Library Development and Continuing Education:
• State Library staff is working with interested representatives from the regional library systems to evaluate and compare web conferencing platforms for online meetings and training. Four platforms are being investigated and recommendations from the team will be forwarded to Jo Budler and the regional system directors in late July or early August.
• 23 Things Kansas by the Numbers – 391 registered participant blogs, 104 participants completed the entire program. fLip Video Camera Winners: Stephanie Fisher (Scott County Library), Ruby Martin (Lane County Library) and Charlene McGuire (Southwest Kansas Library System). The lessons are still available on the 23 Things Kansas blog at http://www.23thingskansas.org/.
• Ethics for Libraries, the joint training project of the State Library and the regional library systems, was featured in Washington, D.C. at the Training Showcase presented by Learning Round Table (formerly CLENE). Tom Taylor, continuing education consultant, represented the Kansas collaboration. All webinars were archived and Pat Wagner’s overview was preserved in videos which are available on WebJunction Kansas at http://ks.webjunction.org/742.
• The Summer Institute for School Librarians was held June 23-24 and attracted 90 school librarians from Kansas, Colorado and Missouri. The theme, “New Tools for New Generations,” opened workshop-style discussions of viable teaching and learning innovations. Read more about it on SLK News at http://statelibrary.mykansaslibrary.org/?p=8086. Interested in Graphic Novels? Find out what Institute attendees learned from the Cat at “The Art of Graphic Novels,” http://statelibrary.mykansaslibrary.org/?p=7976.
• The Online CE Roundup for July is available at http://statelibrary.mykansaslibrary.org/?p=8040.
• Find book reviews on SLK News at http://statelibrary.mykansaslibrary.org/?cat=11. Contact Shannon Roy, shanroy@kslib.info if you would like to contribute a book review.
Contact Cindi Hickey @ chickey@kslib.info.
Communications:
Kansas Reads One Book news release ready for distribution. Kansas Reads posters and bookmarks ready for print.
Kansas Center for the Book brochure revised and ready for printing.
2011 Notable Books List to be announced in July. Poster and bookmarks for Notable Books in planning stage.
Fall snapshot day project in full-swing. Listserv messages out; blog, toolkit, and logo have been updated for fall. Libraries may choose SnapShot Day during the week of Nov. 14-20.
Talking Books brochure draft revised; to be reviewed at TB sub-regional meeting in July.
Library card campaign continues. Project will be expanded as school gets under way in the Fall.
Scheduled July 15 presentation to KLA council on SnapShot Day and Library Card project.
Puzzle: exploring the possibility of producing a Kansas puzzle. Artwork designed by SLK staff for 2011 Kansas Reads… poster. Puzzle would be produced and sold by various partners.
Contact Janie Rutherford at janier@kslib.info.
Kansas Center for the Book:
• Copies of the title for 2010 Kansas Reads to Preschoolers, Up, Down, And Around by Katherine Ayres, are being ordered for promotion to libraries and preschool agencies and organizations statewide. Katherine Ayres has agreed to the tentative agenda for her visit to Kansas the week before Thanksgiving.
• Promotion for 2011 Kansas Reads…What Kansas Means To Me, has begun and Roy is meeting with Tom Averill to discuss a couple ideas for other speakers and approaches to the one-book/one-state project.
• Preparations are under way for the National Book Festival and six local events in September and October.
• Planning is under way for 2011 Letters About Literature and 2011 River of Words (ROW). Roy got valuable info about ROW at the LC CFB Idea Exchange in DC. Roy and Rhonda will meet with past KS Poet Laureate Denise Low about her participation and ideas for ROW.
• The 2010 Kansas Notable Books List is nearly complete. Nancy Pickard has agreed to be guest speaker at the medal awards ceremony on September 10 at the Capitol building. Planning under way for posters/bookmarks, appearances by NB authors and a possible puzzle.
Kansas 150
• Promotion of 150 Kansas Books for Kansas Sesquicentennial continued, each new contact produces several submissions; over 150 titles submitted at this date.
