As a Transition Board member during 2010-11 and now as Board President of LibraryLinkNJ, I look back across these past 20 months and reflect that:

• Our Executive Director, Cheryl O’Connor has put together a creative and powerful staff who bring a variety of exciting programs, discounts, and project opportunities to our membership, now 2,500 libraries strong.
  
  
• The Executive Board is active and engaged and has tackled some tough issues as we’ve moved through the transition year, merging four regional cooperatives into one statewide effort, and developed a strong program for all participating libraries.
  
  
• New meeting technology brings continuing education into our libraries via webinars, allows the board to meet online from our desktops, and gives members the opportunity to network at teleconferenced membership meetings in multiple and convenient locations across the state.

I encourage you to be active with LibraryLinkNJ; take advantage of the many professional development opportunities, the discounted database offers, and pilot programs. Be an active member, attend the membership meetings and have your voice heard.

Kathy Schalk-Greene, President
LibraryLinkNJ Executive Board
Library Director, Mount Laurel Library

LibraryLinkNJ staff, the Executive Board, and the Delivery Services Task Force need your feedback on the new delivery bins and your evaluation of the service in general. We ask for one response from each eligible library, so delegate a person to complete the Delivery Service Survey by February 24. Help us make the service work for you!

It’s easy-peasy! The link to the monthly delivery stats report form is on the LibraryLinkNJ homepage. No user account login is required to submit your data. This could not be easier so take a minute, show your delivery staff how to use it, and please: stop faxing the report forms to us.

LibraryLinkNJ is happy to announce the Drupal Library Website Development Workshop Series. This series is offered at two different locations, so please choose the location that is most convenient for you. Registration deadline is Friday, March 30. Full details including requirements and registration information are available on the workshop series information page.

Save the Date! We’ve scheduled the LibraryLinkNJ Spring Membership Meeting for May 22, 2012. In keeping with our new tradition, we’ve scheduled three locations, joined via videoconference:

• Passaic County Community College (Wanaque Campus)
• Rutgers University (New Brunswick)
• Rowan University (Glassboro)

This meeting will require action by Voting Representatives, either in person or by proxy vote.

Action Request: Please take a few minutes to review the list of Voting Representatives and email corrections to carol@librarylinknj.org We’ll provide more updates in the weeks leading up to the meeting.
 

We continue to update and expand our discount offers with library vendors for LibraryLinkNJ members. Are there certain discounts you just could not live without? Are there other products you would love to see us offer at a reduced price? Please take a moment to share your feedback with Jessica Adler at jadler@librarylinknj.org.

New Discounts:

• CountryWatch – discount valid til 12/31/12
  • Up-to-date profiles for each country including demographic, political, economic, business, cultural and environmental information as well as daily news coverage. A great deal!
    
    
• School Librarian’s Workshop – discount valid til 12/31/12
  • This bi-weekly electronic newsletter (formerly print) is discounted at 20% for LibraryLinkNJ members.
    
    
• NoodleBib – discount valid til 12/31/12
  • A valuable citation and research instruction tool for all grade levels through college.
    
    
• Transparent Language Online - discount valid til 12/31/12
  • A language-learning program with more than 80 languages to choose from.
    
    
• Universal Class - discount valid til 12/31/12
  • A diverse offering of over 500 intellectually stimulating online courses for people interested in the lifelong pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons.

To see all current discounts, visit the Discounts Page.

Program Coordinator Sophie Brookover realized a career dream this year by serving on the Michael L. Printz Award Committee. The award, administered by YALSA and sponsored by Booklist, honors excellence in books for young adults. This year’s committee chose Where Things Come Back, by John Corey Whaley as the winner. Sophie says, “It has been a thrill and a privilege to serve on this committee, and I could not be happier with our winner and honor titles! Now it’s time to share the wealth - I received many books for consideration for the award, and they’re looking for good homes in school & public libraries.”

Sophie’s given away many books already, but has many left! She will split them into three packages -- one for a middle school library, one for a high school library, and one for a public library’s YA collection. If you’d like a chance to win them, enter using the LibraryLinkNJ YA Books Giveaway Form.

The deadline for entries will be Friday, March 2. We’ll announce the winners in an e-Update and on our Forums, and will send the books to their new homes.

If you’re mad about YA, or just enjoy communally handicapping the odds of books winning awards whose deliberations are a closely-held secret, follow Sophie’s continuing literary analysis adventures at School Library Journal’s Someday My Printz Will Come, where she’ll join fellow bloggers and Printz Committee alumnae Karyn Silverman and Sarah Couri.

We know webinars are convenient, time-and-money-saving ways to provide continuing education to our members, but there’s something really special about face-to-face learning, isn’t there?

Your CE Team is delighted to offer the following in-person workshops this Spring:

Getting out of the building can be a challenge, so we bring a diverse menu of learning options right to your desk! Remember, if you can’t attend the webinar on the scheduled date, we archive the recordings, slides, chat transcripts and other supporting materials for your convenience.