The deadline for nominations for 2010 Coming Up Taller Awards is January 29.  This award focuses on program excellence in after school, out of school, and summer arts and humanities programs for underserved children and youth.  Winners receive $10,000 for their efforts in creating dynamic programs that positively impact program participants.

More info below:

Washington, DC-The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) invites nominations for the 2010 Coming Up Taller awards, which honor excellence in afterschool, out-of-school, and summer arts and humanities programs for underserved children and youth. Coming Up Taller is an initiative of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
(PCAH) in partnership with IMLS, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). IMLS and its partners encourage programs initiated by museums, libraries, performing arts organizations, universities, colleges, arts centers, community service organizations, schools, businesses, and eligible government entities to participate. Click here for the nomination form:
http://www.pcah.gov/cut/2010CUTNominationApplication.pdf

Each year, the Coming Up Taller awards recognize and reward exceptional programs that cultivate character development and life skills in young people, in addition to presenting high-quality arts and humanities learning opportunities. Award recipients receive $10,000 each, an individualized plaque, and an invitation to attend the annual Coming Up Taller Leadership Enhancement Conference.

In 2008, Nylink entered into some conversations with librarians at SUNY about an open-source electronic resource management system called CUFTS, developed by Simon Fraser University. The system appeared to have tremendous potential and it was agreed that Nylink should develop a service based on the CUFTS platform. Nylink Program Development Team Leader Luke Williams and Senior Product Strategist Lauren Pinsley were assigned to this project, and have worked very hard over the past year to create and launch the service, with the goal of developing a comprehensive solution, for a single price that is the same for every library. After building an instance of the system on our own servers, developing the service and inputting our own electronic serials and database information and coming up with a name, it was determined that the best way to continue to develop and enhance the service was with a live pilot. The test group was five libraries. For the full text of the Q & A interview, please see p.5 of the most recent Nylink Connection (PDF).

Oxford University Press congratulates Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson, who both won the Nobel Prize in Economic Science for their work demonstrating that community institutions often find ways to mutually resolve problems that arise from free-market competition. Ostrom is the first woman ever to win the prize. Works by both of these Nobel Laureates are published by OUP and are also available through Oxford Scholarship Online and Oxford Handbooks Online.

Elinor Ostrom, a professor of political science at Indiana University, was cited "for her analysis of economics governance, especially the commons." Her work shows that communities often manage common property better on their own, without the regulation of central authorities.

Oliver E. Williamson, a professor in the graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, was cited "for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm." His work examines why large corporations arise, and found that "when market competition is limited, firms are better suited for conflict resolution than markets."

The fact that the Prize was given to two social scientists reflects recent changes in economic thought. "It is part of the merging of the Social Sciences," Robert Shiller, an economist at Yale, said. "Economics has been too isolated and these awards today are a sign of the greater enlightenment going around. We were too stuck on efficient markets and it was derailing our thinking."

According to the committee, Professors Ostrom and Williamson were honored because "both scholars have greatly enhanced our understanding of non-market institutions." Professor Shiller elaborates on the decision by explaining that "basically there is a common understanding that develops even among competitors when they are dealing with each other. When people make business contact, even competitors, they can’t anticipate everything, so an element of trust comes in," and that is what the Nobel committee recognized in citing the two.

Below is a full OUP bibliography for both, with links to OSO and OHO when applicable:

Elinor Ostrom
Co-author of The Samaritan’s Dilemma: The Political Economy of Development Aid (OUP, 2005) (http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/economicsfinance/9780199278855/toc.html)

Editor of Linking the Formal and Informal Economy: Concepts and Policies (OUP, 2007) (http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/economicsfinance/9780199204762/toc.html)

Author of "Collective Action Theory" in The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics (OUP, 2007)
(http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/oso/public/content/oho_politics/9780199566020/oxfordhb-9780199566020-chapter-8.html)

Oliver Williamson
Author of The Mechanisms of Governance (OUP, 1999)

Author of The Nature of the Firm: Origins, Evolution, and Development (OUP, 1993)

Author of Organization Theory: From Chester Barnard to the Present and Beyond, 2nd Edition (OUP, 1995)

Author of "Economic Institutions and Development: A View from the Bottom" from A Not-so-dismal Science – A Broader View of Economies and Societies (OUP, 2000) (http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/economicsfinance/9780198294900/toc.html)

Author of "Transaction Cost Economics and Organization Theory&quot: from Technology, Organization, and Competitiveness – Perspectives on Industrial and Corporate Change (OUP, 1998) (http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/oso/private/content/economicsfinance/9780198290964/p013.html)

Congratulations to these OUP authors!
Nylink offers Oxford Scholarship Online and Oxford Handbooks Online – please contact services[at]nylink.org for details, or see the Oxford University Press page at nylink.org

Caryl Ward, Binghamton University Libraries, and Boaz Nadav-Manes, Cornell University Library (both universities’ libraries are Nylink members) agreed to repeat their presentations from the WorldCat Selection User Group Meeting Presentations so that OCLC could record them to post to the OCLC Web site. The recordings are now available at http://www.oclc.org/selection/overview/websessions.htm.
For more information about WorldCat Selection, please contact OCLC’s Support department by phone at 1-800-848-5800 and follow the prompts (menu selections 1-4-2-1 for FirstSearch and WorldCat.org), or by e-mail at support@oclc.org.

