So, I tried comparing two Nebraska public libraries serving similar-sized populations by just entering the names of both libraries in the search box. The result was comparative data from the latest published IMLS survey (2010) using elements like collection size, circulations, expenditures, staff size, etc. What a quick way to compare two institutions! When you have a few minutes, give this tool a try. You can even try it on such mobile devices as the iPhone, iPad, Andoid smart phones, the nook, or the kindle fire.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is participating in this effort by encouraging citizens to create tools that will allow people to use public library data in new and useful ways. Read the IMLS press release at http://bit.ly/13HRQuT.

June 4, 2013    Norfolk Public Library
http://nlc.nebraska.gov/scripts/calendar/eventshow.asp?ProgId=12230

June 7, 2013    Hastings Public Library
http://nlc.nebraska.gov/scripts/calendar/eventshow.asp?ProgId=12231

Registration is limited to twelve attendees per workshop so please sign up soon.

A companion website to his “Guys Read” site, author and reading advocate Jon Scieszka now  has added a “Guys Listen” site.  Take a bit of time to explore both sites (if you haven’t had a change to look at “Guys Read” yet).  I found a list of suggested reading for professionals that I will need to read my way through, I especially like the term “literacy differences” used by Elaine Millard in her title Differently Literate: Boys, Girls, and the Schooling of Literacy, which the Commission does not own so I need Interlibrary Loan for that title.

One title the Commission owns that he recommends is Connecting Boys with Books: What Libraries Can Do  by Michael Sullivan.  We also own his Connecting Boys with Books 2: Closing the Reading Gap.  Michael Sullivan visited Nebraska in the spring of 2011 and gave wonderful presentations in four locations on how librarians can connect with the group of boys who have trouble with reading.  Maybe we will be able to have him visit us again.

Puss in Boots by Jerry Pinkney is the latest in his interpretations of fairy tales.  Lavish illustrations add to his straightforward retelling.  Puss is given to the youngest son and soon has provided well for him and his older brothers.  “A Note from the Artist” at the back of the book tells of his research both into other retellings and into the clothing styles and countryside of France for the time period he chose.  Perhaps young participants at your library would like to try a retelling of their own.

(The Nebraska Library Commission receives free copies of children’s and young adult books for review from a number of publishers.  After review, the books are distributed free, via the Regional Library Systems, to Nebraska school and public libraries.)

Join us for the next NCompass Live: “Library Planning: A Customized Program for Success”, on Wednesday, May 22, 10:00-11:00 am Central Time.

Planning gives a library greater depth of understanding of the community it serves, goals to work toward, and a path to follow. Since libraries and their communities are all unique, every library’s plan is custom designed. Eric Green, Denise Harders, Sharon Osenga, and Sarah Warneke, Nebraska Regional Library System directors, and Laura Johnson from the Nebraska Library Commission will discuss the importance of planning and introduce a new program they will be offering to libraries to make the vital activity of planning simpler and more immediate.

Upcoming NCompass Live events:

• May 29 – Tech Talk with Michael Sauers
• June 5 – 2013 One Book One Nebraska: O Pioneers!

For more information, to register for NCompass Live, or to listen to recordings of past events, 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 GoToWebinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoToWebinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.

Three cheers for Miskatonic University! That’s the rallying cry of the La Vista Public Library (NE)’s teen advisory board—who, under the exuberant guidance of youth librarian and advisor Lindsey Tomsu, a 2013 Library Journal Mover & Shaker—turned its 2012 Teen Read Week into a massive celebration of the works of H. P. Lovecraft, complete with crafts, workshops, and a life-sized version of the complex, cooperative Arkham Horror board game based on the Cthulhu Mythos. The event was so successful and engaging that the teens hope to repeat it every year.

“I like complex board games for teens because they teach a variety of different skills in a fun setting,” Tomsu tells School Library Journal.  “Arkham involves teamwork (since it is players versus the board), lots of reading, mathematical skills, and critical thinking.”

In Arkham Horror, up to eight players take on the roles of investigators in 1920s Prohibition-era Arkham, MA, the fictional town where Lovecraft set many of his stories, Tomsu explains. Each investigator has a special occupation—such as chef, archeologist, explorer, and librarian—and his or her own special abilities and talents. “The goal of the game,” Tomsu says, “is for the players to work together to kill monsters and stop gates to other dimensions from opening. If they fail, the Ancient One (a super tough monster) will awaken and attempt to take over the world.”

Says teen advisory board member Keyahna Wood, “I like that we work as a team to win,” while Mary Bragg says, “It is more complex than most normal board games and a lot more challenging.” Huyen-Yen Hoang agrees: “It’s awesome. It is fun and complex but in an easy-to-understand way.”

Read the full article (especially to check out the foul Hounds of Tindalos,) @ SchoolLibraryJournal.

The Dr. Bernard Vavrek Scholarship will go to a current LIS student. It includes conference registration, hotel, $500 stipend and a free one-year membership in ARSL.

The Founders Scholarship and the Ken Davenport scholarship will go to a current library professional. They include conference registration, hotel, a $500 stipend and a free one-year membership in ARSL. The definition of a “Library Professional” is a library staff member working in a small and/or rural library. A degree or certification is not required.

Candidates do not need to be members of ARSL; however membership is encouraged.

Visit the ARSL Scholarship webpage for more information and the scholarship application.

For a look at nursing uniforms of the past, check out these portraits of Emily Anderson, taken in 1920, and this unknown nurse, taken in the late 1890s or early 1900s. Their outfits are a far cry from the scrubs and comfortable shoes worn by nurses today.

