There is a new page on our website called “Events.” There, you will find handouts from the book talks from Book Fair 2012. In addition, there are resources from Necessary Knowledge 2011.
Watch this location for handouts for future events!
Summer Reading 2014
I know you may be thinking of Summer Reading that is right around the corner. However, there are those in library land that are thinking about Summer Reading 2014!! The general theme for 2014 is Science. Drum roll please. The slogans are:
FIZZ, BOOM READ (Children)
Spark a Reaction (Teen)
Literary Elements (Adult)
Also chosen at the Collaborative Summer Library Program annual meeting was the general theme for summer 2015: Heroes.
William Allen White Voting Now Underway
This message from Beverley Olson Buller, William Allen White Chair, was posted to KANLIB a few days ago. The online vote reporting survey is now operational on the WAW Awards program page. Children may also vote at their local public library. Voting procedures, further information, ballots, and tally sheets may be found on the William Allen White website. You have until April 16 to enter your votes, but they will shut down the voting by after school, so enter them earlier in the day to avoid any problems. Mark your calendars for October 6 for the 60th anniversary celebration of the White Awards in Emporia.
Flickr Four by Four
“There are four Flickr rules and four ways to use Flickr” says Donna F. Ekart, Librarian and the Communications Coordinator for K-State Libraries at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. As we are now, more than ever, needing to connect libraries with their communities, her third strategy is ” Flickr as community collection.”
Introduction
“A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.”-Charles Baudelaire
Megan at work.
Hello NCKL,
My Name is Megan Gunther, and I’m the new Assistant Technology Consultant here at the NCKL, I thought I would use this post to say hello, tell you what I’ll be doing, and little about myself. Richard and I have already made several trips to libraries and I hope to be meeting everyone in the next few months!
I’ll be here to answer any technical questions you may have. I will be assisting Richard in the day to day operation of the technology for the NCKL. We have already set up several new computers for Frankfort, Hillsboro, Wakefield, and we are currently working on new catalog machines for Wamego. I hope to be as much help to Richard and the other libraries as I can be. At some point Richard and I will be going out to libraries separately so our hope is that it will take less time to get computers repaired and any issues fixed. To get in contact with me call me at ext. 188 or meggun@nckl.info.
Now, to tell you a little about myself, I just graduated from Manhattan Area Technical College with an Associates of Applied Science in Network Information Technology. Before that I had worked as a Customer Service Representative for a cell phone company. It was a good job, but nothing compared to what I am doing now! I was born and raised in Denver Colorado until I was 17. At that point my parents and I moved to Salina, Kansas. I have a love for reading and Technology. If it’s new and shiny I want it! The most recent book I finished was The Passage by Justin Cronin, It was an amazing book, and I’m impatiently waiting for the next instillation!
READ ACROSS AMERICA
Each year, the National Educators Association sponsors Read Across America. This awareness program calls for every child to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of children’s author Dr. Seuss. This year the theme is green and the spotlight will be on the book, The Lorax. March 2 is also the day the movie, The Lorax will open nationwide. So bring out the books, bake the cake, and light the candles! For more information and how your library can participate, go to NEA’s website at http://www.nea.org/grants/886.htm.
Reading is Not Optional
Author, Walter Dean Myers, was sworn-in yesterday as the nation’s third Ambassador for Young People’s Literature at the Library of Congress. His slogan for the two-year post is “Reading is Not Optional.” In an interview with David Greene from NPR, Myers stressed the importance of early literacy by saying, “Well, one of the things that I want to do is to get very, very young kids being read to; 3 months, 4months.” Congratulations to Ambassador Myers. Myers is the author of the award winning book, Monster.
Weighing in on the Future of Libraries
This article was posted to the “Shareable” blog by Cat Johnson.
There are a lot of libraries in the U.S., and all of them are different. Some are geared toward young people, some are community centers, some are on the cutting edge of the digital information revolution, and most of them are looking for ways to keep up with, or ahead of, the times. But as library systems evolve, library users’ needs evolve with them and every patron has their own idea of what their library should be.
How does one begin to address the needs of these different individuals? How do library systems determine the best path to take? Enter the Pew Research Internet and American Life Project. A branch of the Pew Research Center, a non-partisan, non-profit “fact tank,” the project provides information on “the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world.” When it comes to libraries, they want to know how libraries and library users’ needs and expectations are changing.
For the next three years, researchers will be gathering independent data through focus groups and surveys of library users in a variety of communities across the country. They will examine the changing habits of users regarding ebooks and reading devices, digital collections and mobile connectivity. They will also look at what library users (and non-users) want from their libraries in terms of physical offerings.
Funded by a 1.4 million dollar investment by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s library program, the study will “seek to inform, not to prescribe,” said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center. “It will provide facts to librarians, policymakers and the public to help them better understand how technology trends are shaping libraries and the communities they serve.”
Having a boundless sea of digital information available to us has put the spotlight on libraries, forcing them to figure out ways to get it into our hands. Library system have individually retooled their offerings and information-delivery methods, but this is an extraordinary opportunity for a nationwide, in-depth, data-driven study of the needs of library users in the digital age.
Get involved
Are you an ebook reading library patron? Are you a librarian? Researchers at the Pew Research Internet project may want to survey you. Email Rainie at lrainie [at] pewinternet [dot] org
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