Computers in Libraries Reduced Rate Through Nylink

Nylink has arranged with Information Today, Inc., to offer our members reduced rates to the Computer in Libraries 2007 conference. All libraries in New York state and all Nylink members will receive the special rate of $199.00 for the 3-day event. That is more than a 50% savings off the regular conference registration cost of $429.00.

In addition, you can register for both Computers in Libraries and Internet@Schools East for the special rate of $199.00. Or pay the reduced price of $99.00 for just Internet@Schools East. There are no discounts available for any pre or post conference workshops or daily rates. Visit the Computers in Libraries 2007 conference page on Information Today, Inc.’s web site ( http://www.infotoday.com/cil2007/) for full conference program information.

Visit the NYLINK web page for more details!

ACRL/NY Events and Jobs

The Association of Colleges and Research Libraries of the Greater New York Metropolitan Area Chapter just announced a new blog that will maintain their events and job listings. This is actually replacing their listserv. Here is the full announcement:

ACRL/NY Events and Jobs Blog Replaces ACRLNY-L Listserv

ACRLNY-L will be discontinued February 2, 2007 in listserv format and will be moving to a new blog format. The blog, ACRL/NY Events and Jobs, is located at http://acrlny.blogspot.com. The blog is hosted by the Greater New York Metropolitan Area Chapter, Association of College and Research Libraries or ACRL/NY. Brian Lym (Hunter College), Ann Grafstein (Hofstra University) and Monica Berger (NYC College of Technology) maintain this blog. Like ACRLNY-L, it is for announcements, not discussion. We will post only events and jobs that are related to academic and research libraries.

Subscribing: You have a choice of RSS subscription (look for the orange RSS button) or subscription by email. To subscribe by email, scroll down the right-hand column, below the index and RSS feed button. There is a form where you can enter your email address. You will receive postings once a day if you subscribe by email.

Submitting events and jobs: Submit events and jobs to acrlny@gmail.com.

Great new features of the blog: ACRL/NY Events and Jobs offers:

1. Browsing by category or geographical location *Search bar located in the navigation bar at the top of the page *Permanent and concise archives (All postings to ACRLNY-L after Oct. 25, 2006 are archived on the blog)
2. Links to websites listing other events.
3. Lisjobs.com library job postings feed directly into the bottom-most part of the blog

Thanks to ACRLNY-L moderators: Special thanks to Emily McElroy, the current listserv moderator, as well as our previous moderators, Nadaleen Tempelman-Kluit, and Gloria Rohmann, all of NYU.

For more information on ACRL/NY, visit our website at http://www.acrlny.org.

I will list the blog on the right, and show the feed as well.

Creating a Social OPAC

John Blyberg is a systems administrator and lead developer for the Ann Arbor District Library. I first found out about him when he announced his very cool Virtual Card Catalog. He just announced that he has implemented a Social Online Public Access Catalog (SOPAC).

It only took a year, but I finally got permission to go ahead with implementing what I’ve dubbed “The SOPAC” here at AADL. That would be “cute-speak” for Social OPAC. The SOPAC represents a slew of features that I’ve wanted to implement for quite some time now. I’m rather excited to see if library users will respond to these tools in an OPAC setting as much as Web 2.0 users have to commercial social networking sites. I’m fairly confident they will. Mainly, I’m relieved that I no longer need to talk conceptually about features I’ve been planning to build on top of the catalog.

So what is the SOPAC? It’s basically a set of social networking tools integrated into the AADL catalog. It gives users the ability to rate, review, comment-on, and tag items. The concept is nothing new, but the nature of our systems do not yield readily to this kind of retrofitting–something I plan to really start tackling in earnest, but that’s a topic for another post.

Check out the rest of his post for images, as well as a video cast of his explaination of the AADL SOPAC.

Amazon.com “Wish for Lit” Contest

Amazon.com is pleased to introduce the “Wish for Lit” contest, where we will give over $20,000 in Amazon.com products to 3 winning libraries in the United States.

One library will be selected in each of the three categories: K-12, Academic, and Public. Each winning library will receive a $5,000 gift certificate for Amazon.com products, as well as up to $2,000 of Amazon.com products that are on the library’s Amazon.com Wish List. To apply, simply create a Library Wish List and fill out the form below by February 16th, 2007. The three winners will be selected by a panel of 5 judges selected by the American Library Association Chapter Relations Committee. The winners will be announced on April 6th, on the Amazon Librarians’ Store web site.

I came across this at LibrarianInBlack blog.

New Tools for Connecting Staff and Patrons: Social Networking

Date and Location:
Friday, February 23, 2007
9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Registration:
$30/SCRLC members;
$35/non-members
Location:
Broome County Public Library,
Decker Community Room
Binghamton, NY

Audience: Library Management and Staff in all types of libraries interested in improving communication between staff and patrons

How do you do network and connect with patrons, suppliers, and staff? Are you doing it the same way that you did 5 – 10 years ago? If you are, then you are missing out on using new business tools for connecting in often unexpected and positive ways. The tools include blogs, online business networks, virtual collaboration spaces, and other social networking software. These tools allow us to virtually what we used to do face-to-face.

Instructor: Jill Ann Hurst-Wahl, Hurst Associates, Ltd.
president of Hurst Associates, Ltd. (www.HurstAssociates.com) and an information consultant with more than 20 years of business experience. She consults in the areas of competitive intelligence research, digitization planning, and the use of social networking tools. Since 2004, Hurst-Wahl has been expanding her use of social network software in order to connect to and network with more clients and colleagues.

Find out more at the SCRLC site. 

Call for SMART Bloggers

If you are interested in participating in the NYLA SMART blog, send me, Ken Fujiuchi, an E-mail at fujiuck@buffalostate.edu.

All McGyver ever needs…

A little humor once in a while never hurt. I think I will have to start a new category for some SMART humor, to lighten things up a bit at this blog.

Originally from Neotorama.

So what would be the only tool a SMARTie would ever need?

A New Year, A New Look

If you’ve been keeping track of this blog, you may have noticed the new look. The change was mostly for getting an extra column for more information and links.

Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Five-Year Plan Available for Comment

A draft of New York State’s proposed new Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Five-Year Plan is now posted on the State Library’s website at http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/lsta/plan0712.htm for public review and comment. The State Library encourages comments from the library community, interested stakeholders, and the general public on the content of the draft.

Please send comments, questions, and suggestions by e-mail to IMLSNYSL@mail.nysed.gov. The comment period will end on Monday, January 29, 2007.