1. Project Management Foundations: What’s the Big Fuss?
   January 18, 12:00-1:00pm

2. Project Management Case Studies: Who Forgot to Measure the Bookcases?
   February 1, 12:00-1:00pm

3. Proof of Concept: Applying Project Management Principles to Your Workplace
   February 15, 12:00-1:00pm
   

This three-part series is for anyone who works in a library at any level. Although it is meant as an introduction, experienced project managers might appreciate the refresher and discover new ways to present information to their teams. We encourage you to attend all three, but we welcome you attend whichever programs you can.

Kathy Barco, Children’s Librarian at the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library System in New Mexico, presented the lively morning session highlighting the 2012 summer reading program theme of night time at all 6 sessions. Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy (CLEL) members Jana Ackerman, Lisa Chipouras, Laura Baldassari-Hackstaff, Melissa Depper, and Becky Campbell offered informative, useful afternoon sessions on early literacy, including an overview of the newly revised Every Child Ready to Read program.

Handouts from the workshops are available, including Becky Campbell’s early literacy presentation.

Some comments from workshop attendees:

• It was so helpful to start thinking about summer reading ideas and talk to other youth librarians in the area.
• I love getting ideas for activities plus meeting others and getting their input.
• Both of the presenters were fabulous! They were entertaining, enthusiastic, and really held my attention.
• This year was a great balance between SRP ideas and very appropriate Early Childhood ideas.
• Worthwhile content–Ideas, conversations, motivation. Thank you!
• I really enjoyed tying books to early literacy skills.
• Extremely helpful. The SRP theme seemed difficult until the workshop and now has become clear.

For more resources, tips, and research about early literacy, check out the CLEL website—or better yet join the group; it’s free!

To learn more about the 2012 summer reading program, visit the Collaborative Summer Library Program website. With the overall theme of night time, program slogans will encourage children to “Dream Big—Read,” while teens will “Own the Night.” Adults can interpret their slogan, “Between the Covers,” in a variety of ways, but we hope they’ll be encouraged along the way to read over the summer. Watch for more information and opportunities on the CYS-Lib listserv and here on this blog, and attend the summer reading program session at the CLiC Spring Workshops 2012!

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.

Just as valuable as the website information was the informal, conversational sharing that happened amongst participants.  I came away with so many ideas that other libraries have already incorporated (ideas such as a bartering bulletin board where people can post needs and services offered—brilliant!).  Jamie Hollier was at this presentation and contributed information about resources offered by the Colorado Virtual Library and the Department of Labor and Employment.

As a new library director, the information I garnered from those three hours was invaluable.  Prior to the workshop I didn’t know anything about these resources…and now I envision using them daily.

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.

Our facilitator: Jim Duncan, recognized as a 2011 Mover & Shaker by Library Journal, is a library evangelist by day and a nomadic web surfer by night.

How to join: Classes will be held online in Adobe Connect. All that’s needed to participate is a computer with internet access and a headset or speakers. Learner participation in the session will take place via chat, so a phone line or microphone isn’t needed. No registration is required.

More info: Information, including upcoming classes, recordings, handouts and more will be made available online. Questions about CSL In Session can be directed to Mary Beth Faccioli.

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:

• CTLC Website
• CTLC Facebook page
• CTLC Flyer (PDF)

Feel free to share this information with anyone you think may be interested in attending or getting involved.

There are some grants available for both teens and adults to attend, plus opportunities to be a teen panelist, receive graduate credit, present, and exhibit. Be sure to check out the CTLC website after January 10th for more info.

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

Attend a workshop to evaluate your library program – using the newly revised Highly Effective School Library Program Rubric (PDF) – and learn strategies for improvement for meeting the needs of 21st century learners. Leave this workshop with a toolkit that will help you help your students thrive and be post-secondary and workforce ready.

Registration: $40 per person.
For more information and to register, visit the CLiC website.

Last weekend – despite my body being furious at me for waking it up early on a Saturday – I attended the Bloggy Boot Camp conference, hosted by the SITS Girls here in Denver. Thanks to the women’s studies department at my college I was able to attend for free, so early Saturday aside, it was a good opportunity for me to get out there, meet other women blogging locally and nationally, and get advice on how to make my personal blog a success.

While I was not able to take something usable for me personally from every session, and I felt a bit out of place among the many “mommy” bloggers, I did come away with several things. Specifically: lots o’ business cards (seriously, my giant, bottomless Mary Poppins purse feels heavier today), new blogs to read, a local writing support group, and a few gems to improve my blog and inspire me to write every week. The crème de la crème, for your viewing pleasure:

Branding

• Don’t be intimidated by branding. If you spend time picking out your outfit in the morning, you already have branding experience. It’s all about figuring out who you are and how to let the world know about it. And it can evolve over time, just like you do.
• If anyone else is already doing what you consider your niche, find something else, or you won’t stand out. Instead become an expert in something you are interested in, go deeper, and explore it from every angle.
• Make sure your blog tells a story, and that it lives up to the promise you make to your readers.
• Your About page should be a strong representation of your brand.
• If you think you can do it all in terms of social media, you’re wrong. Pick 3 things to focus on for 6 months, like growing Facebook fans, a tweet a day, etc.

