More information coming soon.

Within Reach: A live videoconference connecting all parts of Vermont to each other and the world.

September 21, 2010
1:45 – 3:45 pm
At all VIT sites

Learn how videoconferencing brings the world to your library. Be prepared to be excited and engaged by the possibilities that videoconferencing affords.

Learn about funding opportunities. Discover how you can take advantage of available sources including help with grant writing.

Learn about videoconferencing from a librarian who has been connected for years. Meet with inspiration from Wilma Kakie Glover-Koomson The reference librarian/IT manager Haverstraw King’s Daughter Public Library, Garnerville, New York.

Learn about the connection to the Library of Congress. Experience how programs will benefit your community from Judy Graves, Digital Projects Coordinator- Library of Congress.

Come discover how the future for your library is… Within Reach.

*For directions to the VIT sites visit www.vitlink.org

Sisters in Crime-New England members know the difficulties that New England libraries face these days, and we want to help. Enter to win a $250 grant to buy library books. Just send us a photo of an exhibit of at least three books by authors who are members of Sisters in Crime-New England. Your library will be entered for our quarterly drawings for a $250 check—PLUS autographed books from our SinC-NE members! Get details at www.sincne.org.

Who are we? We’re Sisters in Crime-New England, the regional chapter of the nationwide organization, Sisters in Crime.

In 1986, women wrote 40% of the mysteries and got 15% of the reviews in the New York Times. That year Sisters in Crime was founded to “combat discrimination against women in the mystery field, to raise awareness of the contributions of female authors, and to promote the professional advancement of women who write mysteries.” We are authors, agents, booksellers, editors, librarians, critics, and readers. Brothers in Crime are welcome. The national organization now boasts over 3000 members, including authors, fans, librarians, booksellers, and pre-published writers.

The New England chapter, Scarlet Letters, holds educational meetings for its more than 170 members, writers, readers and mystery fans at various locations throughout the year, and offers networking advice and support to published and pre-published mystery authors. The chapter also offers a Speakers Bureau that can provide individual speakers or groups of writers for libraries and other interested organizations. To find out more about our Speakers Bureau, click here.

This year we’ve added something new: the New England Library Lottery. We’re so excited about the national Sisters in Crime “We Love Libraries” $1,000 monthly lottery that we’ve decided to add a New England version.

All a library has to do to enter is send us a photo of an exhibit of at least three books by authors who are members of Sisters in Crime-New England and the library will be entered for one of our quarterly drawings for a $250 check—PLUS autographed books from our SinC-NE members! You can find a link to SinC-NE’s published members as well as other details on our website, www.sincne.org.

The prize must be used to purchase books, but won’t be restricted to the mystery genre or to those by Sisters in Crime members. What’s more, any New England library scheduling a SinC-NE Speakers Bureau event will be entered in all the quarterly drawings an additional 10 times. The first drawing will be held on September 1st.

A library can use the same photo for the national SinC lottery, so there will be two chances to win! For more information about the national contest, see We Love Libraries.

SinC-NE will be sending this announcement to all New England libraries, and we hope that you will encourage them to enter. And if you have any ideas for other ways that Sisters in Crime-New England and New England libraries can work together, please let me know!

Sheila Connolly, Library Liaison
Sisters in Crime-New England
sheila328@aol.com

POSITION: 100%, 52 weeks per year
Location: CCV Site (flexible) Brattleboro, Springfield, or Upper Valley

RESPONSIBILITIES: Under the direction of the Assistant Library Director, the Public Services Librarian
• Provides online, chat, email, phone, and limited in-person reference services to the CCV/VTC college community;
• Coordinates and participates in CCV’s Embedded Librarian program;
• Develops and delivers online and in-person trainings and orientations to students, faculty, and staff;
• Consults with faculty on the integration of information literacy in classes;
• Develops print, multimedia, and web-based support materials for the library user community;
• Participates in collection development in assigned areas performs other library and college duties as needed; and
• Participates in scholarly activities.

Read the rest of this entry »

From: Ted Albers, a community relations officer with the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) in South Burlington. USCIS is the immigration-benefit and services arm of the Federal Government.

You may or may not be aware of some of the hard-copy and online resources that USCIS produces for immigrants who are preparing for the citizenship test. These materials are helpful to ESL and Civics educators as well. These resources are detailed on the websites below.

For libraries, the “Citizenship Toolkit” is probably the most useful for a library, and is a free resource if you register online (it costs $73 if purchased through the Government Printing Office). Even if a library does not serve immigrants, the Toolkit is helpful to social-service providers, students and others for understanding the legal immigration process.

________________________________

To learn about the contents of the Toolkit, and to register, please visit this website:
http://www.citizenshiptoolkit.gov/

Find online civics and citizenship materials here:
http://www.uscis.gov/civicsonline

Find individual study materials for the Citizenship test (the ‘New test’) here. Most of these materials are in the Toolkit.
http://www.uscis.gov/newtest

A “Welcome to the US” guide in many languages is available here.
www.uscis.gov/newimmigrants

A host of other relevant resources are here:
http://www.welcometousa.gov/

For libraries that are in a position to purchase civics and English language materials:
http://bookstore.gpo.gov/collections/const-cit-day.jsp

ALA “American Dream” Resources are here:
http://www.americandreamtoolkit.org/

You can request a 1MB PDF file of a handbook Expanding ESL, Civics and Citizenship Education in Your Community by emailing me a ted.albers@dhs.gov

Ted Albers, USCIS Community Relations, Northeast Regional Office, South Burlington, VT
802-660-5007 Desk
http://www.uscis.gov/communityrelations

The Association of College and Research Libraries – New England Chapter (ACRL/NEC) announces its Spring 2010 Conference!

Embracing Our Electronic World: Challenges and Promises for Academic Libraries

Friday, May 14, 2010 @ College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA

Spend a day discussing the impact of our shifting information landscape, the evolving roles of academic libraries and librarians in a networked world, and the opportunities for innovation that come with rapid change.  The conference will feature speaker, Lisa Hinchliffe (Vice-President/President-elect of ACRL), presentations from ACRL/NEC Special Interest Groups (http://www.acrlnec.org/sigs/index.php), and will offer opportunities to network with your colleagues and discuss the latest library products and services with our sponsoring vendors.

ALA has launched MentorConnect in ALA Connect so you can find or become a mentor.

MentorConnect (”MC”) allows ALA members to create mentoring profiles that highlight their expertise and experience. After they’ve joined MC, ALA members can search for a mentor using a variety of criteria (gender, type of library, ethnicity, etc.) and request mentorship. Once created, the mentorship is tracked within MC, with a space for providing and archiving feedback. The system will prompt mentors and mentorees every few months to ensure they are staying in touch.

To learn all about this new service, see Mentoring Starter Questions and Mentoring and MentorConnect FAQ at (http://www.students.ala.org/studentmemberblog/?p=344)

Don Wood
Program Officer
Chapter Relations Office
American Libraries Association
dwood@ala.org
1-800-545-2433, ext. 2429

Looking good!