Vendor Showcase: SimplyMaps

If you missed the SimplyMaps demo, you missed out. It's available to any libraries that have access to NCLive, and is a great resource for demographic, business, and marketing information.

The database contains a ridiculous number of data sets; you can search all the things you'd expect to, like age, race, and socioeconomic status, but also data sets that concern ice-cream intake and wealthy youngsters. I'm not sure how I'd use all the data, but I'm glad to have it there.

If you haven't played around with this database yet, do. I might start using it in lieu of Reference USA if the opportunity strikes.

Doe vs. Gonzales : In Which Doe, the Humble Librarian, Won and Gonzales, the Attorney General of the United States, lost

George Christian, Executive Director of Library Connection in Hartford, CT, is one of four people in the world who can discuss the National Security Letter (NSL) that his library received. Along with the NSL came a gag order forbidding George to speak about the contents of the letter or the surrounding situation -- ever.

The Patriot Act went into effect two weeks after September 11th, 2001 in an effort to combat terrorism originating in the US. According to George, the Act is a "sweeping overhaul of checks and balances" that can't be understood without looking back through all original legislation referred to throughout the entirety of the Act. The Act operates without any form of judicial oversight.

Throughout the US, some 400,000 NSLs have been distributed since the Patriot Act went into effect. The recipients of these other letters are bound by a lifetime gag order. George, however, along with his Executive Board, decided to fight back against NSLs and the gag order, even though the only way to do so is to sue the Attorney General of the United States, a daunting task. His story is a great one, and I'd recommend making an effort to hear him speak if you ever get a chance to. Despite the persistence and determination of George and the rest of the Executive Board, their court case did not make NSLs declared unconstitutional, but it did set a precedent for future cases.

In March of 2008, former President Bush re-authorized the Patriot Act, with a few small adjustments. Those who receive NSLs are now permitted to consult with an attorney (which was formerly in direct contradiction to wording of the gag order) however (and this is a big however) there are also now punishments for not adhering to the order -- including five years jail time, and the NSLs are now much harder to contest. In the new legislation, libraries are considered exempt from NSLs except those libraries that offer telecommunication services, i.e. offer the internet, i.e. almost all libraries.

What are best practices for ensuring patron confidentiality in your library?

• "Conduct a privacy/confidentiality audit;
• gather the minimum amount of information needed for library operations;
• retain information connecting a user to a particular transaction only as long as need for normal operations, and then discard;"*
• write to your senator and tell them that you support the Justice Act, which supports a system of checks and balances within the Patriot Act.

*From: "Protecting Library Patron Confidentiality -- Checklist of Best Practices." Trina J. Magi, Library Associate Professor, University of Vermont, Fall 2006.

The Manga Experience: Create Your Own

Sarah Arnaudin and Emily King attended Jana Guitar's Manga session Thursday morning. Here is their manga art.

Finding Your Footing

New Member's Round Table hosted a panel discussion among five new librarians in five different types of libraries (public, academic, school, and database were all covered.)

Some of the tips that came up throughout the talk for those looking for a professional position:

• think outside the box -- One panelist got her footing in a library by having an informational meetings with library managers to find out what they were looking for in an employee. This led to her volunteering at the reference desk of one library, letting her gain the skills she needed to get a paid job.
• use your contacts and resources -- Knowing people comes in handy! If you prove that you're dedicated and hard-working, they may be willing to go to bat for you in the future when a job comes up.
• take advantage of internships, volunteer opportunities, and any other ways that you can get involved -- Although not being paid isn't fun, it may pay off in the long run, big time. One panelist cited how several other students going through Library School with her wouldn't leave their full-time paid jobs for unpaid jobs that provided library experience. Many of these people are now unable to find positions in the library world because they never made the necessary connections.
• have a portfolio of your work -- Examples of things that you have done in the past (even if it's work from school) can go a long way in your interview.
• be persistent!

Good luck to all you job searchers out there!

