Category Archives: Education & Training

NCompass Live: A Library Centennial Celebration in Photos and Memories

Hear how Baright Public Library created ‘A Library Centennial Celebration in Photos and Memories’ on next week’s NCompass Live webinar on Wednesday, July 12 at 10am CT.

Using a qualitative research methodology termed “photovoices,” oral histories, memories, and reflections were gathered from Ralston community members for Baright Public Library’s centennial celebration. Long-time and recent residents were interviewed to gather personal stories and photographs provided by the interviewees. Participants were asked to share photographs that showed something meaningful in relation to the Ralston, Nebraska community or the library and to talk through why they chose that photo and what it means to them. This session focuses on the research process including participant recruitment and staff time, the research methodology, and the value of this type of project for a centennial celebration.

Presenter: Amy Jo Ellefson, Adult Programs Coordinator, Baright Public Library, Ralston, NE

Upcoming NCompass Live shows:

  • July 19 – Nebraska Open Meetings Act: 2023 Overview and Updates
  • July 26 – Pretty Sweet Tech: Internet Filtering For E-Rate CIPA Compliance And Cybersecurity

To register for an NCompass Live show, or to listen to recordings of past shows, go to the NCompass Live webpage.

NCompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday from 10am – 11am Central Time. Convert to your time zone on the Official U.S. Time website.

The show is presented online using the GoTo Webinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoTo Webinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.

Posted in Education & Training, Preservation | Tagged | Leave a comment

What’s Up Doc? New State Agency Publications at the Nebraska Library Commission

New state agency publications have been received at the Nebraska Library Commission for May and June, 2023.  Included are reports from the Nebraska Auditor of Public Accounts, the Nebraska Board of Parole, the Nebraska Foster Care Review Office, the Nebraska Legislature, and new books from the University of Nebraska Press, to name a few.

Most items, except the books from the University of Nebraska Press, are available for immediate viewing and printing by clicking on the highlighted link above, or directly in the .pdf below.  You can read synopses of the books received from the University of Nebraska Press in the Book Briefs blogposts.

The Nebraska Legislature created the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse in 1972 as a service of the Nebraska Library Commission. Its purpose is to collect, preserve, and provide access to all public information published by Nebraska state agencies.  By law (State Statutes 51-411 to 51-413) all Nebraska state agencies are required to submit their published documents to the Clearinghouse.  For more information, visit the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse page, contact Mary Sauers, Government Information Services Librarian; or contact Bonnie Henzel, State Documents Staff Assistant.

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Book Briefs: New University of Nebraska Press Books at the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse

The Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse receives documents every month from all Nebraska state agencies, including the University of Nebraska Press (UNP).  Each month we will be showcasing the UNP books that the Clearinghouse has received.

UNP books, as well as all Nebraska state documents, are available for checkout by libraries and librarians for their patrons.

Here are the UNP books the Clearinghouse received in May and June, 2023:

Agriculture in the Midwest, 1815-1900, by R. Douglas Hurt.

After the War of 1812 and the removal of the region’s Indigenous peoples, the American Midwest became a paradoxical land for settlers. Even as many settlers found that the region provided the bountiful life of their dreams, others found disappointment, even failure—and still others suffered social and racial prejudice.

In this broad and authoritative survey of midwestern agriculture from the War of 1812 to the turn of the twentieth century, R. Douglas Hurt contends that this region proved to be the country’s garden spot and the nation’s heart of agricultural production. During these eighty-five years the region transformed from a sparsely settled area to the home of large industrial and commercial cities, including Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Detroit. Still, it remained primarily an agricultural region that promised a better life for many of the people who acquired land, raised crops and livestock, provided for their families, adopted new technologies, and sought political reform to benefit their economic interests. Focusing on the history of midwestern agriculture during wartime, utopian isolation, and colonization as well as political unrest, Hurt contextualizes myriad facets of the region’s past to show how agricultural life developed for midwestern farmers—and to reflect on what that meant for the region and nation.

The First Migrants : How Black Homesteaders’ Quest for Land and Freedom Heralded America’s Great Migration, by Richard Edwards and Jacob K. Friefeld.

The First Migrants recounts the largely unknown story of Black people who migrated from the South to the Great Plains between 1877 and 1920 in search of land and freedom. They exercised their rights under the Homestead Act to gain title to 650,000 acres, settling in all of the Great Plains states. Some created Black homesteader communities such as Nicodemus, Kansas, and DeWitty, Nebraska, while others, including George Washington Carver and Oscar Micheaux, homesteaded alone. All sought a place where they could rise by their own talents and toil, unencumbered by Black codes, repression, and violence. In the words of one Nicodemus descendant, they found “a place they could experience real freedom,” though in a racist society that freedom could never be complete. Their quest foreshadowed the epic movement of Black people out of the South known as the Great Migration.

In this first account of the full scope of Black homesteading in the Great Plains, Richard Edwards and Jacob K. Friefeld weave together two distinct strands: the narrative histories of the six most important Black homesteader communities and the several themes that characterize homesteaders’ shared experiences. Using homestead records, diaries and letters, interviews with homesteaders’ descendants, and other sources, Edwards and Friefeld illuminate the homesteaders’ fierce determination to find freedom—and their greatest achievements and struggles for full equality.

French St. Louis : Landscapes, Contexts, and Legacy, Edited by Jay Gitlin, Robert Michael Morrissey, and Peter J. Kastor. Series: France Overseas: Studies in Empire and Decolonization

A gateway to the West and an outpost for eastern capital and culture, St. Louis straddled not only geographical and political divides but also cultural, racial, and sectional ones. At the same time, it connected a vast region as a gathering place of peoples, cultures, and goods. The essays in this collection contextualize St. Louis, exploring French-Native relations, the agency of empire in the Illinois Country, the role of women in “mapping” the French colonial world, fashion and identity, and commodities and exchange in St. Louis as part of a broader politics of consumption in colonial America. The collection also provides a comparative perspective on America’s two great Creole cities, St. Louis and New Orleans. Lastly, it looks at the Frenchness of St. Louis in the nineteenth century and the present.

French St. Louis recasts the history of St. Louis and reimagines regional development in the early American republic, shedding light on its francophone history.

Hoarding New Guinea : Writing Colonial Ethnographic Collection Histories for Postcolonial Futures, by Rainer F. Buschmann. Series: Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology

Hoarding New Guinea provides a new cultural history of colonialism that pays close attention to the millions of Indigenous artifacts that serve as witnesses to Europe’s colonial past in ethnographic museums. Rainer F. Buschmann investigates the roughly two hundred thousand artifacts extracted from the colony of German New Guinea from 1870 to 1920. Reversing the typical trajectories that place ethnographic museums at the center of the analysis, he concludes that museum interests in material culture alone cannot account for the large quantities of extracted artifacts.

