete the initial group and are expected live at a later date. The entire consortium is expected live on Evergreen in 2011.

Beacon Falls Public Library has a collection of 15,430 bibliographic items and the library serves 3,152 patrons. Douglas Library of Hebron has a collection of 42,298 bibliographic items and the library serves 5,140 patrons.
According to Amy Terlaga, Assistant Director,User Services for Bibliomation, “Evergreen is the perfect library system for a consortium like Bibliomation. We’re very excited to be bringing up the first Connecticut libraries on this extremely flexible open source ILS. For some of these development partner libraries, Evergreen will be their first automated system. We can’t wait to migrate the entire Bibliomation network sometime in 2011. It can’t come soon enough for us!”
Brad LaJeunesse, CEO of Equinox Software, says “We are thrilled to have the first Bibliomation libraries up and running on Evergreen. They have approached the move to open source with such enthusiasm and continue to be a huge voice of support for the open source community.”

About Bibliomation
Founded in 1980, Bibliomation has grown into the largest of the Connecticut networks. They operate as a member driven, non-profit organization with 48 public libraries, 23 K-12 libraries, and 5 development partner libraries across the state. Bibliomation provides a wide array of information, telecommunications, and automation services in order to serve the ever changing technological needs of the network’s member libraries.
For more information about Bibliomation, please visit http://www.biblio.org/.

About Evergreen
Evergreen is a robust, highly scalable, open-source integrated library system best known for its unique ability to meet the needs of very large, high-transaction, multi-site consortia.
Since its debut in September 2006, the software has sustained the 270-plus libraries of the Georgia PINES consortium. Evergreen has earned acclaim and praise from users worldwide, including a Technology Collaboration Award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Evergreen now supports over 500 libraries of every type-public, academic, special, and school media centers. Evergreen’s rapidly expanding community is now known to power live installations in 5 countries including 10 U.S. states and 4 Canadian provinces.
For more information about Evergreen, including a list of all known Evergreen installations, see http://evergreen-ils.org.

About Equinox Software, Inc.
Founded by the original Evergreen designers and developers, Equinox Software is a growing team of skilled professionals who provide services for Evergreen and Koha. These services include software development, consulting, legacy data migration, 24x7 technical support, and system hosting. Equinox also engages and supports a rapidly expanding open source community.

For more information on Equinox Software, please visit http://www.esilibrary.com.

Press contact: Corinne Hall, corinne@esilibrary.com, 678-269-6113
Evergreen and Koha are open source software, freely licensed under the GNU GPL. Evergreen and the Evergreen logo are trademarks of the Georgia Public Library Service.

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

On the Strand by Kevin Gray

Thu, 03/04/2010 - 10:24

I invite you to order my new book, On the Strand, published by World Audience Publishers, New York City. Strand picks up in a memoir where my first book, Waking Up in the Studebaker, of the two-book series, left off.

Was it fate or responsibility that brought me to the plains? Or an escape? And why Kansas? Certainly a girl was involved. Three for sure! The reason for heading west from my home in Virginia and making a new one in Kansas is long and complicated. Maybe this is why I always looked at myself as the silent observer, as well as the kid who continually questioned his actions.

When I finished my original manuscript for On the Strand, I asked a friend from my past – who just so happens to be a character in this story – how she remembered me from age 11, when we first met, to 21 the last time we talked together in a favorite Richmond bar called the Hitching Post, until I tracked her down via the internet in 2001. She wrote, “Kind, shy, quiet, and very loyal. You had a dry sense of humor and were ‘on the wild side’ and always ready for something different – always questioning things and authority: REBELLIOUS!!!” She ended her memory with a telling statement: “You were hard on yourself and did not believe in Kevin.” She pegged me alright!

Friends from my past, when we reunited via the internet after as many as 40 years, were so surprised to find out that I – the underachiever – who barely graduated from high school had become a teacher. “How?” they often asked. I told them there had been a lot of unseen learning going on at the time and very little of it taking place within the confining walls of school buildings.

