Bike Crashes. Be careful out there!

Scary but it looks like fun!

Mango Language Learning program on the way.

Western Maryland Regional Library is subscribing to a new resource called Mango Languages. This web-based language learning program (which patrons access for free through their library's site and use in the privacy of their homes) is intuitively designed and equipped with every tool imaginable, including audio narration.



The screen shot above shows the many languages available. Look for it in Late July.

Washington Street Branch pilots Self Pick-up of holds

The Washington Street Branch is piloting a project that allows you to pick up your requested material and speed through the check out line.



Just go to the new Hold shelf, find your name and material, pick it up and don't forget to check it out at the circ desk.

let us know what you think.

OverDrive Media Console v3.2 Expands iPod® Compatibility with WMA Audiobooks

On Tuesday, June 16, OverDrive released the new version of OverDrive® Media Console. To download the updated software, click here. All new users will automatically download the latest version, and existing users will be prompted to upgrade to the latest and greatest version of OMC (scheduled for late June).

Nearly all OverDrive WMA Audiobooks in your download collection are now compatible with the iPod®, iPhoneT, iPod touch®, and iPod nano®, as well as Zune® and thousands of other portable devices, with a simple upgrade of OverDrive Media Console to version 3.2 on Windows® PCs.

Premier publishers, including Random House Audio, Hachette Audio, Penguin Audio, BBC Audiobooks America, Brilliance Audio, Tantor Media, and many more, allow this for all of the WMA Audiobooks OverDrive offers. Best sellers such as Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight," Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers," John Grisham's "The Appeal," and Chuck Palahniuk's "Pygmy" will become iPod-compatible downloads, along with highly-anticipated releases like Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" and Tami Hoag's "The Trouble with J.J."

In addition to enhanced transfer functionality, the new version of OverDrive Media Console also offers several highly requested features, which allow users to:

• Send MP3 Audiobooks to the iTunes® Library with Transfer Wizard.
• Burn audiobook parts to CD in just a few clicks using Burn Wizard--on all supported Windows operating systems.
• Perform a test burn.
• Enjoy a new playback option wherein OverDrive Media Console automatically resumes playback from the most recently played point.
• Let OverDrive Media Console alert them of software releases and news about the software--automatically.
• With iTunes v8.1.0.52 (or newer) in place, use Transfer Wizard to send titles to the iPod shuffle®.

The growing collection of Mac®-friendly, iPod-compatible OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks will still be available to help libraries better serve patrons with Apple computers.

DTV transition casualty

Both Suz and I grew up in the shadow of DC. As such, we became news junkies and we got our fix from NPR usually from WETA and WAMU radio. We we able to maintain our co-dependence when we hooked our cable tv cable into our FM radio receiver and pick up those DC stations. Sadly, the DTV transition seems to have eliminated picking up those radio stations via the cable TV. We are now limited to local stations via the FM antennae. I guess I will have to get serious about internet radio or set up a "spot" near the receiver to plug in the laptop.

Digital Britain: Universal Broadband, Upgraded Mobile, and Piracy

I like the idea of universal Broadband and a country-wide 3g cellular network. Plus its refreshing to hear someone else say that the "Internet is Infrastructure."

 

 

Sent to you by john taube via Google Reader:

 

 

Digital Britain: Universal Broadband, Upgraded Mobile, and Piracy

via Techgeist by Michael Klurfeld on 6/16/09

After much of a wait, the British government's Digital Britain report has come out. The first part is good, as in very, very good. The British government seeks to provide universal broadband coverage by 2012; it talks about situations in which households cannot afford at least a 2 Mbps connection as a mistake. Additionally, the government is seeking to improve mobile infrastructure, both by making 3G available everywhere (even underground in the Tube train network) and by investing in the construction of a 4G network.

The internet is infrastructure, which is something that the government has realized. In the same way that roads allow for more by way of business, so too does the internet make more available. Governments are in the best position to build infrastructure as they (ideally) are not businesses; they do not seek to profit from their constituents. So what it really comes down to is whether or not governments can recognize what falls under the category of something they should be spending money on. In this instance, Britain got it right.

