The Museum Association of New York and The Upstate History Alliance just announced their annual meeting:  Museums in Conversation: What Inspires You?.   Taking place in Albany, NY, April 11-13, this conference draws folks from all types of museums, historical societies, special collections and archives from across the state.  This year’s conversation will focus on building better missions and visions for our institutions and thereby generating inspiration to reach and serve our communities.   Make sure you register soon – don’t miss this great opportunity to meet and talk with your colleagues from across New York State!

The annual ILLiad International conference is taking place March 25 & 26, 2010 in Virginia Beach.  A number of pre-conference programs are available on March 24.  These include Nylink’s own Jon Penn, presenting with Collette Mak of the University of Notre Dame and Stephanie Spires of Atlas Systems.  This workshop will include both a morning and afternoon session (hands on lab in the afternoon!) on March 24.  If you are going down to the conference make plans to participate in this workshop.

ILLiad and OCLC Data Reporting Made Simple

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 9:00 am – 12:00 noon

Collette Mak, University of Notre Dame; Jon Penn, Nylink; Stephanie Spires, Atlas Systems

Join instructors Collette Mak of the University of Notre Dame, Jon Penn of Nylink, and Stephanie Spires of Atlas Systems to learn about the ILLiad database, OCLC Usage Stats, and how to create custom reports. We will explore:

• Basic ILLiad database tables and relationships
• ILLiad web reports vs OCLC stats
• Exporting data from OCLC Usage Stats for Use in Microsoft Excel
• Exporting data from the ILLiad client and web reports for use in Microsoft Excel
• How to access the ILLData database using Microsoft Excel
• Extracting data for annual report topics
• Using mapping software to display data for visual impact

This session is BYOL (Bring Your Own Laptop).

ILLiad and OCLC Data Reporting Made Simple – Hands-on Lab

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm.

NOTE: ILLiad and OCLC Data Reporting Made Simple class is a prerequisite in order to attend this class

Collette Mak, University of Notre Dame; Jon Penn, Nylink; Stephanie Spires, Atlas Systems

This session requires the use of a personal laptop with Microsoft Office programs. Lab exercises will include extracting sample ILLiad and OCLC Usage Stats data to create:

• Spreadsheets
• Pivot tables and charts

This session is BYOL (Bring Your Own Laptop).

There is more information about this workshop on the 2010 International ILLiad Conference web site:

https://www.atlas-sys.com/conference/login.aspx

Details:

• April 12-14, 2010
• Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, VA

Attend this year’s Computers in Libraries conference in Arlington, VA, for more than 50% off of the regular full conference price by registering through Nylink! By registering through us, your cost for Computers in Libraries will be $244 (regular cost is $489).

Important: You must use the Nylink registration form (PDF) and return it to Nylink with your payment by Friday, March 5 See form for more details!

Join Lauren Pinsley for a demo of True Serials, and see how it can help you to facilitate accurate inward & outward facing serials holdings through a robust hosted management environment that provides easy access to license and subscription/renewal terms, and streamlined local holdings record updating by batch to WorldCat.

With True Serials, you will be able to:

• Help your patrons find and use your e-journals and databases.
• Keep track of licenses, renewals, and other administrative data.
• Create accurate local holdings for your e-journals in WorldCat.

Dates

• METRO: 01/25 (1:00 PM-3:00 PM)
• Nassau Library System: 01/26 (1:00 PM-3:00 PM)
• Capital District Library Council: 02/08 (2:00 PM-4:00 PM)
• Rochester Regional Library Council: 02/22 (2:00 PM-4:00 PM)
• Western New York Library Resources Council: 02/23 (10:00 AM-12:00 PM)
• Central Library Resource Council: 02/23 (2:00 PM-4:00 PM)
• Southeastern New York Library Resources Council: 02/01 (1:00 PM-3:00 PM)

Attendance is free, but we do appreciate your advance registration; sign up now!

The Conference on New York State History is calling for papers.  The deadline is December 31.  If your library, museum, or organization is involved in any local or New York State history projects, this is a great venue to present at.   They are especially interested in hearing from first time presenters, graduate students and local government historians.

Below is the press release:

The Conference on New York State History
Ithaca College June 3—5, 2010
Sponsored by New York State Historical Association
in collaboration with New York State Archives Partnership Trust
Cosponsored by New York Council for the Humanities

Call for Papers Deadline

December 31, 2009

Individual paper abstracts, panel proposals, workshop plans, and other program suggestions are invited for the 2010 conference to be held in the Ithaca area. Presentations may consider any aspect of the history of New York State over the past 400 years. Diverse theoretical perspectives and innovative methodological approaches are welcomed.

