Foundation Grants to Individuals Online Webinar

Foundation Grants to Individuals Online is a database for people who are seeking grants, but are not part of a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit. As far as searching the database goes, it is the same basic structure, but keep in mind that there are only about 8,000 grants in this database, as opposed to 90,000 or so in Foundation Directory Online. As in FDO, searching by fields of interest is best, just click on the words "field of interest" on the search screen to bring them all up. Since there are relatively few entries, using more than 2 fields of interest will probably result in zero hits. If the patron isn't having any luck, try the text search (truncation with * is allowed), then look up the fields of interest in the most relevant results. It is also recommended to try the most specific field of interest first, then broaden the search.

In addition to the grantmaker search, the front page of FGTIO also has a place where patrons can sign up to be emailed requests for proposals; reference guides for different types of indivduals such as artists, musicians, students, filmmakers, etc.; and topical research lists, which are bibliographies of publications and electronic resources.

If the patron doesn't know where to get started, the Foundation Center web page has a handy guide. The worksheets at the bottom can help them focus their search. The patron should try to determine if they have any affiliations that could help them: schools, employers, religious affiliations, trade associations, clubs, or the military. Grants may also be available for children, spouses or other close relatives.

Another option for an individual is fiscal sponsorship, where they affiliate themselves with a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit. This means that they could search throgh the larger body of grants in the Foundation Directory Online, but there is usually a small fee. If the patron is actually looking for help starting a business or other for-profit enterprise, that is beyond the scope of the Foundation Center databases, but they do have some links on their web page to get them started.


One final fact: According to this webinar, only 5-10% of foundations have a web site, which underscores the importance of these databases.

--Andrea

SENIOR LEGAL FAIR

On September 17, I manned a table for the library at the Senior Legal Fair. The event was put on by Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, also known as SMRLS (rhymes with "curls"). SMRLS provides legal assistance to low-income people in the southern part of Minnesota.

The event included one-on-one advice or will appointments with a lawyer and also sessions on such issues as immigration, identity theft, elder rights, and housing. Some sessions were available in Hmong, Vietnamese, Russian, Somali, and Spanish. Organizations such as the Social Security Administration, Ramsey County Law Library, Owl-MN, UCare, and Senior LinkAge had tables. The latter seems like a good place to refer people who need counseling in issues such as prescription drug help, legal assistance, nursing homes, caregiver support, etc. Senior LinkAge is staffed by trained health and human services professionals.

I talked to 47 people who had questions ranging from registering a Washington County card, to getting power of attorney forms, free or low cost internet, tax help, ESL classes etc. Many stopped by to say they loved the library. Quite a few were interested to find out about the Gale Legal Forms database.

--Andrea

FOUNDATION CENTER VIRTUAL NETWORK DAYS, DAY 2

HOW FOUNDATIONS BEHAVE DURING AN ECONOMIC DOWNTURN

The Foundation Center does a great deal of research on foundations. Steven Lawrence, the Senior Director of Research, discussed the effects of the current economic situation. He said that foundation giving decreased by 1% in real dollars from 2007 to 2008, not as much as expected. Two-thirds of foundations expect to reduce giving in 2009 but one-fifth expect to increase giving. Most funders expect to maintain the number of programs and geographic areas, even dipping into their endowments to do so, but are less likely to add new ones. 100 foundations were affected by the Madoff affair, and two have closed completely.


THE ROLE OF THE CC SUPERVISOR IN PROMOTING CENTER SERVICE AND RESOURCES TO HELP YOUR COMMUNITY

This webinar was presented by the Foundation Center's Director of Marketing and VP for Communications. The Foundation Center is very active in outreach to grantseekers, grantmakers, and policymakers. Tools included the following: e-newsletters, emails, brochures, specials events, Facebook, Twitter, the Foundation Center web site, and ads in non-profit newsletters and web sites. 60% of the Foundation Center's income is from fee-based services: In addition to Foundation Directory Online and the other databases, they will do grantseeking research for a fee for non-profits without the staff to do it themselves. Cooperating Collections are advised to promote the Foundation Center services with flyers, on their web sites, on Twitter, in press releases (the Foundation Center has templates for this), and at computer terminals. A downloadable form is available for patrons who want to opt-in to Foundation Center emails.


THE ONLINE LIBRARIAN: WEB SITES FOR HARD-TO-ANSWER REFERENCE QUESTIONS

This was my favorite webinar. Two librarians who staff the Foundation Center's Ask Us email and chat reference for the public talked about the most common questions they get. These include the following:

How do I get government assistance?

How do I get funding to volunteer abroad?

How do I find out about social entrepreneurship?

How does my group get funded without 501 (c) (3) status?

How much should our new director get paid?

How many nonprofits are there in the U.S?

For the most common questions, there is also an excellent FAQ on the Foundation Center homepage. The librarians use delicious to organize their bookmarks.


BEST TITLES FOR YOUR COLLECTION WHEN FUNDS ARE TIGHT

Jimmy Tom, the Manager of Bibliographic Services, talked about resources the Foundation Center has for collection development. The Foundation Center's library holdings are searchable online and also have a blog and rss feed for keeping track of new acquisitions. Topical resource lists and reference guides that include books, articles and electronic resources are also available. The periodicals Philanthropy Annual and Philanthropy News Digest have book reviews. Two new acquisitions he highlighted were the DVD Ready, Set, Raise: Your Guide To Grassroots Funding, which might be good for a library program, and Prospect Research: A Primer For Growing Nonprofits, which helps the reader analyze the wealth of individual donors.