I began my memories with Waking Up in the Studebaker (2008), which covers my childhood in Richmond, Virginia’s suburbs, through entering high school. On the Strand (2010) carries my story forward through high school and leaving Virginia to give college a try in Kansas. What an East Coast attitude I took with me: “I’m here to get the bullshit classes out of the way and return to a good college in Virginia.” Breaking with my past in an attempt to lower the time spent in bars, allowing more time for study, is one of the reasons I chose Kansas. Little did I know, Pittsburg, Kansas was one major bar/club city in southeast Kansas.

Life happened. And what a ride, including the girls (three in particular – they meant the world to me), endless trips to Virginia Beach, New York City, keeping track of the war (Vietnam), defeating the high school dress code, the Atlantic City Pop (Pot) Festival, a trip to Europe, bars and clubs, the Fillmore East, the Valencia Hotel in Greenwich Village, knowing Bruce Springsteen - prior to beginning the E Street Band – the 1970 draft lottery, the 1971 march in Chicago to stop the war, cross country hitch hiking trips and trips in a Fastback VW, and constantly wondering how I could make something of myself, when I had barely graduated from high school.

Would college be any different? Would I be able to get past the bullshit given students by teachers from both private and public school curriculum expectations back in the grades? Would I stop feeling like the dumbass? Who knows, but I knew travel would be required to place me in Pittsburg, Kansas, in 1971, and that sounded damn good to me, the wayward kid with no set direction. Little did I know I had chosen Playboy magazines’ latest first place choice for the national Small College Party School, dominated by dime pitchers, bucket night, Coors (not sold east of the Mississippi), pool tables and foosball, and Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May.”

This is my story, the one so many of my high school and community college English students inquired about for so many years, when they asked, “Why Kansas Gray?” Bruce Springsteen even asked me, “Why Kansas, Gray?” As if I had been a nut for leaving Virginia, they would ask, “But don’t they have the ocean and the mountains?” And, so, I had to answer with whatever sounded good but for the most part, skirting the truth. Perhaps the book should have been titled, Why Kansas? Or simply To Kansas.

Against the odds, I became an English teacher, journalist and columnist. Not bad for a shy, asthmatic kid, who hated school and English classes for so many years. Not bad at all. I invite you to read my story.

When working on the original manuscript as my thesis for a degree in creative nonfiction through the McGregor School of Antioch University, I read hundreds of memoirs and autobiographies. Those writers I attempted to model before developing my own style included but were not limited to Isabel Allendi, Tobias Wolfe, Frank Conroy, Anatole Broyard, Frank McCourt, Quinten Crisp, Blanche McCrary Boyd, Bill Roorbach, Hope Edelman, and Rick Bragg.

This book is not for anyone who dislikes off-color language and intimate situations, but I could not recreate the main character, Kevin, nor could I call this memoir and social reflection without the sounds and feel of the times. I sometimes refer to the narrative and dialog as “bar speak.” It can be stilted and quick chatter, much like people speak in bars. I spent time, lots of it in bars and loud clubs. The drinking age was 18, and so I spent time where bands could be found.

Check out my publisher’s website at worldaudience.org or go directly to amazon.com. Or visit the AuthorsDen website. Better yet, check out my website, soon to publish, at onthestrand.org.

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

Second Phase of Natural Resources Canada Libraries Now Live on Evergreen

Wed, 03/03/2010 - 15:22

Second Phase of Natural Resources Canada Libraries Now Live on Evergreen
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Norcross, GA –March 3, 2010

Natural Resources Canada Library (NRCan), has gone live with the second phase of their migration to Evergreen, the consortial open-source library automation software. Equinox Software Inc., the support and development company for Evergreen, oversaw the migration and is providing ongoing 24/7 technical support. This new set of libraries joins those from the first phase of migrations which was completed over the summer. The NRCan Libraries, which had been using two separate integrated library systems, opted to migrate in phased deployments. There are now approximately 500,000 bibliographic records on the new combined catalog.
With thirteen government libraries located across the country, NRCan seeks to enhance the responsible development and use of Canada’s natural resource through their goal of shared service initiatives between the government’s IT staff, agency departments, and outside vendor partnerships.
According to George Duimovich, Manager of Library Applications for NRCan, “Evergreen is particularly well suited to the government library context. There are a number of 'shared services' initiatives in government IT, and being on the Evergreen platform has definite advantages for libraries which need flexibility and unrestricted partnership possibilities. At a time when the role of government libraries is being re-examined, we're able to maintain a level of innovation and change in tune with the circumstances, engaging both internal IT resources as well as independent, competitively sourced vendor support when required.”

