WiLS

Nov 19

Education Week Trial

WiLS is pleased to provide a free, two-month trial subscription to EDUCATION WEEK which provides award-winning news coverage of the K-12 education world.

If your institution has a school or college of education . . . if you have faculty and administrators responsible for developing the next generation of teachers and school leaders, total access to EdWeek.org will be a valuable resource for your staff and students.

A site license to EDUCATION WEEK serves as a practical textbook that keeps everyone current on the latest news, controversies, and research in elementary and secondary education.

Trial Link: http://www.edweek.org

Trial Username:

Trial Password: edweek3

Contact Jeff Brunner () to get pricing or if you have any questions.

Make It @ Your Library Launches Project Website

Make It @ Your Library, in collaboration with Instructables.com and the American Library Association (ALA), has finally launched its fully searchable website, makeitatyourlibrary.org, for librarians seeking Maker ideas and projects, ALA announced on October 28. Make It @ Your Library—an initiative developed through the ILEAD USA program (Illinois Libraries Explore, Apply and Discover) over the past year—aims to help librarians realize Maker space projects in their own communities at low cost. The new site, featuring web development by Sean Fitzpatrick of LISHost, classifies Maker projects by several criteria, including the tools and space needed, age level, category, and cost and time needed for the project. Search terms are completely customizable to aid librarians in planning their projects, ALA noted. For examples, category options include “workshop,” “living,” “outside,” “play,” “technology,” and “food,” as well as cost options. Make It @ Your Library, through ILEAD USA, is funded in part by a Institute of Museum and Library Services Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program Grant.

Nov 16

Know Your WiLS!

Your WiLS

One way to learn about the new WiLS team and the mischief we’ve been making is to follow us on Facebook. We recently created a photo album – Know Your WiLS – that showcases our team members in all the glory of yesteryear. You should totally check it out.

Nov 15

Discover classic Wisconsin department stores with WHS Press author Michael Leannah

At the turn of the 20th century, most American cities of any size had a family-run department store (or two or more) entrenched in their downtowns. By New York, Chicago, or Philadelphia standards, Wisconsin department stores were small and modest, but they served their communities well. Michael Leannah, author of the new book Something for Everyone: Memories of Lauerman Brothers Department Store from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, has curated a new online exhibit of classic Wisconsin department stores for Recollection Wisconsin. To research this feature, Leannah visited the sites of former department stores in Kiel, Manitowoc, Milwaukee, and Oshkosh and was pleased to discover that many of these unique buildings are still standing.

The historic photos in the exhibit exhibit come from the digital collections of libraries and archives around Wisconsin:

Big Streets in a Little City: Downtown Street Scenes in Kiel, 1860-1980, Kiel Public Library. Part of the State of Wisconsin Collection from University of Wisconsin Digital Collections.
The Home Front – Manitowoc County in World War II. Part of the State of Wisconsin Collection from UWDC.
Main Street, Oshkosh, Oshkosh Public Library
Milwaukee Historic Photos, Milwaukee Public Library
Milwaukee Neighborhoods: Photos and Maps 1885-1992, UW-Milwaukee Libraries
Remember When . . . Collection, Milwaukee Public Library

View the exhibit.
Read more about the book Something for Everyone from WHS Press.

Nov 14

Reminder: Use ‘MII’ to request ILL from Minitex

This note is specifically for WiLS Member libraries that have signed onto the WiLS agreement with Minitex. Please use the symbol “MII” to refer requests to Minitex. Please do not use “MNU”

“MII” is the symbol specifically designated for Minitex partners and triggers them to fill the request under the terms of the agreement. If you request from “MNU” or some other symbol in the Minitex network, you will be charged whatever that library charges non-members. Please feel free to contact Jeff Brunner (), if you have any questions about this.

Thanks!

