The Library Connection
Volume 25 Number 8 August 2005
Click here for the Fall 2005 Bookmobile Schedule
ESLS applied for an LSTA grant this year to promote library card sign-up and library use at Lakeview Community Library in Random Lake and Oscar Grady Library in Saukville. April's campaign included a performance at both libraries by musician Rick Kelly, paid ads in local newspapers, proclamations of National Library Week by local officials, a "Why I Love my Library" contest, door prizes, and a promotional library magnet giveaway.
Library Directors Linda Pierschalla from Oscar Grady and Darla Jean Kraus from Lakeview are working hard at the September campaign. Large vinyl banners with the "Smartest Card" logo were purchased and will be on display in the communities during the month. Radio station 93.7 FM will air a 60-second announcement promoting libraries 114 times during the month. Darla Jean and Linda will be at the registration for the Northern Ozaukee School District. Random Lake teachers will have a breakfast at the library and hear a presentation from staff about what the library has to offer. Saukville students will receive packets of information, including a customized flyer featuring George Lopez. Those who register for a new card or replace a lost card will receive a 2-for-1 pass to Marcus Cinema.
Residents of those communities are discovering that their public libraries are a goldmine of books, movies, magazines, CDs, and other great stuff for the whole family!
NetLibrary continues to be popular with customers in the Eastern Shores Library System. An average of 22 individuals became registered users each month from January - July 2005. There are now 409 active users in Sheboygan and Ozaukee Counties. This number represents 10.4% of the total registered borrowers in the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium, the group that provides electronic books to Wisconsin residents. The consortium has purchased 11,599 of the 76,763 titles that NetLibrary currently has available.
What subjects are the most popular with local users? Computers lead the list, followed by Business, Economics, and Management. Medicine, Networking & Telecommunications; Psychology; General Social Science; and Technology & Engineering also had numerous uses.
Computers (Subject)
There are 24 books on learning and using Microsoft Excel, 8 on Microsoft
PowerPoint, 6 on Microsoft Frontpage, 17 on Microsoft Access, and 11 on
Microsoft Word. There are another 12 titles on Microsoft Office in
general. In addition, customers can locate "books" about C#,
Linux, C++, Java, UNIX, SQL, Photoshop, Dreamweaver IMAC, HTML, and Visual
Basic.
Business, Economics, & Management (Subject)
There are 9 titles that contain the word "Mutual Funds," If you
search for mutual funds as a keyword, you will find 18. There are 12
CliffNotes titles on everything from investing in 401(k)s, IRAs, or the stock
market to writing a great resume to shopping online safely. You can browse
42 titles about customer service or 9 on day trading.
NetLibrary is great for those individuals who are having trouble getting their formulas to work in Excel, or remembering how to print an envelope with a 12-point font, or trying to get just the right combination of investments in their retirement portfolio. The books are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week--even when the traditional library is closed.
Each month NetLibrary selects one book as the ebook of the month. You can access this book from the home page of the ESLS website -- www.esls.lib.wi.us
All ESLS Friends groups can still register (until August 31) for the Friends Workshop at Mead Public Library on Saturday, September 10 at 10:30 a.m. Call Sharon Quicker (920-458-6254) or squicker@excel.net to register.
If you have items to sell, bring them along. Share information with other Friends Groups--it's a time for learning about what other groups are doing--what project have worked and which ones have not. The co-presidents of FOWL will be there to tell everyone what Friends groups around the state are doing.
PARIS - Readers craving Homer, Baudelaire or Lewis Carroll in the middle of the night can get a quick fix at one of the French capital's five newly-installed book vending machines.
"We have customers who know exactly what they want and come at all hours to get it," said Xavier Chambon, president of Maxi-Livres, a low-cost publisher and book store chain that debuted the vending machines in June. "It's as if our stores were open 24 hours a day."
Stocked with 25 of Maxi-Livres best selling titles, the machines cover the gamut of literary genres and tastes.
Classics like "The Odyssey" by Homer and Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" share the limited shelf space with such practical must-haves as "100 Delicious Couscous" and "Verb Conjugations."
"Our biggest vending machine sellers are "The Wok Cookbook' and a French-English dictionary," said Chambon, who added that poet Charles Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs du Mal" - "The Flowers of Evil" - also is "very popular."
Regardless of whether they fall into the category of high culture or low, all books cost a modest $2.45.
Installed in four busy Metro stops and a chic street corner in central Paris, Maxi-Livre's distributors were designed to bypass the characteristic vending-machine-drop, which can be punishing for books.
"We knew that French bibliophiles would be horrified to see their books falling into a trough like candy or soda," Chambon said. "So we installed a mechanical arm that grabs the book and delivers it safely."
Books are but the latest offering in France's ever-expanding vending machine market, which is responding to off-hour demand for everything from toilet paper to carnations.
Children's
Librarians CornerOn-line resources have become an important part of reference service to our customers. At Mead Public Library, we have some favorite sites that we consult regularly to help find the answers to questions children ask about literature. Here are a few of them.