Brad LaJeunesse, CEO of Equinox, says “Government libraries have unique challenges and needs when considering an ILS. The flexibility of Evergreen made it an ideal choice for NRCan and the added convenience of now having all libraries running on the same system will be a huge benefit.”

About Evergreen
Evergreen is a robust, highly scalable, open-source integrated library system best known for its unique ability to meet the needs of very large, high-transaction, multi-site consortia.
Since its debut in September 2006, the software has sustained the 270-plus libraries of the Georgia PINES consortium. Evergreen has earned acclaim and praise from users worldwide, including a Technology Collaboration Award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Evergreen now supports over 500 libraries of every type-public, academic, special, and school media centers. Evergreen’s rapidly expanding community is now known to power live installations in 5 countries including 10 U.S. states and 4 Canadian provinces.
For more information about Evergreen, including a list of all known Evergreen installations, see http://evergreen-ils.org.

About Equinox Software, Inc.
Founded by the original Evergreen designers and developers, Equinox Software is a growing team of skilled professionals who provide services for Evergreen and Koha. These services include software development, consulting, legacy data migration, 24x7 technical support, and system hosting. Equinox also engages and supports a rapidly expanding open source community.

For more information on Equinox Software, please visit http://www.esilibrary.com.

Press contact: Corinne Hall, corinne@esilibrary.com, 678-269-6113
Evergreen and Koha are open source software, freely licensed under the GNU GPL. Evergreen and the Evergreen logo are trademarks of the Georgia Public Library Service.

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

Acton Public Library Partners with ByWater Solutions for Koha Implementation

Tue, 03/02/2010 - 17:35

March 2, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
staff@bywatersolutions.com

Acton Public Library Partners with ByWater Solutions for Koha Implementation

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and official Koha support company, announced today that Acton Public Library, of Old Saybrook, CT. has partnered with them for the installation and support of the community version of the Koha integrated library system.

Jan Crosier, director of the Acton Public Library, commented on their decision to switch to Koha from their previous Destiny system;

Jan stated: “It is great to be treated as a public library and not have to fit our needs to that of an academic program.”

Brendan Gallagher, CEO of ByWater stated; “We are thrilled with our new partnership with the Acton Public Library, and that we are able to deliver Koha to their staff and patrons so that they may benefit from an ILS that works for them.”

Acton Public Library serves a population of 11,000 residents, and is made up of over 70,000 records.

About Acton Public Library:
The mission of the Acton Public Library is to serve the Old Saybrook community as an information resource center providing education, cultural, and civic programs and materials through diverse media. A major highlight of the Library is the 25' long and 5' high ceramic tile mural, Tides of Time, that depicts the history of Old Saybrook. The tile depicts Thomas Acton and the 40 Old Boston Post Road library. Town residents donated the tiles in this wall in celebration of their community heritage.

About Koha:

Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha's impressive feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. It includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more.