Buschmann moves beyond the easy definition of artifacts as trophies of colonial defeat or religious conversion, instead employing the term hoarding to describe the irrational amassing of Indigenous artifacts by European colonial residents. Buschmann also highlights Indigenous material culture as a bargaining chip for its producers to engage with the imposed colonial regime. In addition, by centering an area of collection rather than an institution, he opens new areas of investigation that include non-professional ethnographic collectors and a sustained rather than superficial consideration of Indigenous peoples as producers behind the material culture. Hoarding New Guinea answers the call for a more significant historical focus on colonial ethnographic collections in European museums.

The Korean War Remembered : Contested Memories of an Unended Conflict, by Michael J. Devine. Series: Studies in War, Society, and the Military

Michael J. Devine provides a fresh, wide-ranging, and international perspective on the contested memory of the 1950–1953 conflict that left the Korean Peninsula divided along a heavily fortified demilitarized zone. His work examines “theaters of memory,” including literature, popular culture, public education efforts, monuments, and museums in the United States, China, and the two Koreas, to explain how contested memories have evolved over decades and how they continue to shape the domestic and foreign policies of the countries still involved in this unresolved struggle for dominance and legitimacy. The Korean War Remembered also engages with the revisionist school of historians who, influenced by America’s long nightmare in Vietnam, consider the Korean War an unwise U.S. interference in a civil war that should have been left to the Koreans to decide for themselves.

As a former Peace Corps volunteer to Korea, a two-time senior Fulbright lecturer at Korean universities, and former director of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, Devine offers the unique perspective of a scholar with half a century of close ties to Korea and the Korean American community, as well as practical experience in the management of historical institutions.

The Mobilized American West, 1940-2000, by John M. Findlay. Series: History of the American West

In the years between 1940 and 2000, the American Far West went from being a relative backwater of the United States to a considerably more developed, modern, and prosperous region—one capable of influencing not just the nation but the world. By the dawn of the twenty-first century, the population of the West had multiplied more than four times since 1940, and western states had transitioned from rural to urban, becoming the most urbanized section of the country. Massive investment, both private and public, in the western economy had produced regional prosperity, and the tourism industry had undergone massive expansion, altering the ways Americans identified with the West.

In The Mobilized American West, 1940–2000, John M. Findlay presents a historical overview of the American West in its decades of modern development. During the years of U.S. mobilization for World War II and the Cold War, the West remained a significant, distinct region even as its development accelerated rapidly and, in many ways, it became better integrated into the rest of the country. By examining events and trends that occurred in the West, Findlay argues that a distinctive, region-wide political culture developed in the western states from a commitment to direct democracy, the role played by the federal government in owning and managing such a large amount of land, and the way different groups of westerners identified with and defined the region. While illustrating western distinctiveness, Findlay also aims to show how, in its sustaining mobilization for war, the region became tethered to the entire nation more than ever before, but on its own terms. Findlay presents an innovative approach to viewing the American West as a region distinctive of the United States, one that occasionally stood ahead of, at odds with, and even in defiance of the nation.

My Side of the River : an Alaska Native Story, by Elias Kelly. Series: American Indian Lives

In 1971 the U.S. government created the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and extinguished Alaska Native aboriginal rights to hunting and fishing—forever changing the way Alaska Natives could be responsible for their way of life. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claimed all wildlife management responsibility and have since told Natives when, where, and how to fish, hunt, and harvest according to colonial management doctrines. We need only look at our current Alaska salmon conditions to see how these management efforts have worked.

In My Side of the River, agricultural specialist Elias Kelly (Yup’ik) relates how traditional Native subsistence hunting is often unrecognized by government regulations, effectively criminalizing those who practice it. Kelly alternates between personal stories of friends, family, and community and legal attempts to assimilate Native Alaskans into white U.S. fishing and hunting culture. He also covers landownership, incorporation of Alaska residents, legal erasure of Native identity, and poverty rates among Native Alaskans. In this memoir of personal and public history, Kelly illuminates the impact of government regulations on traditional life and resource conservation.

Remembering World War I in American, by Kimberly J. Lamay Licursi. Series: Studies in War, Society, and the Military

Poised to become a significant player in the new world order, the United States truly came of age during and after World War I. Yet many Americans think of the Great War simply as a precursor to World War II. Americans, including veterans, hastened to put experiences and memories of the war years behind them, reflecting a general apathy about the war that had developed during the 1920s and 1930s and never abated. 

In Remembering World War I in America Kimberly J. Lamay Licursi explores the American public’s collective memory and common perception of World War I by analyzing the extent to which it was expressed through the production of cultural artifacts related to the war. Through the analysis of four vectors of memory—war histories, memoirs, fiction, and film—Lamay Licursi shows that no consistent image or message about the war ever arose that resonated with a significant segment of the American population. Not many war histories materialized, war memoirs did not capture the public’s attention, and war novels and films presented a fictional war that either bore little resemblance to the doughboys’ experience or offered discordant views about what the war meant. In the end Americans emerged from the interwar years with limited pockets of public memory about the war that never found compromise in a dominant myth. 

The Visible Hands That Feed : Responsibility and Growth in the Food Sector, by Ruzana Liburkina. Series: Our Sustainable Future

The Visible Hands That Feed provides crucial insights into the rifts and regularities that are characteristic of today’s food systems. These insights attend to the widespread disquiet about the ethics and politics of food production and trade. While challenging utopian thinking, these findings give hope by elaborating on the promising nature of what falls between political and moral agendas.

In The Visible Hands That Feed Ruzana Liburkina approaches the food sector against the backdrop of its pivotal role for social and ecological relations to trace the potentials and limitations for sustainable change from within. Drawing on the results of ethnographic fieldwork in Europe and South America, Liburkina conducts an in-depth exploration of the practices, visions, concerns, and relationships that unfold at the very locations where food is grown, processed, stored, and served. By scrutinizing two critical notions in relation to sustainability—responsibility and growth—Liburkina offers insights into how sustainable change might be understood and further supported. In this first study of food production and provisioning that is grounded in participant observation in four types of food sector enterprises—farms, food processing companies, foodservice distributors, and public caterers—Liburkina fills an important gap in the literature on sustainable futures by offering detailed and diverse empirical insights into corporate food production and provisioning.