Handouts, interesting articles, and bibliographies for the conference are available here. There was also a Twitter page, a LinkedIn group, and an Ning group for the conference. All in all, the virtual conference went well, although I would have liked a little more interaction. I had technical difficulties with one webinar, but there should be archived versions available soon.

FOUNDATION CENTER NETWORK DAYS, DAY 1

MIDWEST COOPERATING COLLECTIONS MEET-UP

The first session was a chat with other Midwestern Cooperating Collection supervisors moderated by a librarian from the Cleveland branch of the Foundation Center using Cover It Live. Trends in use of the Cooperating Collection were discussed. Most reported skyrocketing demand and patrons needing more help. Some have reported success in getting funders to work with them and offer "meet the grantmakers" programs at their library, while others said that grantmakers are reluctant to participate due to reduced funds. Hot trends included giving circles and urban gardens. Most supervisors were encouraging patrons finding it hard to obtain 501 (c)(3) status to look into fiscal sponsorship instead, as the requirements are less onerous. It was suggested that these meet-ups be offered on a quarterly basis, which I think would be a good idea.



STATE OF THE FOUNDATION CENTER

The President and Vice President of the Foundation Center discussed what's going on there now and in the future. Did you know there are now Cooperating Collections in Thailand, Mexico, Nigeria and Brazil? The business model of the Foundation Center blends earnings from the databases with grants, so they are doing OK considering the economic climate. In order to continue to be a high-tech, high-touch operation, they are working on a new web platform that combines the databases, training, and Web 2.0 aspects, to come out some time this year. Focus on the Economic Crisis is a new page on the Foundation Center web site that collects research, news, videos, and a map of stimulus funding by state.



BEST PRACTICES FOR BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH NONPROFIT CLIENTELE

Linda Leovic Towery, CC Coordinator for the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, discussed how she works with internal and external customers. With administration and other librarians, she invites them to classes and makes sure to get feedback for annual reports. She also recommends publicizing the resources to elected officials, as they often get requests from non-profits and people in need. Other staff must be trained so that they can assist patrons when the CC Coordinator is not around, and the CC Coordinator should be given the opportunity for outreach in the community.

For patrons, libraries can be intimidating and looking for grants can be scary. Towery built an in-house database of the names and phone numbers or emails of everyone who asks her about the Foundation Collection. She has monthly classes for nonprofits and lunchtime guest speaker programs which she publicizes by sending emails to patrons in her database. Towery reminded us that the Foundation Center wants us to teach people how to use the Foundation Directory Online, not do searches for them. She always asked the patron if they are a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit, and if they want grants to individuals, she lets them know that there are only 6,000 such grants, mostly for research and education, and not a complete list of educational grants by any means.


SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS FOR NONPROFITS

The two presenters of this webinar feel that there is no downside for a nonprofit in using Web 2.0 tools, but it's good to try them first to see what works best for you. Instead of thinking of it as "extra work", us Web 2.0 to have a conversation and learn from others, rather than doing things the old-fashioned way: closed, small and proprietary.

--Andrea

PUPPET STAGE 60TH ANNIVERSARY

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

On May 17th, Central Library celebrated 60 years of the Jemne Puppet Stage. Several staff who had performed in the stage over the years returned, reminisced, and enjoyed two nursery rhyme puppet shows and a special appearance by The Forty Performing Bananas. Presenters included retired Children's Room supervisor Shirley Brady who talked about Della McGregor and the puppet stage and Steve and Carolyn Lonning who performed for many years as the Star Puppet Theater.

--Barb S.

Notes from the workshop Novelist Plus

Five Central staff attended this session at Ridgedale on Tuesday, May 5. The presenter, Duncan Smith is one of Novelist's creators, researchers, and trainers. By the way, the "Plus" after "Novelist" is the addition of nonfiction to the database. Mr. Smith's presentation went beyond simply a "how to use Novelist Plus." He talked about how important the function of "reader's advisory" is to patrons.

According to Mr. Smith, fiction readers usually have about five favorite authors in mind when they come to the library looking for a book. Their hopes are that we have purchased the current or new books by their favorite authors and that there will be an available copy on the shelf. If not, they tend to drift, check the book carts for recently returned materials (it must be good if someone else checked it out - right?), or they will ask the librarian to recommend a good book.

Reader's advisory begins by a librarian asking the patron what their favorite books are. In a sense, we are asking the patron to tell us a story. They may tell us about their favorite characters, plot, setting, theme, subjects, or the effect the book had on them.

On our part, we should not push against a reader's taste but we should listen carefully and re-state or paraphrase to make sure we heard the story correctly and to acknowledge that we heard and understood what they were trying to convey. It's particularly important to listen for any part of the story that is re-stated or re-emphasized because that means it has important meaning for the reader. Acknowledging the reader's experience lets them know that we are celebrating that experience along with them. Remember, it is the quality of the interaction with the reader, not the frequency that matters. Mr. Smith reminded us that readers are engaged and creative as they read.

