WebJunction is a great place to find anything library related. The 10 Ways to Collaborate in 2008 webinar caught my eye so I signed up. What fun! Gathering people and their ideas from various geographic areas is a certainly a smart idea. It was inspiring to hear what other libraries are doing by collaborating with each other.
The presenter was a huge fan of wikis, another collaboration tool Wikipedia is a fine example. She firmly believes that librarians should be using wikis as a way to archive good ideas as well as collaborate with each other. For instance, one idea is to get a bunch of librarians to share their great programming ideas (presenter info. too) and put it on a wiki. That way other librarians don’t have to reinvent the wheel; they can use what someone has done and tweak it to their liking. Check out what some Florida librarians are doing at their libraries.
Another suggestion is to take 15 minutes out of your day to discover something new and share it with a colleague. The entire theme of the webinar was SHARE, SHARE, SHARE. All of us have something to share, so, I am starting off by sharing the web address to WebJunction’s calendar of webinars.
Maybe a title will catch your eye, and just maybe you will be inspired to share your adventure with a friend or a colleague.
Top Five Best Ideas I gleaned from the Webinar
- Tap into local talent – keep that info. on file or on web site (wiki)
- Create joint grants for projects or programming
- Get directors together every couple of months. Cut to the chase – put those things up on a wiki (forgo round robin info). Focus on collaboration instead.
- Instant message colleagues for quick communication
- Take 15 minutes out of your day to discover something and then share it.
As part of CLiC’s cooperative purchasing efforts, we’ve created accounts for all our member libraries with MiCTA (Michigan Collegiate Telecommunications Association). This is a for-profit organization that negotiates contracts with telecom, computer, office equipment, and e-learning vendors on behalf of non-profit academic, school, library, and governmental entities. Some of the discounted products include computers, Internet connections, telephone service, printers, and software.
Member libraries on the courier should have received their MiCTA packets from CLiC by now–please remember to save your member number, which appears on the back of the envelope. You’ll need this member number when placing discounted orders with vendors. Member libraries not on the courier should receive their packets in the mail next week; their member numbers will appear on the welcome letter. And if you do lose your member number, feel free to call CLiC at 303-422-1150.
You will have to log in to the MiCTA site and contact each vendor to find out what discounts your library will get through MiCTA. Please let us know your experiences with cost comparison and MiCTA purchasing to help us evaluate this service. We hope it will be a valuable one!
For more information, visit the CLiC MiCTA page:
http://www.clicweb.org/cooperative_purchasing/micta.php
Don’t forget that your contracts for courier service running from 10/1/07 – 9/30/08 are due into the CLiC office June 15th. If you have not received a contract please e-mail courier@clicweb.org and we will e-mail one to you right away.
For those of you that are community stops (you get items sent to a hosting library) and have never filled out a contract before, it is important that you fill it out this year. With the new courier database we need to get additional information from you as well as make sure that we have correct community stops and hosting library information.
FYI – many libraries change their hours in the summer, if your library has done that please e-mail courier@clicweb.org with your library hours so we can make sure that courier service does not get interrupted.
–Erin Berndsen, Courier Manager
We’re excited to announce a new CLiC tutorial on our web site, the Resource Sharing tutorial. If you feel awash in a sea of acronyms where resource sharing is concerned (OCLC, BCR, CLV, CLC, CSL, CLiC, and more!), then this tutorial can definitely help you. Resource sharing isn’t just interlibrary loan, but there’s plenty of information about Colorado ILL systems in the tutorial.
The tutorial is barely two weeks old and already 30 people have taken it! This is a great response rate and I’m glad to see that so many people are interested in the fine workings of resource sharing in CO. If you’ve taken the quiz and are still waiting for your snazzy certificate, I apologize…each quiz is carefully hand graded by yours truly, and May is a busy month for us. Those should be out soon!
We also have the tutorial available on CD for those of you that might have slower Internet connections. Just email me at rdean(at)clicweb(dot)org and I’ll get a CD in the mail to you.
Ever heard of Sanborn Maps? Sanborn fire insurance maps are large scale historical city maps, detailed at the block and building level, that show residential, commercial, and industrial uses of sites, building footprints, potential environmental hazards, and construction details of structures. Sanborn fire insurance maps were originally designed to assist fire insurance agents in determining the potential damage from fires, assessing risk, and setting premiums. Today, Sanborn maps are used for a variety of purposes, including environmental site assessment, architecture, urban history, and genealogy.
