Cheryl O’Connor 2009 NJLA Librarian of the Year Congratulations to INFOLINK Executive Director Cheryl O’Connor for this honor awarded on April 28, 2009 at the New Jersey Library Association Conference in Long Branch!! CONTENTS 1. INFOLINK Spring Membership Meeting Highlights 2. Service Updates:     Velocity Delivery Service to Schools     Book Evaluation Services     Senior Spaces FY09-FY10     Diversity Leadership Grant 3. More Services - Gaming Service, Tech Day, Summer CE 4. Scenes from Tech is IT! Day 1. INFOLINK Spring Membership Meeting Highlights In the absence of the President (in Hawaii!) and the Vice-President (in Greece!), INFOLINK Executive Board Treasurer Judy Gardner (Rutgers University Libraries) conducted the spring Business Meeting on May 20, 2009 at the Livingston Public Library. The membership approved the FY10 initiatives for the Strategic Plan and the revised FY10 Budget. INFOLINK Spring Membership Meeting in the beautiful Livingston Public Library meeting room. Budget Cuts. The FY10 budget reflects a 15% cut in funding from the New Jersey State Library. It supports the majority but not all the initiatives in the FY2010 proposed strategic plan. At this point in time, we foresee no increases in continuing education fees. It will require, however, an adjustment in eligibility for delivery services which the Board will consider at their June 17th meeting. How can you get a say re the future of INFOLINK services? This summer and fall INFOLINK along with the Board and Planning Committee starts a new strategic planning process for FY2011-2013. The input of the full membership is critical to identify priority issues and the ways INFOLINK can support you moving forward. Election Results. The INFOLINK Nominating Committee chaired by Dan Weiss (Fanwood Memorial Library) recommended and the Voting Representatives present approved the following slate for Executive Board terms beginning July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2012. Congratulations to all!   Roberta Bronson Fitzpatrick, George Smith Library Administration, UMDNJ (Newark) Second term: July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2012 Irene Goldberg, Library Director, Monroe Township Public Library First term:     July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2012 Dorothy Key, Library Director, Elizabeth Public Library Second term: July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2012 Mary Mallery, Montclair State University Library First term:     July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2012 Patricia Reilly, Library Director, Hudson County Community College Library (Jersey City) Second term: July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2012 Dale Spindel, Library Director, Kenilworth Public Library First term:     July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2012 Congratulations to the newly elected members of the FY10 Nominating Committee:   Susan Heinis, West Essex Senior High School (North Caldwell, NJ) Jane Kennedy, Maplewood Public Library (Maplewood, NJ) Dan Weiss, Fanwood Memorial Library (Fanwood, NJ) Dagmar Finkle, Middlesex County Vo-Tech High School (Perth Amboy, NJ) William Peniston, Newark Museum Library (Newark, NJ) Lewis Epstein, practicing psychotherapist, who spoke on Making Choices About Change on May 20th. [ back to top ] 2. Service Updates: Velocity Delivery Service to Schools: Ends on June 19 Begins on Sept 14 [ back to top ] Book Evaluation Services Contract Award. The INFOLINK Executive Board has awarded a contract for FY2010 Book Evaluation Services @ $12,000 to the Kearny Public Schools District. This is a contract renewal. Our stalwart contract managers are Sally Roessler (Kearny HS) and Melody Connell (Garfield School). Congratulations and thanks to Kearny Public Schools as the district commences its 8th year providing this service for staff in INFOLINK public and school libraries. [ back to top ] Senior Spaces FY09-FY10 INFOLINK is very pleased to announce three contract awards in response to the RFP: Senior Spaces 2009-2010. East Brunswick Public Library ($20,000). Contract Manager – MaryEllen Firestone. Montclair Public Library ($20,000). Contract Manager- Marilyn Kahn. Allan Kleiman ($6,000). Consultant. The East Brunswick Public Library has three goals: To create and execute a telephone poll of at least 400 resident living in East Brunswick between the ages of 60 – over 85 to ascertain their major concerns in regards to health and wellness; to use the poll results to identify areas of concern that can be addressed immediately by the purchase of additional materials for the library’s collections and by tailoring the programs offered by the Senior Center and The Library; and, to create a separate but integrated space in the library where the boomer generation and their elders can meet and comfortably access information in every format. Assistant Library Director MaryEllen Firestone says, “Thank you, INFOLINK for your foresight! The Senior Spaces contract will allow East Brunswick residents to voice their needs and desires for collections and programs for the next 3 – 5 years. We look forward to learning all about healthy living and aging with vitality.” The Montclair Public Library’s project will launch its MPL STARS (Montclair Public Library Seniors’ Technology and Reading Space) program. The library goals are stated as follows: “We want to make it easy for older adults to use the Library. We want to transform an area of the Library into a community gathering space for older residents. We want to enhance programming provided to seniors.” In addition to developing a reading and technology space, the library is partnering with the Montclair Creative Aging Network, a community-based group of arts, culture, education, and human service providers. Marilyn Kahn shares, “I am thrilled that the Montclair Public Library has received the Senior Spaces contract award. It is a great honor to have this opportunity to enhance our older adult services and programs and to provide a senior-focused space in the library.” Allan Kleiman, a nationally known expert on library services to the baby boomers and older adults, will be the Senior Spaces Consultant for INFOLINK and for the two contract libraries. [ back to top ] $25,000 Diversity Leadership Grant Award to INFOLINK The INFOLINK Regional Library Cooperative is thrilled to announce that we have been awarded a $25,000 