• The Kansas 150 SLK blog is now being announced to school libraries listserv and system consultants list as well as KANLIB-L.
• The Gale Kansas history database invitation for topical essay authors has been accepted by four of the five authors. Contracts from Gale with the authors are expected in July.
• The State Library’s Kansas 150 website went live in June.
LSTA
• 2010 and 2011 FFY LSTA budgets have been discussed with Marc and Jo.
• State Aid populations are being compiled from the city, county, and township populations certified by the Division of Budget.
• The next system automation grant application has been received electronically after consultation during June.
Contact Roy Bird at royb@kslib.info.
Resource Sharing Division:
Bill & Melinda Gates Opportunity Online Broadband Grant
• Advisory Council met July 14 in Topeka. Facilitator Nancy Bolt expects to have the first draft interim grant report completed in two weeks.
• The Council has agreed to continue meeting to develop a work plan for carrying out goals and objectives that will appear in the report.
KICNET ILL & KLC
• KICNET task force met June 9 in Salina. A revision of the KIC Council Membership Agreement that addresses recent developments (courier, Z-targets in KLC, etc.) is under way in GoogleDocs.
• Invitations, meeting schedule and agenda under development
• Issues with Iluminar, the public search interface for KLC, are under investigation by Auto-Graphics. Two A-G staff members visited several Kansas libraries to observe and document problems in May.
• The next list of libraries to be removed from our OCLC MARC record subscription (due to Z-target status in KLC) is being put together.
E-rate
• 149 technology plans covering the funding year beginning July 1, 2010 have been approved.
• 62 plans covering the three-year period beginning July 1, 2010 have been approved.
• E-rate Coordinator for Libraries Don Brown will visit SLK on July 22, to discuss redesigning the technology plan submission and approval process, a template for plans, and outreach and training to libraries and regional systems.
Statewide databases
• Contract with EBSCO for K-12 package plus Novelist expires July 31; we will replace with Gale K-12 package, plus Books & Authors, History Resource Center- US and World.
• Contract with OCLC for WorldCat statewide subscription will continue thanks to a partnership of academic and urban library contributors.
LearningExpress Library
• Statewide trial that began May 1 ends July 31. A one year subscription begins August 1.
• Kan-ed will make LearningExpress available through the Empowered Desktop portal.
Technology Issues / Projects
• Our new (and first fulltime) Network Specialist Roderick Cody is on board as of July 6.
• Exploring data migration options for the GoogleApps project
• Preliminary plans for migration from Windows XP to Windows 7, MS Office 2003 to 2010, and possible hardware replacement
Contact Jeff Hixon at jeffh@kslib.info.
Public Services Division:
In June, division staff worked on the following projects:
• State agency web site demonstrations
• State Library joined OCLC GAC LVIS (Libraries Very Interested in Sharing)
• Public library population statistics
• KSPACe
• Annex
• State aid
Contributions to:
• Kansas Center for the Book projects
• Kansas Government Information blog
• Kansas 150 blog
Contact Cindy Roupe at cindyr@kslib.info.
Technical Services:
– CATALOGING: 1072 items added to catalog in June
– KSPACe: In June 802 titles were added to the Kansas State Government Documents Electronic Archive: http://kspace.org/
– KANSAS GOVERNMENT INFORMATION BLOG (KGI): 4 June issues: “The Child in the System,” “The Big 12 Conference,” “Cherokee County Cleanup” and “Chisholm and Great Wester Trails.”
– KANSAS 150 SLK BLOG: 3 June issues: “The Great Flood of 1993,” “Civil War Battle Sites” and “Vacation Kansas.”
– WEB PAGES ADDED: Added 43 new web pages to kslib.info and kspace.org.
– STATE LIBRARY ANNEX VISITS: Tech services staff were at the Annex almost every work day, reading shelves, retrieving 43 items requested, and cataloging the Kansas Newspaper Clippings files into the Library’s catalog.
Contact Bill Sowers at ksdocs@kslib.info.