EXCITE Cohort 2 - Cranston, Rhode Island

CSL/DLD and Innovation builders kicked off EXCITE Transformation for Libraries Cohort 2 at the Cranston Public Library in Rhode Island. A big shout out to Ed Garcia and Julie Holden along with the entire Cranston staff who welcomed us into their library. Our six teams, Baltimore County Library, Towson MD; Bryant University, Douglas and Judith Krupp Library, Smithfield RI; Cranston Public Library, Cranston, RI; East Hartford Public Library, East Hartford, CT; University of Massachusetts Medical School Lamar Souter Library, Worcester, MA; and the Westerly Public Library, Westerly, RI gathered for the first of 3 3 day sessions that along with fieldwork, coaching and mentoring sessions; and project development and implementation will take place over the course of the year long program. The Bootcamp Session was the first of the 3 sessions in which teams were immersed in an intensive and exciting program learning the core 21 ^st Century Librarian Leadership skills of collaboration, innovation, design-thinking and entrepreneurship that will help the teams begin to transform their libraries. The level of energy, creativity and esprit de corps that each of the Cohort 2 teams exhibited during the Bootcamp session reinforced the value of the program. While exhausted, the teams showed up each and every day and got down in the weeds of interactive collaborative learning, business model canvas, iteration, motivational segments, and human-centered research methods to name a few. The teams are now back in their home libraries working on their fieldwork. We look forward to seeing the progress our teams have made when we re-group in November for Session 2.

More LSTA Grant Info Sessions Added!

All potential LSTA grant applicants must attend an information session about the assessment and planning tools available from the CT State Library as well as grant application instructions, regulations, and fiscal management. Register for the session of your preference at http://cslib.libcal.com/ .

Applications for LSTA Planning Grants will be accepted on a rolling basis every two months, with the next deadlines at the end of October and December. These six-month planning grants will provide up to $5,000 to assist libraries with planning initiatives to explore new services, assess and address the needs of changing population and patron bases, develop partnerships and collaboration, or write new strategic plans or long-range master plans.

Applications for LSTA Literacy Grants will be due in April 2019. These one-year literacy grants will provide up to $7,500 to assist libraries with creating strategic, sustainable partnerships and lifelong learning programs that address the seven literacies in their communities. The seven literacies are described in the Division's 2018-2022 LSTA Five-Year Plan as basic, early, civic/social, digital/information, financial, health, and legal literacy.

More information, including the grant instructions and application, is online at http://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/dld/lstagrants/grantapplication .  

E-rate Letters of Agency due to CSL by October 15

If your library is interested in receiving federal E-rate funding to help pay for internet access from CEN for the period July 2019-June 2020, be sure to submit a Letter of Agency to Maria Bernier, E-rate Coordinator, at maria.bernier@ct.gov , by October 15 . A template for the Letter of Agency is online at https://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/dld/erate/isp , in the box titled “Documents for member libraries.” In much of Connecticut, E-rate discounts are 50% or higher, leading to significant savings.

Please note: Libraries that accept E-rate funding for internet service must be CIPA compliant, including filtering, or working to achieve CIPA compliance within the year.

Annual Report of Connecticut Public Libraries

Information on completing the 2018 Annual Report to the State Library was e-mailed to all public library directors in July. The Annual Report is critical for state and national data gathering on public libraries.

 

Libraries will again be using an Excel report form (an .xlsx file) which you will fill out and then send back to me. See the Annual Report webpage http://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/dld/stats/annreport for:

•                    A printable list of the questions on the report form

•                    An instruction sheet

•                    The report form itself (to download when you are ready to complete it)

There are almost no changes from last year.

The firm DEADLINE for submission is 4 P.M. on November 15, 2018. Public libraries are required by statute CGS Sec. 11-25 (a) to submit an Annual Report in order to receive borrowIT payments, or other state appropriations.

Please contact Tom.Newman@ct.gov with questions. Thanks in advance to all those who will be assisting with the annual report.