Literacy Changes Lives: What Your Library Can Do to Assure That There is "Literacy for All."

Laura Smith, director of the Pitt County Literacy Council, Donna Phillips from Wayne County Public Library, and Steve Sumerford from Greensboro Public Library gave a fabulous presentation on adult literacy in North Carolina.

Donna, along with a committee assembled from various community leaders and businesses, established a literacy council in Wayne County to fill an obvious gap that that had been identified in through community assessment; that of adult illiteracy throughout the county. She provided some tips about how to start a literacy program for your own community. She talked about the importance of making all types of community partnerships, including:

• businesses, which might be able to provide financial backing to a literacy program;
• marketing professionals, including newspapers, that can help promote the program;
• faith-based organizations, which can provide both financial backing as well as volunteers to help with getting the program on its feet;
• educators in the community, and
• the public.

Laura gave some tips for public libraries that already have a literacy program established within their community to begin collaborating with those programs. Often, literacy programs do not have space available for individual tutoring or for group meetings -- this is where public libraries can jump in and offer those services, if they have them available. Public libraries bulletin boards and display areas are also a great area to have literacy pamphlets and information, both to spread the word to potential students and to find volunteer tutors for programs.

Another tip is to team up with your local community-college to see if they need space and/or publicity for GED classes. Literacy programs often reach out to those with a pre-high school education (generally 3rd to 8th grade levels), meaning that students on a slightly higher level might be more suited to a community college course.

Also discussed were family literacy programs such as MotherRead and FatherRead, which are NC-based programs.

And if your library doesn't have the means to host or collaborate with literacy programs, fear not; as Steve said, libraries "create a literacy-rich environment every single day" -- meaning those things we do on a daily basis to create a love of learning and reading are also promoting literacy within our communities.

The Literacy Round Table hosted a great discussion today! Be sure to join them tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. for Latinos, Libraries, & Literacy for more specifics on starting a program of your own, and reaching out to specific demographics.

Kick It! Opening Session of NCLA

NCLA 2009 has opened up with a pretty awesome speaker. Probably one of the best plenary speakers I've seen in a while. Keith Michaels Fiels, the ALA Executive Director, stopped by to talk about the future of libraries.

Here are just a few notes from the session:

• We need to be careful in our predictions because "attempts to predict the future can accidentally create it", especially if we assume dire outcomes.
• Library 2.0 is already passe. Social networking tools must be dealt with to work with our patrons
• No matter how many changes, we will always have tech haves and have nots. We need to keep those differences in mind.
• Statistics show 1/2 of all employers only accept applications online. Post-katrina experience with online FEMA forms demonstrate necessity of libraries to the community.
• "Technology is no longer installing software and turning it on." Librarians are necessary to work with patrons and assist them in using tech.

Libraries play key role in several ways

1. Helping the disenfranchised
2. We reflect the diversity of our communities
3. Preserving 1st amendment rights of library users. We need to be advocates for privacy.
4. Continue to fight to preserve access to information! EPA libraries experience demonstrates ALA's power to preserve access.
5. Continue to attract the best and brightest especially in light of changes in libraries.
6. We need to reach out to other countries to help and to learn from them.

Problems with funding may make us assume that we are powerless, but "We can fight back. We can succeed." Advocacy works and can be learned. What can we do?

• We need to plan for the future.
• We need to assert our role in education because libraries are other half of education system.
• We need to use the growing body of documentation showing the value of the library.
• We need to do better job involving public. "I Love Libraries" website designed for the public.
• We need to increase public awareness of importance. Use media outlets to advertise libraries.
• We must stick together at state and national level. ALA membership return on investment is astounding.
• "Put some skin in the game". Our membership in associations provides for public awareness and advocacy.

Can libraries survive?

He maintains that "those who create libraries without walls tend to create libraries without money." But we need to remember that libraries are busier than ever because people come to libraries for more than what the computer can provide.

To close he maintained that "we need to keep in mind that we hold the future and we will create the next generation of libraries".