Nylink is delighted to announce 30-day free trials for Oxford’s newest online resource, Oxford Language Dictionaries Online, will be available September 4th, 2007. Request a free trial or get a quote for your library (OLDO is available by simultaneous user or for unlimited access): contact Jen Stelling or Nylink Services. Be sure to include the date you’d like to start your trial!

Initially offering over 1.2 million words and phrases, and over 2 million translations in French, German, Spanish and Italian, OLDO offers instant access to Oxford’s top-of-the-line, unabridged bilingual dictionaries, featuring essential language resources never before available online – fully searchable, comprehensive, authoritative bilingual dictionaries and unique study materials that provide extra help with learning and using an expanding range of languages.
Oxford Language Dictionaries Online features:

• Unique language learning support, including usage examples and illustrative phrases, grammar guidance, click-through verb tables and pronunciation charts, explanations of grammatical terms, and help with spelling and pronunciation
• Access to hundreds of correspondence templates including sample letters, emails, and resumes to provide practical help with writing
• Regular updates every six months ensure that the most current meaning and the latest new words are just a click away

Coming in December: Chinese and Russian dictionaries, and revolutionary pronunciation software allowing your users to hear native speaker stress and intonation.

Download a brochure on Oxford Language Dictionaries Online: http://nylink.org/reference/pdf/oldoflier.pdf.

Last Tuesday, August 14^th, I attended the 3rd Library Camp unconfererence: librarycampnyc, this one was held at Baruch College in NYC. This was my first experience with the unconference “camp” experience – a format that effectively blurs the boundaries between presenters and attendees. Some trademarks:

• The agenda is decided the meeting day.
  • It was impressive to see more than 120 people agree on an agenda in about an hour last Tuesday. This also allows for discussion of bleeding-edge topics or recent developments.
• There are no pre-determined presenters.
  • Anyone could suggest a topic and offer to moderate it – therefore each meeting was more of a discussion between all attendees.

There is a link to several unconference resources on the librarycampnyc wiki – http://librarycampnyc.wikispaces.com/Unconferences. You can see how unconferences are particularly popular in technology circles.

Check out the final agenda of last week’s Library Camp – There is a lot of content on each breakout session’s web page – and more continues to be added.

The highlights for me:

• Getting a chance to really talk with other librarians and information folk about concerns and interests they have. Even before the official conference started I was chatting with people about the trials and tribulations of making your web site xhtml and CSS compliant.

  The talks I attended ranged from using Open Source in a desktop environment – a group that had both practitioners and those interested but uncertain of why they might want to, or how they should, explore open source – to talking about green librarianship – sharing tips and interests in making workplaces greener, but also getting info out to patrons.

  I plan to keep an eye on the librarycampnyc web site/wiki.

• The experience of the unconference. While it was a very democratic process, unless Baruch College had generously shared their space and if at least three individuals (Stephen Francoeur, Rachel Watstein and Steven Kaye) hadn’t been on top of the baseline logistics, this event wouldn’t have gone nearly as well as it did. It really worked – it was an intellectually stimulating environment and people were excited to experience it – but you really couldn’t show up with pre-conceptions, being really willing to roll with the topics and contribute made the time invaluable.

Need a new ILS, you are not alone. With the merger and acquisitions of different companies, Voyager being one, and the realization that current ILS systems no longer meet institutional and/or user needs many institutions are in the process of evaluating their systems and investigating a new one. And what about Open Source. Do you have the staff to create and maintain your own system?
Don’t go it alone! Check out some of these web-sites to get some help:

http://infoservices.uwindsor.ca/ils/

http://infoservices.uwindsor.ca/dist/backgrounder.pdf

http://open-ils.org/blog/

http://www.techsource.ala.org/ltr/open-source-software-for-libraries.html

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6396354.html?q=ILS

http://ct.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=5978

This September, the 12 Eureka Databases will be moving to FirstSearch.

IMPORTANT DATES:
September 9 The Eureka databases (except Hand Press Books and SCIPIO) will be available on FirstSearch
September 16 Hand Press Books and SCIPIO will be added to FirstSearch
September 9-30 Eureka databases will be available on both FirstSearch and Eureka
September 30 The Eureka will be turned off and content will only be available on FirstSearch

A new collection of handy tools designed especially for libraries, archives, museums, historic sites, and historic preservation and arts organizations has been released by the Heritage Emergency National Task Force. The tools are the result of the Task Force’s “Lessons Applied” initiative to develop practical applications for the lessons from Hurricane Katrina, such as helping cultural institutions apply for disaster aid and developing relationships with emergency responders.

The new tools are available as free downloads at www.heritageemergency.org

by participating in our poster sessions or submitting your podcast.

Nylink Showcase 2007 is November 13th in Saratoga Springs at the downtown Holiday Inn.

Showcase Your Library! Poster Session
How is your library changing to meet user needs?
My Library 2.0 is the theme of the poster session we are organizing in conjunction with the Information Showcase. The poster session will take place alongside the Showcase, allowing attendees to see what their colleagues, as well as exhibitors, are doing.
Poster session proposals should be submitted by September 28th, and presenters will be notified of acceptance by October 15th.
Poster session details: http://nylink.org/events/forms/PS07.pdf
Poster session proposal form: http://nylink.org/events/forms/PSapp07.pdf

Send us your podcast!
Is there something about your library or the way that you work that you’d love to share? Nylink invites you to submit a podcast or screencast of 15 minutes or less to be shared at our media kiosk at the Showcase, and to be hosted at the Nylink website afterwards. Whether you’ve got a human interest story or a technical workaround, please contribute and get exposure for your library.
Member media submission form: http://nylink.org/events/forms/MM07.pdf