Duncan Smith remarked that readers are "escapists" and he asks, "What are they escaping from?" According to him, readers are escaping from a limited and narrow view. Readers want to live fully and reading helps "recover potentialities that our everyday lives take away." Now there's something to ponder.

The second half of the workshop was all about the functions of Novelist Plus and its many wonderful features. I did pay close attention but did not take many notes. Maybe my colleagues that were also in attendance can add to this blog. I noted that the juvenile nonfiction part of the database is curriculum based to help students with assignments. The database even has lexile ranges to assist us in finding materials suitable to young readers. Novelist Plus will put together series with short list capabilities to print out for the patron. Print lists are also available to help with displays. Finally, there are many, many subject keywords to assist us in our searches. I learned that the "xy" in a search field means "keyword" (I didn't know that). Should you want me to show you a function about Novelist Plus, please ask and I will be happy to demonstrate! I really do like Novelist Plus and have found it very user friendly. I also recommend this workshop if its offered again - it was excellent!

-Deb K.

Enhancing Quality Staff 2009

Here are some notes from Enhancing Quality Staff 2009.

The keynote speaker was Eric Celeste, a technology consultant. He discussed some of the issues raised by the new “cloud computing” concept, where much of your personal data and documents are no longer kept on your own computer but stored in places such as Google Voice or Google Reader. This has the incredible advantage of allowing you access to your material from anywhere. For example, Google Voice allows you to have one telephone number which you can instantly transfer from device to device. Going to be staying at your parent’s house for a week—you can make it so that any time someone calls your telephone number, it rings at their house. No more juggling phone numbers or having people unable to contact you.

All of this connectivity comes at a price, however—privacy. Google gets a complete record of who you call. Other convenience services are even more intrusive. Mint.com, for example allows a person to access all of their financial information in one place. To do this you must give Mint.com all of your account names, passwords, and even security challenge question answers. This question, privacy versus convenience, is going to be popping up more and more.

Celeste also mentioned a new search engine to keep an eye on--Wolframalpha.com. It goes live sometime this month. It is a computational search engine and will be able to process data sourced from the web to answer questions, rather than just find answers already determined by others. You will be able to ask it, for example, to describe the weather for a week in 1865. Here is a link to Wolfram’s blog describing how it will work:

Another interesting speaker described using Google’s collaborative tools to co-author a book with two people in Europe. An earlier speaker had discussed using these tools (here is a link to his Google Docs slides), but listening as she described how she actually had used it was much more illustrative.

One final observation was that everyone was talking about RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication) as the new way for libraries to keep in touch with their patrons. More and more people are using RSS to keep up with their favorite web sites. RSS feeds notify the patron when new material is added to a web site that has RSS enabled. Perhaps this is something we should think about. For an example of a library RSS implementation, visit the Hennepin County Library’s web site.

-Ron

Civility in the Workplace

Civility in the Workplace by Dr. P. M. Forni
Woodbury Public Library, April 22, 2009

The quality of our lives depends upon the quality of our relationships, which depend on the quality of our relational skills. These depend on codes of civility and good manners.

Civility depends on benevolent awareness of others; applying restraint, respect, and consideration; caring about others and treating them well even if we don’t know them and may never interact with them. Example: wiping the sink in an airplane bathroom for the benefit of its next user.

Conversely, rudeness weakens social bonds and social support, damages self-esteem, increases stress, harms relationships, poisons the workplace, and can escalate to violence. Its ripple effect makes it difficult for others to think, reason, and treat others well.

Rudeness stats: 90% experience it, 50% lose work time worrying, and 12% leave the job. Over 50% of the American workforce experiences high stress; 35% rank “people issues” as worse than workload. Cost: $300 billion/year (health care, missed work, etc.).

Effective leaders build consensus; possess vision and integrity; they communicate temperately and resolutely. They gather widely in team formation, accept input from all members, share credit fairly, turn to all members including those perceived to be “uninteresting”, welcome new colleagues.

Defenses against toxic stress include getting to know co-workers, becoming more inclusive, not burdening co-workers with insecure hostility, being aware that we don’t have to constantly prove our worth.

For best performance, evaluate whether an action is ethically right, or simply self serving; consider consequences on others; note whether others prefer our absence to our presence; imagine a confrontation with another as the source for a training video.

Responding to rudeness: SIR Sequence:
State facts
Inform other(s) of impact of his/their actions
Request the behavior not happen again.

Civility improves social bonds, relationships, stress reduction, work quality, and job satisfaction.

Steps to take: assess civility level and commit to improvement.

Choosing civility: listen and pay attention; acknowledge others (greet, respond, etc.), include others; speak kindly; accept and give praise; acknowledge other’s contributions and achievements; don’t claim undeserved credit; respect others’ time and space; apologize promptly and sincerely; assert without being aggressive; criticize constructively, not destructively; accept blame, responsibility.

SPPL owns Dr. Forni’s Choosing Civility: the Twenty-five Rules of Considerate Conduct and The Civility Solution: What To Do When People Are Rude. His website is http://krieger.jhu.edu/civility


--Bill B.

Government Publications You Should Know

Health, United States, 2008 with Special Feature on the Health of Young Adults.