Koha’s OPAC, circ, management and self-checkout interfaces are all based on standards-compliant World Wide Web technologies--XHTML, CSS and Javascript--making Koha a truly platform-independent solution. Koha is distributed under the open-source General Public License (GPL). For more information about Koha, please visit
www.koha-community.org

About ByWater Solutions:
With over 10 years of experience, ByWater Solutions offers customized hosting, data migration, configuration, installation, training, support options and development of enterprise class open-source library systems. Offering a 24/7 technical helpline, ByWater Solutions’ clients have the support system they need to make their software work for them. ByWater Solutions pledges to share 100% of all developed code to the Koha community for the strengthening and advancement of the Koha ILS. For more information about ByWater Solutions, please visit: www.bywatersolutions.com

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

Tech Logic announces second-generation Personal Payment System

Tue, 03/02/2010 - 14:49

WHITE BEAR LAKE, Minn. (Mar. 2, 2010) – Tech Logic has released its second-generation Personal Payment System. The improved design boasts a more compact footprint, reducing the product’s overall size by almost 25 percent. The new design will be revealed to librarians at the upcoming Public Library Association Conference in Portland, Oregon, March 24-26, 2010.

The Personal Payment System (PPS), originally deployed in 2005, enables library patrons to pay fines and fees during checkout using a variety of methods. Updated features include a six-tube coin collector that accepts dimes, nickels, quarters, and dollar coins. The PPS also has a credit card swipe and bill validator. The Personal Payment System was the first of its kind to allow patrons to pay for fines using cash during their checkout procedure.

The unit’s large-capacity receipt printer now utilizes a USB connection, and the improved PPS now employs a Honeywell Imager to read Patron Cards.

The PPS provides easy access to its large-capacity receipt printer and coin collector. Two locks on top open the unit and hydraulic struts slowly and automatically lift it above the countertop, allowing an operator to change receipt paper or empty the coin collector while working at a comfortable, ergonomic height.

The Personal Payment System can be flush-mounted and easily integrated into any library checkout counter, and it is compatible with all of Tech Logic’s software, including CircIT 2010. Contact Tech Logic today for more information on adding the second-generation PPS to your library system.

About Tech Logic

Tech Logic is the leading provider of innovative Automated Sorting Technologies (AST), circulation staff support tools, and patron self services for libraries. Tech Logic offers unequalled expertise, dedication to quality, and world-class customer support services.

Tech Logic provides barcode and RFID check-in and checkout systems, material return drops, AST systems, inter-library distribution systems, and patron reserve systems. Tech Logic designs, manufactures, delivers, installs, maintains, and services all of its systems

For more information, please contact Gary W. Kirk at gwkirk@tech-logic.com, 800.494.9330, or visit www.tech-logic.com

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

LAC announces its certification as a women’s business enterprise through the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).

Mon, 03/01/2010 - 21:12

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Erin Beekhuis
(323) 852-1083
erin@libraryassociates.com

Los Angeles, CA – March 1, 2010 – Library Associates Companies (LAC), today announced their national certification as a Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women’s Business Enterprise Council – West (WBEC - West), a regional certifying partner of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).

"As a certified Women’s Business Enterprise, we join a community committed to promoting diversity and increasing the visibility of women-owned businesses with leading organizations,” states company founder and CEO Deborah Schwarz. “We are proud to be officially recognized as part of this movement and look forward to actively pursuing the opportunities provided by this leading certification.”

WBENC is the nation’s largest third party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women in the US. WBENC’s national standard of certification is a meticulous process including an in-depth review of the business and site inspection. The certification process is designed to confirm the business is at least 51% owned, operated and controlled by a woman or women.

By including women-owned businesses among their vendors, corporations and government agencies demonstrate their commitment to fostering diversity and the continued development of their supplier/vendor diversity programs.

About LAC
Library Associates Companies (LAC) is a premier provider of consulting, executive search, recruiting, staffing, and project management services within the information, knowledge, intelligence, library and research fields. Their clients range from government agencies and public institutions to Fortune 500 corporations, law firms, pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, media organizations, academic institutions, and nonprofit organizations. In its 23 years of business, LAC has expanded into a full-service information company with a staff of over 200 employees and growing. Providing services nationwide, LAC has office locations in California, Colorado, Illinois, and Maryland. For more information visit LibraryAssociates.com.

About WBENC
The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council is the nation’s largest third party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women in the United States. WBENC is a resource for the more than 700 US companies and government agencies that rely on WBENC’s certification as an integral part of their supplier diversity programs.