With all this in mind, there is plenty by way of bad news in the report, especially in the form of the British government's stance on piracy. While the report does say that it believes that the majority of people much prefer acquiring content through legal means rather than through piracy, the government has also said that the government newly established online watchdog agency, Ofcom, will encourage both bandwidth throttling and protocol blocking. These are both of concern as no group has yet to do this properly - you cannot block bit torrent, for example, without blocking the all the legal file exchanges that take place over it.

Still, it does seem that Britain may be taking a bit of more informed stance against piracy. The report lists its goal in dealing with piracy, more than anything else, shutting down people who steal copyrighted materials for profit. So rather than going after students who download a handful of songs for personal use, we should expect to see a targeting of the guys who download music and then sell burned CDs on the street. This is very good - if this is indeed how anti-piracy enforcement will actually work.

- Full report available here

 

 

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• Subscribe to Techgeist using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Sign up for a Library Card on our website.

We enabled the Online Borrower Registration feature. OBR can be accessed by clicking the yellow library card icon on the home page.

This feature enables patrons to go on our website to fill out the application to get a library card. The patron will be assigned a temporary number that will enable them to place holds in the catalog, but this number will not be able to be authenticated for them to use online databases.

A couple of quick facts:

• Patrons must agree to Borrowing Policies before filling out the form. If the agreement is not checked, they will be unable to type in the fields of the form
• Starred fields on the form are required to be completed
• Patrons have 7 days to pick up their permanent card.
• Patrons are advised in the confirmation message to bring identification with them for address verification
• If a patron already has a card with us, they will see a message telling them so
• If a patron does not come to get a permanent card within the 7 days, the record will disappear in the circ system.
• Patrons who have registered online do not need to fill out a paper application when they come into the library

Check it Out!

Great Web SItes for kids

19 new Great Web Sites for Kids
Association for Library Service to Children (ALA/ALSC) has placed 19 new websites on its Great Web Sites for Kids list. Great Web Sites for Kids are those considered the best for ages birth to 14, outstanding in both content and conception. As applied to websites for young people, “great” should be thought to include sites of especially commendable quality that reflect and encourage young people’s interests in exemplary ways....

Link

A Sizable Compilation of Job Search Sites from the New York Public Library

Thanks to ResourceShelf.

 

 

Sent to you by john taube via Google Reader:

 

 

A Sizable Compilation of Job Search Sites from the New York Public Library

via ResourceShelf by resourceshelf on 6/3/09

A sizable compilation of links and annotations to various types of job search resources. We bet you'll find a few new ones to add to your library's (or personal) collection.

Direct to Compilation

Source: Blogging@NYPL

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to ResourceShelf using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Fwd: June 2009 Crossroads - Focus on Web Tools

John E. Taube
Allegany County Library System
31 Washington Street
Cumberland, MD 21502
(v) 301-777-1200
(f) 301-777-7299

"Everything subject to change."

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: WebJunction.org <info@webjunction.org>
Date: Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 1:02 AM
Subject: June 2009 Crossroads - Focus on Web Tools
To: jtaube@allconet.org