From the preface:
"Health, United States, 2008 is the 32nd report on the health status of the Nation and is submitted by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to the President and the Congress of the United States in compliance with Section 308 of the Public Health Service Act. This report was compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics served in a review capacity.

The Health, United States series presents national trends in health statistics. Each report includes an executive summary, highlights, a chartbook, trend tables, extensive appendixes, and an index.

Chartbook
The 2008 Chartbook includes 41 charts and introduces this year’s special feature on young adults, a group making many life choices including decisions about education, marriage, childbearing, and health behaviors such as tobacco and alcohol use, which will affect both their future economic and health status as well as that of their families. The chartbook assesses the Nation’s health by presenting trends and current information on selected determinants and measures of health status and utilization of health care. Many measures are shown separately for persons of different ages because of the strong effect of age on health. Selected figures also highlight differences in determinants and measures of health status and utilization of health care by such characteristics as sex, race, Hispanic origin, education, and poverty level.

Trend Tables
The chartbook section is followed by 151 trend tables organized around four major subject areas: health status and determinants, health care utilization, health care resources, and health care expenditures. A major criterion used in selecting the trend tables is availability of comparable national data over a period of several years. The tables present data for selected years to highlight major trends in health statistics. Earlier editions of Health, United States may present data for additional years that are not included in the current printed report. Where possible, these additional years of data are available in Excel spreadsheet files on the Health, United States website. Tables with additional data years are listed in Appendix III.

Racial and Ethnic Data
Many tables in Health, United States present data according to race and Hispanic origin consistent with Department-wide emphasis on expanding racial and ethnic detail when presenting health data. Trend data on race and ethnicity are presented in the greatest detail possible after taking into account the quality of data, the amount of missing data, and the number of observations. Standards for classification of federal data on race and ethnicity are described in detail by data system in Appendix II, Race.

Education and Income Data
Many tables in Health, United States present data according to socioeconomic status, using education and family income as proxy measures. Education and income data are generally obtained directly from survey respondents and are not generally available from records-based data collection systems. State vital statistics systems currently report mother’s education on the birth certificate and, based on an informant, decedent’s education on the death certificate. See Appendix II, Education; Family income; and Poverty.

Disability Data
Disability is a complex concept and can include presence of physical or mental impairments that limit a person’s ability to perform an important activity and affect the use of or need for supports, accommodations or interventions required to improve functioning. Information on disability in the U.S. population is critical to health planning and policy. Although some information is currently available from federal data collection systems, the information is limited by lack of standard definitions and survey questions on disability. Several current initiatives are underway to coordinate and standardize measurement of disability across federal data systems. Until such standardized information is available, Health, United States includes the following disability-related information for the civilian noninstitutionalized population: prevalence of limitations of activity due to chronic conditions (Table 58), vision and hearing limitations for adults (Table 59), and limitations in Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) for the population age 65 and over (Table 58). In addition, disability-related information is provided for Medicare enrollees (Table 144), Medicaid recipients (Table 145), and veterans with service-connected disabilities (Table 147).

For more information on disability statistics see: Altman B, Bernstein A. Disability and health in the United States, 2001–2005. Hyattsville, MD: NCHS. 2008. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/misc/disability2001–2005.pdf."

Holdings:
We have the paper going back to at least 1999, and the CDC website has editions back to 1975 in pdf.

If you have someone looking for detailed U.S. health information, you should check this source.

Melissa @ Central.

Targeting the Ages: Programming that Hits the Mark

On February 13, 2009, I had the opportunity to attend a webinar, titled, Targeting the Ages: Programming that Hits the Mark. The webinar was sponsored by the College of Dupage and was presented by librarians Penny Mandziara (Library/School Liaison for the Bensenville Community Public Library) and Kelly Watson (Reader Services Librarian for the Bensenville Community Public Library in Bensenville, Illinois).

The teleconference was an informative session that basically instructed individuals how to come up with innovative programming that meets the needs of their patrons. Set-by-step, library programmers were guided through planning of a program, offering creative ideas that combined partnering amongst local organizations and/or groups.

For successful programming, the programmer must:
Identify your patron's needs
Develop a plan for successful implementation
Adapt to your surroundings, be creative, pay attention to details and partner up if necessary
Evaluate your programs
Many programming ideas were offered for youth, adults and seniors.


Programming Workbook for librarians.



-Terry G, Central Library

Twin Cities Local & Community Newspapers

Did you know that United Way's Beehive/MN 211 has a listing of Local and Community Newspapers in the Twin Cities with links to their sites?

Melissa @ Central.

FILEDBYAUTHOR

From Shelf Awareness

FiledBy, Inc., has launched the Beta version of filedbyauthor, a website that offers a "large-scale author-centric promotional platform to provide every author that has been published in the U.S. or Canada a free, hosted, e-commerce enabled web page ready to be claimed and enhanced." The company, based in Nashville, Tenn., was co-founded by Peter Clifton, a former Ingram executive, and Mike Shatzkin, head of the Idea Logical Co. and publishing industry strategist extraordinaire.

"All authors, regardless of publishing category are encouraged to visit the site, claim their page, make corrections, and enrich them in a variety of ways," Clifton, president and CEO, said in a statement. "We hope to level the web marketing playing field for all authors, eliminate some of the challenges authors face when designing their online presence, and help every author become more easily discoverable through a highly optimized site."

http://www.filedby.com/

Melissa @ Central

WEBINAR ON WEBINARS

Webinar on Webinars

View more presentations from freerangelibrarian.