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

Learning Round Table Announces New Logo

Fri, 02/26/2010 - 17:33

CHICAGO, Feb. 25, 2010 – The Learning Round Table of the American Library Association unveiled a new logo on the Web site http://alalearning.org.

The new logo contains a vibrant palette of colors including purple, blue, orange and green. The abstract design has many different meanings and the public is encouraged to comment on the ALA Learning site and describe what the design represents to them.

The logo was designed by Jennifer Palmer a graphic designer and illustrator based in northern California. Palmer, a former senior production designer for American Libraries Magazine and Booklist publications, said, “I designed the logo to convey a feeling of professionalism, diversity, quality, and forward thinking while embracing the fun and welcoming spirit of the Learning Round Table members and leadership.”

Learning Round Table president, Pat Carterette, said that, “The new logo marks the culmination of a project that has been in the works for over a year to rebrand the Learning Round Table.”

The Learning Round Table officially changed its name from the Continuing Library Education Network and Exchange Round Table last summer at the ALA annual conference in Chicago.

To learn more about logo designer Jennifer Palmer, visit http://wondergus.com.

The Learning Round Table of the American Library Association promotes quality continuing education for all library employees. The Learning Round Table helps members network with other continuing education providers, is a source for continuing education opportunities, and advocates for quality continuing education in libraries. For more information or to join the Learning Round Table visit http://alalearning.org.

For more information please contact:
Lori Reed
Marketing & Communications Chair
Learning Round Table
(704) 416-0454
webmaster@alalearning.org

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

Delaware Libraries Support Environmental Education

Thu, 02/25/2010 - 15:46

The Delaware Association of Environmental Education’s Child in the Wild conference will take place on Saturday, February 27th at the historic Blue Ball Barn. The conference is for both formal and non-formal educators, and will present tools and case studies on introducing environmental concepts into classroom education...a program entitled "No Child Left Inside".

The Delaware Library Catalog libraries can offer a tremendous range of resources for parents on educators on this topic, including curriculum guides for all grades, primers and readers, and audiovisual material. Click on the link to read the full article and view library resources which support environmental education in the curriculum: The State of Delaware Division of Libraries.

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

EBSCO Publishing and ULAKBİM Agreement Brings Additional Turkish Resources to EBSCOhost®

Thu, 02/25/2010 - 13:42

~ Renowned Collection of Turkish Databases Now Available via EBSCOhost® ~

IPSWICH, Mass. — February 25, 2010 — EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO) has expanded EBSCOhost® access in Turkey to comprehensive indexing of nearly all of Turkey’s prominent scholarly journals. EBSCO and ULAKBİM, the Turkish Academic Network and Information Centre, have signed an agreement enabling Turkish subscribers to access ULAKBİM Turkish National Databases collection via the EBSCOhost platform.

The agreement allows for the collection of databases produced by ULAKBİM, to be loaded onto the EBSCOhost platform. By using a single interface, researchers are able to search articles in Turkish scientific journals rapidly and efficiently. The collection includes four databases and sites have the ability to search any one, or a combination, of the four databases via the Advance Search feature in EBSCOhost.

ULAKBİM Turkish National Databases
• Turkish Medical Database—health sciences journals published in Turkey
• Turkish Social Sciences Database—18 fields of study related to Social Studies
• Turkish Life Sciences Database—journals in the fields of agriculture, veterinary and biological sciences
• Turkish Engineering & Basic Sciences Database—journals in the fields of basic & applied sciences and engineering

Although the databases consist primarily of Turkish-language journals, there are citations for more than 20,000 English-language articles as well as bilingual indexing for all the bibliographic records. The databases support SmartLinking and offer links to ULAKBİM’s full text.

