February 27, 2019
At their meeting on February 7, the LibraryLinkNJ Executive Board voted to continue the Cooperative.
LibraryLinkNJ’s Staff and Executive Board will now focus on developing and finalizing the guidance documents that will shape our work in FY20. These are the budget, service initiatives, and Board slate that we produce each year. At our Spring Membership Meeting on June 5, we will ask Voting Reps in attendance to affirm these documents.
Please note the date change for the Membership Meeting. Our original date, June 4, is Primary Day in New Jersey, so we have rescheduled for June 5 at the Monroe Township Public Library in Middlesex County.
As always, we will make all FY20 guidance documents available to the membership for review two weeks ahead of the meeting. Registration for the Membership Meeting will open on May 8.
Materials are now available from the Virtual Town Hall meeting we held on February 20 regarding LibraryLinkNJ’s budget situation. These include:
- Presentation Slides prepared by Executive Director Kathy Schalk-Greene
- Recording of the meeting in Adobe Connect
- Updated FAQ on the future of LibraryLinkNJ -- new and updated questions are noted throughout
In FY19 so far, LibraryLinkNJ has provided subsidies to 26 member libraries statewide for Staff Day workshops under the On-Site, On-Demand Professional Development program.
We have exactly one slot remaining for a subsidy of up to $500 to defray the cost of a workshop for staff at your library. If you would like to apply for funding, please book a workshop with the trainer of your choice and complete this form.
We have concluded our regular CE schedule for the current fiscal year, and look forward to bringing you relevant, timely, and accessible learning opportunities again soon.
We’d like to share with you the resources from our Winter 2019 offerings, with a reminder that you can always access materials from our full archive of webinars and face-to-face workshops.
Our January webinar, Supporting Civic Engagement in the Library: The Skokie Civic Lab Model, was presented by Amy Koester. Amy’s slides, worksheet, handout, FAQ, and a recording of the webinar are all available.
Our February webinar, From Access to Advocacy: The Disability Community in the Library, was presented by Bryce Kozla. Bryce’s slides, digital handout, reflection blog post, and a recording of the webinar are all available.
Finally, we are happy to share follow-up materials from the recent Readers’ Advisory PLUS Unconference, including an introduction to how you can participate in the nominations process for LibraryReads’ monthly list of highly anticipated reads, and some great resources for tracking books, tv shows, movies, podcasts, and more, compiled by our colleague Carina Gonzalez.
Register now for the upcoming MentorNJ Technology Meetups. Site hosts at each location work with dbaldwin [at] piscatawaylibrary.org (Doug Baldwin), Head of Technology at the Piscataway Public Library, to moderate discussions at each event:
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April 12, 1-3pm @ Ocean City Free Public Library (1735 Simpson Ave # 4, Ocean City)
- jbrown [at] oceancitylibrary.org (Julie Brown), Adult Programming Librarian
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June 21st, 10am-12pm @ Sayreville Public Library / (1050 Washington Road, Parlin)
- ahaque [at] lmxac.org (Aziza Haque), Adult Services Librarian
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August 23rd, 1-3pm @ Warren County Library - Southwest Branch (404 Route 519, Phillipsburg)
- kdurkin [at] warrenlib.org (Kelly Durkin), Branch Manager, Catherine Dickson Hofman Branch
Please use the registration form to attend.
All meeting notes are documented in real time and shared with attendees, as well as made publicly available on the past meetups list (where you can find archived notes from the past meetings).
MentorNJ Meetups are an opportunity for interested library staff, at any level, to get together informally and discuss issues, ask questions, seek guidance, and learn more about various different topics related to libraries and library work. These particular meetups focus on technology in libraries, so from ILS systems, to social media, to IT issues, to makerspaces, to workshops and tech sessions, and much more, any topic related to technology and libraries is fair game.
Would you like to host a small meetup at your library, or to attend any upcoming meetups? Please find more about how you can promote your hosting meetup on the MentorNJ meetup page.
If you have any questions about MentorNJ meetups, please contact our meetup coordinators:
- dbaldwin [at] piscatawaylibrary.org (Doug Baldwin), Head of Technology, Piscataway Public Library
- rbingham [at] gcls.org (Ralph Bingham), Director, Gloucester County Library System