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!

Find a great introduction to ROI for libraries in wiki form, with tips on conducting an ecoonomic impact study and sharing your analysis of results,  from the Nebraska Library Commission: http://www.nlc.state.ne.us/Wikis/ROI4Libraries/

Illinois’ North Suburban Library System offers an ROI calculator for libraries: http://www.nsls.info/roi/?m=library and for users: http://www.nsls.info/roi/

Patron calculator for determining value for each tax dollar contributed (it’s for Colorado libraries, but still a good illustration of value): http://www.lrs.org/public/roi/usercalculator.php

The National Network of Medical Libraries offers a slightly different calculator to show the retail value of the library: http://nnlm.gov/mcr/evaluation/roi.html

Changes are afoot for librarians seeking New York State Public Librarian Certification.  Any librarian initially certified on or after January 1, 2010 will have to meet professional development requirements in order to maintain their certificate.  Basically, certified public librarians must complete 60 contact hours of professional development every five years.  Those certified before January 1, 2010 will not have to meet these requirements.  A list of FAQs is available that provides more detailed information about the requirements.  

Nylink, as well as a number of organizations across the state have been approved by the State to provide professional development opportunities that fulfill the new requirements.  More information about NYS Public Librarian Certification can be found at the NYS Education Department.

Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) and Atlas Systems are excited to provide a special offer for a limited time on CCC’s Annual Copyright License and Atlas Systems’ Ares e-reserves system.
Purchase the Annual Copyright License before April 15th, 2010 and CCC will waive the General and Administrative (G&A) fee1 and, Atlas will provide the first year of its Ares e-reserves system2 at no cost.
Combine the reserves management functionality of Ares with the convenience of the Annual Copyright License Ares is Atlas’ e-reserves system. It is designed to quickly and efficiently automate library reserve services for faculty, students and reserve staff. Ares provides around-the-clock access to a reserves collection and saves time for faculty members and library staff.

For more information about this offer, and about what Ares can do for your library, see the Nylink website.

ALA has issued a sixth draft of its “Librarianship and Traditional Cultural Expressions: Nurturing Understanding and Respect”.  Comments are being accepted.  I came across this working document through the ArchivesNext blog.  It seems that ALA’s Rare Book and Manuscript Section has commented on the document and The Society of American Archivists has been approached for comment as well.  If you have items that fall under the umbrella of traditional cultural expressions take a look at what is going on.

RUSA STARS announces a FREE “Everything You Always Wanted to Know about ILL” workshop at ALA Midwinter. This workshop will take place from 9:00-1:00 on Friday, January 15, 2010. Registration will begin at 9:00 and presentations will begin at 9:30. The workshop will be held in Room CO5/6 at the Boston Public Library. There is no charge to attend and refreshments will be served.

You do not need to be registered for ALA Midwinter in order to attend this free workshop.

Registration is available online through the Lyrasis Classes and Events website:

http://www.lyrasis.org/?sc_itemid={4F056F6A-C22A-47A9-B575-C99015EF2E71}

This system-neutral workshop will cover best practices in resource sharing, address ways you can best serve your users, and provide an excellent overview of the resources and support available to ILL practitioners. Whether you’re new to resource sharing or have been providing services for years, this workshop will help you to reconsider your approaches, make decisions about user services, define best practices, and introduce you to ways you can best contribute to the resource sharing community while reflecting your own library’s mission.

Our knowledgeable instructors are Cyril Oberlander (borrowing), Karen Janke (lending), Cindy Kristof (copyright), and Collette Mak (standards and resources).

Thank you to Lyrasis, OCLC, and RapidILL for sponsoring this no-charge workshop. We are also grateful to the Boston Public Library for providing facilities.

For questions or additional information, please contact Megan Gaffney, RUSA STARS Education Committee at gaffneym@udel.edu .

A new initiative at Project Muse will bring a wealth of additional research material to users of its online journals at subscribing institutions. Beginning in 2010, MUSE is launching a back issues program which will incorporate previous volumes of many highly respected journals already contributing current content to Muse.

Over the next four years, back issue content from over 60 titles will be made available in Muse. Through a cost-sharing arrangement with the journal publishers to cover the production and indexing costs for the journal content, MUSE is able to make this content available to current subscribers at no additional charge. Subscribing libraries will be able to access any available back issues for titles that are included in the collection to which the library subscribes.

The back issues program began with a pilot phase from 2008-2009, during which back issues of selected journals published by The Johns Hopkins University Press (JHUP) were incorporated into the MUSE collections. Titles for which archival content was made available included Journal of Democracy,  Journal of the History of Philosophy, Children’s Literature, Children;s Literature Association Quarterly, The Emily Dickinson Journal, Journal of Early Christian Studies, Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, The Lion and the Unicorn, MFS Modern Fiction Studies, Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas,  and Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology.

For many of the titles in the pilot phase, and several in the group being released in 2010, participation in the back issues project will result in the full run of the journal being available in Project Muse. One of the first to launch with a complete run in 2010 will be English Literature in Translation, 1880-1920.

For more information about the Project Muse Back Issues Initiative, including title lists for the project, see the Project Muse website at http://muse.jhu.edu/about/muse/back_issues.html

Nylink’s academic library pricing for Project Muse collections is available at MyNylink. For school or special library pricing, please contact us at services [at] nylink.org.

Want to try Muse out? 45-day trials are available at the Project Muse website.

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

Recently, the Department of Library and Information Studies at University at Buffalo announced a new MLS program.  What’s unique about this program is that is takes place entirely online, so students who live in all sorts of locations can pursue their MLS.  It also may appeal to students who are working either full-time or part-time.  This program is appropriate for students looking to work in public, academic, and special libraries, plus there is a extra emphasis on reference services.   Students are expected to complete 2 classes per semester plus two over the summer sessions for a total of six courses per year.  Students can plan to complete the program in two years.   (And the program has been accredited by the ALA, in case you were wondering.)

Space is limited to 24 students and the first students will start in Fall 2010.  Applications are currently being being accepted.

Check out UB’s  MLS online program site for more information.

Yesterday the NEA released the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. This is the NEA’s largest national study of adults’ participation in the arts.

From the Museum Association of New York:  “The new study finds a notable decline in theater, museum and concert attendance and other “benchmark” cultural activities between 2002 and 2008 for adults 18 and older, and a sharper fall from 25 years ago. The drop was for virtually all art forms and for virtually all age groups and levels of education.  Between 2002 and 2008, percentages fell for movie-going from 60 to 53.3, for jazz from 10.8 to 7.8, for museums/galleries from 26.5 to 22.7.  Other categories with lower attendance include ballet, opera, musical and nonmusical theater, and art/crafts fairs and festivals.  Visits to parks/monuments/historical buildings fell from 31.6 percent in 2002 to 24.9 percent last year.

The survey was conducted in partnership with the United States Census Bureau and has been conducted five times since 1982.  The conversation will focus on how these findings should inform the arts community’s work going forward, as well as how the survey should be expanded and refined in the future.”
Related to this, in recent weeks I have read and heard that many museums have found that their visitation actually increased in 2009.  However, many museums and cultural heritage organizations continue to struggle with basic funding.  MANY encourages museums and other cultural heritage organization to contact local media outlets to highlight their recent experiences during current economic crisis.   The Albany Institute of History and Art, located in Albany, NY, recently did just that and a story about their current situation was covered by local TV station WNYT, News Channel 13.