Announcements

Brooklyn Public Library Throws Back to School Bash

birdie — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:57:06 -0400

Shout-out from the BPL's Nate Hill: On Monday, September first (Labor Day), the Brooklyn Public Library and Habana Outpost Eco-Eatery will together throw a Back to School Bash to prepare kids for the upcoming school year.

Starting at noon, kids can sign up for a new BPL card, enjoy storytime by Brooklyn's best librarians, jump and shout at a dance party, learn about being green (including learning how to start a compost bin at home or in the classroom), join in eco-friendly crafts, have their face painted and get some back to school goodies that all the cool kids will have in their backpacks, including notebooks.

Date: Monday, September 1, 2008/ Time: 12- 5 PM / Location: Habana Outpost Ecoeatery, 757 Fulton Street at South Portland Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 718.858.9500 .

What's your library doing to celebrate or otherwise observe B-to-S days?

Sandy Berman Appreciation Month

Blake — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:38:20 -0400

Jenna Freedman declares the six weeks or so from now until his birthday on October 6, Sandy Berman appreciation month. She's asking for participatiion by sending him cards, flowers, subject heading suggestions, and low fat schnitzel.

Sanford Berman
Room 615 - Bed 2
Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital
6500 Excelsior Blvd.
St. Louis Park, MN 55426

He'll probably be at the above address for at least a month. While his condition isn't life threatening, it is very serious. He has two broken vertebrae in his neck and secondary injuries from the surgery and will be in a series of body, back and neck braces for some time. But don't feel that you have to know him to write to him. Sandy has long been a friend and mentor to librarians, LIS students, and activists that he's never met.

Information Specialist as Detective Contest

Anonymous Patron — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:18:21 -0400

The Canadian Association of Special Libraries and Information Services (CASLIS) invites Canadian information specialists to explore their creative side and apply their skills to solve a mystery.

To enter the contest, we want you to create an information specialist (be it librarian, records manager, archivist, knowledge management consultant, or whoever) who makes use of their professional skills to turn detective. You don't need to write the entire novel. Just give us:

* A title
* An outline plot summary
* An extract

The total length of the entry (including the title, summary and extract) should be no more than 500 words long. Entries will be judged on their entertainment value and the inventive use they make of our specialist skills rather than their potential interest to a literary agent.

Entries will be reviewed by a jury composed of librarians and mystery writers. The winner will be awarded a $50 gift certificate from a mystery bookstore. The jury members are:

* Evette Berry, Calgary Public Library
* Ross Gordon, Director, RCMP Library and Canadian Police College Library
* Mary Jane Maffini, mystery writer and lapsed librarian

All submissions will be published in the October 2008 edition of Special Issues: Bulletin of the Canadian Association of Special Libraries and Information Services. Members of the Canadian Library Association will be invited to vote for the winner of a People's Choice Award who will receive a $25 gift certificate from a mystery bookstore.

Entries should be submitted to CASLIS.SpecialIssues@gmail.com by September 15, 2008.

LibLime to Acquire CARE Affiliates

Blake — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:58:19 -0400

ATHENS, OH and BLACKSBURG, VA--July 29, 2008 -– LibLime, the leader in open source solutions for libraries and CARE Affiliates™ announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement to sell select assets of CARE Affiliates to LibLime. The sale will include select products, related services and domain names along with associated service contracts. Final closing is scheduled for August 2008.

Carl Grant, President of CARE Affiliates will be taking a new position as president of Ex Libris, North America, effective immediately. "I'm delighted that LibLime has decided to acquire these assets," said Carl. "This will ensure the continuation of these products/services well into the future. I look forward to seeing how LibLime grows these ideas. I also feel it's important to say that this sale and my move is based primarily on personal reasons and is in no way a reflection on the open-source community or service providers serving libraries. Open source has a vibrant future in libraries and I'm pleased to say that Ex Libris is one of the proprietary vendors listening to this community as evidenced by their recent announcement about their new Open Platform strategy. I will continue to stay engaged with the library open-source community, albeit in a different role."

"We've been proud to list CARE Affiliates as one of our strategic partners since they started supporting open source in 2007," says Joshua Ferraro, CEO of LibLime. "This arrangement gives us increased capacity to deliver open-source and open architecture solutions for libraries in the strategic area of metasearching.""

LibLime's acquisition of CARE again highlights one strength of open-source solutions -- no vendor lock-in. CARE's customers don't need to worry about switching to new solutions. With open source, switching vendors doesn't mean switching software."

This is LibLime's third acquisition since the company's inception in 2005. Earlier acquisitions include Ohio-based Skemotah Solutions and Katipo Communications' Koha division in New Zealand.

About CARE Affiliates, Inc.

