CE Updates:

• TechFest 2015
• Self-Paced Learning
• Super Library Supervisor

We’re holding our Spring Membership Meeting on Monday, May 18.

Please help us as we develop LibraryLinkNJ service initiatives for FY 2016. Our job is to serve you, our members, and to do so we need to know your thoughts on continuing education, discounts, and strategic directions for NJ libraries.

Take a few moments to complete this quick survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/membersurveyfy2016

We sincerely thank you for your vital feedback!

This will be the last of LibraryLinkNJ’s three bus tours of library makerspaces around the state. We plan to promote, showcase, share, and demonstrate the work of some of the 15 libraries that won contract awards from our joint Makerspace project with the New Jersey State Library, and are opening registration to our final group of Magical Makerspace Voyagers for our tour of North Jersey library makerspaces

Date: Thursday, May 7, 2015
Time: 9:00 AM - 4:45 PM

Bus Tour Stops:

• Parsippany Public Library -- we’ll start and end our day here.
• Caldwell Public Library
• Hillsdale Public Library

Click here for all the details and registration!
Space is limited, so reserve your space today. Just $25 guarantees your spot.

The Magical Makerspace Tour will be useful, practical, and fun. You can look forward to the following:

• Makerspace Real Talk: What’s worked well across the state? What snags have your colleagues run into & how have they addressed them?
• Don’t Reinvent the Wheel: Your colleagues have created policies, procedures, program ideas and documentation already. When you hear or see something you like, ask to repurpose it in your community!
• Networking: on the bus, at each library and over lunch, you’ll share ideas, tips and strategies with colleagues running makerspaces, maker programming & partnerships with other community organizations. This is a great chance to learn how you can do this at your library with your staff & budget.
• Convenience: you’re along for the ride & the learning! Get yourself to one library in your neck of the woods, and we’ll whisk you away in comfort on the Magical Makerspace Tourbus.

We’ll be spending 60-90 minutes at each location, and will enjoy lunch together at the Caldwell Public Library.

This April is the 30th anniversary of School Library Month, celebrated annually across the country, and led by The American Association of School Librarians (AASL). This year’s festivities are spearheaded by spokesperson and recent Best Actress Academy Award Winner Julianne Moore, and include weekly webinars, a digital storytelling festival, and a school library showcase. See the AASL portal for more details on how to participate!

Junior Library Guild

LibraryLinkNJ has a brand new discount on Junior Library Guild: print books, ebooks and audiobooks. The renowned collection development and book review service rarely offers discounts on its already-discounted packages, so please do take this opportunity to see if the offer can work for your library.

The offer is available to LibraryLinkNJ public and K-12 school library members through March 31, 2016. Visit the discount page for complete pricing details, along with trial and vendor contact information.

lyndaLibrary
Please join LibraryLinkNJ and lynda.com to learn about the long-awaited remote patron offering called lyndaLibrary. lyndaLibrary allows patrons and staff to access lynda.com's vast catalog of technology training and professional development from anywhere by logging in with their library card. Also: a LibraryLinkNJ discount offer on lyndaLibrary is on its way!

To learn more, we are inviting you to join a 45-minute tour of lynda.com via GoToMeeting on one of the two following days:

• Wednesday, March 18th 9:30am - 10:15am EST OR
• Tuesday, March 24th 12:00-12:45pm EST

Find full webinar details here.

Mango Languages
Our discount on Mango’s language learning service has been expanded to include K-12 school and academic libraries, as well as public libraries. Interested libraries can learn more during one of two webinars:

• Thursday, March 19 at 10:00 AM for public libraries
• Thursday, March 19 at 3:00 PM for K-12 school and academic libraries

Find full webinar details here.

TechFest 2015

We've lucked into a few extra spaces at both upcoming TechFest events - register today to secure your participation! Whether you’ll be with us in person or in spirit, please submit a question to Guerrilla Tech Hacks & follow #techfestnj on social media. We’ll be sure to post a wrap-up of What We Learned shortly after each event on our Tumblr.

Self-Paced Learning

Take a deep dive into LibraryLinkNJ’s webinar archives and learn on a schedule that works for you.

Recent stellar webinars include:

• Beyond Storytime: Creative Ways to Support Early Literacy in the Children’s Department and the Home, with Melissa Depper is a can’t miss for all library staff working with children and their caregivers.
• If you work with book groups or field readers’ advisory questions, Roz Reisner’s got you covered with Fresh Lit 2014: New & Forthcoming Literary Fiction for Readers & Book Groups. (This webinar is also perfect for re-stocking your To Be Read list!)
• Transparency is the New Black: New Literacies That Look FABULOUS On You, with Gwyneth Jones was designed especially for school librarians, but includes insights, tools and tips beneficial to all librarians’ practice.
• For an introduction to the world of large data projects and the roles libraries can play in them, try Open Data & Libraries: The Future is Now, with Anastasia Diamond-Ortiz.

Super Library Supervisor

Registration for this year’s series of workshops filled quickly. We’re really looking forward to them, and hope you can join us in the future! If you missed your chance for 2015, we recommend the following for success in 2016:

• Registration is online only, so make sure your User Account for LibraryLinkNJ.org is fully set up in advance of the date registration opens. The approval process can take up to a few days.
• Be ready to register as soon as registration opens. Set as many reminders for yourself as you need.
• If you’re going to be out of town or otherwise unavailable the day that registration opens, appoint a proxy. A colleague may register for a space and we’ll swap your name for theirs later. Just let us know that this is your plan!