NTRLS looking for writers for webpage!

Writer’s Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in contributing to ntrls.org. Our goal is to provide some guidance and direction in our daily tasks at the library. Please see below for a list of upcoming themes for our website. If you are interested in submitting an article, please read these guidelines carefully.

General Information

• Featured Articles readership consists of people from all areas of librarianship, with varying degrees of expertise. Please keep this in mind when writing articles.
  
• Write in the first person, and do not use passive voice.
  
• Please do a check of all Web addresses in your article to ensure they are accurate and current before you turn it in.
  

Document Submission Format

• If possible, please email documents to awright@ntrls.org as a Microsoft Word file. If you are mailing your submission, use the address below. We will not return submissions.
• Please include your name in the filename of your document. For example: JoeSmithRFID.doc
  
• Do not indent paragraphs; rather, leave a blank line in-between paragraphs. Single space
  
• Do not use endnotes, headers, or footers.
  
• Please use italics when you refer to book or magazine titles. Do not italicize names of software, databases, or Web sites.
  
• After the full text of your article, please include brief biographical information. For example: Name, title, organization and city. Then mention any related projects or special experience. Finish with your email address.
  
• If you are going to include any bibliographic references or suggestions for further reading, please include them after your biographical information under the title “References/Further Reading.”
  

Art Submission Format

• Do not embed art within your text. If you are sending accompanying pictures, charts, etc., each graphic must be sent as a separate file. We prefer .jpg or .gif files.
  

Length

• Articles should be between 500 and 1500 words in length.
  

Compensation

• At this time, authors are not compensated for articles.
  

Conflicts of Interest

To avoid real and perceived conflicts of interest, ntrls.org will not accept articles about subjects from writers who may have a potential financial conflict with the work. We ask that writers tell us about any such work they do in the field. The editors will evaluate on a case-by-case basis whether a conflict exists.

Copyright

Ntrls.org requests one-time electronic rights to publish your material on the website. The copyright for the work remains with you. If you submit the same article to another publication, please inform that publisher that the article first appeared on ntrls.org.

Mailing Address

North Texas Regional Library System, Inc.
6320 Southwest Blvd., Ste. 101
Fort Worth, TX 76109

Date Subject

September 2009 - TexShare
October 2009 - Keeping Your Bookclub Fresh
November 2009 - Patron Privacy in the 21st Century
December 2009 - To Buy or Not To Buy – Is a Review Required?
January 2010 - Doing a Job Fair in Your Library
February 2010 - Supporting Your Support Staff
March 2010 - Microsoft Office, Open Office and Google Docs – a Comparison
April 2010 - Accessibility Fairs – Lessons Learned
May 2010 - Technology Trends
June 2010 - Publishing 2.0 – How Self-Publishing is Evolving
July 2010 - Ebooks
August 2010 - Libraries of the Future

Help with Reader's Advisory

Check out FictionDB for all types of information concerning authors and books.  Great information on series, what to read next and listings for all books published by a particular author.  

Everything you need to know about fiction books and authors

Find complete author book lists (bibliographies)

Discover books in a series

Read descriptions of individual books

Search over 250,000 titles using multiple criteria

Keep track of what you're reading

NTLP and Facebook

North Texas Library Partners is on Facebook! Sign up to be a fan!

Job Posting - Literacy Coordinator

North Texas Regional Library System, Inc

Applications will be accepted through August 18, 2009. Please send a resume with a cover letter to awright@ntrls.org, or send to:

Adam Wright

Executive Director

North Texas Library Partners

Home of the North Texas Regional Library System

6320 Southwest Blvd, Suite 101

Fort Worth, Tx 76109

JOB TITLE: Libraries for Literacy Coordinator Exempt

Salary: $42,000 with a comprehensive benefits package.

POSITION FUNCTION: Under the general supervision of the Executive Director, assumes responsibility of all aspects of the Libraries for Literacy program including overseeing the various programs and services offered through the program.

