Author visits on the cheap!

Looking for a way to have children's authors visit your library? Is your budget so tight you wish you could lose those few extra pounds? Why not bring the authors in to visit over the Internet?

A list of authors willing to do 20-minute visits using the online conferencing software, Skype, is available on author Kate Messner's blog: http://kmessner.livejournal.com/106020.html. She also wrote up an article on how to do online author visits for School Library Journal, "Met Any Good Authors Lately?", in the August 2009 issue.

Hugo winner in the region!

Congratulations to John Klima, Instructor with Palmer College of Chiropractic Libraries in Davenport and Substitute Librarian at Bettendorf Public Library, for his win at last night's Hugo Awards. He won the Best Fanzine Award for his 'zine, Electric Velocipede. John is also a three-time nominee, including this year, for the World Fantasy Award for the Special Award - Non-Professional, again for his work with Electric Velocipede. This year's World Fantasy Awards will be given out in October.

Last night's Hugo winners also included:

# Best Novel: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
# Best Novella: “The Erdmann Nexus”, Nancy Kress (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)
# Best Novelette: “Shoggoths in Bloom”, Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s Mar 2008)
# Best Short Story: “Exhalation”, Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
# Best Related Book: Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008, John Scalzi (Subterranean Press)
# Best Graphic Story: Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones, Written by Kaja & Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio, colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
# Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: WALL-E Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter, story; Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, screenplay; Andrew Stanton, director (Pixar/Walt Disney)
# Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Joss Whedon, & Zack Whedon, & Jed Whedon, & Maurissa Tancharoen, writers; Joss Whedon, director (Mutant Enemy)

Davenport Public Library Uses Facebook to Document the Library's Programs

The Davenport Public Library's Facebook page serves to keep "fans" up to date on what the library is doing, including programs, building projects, and more. Now they've added photos to their page to document programs and projects as well. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!

To see how their photo page looks, visit http://bit.ly/1D5WB. To see their home page on Facebook, visit http://bit.ly/lAR3m.

Anyone else using Facebook to promote the library and "talk" to patrons? Use the comment feature on this page to tell us about it!

PROFESSIONAL BOOK OF THE WEEK

Title: Something Musical Happened at the Library: Adding Song and Dance to Children’s Story Programs

Author: Rob Reid

Summary: Are you looking to freshen up your storytimes by adding songs? Maybe you want to freshen up the songs you already are using. Reid has compiled a comprehensive listing of books, songs and dances which can be combined to create an interactive and fun storytime program.

Twin Cities Film Festival - About Libraries!

Videos should be available after the festival on YouTube and and member library web sites. When they become available we'll let you know - watch some for inspiration on how to market your library using video. The article on the festival is at http://bit.ly/4kEeJq.

Stimulus/Broadband deadline is August 14!

ALA’s Washington Office has created and compiled a host of stimulus resources for libraries including webinars, instructional guidance, key links and a list of frequently asked questions page. These materials can be found at www.ala.org/knowyourstimulus.

Top Ten Computer Hardware Fixes from LifeHacker

Lifehacker editors have rounded up some of the most helpful tutorials for fixing your computer hardware. A couple are Mac based, but there are tutorials on adding RAM, replacing a hard drive, and more. See the tutorial list at http://bit.ly/13KQGa.

Library Card Sign Up Month Resources - September is almost here!

Print and audio PSAs featuring Candace Parker, WNBA star and Olympic gold medalist, are available for download, as are other materials for libraries looking to promote Library Card Sign-up Month locally. Sample press materials, including a press release, letter to the editor, proclamation, PSA scripts and smartest card logos, can be found at www.ala.org/librarycardsignup

Davenport Public Library's Eastern Avenue Branch Tree Planting

Katie attended the Tree Planting ceremony to commemorate the construction of the Davenport Public Library's newest branch. Here are some of the pictures she captured:

Samantha Wikstrom, Youth Services Supervisor, with children from a local day camp



Director LaWanda Roudebush welcoming the crowd



Representative Cindy Winkler reading a letter from the governor



Area children helping to plant the tree