News for Youth Services Staff

 

Children’s & Teen programs already scheduled and coming up in the fall and spring!

·         October 24, 2018 at the Wallingford Public Library: Everyone Included, Part 2: LGBTQIA+ Books & Services for Children & Teens. Keynote speaker is Robin McHaelen, Executive Director at True Colors, Inc.

·         November 30, 2018: Storytime 101 with Allison Murphy of Wallingford Public Library. This program is designed to be a running start for professional and para-professional library staff new to storytimes.

·         May 9-10, 2019: Early Childhood Literacy Consultant, Saroj Ghoting is back! On May 9, she will do her StarPower program, followed by Supercharging Your Storytimes the next day. One or both may be attended.

And don’t forget the CLA Children’s and Young Adult Annual Meetings, respectively on October 5 and November 14!

Training Webinars

 

DPLA and LYRASIS hosted three training webinars for eGO partners in late August. The webinars demonstrated functioning of DPLA's Content Exchange for library eBook acquisitions, the Library Simplified Circulation Managers LYRASIS is hosting for eGO, and functions of the SimplyE app that will give eGO users access to their own libraries' eBooks and the statewide Content Exchange collection, all from a single, simple user interface. All of the webinars included the same content, and two of the three were recorded for future viewing by Connecticut librarians. For links to the two recorded webinars, contact Eric.A.Hansen@ct.gov or call 860-704-2224.

 

Library Progress

 

At this writing all 119 regional library system public libraries have been successfully installed in the three system circulation managers. eGO is now moving ahead with configuration planning for the Ferguson Library, Hartford Public Library, New Haven Free Public Library, and the approximately 30 public libraries in Connecticut that are on the VERSO ILS system.

 

AWS Platform

 

Because LYRASIS is successfully hosting eGO circulation managers the State Library Amazon Web Services (AWS) was terminated in July, with final payment made in late August.

 

EBSCO Database Training Webinars in October

 

NOTE: Registration is required. Links below are shortened for convenience; the original links appear in the State Library Continuing Education Calendar .

 

 

Databases and Interfaces for Elementary School Libraries

This training session will cover researchIT CT resources available for Elementary School Libraries, including resources for the youngest users. We will primarily focus in Explora, but also discuss lesson plans, Common Core alignment, and other EBSCO resources available for teachers and librarians.

 

Tuesday, October 9 from 4:00 – 5:00 pm

https://is.gd/GaE0vy

 

Monday, October 22 from 4:00 – 5:00 pm

https://is.gd/L5ywp4

 

 

Databases and Interfaces for Secondary School Libraries

This training session will focus on individual EBSCOhost databases provided by researchIT CT that are most relevant to Secondary School Libraries. We will cover basic and advanced searching in OneSearch, along with specific interfaces, including Explora for Schools, Science Reference Center, Biography Reference Center, History Reference Center, and more.

 

Monday, October 15 from 4:00 – 5:00 pm

https://is.gd/h0q87y

 

Tuesday, October 30 from 4:00 – 5:00 pm

https://is.gd/10ShIJ

Contact Judy Crooks judy.crooks@ct.gov if you are interested in borrowing any of these titles.

For more new books at MLSC , visit https://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/dld/professional

MLSC Hours – October 2018

The Service Center will be closed Monday, October 8 in observance of Columbus Day.

A reminder that in addition to 8 am to 4:30 pm, Monday to Friday, the Middletown Library Service Center’s hours for October include:



Thursday, October 4: Open 8 am to 8 pm

Saturday, October 13*: Open 9 am to noon

(*This is the second Saturday, instead of our usual first Saturday of the month)

Questions?

Contact us at 860-704-2200, our main phone number.

Contact Linda Williams ( Linda.Williams@ct.gov ) for specific theme/grade level requests.

Contact Grace Burchard ( grace.burchard@ct.gov ) to reserve book sets.

Contact Grace or Judy Crooks ( judy.crooks@ct.gov ) to pull general selections of children’s books or

Books on CD in advance of your visit.