When Women Ruled the Pacific : power and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Tahiti and Hawai’i, by Joy Schulz. Series: Studies in Pacific Worlds

Throughout the nineteenth century British and American imperialists advanced into the Pacific, with catastrophic effects for Polynesian peoples and cultures. In both Tahiti and Hawai‘i, women rulers attempted to mitigate the effects of these encounters, utilizing their power amid the destabilizing influence of the English and Americans. However, as the century progressed, foreign diseases devastated the Tahitian and Hawaiian populations, and powerful European militaries jockeyed for more formal imperial control over Polynesian waystations, causing Tahiti to cede rule to France in 1847 and Hawai‘i to relinquish power to the United States in 1893.

In When Women Ruled the Pacific Joy Schulz highlights four Polynesian women rulers who held enormous domestic and foreign power and expertly governed their people amid shifting loyalties, outright betrayals, and the ascendancy of imperial racism. Like their European counterparts, these Polynesian rulers fought arguments of lineage, as well as battles for territorial control, yet the freedom of Polynesian women in general and women rulers in particular was unlike anything Europeans and Americans had ever seen. Consequently, white chroniclers of contact had difficulty explaining their encounters, initially praising yet ultimately condemning Polynesian gender systems, resulting in the loss of women’s autonomy. The queens’ successes have been lost in the archives as imperial histories and missionary accounts chose to tell different stories. In this first book to consider queenship and women’s political sovereignty in the Pacific, Schulz recenters the lives of the women rulers in the history of nineteenth-century international relations.

**Pictures and Synopses courtesy of University of Nebraska Press.

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ARSL 2023 Conference: Last Chance for CE Grants!

Apply now for a $500 grant to attend the ARSL 2023 Annual Conference in Wichita, Kansas on September 20-23!

Application Deadline: Friday – July 7

The purpose of these grants is to assist Nebraska libraries in improving the library services provided to their communities through continuing education and training for their library personnel and supporters. Successful applications will show how attending this conference will support the library’s mission.

Eligible costs include:

  • Registration (for in-person or virtual conference)
  • Travel
  • Meals
  • Lodging
  • Preconference fees (but does not include networking or social events)

Registration costs are available on the conference website.

The applicant must be either 1) employed in an accredited Nebraska public library or a state-run institutional library at the time of application and for the duration of the course, or 2) a current board member of an accredited Nebraska public library at the time of application and for the duration of the course.

For more information on this and other CE Grants, please see:

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Holli Duggan.

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NCompass Live: One Book For Nebraska Kids & Teens 2023

Wouldn’t it be great if kids all over Nebraska were talking about books? Hear about the Nebraska Library Commission & the Regional Library Systems’ program where kids can all read and discuss the same book on next week’s NCompass Live webinar on Wednesday, July 5 at 10am CT.

Join Sally Snyder, the NLC’s Coordinator of Children and Young Adult Library Services, and Aimee Owen, Information Services Librarian, to learn all about the One Book for Nebraska Kids and Teens program. And be the first to hear the 2024 titles that will be announced on this show!

Our 2023 titles are:

  • One Book For Nebraska Kids – The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
  • One Book For Nebraska Teens – Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter.





Upcoming NCompass Live shows:

  • July 12 – A Library Centennial Celebration in Photos and Memories
  • July 19 – Nebraska Open Meetings Act: 2023 Overview and Updates
  • July 26 – Pretty Sweet Tech: Internet Filtering For E-Rate CIPA Compliance And Cybersecurity

To register for an NCompass Live show, or to listen to recordings of past shows, go to the NCompass Live webpage.

NCompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday from 10am – 11am Central Time. Convert to your time zone on the Official U.S. Time website.

The show is presented online using the GoTo Webinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoTo Webinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.

Posted in Books & Reading, Education & Training, Youth Services | Tagged | Leave a comment

NCompass Live: Pretty Sweet Tech: Secure Computers For Public Use

Learn how to keep your library computers secure for public use on next week’s NCompass Live webinar on Wednesday, June 28, at 10am CT.

Special monthly episodes of NCompass Live! Join the NLC’s Technology Innovation Librarian, Amanda Sweet, as she guides us through the world of library-related Pretty Sweet Tech.

Computers for public use are a service unique to libraries. To provide the best possible protection for the customers that use them and maximize their availability, they need to be properly secured and maintained. Guest Presenter Andrew “Sherm” Sherman, with the Nebraska Library Commission Computer Services team, will take you through the process he has used to do this for the libraries he has provided IT support for.

Upcoming NCompass Live shows:

  • July 5 – One Book for Nebraska Kids & Teens 2023
  • July 12 – A Library Centennial Celebration in Photos and Memories
  • July 19 – Nebraska Open Meetings Act: 2023 Overview and Updates
  • July 26 – Pretty Sweet Tech: Internet Filtering For E-Rate CIPA Compliance And Cybersecurity

To register for an NCompass Live show, or to listen to recordings of past shows, go to the NCompass Live webpage.

NCompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday from 10am – 11am Central Time. Convert to your time zone on the Official U.S. Time website.

The show is presented online using the GoTo Webinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoTo Webinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.

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ARSL 2023 Early Bird Conference Registration is NOW OPEN! NLC CE Grants are reopening for a limited time!

Registration for both in-person and virtual attendance at the 2023 ARSL Conference is open!

And we are reopening the Nebraska Library Commission CE Grants to attend the 2023 ARSL Conference for a very limited time!

Staff and board members at accredited Nebraska public libraries or state-run institutional libraries are eligible. Apply for the NLC CE Grant by July 7 at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/Grants/CE/arslconferencegrant.aspx

The in-person 2023 ARSL Conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency, Wichita, Kansas, from September 20-23, 2023.

This year’s conference theme is “Unite & Ignite”! Our conference provides an opportunity to unite as a professional community and foster a sense of togetherness across a nation of small but mighty libraries. When we come together to share and learn we’ll light fires of innovation and change that can burn bright all year long.

Early Bird pricing for in-person attendance will be available through July 18.

For more information about the conference and to register, visit the 2023 Conference Homepage.

ARSL Member Rates

  • Base Conference Attendance
    Early Bird – $290
    Regular – $375
  • Preconference Workshops**
    3-Hour Workshops – $55
    4-Hour Workshops – $70
  • Virtual Attendance
    $55

Student, Advocate & Retiree Rates*

  • Base Conference Attendance
    Early Bird – $245
    Regular – $285
  • Preconference Workshops**
    3-Hour Workshops – $55
    4-Hour Workshops – $70
  • Virtual Attendance
    $30

Nonmember Rates

  • Base Conference Attendance
    Early Bird – $380
    Regular – $450
  • Preconference Workshops**
    3-Hour Workshops – $80
    4-Hour Workshops – $95
  • Virtual Attendance
    $80

*Must be an ARSL Advocate, Student, or Retiree member. **Preconference Workshop fees are charged in addition to Base Conference Registration and are available for in-person conference attendees only.