■ What is the Conference?

The Conference on New York State History is an annual meeting of academic and public historians, librarians and archivists, educators, publishers, and other interested individuals who come together to discuss topics and issues related to the people of New York State in historical perspective and to share information and ideas regarding historical research, programming, and the networking of resources and services. Ten to fifteen presentation sessions, workshops, and a keynote address permit more than fifty individuals to take part in the formal program.

Special consideration is accorded first-time presenters, graduate students, and local government historians. The conference is self-sustaining and is organized by a committee of historians from a variety of institutions across the state.

Interested parties are encouraged to discuss proposals and any conference-related ideas with Field Horne, conference chair (e-mail preferred). The Program Committee will meet to consider proposals in mid-January. Applicants will be notified immediately thereafter.

■ What to submit:

All proposals must be received by December 31, 2009 at 5:00 PM. If at all possible, submit an MS Word document by e-mail to conferencechair@nysha.org. A proposal should be a one-page description of each presentation—not the full manuscript—and must include the following information at the top of the page: paper and/or session titles, names, postal addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of all participants, and all equipment needs and scheduling requests. It should also briefly discuss sources, methodology, and argument.

All program participants are required to register for the conference.

■ Commentators sought:

Qualified commentators for sessions are needed. Please indicate your willingness, with your areas of expertise, in an e-mail to the conference chair.

■ How to submit:

Send proposals to:

Field Horne, Conference Chair

Conference on NYS History

Box 215

Saratoga Springs, NY 12866¬0215

(518) 587-4962

conferencechair@nysha.org

On Tuesday 12/8, representatives from the New York State Library, including State Librarian Bernard Margolis, the New York 3Rs Councils, and Nylink met to discuss digitization efforts in New York, including opportunities for statewide collaboration. The meeting closed with agreement that a smaller subset of the group would meet again for planning purposes.

Nylink partner Atlas Systems has announced the first Ares User Group meeting, to be held at ALA Midwinter in Boston. 

As Ares Electronic Reserves continues to grow in the number of users, Atlas decided that it was time to turn the Ares User Group meetings over to the Ares community, and are very pleased that Crystal Hester of Case Western Reserve University has agreed to serve as the first Chairperson of the Ares User Group Meetings.   As Chairperson, Crystal will handle the organizing, promoting and running of the Ares User Group Meetings to be held at the 2010 ALA Midwinter and Annual Conferences.

The inaugural Ares User Group Meeting will be held on Saturday, January 16, 2010, from 4:00 to 5:30 pm at the Westin Waterfront Hotel’s Hancock Room.  Current Ares subscribers as well as librarians interested in learning more about how Ares Electronic Reserves can help automate and streamline e-reserves functions in their library, are welcome to attend.

Registration is now open for the WebWise Conference on Libraries and Museums in the Digital World 2010.  And it is free! This conference, co-hosted by IMLS, the University of Denver, the Denver Art Museum and BCR, runs from March 3-5, 2010, in Denver, CO.  This year’s theme is “Imagining the Digital Future” and focuses on the future of collaborative digitization programs, the use of technologies for engaging audiences and sustainability of digital projects.

Attendees do have to pay for housing, food, etc but what a deal:  the conference and preconference are free.  Plus, you can enjoy some sun, networking and great outdoor adventures all in one.    Just make sure you register early, since space is limited.

Nylink staff members Mary Edgerton, Deidre Dowling, Meredith Case and Lauren Pinsley are looking forward to attending the New York Library Association’s annual conference, and exhibiting at the trade show, next week.

Nylink will be at booth 139, and our staff will also be involved with two presentations:

Living History through Social Networking
Track history, as it happens, through the web. This session will begin with a brief overview on information hunting and engaging users with social media. Then we’ll dive in and see how a teacher from a project-based high school implements Twitter and other social media into her classroom.
Friday, October 16, 9:45-11
Conference Center, C-Tubman
Sponsors: NYLINK, SLMS
Speakers: Stacia Snow, Tech Valley High School; Meredith Case, Nylink

Managing Serials-the New York Landscape
Join a discussion on current strategies for managing serials and local holdings in NY.
Thursday, October 15, 10:45-12 Noon
Conference Center, C-Tubman
Sponsors: NYLINK, SMART
Speakers: Lauren Pinsley, Nylink; and Mary Edgerton, Nylink

The American Association for State and Local History announced the winners of its Leadership in History Awards Program for 2008.  These awards recognize the best of the best in state and local history.  New York state winners are the Coalition of Niagara County Historical Societies for the public program, World War II Axis Prisoners of War at Fort Niagara 1944-45 and the New York State Archives for the website, Throughout the Ages