DUTIES:

1. Responsible for designing, developing and providing workshops on literacy.

2. Responsible for designing, developing and providing the online literacy toolkit.

3. Responsible for designing, developing and providing the monthly online brown bag luncheons on literacy.

4. Administers the online literacy tools consortium available through the Libraries for Literacy website.

5. Administers the grant program for online literacy tools consortium.

6. Responsible for the literacy section of ntrls.org and the Libraries for Literacy website.

7. Staff Liaison to the Libraries for Literacy Council

8. Keeps current in literacy instruction theory and methods

9. Assists libraries with literacy endeavors as requested.

10. Other duties as assigned.

EDUCATION and EXPERIENCE: The employee must have a Master’s degree in library science or graduation date within one year from a program accredited by the American Library Association, or equivalent experience. The employee must have some previous exposure to some literacy programs. It is preferred that the employee have direct experience in literacy instruction endeavors.

SPECIAL QUALIFICATIONS: The employee must have a valid Texas driver’s license, proof of liability insurance and have access to a motor vehicle.

COMPUTER REQUIREMENTS: The employee must understand theoretical and practical applications of computer technology and be able to communicate with others.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS: While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit, stand, walk, use hands to finger, handle or feel, reach with hands and arms, talk and hear. The employee is occasionally required to stoop, kneel or crouch. The employee must occasionally lift up to fifty pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision and the ability to adjust focus.

WORK ENVIRONMENT: While performing the duties of this job, the employee works alone in an office or with others in meeting rooms. The noise level in these environments is moderate.

Please note that NTRLS received a grant for this position. This grant will expire on 08/31/2010. Sustainability of this position will be based upon the availability of further grant funds being acquired, which will be aggressively pursued in upcoming fiscal year.

Top Web Sites for Genealogy from Family Tree Magazine

101 Best Web Sites 2009

By David A. Fryxell

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Count on us to point you to genealogy's top digital destinations: 10 standouts in 10 areas (plus one!) add up to the 10th edition of our 101 Best Web Sites.

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If our ancestors had swung down from the trees with six fingers on each hand, we'd probably be counting by dozens. But thanks to humanity's development of 10 fingers and 10 toes, we count things in 10s, group the years in decades and celebrate anniversaries ending in 0—such as this 10th annual installment of Family Tree Magazine's 101 Best Web Sites.

We're marking the occasion by honoring 10 categories of 10 noteworthy sites each (plus one to make 101, of course). With this 10th roundup of meritorious sites, we've also sought to break the mold a bit and encompass more of the "Web 2.0" sites that are paving the way for changes in online genealogy over the next 10 years. Something had to give, however, to keep our count at a manageable 101, so we've omitted some old favorites—still worth bookmarking, nonetheless—and several excellent foreign research sites of interest to genealogists with that particular ancestry.

Sites that are mostly free but where you might still wind up pulling out your credit card for some purchase or other are marked with a $. Subscription-only sites and those where you have to pay for any meaningful results are indicated with $$.

What's the one Web resource in a class by itself? Ancestry.com $$, of course. What can we say? With its ever-expanding collection of databases and globe-spanning country-specific sites, Ancestry.com comes the closest to realizing the dream of doing real genealogy online—not just finding a few clues, but tracing your ancestors in primary sources. The complete US census, indexed, searchable and linked to images, is only the beginning here. An annual membership is $155.40 for US collections only, or $299.40 for the World Deluxe membership.

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10 Best Web Sites to See Dead People

Use these sites to find obituaries, cemeteries and other traces of your departed ancestors.

10 Best Web Sites for Vital Records

These are the best searchable databases of vital records from health departments, historical societies and state archives.

10 Best Web Sites for Storing and Sharing

Sharing your family history just got easier with these Web sites that let you create a family tree, store pictures and more.

10 Best Big Web Sites

You're sure to find information about your family in these stellar genealogy Web sites.

10 Best Web Sites for Maps

Trace your family's paths, find your ancestors' homes and explore the old country.

10 Best Web Sites for Local Searches

You can thank your lucky stars if your ancestors resided in the areas these Web sites cover.

10 Best Web Sites for International Searches

Tracking down immigrant ancestors has never been easier.

