From stuff-braries to anonymous surfing

Public libraries have been rethinking their futures as a part of their communities. The redefinition of the public library continues in many different avenues. The NY Times has a great article about various special collections being developed around the country: These Public Libraries Are for Snowshoes and Ukuleles,  Everything from cooking implements, sport and leisure equipment to scientific tools are being checked out to patrons now. Telescopes, sewing machines, and fishing rods are all things people find useful, but use infrequently enough to make them great examples of this movement.

“They realized that the way you best serve your community is to look like them,” ... “For some, that means 3-D printers. For others, it means fishing rods.” Which begs the question of what does RPL's community "look like"? These special lending libraries also bring up a host of additional concerns and questions, such as maintenance, tech support, breakage, and replacement, all above and beyond initial funding.

A different option for public libraries is to embrace and explore the role as a place for the sanctity of free speech and privacy.  New Hampshire has the "First Library to Offer Anonymous Web Browsing" but this was later shut down by Homeland Security. Whether or not this practice becomes commonplace or not, it is an interesting use of available technology. It is yet to be seen whether these trailblazers are creating avenues down which RPL will travel in the future. Much depends on what our community and patrons decide they want, which is ultimately the deciding factor.
 

Financial Literacy Resources

Finances and budgeting are skills that often elude the savviest of folks. Here are some wonderful free  and trustworthy resources for patrons to to navigate the often murky world of money management.

NCUA's Consumer Resources is a list of government sites to inform and educate on such topics as retirement planning, saving for college, mortgages, loan calculators and credit report investigations.

MyMoney.gov is another financial information clearinghouse of government websites and information for consumers.

CreditSmart by Freddie Mac is an online free course in credit building and maintenance. As may of us know, credit is vastly important for people to attain the lives they want. The ability to acquire reliable vehicles, safe and affordable housing, and finance higher education can depend on credit history.

OCC: Financial Literacy Resources The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (The Department of the Treasury) has the most exhaustive list of resources, including such topics as investing, elder financial exploitation, housing, resources in Spanish, and small business financing

And in other news: the ALA's Facebook page was hacked over the weekend. The story proves that librarians have the very best senses of humor. The page has been restored to the rightful hands now.

resource of the week: read it later sites

Read it Later

With all of the information that is available at your fingertips on the Internet, even a quick peek at your favorite website can make it hard to stay focused on your daily tasks. Read-later services can help you store web articles to a central list, so that you can read them at your convenience – anytime, anywhere, even without internet connection.

Here are a few examples of popular read-later services that can help you boost productivity by saving items of interest for future viewing:

Pocket, which was formerly known as Read It Later, offers some of the most robust options for read-it-later activities, including browser extensions, bookmarks, app integration, multi-platform readers, and more.

Instapaper  is a free tool that turns your saved websites into black and white, paper-like representations, which you can then read later on Instapaper.com. It also makes it easy to highlight and comment on text-in articles, as well as store, retrieve, quote, and share information.

Readability is a free web and mobile app that removes online clutter and turns any web page into an easy-to-read, clean view for reading now or later on your computer, smart phone, or tablet. In addition, it can also show you the top articles that other people are reading.

- Thanks to Amy for sharing this productivity boosting post, featured in the Printer@Work newsletter from Quick Copy.

New NC LIVE Director appointed

The NC LIVE Nomination Committee is very pleased to announce the appointment of Rob Ross as NC LIVE Executive Director, effective 14 September 2015.

Rob Ross joins NC LIVE from OCLC, a global library cooperative, where he most recently served in a leadership role as Director of Implementation Programs. At OCLC, Ross led the team responsible for working with member libraries of all types to successfully implement new technologies, redesign library workflows and measure ROI. He continuously engaged with libraries to identify their most pressing needs and create services to meet them. He also collaborated with libraries to tell their stories publicly at conferences and in publications.

At OCLC, Ross gained experience in marketing; program development; talent management; new business development; partnerships; consulting; and member outreach, which will serve him well in his new role as Executive Director.

Before joining OCLC, Ross served as Interlibrary Loan Supervisor and Adjunct Professor of English at Bentley University. He holds an MLIS from Kent State University, an MFA from the University of New Orleans, and a BA from Ashland University.

Among his professional activities, Ross has presented at IFLA, ALA, Internet Librarian, and the Charleston Conference. His publications include “Library Technologists as Agents of Change,” in Computers in Libraries, “Risks of Moving to the Cloud: The Human Factor,” with Petra Duren, at the 80th IFLA General Conference and Assembly, and “Shadow of the leader: How library leaders undermine or bolster change efforts," with Petra Duren at the 36th Annual International Association of University Libraries Conference.

I would like to thank the other members of the Nomination Committee, Ruth Ann Copley (Public Libraries COI Representative); Suvanida Duangudom (Community Colleges COI Representative); Cal Shepard (State Librarian and Ex-Officio member); who worked so diligently to find a new Executive Director for NC LIVE.

We believe that Rob Ross brings the leadership NC LIVE needs to continue to strengthen resources and services for NC libraries. I know Rob is eager to meet all of you and to work with you to serve our state.

TLC Patch Upgrade Planned for this Weekend

TLC will begin a patch upgrade process this weekend after the close of business on Saturday August 1st.

Enhancements to the PAC will include

Local Call Number Searching

The option to suppress the display of Lost or Missing items from displaying in the PAC.

Browsing a virtual shelf

Enhancements for LS2Staff include the ability to apply cumulative checkouts across multiple holdings codes

The ability to copy borrower information across a group of related borrowers.

The upgrade will require a reimport of the database which will take 24 hours after the upgrade is completed in time to open Monday morning.

NCLIVE embedded passwords

The staff at NCLIVE is preparing to sunset support for the embedded password links that we use on our remote resources page. The links will still work, patrons will just be required to enter the current password before they can access content remotely. They will be removed shortly.

Continuing Education Survey

The State Library and its Continuing Education Advisory Committee (CEAC) invite you to participate in a new Continuing Education survey.  The purpose of this survey is to collect information that the CEAC will use to recommend a continuing education plan for 2015-2016.  Your responses will help us identify the most important topics and set training priorities for the coming year.  The survey is anonymous, quick, and open to everyone in the NC library community!  

We want to hear from NC library staff in all types of libraries so please share this announcement and the CE survey link with others in the NC library community.  This year’s CE survey will close on Friday, August 14^th.  Please contact CE Consultant, Kelly Brannock, at the State Library if you have any questions.

Thanks for sharing your opinion!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CE_statewide2015