Monday Morning Eye-Opener 11/30/09

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving! Today in EYE-OPENER:

1) Go “Inside the Mind of Google”
2) Mid-Year Enrollment for WILBOR
3) We the People Bookshelf Grants
4) Meetings / Events This Week

1) Go “Inside the Mind of Google”

As seen on Central LSA’s website, this sounds like a cool program December 3rd on CNBC. “Inside the Mind of Google” is a CNBC special report with Maria Bartiromo. It looks at the Google phenomenon, detailing why and how it has become the most popular search engine on the net—2 billion hits every day. Kind of hard to believe that Google has only been on the scene 10 years (although that’s a long time in technology advances) It’s commonly used as a verb (“just Google it”) and I heard it used this weekend as a noun (“I used the Google to find it”) “Inside the Mind of Google” airs Dec3 at 8:00PM CST. And hey, if you’re a power user, test your Google IQ at CNBC’s website.

2) Mid-Year Enrollment for WILBOR

As you set about prepping your budgets for next FY, are you making plans to join WILBOR? WILBOR is a consortium that provides affordable access to downloadable audio books and is brought to you by Central, Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest LSAs. The vendor is OverDrive and the buy-in is in the neighborhood of $800.00. Price is based on

· $300.00 base price

· $500.00 one-time set up fee from OverDrive

· $0.10 per total audio book circulation in FY09


If additional city / county money looks unlikely, you might follow the lead of counties like Sioux and Palo Alto. Those counties wrote grants to pay the WILBOR fees for every library in their county. This would also be a very worthwhile project for a Friends Group to sponsor, maybe with some cost-sharing through fundraising.

As Christmas approaches, do you have a giving tree set up for the library itself? A giving tree could be the perfect way to promote this as a new library service, inspiring gifts to the library at the same time.

WILBOR launched in the summer of 2008 and to date, 38 Northwest libraries have joined; there are over 100 in the Consortium. The WILBOR library now boasts a collection of 2,632 audio books and just this year, there’ve been 58,382 checkouts! Plenty impressive—and your library can be part of this exciting new service!

The next live start date is April 1, 2010; after that it’s July 1, 2010. More information and paperwork will be forthcoming. So put WILBOR square into your planning and budgeting. Let us know of your interest and we’ll happily hook you up—call with questions!

3) We The People Bookshelf Grants

The National Endowment for the Humanities, in partnership with the American Library Association, invites public libraries and K-12 school libraries to apply for the next “We the People Bookshelf” grants. Since 2003, this is a major grant program whose aim is to “…encourage and strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture through libraries, schools, colleges, universities, and cultural institutions…”

The theme for the 2009-2010 Bookshelf is “A More Perfect Union.” A total of 4,000 public and school libraries nationwide will be selected to receive a full set of 16 hardcover books. Books range in reading levels from kindergarten to senior high. Among the titles in this year’s collection are:

· Tico and the Golden Wings by Leo Lionni

· A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution by Betsy and Giulio Maestro

· Eagle Song by Joseph Bruchac

· The Great Little Madison by Jean Fritz

· Darby by Jonathon Scott Fuqua

· Lincoln in His Own Words by Milton Meltzer

· Carver: A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson

· Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose

Bonus titles include

· The Civil War: A Film by Ken Burns

· The Civil War: An Illustrated History by Geoffrey Ward, Ric Burns, Ken Burns

· Declaring Independence: The Origin and Influence of America's Founding Document edited by Christian Y. Dupont

The application is to be completed online and is said to take about 1 hour. The application deadline is January 29, 2010; winners will be announced in April 2010. Full grant details, an FAQ, the list of books, and the application itself is all found at We the People Bookshelf. There’s plenty of time to give it a try—your library can be among the winners!

4) Meetings / Events This Week

Thursday December 3, the State Library offers a review of the EBSCO databases. The focus is on effective search strategies, but there’ll also be time to look at citing references, using the My Folder feature, creating journal alerts, and discussing ways to market this great resource to your community. This one is online in the State Library’s Adobe classroom. Register online, too, in the c.e. catalog.

And heads up for Library101 next week, Thursday December 10. That’s online in Northwest’s Adobe classroom. Library101 is an orientation for new directors, staff, or trustees. Find a description and registration in the c.e. catalog…