MP3 audio books have arrived!

The State Library of Kansas is happy to announce that starting on July 31st, audio books from Audio books, music and more! will be available for download in MP3 format. The MP3 collection will include approximately 1,000 titles at the launch date and should be growing throughout the coming year.

The most exciting news about this format, is that these MP3 files should work on most existing MP3 players including the iPod and the Zune.

I hope that many of you will be able to take advantage of this exciting development as an opportunity to promote this service. If you would like ideas, or if you have any questions about the audio books, music and more service, please feel free to direct them to me (Eric) at egustafson@kslib.info

Learning about Advocacy

The CULS Summer Institute has come and gone, but hopefully the spirit will live on as we go out to advocate in creative ways for libraries and librarians in Kansas.

Sheryl Stanley provided a great start to the day and got everyone talking about how we communicate, what we could do differently, and what we’re doing right.  Considering recent news about possible budget cuts, figuring out how to get our message across to those who hold the money is really important!

Considering that librarians like to talk, discuss, hash over, and generally share, the afternoon took on more of an unconference feel with break-out session topics being left up to the attendees.  And there was some great discussion about how to advocate better within our universities/colleges, conflict resolution, and whatever else came to mind.  (There was even a discussion about different catalog overlays between sessions.  You just never know what’s going to be talked about when librarians get together.  *wink*)

An idea that I’d like CULS and KLA to explore further is resource sharing.  But I’m not talking about physical or virtual resources like books and databases.  I’m thinking more along the lines of knowledge/experience sharing.  With travel budgets getting slashed (or disappearing entirely), it would be great if those of us still able to get to conferences and workshops would share what we learn with other librarians around the state.  For you tenture-track people, this falls nicely under “service to profession”.  I’ve got some ideas rolling around in my head on how we could do something like this.

Anyway, if you weren’t there, you missed a great day!  We even had someone travel all the way from Salt Lake City.  Here are pictures:  (Just click and you can see all of them.)

Summer Institute wiki

Dorothy Bramlage Public Library Camp-In

With the permission of Susan Moyer I post this post. This is a cool idea. I wonder how many of us are as brave as the people at Junction City to try such an idea.

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As part of DBPL’s library anniversary celebration, we decided that it would be a great idea to resurrect a program that was very popular in its early days, the Library Camp-In.  Much as it sounds, this is basically a slumber party in the library for parents and kids.   Since none of us were here in the old camp-in days, it was a new experience and we thought we’d share some of the lessons we learned.

1) Clothes that were put on at 6 a.m. feel very different twenty hours later, particularly socks.
2) No matter what you think at the time, running payroll at 1 a.m. is not a good idea.
3) Ten year old girls still love to stay up all night. Girls who were ten thirty or forty years ago do not.
4) By 3 a.m., even a children’s librarian is no longer perky.
5) If a child asks “Do you have some glue?” say no.
6) It is possible to fall asleep and out of a chair while playing cards.
7) Concrete is really hard.
People who sleep on concrete are a little grumpy in the morning.
9) People who don’t sleep at all don’t really care.
10) No matter how much fun it is, the best part of the camp-in will always be the end!

We are Susan Moyer & Patty Collins and we approve this message.

Dorothy Bramlage Public Library
230 West Seventh Street
Junction City, KS  66441
(785)238-4311
(785)238-7873 (FAX)

Unofficial minutes of the July 24th meeting.

{{these minutes are solely my interpretation of events and in no way are meant to be a reflection of the official minutes. These thoughts are approved only by me, and are not approved by any KLA member or employee.}}

Well we had an eventful meeting yesterday. Granted it was closer to a UFC cage match than most KLA meetings, but it had the distinction of being one I won’t soon forget.

We went around and introduced ourselves, where we work, and something about our favorite pet. I think it was Denise Smith who had the best story, something like out of the saddest Disney film you ever watched. A dead pig, a dead sheep, a run over puppy, all in about the span of a week! Poor Denise.

During the member and guest comments we were treated to the song “You really got me” by the son of Andrew Evans. I expect that at some point that kid is gonna be a rock/jazz/blues/classical star.

Then we went through the normal submitting of minutes and reports from the previous year. The report that really caught my attention was the one by Richard Brookman the chair of the Young Adult Roundtable. He has some exciting stuff prepared for his roundtable and for the KLA at large. Keep an eye on Richard, that cat seems to be able to get things going at full speed.

Next up was the ratification of presidential appointees. That was quickly done, with yours truly being name the publications/KLA newsletter chair. Andrew Evans and I are going to get together in some fashion and try to kick out a normal style newsletter sometime here in the near future. (Bet you didn’t know that, huh, Andrew?)

Well, then started 2 ½ hours of what I would call the worst case of civility in a KLA council meeting I have ever witnessed. Basically one section of KLA had sent a representative to the meeting to argue that sections case about what they consider to be an unfair dues structure. The section feels that they are being unfairly picked on by the new proposed due structure, and the Executive Council of the KLA feels that they are received a dues break that no other section in KLA is given. Seems simple enough doesn’t it? Well it did at first.

My problem was not with the problem that this section had, but with the way the representative bullied and badgered people on the council. I lost track of how many times this person tried to derail someone’s comments by making some snarky witticism that only appeared to bemuse himself.

It is at this point in my remarks about the meeting that I should say that Roger Carswell is now one of my favorite people. With calmness and intelligence he was able to tone down the elevated emotions….but only for a bit.