10 Best Cutting-edge Web Sites

Stay informed about the latest technology for genealogists with these sites.

10 Best Web Sites for Military Research

Find ancestors who served their country in these databases.

10 Best Virtual Library Web Sites

Powerful search tools let you explore great library collections in the comfort of your own home.

Interesting Article for Social Media Jobs

Jobs for Facebook addicts   (from Careerbuilder)

If you're a social media guru, here are five jobs to consider in your next job search:

1. Recruiter

Candidates have been on social networks for years now, and it's about time recruiters joined them. Daniel says Dan Temps' recruiters can find candidates faster, screen them better and reach out to individuals they wouldn't see otherwise.

"Dan Temps believes that the environment candidates are accustomed to in a social network will keep the conversations and information real," Daniel says. "Candidates don't feel they are being pressured in that environment like they would in a more formal interview or screening process and are more likely to get real with our recruiters."

2. Strategist

Many companies are seeking social media strategists to find the best way to interact within various social sites and online communities. In this role, you would be the face of social media for your company, creating and maintaining an effective social media strategy by interacting with users, growing brand awareness, creating buzz, increasing traffic and providing valuable information. To thrive in this position, Durbin says you must have a proven track record of achieving goals, or companies will be hesitant to hire you.

3. Enterprise architect

"This is the most exciting job in social media and requires someone with broad experience in networks, multiple platforms, development, security and political infighting," Durbin says. "This is a very rare find. It's for companies looking to completely revamp their content management strategy and internal networks. It could be the most important role in a company in the next five years."

4. User operations analyst

For any company with an online presence, user experience is one of the most vital parts of the business. The only way to monitor that is to have someone in charge of the experience themselves. No matter if the company is blogging, has a Web site or pages on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, user operations analysts interact with users, answer queries, investigate problems and keep track of user habits.

5. Director of social media

Similar to a strategist, companies need someone to organize company blogging, viral marketing, podcasting, etc. This person has a background in building teams and who really gets the promise and the purpose of social media, Durbin says. These folks should be wary of new technologies and be all over blogs, RSS, have Facebook and Twitter accounts, and know the difference between his or her employees playing and researching on MySpace and YouTube.

Searching for social media jobs

You might think that finding social media jobs is difficult but many of these positions under a variety of job titles that don't include "social media."

Try searching job boards and the Internet for "social media," "interactive marketing," "new media" or "branding manager" and you should get a good start in the right direction. 

Western Governor's University for an online degree

Western Governor's University was established by 19 governors and is a private, online university that offers bachelor and master's degrees. It has recently been featured on NBC news shows and in Time magazine.

Tuition is lower than most private universities and it is a non-profit institution. This is a great resource to share with library patrons and staff wanting to further their education.

Free IP Relay &/or Captioning

American Network, Inc. has been providing telecom services since 1991. As of January 2009, they are FCC-approved to provide IP Relay, Video Relay Services (VRS) and Internet Protocol Catpion Telephone Serivce (IPCTS). FreeRelay services are free and are designed to provide FREE services to people with limited hearing and those who contact them. http://www.phonecaption.com/ .

PhoneCaption.com provides free captioning for telephone calls to help those with hearing limitations. It supports normal phones to IP phones and sends voice dialogue via text throught the Internet or your IP phone screen. The low/no hearing party receives captions to read what's being said, via the web or a Cisco 79XX IP phone screen display, for example. For more information, visit http://www.phonecaption.com/ .

Information source: http://blog.techsoup.org/

Age of Aquarius

There is really no great knowledge boost here - but I love a library that knows how to have fun and isn't uptight! Check out the groovy video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRIxnhunF3I

Book-A-Day Blog

From Little Elm Public Library's weekly newsletter:

If you like reading award winning fiction books then you might want to bookmark the National Book Foundation’s book a day blog http://www.nationalbook.org/nba77fictionwinners.html. The National Book Foundation is presenting a book-a-day blog on the Fiction winners from 1950 to 2008 in order to celebrate the 60th year of the National Book Awards. The blog will run from July 7th to September 21st.