Posted in Education & Training, Information Resources, Library Management, Programming, Public Library Boards of Trustees, Public Relations, Technology, Youth Services | Tagged | Leave a comment

NCompass Live: Nebraska Public Library Laws: Chapter 51 and Beyond

Learn the essentials of Nebraska State Statutes that affect Nebraska Public Libraries on next week’s NCompass Live webinar, ‘Nebraska Public Library Laws: Chapter 51 and Beyond’, on Wednesday, June 21, at 10am CT.

While Nebraska public libraries are agencies of local government, the laws that specifically deal with the formation and governance of those libraries are state laws. Library directors and board members should be familiar with library specific laws, as well as other statutes not specifically aimed at libraries, but which may affect libraries. Attend this session to learn the essentials of Nebraska State Statutes that affect Nebraska Public Libraries. Note: This topic is very Nebraska specific. If you are attending from another state, the laws we discuss may not be applicable for your library.

Presenters: Scott Childers, Executive Director, Southeast Library System, Lincoln, NE; and Christa Porter, Library Development Director, Nebraska Library Commission.

Upcoming NCompass Live shows:

  • June 28 – Pretty Sweet Tech: Secure Computers For Public Use
  • July 5 – One Book for Nebraska Kids & Teens 2023
  • July 12 – A Library Centennial Celebration in Photos and Memories
  • July 19 – Nebraska Open Meetings Act: 2023 Overview and Updates
  • July 26 – Pretty Sweet Tech: Internet Filtering For E-Rate CIPA Compliance And Cybersecurity

To register for an NCompass Live show, or to listen to recordings of past shows, go to the NCompass Live webpage.

NCompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday from 10am – 11am Central Time. Convert to your time zone on the Official U.S. Time website.

The show is presented online using the GoTo Webinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoTo Webinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.

Posted in Education & Training, Library Management | Tagged | Leave a comment

NCompass Live: Transforming Library Staff Learning Through Technology Skills Assessments

Learn about technology skills assessments that you can modify to fit your library’s needs on next week’s NCompass Live webinar, ‘Transforming Library Staff Learning Through Technology Skills Assessments’, on Wednesday, June 14, at 10am CT.

Technology skills assessments are tools used by supervisors and managers to gauge competency in key subject matter areas. These assessments can be powerful tools for identifying common skills gaps, allowing libraries to make objective decisions on how best to close those gaps. Even more concerning is that frequently these technology skills gaps are related to proficiencies in areas with large impact to your organization, such as cybersecurity and cloud computing, making these gaps detrimental if unaddressed. By utilizing technology skills assessments, libraries are able to take factual data into account when deciding how to best train their staff.

We conducted pre-training technology skills assessments for library staff in several libraries, identifying the common gaps of knowledge among staff members. We then provided free training, and followed up by conducting post-training technology skills assessments to ensure that staff increased their knowledge. Staff reported that they felt more comfortable helping patrons and students with their technology issues, and supervisors reported that they had more confidence in their staff’s ability to both use technology and assist patrons and students with their technology needs.

In this session, we will provide attendees with a sample technology skills assessment that you can modify to fit your needs. We will also provide a list of resources for free technology training. In addition, you’ll learn how to conduct the post-training technology skills assessment, and how to determine if more training is needed.

Presenters: Regina Burgess, Director of Professional Development, Panhandle Library Access Network, Inc. and Diana Silveira, Novare Library Services.

Upcoming NCompass Live shows:

  • June 21 – Nebraska Public Library Laws: Chapter 51 and Beyond
  • June 28 – Pretty Sweet Tech: Secure Computers For Public Use
  • July 5 – One Book for Nebraska Kids & Teens 2023
  • July 12 – A Library Centennial Celebration in Photos and Memories
  • July 19 – Nebraska Open Meetings Act: 2023 Overview and Updates
  • July 26 – Pretty Sweet Tech: Internet Filtering For E-Rate CIPA Compliance And Cybersecurity

To register for an NCompass Live show, or to listen to recordings of past shows, go to the NCompass Live webpage.

NCompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday from 10am – 11am Central Time. Convert to your time zone on the Official U.S. Time website.

The show is presented online using the GoTo Webinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoTo Webinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.

Posted in Education & Training, Library Management, Technology | Tagged | Leave a comment

NCompass Live: In Search of the Obscure – Using Library & Online Sources to Find Resources that are Out of the Ordinary

Learn some resources and tactics for finding unusual materials on next week’s NCompass Live webinar, ‘In Search of the Obscure – Using Library & Online Sources to Find Resources that are Out of the Ordinary’, on Wednesday, June 7, at 10am CT.

As more of the world has moved on-line, researchers are discovering items that they didn’t know were out there. We will share with you resources and tactics for finding unusual materials. For example, international libraries are open to sharing their collections but have unique challenges. Individual and regional libraries are creating online digital collections that can be accessed for free. We’ll also share some sites that you’ll want to avoid because they specialize in pirated information.

Presenters: Michael Straatmann, Associate Director for Collection Management; Joyce Melvin, ILL Manager; Amy Heberling, Borrowing/Resource Sharing Associate, University Libraries, University of Nebraska – Lincoln.

Upcoming NCompass Live shows:

  • June 14 – Transforming Library Staff Learning Through Technology Skills Assessments
  • June 21 – Nebraska Public Library Laws: Chapter 51 and Beyond
  • June 28 – Pretty Sweet Tech: Secure Computers For Public Use
  • July 5 – One Book for Nebraska Kids & Teens 2023
  • July 12 – A Library Centennial Celebration in Photos and Memories
  • July 19 – Nebraska Open Meetings Act: 2023 Overview and Updates
  • July 26 – Pretty Sweet Tech: Internet Filtering For E-Rate CIPA Compliance And Cybersecurity

To register for an NCompass Live show, or to listen to recordings of past shows, go to the NCompass Live webpage.

NCompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday from 10am – 11am Central Time. Convert to your time zone on the Official U.S. Time website.

The show is presented online using the GoTo Webinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoTo Webinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.

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Public Library Accreditation 2023 Workshop Recording now available

The recording of the Nebraska Library Commission’s ‘Public Library Accreditation 2023’ online workshop is now available on the Accreditation webpage.

