We received over 150 votes for this year’s pin (!), but one of the designs was the clear winner. View the final design. For those who asked, the star on the pin roughly marks the Bermuda Triangle. We think it’s a fun and unexpected design element.

Price: $0.63 each

Following the same procedure as previous years, the Colorado State Library will place a large pin order and would be glad to “piggyback” and add your order to ours. This is a great way to promote next year’s programs, and placing a large order will make it cost effective for all of us.

You will be emailed an invoice with the total amount owed, and this will be payable once you receive the pins in mid to late October. NOTE: Add $5 shipping & handling charge for orders being shipped outside of Colorado.

We will submit our bulk order on 9/1, so please submit your order NO LATER THAN Tuesday, August 31st.

Contact Michelle Gebhart with questions.

Pichado Photography

A businessman’s letter to the Director of the Manitou Springs Public Library – Margaret Morris (post flood).

“The library is good and dry and all the noisy equipment is gone.

If we can provide  any help getting the library back in order let me know and MediClean will take care of it during our regular scheduled cleaning. I will also donate the time I spent out there Thursday.  I think Public Libraries are the greatest! I know if it wasn’t for the help I received at my local Public Library I would have never been able to start my own business. I spent a lot of time at the my local Library  learning how to use a computer before I could afford to buy my own. A Library is also full of many other resources helpful to the small business person. Also the Free computer classes & helpful staff helped out a lot too. My way of giving back.” ~ Charles Blue

Vision: * Libraries move communities into the future. Every resident of Colorado will discover their library to be a place of curiosity & discovery; ideas & experiences; inspiration & imagination. They are places of endless possibilities.

Mission: * Libraries are excited about patron’s questions, we assist patrons with their needs during transitional times in their lives. What’s Next?!

Goals: * To shift the general public’s perceptions so they understand that libraries change with the times, are not just books and provide critical help to people during times of personal or community transition.  * To reinvigorate the value of libraries and secure future funding of Colorado Libraries.

Tagline: * What’s Next?! Your future. Libraries help get you there

We are moving forward and have the logo, mark, fonts and style guide. Please refer to the style guide for explanations on file types. These are all available on the Brand Items page.

We are working on the website and marketing kits which should be ready by the CAL conference in October 2010.

Contact Debbi MacLeod with any questions.

Libraries mean business.  ~ Aspen Walker (Douglas County Libraries)

• We help people get their small business started, and provide resources to help them excel and persist.
• We draw folks into town and commerce centers, and then they spend their money in area businesses (did you know that the Philip S. Miller Library is the number one reason people visit downtown Castle Rock, Colorado? Between January-July of this year, the library has already 285,566 visitors. That’s almost 9,500+ people a week! And when they do visit, they spend at least $20 in surrounding stores. We’re an anchor store… with a benevolent [and fun!] social purpose).
• We offer an amazing return on investment. I only pay $42 a year in taxes to fund my local library, but I enjoy hundreds of dollars worth of materials and services every year. In fact, for every dollar invested in my library district, we return at least $5 in value. Magic? No. It’s the sheer wonder of the public library.
• We help people find jobs. My friend Tana, shared a poignant story with me earlier this year, based on an actual experience she had working in public libraries:

I just remember his hands; nails short and squared, fingers wide and knobby, his skin thick and calloused. Hovering over the keyboard, index fingers extended, carefully, slowly plucking out the letters in an introduction to be inserted into an email application for employment, they were easily the size of my face.

The man, a journeyman plumber, was hesitant. It was a new feature of his profession to have to submit his resume and bids electronically… He needed help opening an email account; questions of passwords and etiquette were answered – but really, how could I answer the larger question in his eyes? Is the world changing too fast? How do people suddenly catch up with the digital tsunami that has swept through every industry, every profession?

It made me sad for a moment to imagine those strong, capable hands suddenly left idle because an employer’s new mandate required email applications. But then I realized that here he was, hunched in a library chair, eyes glued to the screen, brow furrowed, making the leap into the future – with my help! “Got it?” I asked just to make sure he was going to be okay. “Yup. Think so… If I need you again, you’ll be around to help, right?”

Hopefully.
#coBHAG #SaveLibraries

Submit your pick on the CLiC Facebook page.  Here’s how: 1) Leave a wall post on the CLiC’s Facebook page with the heading “Libraries Mean Business”; 2) add your nominee library’s name; and 3) add a URL to the library’s business resources web page or any other information that highlights your nominee’s strength in supporting a community.  If you don’t have a lot of resources, just a great idea, add that idea instead!  

If you are not on Facebook add a comment to this blog page with your nominee.

We’ll collect all the nominees (feel free to nominate your own library), and after we have our nominees — we’ll let you pick the winning libraries!  Let’s get back to business…
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=130132357027152&ref=ts#!/clicweb?ref=ts

The summer reading theme is a little harder to identify this year… so we went for a globe or map concept.

• Children’s theme:  One World, Many Stories
• Teen theme:  You Are Here
• Adult theme:  Novel Destinations

Don’t forget to fill out the comment section if you have something extra to say.

VOTE NOW!
We need your responses by Friday, August 20th.

StoryBlocks.org is a project of the Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy (CLEL), an advisory group to the State Library. CLEL received a federal grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to create the videos and Web site. The goal is to build awareness and to encourage parents and others to engage with children from birth on early language and pre-literacy skills. The methods used in the videos are based on brain and child development research that show the impact that songs, rhymes and stories have on very young children.

Eight Colorado public libraries helped to fund the project:  Arapahoe Library District, Denver Public Library, Douglas County Libraries, Fort Morgan Public Library, Lafayette Public Library, Salida Regional Library and Westminster Public Library. Donations also came from two non-profit organizations: Friends of Food for Thought and Library People and one anonymous donor.

View press release (PDF)

For more information on StoryBlocks.org, contact Patricia Froehlich, youth services senior consultant at the Colorado State Library, 303-866-6908.

Francine Fialkoff, Library Journal Editor-in-Chief, has asked me to bring this site to your attention if you haven’t already seen it: www.LosingLibraries.org.

Reduced hours in Boulder and Lafayette, and the closures in Aurora are listed, as is the BHAG advocacy initiative.

The prominent “Report Cuts” button allows sending of newspaper stories and annotations…and to report successes. The site seems geared toward public libraries, but doesn’t appear to restrict inclusion of layoffs, reductions, or closures in other types.

I encourage you to keep the site updated as changes happen in your library. While no one wants to flaunt bad news, showing an accurate picture is important as Colorado braces for further budget battles locally, and at the state level.

Once the site is more fully populated, Library Journal will send out press releases to major media around the country.

Thank you for your help on this.

The study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the ALA, can be found online at www.ala.org/plinternetfunding.