North Texas 23

Over 300 participants and 23 "mentors" are involved in North Texas 23, an online Web 2.0/Library 2.0 learning experience designed specifically for library personnel in the 20-county area which makes up TLA District 7 as well as the NTLP service area.

We're pleased with the number of people involved in this first-time NTLP project, but we're especially excited by the fact that all four types of libraries are represented among both the mentors, a.k.a. the Leadership Team, and the participants. Although North Texas 23 is based on a concept which has been around for years and was inspired by a similar project done by the Central Texas Library System last year, it may be the first three-month online learning project which involves personnel from all types of libraries, throughout a Texas State Library System/TLA District, networking with, mentoring and learning from one-another. We hope this leads to many other projects involving cooperation among all types of libraries within this 20-county area.

North Texas 23 began May 7 at TechNet 2009 when TCU Science Librarian and North Texas 23 Coordinator Jeff Bond provided a session which described the project and encouraged attendees to participate and/or develop similar projects for their own groups of colleagues. Registration continued through June 1 and was open additionally to all TechNet 2009 attendees and to anyone who was registered and paid for CYC 2009, the third annual Children and Youth Conference for North Texas Libraries.

As registrations arrived, Jeff assigned participants to individual members of the leadership team so that every participant in this project has someone assigned to encourage, help, provide input and/or additional information to and, generally, mentor them through the tasks. Those people are also tracking the progress of people in their clusters. Participants who complete all 23 things by September 1, 2009, will receive certificates of acheivement; those who finish by August 15, 2009, will also qualify for a chance at prizes.

Many of the participants will receive their certificates and/or meet other participants during CYC 2009. At that conference, Jeff will present a session in which he reviews the project and discusses lessons learned so that others who wish to provide similar projects for their own groups may benefit from experiences of North Texas 23.

Azle Resident Provides New Library & Park to the City

Thanks to the work and support of Ms. Janie Rector, one of its residents, Azle has a brand new library with all-new furnishings and technology as well as an adjacent park. The community has planned a three-day celebration, June 26-28, for the library's grand opening. (See http://www.cityofazle.org/ and http://www.ntrls.org/downloads/41653Invite.pdf for details.)

Whether you make it to the grand opening ceremonies or not, I HIGHLY recommend that you attempt to visit this library at some point.

Ms. Rector is the recipient of this year's NTLP Benefactor of the Year award and also won the 2008 TLA Outstanding Services to Libraries Award in recognition of her successful advocacy of the library to the community (population 10,000). Here's some background information from the LiFTA event which included that award presentation:

In 2000, Mrs. Rector informed Azle Public Library Director Judy Whitt that she wished to do something for the community in memory of her husband, specifically A NEW LIBRARY ON MAIN STREET! After finding and purchasing land for not only the library, but also a substantial portion of a new park, she made her proposal to city officials.

Next Mrs. R formed a committee of Friends of the Library, and they visited at least 25 libraries in the area and out-of-state. Armed with disposable cameras and taking pictures of these facilities (with permission), they compiled four large annotated scrapbooks with typed notes for future reference. Then Mrs. R joined TLA, attending conferences in Austin and San Antonio to get ideas for the new library. She hired an architect and a contractor and saw that Judy Whitt was included all phases of the building project.

In her hands-on mode Mrs. R. volunteer[ed] every Monday afternoon in the previous library to get the feel of library operation—working in circulation, shelving books, assisting patrons. She attends various NTRLS workshops to better understand public libraries.

In addition, this extraordinary library patron furnish[ed] the building and purchase[d] RFID technology and self-checkout in the new facility.

Increased Numbers of Public Computer Users

As unemployment increases, and as the government moves from paper to online forms in general, librarians are seeing the number of public computer users increase exponentially. With that increase comes increased demands on staff to provide one-on-one assistance for those who must complete the forms.

Some patrons have computer skills and simply need help relative to information required to complete the forms. Others have only basic computer skills - possibly from doing email only - and need additional computer training as well as help with supplying the required information. MANY, however, have virtually no computer skills and don't have time to learn even basic skills before completing the online forms which will help them get through tough times.