Building Colorado Story by Story: The Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Collection is a digital collection of Sanborn fire insurance maps of cities across Colorado. The collection contains 346 maps of 79 principal cities in 52 counties covering the years 1883-1922. The University of Colorado at Boulder is the in the process of digitizing these maps and the beta version is now available online.
CLiC andthe Map Library staff at CUB are running workshops about these Sanborn maps and map librarianship in general. Many people have attended the short overview sessions at our CLiC Spring Workshops. Also check out the last Accidental Map Librarian Workshop in Gunnison May 11.
We have also created a wiki for our Accidental Map Librarian Workshops you can check out at : http://maplibraries.pbwiki.com/
I just attended a great conference in Albuquerque – the NMLA and MPLA (Mountains and Plains Library Assoc) Joint Conference, March 14-16, 2007! There were numerous sessions from technology to rural services. I enjoyed sessions on Appreciative Inquiry (Karen McPheeters Director, Farmington Public Library), Audio Books Start to Finish (Barb Brattin, Telluride Public & Joel Robinson, Marmot), Fast, Cheap & Useful: New Technologies for Reference and Beyond (UNM and NMSU librarians), Exploring the Deep Web (Peter Kraus, University of Utah), and my own presentation on Podcasting 101 for Libraries. You can access the wiki that my co-presenter (Twila Firmature from UNM libraries) and I created for our presentation.
I enjoy these multi state conferences tremendously – not only because having more people means more sessions, more knowledge, and more information – but the networking is great! Hearing how things are done in other states, discussing issues and getting ideas from others, realizing problems that are universal, and bridging the states lines to collaborate and connect , looking to support each other in the future.
I’m Robin, the new administrative assistant at CLiC and a University of Denver MLIS student. I’m still learning the ropes at CLiC, and there’s a lot to learn!
For my first post, I thought I’d share some exciting news about DU’s MLIS program. The program has just undergone an extensive curriculum revision, which was approved last month. It isn’t just the classes that have changed—the degree concentrations have also been overhauled.
There used to be four concentrations:
- Library and Information Resources and Technologies (LIRT)
- Archives and Records Management (ARM)
- School Library Media (SLM)
- Knowledge Management (KM)
There are now five concentrations:
- Information Science & Technology (IST)
- Knowledge Management (KM)
- Reference and User Services (RUS)
- Resource Description and Access (RDA)
- Archives and Records Management (ARM)
The new concentrations haven’t been posted to the DU LIS site as of this post, but the new course rotation is up for 2007-2009. In the new plan, classes that were formerly lumped into LIRT have been split among RUS, RDA, and IST. New classes have been added to all the concentrations, and the IST track is almost entirely new classes. It’s good to see cataloging get the recognition it deserves with its own track (RDA). KM and ARM were the least affected, but new courses were added to each of those concentrations to update and focus the subject matter.
The absence of an SLM concentration seemed strange to me at first, but I realized that most of the SLM classes had been absorbed into RUS. For those people looking to get Teacher Librarian certification, DU is starting a School Library Cohort program in Summer 2008, which looks like it will be a great experience for people with teacher certification looking to become teacher librarians.
Overall, I’m impressed with the new course plan. It brings a lot of courses up-to-date and provides more instruction on new technologies that are essential for anyone entering the library field. I’m eagerly awaiting more detailed course descriptions so I can see exactly what the new classes have to offer.
Have a secret love of maps? Want to improve your map knowledge? Want to learn tips on cataloging and purchasing maps? Ever heard of Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps? Come to this all day workshop event to learn the basics of maps in libraries and the digital collection of Colorado Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps.
Taught mainly by the map library staff at CU Boulder, this all day workshop will cost $20 (includes food) with CE credit available. The audience is anyone from public, academic, schools, historical societies etc.
Locations/Dates:
Thursday March 29, 2007 – University of Colorado at Boulder, Norlin Library
Friday May 11, 2007 - Western State College, Savage Library
Questions? Email Beth (bwilliams@clicweb.org) and visit the website
Flyer - to post or hand out to those interested!
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