This webinar was presented by the Free Range Librarian herself, PUBLIB co-moderator Karen G. Schneider. It included reasons for doing webinars as well as tips and tricks for both attendees and presenters of webinars.


ADVANTAGES OF WEBINARS:

1. Can save staff time--meetings can also be done via webinar.

2. Can archive for those who can't attend.

3. They are easy to schedule and the software sends automatic reminders.

4. Can use phone, VOIP, or chat.

5. Can boot people who are not behaving out of sessions.


DISADVANTAGES OF WEBINARS:

1. No body language cues.

2. Software not standardized.

3. People tend to multitask.

4. There can be a stress factor.


TIPS FOR ATTENDEES:

1. Mute the sound when not speaking--even keyboards can sound loud.

2. Read the instructions first.

3. If stuff happens, relax and roll with it.

4. Test software beforehand even if you've used it before--there might be updates.

5. Don't use a webcam--their microphones have too much echo and feedback.

6. One person per PC.

7. Show up early.

8. Identify yourself when communicating.

9. Listening and talking via headphones and microphone is the best set-up. Either headphones and instant messaging or telephone access are acceptable.


TIPS FOR PRESENTERS:

1. Assume people won't read instructions.

2. Plan a little time to get started.

3. Give attendees a little "webinar 101" speech at the beginning.

4. Use 2 or more monitors--one with webinar control, one with what the screen looks like to attendees.

5. Get a "wingman" to help with technical complications.

6. Assume control if needed--mute people, redirect the discussion.


When deciding what webinar software to go with, Schneider recommends asking colleagues for recommendations and taking advantage of trial offers. then identify and rank what your requirements are. Schneider considers Webex the best (but expensive) software and Gotowebinar the second best. She hasn't found any free and/or open source products that she likes.


FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN PURCHASING WEBINAR SOFTWARE

1. Cost

2. Stability--how good is the software's server?

3. Ease of Use

4. Platform support--Windows, Mac, Linux

5. Display quality

6. Number of attendees allowed

7. Type of audio or chat available

8. Full duplexing vs. half duplexing


Here's a link to a video of the webinar.





--Andrea

NIFTY MYSTERY WEB SITE

Hi everyone,

A regular member of the Minnesota Crime Wave book chat group mentioned an excellent website for mystery fans and those who are answering reference questions in this genre. Please check out:

http://stopyourekillingme.com/


--Barbara M.

NETLIBRARY AND EBOOKS WEBINAR

Netlibrary is a division of OCLC. Our account through Minitex offers 3400 public domain and 11730 copyrighted ebooks. Individual libraries can purchase additional items. Netlibrary has a page that lets you see all the titles available for purchase called Titleselect.

Last year, Minitex' Netlibrary account was accessed 896,300 times. Business, economics and management are the most popular subjects. The average time patrons spend in a book is 11 minutes, which suggests that people are using it more for research than reading for pleasure. At this time, there are no books from 2008 and only three from 2007 (this may be problematic for computer manuals). Books in the Cliff's Notes and Complete Idiots series are available on Netlibrary.

Netlibrary accounts must be created through the ELM portal (click on Ebooks & Books) or at the library before the patron can access them via Netlibrary.com. Other patrons cannot access an ebook while you are viewing it, but there is a 15 minute time-out. The default search option is full-text rather than keyword, which might be confusing for some people. The interface language can be changed to one of nine different languages including Spanish, French and Chinese.

Things that can be done with these ebooks that can't be done with print books include the following: search in book, create notes for a book, add books to favorites, save a particular page, and click on links in the index (for most books)

For more information, the handouts are available here .


--Andrea

NEW WEB PAGE FROM THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

I read in the December 2008 issue of "The Region" published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis that the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has created a web page dedicated to stabilization related actions taken since December 2008 to help people keep up with all the new programs and efforts to help restore balance to financial systems. On this web site the Board provides links to news releases on each action and to related speeches, Board Statements, Federal Register notices, answers to frequently asked questions, and external web sites.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis is also an excellent source for information on the banking industry, credit, financial systems and more:.

--Erin

MNLINK/ILL TRAINING

On New Year’s Eve, I attended MnLINK/ILL training at MMC, hosted by Casey, Brian, and Patrick of ILL. Although I’ve been using MnLINK since its first very early (and painfully slow and erratic) days, I was pleased to find there was a lot still to learn about both MnLINK and the ILL process, and thought I’d share some of the more interesting nuggets with everyone. If this training is offered again, I’d really recommend it, especially for new-ish staff. For a quick refresher, be sure to check out the ILL information page on the SPPL website. There’s a lot of useful FAQ’s to be had for answering patron questions.

To show us some of MnLINK’s quirks, Brian had us all do some hands-on sample searches, and the results were very enlightening. For example:

-A Keyword Search on an ISBN yielded 7 hits, all coming up randomly, for each one of us at the training. Some people didn’t even get all seven hits, or even the same hits. This is because of the number of ports being used at each library system. If their ports are busy, MnLINK bypasses them. Going under Advanced Search and searching under ISBN yielded 24 hits. The difference in the hits is because not all systems catalog ISBN’s.