CARE Affiliates provides services and products based on open-source software to libraries and information centers around the world. These services include consulting, selection, packaging, integration, installation, support, hosting (SaaS), maintenance and continued development. Products include repositories, federated search tools, preservation and archiving solutions. Learn more about CARE at
http://www.care-affiliates.com

About LibLime

LibLime is the global leader in open-source solutions for libraries, with a mission to make open source accessible to libraries. Rather than sell software licenses for static, hard-to-customize software products, LibLime educates libraries about the benefits of open source, enabling them to make choices about how best to provide their communities and staff with better technology services. LibLime then facilitates implementation of open-source in libraries by providing outstanding development, customization, support and training solutions--solutions tailored to each library's needs. For more information, see http://liblime.com.

Press Contact

Tina Burger

Vice President, Marketing LibLime

(888)Koha ILS (564-2457)

tnb@liblime.com

http://liblime.com

Tell Us: Why did you choose librarianship?

Blake — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:16:13 -0400

(Posting this again for those who missed it)

Over the next week or so I’d like to try and assemble audio answers from as many people as possible to our favorite question: "Why did you choose librarianship?" Stephen will stitch them all together and release a podcast at some point in the next few weeks.

I’d very much like to make this an audio project. To leave an answer to be included in the podcast, there are a few ways you can go.

If you are in the US, you can call 646-495-9201, enter extension 61340, and leave your answer.

If you are outside the US, or just want to use your computer, you can upload an MP3 file using the upload tool located on the podcast page http://lisnews.org/podcast/.

Be sure to tell us who you are and where you're calling from. You need not provide us with your entire bio, just something simple is fine if you’d like to remain private: "Hi, this is Blake calling from western New York and I chose librarianship because..."

Tell Us: "Why did you choose librarianship?"

Blake — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:10:50 -0400

I’d very much like to make this an audio project. To leave an answer to be included in the podcast, there are a few ways you can go.

If you are in the US, you can call 646-495-9201, enter extension 61340, and leave your answer.

If you are outside the US, or just want to use your computer, you can upload an MP3 file using the upload tool located on the podcast page http://lisnews.org/podcast/.

Use of Web 2.0 Tech in Teaching, Learning, Support Survey

Blake — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:36:51 -0400

This survey is being undertaken on behalf of the Committee of Inquiry into the Changing Learner Experience for all the UK funding agencies. The survey’s specific remit is to report on the changing use of Web 2.0 technologies for teaching, learning, support and administration purposes in higher education. This survey is being undertaken in five countries to help inform an international comparison. The survey has 4 pages and should take about 20 minutes if you have use of Web 2.0 examples to share.

We are undertaking an international study of the use of Web 2.0 technologies in teaching, learning, support and administration. As part of this study we are collecting evidence, in the form of case studies, of the use of Web 2.0 in higher education in the United Kingdom, Australia, The United States of America, South Africa and the Netherlands.

If you have been using Web 2.0 in your practice we would be very grateful if you would complete the survey, which can be found at

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=MZjfSlt_2buoldTLQM0ZxB1A_3d_3d

or http://tinyurl.com/65ub2s .

Completing the survey should take around 20 - 30 minutes, and if you leave your email address we will send you the draft report for comment and the final report.

Third Annual Pimp My Bookcart Contest

birdie — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:17:50 -0400

...from UNSHELVED.

They've been joined by corporate sponsor Smith Systems...book cart manufacturers, among other items. Here's the nitty gritty...

For the sensitive, contest sponsors add: "About the name...This just in: it's a parody of MTV's Pimp My Ride. But we realize that community standards vary. Feel free to use variants such as "Trick My Book Truck" or "Primp My Bookcart" (or anything else) for your local programs."

Enter at their website starting in August. Happy pimping!

A book that really puts children to sleep!

Anonymous Patron — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:32:30 -0400

The Dream Stowaway is no question one of the best bedtime books I ever read my child! From start to finish my child was at the edge of her bed waiting for the next verse to begin. The Dream Stowaway is 42 pages but reads like a 13 page book. It stars one of the cutest and most original characters I've seen in children's literature. A small boy that travels from house to house placing children to sleep..(and Santa Clause thought he had it bad). Much like the jolly red man, The Dream Stowaway will give your children something to look forward to not just for one night, but every night. My child is already placing toys next to her bed for The Dream Stowaway to take.

Here is the website for the book www.cjpumpkinsworld.com

Please carry this book for other parents to read. It really does put children to sleep!

Maya King
Teacher/ Parent

LibLime and the eXtensible Catalog (XC) Project Announce Partnership

Blake — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:28:24 -0400

Pulled this one off O' the Ol' LISWire: LibLime and the eXtensible Catalog (XC) Project Announce Partnership: LibLime and the eXtensible Catalog (XC) project-- an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded project currently underway at the University of Rochester's River Campus Libraries-- have announced a new partnership agreement to ensure future compatibility between the XC project and Koha, the first open-source integrated library system.

The XC/LibLime partnership will ensure that the open-source software being developed as part of the XC project and the Koha open-source integrated library system will be fully compatible with each other, enabling current and future users of Koha to take advantage of the added capabilities for managing and distributing metadata that XC will offer. These benefits include facilitating the ability to combine legacy metadata with emerging schemas, and delivering library content to web content management and learning management systems.