Books for Babies Grant Opportunity

The Associationof Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations (ALTAFF) has partnered with Nordstrom to offer 10 grants of $500 each to put towards the purchase of Books for Babies kits to "selected Friends of the Library groups, women's groups, libraries and other nonprofit organizations" who raise $1,000 for the project.

The application deadline is October 1, 2009, and more information can be found here.

EAST CENTRAL LIBRARY SERVICES TO SPONSOR WORKSHOP

TODDLE OVER WITH MUSIC

You can't sing or you are afraid to? After this workshop, you will put music in your storytimes! Jerri Heid, Youth Services Librarian at the Ames Public Library, will teach librarians why music is important for your programs and for children's emergent literacy skills. You will learn how you can use other people's music to your advantage, where to purchase music, a bibliography of songs to use and most importantly, gain the confidence and comfort to add music to your programs. Come dressed in casual clothes, ready to have fun!

When: Friday, October 9

Where: North Liberty Community Library

520 Cherry Street

Time: 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

CE: 5

Cost: $20, lunch, refreshments & handouts provided

Registration Deadline: October 5

You may register on-line in the CE catalog or contact East Central. Please mail your check to the address below.

East Central Library Services
222 3rd St. SE, Suite 402
Cedar Rapids IA 52401

Contact: Linda Lumsden
Phone: 319-365-0521
llumsde@ecls.lib.ia.us

Congratulations to Letts Public Library!

As part of this year's I-JOBS grants, the city of Letts will receive $400,000 for the creation of a new community center and library.

I-JOBS Libraries announcement

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

How can you resist Summer Reading Program challenges? The children's librarians at the Musser Public Library were challenged to row across the pond at their Nature Center if the kids in the community read 15,000 books. Videographic evidence is available at YouTube :)

http://www.youtube.com/user/MusserPublicLibrary

How Not to Tweet

David Lee King offers up some advice to libraries looking to increase their presence with Twitter. http://bit.ly/g5zmu

Redbox at Libraries

Have you seen the bright red box, aptly named Redbox, at local retailers? Libraries are getting into the scene, earning 3 cents of every dollar earned by the company. Information on libraries using the boxes at http://bit.ly/5UAzr.

WrestleMania Reading Challenge Closes July 31

Teens and tweens at your library could win a trip to WrestleMania XXVI in Phoenix, and you could win $2,000 for your library! Just complete Teen Read Week™ registration at www.ala.org/teenread and say “yes” to the WrestleMania Reading Challenge by July 31.

Best Thrillers of 2009

Awards were determined by the International Thriller Writers. View the winners at http://bit.ly/Jlrn0.

Choosing the Best Web Browser

PC Magazine’s takes and links to reviews of the top recent entries to help you make your choice. http://bit.ly/K84EQ

3D Moon Landing Adventure from Google Earth

This great site includes moon tours of the landing sites narrated by the astronauts, view models of the spacecraft, and more! Interest is high right now with the anniversary of the Apollo mission, bookmark for your patrons! http://earth.google.com/moon/

YALSA Announces 3 Online Courses This Fall

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), will offer three online courses this fall: AIMing at Tweens Advising, Involving, Motivating, taught by Teri Lesesne; Graphic Novels and Teen Readers: The Basics and Beyond, taught by Francisca Goldsmith; and Reaching Teens with Gaming, taught by Beth Gallaway. Register at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/onlinecourses/info.cfm#current. They are expensive but an easy way to get a conference session experience.