Oral Histories to Podcasts Classroom

On Friday, March 27 in Nylink’s training room Dave Nolan, Audio Archivist at the 92nd St. Y in Manhattan gave a candid presentation to 10 people about how to cost-effectively migrate analog audio materials to digital formats. He is shown here surrounded by his audio equipment—rent SUV, recording studio will travel.

Ellen McHale Ph.D., executive director of the New York Folklore Society, conducted a workshop the afternoon before (March 26, 2009) during which the 11 workshop participants practiced interviewing and being interviewed. Ellen handed out a sample release form, a “Folklore Fieldwork Data Sheet” and forewarned the class that family members may be the most reticent about being interviewed.

A total of 18 people from historical societies, not-for-profits, museums and public, college and graduate-school libraries attended the day-and-a-half conference.

On March 24, 2009, Governor David A. Paterson and First Lady Michelle Paige Paterson honored the recipients of the New York State Women of Excellence Awards, seven trailblazers in the areas of business, health, justice, law enforcement, community service, and education.

The Women of Excellence Awards Celebration takes place in March to coincide with Women’s History Month. Governor Paterson issued a proclamation on March 1, 2009, to mark the 28th annual observance of Women’s History Month and encouraged all New Yorkers to learn more about the groundbreaking women whose influence continues to shape our world.

This year’s honorees for Women of Education were Dr. Barbara A. Seals Nevergold and Dr. Peggy Brooks-Bertram. As co-founders of the Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research and Education on Women, Inc. at the University of Buffalo, Drs. Nevergold and Brooks-Bertram have worked to create a model for the reclamation, collection, preservation and dissemination of the biographic histories of African American women. Since the Institute’s formation in 1999, Drs. Nevergold and Brooks-Bertram have collected the histories of thousands of women from New York and Oklahoma. In 2007, they launched the Uncrowned Kings initiative. Drs. Nevergold and Bertram are also the authors of three books entitled, Uncrowned Queens: African American women community builders of Western New York and a fourth volume, Uncrowned Queens African American women community builders of Oklahoma. Last September, the Institute, in partnership with WNED Broadcasting, launched an National Public Radio Program “Uncrowned Queens: Voices from the Community,” and will receive the National Gracie Award for Outstanding Programming for a Documentary this June.

Read about Dave Penniman’s visit with these Women of Excellence in the fall issue of Nylink Connection.

Budget cuts, lost endowments, spending freezes are all things we are coming to grips with in these times. How are libraries dealing with these issues? A small group gathered at RRLC for a brown bag lunch to chat about economizing in the library. We spent some time discussing the need to increase awareness of the value of libraries. Use patrons to tell our stories, find the influencers in the community and get them on board. Several people noted that there are both internal and external audiences that we have to prove value to. Internal audiences can include board and administration members. One suggestion to save resources is to partner with other community based organizations. Perhaps your local employment or economic development office can work with you in providing job hunting resources. It is important to have quantitative data when discussing a library’s impact. There are a number of ROI calculators that can be used to do this. Two resources are available to assist libraries. ALA’s Tough Economy Toolkit: http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/advocacy/advocacyuniversity/toolkit/index.cfm is one.  Webjunction recently hosted a series of online town meetings about this issue. Archived town meetings as well as resources can be found at www.webjunction.org/toughtimes

Multi-type New York State library consortium Nylink is pleased to announce a partnership with New York -based library services company Media Flex to market and support their Open-source Automated Library System, OPALS™.

The OPALS Open-source Automated Library System is a powerful cooperatively developed, web-based, open source program providing internet access to information databases and library collections. OPALS users include school, church and business libraries, and union catalogs with interlibrary loan needs.

Media Flex continues its role in conducting research and development, more technical support, and providing hosting services for those institutions where hosting is not an affordable option.

David Penniman, Executive Director of Nylink, says “OPALS low-cost, open-source approach to fulfilling library automation needs is timely, and we look forward to expanding and supporting the OPALS community in partnership with Media Flex.”

Harry Chan, Owner, Media Flex, says “OPALS is a proven solution to library automation needs, and we are excited about the opportunities this partnership presents for bringing OPALS to more libraries.”

About Nylink
Nylink, a membership organization of all types of libraries and cultural heritage organizations in New York state, facilitates collaboration and cooperation among its members and supports access to high-quality, cost-effective resources that enable member institutions to enhance the services they provide to their constituents. A program of the State University of New York System Administration under the umbrella of the Provost’s Office, Nylink is based in Albany. http://nylink.org

About Media Flex
Media Flex is a library services company located in Champlain, New York. The company develops, provides and services solutions that adapt to changing information technology, learning and fiscal environments and has done so since 1985. Librarians, company technicians and programmers have collaborated to develop OPALS, a twenty first century, open source, information broadcasting technology alternative. http://www.mediaflex.net