About EBSCO Publishing
EBSCO Publishing is the world’s premier database aggregator, offering a suite of nearly 300 full-text and secondary research databases. Through a library of tens of thousands of full-text journals, magazines, books, monographs, reports and various other publication types from renowned publishers, EBSCO serves the content needs of all researchers (Academic, Medical, K-12, Public Library, Corporate, Government, etc.). The company’s product lines include proprietary databases such as Academic Search™, Business Source®, CINAHL®, DynaMed™, Literary Reference Center™, MasterFILE™, NoveList®, SocINDEX™ and SPORTDiscus™ as well as dozens of leading licensed databases such as ATLA Religion Database™, EconLit, INSPEC®, MEDLINE®, MLA International Bibliography, The Philosopher’s Index™, PsycARTICLES® and PsycINFO®. Databases are powered by EBSCOhost®, the most-used for-fee electronic resource in libraries around the world.

EBSCO is the provider of EBSCO Discovery Service™ a core collection of locally-indexed metadata creating a unified index of an institution’s resources within a single, customizable search point providing everything the researcher needs in one place—fast, simple access to the library’s full text content, deeper indexing and more full-text searching of more journals and magazines than and other discovery service (www.ebscohost.com/discovery). For more information, visit the EBSCO Publishing Web site at: www.ebscohost.com, or contact: information@ebscohost.com. EBSCO Publishing is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., one of the largest privately held companies in the United States.
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For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Public Relations Manager
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebscohost.com

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

100 state agencies and non-profits cooperate to serve Delawareans in need

Thu, 02/25/2010 - 11:53

Delaware's Governor Jack Markell praised the work of public libraries and the state's Division of Libraries in serving as a linchpin to bring together agencies that normally do not work together in the Division of Libraries' innovative Community Resources Exchange program, in which social service agencies, non-profit organizations and libraries work together to maximize their resources and reach those in need.

"The brilliance of this program may be its simplicity", said Governor Markell to the representatives from organizations across the state who met together on February 23rd to hear about each others programs, network, and share resources- often using public libraries as a central point for public programming, services, and information distribution.

You can view the full press release about the event either at http://state.lib.de.us/news-links/CRERelease.doc (.doc format) or http://embedit.in/DkXOMH2HxK online.

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

Registration Now Open for Digital Preservation for Digital Collaboratives!

Wed, 02/24/2010 - 19:15

BCR, LYRASIS and OCLC are proud to present a new workshop, Digital Preservation for Digital Collaboratives, designed to help digital collaboratives with existing digital collections develop and implement a long-term preservation option. 

The workshop, designed for multiple representatives from a collaborative, will provide the information and tools the collaborative needs to develop a long-term preservation plan that will work for its unique collections and organizations.

Register now for the April workshop: http://www.bcr.org/training/workshops/register.html

April 13, 14 and 16 from 1-3pm ET:  Three webinars will address the following topics:

  • Introduction to the Digital Preservation Landscape 
  • Digital Preservation Standards
  • Sustaining the Digital Investment: Developing a Digital Preservation Program
  • Developing Preservation Policies for Collaboratives

April 28-29 at LYRASIS—Philadelphia:  Two full-day sessions will address the following topics:

  • Elements of TRAC
  • Using TRAC in Planning and Assessment
  • Technology and Technical Infrastructure

Faculty and program staff will host monthly follow-up activities, including webinars, to assist collaboratives in completing their preservation plans.

The workshop will be taught by a faculty of digital preservation experts:

Liz Bishoff, Director of Digital & Preservation Services, BCR
Priscilla Caplan, Assistant Director for Digital Library Services, Florida Center for Library Automation
Tom Clareson, Senior Consultant for New Initiatives, LYRASIS
Robin Dale, Director of Digital Services, LYRASIS
Katherine Skinner, Executive Director, Educopia Institute and Program Manager, MetaArchive Cooperative

Cost is $150 per individual registration and $125 per member of a registered collaborative team.

For more information, please visit: http://www.bcr.org/dps/training/neh-dpdc.html

Questions? Contact Holly South: hsouth@bcr.org

Partial funding for this workshop is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

Newest ALA Affiliate: The Association of Jewish Libraries

Wed, 02/24/2010 - 11:55

For immediate release
For more info contact Heidi Estrin
pr@jewishlibraries.org

ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH LIBRARIES ANNOUNCES AFFILIATION WITH AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

The Association of Jewish Libraries has become an affiliate of the American Library Association as of January, 2010. Among ALA's twenty-eight affiliate organizations, there are a number that, like AJL, represent religious or ethnic library services, including the American Indian Library Association, the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association, the Catholic Library Association, the Black Caucus of ALA, and the Chinese American Librarians Association.