CROSSROADS Newsletter June 2009

How Do You Use the Web? The World Wide Web has grown from a read-only environ- ment into a vast online community where people meet, exchange information, collaborate, and communicate. It is essential for today's libraries to be part of that community. Patrons expect librarians to be savvy at using web tools; and many libraries now use social networking to strengthen and widen their outreach efforts. If you do not think you are using the Web to its fullest potential, we have many free resources to help you learn and use web tools and social networking in and for your library. Go to Social Networking & Web Tools » The Secret to Online Communities The secret to a successful online community is participation. Sharing even a little of yourself online goes a long way toward strengthening your and your organization's relationships. Start in the safe, supportive environment of WebJunction, where members are colleagues in your profession who would like to meet and learn with you. Add a picture ("avatar") to your profile so we can better know you. Tell us about yourself in the personal information section of your profile. And adjust your privacy settings to your own comfort level. The User Guide and this helpful video will help you get started.   Already a Fan of Web 2.0? Are you in love with LinkedIn? Yearning for YouTube? Tickled by Twitter? What social network or web-based tool do you love, and why? Simply post your one-sentence answer in the Social Networks & Web Tools discussion forum. Or, you could make use of a different web tool, like some WebJunction staff did when they videoed their responses, posted them to Flickr, and then embedded them into a WebJunction document. Join the discussion »   2009 Member Survey: The Community Speaks Read the summary report from the March 2009 WebJunction Member Survey, to learn how our community uses WebJunction.org, what they do and don't do while there, what they value, what they'd like to see change. Feel free to post comments to the report page—your feedback is always appreciated. Colleagues at the Heart of Solving Problems In the 2009 WJ Member Survey, we asked, "When you need to tackle a problem at work, what tool or method do you like to use to solve it?" When we analyzed your responses, we discovered that your top "tool" is other people: coworkers, professional network, staff, etc. Also tops in your toolkit is your state or regional library system, but you also make heavy use of the Internet, with listservs, Google, and WebJunction getting honorable mentions. We also created this tag cloud to show the top 50 words in your responses. It is clear from all of your survey responses how much you value your colleagues and professional network to help you find solutions, new ideas, or to act as a sounding board. We hope that you will continue to foster that mutual support and exchange on WebJunction: your community needs you. Survey Shows Your Use of Online Tools As part of the 2009 WJ Member Survey, we wanted to assess how much our members use online tools, especially "web 2.0" tools that have developed in recent years. This gives us a sense of what experience and what expectations our community has around web tools, and helps to put WebJunction.org's tools into that context. We found the results quite interesting; our community falls across a very wide continuum. Go to this article to view the full results. Webinar: Social Learning in Libraries For the past six years, library staff have been using tools at WebJunction.org to connect with each other and build new skills for their work in libraries. Meanwhile, the dramatic growth of web-based technology has changed patron expectations of libraries, which means library staff have new needs as well. Join Chrystie Hill, community director at WebJunction, on June 16 as she describes how WebJunction.org has evolved alongside these trends. Chrystie will also present broader trends in learning and training, demonstrate how our members are using online tools to support their staff or their own professional development, and discuss with you how to shape the future of staff training and library services. Register for the event »   Webinar: Bringing Web 2.0 into Academic Libraries As students, staff and faculty move their lives online, university libraries must choose whether to move with them or get left behind. But where is the value in an academic library when Google is the new ready reference desk and the libraries' resources are increasingly digitized? How does a library remain relevant in a socially networked academic world? Amanda Clay Powers (Mississippi State Univ. Libraries) and Ellen Hampton (Baylor Univ. Libraries) will discuss on June 30 how libraries can readjust and move their most important resources online—their people. By using social networks and other web-based technologies, libraries can become a value-added member of their community—both online and in person. Register for the event »   Spotlight on WJ-Arizona WebJunction-Arizona encourages their members to get comfortable learning online with Quick Tips and Videos for Getting Started and Guidelines for Taking Courses. Members increase their skills by accessing the free courses, certification opportunities, and the continuing education program—all available at WJ-Arizona's Courses. Visit WJ-Arizona »   A New Service to Library Organizations WebJunction now offers a Custom Course Catalog, which provides a central location for organizations to host, promote and track staff training. More information »   Save Time and Money on Staff Training Deliver effective, relevant training right now with WebJunction's online courses. Save money by purchasing in bulk. Select from more than 600 online courses relevant to your library, for as low as $25 per unit. Learn more »   We Have a Solution For Your Library Sign up for an upcoming "WebJunction for Organizations" presentation, where you'll learn how we provide cost-effective customized solutions to libraries to ensure that staff are well prepared to meet the challenges of today. Register for July event »   Keep Current on WJ Content and Groups We update the Hot Topics page monthly to highlight new and popular courses, documents, discussions, groups and events. And the WJ Groups page is where you will get updates about activity happening in member groups.   Quick Link to Events To see what live events are happening this month, visit our Events Calendar. To attend a webinar, simply complete the brief registration and we'll send you the login information.     Reminder: June 10 Event Join online community expert Nancy White as she discusses how to be an effective technology steward at your library. You'll get practical advice on how to assess the technology needs of your patrons, and to select, configure, and support the online technologies they use. Register for the event »   Mark Your Calendars for July 7 Webinar Guest presenters from Seattle and British Columbia will discuss the Global Reading Challenge/Reading Link Challenge, a program that encourages team building, reading for retention, and cooperation between school and public libraries. More information »   Have feedback on what you've read here? Post your comments on the online version of Crossroads. Crossroads is a free publication produced by WebJunction, distributed monthly in an electronic format. Past issues are archived at webjunction.org/crossroads. To subscribe, go to webjunction.org and enter your email address in the subscription box. To unsubscribe, click here. Please feel free to pass Crossroads along to your friends; we do ask, however, that you keep the newsletter intact and forward it in its entirety. Crossroads and WebJunction.org will not sell or otherwise make available to outside parties the information provided by Website users and newsletter subscribers. Crossroads is distributed using a third-party service provider. © 2009 Online Computer Library Center, Inc. All rights reserved. Product and service names are trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. OCLC, 6565 Kilgour Place, Dublin OH USA 43017-3395 | ISSN 1552-36165