Creative Process

• Ignore those voices that tell you negative things. (“I’m good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!“)

• Free-write for 15 minutes every day, nonstop, and as fast as you can. It will get you into the habit of writing daily, and there will probably be the makings of a usable post within all that word vomit.
• Allow the child-like creator in you to simply write, and only when done, allow the parent-like editor to take over.
• When tapped out of ideas, consider writing prompts, which give you a break and build community among your readers.
• If you think you can do it all in terms of social media, you’re wrong. Pick 3 things to focus on for 6 months, like growing Facebook fans, a tweet a day, etc.

Design

• The top right of your blog is the most valuable real estate.
• Embrace white space, declutter, be consistent, use color schemes and fonts to create a mood, and repeat design elements throughout.
• Create a style guide with colors, fonts, etc., but also with rules for your writing: first person? yes or no on swearing? any topics you won’t discuss?
• Explore mind mapping.
• Use the rule of thirds in photos, crop around natural body lines (no hacking off of hands or feet, people!), adjust the exposure until white looks white, and always insert photos after text (think SEO).

Evolution of a Post

• Your blog is your resume.
• Think: value, entertainment, consistency, and quality.
• SEO (search engine optimization) is a practice. Things like Google Analytics are tools. So in the technical sense, SEO makes your info search-engine friendly and well ranked. In the practical sense, SEO is a writing method. Use tools like Google AdWords and Yoast, and tag photos with title and alt tags. Be aware of meta keywords, how your site shows on a Google search result.
• Be aware of photo licensing protocol, and only use photos you have permission to use, or photos that have a creative commons license (check Flickr and others).

Your Niche

• To stand out, your content must stand out. What do you offer?
• Take your time, create value, think about your reader’s experience, offer variety, consider readability.
• The first and last sentence of a post can be the most important.
• Make sure the post is easy to scan.

Vlogging

• (Ok, I have to preface this with a statement: I HATE the word “vlogging!”)
• It seems obvious, but: check and re-check the camera angle, make sure the lighting loves you, get distracting or embarrassing items out of the shot, and for heaven’s sake, make sure your teeth and hair are brushed.
• Think of the camera as a friend you are having a conversation with.
• Start off with action or words on the screen – compelling, funny, or high-energy. See Jessica Bern’s hilarious example here (it’s also a good example of a vlogging don’t).
• Keep it under 2 minutes, cutting and timing are everything. Come back after a break and see if anything else should be cut.
• To entertain, keep it short. To inform, the time is more flexible.
• A vlog should have a beginning, middle, and end.
• To edit your own vlogs, check out iMovie or Windows Live Movie Maker. They include free, non-copyrighted music, too!
• Vlogging makes your writing come to life because readers can hear your voice, see your mannerisms, etc.

Now I need to pore over all those blog business cards, subscribe to the blogs that look interesting, and steal some ideas for the business cards that I will no doubt be printing in the future for my own blog.

Happy writing!

Registration is required by September 9, 2011.

What is a roadshow you ask?

 Simply a really fun way to network with your library peers, learn more about unique library services (Plinkit, AskColorado/AskAcademic,SWIFT, Colorado Historic Newspapers, Colorado Virtual Library), and eat free food!

Can you think of a better way to spend a fall morning?

Still curious? Check out the pictures of past roadshows on Flickr!  You won’t be able to resist!

Download flyer (PDF)

AGENDA:

• 2012 statewide summer reading, presented by Kathy Barco: “Dream Big – Read” (children), “Own the Night” (teens)
• Lunch and networking
• Early literacy: Fun in the library for babies and new parents
• Update on Colorado youth services initiatives
• Distribute Summer Reading manuals and Highsmith catalogues

DATES and LOCATIONS (register at least 1 week in advance):

• 10/20/2011 – Rifle
• 10/21/2011 – Eagle
• 11/02/2011 – Pueblo
• 11/03/2011 – Englewood
• 11/04/2011 – Boulder
• 11/10/2011 – Dolores

REGISTRATION: All-day program, $20 per person. Includes breakfast, lunch, and materials. Register now!

QUESTIONS: Michelle Gebhart, 303-866-6894

“Our teens are reading and uploading their reviews-we can’t keep up with them!  As part of our summer program we are creating a mural for our main patio space.  The Mural was designed with the teens by one of our very talented service specialists on staff.   Kids are designing beautiful book pages. ”

Wilkinson PL is going to celebrate the end of their summer program on August 12th with a pop and lock workshop! “We have a professional choreographer from LA (with ties to the Telluride Community)  who will be working with us to host this event.”

To learn more about summer reading, visit the State Library’s summer reading site and the Collaborative Summer Library Program. This year’s statewide themes are: “One World, Many Stories” (children), “You Are Here” (teens), and “Novel Destinations” (adults).