The purpose of Nebraska Public Library Accreditation is to encourage excellent library service in Nebraska communities. The guidelines used to evaluate libraries and their services are community-based, so libraries need to know their communities’ needs in order to provide appropriate library services that meet those unique needs. That’s where Community Needs Response Planning comes in!

In this workshop, Christa Porter, NLC’s Library Development Director, will answer all of your accreditation questions, such as:

  • What is Nebraska Public Library Accreditation?
  • What are the benefits of accreditation?
  • How does my library become accredited?
  • What’s a Community Needs Response Plan? And why does my library need one?

Public Library Directors, Staff, and Library Board Members are encouraged to attend.

If you have any questions or need any assistance with your Accreditation or Community Needs Planning, please contact Christa Porter, 800-307-2665, 402-471-3107.

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Pretty Sweet Tech: Free AI Video Generator Tool

Do you want to play with AI generated videos in your library? I just stumbled across a website called Kapwing that will allow you to generate short, watermarked videos for free. They also have a reasonably-priced Pro plan if you’re looking for a video editor with AI capabilities for your library, or want to offer this cool new service to patrons.

If you’re new to AI generated videos, this service allows you to enter a brief description, and Kapwing will automatically generate text, music, and video clips that match your topic. Adjust phrasing or trade out images to get an end result that works for you! You can also generate an AI Video Script using a similar process. Kapwing uses the ever-popular ChatGPT to generate the scripts.

Example Video

I tried out both the AI Video Generator and the AI Video Script Generator and they are both alarmingly good. Here’s the video Kapwing generated when I entered “libraries supporting job seekers searching for meaningful work”. I didn’t do any extra editing. This is the video as is:

Tutorial Instructions

Want to try it yourself? Use these instructions:

  1. Go to https://www.kapwing.com/ai
  2. Choose AI Video Generator. Click Create a Video with AI.
  3. Look for “Create a Video About”. Click in the text box and type in a description. (ex. create a video about frogs traveling to Paris who are deathly afraid of French chefs)
  4. Press enter to generate video.
  5. Choose the video size. 16:9 aspect ratio is recommended for YouTube and standard screens.
  6. Choose the text style. Click Generate Video.
  7. Login or create a free Kapwing account. Click “Generate Video” again after logging in.
  8. Wait for video to load. The slower the internet, the longer it takes, as usual!
  9. Adjust images, text, and settings as needed.
  10. Click “Export Project” (upper right corner)
  11. Choose MP4 for video. 720p resolution is the highest possible for free version.
  12. Click “Export as MP4”. File may take a while to load.
  13. Click “Download” to save on your computer or flash drive.

Note: The free version only lets you store 3 videos at a time. To create more, download your videos, then delete them from your Kapwing account. Or just delete them if you don’t need an archive.

If you want longer videos, more videos, higher resolution, or no watermarks, you will need the paid version of Kapwing. It’s about $16/ month/ user (paid yearly), so if you generate a lot of videos for your library, it might be worth it! You also have the option to use Kapwing as a regular video editor, without AI. There are plenty of tutorials!

The AI Script Generator is freakishly accurate too if you want to speed up the process of making videos for your library! Have fun playing with AI!!

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NCompass Live: Pretty Sweet Tech: Bots for the Community!

Join us to hear how the FarmBot project, ‘Harvest at the Library’, was born on next week’s ‘Pretty Sweet Tech’ NCompass Live webinar, ‘Bots for the Community!’, on Wednesday, May 31, at 10am CT.

Special monthly episodes of NCompass Live! Join the NLC’s Technology Innovation Librarian, Amanda Sweet, as she guides us through the world of library-related Pretty Sweet Tech.

Hear how a FarmBot had an impact on the community and how the library launched videos to teach people how the bot works (in-person programs were not open yet at the library). Lou shares the excitement of harvesting the very first carrot from the FarmBot!

Guest Presenters: Dan Lou, Library Program Coordinator, Palo Alto City Library; Susan T. Cheng, Lead Mentor, Space Cookies FIRST Robotics Competition Team 1868, Adult Co-Leader, Space Cookies Girl Scout Troop 62868; and Navika S., Space Cookies FIRST Robotics Competition Team 1868, Space Cookies Girl Scout Troop 62868.

Upcoming NCompass Live shows:

  • June 7 – In Search of the Obscure – Using Library & Online Sources to Find Resources that are Out of the Ordinary
  • June 14 – Transforming Library Staff Learning Through Technology Skills Assessments
  • June 21 – Nebraska Public Library Laws: Chapter 51 and Beyond
  • June 28 – Pretty Sweet Tech: Secure Computers For Public Use
  • July 5 – One Book for Nebraska Kids & Teens 2023
  • July 12 – A Library Centennial Celebration in Photos and Memories
  • July 19 – Nebraska Open Meetings Act: 2023 Overview and Updates
  • July 26 – Pretty Sweet Tech: Internet Filtering For E-Rate CIPA Compliance And Cybersecurity

To register for an NCompass Live show, or to listen to recordings of past shows, go to the NCompass Live webpage.

NCompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday from 10am – 11am Central Time. Convert to your time zone on the Official U.S. Time website.

The show is presented online using the GoTo Webinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoTo Webinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.

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Get Coding Ideas: Scratch Conference 2023 (Virtual)

If you’re looking for more coding and STEM activity ideas, Scratch, the popular (free!) drag and drop block programming language and website, is hosting their Scratch Conference 2023 virtually on July 20, 2023. It’s only $15 to register, with a free option if you have absolutely zero budget for extras. The theme this year is “Sparking Creative Connections”. Here are some of the sessions I bookmarked for myself:

  • Including Diverse Learners w/ ScratchJr Tactile: Learn new ways to reach visually impaired students who want to engage with programming.
  • Collaborative Scratch Hackathons: Find out how to set up a hackaton to bring together coders of all ages in your community. Help people work together to solve cool problems.
  • Bring a Book to Life: Learn how to use code to bring books to life. Tell story through code in the library!
  • Exploring Creative Possibilities w/ Generative AI in Scratch: Explore how generative AI tools like ChatGPT can work with Scratch to expand opportunities for students to learn more effectively.

This is a great conference for school and public libraries, and educators of all types! Scratch is great for all ages.

Learn more & register for the Scratch Conference 2023
Thursday, July 20, 2023
9am- 4pm EST
All Virtual!!

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What’s Up Doc? New State Agency Publications at the Nebraska Library Commission

New state agency publications have been received at the Nebraska Library Commission for March and April, 2023.  Included are reports from the Nebraska Brand Committee, the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance, the Nebraska Arts Council, the Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and new books from the University of Nebraska Press, to name a few.