grant from the New Jersey State Library to replicate our successful four-part Diversity Initiative Series and take it statewide. The overall goal is to assist public libraries in New Jersey in developing effective programs and services for their diverse communities through a comprehensive “planning to implementation” approach. We are planning one series with 10 libraries (2 staff from each library) in the Highlands RLC geographic area and another with 10 libraries (2 staff from each library) in the Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative area. The grant period is May 2009 — April 2010. Any public library in the New Jersey Library Network will be eligible to apply for the 20 total spaces available. Participating libraries will develop an action plan and promote and implement one program with a $500 subsidy by mid-March 2010. So, INFOLINK members, please look for the series details and application letters in mid-June. [ back to top ] 3. More Services Mi-Sun Lyu, Program & Services Coordinator Gaming in Libraries - Service Launched!! Thanks to the hard work of the INFOLINK Technology Committee (Jerry Holtz, Chair), the Gaming Task Force and the INFOLINK Staff with the passion to serve, INFOLINK has been able to successfully manage the Gaming Service since its launch in March.  In less than two months since the service began, 26 requests for the Gaming Kits have been made and all the gaming kits have been being circulated. INFOLINK Gaming Task Force (from left): Allen McGinley, Jerry Holtz, Allan Kleiman, Bob Keith, Doug Baldwin. We ask libraries who use our Gaming Service to provide us some feedback by filling out an evaluation form after they provide their gaming program with our gaming kits. All libraries have responded that their programs were very successful (mostly 10 with some 9 on a scale of 1-10, 10 highest) and the experience shared from both staff and the customers were extremely positive. Here is some feedback on the evaluations: Cranbury PL. Program: Rockband Tournament, 5/15, 32 participants (Tweens, Teens, and Adults), XBOX Rockband and Arcade Kit.  “This equipment/service is great for programming we cannot offer on our own. It brought in customers not frequently at the library and engaged them thoroughly. (We) Will definitely use the service again.” Metuchen PL. Program: Game Day at the Library, 5/19, 16 participants (Grade 5-9), Nintendo Wii Sports. “This was a joint program at the Metuchen PL and the Edgar Middle School. We (two librarians who managed the program) are both novices (in gaming).  We had no idea what to expect, but it worked out to be fun. A photographer from the Metuchen Edison Sentinel showed up. Maybe the photos will be in the newspaper. Thank you for this wonderful service.” East Orange PL. Program: Mindless Fun (Staff Program), 5/1, 10 participants, Adults (30+), Nintendo Wii Especially for Adults and Seniors and XBOX Rockband Kit. “They got to see what all the fuss was about and some of our seniors really surprised us with their bowling skills.” Milltown PL. Program: Gaming at Library, 4/30, 5/4, 5/5, 5/7 (4 programs), 15-25 participants/program (ages 10-18), Nintendo Wii Sports, Arcade and Rockband Kit. “After school group who hang out were so excited to be able to participate. Rockband was great hit. We have a large screen and it projected extremely well. (The library) 2 pagers and 1 24-year old library assistant were a great help. This was by far the best YA program I have had (at the library). Next time I will try to have an adult program and a children’s one.” I think these evaluations prove one important reason that INFOLINK launched the Gaming Service. The service was not launched just because Gaming is a hot topic and we should follow what others do. We launched the service because we strongly believe that Library Gaming Services (in all types of libraries and for people of all ages) are proven to be extremely positive and successful; such activity adds tremendous value to library services. INFOLINK will continue to bring more to our Gaming Service with help of the Technology Committee and the Gaming Task Force. If you are interested in our Gaming Service, please go to our Gaming Service wiki at: http://infolinkgaming.pbworks.com. 6th Tech is IT! This Spring I was able to visit my family and friends in South Korea for three weeks until I returned back to the INFOLINK World right on time for the Tech is IT! Conference (a.k.a. Tech Day) on May 14 at Rutgers University. As much as I wanted to stay with my family and friends there, the wonderful time at the Tech Day conference was all worth it to come back for. I cannot thank enough the constant help from our fabulous INFOLINK staff and Technology Committee to put everything together and host the conference successfully. I sincerely thank our keynote (Marshall Br eeding), presenters and everyone who attended and participated in the 6th Tech is IT! I hope everyone also enjoyed their experience at Tech Day. Summer CE This Summer we are offering the following three wonderful workshops!   Library Fundraising: Creating New Streams of Revenue for Your Library presented by Andrew Sanderbeck: July 29, 9:30-4:00, Monroe Public Library Emerging Search Technologies presented by Wayne Bivens-Tatum: August 5, 10:00-1:00, Clark PL Second Life – The Virtual World presented by C. Anderson, M. McIntyre, E. J. Marrapodi: August 19, 10:00-4:30, Kean University Library Summer CE Schedule and Workshop Descriptions at: http://www.infolink.org/services/education_and_training/ CE Online Registration at: http://www.infolink.org/services/education_and_training/registration_form/ Suggestions?  Questions? Contact us at 732-752-7720! [ back to top ] 4. Scenes from Tech is IT Day at Rutgers University Congratulations to our very lucky raffle prize winners to the below.     [ back to top ]   INFOLINK The Eastern New Jersey Regional Library Cooperative 44 Stelton Road Suite 330 Piscataway, NJ 08854 www.INFOLINK.org Phone: 732-752-7720 or 1-866-505-LINK FAX: 732-752-7785 or 1-800-793-8007 Staff Cheryl O’Connor, Executive Director Mi-Sun Lyu, Program & Services Coordinator Nanette Cox, Business Admin Carol Fishwick, Members Services Executive Board Roberta Bronson Fitzpatrick, President Phyllis Aronowitz Sheila Fitzgibbon Judith Gardner Elizabeth Gloeggler Mark Jackson James Keehbler Dorothy Key Mary Lewis John Malar Lina Podles Caroyln Ryan Reed Pat Reilly JoAnn Tropiano