-If you are making the request, it doesn’t matter which item you select—as Casey said “One record is all you need”. Just make sure it’s in the right format. You can narrow your results by using the Merge Duplicates function on the left menu.

-Search Status. This will show you exactly which of the 24 library systems gave you hits.

-MnLINK is slower in the afternoons. You can perform the same search at different times of the day and get different results, depending on which ports are busy.

-If you get the “SIGN IN WAS NOT SUCCESSFUL” message:
1. Check to see if the card is in use on another terminal.
2. Check the card for problems (expired card, too many fines or bills, etc.)
3. If it is not a SPPL card, try to authenticate against the patron’s home library. If this authentication fails, the patron must contact their home library. It must be a clean card in both systems.

-Once a pickup location is selected and the request is made, ILL cannot change it. In MnLINK, it defaults to the patron’s last pickup location.

-Don’t put anything in the “Special Instructions” field—the request gets flagged and delays the processing of the item another day.

To give us an overview of the process, we received a handout on “How MnLINK Searches Work”—I found it to be very informative; here are some highlights:

1. A patron requests an item, which is not ‘available’ at SPPL, through MnLINK.
Note: “West 7th” and “Reference” are considered ‘available’, and will not be processed through ILL. “Missing”, “Billed”, and “Mending” are considered ‘unavailable’ and will be processed.

2. The computer takes the request and starts sending it to the other library systems in a specific order to see if it is owned. In SPPL, we have chosen to have the system check libraries in the following order: MELSA, CLIC (the private colleges such as St. Thomas and Hamline), greater MN, and finally, MINITEX.
Note: The computer selects randomly from MELSA. Also, remember that each library system has different lending rules, for example, Dakota Co. does not lend DVD’s. Therefore, it does not matter which record you select when placing the request, just make sure it is the right format.

3. The first library pulls up its list of requests and begins placing holds on their system. If they can’t supply an item, they indicate the reason why in VDX (the backend ILL system to MnLINK), and VDX will automatically send the request on to the next library. Each library has five days to say if they can or can not send the item. If no one can supply the item, the request will go to MINITEX, where they have additional resources, including the University of Minnesota libraries.

4. It is the patron’s responsibility to manage their MnLINK requests (under My Requests on the left) and follow through on anything that comes up with a listing of “not available through MnLINK at this time”.
Note: See the FAQ’s on the ILL webpage for a MnLINK messages decoder. If an item cannot be sent, patrons have to wait 2 weeks before reordering.

**As of October, 2008, SPPL now orders from Amazon any ILL-requested paperbacks that are $10 and under. This is cheaper than processing the ILL request, which has a general cost of $20-$30 per item; Amazon has a buy-4-for-3 program and 5% discount.


We then moved into the SunSpot, where the ILL staff first showed us VDX and how their workflow begins. Next, Casey spoke about National ILL Searches and had the following tips:

-Always check WorldCat before submitting a National Search Request. Print out the WorldCat record and attach it to the National Search Request form.

-Good candidates:
Not in Minnesota or Wisconsin.
No lending fees over $20 (this is FYI; we can’t see this in the non-ILL WorldCat).

-Iffy candidates:
Only one library in the world has the item—if this is the case, Casey recommended calling ILL and asking them to look up that library’s lending practices, rather than just taking the patron’s $5 National Search fee right away.

-Again, each lending library has five days to respond to the request before it gets passed on.

Finally, we were given a tour of MMC, particularly the ILL department and the very new shipping and receiving area-- a little bit of chocolate is always an incentive for an attentive audience! Again, I would recommend this training to anyone who wants to see how ILL works, and to gain a thorough understanding of the process. I even put my training to use upon my return to work—a patron called and wanted to what “not available through MnLINK at this time” meant, and how long she should wait for her requests to be filled. I was happy to have an informed answer to give her!

--Laura

HISTORY DAY FOR LIBRARIANS CONFERENCE

I recently went to the Minnesota Historical Center’s History Day for Librarians Conference. Since we will be hosting History Help Days at the Central Library again this year, I thought I would relate a few things I learned during the session. During these sessions, MHS staff along with SPPL staff will be assisting students with their projects. Due to the limited nature of school libraries, we will also be getting a lot of students in here at other times as well.

The theme this year is “The Individual in History: Actions and Legacies.” They emphasized this is NOT a biography. It often means to take a person at a moment in time when what they did “changed” history, then put that moment into historical context. The example they used was Rosa Parks at the moment when she refused to give up her seat on the bus. Describing the event itself is only part of the process. What brought her to that point? What were the implications of the act? What was its legacy?

Minnesota students and teachers are apparently very, very good at the History Day competition—winning far more than their share of awards at the National History Day competition in Washington, D.C. Bear this in mind when working with students. While some are only doing it to satisfy a class requirement, many are shooting for the big time and may be a little intense.

One thing I learned is that the rules are the rules. The packet I placed in the FYI box has a copy of them. For example, the rules say that displays can only have 500 of the student’s own words. Someone, somewhere (probably a competitor) will count them, and if there are 501, they will be disqualified. Most of the time, this will not be our problem—we are not the judges—but is something to keep in the back of your mind.

