It's confirmed! At today's meeting, the Texas Library & Archives Commission approved all TSLAC grant applications which had been recommended, by the grant review committee, for funding. NTLP was awarded two grants.
A TSLAC Cooperation Grant will provide funding for development of an eBook platform. As the project reaches test status, interested libraries will provide Beta testing. To learn more about this, attend TechNet 2012 where NTLP staff will provide an overview.
Building on what NTLP staff has learned through the Information Literacy component of its Libraries for Literacy program, NTLP staff applied for and won funding to equip each of 9 libraries with a collection of eReaders and tablets. The grant also will fund, for designated staff at those 9 libraries, training to prepare them for providing the petting zoo / presentations at their own libraries, thereby enabling those libraries to continue offering petting zoo / presentations even after the project ends. Details about becoming one of the 9 library sites will be broadcast as soon as they become available.
By the way ... if you're wondering what your library can do to minimize the confusion of downloading eBooks and enable library guests to find out what they think about reading eBooks, consider registering for TechNet 2012 and attending the poster session described below. (But hurry! The conference is August 9 - just days away!)
Lending eReaders at the Burleson Public
Library A
pilot program was developed in 2011 to lend pre-loaded eReaders to adult
patrons of BPL. The program was started to increase awareness of new technology
in libraries and to give patrons a chance to try out an eReader without having
to purchase one themselves. Ten eReaders were loaded with content separated by
genre (general fiction, non-fiction, mystery, science fiction, horror /
thrillers, fantasy, romance, Christian fiction, and historical fiction /
western). The eReaders were then added to the library’s OPAC, and procedures
were created to check out the devices to library patrons for three-week
periods. Sara Miller, Public Services
Librarian Supervisor (Burleson Public Library)