Most items, except the books from the University of Nebraska Press, are available for immediate viewing and printing by clicking on the highlighted link above, or directly in the .pdf below.  You can read synopses of the books received from the University of Nebraska Press in the Book Briefs blogposts.

The Nebraska Legislature created the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse in 1972 as a service of the Nebraska Library Commission. Its purpose is to collect, preserve, and provide access to all public information published by Nebraska state agencies.  By law (State Statutes 51-411 to 51-413) all Nebraska state agencies are required to submit their published documents to the Clearinghouse.  For more information, visit the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse page, contact Mary Sauers, Government Information Services Librarian; or contact Bonnie Henzel, State Documents Staff Assistant.

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Book Briefs: New University of Nebraska Press Books at the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse

The Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse receives documents every month from all Nebraska state agencies, including the University of Nebraska Press (UNP).  Each month we will be showcasing the UNP books that the Clearinghouse has received.

UNP books, as well as all Nebraska state documents, are available for checkout by libraries and librarians for their patrons.

Here are the UNP books the Clearinghouse received in March and April, 2023:

The Begging Question : Sweden’s Social Responses to the Roma Destitute, by Erik Hansson ; Series: Cultural Geographies + Rewriting the Earth

Begging, thought to be an inherently un-Swedish phenomenon, became a national fixture in the 2010s as homeless Romanian and Bulgarian Roma EU citizens arrived in Sweden seeking economic opportunity. People without shelter were forced to use public spaces as their private space, disturbing aesthetic and normative orders, creating anxiety among Swedish subjects and resulting in hate crimes and everyday racism.

Parallel with Europe’s refugee crisis in the 2010s, the “begging question” peaked. The presence of the media’s so-called EU migrants caused a crisis in Swedish society along political, juridical, moral, and social lines due to the contradiction embodied in the Swedish authorities’ denial of social support to them while simultaneously seeking to maintain the nation’s image as promoting welfare, equality, and antiracism.

In The Begging Question Erik Hansson argues that the material configurations of capitalism and class society are not only racialized but also unconsciously invested with collective anxieties and desires. By focusing on Swedish society’s response to the begging question, Hansson provides insight into the dialectics of racism. He shrewdly deploys Marxian economics and Lacanian psychoanalysis to explain how it became possible to do what once was thought impossible: criminalize begging and make fascism politically mainstream, in Sweden. What Hansson reveals is not just an insight into one of the most captivating countries on earth but also a timely glimpse into what it means to be human.

The Collected Writings of Sherman and Grace Coolidge, Edited by Tadeusz Lewandowski

Sherman and Grace Coolidge were a remarkable couple in many respects. Sherman Coolidge (Runs On Top), born in the early 1860s into the Northern band of Arapahos, experienced the extreme violence of the Indian Wars, including the death of his father, as a young boy. Grace Wetherbee Coolidge was born into wealth and privilege in 1873, only to reject her life as a New York heiress and become a missionary on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. It was there that Sherman and Grace met and later married in 1902.

After eight years together at Wind River, both went on to achieve prominence: Sherman as the president of the Native-run reform group the Society of American Indians (1911–1923), Grace as the author of Teepee Neighbors, a book describing her time on the reservation that drew praise from critics such as H. L. Mencken. Sherman was an Episcopal priest and a mesmerizing speaker who had the unique ability to blend his assimilated Western perspective with Arapaho values to educate the American public about the significant challenges facing Native peoples, including endemic poverty, racism, and inequality. Offering unprecedented entrée into the most significant writings and documents of a leading Native American advocate and his wife, this volume is an intimate portrait of their life and contributes to our understanding of American Indian activism at a key moment of Indigenous resurgence against the settler state.

Empire Between the Lines : Imperial Culture in British and French Trench Newspapers of the Great War ; by Elizabeth Stice. Series: Studies in War, Society, and the Military 

Although the Great War was sparked and fueled by nationalism, it was ultimately a struggle between empires. The shots fired in Sarajevo mobilized citizens and subjects across far-flung continents that were connected by European empires. This imperial experience of the Great War influenced European soldiers’ ideas about the conflict, leading them to reimagine empires and their places with them and eventually reshaping imperial cultures.

In Empire between the Lines Elizabeth Stice analyzes stories, poetry, plays, and cartoons in British and French trench newspapers to demonstrate how British and French soldiers experienced and envisioned empires through the war and the war through empire. By establishing the imperial context for European soldiers and exploring representations of colonial troops, depictions of non-European campaigns, and descriptions of the German enemy, Stice argues that while certain narratives from prewar imperial culture persisted, the experience of the war also created new, competing narratives about empire and colonized peoples.

Empire between the Lines is the first study of its kind to consult British and French newspapers together, offering an innovative lens for viewing the public discourse of the trenches. By interrogating the relationship between British and French soldiers and empire during the war, Stice increases our understanding of the worldview of ordinary men in extraordinary times.

The First Atomic Bomb : the Trinity Site in New Mexico, by Janet Farrell Brodie. Series: America’s Public Lands

On July 16, 1945, just weeks before the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that brought about the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II, the United States unleashed the world’s first atomic bomb at the Trinity testing site located in the remote Tularosa Valley in south-central New Mexico. Immensely more powerful than any weapon the world had seen, the bomb’s effects on the surrounding and downwind communities of plants, animals, birds, and humans have lasted decades.

In The First Atomic Bomb Janet Farrell Brodie explores the history of the Trinity test and those whose contributions have rarely, if ever, been discussed—the men and women who constructed, served, and witnessed the first test—as well as the downwinders who suffered the consequences of the radiation. Concentrating on these ordinary people, laborers, ranchers, and Indigenous peoples who lived in the region and participated in the testing, Brodie corrects the lack of coverage in existing scholarship on the essential details and everyday experiences of this globally significant event. The First Atomic Bomb also covers the environmental preservation of the Trinity test site and compares it with the wide range of atomic sites now preserved independently or as part of the new Manhattan Project National Historical Park. Although the Trinity site became a significant node for testing the new weapons of the postwar United States, it is known today as an officially designated National Historic Landmark. Brodie presents a timely, important, and innovative study of an explosion that carries special historical weight in American memory.

