I am delighted to announce the hiring and arrival of Christine Kreger as the new Technology & Digital Initiatives Consultant at the State Library.
On the job less than three weeks, she has already begun making an impact as a member of a newly-formed Technology Leadership Core, an internal group designed to bring standardization and fresh energy to the State Library’s investment in strategic initiatives related to online learning and training, development of technology-based collaboration tools, tracking technology trends in Colorado libraries, and more.
Christine brings more than 18 years of library experience to her new position, most recently as Internet Librarian for the Arapahoe Library District where she developed and coordinated web content for the ALD’s public web site for five years. Continue reading ‘Kreger joins State Library’
According to a recent study by the Colorado State Library, Library Research Services, during the last decade, circulation of public library children’s materials and participation in public library programs for children increased significantly in the state.
In Colorado public libraries from 1998 to 2007…
- The number of circulation transactions for children’s materials rose 41 percent from 13.5 to 19.1 million.
- Attendance at children’s programs increased 53 percent, going from some 810,000 to 1.24 million.
- The number of children’s programs showed the highest rate of increase at 58 percent, going from 31,165 to 49,136 programs annually.
- Children’s circulation transactions totaled some 159.1 million and children’s program attendance totaled 10.2 million.
Clearly, public libraries are supporting children’s learning by collecting materials that children wish to read and providing appealing library-sponsored programs.
For more on this study, see http://www.lrs.org/
The Colorado State Library, Library Research Service recently published a new edition of Fast Facts:
No. 263 Colorado Summer Reading Programs by Robbie Bravman Marks available online at:
http://www.lrs.org/documents/fastfacts/263_summer_reading.pdf
Some interesting numbers:
- 1.5 million participants registered for summer reading programs in Colorado public libraries in the years 1998 through 2007.
- In the last ten years, Colorado libraries experienced a 77% increase in summer reading registrants.
- More than 8 in 10 Colorado public libraries used the 2007 Collaborative Summer Library them and resources provided by the Colorado State Library.
Hats off to all the librarians in Colorado who encourage children to read and have fun at their libraries during the summer.
View this and other Fast Facts at http://www.lrs.org/fastfacts.php
As some may know, the Colorado State Library’s web site and its parent site, Colorado Department of Education, has for a long time needed a serious interfacelift. I’ve only been at the state library for 21 months (so I may be wrong about this), but I understand that the site has been entrenched in its late 90s-style design for nearly a decade. Yikes.
I’m happy to report that the site has evolved (is now upright and ambulatory) and has become better organized! This is largely due to the coordinated efforts of Marcus Johnstone (CDE) and Michelle Gebhart and Sharon Morris (both from the Library Development Unit within CSL). These are three people who really know how to get things done.
Check out the new site and let any of us at the state library know your suggestions for improving things.
The Colorado State Publications Library is a recipient of The IMLS Bookshelf, a core set of conservation books, DVDs, and online resources. It addresses such topics as the philosophy and ethics of collecting, collections management and planning, emergency preparedness, and culturally specific conservation issues.
Continue reading ‘COSPL awarded IMLS Bookshelf’
The hot place to look for Colorado library jobs continues to be LibraryJobline! A few months ago, the site surpassed a significant mark, with more than 1,000 jobs posted! The site continues to be phenomenally popular. In July alone, 27 NEW job listings were added on the site.
Since its launch on January 17, 2007, a total of 1,065 jobs have been posted on LibraryJobline, a service provided to the library community by the Colorado State Library. One feature that has proven itself valuable is the RSS feed (see What is RSS?). How better to be notified when the job of your dream becomes available?!
Library Research Service staff members, led by director Nicolle Steffen, are the brains and brawn behind the site. Zeth Lietzau continues to develop and improve the site, and Deb Gettings tirelessly maintains the site and troubleshoots problems for users.
Hats off to these folks for creating and supporting this fine service!
p.s. Did I mention that we have two REALLY cool jobs available at the State Library? Technology and Digital Initiatives Consultant and Instructional Design and Technology Consultant…
SWIFT Regional Meetings are being held at a library near you!
These regional meetings will be more of a traditional meeting, and less of a training. For example, some of the agenda items that have been suggested by users are NCIP, future of SWIFT, ILL paperwork, and policies like auto-checkin. If there is an agenda item you would specifically like to be discussed, please let me know!
If you would like to attend one of the meetings, please respond to smith_l@cde.state.co.us with this information:
*Your name
*Your library
*The meeting you would like to attend
For a list of meetings, please visit:
http://www.aclin.org/swift/Trainetc.html
In accordance with Colorado library law, the Library Research Service published the 2007 Colorado Public Library Annual Report. The data is available at LRS.org as statistical reports in various formats, as well as by using LRS-i, an online interactive data tool that produces customizable tables and charts.
In 2007 Colorado public libraries had…
* 11.7 million print books
* 28 million visits
* 5.3 million reference questions
* 53.7 million circulation transactions
* 1.6 million attendees at 70,500 library programs
Following completion of the federal edit checks, the data was sent to the U.S. Census for inclusion in the national library statistics reports published by Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
~Nicolle
steffen_n@cde.state.co.us
Did you know that Colorado has a Continuing Education Forum? This group meets on the third Tuesday of every even month throughout the year. The meetings are open to anyone who coordinates continuing education for library staff in Colorado. Attendees include representatives from the Colorado State Library, Colorado Library Consortium (CLiC), Colorado Association of Libraries (CAL), BCR, MARMOT, Rocky Mountain SLA, several training coordinators for large library districts, as well as representation for school, public, academic and special libraries. The group works on:
- Planning continuing education for library staff
- Collaborating on CE
- Needs Assessment
- Resource sharing
- Reduce duplicative efforts
- Marketing
For more information contact Sharon Morris at Colorado State Library, morris_s@cde.state.co.us
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