Another thing to remember is their definition of “internet sources.” This is a good thing to remember when working with students in general. Teachers often restrict student use of “internet sources.” This, however, does not prevent students from using many of our databases, however. For example, our Historical New York Times is not only NOT an internet source, it is a primary source to boot. This is sometimes confusing for students and it is often helpful to point this out to them.

The last thing they emphasized is that History Day can be FUN, even if you don’t like history (which is inconceivable.) So enjoy.

--Ron

Conference on Leadership Development and Teambuilding Oct 20, 2008

This Skillpath Conference was taught as two separate tracks by two trainers, one of whom was exceptionally good and one who was, well, not so much… Consequently, I spent more time with Brad Withers in Track One: Taking Charge of Your Job as a Leader. Track Two: Inspiring Teams to Achieve Goals seemed far less organized, less inspiring. Still, I was not disappointed with the sessions that I did attend. During the opening session, we were exhorted to find 4 things in each session which we would start, stop, continue and change in the way we were doing things now. And, while I cannot say I found those 4 things in all 4 sessions I attended, I can say that there were a couple of sessions that did succeed in their stated goal.

The first session I attended was called “Light a fire of excellence in your team” and it is indicative of the worth I found that I took very few notes for this session. It had such heady pronouncements for us as
“Detecting when members are ready for new challenges”
If performance levels have declined
If employees are completely competent….
If employees would like opportunities for advancement
If upper management forces new challenges on you.
Probably not the most scintillating information to come down the pike, eh?
Oh, and to seek and get your team’s participation in shaping a new vision is key for the team. Do tell.

In general, this man wanted us to get to know our team members personal goals, so that we could link their performance to those goals. While that may be a good idea, not all of your team members will want to share that information. He also wanted the team to develop common values, foster an environment of ownership and for the team leader to provide a stabilizing influence during change and transition, though he failed to suggest how. The only portion of this session I found valuable was in the workbook, and not really alluded to during the session itself. The workbook discusses the importance of a well though out communication strategy in getting your team from point A to point B. It offers several strategies and reminds people that disagreement can, and will, occur. This trainer also did session three, which was called: Positive Feedback….the Fuel to High Performance.In this session we talked about 360 degree feedback and then proceeded to coaching and mentoring as the tool by which you use positive feedback. The rest of this hour was role playing giving constructive criticism with these instructions:

Define the problem in behavioral terms
Relate the impact of the behavior to the team, your feelings and/or the work itself
Ask why, then listen for the “real problem”
Work out a win/win change
Focus on the positive elements of the relationship. All good points, and worth reiterating. But not really earthshakingly new information.

So, now to the trainer I thought was exceptional. The first session of his which I attended was called “30 tips for becoming and inspired leader”. Sounds pretty dorky, huh? He began the session with a scenario called the ants and the chocolate river. You have 10 marshmallows, which you can stand on to cross, but if you take your weight off them they will float downstream. The group needed to find a way to get all the ants across, using only the marshmallows. I blush to admit that not only did we accomplish the task, we did it in very good time as well. If you want to know how, just ask. Instead of reading the list of 30 attributes in the workbook, Brad also described another exercise in which a participant is asked to move a rope into position by pushing rather than pulling. It should come as no surprise that it is far easier to pull than to push a rope. Give it a try, if you doubt it.

The 6 keys (or cornerstones) to being an inspired leader that follow are a summation of the 30 points used in the workbook:

1. Effective Communication (interesting point #1-The greater the separation between the formal and the informal communication in your establishment, the more resistance you are likely to encounter. As a manager, you are not likely to hear much of the informal communication that goes on. That does not excuse having ‘the meeting before the meeting’ and making summary decisions without the aid of the team. If you need to make a summary decision, do so…but own it.)
2. Crystal Clear Purpose (interesting point #2- Make sure you and your team know the goals vision and values that drive the team toward results. )
3. Crystal Clear Process (interesting point #3- What gets measured gets done. You need to measure, qualify and cost your process so everyone knows where they stand. Map it out, and make sure you are measuring results, not activity.)
4. Crystal Clear Role (interesting point #4- Remember that the job is not the role, so if your problem solvers are not your decision makers you may have a disconnect in communication and process. Interesting point #5---and one it would do us all good to remember, is that behavior and attitudes are the top 10% of the iceberg. The other 90% is beliefs. Do you know what the beliefs of your team members are?)
5. Accepted Leadership (interesting point #6- Understand that there does need to be leader and that leader should be you. If you cannot assume that role, be sure you know who the leader is, and assume the role of power behind the throne, if necessary.)
6. Solid Relationships (interesting point #7- Respect, trust and acceptance can only be attained through mutual accountability.)
The workbook has the full thirty points, if anyone would like to run them down. It will be in the FYI basket for the next 6 weeks.


Session Four of the Leadership Conference sounded almost solipsistic. It was called “Building a Team That’s a Reflection of You” (italics theirs not mine).

The above line grid shows the progress of the average team.
Interestingly, if you have a team with above average ability by no willingness, you end up with a confused crowd. If you have a team with above average willingness but no ability, you end up with warring factions. Both “stars” and “slackers” end up high on the ability side, with little or no willingness to cooperate. And if you have a group with neither the willingness nor ability to cooperate, all you have is an unruly mob.