The Cooperative Children’s Book Center
http://www.soemadison.wisc.edu/ccbc/
The CCBC has a wonderful website for librarians, maintained by the professional staff at the CCBC. If you need booklists, the CCBC website provides a variety of them for various ages of children, including suggested books for babies, toddlers and preschoolers, elementary students, and middle and high school students. There is a listing of Wisconsin resources, including Wisconsin author information. The specialized information section contains intellectual freedom information, multicultural resources, an extensive collection of Harry Potter resources, recommended graphic novels and information on popular publishing trends. Each week the website features the “Book of the Week” which is a way for you to keep up with the newest and best in children’s literature. Explore this site to find even more resources than I have highlighted.
TeachingBooks.net
http://www.teachingbooks.net/signin.cgi
TeachingBooks.net opens with the statement “Generating enthusiasm for books and reading by providing easy access to authors, illustrators and exceptional book resources — all in one place!” Hopefully, all of you are familiar with this site, which is part of BadgerLink resources. Once you have registered for free, you will have at your fingertips an extensive literature resource. Need thematic booklists? Use TeachingBooks.net! Conducting a book discussion group and need discussion guides? Consult TeachingBooks.net! Want to get up close and personal with famous authors? Use TeachingBooks.net!
Mid-Continent Public Library Juvenile Series and Sequels
http://www.mcpl.lib.mo.us/readers/series/juv/
The National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) is a very useful resource for patrons wanting genealogical materials and libraries that want to help their patrons obtain them. The following web sites provide just a few links to help patrons on their way to discovering the wonders found there. Patrons may use the National Archives themselves if the item they have requested through interlibrary loan is not available and happens to be owned there. There are charges for some services offered by the National Archives, but since patrons may access the site themselves their library does not have to be involved. Remember, public libraries may NOT charge their patrons for interlibrary loan.
The National Archives has published and is offering free of charge some finding aids for using their vast collections of materials. You can view a list of these aids at http://www.archives.gov/publications/genealogy/free.html. Information about how to borrow NARA materials is found at http://www.archives.gov/faqs/#borrowing. Topics are listed alphabetically with separate headings including Census, Genealogy, Photocopying, and Fees. For information about how to order frequently-requested family history records: http://www.archives.gov/research/order/index.html.
For more information about NARA, please go to their web site at http://www.archives.gov. Please share this information with other staff that interact with patrons doing genealogical research.
The University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center (UWDCC) announces the addition of The Wisconsin Folksong Collection, 1937-1946 http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WiscFolkSong to its digital collections. This collection presents searchable data, digitized audio and visual materials from two collections housed in three discrete but closely related repositories. It contains Wisconsin field recordings, notes, and photographs made by UW-Madison faculty member Helene Stratman-Thomas as part of the Wisconsin Folk Music Recording Project, co-sponsored by the University of Wisconsin and the Library of Congress during the summers of 1940, 1941, and 1946; and recordings collected by song catcher Sidney Robertson Cowell during the summer of 1937 for the Special Skills Division of the Resettlement Administration.
The Wisconsin Folksong Collection, 1937-1946 presents a wealth of valuable information about each composition and sound files of many original performances. There are also transcribed melodies, lyrics, photographs of many performances, and critical commentary listing concordant sources for the tunes and excerpts of field notes by the collector(s). Over 900 performances representing more than thirty ethnic or geographical sources are included. While vocal music predominates, instruments such as the accordion, guitar, Hardanger fiddle, psalmodikon, and tamburica were also recorded.
TaglineGuru has released the results of a survey identifying the 100 most influential slogans and 30 most influential jingles introduced since the advent of broadcast television in 1948. "Got Milk?" was voted number one from among more that 300 submitted nominations. The slogan was created for the California Milk Processor Board in 1993.
The survey's goal was to determine which slogans demonstrated a timeless quality. A number of factors tend to influence how much a slogan becomes part of our collective consciousness including:
* Use of grammar (Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee)
* Rhythm (The quicker picker-upper)
* Rhyme (Don't get mad, get GLAD)
* Inflection (They're gr-r-r-eat!)
* Metaphor (This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?)
* Attitude (The few, the proud, the Marines)
* Ulterior meaning (Nothing comes between me and my Calvins)
* Positioning (The uncola)
Keep these factors in mind when you need to develop a slogan for a library promotion campaign. For the complete list of slogans and jingles, as well as honorable mentions and noteworthy efforts prior to 1948, visit http://www.taglineguru.com/survey05.html
A joint digital venture between the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse's Murphy Library and the La Crosse Public Library has resulted in La Crosse History Unbound - a portal site to digitized cultural assets of the La Crosse County, Wisconsin, area. The name came from the idea of users neither being bound to the physical building of a library nor the binding of a traditional book. Over 180 titles exist already on the site http://lacrossehistory.org arranged by subject category, with a separate author and title list. While printed materials have been the main focus of the portal to date, it is hoped to add partners to the team to broaden the scope of available materials.
Just debuted is a collection of material related to the La Crosse urban wetland, often under discussion in relation to proposed road and transportation planning. The planning team of librarians worked in conjunction with the University's public history staff and students to identify core materials related to the subject. The marsh project contains photographs, maps, interviews, published studies and summaries of fieldwork related to the marsh. The link to this project is http://lacrosselibrary.org/marsh.
National Hispanic Heritage Month www.somosprimos.com
National Library Card Sign-up Month http://www.pla.org/ala/pla/plaissues/smartestcardcampaign/smartestcardcampaign.htm
September 8 - International Literacy Day www.reading.org/association/meetings/literacy_day.html
September 11 - National grandparents Day www.grandparents-day.com