Motions were suggested; amendments to resolutions proposed….and 2 hours later things were so confusing to me at this point that on both votes relating to this I voted ‘abstain’. I could not in my mind justifying voting for or against something that no longer made sense to me.

Civility never goes out of style! And with class and grace Laura Loveless was able to handle what I thought was unacceptable behavior. I felt bad for the gentleman who sat next to this agitated section officer. I know we all hear the term ‘guilt by association’ all too often, but in this case, it personally made me sad. To his credit this person did ask the agitated person to calm down a bit, but to no avail.

I don’t feel that either side walked away thinking they had won this battle, if anything it was a skirmish that will inevitably be repeated.

The best thing about the meeting was that it ended.

So what are your thoughts? Where Were you at the meeting? Do you feel I got things all wrong? Or slightly wrong?

KLA membership!

Time to Re-UP people! And here are some choice words to persuade.
You got some more ideas? Bring it. You got a gripe you want to clear up, let me know!

KLA Vision Statement
Dynamic libraries and librarians serving all Kansans.

KLA Mission Statement
The Kansas Library Association is the common bond, public voice, and
collective power for the Kansas library community.

Library Organizations

One of the best ways to navigate the leadership opportunities in the field of librarianship is to become a member of a professional organization. There are quite a few out there in library land.

My tips on professional organization participation:
1. Join only one or two in the beginning.
2. Only say yes if you mean it.
3. Only volunteer if you have the time.
4. Show up early and stay late to meetings. Leaders are often picked when there are only a couple of people in the room.
5. Share your experience and knowledge with the organization. Often we think “What can this group do for me?”, when we might ought to think “What can I do for this group?”
6. If staying overnight at a conference, tag along with a dinner party. Let people start to recognize your face.
7. Be pushy, but not obnoxious.
8. Saying “Hello” always brings a smile.
9. Have fun.
10. Have fun. (Yeah, I know it’s real gimmicky to repeat number 9 again, but hey the Beatles wrote a whole song repeating that number!)

How to tell someone they sound racist

Library Issue #1: After-school crowds and Security Guards

Below is a posting from Kanlib-L by Pete Daniels, Library Director at Independence Public Library. Pete gave me permission to post this to KLAblog! I bet some of you out there has some opinions about his predicament and I think we could all benefit from hearing the views on this issue.

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We are asking the library board to authorize a new library position for a security guard for the after school period on weekdays. We are so out gunned by middle school kids that we are losing regular adult customers and putting staff at-risk of physical harm and psychological damage as we try to put out fires and maintain control. These difficult kids are a serious problem to the whole community and we are neither equipped nor willing to address their needs. The only course of action I can see it to keep the trouble-makers out of the building and off library grounds so we can provide a safe and businesslike atmosphere for those who want to use our facilities in a manner that conforms to our Behavior Policy.

Anyway, my reason for posting is to ask who else has resorted to hiring a security person, will you share the job description and rates of pay, and how has the person worked out?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Pete Daniels, Library Director
Independence Public Library

Picture This!

Hi, everyone! Joshua Neff here.

It was almost exactly 2 years ago that I created the Kansas Libraries & Librarians group on Flickr. I started it because I’d never created a Flickr group before and I wanted to try it out. But I also started it because I’m a librarian in Kansas, and I know we have a whole state full of beautiful, compelling and fun images to show the rest of the world. I’ve talked about Flickr at NEKLS Tech Day and KLA with Mickey Coalwell of NEKLS, about how much fun and it is, how easy it is to use, how great it is to share pictures with others. Plus, with groups like Kansas Libraries & Librarians, we can have discussions right there on the group page. Questions can be asked, answers can be given, knowledge can be shared, stories and experiences can be told.

So, if you haven’t already, come join the Kansas Libraries & Librarians group on Flickr. Share your pictures and stories with the rest of us.

Greetings from the KLA President

Welcome to a new KLA year! It is both an honor and a pleasure to serve as President of the Kansas Library Association. Kansas has a wonderful community of Librarians, Friends and Trustees. Whether academic, public, school, special libray, Friend or Trustee, many of our concerns are the same. I look forward to working with everyone in order to grow our association and improve member services.

Yes, that means I’ll be calling on many of you for assistance!

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to represent you and KLA for the next year. KLA is YOUR association. Let’s make it a better association together.

Laura Loveless

llove@kckpl.lib.ks.us

Library Society of the World has fresh, new website!

In a perfect world in which we were all superheroes, I would like to think of myself as the Green Arrow and my pal Joshua Neff as Batman. If you are not familiar with the Joshua Neff, he is a pretty awesome librarian kickin’ it over at the Johnson County Library. He is on their top-notch web development team and he has been a part of kicking out some pretty good websites.

Today Joshua released the awesome news that there is a new ‘Library Society of the World’ webpage:

http://thelsw.org/

What is the ‘LSW’? Well, check out this blurb from their homepage:

“By joining the Society, you are joining a world-spanning group of library professionals and library advocates, dedicated to furthering the role of librarians, archivists, information professionals, and information educators through communication and collaboration. The LSW is about people, not buildings (although some of us think architecture is sexy). It’s about friendship, not organization. It’s about creating and fostering opportunities, not building barriers and divisions.”

Keep an eye on this site. Expect great things to come from this endeavor.