NTLP has scheduled Suzanne Sears, an expert on e-government resources for academic, public and school libraries, to present two all-day workshops on the topic this month. (See http://www.ntrls.org/Workshops/FY2009/e-gov.pdf )

The sad irony is the fact that the increased demands on their time and presence in the building prevent many library staff members from being able to attend those workshops.

Falling Sales Cloud Book Industry Meeting - NYTimes.com

Falling Sales Cloud Book Industry Meeting - NYTimes.com

Books sales are falling as library usage skyrockets!

The NY Times reports that even juvenile book sales are declining. It is a bit scary to me as a librarian that many libraries still have antiquated views concerning purchasing books that are not reviewed!!! This certainly leads to a homogenous library collection nationwide - head's up - maybe that is why publishers are so slow to accept new authors. Be brave - read non-reviewed books - if you can find any at the library.

Libraries Are America's Lifelines. Leave Them Alone

Posted a couple weeks ago - but this is a great article for library advocacy by Kenneth C Davis

Michael Bloomberg may be the ultimate IT Guy. Okay, maybe that's still Bill Gates. But the point is, Michael Bloomberg took Information and Technology and made himself an empire with Bloomberg News. Then he became King of New York -- or at least Mayor -- and a very good one at that, as far as I am concerned.

So why would a man who built his world around IT want to cripple New York's IT lifeline -- the public library?

In case you haven't heard, New York City's public library systems -- three separate library systems in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens -- are once again under siege, on the chopping block, threatened with draconian cuts in the face of New York City's Great Recession. (The cuts were outlined in an article in Library Journal.)

Library cuts in down times remind me of the classic line from Casablanca: "Round up the usual suspects." The public library is always suspect Number One when it comes to municipal budget cuts. And as librarians everywhere know, this is not a fact in New York City alone.

Underlying this reality are two simple facts. First, libraries do not have a vocal, powerful constituency. Unlike the police, teachers and firemen, they don't have a potent union or benevolent association. There is no "Library Lobby" doling out campaign contributions. But far worse, libraries tend to be viewed by all too many people in power as a luxury.

For complete article

A Librarian's Guide to Gaming!

Just a reminder that ALA has an online toolkit for Building Gaming which is very helpful. If you haven't brought gaming to your library yet - it is time to jump in!

This toolkit includes board games, card games and videogames. "Games of every type play an important role in developing fundamental competencies for life. They require players to learn and follow complex sets of rules, make strategic and tactical decisions, and increasingly, collaborate with teammates and others: all things they will have to do in college and in the workforce." Jim Rettig, ALA President, 2008-2009.

New Wii Gadget!

Okay - I confess - I haven't been on my Wii Fit as much as I should be - but I plan to change that soon. The new Wii MotionPlus peripheral will make my movement even more realistic.

From what I have read, this new gadget will work with newer games - not the sports and fit packages I already have. That is a bummer - but the new gadget will come with the new Wii Sports Resort for $49.99 so I think I'll put it on my wishlist.

Plan to add the Wii MotionPlus to your library's gaming area to keep attracting the teens - and let's face it - those of us over 40 too!

Posterous - the easy way to blog!

Posterous is the new - easy way to blog. Very simple, very easy, very fast - all things I desperately need. You do not have to create an account - just send an email to: post@posterous.com, adding whatever content you want (the subject line becomes the title, while text, images, and video are the body), and hitting send. Posterous will create your blog and email you back with confirmation and a link to view.

Lip Reading Computers??

Lip Reading Computers can even differentiate languages.

The University of East Anglia's School of Computer Sciences are on their way to releasing a computer that can lip read and even check for multiple languages.

This tool will have an impact on the hearing impaired community as well as law enforcement and military advances.

NTLP is responsive to H1N1!

We at NTRLS/NTLP are excited to be providing the 2009 TechNet conference on May 7th at the Lockheed Martin Recreation Area. Please plan to attend - we will have plenty of anti-bacterial cleansers and wipes throughout the building.

If you haven't registered for the event - time is running out!

TechNet 2009