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.

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.

If your school participated in a Banned Websites Awareness Day activity, we would love to hear about it! Please email Michelle Gebhart with the details.

Is there an “epidemic” of cancer?   How can you find out more?   Tune in and learn about multiple sites with content about basic information, topic searches, support, statistics, registries, treatment,  and more.
Taking the one-hour class and completing the exercises and class evaluation makes you eligible to receive 1 Medical Library Association Continuing Education credit. This online training is FREE.

Register online at http://tinyurl.com/mcrclasses (registration is not required but is appreciated)

Virtual Classroom URL: https://webmeeting.nih.gov/mcr/

Equipment: connection to the Internet and a phone, Login: as a guest with your first and last name.  Instructions to connect to the audio will show up once you’ve logged in.

Captioning will be provided.

Unable to attend? Visit archived Spotlight sessions at http://nnlm.gov/mcr/services/updates/spotlightresources.html.

The resource is Grovo (http://www.grovo.com) and it offers free, high quality instructional videos. The videos are 1 to 2 minutes each and are very professionally done – completely appropriate to use with staff and patrons.

Most of the videos demonstrate the use of specific websites, like Paypal, Craigslist, Facebook, Gmail and many more. There’s also a collection of videos on web security, covering topics like passwords, spam, phishing, using public computers, and more.

The Grovo site also allows you to create a widget featuring your own title and up to 10 lessons that you choose. You can embed this on your website to direct patrons to the videos on the Grovo site. Here’s a sample widget:

Free accounts are available, which allow users to keep track of videos viewed. Short quizzes are included, and you need to be signed in to take them. An account isn’t needed though to simply view the free videos.

Grovo is adding “premium” business-focused content in the coming months, for a monthly or annual fee, but there’s still a LOT of free content available. According to their site, they intend to continue to add both free and premium content going forward.

Have a look and post a comment on whether you think Grovo could be a good addition to the training you offer staff and patrons at your library.

Other features in GHR include a handbook with sections such as Cells and DNA, How Genes Work, Gene Therapy and many more.  The Glossary contains an alphabetical directory of hundreds of definitions related to genetic conditions.  In addition they feature a Resource and Patient Support web page that has general interest links to websites including genetics education, Human Genome Project, policy/ethics and health literacy.  Health professionals may find links under Resources to the NCI’s PDQ: Cancer Genetics Overview, Gene Tests, Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM), PubMed Medical Genetics Searches, and much more.  Patients and families may click on links to websites such as Ask the Geneticist and the Genetic Alliance’s Understanding Genetics: A Guide for Patients and Professionals.

If one does a simple search of the alphabetical list under “Conditions” and click on “breast cancer,” they will find a description of the disease, its frequency, specific genes related to the disease such as BRCA1, BRCA2, PTEN, STK11, TP53 and others, with a direct link from each gene symbol to its web page with detailed information.  They also provide information on breast cancer inheritance and links for web pages on the diagnosis, management or treatment of breast cancer.  A simple search, in the search box at the top, on “cancer,” brings up 695 results including condition summaries, specific genes, definitions, chromosome summaries, and gene summaries all related to cancers.  Clicking on the “Genetic Conditions” tab at the top on the home page and then clicking on “Cancers” in their list of diseases by categories, results in a large list of genetic related cancers.

Patients, consumers and health professionals will find this a rich resource for learning about genetic conditions. The National Library of Medicine has a wealth of databases and electronic resources (All Free!) for health professionals and the public: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/databases .  For questions about Genetics Home Reference (GHR) or NLM’s other biomedical resources, contact Dana Abbey at 303-724-2110 or dana.abbey@ucdenver.edu.

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

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.

Connect children and youth with your library’s space science resources! Join us for a FREE NASA-supported workshop designed to help you bring space science to your programs through hands-on activities.

Harmony Library
4616 South Shields
Fort Collins, Colorado 80526
September 2-3, 2010

“Explore! Hero Moon” will acquaint you NASA’s investigations into the ongoing saga that has shaped our Moon. Discover our scientific, cultural, and personal understanding of Earth’s nearest natural neighbor. Scientists and educators from the NASA Lunar Science Institute and the Lunar and Planetary Institute will share space science information, resources, hands-on activities, and demonstrations developed specifically for you to infuse into your programs with children and youth ages 8 to 13 and their families.

The workshop is FREE. A $150 stipend is available for 30 participants. A stipend request form will be emailed to participants on a first-come-first-accepted basis.

Space is limited! Register by July 16, 2010.

View flyer (PDF)

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

We all know that Web 2.0 tools are essential for communicating and creating in today’s fast-paced world. If there are tools that you or your staff want to learn more about, or if you just need to brush up on the basics, please visit the Colorado Libraries 2.0 website.

Colorado Libraries 2.0 is a FREE learning program to help library staff become familiar with Web 2.0 tools. The program is designed in modules associated with categories of tools:

1. Communication
2. Collaboration
3. Visual Communications
4. Personal Learning Environments (PLE)
5. Productivity Tools
6. A capstone project – Your PLE

Additional modules will be available in 2010.

Join with others from your library to get the most from the program !

Colorado Libraries 2.0 was created by Reach – Leading Learning in Libraries – a group of library staff members committed to sharing continuing education opportunities with others.