The Forgotten Diaspora : Mesoamerican Migrations and the Making of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, by Travis Jeffres. Series: Borderlands and Transcultural Studies

In The Forgotten Diaspora Travis Jeffres explores how Native Mexicans involved in the conquest of the Greater Southwest pursued hidden agendas, deploying a covert agency that enabled them to reconstruct Indigenous communities and retain key components of their identities even as they were technically allied with and subordinate to Spaniards. Resisting, modifying, and even flatly ignoring Spanish directives, Indigenous Mexicans in diaspora co-created the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and laid enduring claims to the region.

Jeffres contends that tens of thousands—perhaps hundreds of thousands—of central Mexican Natives were indispensable to Spanish colonial expansion in the Greater Southwest in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These vital allies populated frontier settlements, assisted in converting local Indians to Christianity, and provided essential labor in the mining industry that drove frontier expansion and catapulted Spain to global hegemony. However, Nahuatl records reveal that Indigenous migrants were no mere auxiliaries to European colonial causes; they also subverted imperial aims and pursued their own agendas, wresting lands, privileges, and even rights to self-rule from the Spanish Crown. Via Nahuatl-language “hidden transcripts” of Native allies’ motivations and agendas, The Forgotten Diaspora reimagines this critical yet neglected component of the hemispheric colonial-era scattering of the Americas’ Indigenous peoples.

From the Boarding Schools : Apache Indian Students Speak, by Arnold Krupat

Arnold Krupat’s From the Boarding Schools makes available previously unheard Apache voices from the Indian boarding schools. It includes selections from two unpublished autobiographies by Sam Kenoi and Dan Nicholas, produced in the 1930s with the anthropologist Morris Opler, as well as material by and about Vincent Natalish, a contemporary of Kenoi and Nicholas.

Natalish was one of more than one hundred Apaches taken from Fort Marion to the Carlisle Indian School by its superintendent, Captain Richard Henry Pratt, in 1887. A considerable number of these students died at the school, and many who were sent home for illness or poor health did not recover. Natalish, however, remained at Carlisle and graduated in 1899. He married, had a son, and lived and worked in New York. He also actively sought the release of his relatives and other Apaches held prisoner at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Apache people have been telling and circulating stories among themselves for generations. But in contrast to their neighbors the Hopis and the Navajos, Apaches have produced relatively few written autobiographical narratives, and even fewer about their boarding school experiences. Supplementing the narratives with detailed cultural and historical commentary, From the Boarding Schools brings these lived experiences from the archives into current discourse.

The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere, by Paulette F.C. Steeves

2022 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere is a reclaimed history of the deep past of Indigenous people in North and South America during the Paleolithic. Paulette F. C. Steeves mines evidence from archaeology sites and Paleolithic environments, landscapes, and mammalian and human migrations to make the case that people have been in the Western Hemisphere not only just prior to Clovis sites (10,200 years ago) but for more than 60,000 years, and likely more than 100,000 years.

Steeves discusses the political history of American anthropology to focus on why pre-Clovis sites have been dismissed by the field for nearly a century. She explores supporting evidence from genetics and linguistic anthropology regarding First Peoples and time frames of early migrations. Additionally, she highlights the work and struggles faced by a small yet vibrant group of American and European archaeologists who have excavated and reported on numerous pre-Clovis archaeology sites.

In this first book on Paleolithic archaeology of the Americas written from an Indigenous perspective, The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere includes Indigenous oral traditions, archaeological evidence, and a critical and decolonizing discussion of the development of archaeology in the Americas.

Losing Eden : An Environmental History of the American West, by Sara Dant. New Edition. Series: Environment and Region in the American West

Historical narratives often concentrate on wars and politics while omitting the central role and influence of the physical stage on which history is carried out. In Losing Eden award-winning historian Sara Dant debunks the myth of the American West as “Eden” and instead embraces a more realistic and complex understanding of a region that has been inhabited and altered by people for tens of thousands of years.

In this lively narrative Dant discusses the key events and topics in the environmental history of the American West, from the Beringia migration, Columbian Exchange, and federal territorial acquisition to post–World War II expansion, resource exploitation, and current climate change issues. Losing Eden is structured around three important themes: balancing economic success and ecological destruction, creating and protecting public lands, and achieving sustainability.

This revised and updated edition incorporates the latest science and thinking. It also features a new chapter on climate change in the American West, a larger reflection on the region’s multicultural history, updated current events, expanded and diversified suggested readings, along with new maps and illustrations. Cohesive and compelling, Losing Eden recognizes the central role of the natural world in the history of the American West and provides important analysis on the continually evolving relationship between the land and its inhabitants.

Mud, Blood, and Ghosts : Populism, Eugenics, and Spiritualism in the American West, by Julie Carr

Populism has become a global movement associated with nationalism and strong-man politicians, but its root causes remain elusive. Mud, Blood, and Ghosts exposes one deep root in the soil of the American Great Plains. Julie Carr traces her own family’s history through archival documents to draw connections between U.S. agrarian populism, spiritualism, and eugenics, helping readers to understand populism’s tendency toward racism and exclusion.

Carr follows the story of her great-grandfather Omer Madison Kem, three-term Populist representative from Nebraska, avid spiritualist, and committed eugenicist, to explore persistent themes in U.S. history: property, personhood, exclusion, and belonging. While recent books have taken seriously the experiences of poor whites in rural America, they haven’t traced the story to its origins. Carr connects Kem’s journey with that of America’s white establishment and its fury of nativism in the 1920s. Presenting crucial narratives of Indigenous resistance, interracial alliance and betrayal, radical feminism, lifelong hauntings, land policy, debt, shame, grief, and avarice from the Gilded Age through the Progressive Era, Carr asks whether we can embrace the Populists’ profound hopes for a just economy while rejecting the barriers they set up around who was considered fully human, fully worthy of this dreamed society.

Recovering Women’s Past : New Epistemologies, New Ventures, Edited by Severine Genieys-Kirk. Series: Women and Gender in the Early Modern World

Feminist rewriting of history is designed not merely to reshape our collective memory and collective imaginary but also to challenge deeply ingrained paradigms about knowledge production. This feminist rewriting raises important questions for early modern scholars, especially in bringing to life the works of our foremothers and in reconsidering women’s agency.

Recovering Women’s Past, edited by Séverine Genieys-Kirk, is a collection of essays that focus on how women born before the nineteenth century have claimed a place in history and how they have been represented in the collective memory from the Renaissance to the twenty-first century. Scrutinizing the legacies of such politically minded women as Catherine de’ Medici, Queen Isabella of Castile, Emilie du Châtelet, and Olympe de Gouges, the volume’s contributors reflect on how our histories of women (in philosophy, literature, history, and the visual and performative arts) have been shaped by the discourses of their representation, how these discourses have been challenged, and how they can be reassessed both within and beyond the confines of academia. Recovering Women’s Past disseminates a more accurate, vital history of women’s past to engage in more creative and artistic encounters with our intellectual foremothers by creating imaginative modes of representing new knowledge. Only in these interactions will we be able to break away from the prevailing stereotypes about women’s roles and potential and advance the future of feminism.

