NEFLIN Road Show in St. Augustine:

"Mother Goose on the Loose"

More "Don't Miss" opportunities from NEFLIN in this newsletter: Hot Topics 2024, the JMCEF Raffle, and the chance to nominate a deserving colleague for a NEFLIN Award. Please reach out with any questions you have!

Jenny Eason

[email protected]

Member Services Coordinator

Nominations are due Friday, April 26th! Awards will be presented at the Annual Meeting on September 13th.

Member of the Year

The NEFLIN Member of the Year Award recognizes a current employee of a NEFLIN library who has made a significant positive impact on his/her library and the community it serves. Download Nomination Form

Distinguished Career Award

The Distinguished Career Award is for an individual who has displayed exemplary achievement and leadership throughout his/her career in the library field. Download Nomination Form

Library Innovation Award

The NEFLIN Innovation Award recognizes an innovative program or service that has demonstrated impact on the community a NEFLIN library serves.  Download Nomination Form

Library Champion Award

This award is for any individual who has demonstrated exceptional support for a NEFLIN library. (Current employees of NEFLIN libraries are not eligible.)  Download Nomination Form

Each year, NEFLIN hosts a raffle to raise money for the Jim Morris Continuing Education Fund. All funds raised through this raffle go back into the JMCEF to support professional development scholarships for our members.

This year, we're raffling off a Ninja DualBrew Pro Specialty Coffee System (valued at $239.99)! Raffle tickets are $1 each with a minimum $10 purchase.

The drawing will take place at the 2024 Hot Topics Conference, but you do not need to be present to win.

You may purchase raffle tickets online until April 19th or at the event.

Make your plans to join us on Friday, April 26th, at the UF Hilton Conference Center, for Hot Topics 2024: "Other Duties As Required."

We're excited to feature Dr. Anne Marie Casey as our keynote speaker.

Keynote Session

They Asked Me What?

Navigating Unexpected Work in Libraries



Library workers often encounter requests and duties they did not expect. Master’s degree programs and position descriptions leave out a lot of requests and expectations library workers do not anticipate. When members of the public think about library work, their minds go to checking out books, helping to access technology, and maybe even acquiring information resources. They do not realize that working in a library might mean connecting an unhoused person with local resources, or helping someone navigate through a citizenship application when English is not their first language, or developing a training program for pages/student workers when they have never supervised. The list goes on and on about common and uncommon requests we don’t consider when we sign that contract. These unexpected duties can be difficult to navigate and cause frustration and anxiety in library workers.

Find out more about the day, including our Concurrent Sessions, at

http://www.neflin.org/2024-hot-topics-conference/.

The NEFLIN Continuing Education Roadshow is bringing training to you! In 2024, we’re coming out to more member libraries to present in-person workshops from your favorite NEFLIN trainers AND some new faces.

Check out these upcoming Road Show events and register today!

Intensive Grant-Seeking Wrokshop for Libraries

with Bess de Farber

March 19th in

Jacksonville

Explore Emerging Technologies

with Brian Pichman

April 11th in

Jacksonville

How to Keep Your Joy (and Sanity) When Serving Today's Library Users

with Andrew Sanderbeck

April 16th in

Ormond Beach

Resume and CV Development for Library Staff

with Anne Marie Casey

May 2nd in

Port Orange

Have you explored NEFLIN's collection of On-Demand Training, available on the Niche Academy platform? These asynchronous resources allow you to learn at your own pace and on your own schedule.

To get started, go to https://my.nicheacademy.com/neflin-staff and follow the instructions to create an account. You must use your work email address to create your account.

Once logged in, you'll find the Librarian's Guide to Homelessness, Library 2.0: Safety, Security, and More, the NEFLIN webinar archives, recordings of NEFLIN Interest Groups, and more.

Questions? Reach out to us at [email protected].

Thursday, March 28th

10:00 - 11:30 am

Online

In this session we'll discuss how to craft regular newsletters and other kinds of email marketing, including types of content, structure, and writing style, plus logistics such as when and how often to send them out.

We'll also cover analyzing success, and everything we do is designed to be 'platform agnostic' - the guidance will apply whether you're sending basic emails or using services like Mail Chimp. 

The webinar will also touch on best practice for writing for the web, from writing blogposts to editing library websites and Libguides. 

For the next few months, we'll be highlighting the 11 NEFLIN member libraries who are recipients of a 2024 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 13th, they will share their progress and results.

Our next featured project is "Baby Book Worms: New Born Library Welcome Kits with the Clay County Library System.

"As part of its new early literacy initiative, Clay County Library will provide 2,200 “Baby Book Worms” New Born Welcome kits to new babies born in Clay County. These kits will contain information on how and why it is important to read to their new child, some library themed goodies, and an invitation to come to the library and register for a new library card. These kits will be distributed to families at local Clay County hospitals." 

Meanwhile, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Hunt Library's project is the ERAU Archives Digital Display:

"ERAU Archives strives to foster an open and active Archive for our community, showcasing materials that align with the current curriculum, assignments, and interests of our institution. Our archive contains publications, photographs, art, oral histories, and more that preserves the enduring story of a STEM school founded in 1926. The physical archives can no longer accommodate visitors. A digital viewing kiosk will provide a new physical location where exhibits will be accessible now and in the future. We hope to showcase the Archives, increase engagement, and highlight current and potential research projects among students and faculty."

We look forward to seeing the results of these innovative projects!

For 2023-2024, we are celebrating 30 years of NEFLIN, and this month, we're traveling back to March 1997 when NEFLIN debuted its first website. It was indeed a bold step forward into the Information Age.

The image below is "the NEFLIN Web Site" from December 1997, courtesy of the Wayback Machine. Yep...it was a humble start. But those of you who were working in libraries in 1997 will remember just what a dramatic shift the Internet was bringing to the field. We're glad to be here, 27 years later, still hanging out at http://www.neflin.org.

For FY2023-24, the total state and federal budgets for NEFLIN's programs are $694,693. 42% of the total costs ($294,693) are supported by federal funds, and 58% of this program ($400,000) is supported by state funds.