Hello from sunny Anaheim! I am happy to again be reporting from annual conference. At the first Council meeting we heard reports of task forces and committees. One report of particular interest was presented by the Digital Content & Libraries Working Group. This is the group that is working with ebook publishers. The group had an initial meeting with publishers in the spring and are now working to create business models and licensing agreements and to find ways to communicate the issues to the library community and the general public. ALA leaders have met with publishers twice more. They will continue to work to increase good access to e-resources.

I was lucky enough to score tickets for the first ever Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction Award presentation. Nominees for the award included Anne Enright, Karen Russell, Russell Banks, James Gleik, Robert Massie, and Manning Marable. Anne Enright won for her new book The Forgotten Waltz and Robert Massie won for Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. ALA hopes this award will become the adult Newbery.

At our second Council meeting we passed a resolution encouraging support for school librarians.

It has been a great pleasure representing Vermont at ALA conferences for the past six years.

Respectfully submitted,

Nancy Wilson

Posted on Monday, June 25th, 2012 at 2:05 pm in the ALA, Councilor's Report, Uncategorized category.

Marybelle Singer, director of the Alburgh Library, passed away last week.  It could most certainly be argued that she made the library what it is today.  Her obituary can be found at http://www.kiddermemorialhome.com.  You can also see a piece WCAX did on her at the beginning of the year:  http://www.wcax.com/story/17009463/super-seniors-marybelle-singer. She was very proud of her work at the library and she will be missed dearly by her community.

Jeremiah Kellogg
Library Development Consultant
Vermont Department of Libraries

Posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2012 at 1:01 pm in the News, Public Libraries, Uncategorized category.

Champlain College has received an Excellence in Academic Libraries Award from the Association of College and Research Libraries. Libraries are continuing to prove that they are still vibrant and vital places for their communities.

This news story aired April 23 on WPTZ and New England Cable News.

http://www.necn.com/04/23/12/Vt-college-library-celebrated-as-nationa/landing_homeandfamily.html?blockID=695122&feedID=8368

Posted on Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 at 11:38 am in the Academic Libraries, ACRL/NEC, Awards, C&SL, Uncategorized category.

Sarah Lawton of the Ilsley Public Library in Middlebury joined me to booktalk favorite titles for “A Salute to National Library Week.” The broadcast will air Monday, April 9 at 12:10 on channel 3, WCAX. The annotated list is available now at http://libraries.vermont.gov/libraries/misc. Feel free to use as a news release, bookmark, or display inspiration.

Amy Howlett
Vermont Department of Libraries

Posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2012 at 12:42 pm in the Uncategorized category.

The following workshops will be taking place in April. Please click on the title to register.

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Posted on Wednesday, March 21st, 2012 at 11:20 am in the Uncategorized category.

Hello from Dallas. I am very happy to again be reporting on activities at the midwinter meeting of the American Library Association. In this, my final year of serving as your councilor, I will continue to monitor national issues that impact Vermont.

At this conference we are considering a resolution taking a stance against the seemingly secret and arbitrary distribution of ebooks, video, and audio formats by publishers and distributors. The resolution is in draft form now but I hope to report today or tomorrow that we have crafted a strong national response to this practice that withholds content from our customers.

As far as regular ALA business goes, while revenues are down ALA recently purchased Neal- Schumann Publishing in order to expand the ALA publishing arm of the organization, which is actually a good revenue maker for the organization.

Please let me know if you have questions at readmorenow@gmail.com or 802-999-8391

Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Wilson

Posted on Monday, January 23rd, 2012 at 12:25 pm in the ALA, Councilor's Report, Uncategorized category.

The Vermont Library Association is pleased to offer a 2012 wall calendar featuring one glorious Vermont library per county for a total of fourteen months. You can spend a beautiful year getting to know Vermont’s public libraries and help support them. Each month provides a window into the history and personality of each library with great pictures, interesting stories and bits of statistics. The 12 x 22 inch format affords plenty of space for writing appointments and includes all major holidays and moon phases. Best of all profits from the sale of each calendar stays with the libraries to support their services. This calendar will make gifts during the great holiday season! The pre-order deadline is September 8, for delivery at the end of October. Contact your local library to pre-order or determine whether they will have stock available for sale in November. For more information, go to www.VLACalendarProject.org.

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Posted on Tuesday, December 13th, 2011 at 12:31 pm in the Advocacy, Blogroll, Events, FOL, Funding Ops, News, Public Libraries, Uncategorized category.

We have received many calls and emails from people all across the country who want to help our libraries. We are grateful to all of you and want to let you know how you can best help our libraries at this time. For now, please do not send books. Instead, we are accepting cash donations.

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Posted on Wednesday, September 7th, 2011 at 12:14 pm in the Academic Libraries, Advocacy, Blogroll, C&SL, DOL, Funding Ops, News, Public Libraries, School Libraries, Trustees, Uncategorized category.

VLA members Trina Magi,  UVM Bailey Howe Library,  Gail Weymouth, Director of  Killington’s  Sherburne Memorial Library and Nancy Wilson, Director of Bristol’s Lawrence Memorial Library played  major roles in the creation  and adoption of  an ALA Resolution to better protect reader privacy.

  The Intellectual Freedom Committee and the IFC Privacy Subcommittee developed the “Resolution to Protect Library User Confidentiality in Self-Service Hold Practices” after receiving requests from librarians and library users to examine the issue of reader privacy and self-service holds.  Prior to last month’s ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans, the Office for Intellectual Freedom distributed the resolution for comment, and an open hearing was held during Conference for comments.  That process led to a revision of the resolution and what the IFC believes to be an improved version.

The final resolution as presented by the Intellectual Freedom Committee was adopted by the ALA Council on June 28.

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Posted on Tuesday, July 12th, 2011 at 12:45 pm in the ALA, IFC, Public Libraries, Support Staff, Technical Services, Technology, Uncategorized category.

Some great things are going on in media among us and around us here in the green mountains. It’s not surprising for us to have fertile ground to till in the area of independent media, but what if we stopped, just for a moment, to consider where we’re headed – together. Please join other interested people to do just that on the afternoon of July 12th in downtown Montpelier.

Are there opportunities, needs, desires we share? You are invited to an initial conversation – a brainstorming session, perhaps – to talk about the future and the now. And if you think there are others who should be invited, please pass along this invitation. All are welcome.

Vermont Independent Media Conversation
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Montpelier City Hall
1:30-4:00pm

Agenda in development
1. Introductions

2. Some questions to address:Does independence mean anarchy? How can independent Vermont media outlets work together?
What are the assets we currently share? How can independent media assist Vermont communities building and maintaining community links? How do we increase real news about communities? Can we move toward collaboration in creative ways?

3. What should our next steps be?

Want more information? Have questions? Email scottc@retn.org.
Or just show up and bring things up.

If you know anyone who should be invited to this conversation, please ask them to join us.

Scott Campitelli
Executive Director & Program Manager
RETN – Regional Educational Technology Network

http://www.retn.org

scottc@retn.org
ph – 802.654.7980 ext 26
media center at:
208 Flynn Avenue, Suite 2K
Burlington, Vermont

Posted on Friday, July 1st, 2011 at 1:04 pm in the Academic Libraries, ACRL/NEC, Advocacy, Blogroll, C&SL, Conferences, Educational Ops, Events, IFC, News, Public Libraries, School Libraries, Trustees, Uncategorized, VCAL (excluded from VLA main) category.