Delivery Update

CE Updates

We held our Spring Membership Meeting on Monday, May 18. As is our longstanding tradition, the three locations statewide were connected by video conference, which helped us facilitate our business meeting and learn from our guest speaker, Toby Greenwalt.

During the business meeting, led by outgoing Executive Board President Jane Crocker, voting representatives from member libraries voted to approve the following:

• FY16 Budget
• FY16 Executive Board Slate
• FY16 Strategic Initiatives

Jane also shared her warm thanks and praise of Cheryl O’Connor, who will be retiring from the Executive Director position on September 30 after a long and distinguished career in New Jersey Libraries. Her signature accomplishment of forging a statewide cooperative in 2010 puts LibraryLinkNJ in a strong position to continue to provide the multi-type libraries of the Garden State with critical services, discounts, learning and networking opportunities for years to come.

Following the Business Meeting, we welcomed guest speaker Toby Greenwalt to the podium. Toby is the Director of Digital Strategy and Technology Integration at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. In 2013, he presented the LibraryLinkNJ webinar, Fostering a Culture of Innovation on a Shoestring. Toby’s talk this month was Everything is Connected: Libraries and the Information Ecosystem. We’ve created an archive of tweets, photos and links recapping his talk, and you can also download his slides here. Toby welcomes your follow-up questions and responses by email or on Twitter.

Delivery to eligible school libraries ends for the summer on June 19 and resumes the week of September 14. Best wishes for a happy & relaxing summer!

This Spring has been a banner season for school libraries and school librarians in the Garden State. Two school librarians in South Jersey have won major national awards from the American Association of School Librarians, the American Library Association and Information Today, Inc.

Arlen’s winning proposal includes a plan to work with “student volunteers from the high school’s marketing, broadcasting and media classes. The students will analyze data collected from various stakeholder groups and align the stakeholders’ needs with the school library’s activities and resources. The students will also research marketing avenues available to the school and utilized by local constituents. The project will produce PSAs and marketing materials and will incorporate an open house event that will include an author visit, reading assistance dogs, a student art exhibit and a school librarian themed trivia game show.”

Arlen remarked that “since Ruth and Jay Toor are from New Jersey, it really feels like a special recognition and responsibility to keep Ruth's vision going. I'll be receiving the award at a ceremony in June at the ALA conference in San Francisco. It's humbling to walk through the school's hallways and have people congratulate me for winning the grant. I even had a student in the library, who was using a search engine to look up our high school, suddenly call out, ‘Hey Mrs. Kimmelman! You won some kind of award. Congrats!’”

As for her future plans to implement her grant-winning proposal, “the teachers with whom I collaborated are quite excited to give their students a real-world opportunity to use their marketing and video production skills. We're meeting before school ends to divvy up the program responsibilities, so we can prepare over the summer for the actual project to begin with the students in September.” Congratulations, Arlen! We can’t wait to see and share what you, your colleagues, and your students develop.

The Landis Intermediate School Library, managed by Sally Goode in Vineland, has just been announced as the winner of the ALA/Information Today, Inc. Library of the Future Award. From the press release, “This award is presented annually to a library that demonstrates innovative planning and development of patron training programs about information technology in a library setting.”

Sally’s award-winning program includes “an innovative model to help teachers design lessons across subjects that shifted the library’s role as a partner in providing/locating information via library specific technology to a partner that allowed students to engage in all aspects of information literacy via more school-wide technology acquired by a state grant.”

Her holistic approach to teaching, collaborating, and integrating technology across the three grades she teaches has been as effective as it is impressive. Sally is “thrilled” to have won this award and is already looking ahead: “I know that librarians need to take a leadership role in schools and I am happy to take on the challenge. In the future, I think I will still be working for the school district in a media center and taking a leadership role to integrate technology into the curriculum and maybe even in the district.”

So say we all. Congratulations, Sally!

Share, Refresh, Learn: NJ Public Library Directors’ Summit
October 7, 2015 - Location To Be Announced

The New Jersey State Library, with LibraryLinkNJ -- The New Jersey Library Cooperative and the New Jersey Library Association, are sponsoring a public library directors' conference on October 7th. Please mark your calendars and save the date. We’ll share location information and specifics of the agenda as they are confirmed.

This one-day event will provide experienced public library directors with training based on current best practices in the areas of staff management and library administration.

Help us to create a meaningful, practical day of learning, discussion and connection that has immediate application to your work. What topics and issues would you like to learn about most? We worked with several public library directors to develop the list of topics in this short, online survey. Take a few minutes to complete it by Thursday, May 28th.

Save The Date for Are You In(novation) Or Out?
Presented by Kevin King, Head of Branch & IT Services at Kalamazoo Public Library
July 14, 2015 | 10-11:30 AM

Description: Show me an innovative library and I will show you a healthy organization. Libraries that place trust as the number one staff goal are not only more innovative, but can also boast stellar customer service and a top-notch employee recognition program. When staff do not have to worry about lack of support, in-fighting or surviving a toxic workplace, they can focus on bigger-picture issues, benefiting the entire community. In this webinar with Kalamazoo Public Library’s Head of Branch and IT Services Kevin King, you’ll learn how to apply the secrets of the world’s most innovative organizations to libraries. In this inspirational and informative discussion, participants will gain the tools to move their team and library forward.

Participants will be able to:

• Implement steps to make your library a place where ideas are openly and honestly shared among all staff.
• Define the steps to develop a healthy organization that encourages innovation and free thinking at all levels.
• Foster exceptional customer service and personal recognition throughout your staff.

We’ll open registration at 9 AM on Monday, June 15.

Save the Date!
Webinar: How to Mentor Others (Tentative Title)

• Wednesday, July 22, 2015 (10:00 am - 11:30 am)
• Tuesday, October 20, 2015 (10:00 am - 11:30 am)

More information will be posted at the page for this event.

The MentorNJ Networking Event, originally scheduled for September 25, has been rescheduled for Friday, October 2, 2015!

• Date: Friday, October 2, 2015 (1:00 pm - 4:00 pm)
• Location: Monroe Township Library (Jamesburg, NJ)

Registration is not open yet. More information including the event schedule, programs, registration information, carpooling form, etc. will be posted at the event page.