Nov 12

New digital collection: Kewaunee Ships of War

During World War II, the Kewaunee Shipbuilding and Engineering Company delivered 80 vessels to the United States government for wartime use. The Kewaunee Public Library has recently made available online nearly 300 photos Read more

Nov 12

Spring SLIS Online Continuing Ed Courses

SLIS has released the online courses it will be offering for Spring 2014, and it’s a lively and interesting mix with material useful to librarians in all types of libraries. Some highlights include:

The Spring Grant Writing Workshops Series – This three-part series is designed specifically for library staff and students will help new and experienced grant writers alike brainstorm, polish, and submit grant proposals.

Project Management for Librarians – This course is designed to help library staff understand and manage the life cycle of projects, large and small, going on at their library.

Digital Asset Management – Aiming to help you deal with your digital “stuff,” this course will lead you through a systematic process of finding, inventorying, assessing, describing, and managing your library’s or archive’s digital objects.

Get Your Ducks in a Row: Disaster Planning – Don’t be caught off guard! This course will help you identify the information your library needs to have on hand, develop a simple disaster plan, and devise a strategy to keep the plan current.

Working Successfully with Your Library Board – Building a successful, supportive, and honest relationship with your library board is a crucial factor in the success of your library and its projects. This course will teach you the ways you can foster a positive relationship with your board.

Nov 7

OCLC WorldShare Interlibrary Loan Training: Where and When You Need It

OCLC offers self-paced training and online tutorials for WorldShare Interlibrary Loan in addition to instructor-led classes. Be sure to visit the WorldShare Interlibrary Loan Training Resources page for tutorials, recorded sessions, and training updates. Also, bookmark the WorldShare Interlibrary Loan Support page for quick access to documentation, release notes, and known issues. These resources are available at no charge, 24/7, and can be bookmarked and shared easily with staff and colleagues.

Getting Started

Prefer to get started on your own? Select the WorldShare ILL Learning Path that’s right for you.

Upcoming learning opportunities

WorldShare Interlibrary Loan: Update and Chat with the OCLC Team

This program will include an overview of new features now available in WorldShare Interlibrary Loan as well as information about plans for future enhancements to the service. You will also have an opportunity to chat with members of the WorldShare Interlibrary Loan team about effective ways to use the new service, best practices they have observed from early users – and any other topics of interest to you.

Date: November 14, 2013
Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time [UTC -5] Register to attend this webinar here

Nov 6

Learning Opportunity – Implementing change: Realizing the results of collaborating in the cloud

OCLC and Library Journal are co-sponsoring an upcoming free webinar on Wednesday, November 13th, 2013, noon – 1:00 PM CT on “Implementing Change: Realizing the Results of Collaborating in the Cloud.”

Libraries share many common challenges: scarce resources, increased user demand and ever more complex collections, systems and workflows. To help manage these challenges, today’s cloud-based library management services are offering workflows that save time and discovery solutions that meet users’ expectations.

Libraries using these services are seeing drastic reductions in the time it takes for routine tasks because of the integration in the cloud between libraries, applications, partners and data. Not only can information be shared between departments, but between libraries, improving quality and relevance as it’s enhanced along the way.

As a result, libraries save staff time and money while improving efficiency, workflows and user satisfaction. In short, cloud-based library management services, like OCLC WorldShare® Management Services, require less time in your library’s back office. This provides more time and resources to do the things that make your institution truly unique and that help you serve your users better.

Learn more and register here.

Nov 5

BadgerLearn Pro – Because You’re a Pro!

BadgerLearn has expanded its family to include another training portal, BadgerLearn Pro!

The new BadgerLearn Pro website (http://badgerlearnpro.dpi.wi.gov) will provide continuing education opportunities specifically for Wisconsin library professionals:

Training materials produced by the Wisconsin Library Systems
Videos, webinars, and guides to the Affordable Healthcare Act
Websites, webinars, and videos about cataloging books and digital resources
Workshop presentation slides about reference interview skills

BadgerLearn Pro is a joint project under active development by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s Resources for Libraries and Lifelong Learning (RL&LL), WiLS, and the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium (WPLC).