Yes, it's 98 degrees outside...but trust us, Fall is just around the corner!

At NEFLIN, Fall = Annual Meeting. We're busy making plans for a great day of learning and networking, and we hope YOU are making your plans to join us! But keep this in mind...if this will be your FIRST Annual Meeting and you would like a pair of NEFLIN Shoes, you must register by July 28th!

Don't delay...register today.

Jenny Eason

[email protected]

Member Services Coordinator

The 2023 NEFLIN Annual Meeting will take place on Friday, September 15th, from 9:00 am – 3:30 pm, at UNF’s Adam W. Herbert University Center.  

The day’s agenda will include:

• Annual Reports from the NEFLIN Staff
• Keynote Presentation by Peter Bromberg
• Presentation of the 2023 NEFLIN Awards
• Announcement of NEFLIN’s upcoming projects
• Innovation Project reports from NEFLIN member libraries
• Silent Auction benefiting the Jim Morris Continuing Education Fund
• and more content for library staff throughout the day!



Cost to attend:  $45.00 (includes a catered lunch)

Please note: If this will be your first time to attend an in-person Annual Meeting, you are eligible to receive a pair of NEFLIN shoes! However, you must register by Friday July 28th to get your shoes. If you register after this date, even if it is your first in-person meeting, you will not be eligible to receive shoes.

Registration for all attendees will close on Friday, September 1st, unless the event reaches capacity before that date.

This year's iteration of the Florida Libraries Online conference was a smash! 192 folks joined us on June 15 for this day-long presentation produced by all five of Florida's MLCs (NEFLIN, PLAN, SEFLIN, SWFLN and TBLC). Dr. Michael Stephens started us off with an inspiring keynote, Wholehearted Libraries: Meeting the Needs of the Community. Our breakout session track was the Heart of Customer Service and featured presentations from Mary Canfield, Linda Bruno and Dr. Curtis Rogers. You can click on the preceding links for recordings of those sessions or visit the FLO website for all of the day's content. Keep an eye peeled for announcements on next year's edition!

Do you aspire to be a stronger and more effective leader?

If so, don't miss our upcoming workshop, "Leadership and Management Fundamentals", featuring Jay Turner of EduJay LLC. This will be an in-person event held on August 16th from 9:00 - 11:30 am at the Orange Park Branch Library in Clay County (very close to the NEFLIN office).

Jay will also be presenting "Getting Things Done" on the same day from 1:00 - 3:30 pm. Register for one or both workshops!

Wednesday, August 16th

1:00 - 3:30 PM

@ Clay County Public Library -

Orange Park Branch

This engaging workshop is designed to revolutionize your approach to productivity, using the proven "Getting Things Done" (GTD) method. Learn to increase focus on your most meaningful work, organize information, prioritize commitments, create mental space, and achieve stress-free productivity.

Whether you are frontline staff, a branch manager, the library director, or anything in between, this interactive workshop will provide you with practical tools to transform how you work and empower you to focus on the things that really matter.

We conducted our annual Continuing Education Survey in May. This year, 244 people responded to the survey. Thanks so much to all the participants! Your input will help guide us in creating our CE offerings for the coming fiscal year.

Based on survey responses, you should expect to see more offerings on Emerging Technologies (including AI), Customer Service, Leadership, and Information Literacy. We're also going to offer more content in core areas of the profession such as Grant Writing, Collection Development, and STEM/STEAM-related programming.

As usual, we dangled a carrot to draw in more respondents. This year we gave away two $50 Amazon gift cards to randomly-chosen participants. Patricia Fraser (Columbia County Public Library) and Catherine Brandner (Flagler County Schools) were our 2023 winners.

Another Sunshine State Library Leadership Institute is in the books!

On Friday, July 14th, 36 participants gathered in Tallahassee at the Division of Library and Information Services to celebrate their successful completion of the Year 17 Leadership Institute. Participants represented libraries from DeFuniak Springs to Miami and all areas in between.

We are especially proud of the three NEFLIN members who completed the program: Kate Duong from Columbia County Public Library; Coleen Tobin from Alachua County Library District; and Nikole Torres from Volusia County Public Library. Congratulations to them and to all our new SSLLI grads!

For the past few months, we've been highlighting the 10 NEFLIN member libraries who are recipients of a 2023 Innovation Project Award. These libraries all submitted their innovative ideas to the NEFLIN Board, who then awarded up to $7,500 for each winning idea. All of the libraries are working now to put their projects into action, and at the NEFLIN Annual Meeting on September 15th, they will share their progress and results.

Our next featured project comes from North Florida College. Their project is the purchase of a Calculator Cart:

"North Florida College serves a rural six county area with a significant number of Pell eligible students...Each semester, students go without the necessary TI-84 calculators for weeks while waiting on theirs (purchased with financial aid) to ship, or while waiting on their financial aid reimbursement to go purchase one in person. No physical store or bookstore exists on campus to purchase calculators. The few calculators that the library does have get checked out before the first day of class, leaving many students out of luck. Without the calculators needed, students quickly fall behind. Having a large number of calculators in our circulation would not only prevent students from going without needed materials, but would also meet NFC’s mission of being dedicated to accessible education for those students who cannot afford to purchase their own calculators...Having a mobile calculator cart would also allow the library to make itself more visible to students who do not visit the library, at a department (the math building) that does not always require library usage."

Meanwhile, St. Johns County Public Library is using their Innovation Project award for a Growing Food, Growing Community @SJCPLS project:

"The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) defines a food desert as “an area that lacks access to...foods that make up a healthy diet,” and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has determined that 33% of St. Johns County’s population lives further than 1 mile (urban) or 10 miles (rural) from the nearest supermarket. Additionally, according to Feeding America’s “Map the Meal Gap,” 10% of St. Johns County’s population faces food insecurity. Food insecure households are uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food to meet the needs of all members of their home because they have insufficient money or other resources for food...Growing Food, Growing Community @ SJCPLS is a new system-wide approach to educating our patrons on building a sustainable vegetable garden at home regardless of the size and location of the plot. By combining direct instruction, hands-on workshops, learning materials, and demonstration gardens, we will take a systematic approach to teaching the community how to overcome food access challenges by growing produce for themselves."

Don't forget to attend the NEFLIN Annual Meeting to find out more about ALL of our 2023 Innovation Projects and how to apply for a 2024 Innovation Project at your library.