AJL was welcomed into the fold with a warm “Congratulations!” by ALA’s Alicia Bastl, liaison for affiliates. "AJL's mission is to support Judaic libraries and promote Jewish literacy. ALA wants to do the same for American libraries. Our goals overlap and reinforce each other. We hope that this new affiliation will help AJL grow and strengthen even as it helps ALA diversify,” said Susan Dubin, AJL President. “This is a great opportunity for us to educate the library world about AJL and its many activities."

Affiliates enjoy representation at ALA conferences and in ALA print and online publications. Benefits of membership began immediately for AJL, when the winners of its 2010 Sydney Taylor Book Award were announced on the ALA website alongside their other children's literary prizes such as the Newbery and Caldecott medals.

The Association of Jewish Libraries, established in 1966, has over 1,000 members worldwide. AJL promotes Jewish literacy through enhancement of libraries and library resources and through leadership for the profession and practitioners of Judaica librarianship. Visit the AJL website at www.jewishlibraries.org, and visit http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/affiliates/affiliates/AJL.cfm to see AJL’s presence on ALA’s website.

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Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases

Oregon Library Association vote to leave Pacific NW Library Assn

Tue, 02/23/2010 - 14:05

The Pacific Northwest Library Association, covering two provinces and four states in the Northwest, is one of the few cross-border library associations. We just celebrated our centennial in August 2009 in Missoula, Montana, with 200 attendees from our membership and affiliated associations in British Columbia, Alberta, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Alaska.

In October 2009 we learned that the Oregon Library Association voted to dissolve its ties with our group. This was quite a shock to us as we are a strong organization, with a well regarded leadership institute, children's book award, and annual conference. Our financials are in excellent shape and we are on track to last at least another hundred years.

We had spent the spring and summer of 2009 engaged in strategic planning to best chart the course for our future and apparently information got miscommunicated to OLA, as their departure letter to us said they were worried about our financial status and continued existence, and in any case they could no longer continue to afford to affiliate with us. They stated their costs to affiliate as approximately $5000 annually, which came as a surprise to us.

I have asked the other member states and provinces to estimate their annual costs to affiliate over the past five to ten years, and the amounts are in the vicinity of $2500 at the very most. This includes support for at least one professional from their state or province to attend our leadership institute, and support for a representative from their state or province to attend our biannual board meetings and yearly conference. We pick up the costs for representatives at one board meeting and subsidize the leadership institute for attendees and also mentors selected from each state and province. Costs for the children's book award are also covered by us.

We are happy to work with states or provinces who have difficulties with this financial commitment. Recently British Columbia decided they could no longer afford to send their representative to our board meetings, so we have successfully used Skype to connect her with us. We have, over the past two years, also given back to our provincial and state associations' conferences with a $500 sponsorship for a session or event for each conference.

Recently we learned that OLA will have to hold a membership vote in March to officially cut their ties with us. It is our concern that their membership is not well informed about OLA's decision to leave PNLA--both in the sense that the reasons given were not accurate and that the membership in general was not fully informed about OLA's departure. We in PNLA have decided to reach out to the library media to share the information we have regarding OLA's decision to cut ties, and to assure the Oregon library community that we want to continue our relationship, dating back to the inception of PNLA 100 years ago. We would like to urge the library workers of Oregon and the members of OLA to vote no on the decision to end ties with PNLA but instead explore ways of working through OLA's tough financial times.

For more information please see:

http://www.olaweb.org/mc/page.do?sitePageId=99073&orgId=ola. OLA's letter to PNLA
http://www.pnla.org/officers/OLAresponse09.doc PNLA's response

Categories: LISWire - Latest Releases