There is a power outage affecting the area near the Colorado Talking Book Library, so it will be closed today, Wednesday November 9th. The online catalogs including Pandora are still available for browsing. CTBL will reopen tomorrow, Thursday November 10th, at 8:00am.
Author Archive for Michelle
Page 2 of 16
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
The deadline for completing the 2011-12 Colorado School Library Survey has been extended to November 30, 2011. Participation by all public school libraries is vital!
We have made substantial revisions to the survey based on respondents’ comments to better reflect the current state of school libraries, and we look forward to getting the input of all Colorado public school librarians! The data gathered in the annual school library survey provides library professionals with important information for planning, evaluating, and budgeting.
For questions regarding the survey, or to obtain your username and password, feel free to call Library Research Service at 303-866-6900 or email lrs@lrs.org to get your information.
On behalf of Sarah Koehn Frey, Director, Northern Saguache County Library District:
On October 13 I attended a preconference workshop at the CAL conference entitled “Project Compass: Libraries at the Front Lines of Workforce Recovery”. The presenter was Jennifer Pratt, who is the Chief of Library Development for the State Library of North Carolina.
Jennifer navigated through enough of the Project Compass website to really pique our interest. I need to do much more searching to find all that is available there, but I’m happy to know about this resource and can direct patrons to it. During the presentation I was sitting beside Maria DeHerrera of the Costilla County Library District. She and I represented 2/3 of the three poorest counties in Colorado, so we were especially interested in how our libraries can be of help to our unemployed patrons. Continue reading ‘Workforce Recovery at the CAL Conference’
The Colorado State Library is pleased to announce a new online learning series, CSL In Session. The series is made up of free, hour-long virtual classes on a broad range of topics, delivered once a month. These won’t be your standard information-dump-style “webinars” – we’re planning interactive online classes where participation is central to the learning, and where learners go away with distinct takeaways that can be immediately applied in your libraries and in your professional lives.
We’re kicking off with:
Taking Off the Blinders: Customer Service Lessons from Other Industries
Wednesday, November 16 at 12:30 p.m.
Description: Be honest. How often do you look ONLY at other libraries for examples of customer service strategies and enhancements? This session will broaden your view, drawing together ideas, lessons and examples of customer service strategies from non-library industries and organizations. When it comes to brick-and-mortar and online services alike, libraries MUST look beyond their own backyards to ensure future success and to better serve their communities—or risk irrelevance. Continue reading ‘New Online Learning Series: CSL In Session’
60% is the magic number!
A magic percentage for public libraries, really. “How is it magic,” you ask. It is the response rate each state must reach in order to have state-level reports from the National Survey of Public Library Funding and Technology Access (PLFTAS). Reports like the State Briefs found here.
Want to be part of the magic?
Letters have been sent to public school libraries throughout the state announcing the opening of the 2011-12 Colorado School Library Survey.
The Library Research Service (LRS) has made substantial revisions to the survey based on respondents’ comments to better reflect the current state of school libraries, and looks forward to getting the input of all Colorado public school librarians!
The data gathered in the annual school library survey provides library professionals with important information for planning, evaluating, and budgeting. Login information is included in the letter, but if you haven’t received your letter and would like to get started, feel free to call LRS at 303-866-6900 or email lrs@lrs.org to get your information.
After more than a year of hard work by the Networking & Resource Sharing team of the State Library, the new Colorado Virtual Library (CVL) will be launched sometime during the week of 10/10 with 3 content collections (and more to come):
- Colorado Histories
- Tech Help
- Tools for Tough Times
There is much more work to be done, because the CVL will never truly be done. It is designed to be ever-changing, evolving, and improving. We hope you love it, but of course are open to constructive criticism.
Stay tuned!
The Colorado Teen Literature Conference (CTLC) is currently in the planning stages (and I’m helping!). Here’s your official SAVE THE DATE notice.
The event will be held on the Auraria campus on March 31, 2011, 8:30am-3:45pm. Registration opens February 1st and 
closes March 11th. Keynote authors are Maggie Stiefvater and Todd Mitchell!
More information:
How can school librarians have a positive impact on student growth and achievement? What strategies and tools will enable them to get there?
The Colorado Dept. of Education (CDE) and the Colorado Library Consortium (CLiC) are partnering to offer two workshop opportunities (as well as an opportunity for six $100 scholarships to cover registration and a substitute for the day).
Workshop Date/Locations:
- Pueblo on Friday, November 18th
- Thornton on Friday, January 27th Continue reading ‘Armed for the 21st Century: Highly Effective School Librarians Lead the Way’
Internet filtering – that is, highly restrictive internet filtering – is a problem in some school libraries, and it can negatively impact student learning and achievement. With that in mind, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) designated Wednesday, September 28 as the first annual Banned Websites Awareness Day in order “to raise awareness of the overly restrictive blocking of legitimate, educational websites and academically useful social networking tools in schools and school libraries.”
Schools all over the country participated in Banned Websites Awareness activities and some were featured in the New York Times. Colorado’s own Silver Creek High School in Longmont “held a “graffiti debate” on censorship on Wednesday: Should schools block Web sites? On sheets of white butcher paper hanging in the library, they wrote lists of the pros and cons of online access.” Silver Creek’s librarian, Phil Goerner, organized the debate to encourage students to think more deeply about ethical issues related to censorship, including how it can take away a person’s voice. Continue reading ‘Banned Websites Awareness Day’
What You’re Saying