Author Archive for Michelle

About Michelle

I am an Administrative Assistant and Web Content Coordinator for the Colorado State Library at the Colorado Department of Education.


Email: gebhart_m@cde.state.co.us

Website: http://www.coloradostatelibrary.org


All of Michelle's Stuff

Just launched: LRS.org

The Library Research Service at the Colorado State Library launched a new website yesterday. It is a whole new look with updated navigation, graphics, and features. We invite you to poke around the site and let us know what you think.

Along with this redesign, our blog is moving to a different home and platform.

The new LRS.org took months of work, and it couldn’t have been done without the entire LRS staff. Special thanks to Zeth Lietzau for his vision and hard work in making the site a reality and Jamie Daisey for her work moving and editing the content.

ARRA Grant Money Available for Rural Libraries

During the last week notices were sent concerning grant money that is available for libraries and other community facilities through the USDA’s Rural Development Community Facilities Grant Program. After meeting with local USDA Business and Community Programs Directors, the Colorado State Library would like to share some information with you concerning this opportunity.

Download a PDF of this information

  • This money is being offered through ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act).
  • The funds will help rural communities up to 20,000 in population to improve their community facilities (including libraries), enhance educational opportunities, and improve economic conditions. Specifically, eligible purposes include:
    • Construct, enlarge, extend, or improve essential community facilities
    • Obtain necessary equipment for the operation of these facilities
    • Reasonable fees such as engineering, legal, administrative environmental analysis, surveys, and planning
    • Cost of acquiring interest in land; rights, such as water rights, leases, permits, and rights-of-way Continue reading ‘ARRA Grant Money Available for Rural Libraries’

Gilpin County Public Library Wins National Award for Excellence

PLA has honored the Gilpin County Public Library (GCPL) with the EBSCO Excellence in Small and/or Rural Public Library Service Award. This award honors a public library serving a population of 10,000 or fewer that demonstrates excellence in service to its community.

GCPL will receive this year’s $1,000 award honoring its innovative and creative “artist-in-residence” program. Beginning in the summer of 2008, with the financial backing of the Friends of the Library, the GCPL offered a Poet-in-Residence to the community, who held a series of workshops for people of all ages on writing, reading, and appreciating poetry of many varieties.

This is the second year in a row that a Colorado library has won the EBSCO Award (it was John C. Fremont Library District in 2009).

View the press release (PDF)

How to Give to Better Presentations

Want to give great presentations? Check out a new ALALearning blog post entitled “10 Steps to Promote Learning in Your Conference Presentation.”

Thanks to Peter Bromberg, Assistant Director at the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative (SJRLC), for this information.

Attend a Webinar on Colorado Libraries 2.0 – Feb 4th

Colorado Libraries 2.0 is a free, professionally developed online training program designed in modules that relate to tasks we perform in our libraries. To find out more, please plan on attending a webinar describing the program. The webinar will provide information for both staff and administration.

Date: February 4, 2010
Time: 10:00 – 10:30 a.m.

An Internet connection and a USB headset is required for this session.

To join the webinar:
Step 1:
Access the meeting room online. Please enter your name as a guest as you log in. Continue reading ‘Attend a Webinar on Colorado Libraries 2.0 – Feb 4th’

Literacy-Enhanced Storytimes Workshop – March 19

Want to juice up your library storytime? Make your storytimes better-than-ever? Attend an all-day interactive and hands-on workshop using the 6 skills and techniques of Every Child Ready to Read (ECRR) in your library storytimes.

Experienced trainer Carol Wagstaff (Douglas County Libraries) and Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy (CLEL) will review ECRR resources and coach you through how you can use ECRR techniques and plan a literacy-enhanced storytime. Come prepared to practice dialogic reading and give parent tips.

The workshop will be limited to 25 participants and priority will be given to Western Slope libraries. Additional registrants will placed on a waiting list.

Registration fee: $15.00
Location:
Montrose Public Library
Date & Time:
March 19, 2010, 8:30am-3pm
Questions:
Patricia Froehlich, CDE – State Library, 303-866-6908

Register Now!

Colorado State Library Webside Chat Archives

If you missed the chance to participate in the State Library’s January 27, 2010 Webside Chat – an introduction to the State Library and updates on current activities – the archives are now available on our webinars page.

For those who attended the Webside Chat live (not those who viewed it later), please take a moment to give us your feedback in this short evaluation.

Join us for our next Webside Chat on Wednesday, February 24.  More information coming soon!

Join the Colorado State Library in a Webside Chat, January 27

Curious about the State Library, its staff and activities? Then please join Gene Hainer of the Colorado State Library online for our first monthly Webside Chat.

Gene will provide an introduction to the Colorado State Library and give updates from ALA Midwinter.  Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and offer comments on any topic via chat.

When: Wednesday, January 27, 4:00-5:00 p.m.

Where: Online at http://cecc.na4.acrobat.com/cslchat0127/.  Please enter your name as a guest as you log in.

All you need to participate is computer speakers or a headset; communications will be by text chat, so a phone line or microphone are not needed.

In advance of the meeting, please run through a connection test: http://cecc.na4.acrobat.com/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm.

Library Stories from the CSL Booth at CAL

The State Library’s booth at CAL in November 2009 had the theme “Libraries: A Place of Endless Possibilities”. Visitors were encouraged to share their stories by writing them, typing them or telling them (to our flip cameras).

Now you can read or listen to the fantastic stories of your colleagues and celebrate the many ways libraries transform lives.

  • Listen to some of the library stories on our YouTube channel
  • Read the rest of the stories on our presentations page from CAL ‘09

CALlogo09

2010 Statewide Summer Reading Program – TO DOs

  1. Register for the 2010 summer reading program and request FREE materials. (Libraries that have already registered will receive their materials by the end of January.)
  2. Apply for a $175 Mini-Grant. Applications are due January 29, 2010.
  3. Weigh in on the slogan and theme suggestions for summers 2012 and 2013.

Contact Michelle Gebhart or Patricia Froehlich with questions.