Nylink officially welcomes our new board members to the Nylink Advisory Board [formerly Nylink Council]!

We are so pleased to welcome the following new members to the Nylink Advisory Board:

• NJ Wolfe, Fashion Institute of Technology: Representing SUNY campuses
• Robin Petrus, Broome Community College: Representing SUNY community colleges
• John Shaloiko, Southeastern NY Library Resources Council: Representing regional library councils
• Carol Anne Feltes, Rockefeller University: Representing independent higher education
• Madeline Cohen, Newsweek, Inc.: Representing corporate

Additionally, we welcome back returning board members!

• Susan Currie, Binghamton University
• Jane Winland, Columbia University
• Barbara Petruzzelli, Mount Saint Mary College
• Pamela Gillespie, The City College of New York
• Joanne Schneider, Colgate University
• Diana Cunningham, New York Medical College
• Liza Duncan, New York State Library
• Elizabeth O’Keefe, The Morgan Library and Museum

We look forward to a great year with all of you.

Yesterday, the New York Times reported that David Ferriero, currently the head of the New York Public Library, will be nominated by President Obama as the new U.S. Archivist.  Ferriero will head the National Archives and Records Adminstration.

We recently learned that librarianship and the world of information have lost a long-time proponent, Teresa Strozik on January 2nd.

Ms. Strozik was one of the forces behind Nylink and New York State libraries, as our own Mary Edgerton remembers:

I knew Teresa for many years first in my role as catalog librarian in New York State libraries where I came to rely on the SUNY/OCLC (now Nylink) Network for training in MARC Format and cataloging rules and OCLC systems. Later I worked for Teresa when she was Associate Director of the SUNY/OCLC Network. Along with Glyn Evans, Teresa built SUNY/OCLC (now Nylink) and did much to further New York State libraries. I enjoyed working for Teresa and she will be missed by librarians everywhere.

Ms. Strozik’s obituary can be found in the Syracuse Post Standard (first appearing January 5th) http://obits.syracuse.com/Syracuse/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=122233950

From The Associated Press, Wednesday, November 18, 2008 –
ALBANY — The State University of New York’s interim chancellor will resign, effective Dec. 31, as a SUNY panel continues to search for a permanent replacement.

Interim Chancellor John B. Clark announced his resignation Tuesday. He was appointed as a visiting professor.

Clark was not a candidate to replace former Chancellor John Ryan, who left SUNY in May of 2007 for a corporate training job in North Carolina. Ryan was appointed to the $340,000-a-year job in December 2005, replacing Robert King who left in 2005 after five years.

The search committee has sought a national stature replacement to run the 64-campus system since Ryan left.

Nylink’s Annual Meeting, “Evolution & Transformation: Get Ready for the Future!,” is coming up May 5-6 with speakers addressing such topics as leadership, the future of cataloging, and making the most of Web 2.0. Learn more about our Annual Meeting at http://nylink.org/events/amtg08.cfm.

One of the speakers, Jessamyn West, will talk about “Web 2.0 and the Open Library.” In a March 19, 2008 posting to her librarian.net blog entitled “Why should libraries be socially networking?”, Jessamyn suggested how librarians could learn about and get involved with Web 2.0 technologies.

She talked about Vermont’s 23 Things, an online continuing education program for library staff in her home state that’s based on the Learning 2.0 online course developed by Helene Blowers, formerly with the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (PLCMC) in Charlotte, N.C., and currently Director of Digital Strategy for the Columbus Metropolitan Library in Columbus, Ohio.

Helene’s Learning 2.0 program provides library staff with 23 exercises that allow them to learn about and experiment with blogs, wikis, RSS, image sites, podcasting, and other Web 2.0 technologies. Over 250 libraries and other organizations have duplicated the Learning 2.0 program for their staffs including Queens Library in New York City.

To see what else I discovered in browsing Jessamyn’s blog, take a look at my “What’s Up on the Web?” column in the April issue of Nylink’s Status Line newsletter, to be available soon at Nylink’s Publications page at http://nylink.org/publications/. Or, take yourself on a tour of Jessamyn’s librarian.net blog.

We hope to see you at Nylink’s Annual Meeting where you can hear Jessamyn West in person along with our many other fine speakers: Richard A. Detweiler, President, Great Lakes Colleges Association, on transformational leadership; Zsuzsa Koltay, Special Projects Librarian, Cornell University, on Web 2.0 and WorldCat Local; Mary Catherine Little, Technical Services Director, Queens Borough Public Library, and Robert Wolven, Associate University Librarian, Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, on the outcome of The Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control. Nylink Executive Director W. David Penniman will also provide a report.

We are deeply saddened to inform you of the death of our friend and colleague, Jane C. Neale, Nylink’s Information Technology Coordinator. Jane fought a valiant but brief battle with cancer with courage, grace and determination.

Jane joined Nylink in 1998 and was at work until last week, serving and supporting our members. Jane was an integral part of our staff and her quick wit and bright, cheerful and positive attitude are just some of what we will miss.

Final arrangements are being made at this time and will be shared at a later time. Thank you for your thoughts and compassion as we get through this difficult time.

http://nylink.org/staff/janebio.cfm