Office Depot Extends Free Resume Copies and Faxing Program

Office Depot announced on Thursday that it will extend its free resume copies and faxing program through December 31, 2009. This program was previously scheduled to expire on May 30. The specific details of this offer are:

Customers will be able to participate in this special offer by visiting the Design, Print, & Ship Depot center in any one of the more than 1,100 Office Depot retail store locations nationwide. Office Depot is providing free copies of resumes, up to 25 single-sided pages, as well as free faxing to five different domestic numbers, up to 25 pages in total

Full info at this link

Resources: Free Tools for Job Seekers

 

 

Sent to you by john taube via Google Reader:

 

 

Resources: Free Tools for Job Seekers

via ResourceShelf by resourceshelf on 6/1/09

From the Summary:

Like most libraries, Irene McDermott's has seen a surge of new visitors seeking job assistance. She tells readers what places on the web provide a variety of tools, from basic computer and email tutorials to how to store files and write and submit resumes, that will help empower patrons and hopefully get them back to work.

Source: Searcher

 

 

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• Subscribe to ResourceShelf using Google Reader
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Why to twitter for libraries

Thanks to Regina for finding this.

http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/may09/Milstein.shtml

Good article, maybe you've already seen it:
Why to twitter

Regina

WHILBR wins 34th Annual Maryland Preservation Award

The Maryland Preservation Awards are presented annually by the Board of Trustees of the Maryland Historical Trust. The Trustees are appointed by the Governor of Maryland and represent all regions of the state. The awards honor outstanding achievements in historic preservation, architecture, archaeology, museums, cultural conservation, education, and related fields and represent the best of preservation in Maryland.

Jill Craig and WHILBR were awarded in the Educational Excellence category for the Allegany County African American History Website.

Using Source material from Al Feldstein, Whilbr and The Western Maryland Regional Library has developed an extensive online archive of their collections relating to the history of African-American individuals, organizations, sites, and social, cultural, and political history in Allegany County, Maryland. The website sheds light on a community that has long been under-represented in public history, but whose contributions and achievements are undeniable. This website is being utilized in a wide variety of ways by educational institutions, is providing the impetus for several related initiatives, has formed the basis for numerous civic and community group presentations, and has also being linked to various historical and educational institutions within the region, the state, and across the nation. Pictured are Albert Feldstein, primary collector and author of the site contents and Jill Craig, Digitization Librarian at the Western Maryland Regional Library in Hagerstown.

Congrats to all!