So how do you influence this grid to go from #1 to #4 with as little of the outlying distractions as possible? If you have an unruly mob, warring factions or even a confused crowd on your hands it may be time to do some serious clarifying of roles and goals. If you have warring factions on your hands, it’s time to make sure that the goals of the team are crystal clear and that there is sufficient accountability for action in the group. And if none of that works, you may have to change the players. After all, if the goal is worth pursuing, it is probably worth taking the time to find a team that will whole heartedly work toward the goal (whatever it might be).


Brad made a few last points that bear repeating:

What does the high performing individual (or team) do differently?
For one thing, they don’t always follow the rules, in fact they are notorious for bending them. For another, they obtain the tools they need to do the job one way or another. They also take shortcuts. According to the literature, high performers only do about 5 to 7 things differently from your average employee. So, when you are coaching the high performer, it would be worth your while to find out what they are doing and why they choose the roads they do.

When you find yourself or those you are supervising going around and around in a behavior loop, you should look for these 4 coaching or learning moments. These are times when you are most likely to affect a change in behavior:

1. Conflict—if something is causing severe dissonance, it can be a powerful agent for change.
2. Resonance—if something creates one of those delightful AHA! moments, where you and he(she) suddenly see something for the first time.
3. Surprise—when something happens that neither of you expected.
4. Mismatch—when things don’t match up, people often feel the need to try and create a match, even if it means a change in their own behavior.

So how do you affect change in behavior?
During another game we played as a group,these five points were illustrated:

Tell them--sometimes that is appropriate, and adequate.
Force them-- If you need to “force” change, it would be best to remember that the more force is necessary the less buy-in you will generally achieve.
Ask them—but be prepared for resistance and possible changes of plan
Invite them—if you wish them to be involved.
Empower them—in the best of all possible worlds, get the members to “run the game”.


--Doris

TEEN READ WEEK 2008

I have to start by saying that I'm delighted by how the Teen Read Week programming went this year. The attendance surpassed last year's and it appeared that the retention for the inter-related Friday programs was high as well. The majority of attendees were teens though there were a number of supervising adults this year as well. As with last year, Andrea and I created book lists and displays to accompany the programming.

Friday (Comixstravaganza):
11-12 panel: We had 8 panelists from our thriving local comics community, who generously donated their time to the causes of teens and libraries. There were 26 attendees for the panel, roughly 22 of whom were kids/teens.

12:30-1:30 Manga class: We had 29 attendees for the class of who 24 were teens/kids. The majority of those who had attended the panel stayed for the class and we picked up some additions. They kids were very into the class and approached with the kind of focus you might see at an SAT prep class. We should revisit this as an activity for Summer Reading.

2:00-4:00 Anime movie with pizza, pocky, and pop. We had 30 attendees for this, approximately 24-5 were kids/teens. The anime movie was the newest Bleach release: Bleach--Memories of Nobody. We had a few cans of pop leftover, but the pizza and pocky were suitably annihilated.

We didn't have a formal assessment to hand out to find out where the attendees had heard about the events but an informal poll gave us the following results: 3 had seen the flier at Highland, 1 had seen events in E&C, and 4 came from the YWCA. (The YWCA had called earlier in the week about a class visit and I told them about the Thursday Wii and Friday/Saturday TRW activities. Apparently it took.)

Saturday (Twilight party):
The party had 45 attendees, 35 of whom were teens. We had a craft (making a Bella bracelet), a costume contest, a trivia contest (with smaller prizes of fangs and read bracelets), and a debate between Team Jacob and Team Edward. Much to my surprise about 15 teens turned up 20 minutes before the party was set to begin, raring to go, and tapping their toes until the festivities got underway. I closed the Edward vs. Jacob debate with a question about what they were going to read next and got some new ideas myself as well as directing them to a display of read-alikes and some booklists. The music and decorations received a thumbs up from several attendees and the trivia contest (which was somewhat impromptu) was embraced enthusiastically. There were some crossed wires about the costume contest so we didn't have as many contestants as we'd hoped for. (We did have several teens tell us that they would've dressed up if they'd known though, so it is a feasible activity.)

Of the teens we talked to, it appeared that word of mouth was the predominant factor in finding out about the Twilight Party. Several times I heard, "My mom/dad saw it in the newspaper and told me about it. Then I told my friends." Newspapers and library fliers were the triggers for the word of mouth.

Thanks go to Phyllis and Karen for helping out with the funding. It was much appreciated and couldn't have come at a better time.
Thanks also go to Susan H. for ordering a couple of new anime releases for us and getting them to us post-haste and in time for the Comixstravaganza. Cindy generously let us co-opt a couple of willing volunteers to work to help with TRW and work during the events. Mavis and Carl did a great job.

Here are more photos of the events which may help give you a feel for how they went as well.

I'm already excited for next year's Teen Read Week. I think Central is getting to a place where it can become a destination for teens. With the proximity of a couple of high schools, publicity, and regular activities (Teen Advisory Council, programs, a manga/anime club perhaps), we can make Central a welcoming and regular destination for teens.

I'm planning on writing a more detailed report with suggestions for follow when I get back from my family reunion, but I hope that this covers the basic ground. Please feel free to email me with questions.


--Jennifer B.