New anthology benefits the Vermont Library Association

Cover of Please Do Not Remove by Angela Palm We are honored to have been selected by author and editor Angela Palm as the beneficiary of 10% of the net profits of Please Do Not Remove, a new anthology of poetry and prose inspired by library checkout cards. Please Do Not Remove is published by Wind Ridge Books of Vermont, a non-profit organization which donates 10% of net profits to the authors’ non-profit organization of choice. Contributors to Please Do Not Remove include Vermont writers Gary Margolis, Jessica Hendry Nelson, Jericho Parms, Karin Gottshall, Tim Brookes, Daniel Lusk, Lene Gary, Erika Nichols, Penelope Cray, Angela Palm, Rob Friesel, Hillary Read, Shelagh Connor Shapiro, Kate Sykes, Niels Rinehart, Malisa Garlieb, David Dillon, Tamra Higgins, Mary Jane Dickerson, and Emily Arnason Casey.
Shop local and pick up a copy! Support local bookstores while also supporting the VLA. To schedule a reading, contact angelacathleen@gmail.com. Click here to download a flyer for your library.

History of VLA websites

screen shot of old VLA website
Anyone who has been around VLA for a while might be interested in looking at the past fifteen years of VLA websites, courtesy of the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. From March 2001 until today!

Slides from VLC academic library show & tell sessions.

tribbles!

Information for Legislative Gatherings

This year the Vermont Library Association’s Government Relations Committee is recommending regional legislative gatherings during November, December and January, when the legislature convenes.

We invite you and your library to participate in these informal gatherings. While the format varies, the gatherings provide an opportunity for Legislators, librarians, and trustees to talk about library issues and the key part that libraries play in Internet access, job searching, and education. It is also an opportunity for us to hear about the legislative process and the agenda before the Legislators.

We need to meet with Legislators this year to thank them for their continued support for the new patron confidentiality law and to remind them that state funding for public libraries continues to be an important issue. Our goal is to keep this at the top of their agenda when state finances are stronger. We also want Legislators to ensure ongoing support for the Department of Libraries’ services to public libraries.

Download the legislative gathering packet.

Public Library Statistics now available for 07-08

Public library statistics are available for Vermont on this page. There’s no summary page, but here are a few statistics that might be interesting. Feel free to use the comment section to pull out your own noteworthy statistics.

  • Vermont has 182 public libraries, the largest number of libraries per capita in the US.
  • 174 of these libraries have Internet access; 160 of these have high speed access. Do the math, that’s 14 libraries with dial-up and eight with nothing.
  • Half of the public librarians in the state have MLSes or the equivalent.
  • 73% of Vermont library funding comes from local taxes; 27% comes from other local sources (grants, fundraising)
  • Eleven public libraries filter internet access on all terminals (as opposed to some libraries that offer a children’s filtered option)

vcal test post

The Vermont Consortium of Academic Libraries hereby resolves our support for the critical role of libraries and librarians in K-12 education in Vermont and strenuously opposes the proposal made by the Education Quality Standards Commission, appointed by the State Board of Education, to remove all instances of the words “library,” “librarian,” and “library-media specialist” from the Vermont Education Quality Standards.

Read more, from the VCAL website. (pdf)

Vermont Koha ILS Project

Some of you around the state may have heard word of a group of libraries working together to create a customized “Vermont” version of the open source integrated library system (ILS) Koha.

It’s true, and the group is more than happy to welcome new members who are interested in the development phase of the project as well as those who might be interested in joining a consortium model ILS down the road. If you are unhappy with your current system, looking at a forced upgrade, or looking to automate, the Vermont Koha Project might be of interest to you.Read more