Without Warning : The Tornado of Udall, Kansas, by Jim Minick

In 1955 the small town of Udall, Kansas, was home to oil field workers, homemakers, and teenagers looking ahead to their futures. But on the night of May 25, an F5 tornado struck their town without warning. In three minutes the tornado destroyed most of the buildings, including the new high school. It toppled the water tower. It lifted a pickup truck, stripped off its cab, and hung the frame in a tree. By the time the tornado moved on, it had killed 82 people and injured 270 others, more than half the town’s population of roughly 600 people. It remains the deadliest tornado in the history of Kansas.

Jim Minick’s nonfiction account, Without Warning, tells the human story of this disaster, moment by moment, from the perspectives of those who survived. His spellbinding narrative connects this history to our world today. Minick demonstrates that even if we have never experienced a tornado, we are still a people shaped and defined by weather and the events that unfold in our changing climate. Through the tragedy and hope found in this story of destruction, Without Warning tells a larger story of community, survival, and how we might find our way through the challenges of the future.

**Pictures and Synopses courtesy of University of Nebraska Press.

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NCompass Live: La Biblioteca Es Para Ti – Building Community Relationships in a Different Language

How can you build community partnerships in a different language? Find out on next week’s NCompass Live webinar, ‘La Biblioteca Es Para Ti – Building Community Relationships in a Different Language’, on Wednesday, May 24 at 10am CT.

Hear one library’s experience with outreach to their Spanish-speaking population. Learn how to build a relationship with an underserved population so your library can add value to ALL of your community.

Presenter: Jenny White, Library Director, Schuyler (NE) Public Library.

Upcoming NCompass Live shows:

  • May 31 – Pretty Sweet Tech: Bots for the Community!
  • June 7 – In Search of the Obscure – Using Library & Online Sources to Find Resources that are Out of the Ordinary
  • June 14 – Transforming Library Staff Learning Through Technology Skills Assessments
  • June 21 – Nebraska Public Library Laws: Chapter 51 and Beyond
  • June 28 – Pretty Sweet Tech
  • July 5 – One Book for Nebraska Kids & Teens 2023
  • July 12 – A Library Centennial Celebration in Photos and Memories
  • July 19 – Nebraska Open Meetings Act: 2023 Overview and Updates

To register for an NCompass Live show, or to listen to recordings of past shows, go to the NCompass Live webpage.

NCompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday from 10am – 11am Central Time. Convert to your time zone on the Official U.S. Time website.

The show is presented online using the GoTo Webinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoTo Webinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.

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Continuing Education Grants: Applications Extended!

Apply now for a $500 grant to attend the ARSL 2023 Annual Conference in Wichita, Kansas on September 20-23!

The deadline for the Continuing Education and Training Grant has been extended to June 2, 2023!

The purpose of these grants is to assist Nebraska libraries in improving the library services provided to their communities through continuing education and training for their library personnel and supporters. Successful applications will show how attending this conference will support the library’s mission.

Eligible costs include:

  • Registration
  • Travel
  • Meals
  • Lodging
  • Preconference fees (but does not include networking or social events)

Registration for the conference will open on June 13th. Registration costs are available on the conference website.

The applicant must be either 1) employed in an accredited Nebraska public library or a state-run institutional library at the time of application and for the duration of the course, or 2) a current board member of an accredited Nebraska public library at the time of application and for the duration of the course.

For more information on this and other CE Grants, please see:

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Holli Duggan.

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Apply for PLA Digital Literacy Workshop Incentives

For more grants like this one, check out the NLC’s Grant Opportunities for Nebraska Libraries.

With support from AT&T, the Public Library Association (PLA) is offering incentives for public libraries to teach digital literacy workshops for library patrons and community members. Applications are open now through June 2, 2023,
for the below incentives.

PLA Digital Literacy Workshop Incentive

Offers incentives of $6,000 to conduct workshops using DigitalLearn training materials designed to help patrons build skills and confidence using technology.

ACP Basics Workshop Incentive

Offers incentives of $1,500 to conduct the new Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) Basics workshop designed to help families and households learn about ACP and how to apply for the benefit.

About PLA’s Collaboration with AT&T

Community members come into public libraries every day, hoping to complete life tasks many of us take for granted, but sometimes lacking the basic computer skills needed to accomplish them. PLA offers digital literacy programs to help you help patrons reach their goals. A national PLA collaboration with AT&T has added both content and local partnership opportunities to encourage public libraries and other community partners to promote and teach digital skills together using the DigitalLearn platform!

With support from AT&T as part of AT&T Connected Learning and the company’s commitment to bridge the digital divide, PLA has been able to add and update more than a dozen online DigitalLearn courses, and develop 9 new complete training packages. Materials are available in both English and Spanish. All DigitalLearn materials are free to use.

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NCompass Live: Read the Rainbow: Serving the LGBTQ+ Community in Your Library

LGBTQIA…BCDEFG? What do all those letters even mean, and why should you care? Find out on next week’s NCompass Live webinar, on Wednesday, May 17 at 10am CT.

Join Lane for a primer on all things LGBTQ, and learn about how (and why) you can begin to build a more inclusive and welcoming library for both customers and staff, and why it matters.

Presenter: Lane Gibson, Library Service Associate, Gere Branch Library, Lincoln (NE) City Libraries.

Upcoming NCompass Live shows:

  • May 24 – La Biblioteca Es Para Ti – Building Community Relationships in a Different Language
  • May 31 – Pretty Sweet Tech: Bots for the Community!
  • June 7 – In Search of the Obscure – Using Library & Online Sources to Find Resources that are Out of the Ordinary
  • June 14 – Transforming Library Staff Learning Through Technology Skills Assessments
  • June 28 – Pretty Sweet Tech
  • July 5 – One Book for Nebraska Kids & Teens 2023
  • July 19 – Nebraska Open Meetings Act: 2023 Overview and Updates

To register for an NCompass Live show, or to listen to recordings of past shows, go to the NCompass Live webpage.

NCompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday from 10am – 11am Central Time. Convert to your time zone on the Official U.S. Time website.

The show is presented online using the GoTo Webinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoTo Webinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.

Posted in Books & Reading, Education & Training, Library Management, Programming, Public Relations | Tagged | Leave a comment