Many of the images of nurses in Nebraska Memories are part of the Alegent Health Immanuel Medical Center collection. They depict many different aspects of life for students at the Immanuel Deaconess Institute School of Nursing. Images in this collection include a posed shot of a group of freshman students, a team photo of the School of Nursing’s women’s basketball team and a view of a capping ceremony, in which students received their nursing caps after their first year probation.

Visit Nebraska Memories to search for or browse through many more historical images digitized from photographs, negatives, postcards, maps, lantern slides, books and other materials.

Nebraska Memories is a cooperative project to digitize Nebraska-related historical and cultural heritage materials and make them available to researchers of all ages via the Internet. Nebraska Memories is brought to you by the Nebraska Library Commission. If your institution is interested in participating in Nebraska Memories, see http://nlc.nebraska.gov/nebraskamemories/participation.aspx for more information, or contact Beth Goble, Historical Services Librarian, or Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director.

An agenda for such meeting, kept continuously current, is available for public inspection at the Nebraska Library Commission, The Atrium, 1200 “N” Street, Suite 120, Lincoln, Nebraska and the Nebraska Library Commission Home Page, http://nlc.nebraska.gov/tbbs/agendas/.

David Oertli, Director
Talking Book and Braille Service

Join us for the next NCompass Live: “University of Nebraska in Your Neighborhood”, on Wednesday, May 15, 10:00-11:00 am Central Time.

Get a peek into how UNL Extension is meeting the needs of Nebraskans and people throughout the world. Learn what you can grab for clientele off the web and how you can work with your local UNL Extension office.

Upcoming NCompass Live events:

• May 22 – Library Planning: A Customized Program for Success
• May 29 – Tech Talk with Michael Sauers
• June 5 – 2013 One Book One Nebraska: O Pioneers!

For more information, to register for NCompass Live, or to listen to recordings of past events, 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 GoToWebinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoToWebinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.

Read the full list and all the details @ LibraryScientist.com.

“Saturday’s child works hard for a living” according to the old poem, and WorldCat’s records work hard to provide information about the contents of libraries world wide. Nebraska libraries can search WorldCat through FirstSearch in NebraskAccess.

Join us for the next NCompass Live: “Hastings StoryWalk: Walk, Read, Explore”, on Wednesday, May 8, 10:00-11:00 am Central Time.

The StoryWalk(r) Project combines family fun, exercise, and literacy into one great community activity. The concept involves posting pages of a book at certain intervals along a walking path. Librarian Jake Rundle will present lessons learned by the Hastings Public Library, especially in preparing materials for Nebraska wind and weather, and participant comments.

Upcoming NCompass Live events:

• May 15 – University of Nebraska in Your Neighborhood
• May 22 – Library Planning: A Customized Program for Success
• May 29 – Tech Talk with Michael Sauers
• June 5 – 2013 One Book One Nebraska: O Pioneers!

For more information, to register for NCompass Live, or to listen to recordings of past events, 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 GoToWebinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoToWebinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.

Computer engineer and Internet activist, digital librarian Brewster Kahle is today’s guest on Triangulation.

Scholarships may be used for tuition (for coursework contributing toward a certificate or degree, including general education classes), course-required materials, and school-assessed fees at the following levels:

• Library and Information Science (LIS) Professional Certificate
• Associate of Arts or Science Degree in Library and Information Science (LIS)
• Bachelor of Arts or Science Degree with a major in Library and Information Science or Library Media

Scholarship recipients will be eligible to apply for stipends for such things as laptop or tablet computers, professional association dues, and regional or national conference attendance.

A former scholarship student recently said, “I finished up my certificate this last weekend and I wanted to thank the Commission for the opportunity to do this.  No matter how much you think you know you always learn something.  I would not have been able to do this without the financial support from the Commission.  Also a big thank you for buying me a laptop, which made it so much easier for me to get the assignments done, and for sending me to the NLA/MPLA conference.”

Through the associated stipends program, students have purchased laptop computers to use with their online classes, joined professional library associations, and attended regional and national conferences. For example, several scholarship students have been awarded stipends to attend the upcoming ALA annual conference in Chicago.

Current scholarship recipients are participating and reporting on trainings such as the 21st Century Skills Seminar, hands-on eBook/eReader trainings, and live and recorded webinars about the latest Internet tools. Participants are networking with Nebraska librarians on the Nebraska Librarians Learning Together Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/NebraskaLibrarians.

The scholarships, stipends, and value-added training are offered through the Nebraska Library Commission’s Cultivating Rural Librarians’ 21st Century Skills program, which is funded through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. For more information, contact Kathryn Brockmeier, Grant Program Manager, by e-mail or by phone, 402-471-4002 or 800-307-2665.

NOTE: Due to the significant number of applications for the Nebraska Library Commission master’s-level scholarships (funded through the Librarians for the 21st Century Program of the Institute of Museum and Library Services), as of July 1, 2012, graduate-level scholarships will no longer be available. Scholarships DO continue to be available for undergraduate Library Science studies, including LIS certificates, and Associate’s and Bachelor’s degrees.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute’s mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development. To learn more about the Institute, please visit www.imls.gov.

For this month’s Thing, you’re going to select any site from this list of the 17th Annual Webby Awards Nominees & Winners and explore it. The Webby Awards honor excellence in interactive design, creativity, usability and functionality on the Internet in over 100 Website, Interactive Advertising & Media, Online Film & Video, Mobile & Apps, and Social categories.

Another facet of Nebraska Learns 2.0 is BookThing. Each month we pick a single title that we feel has relevance to librarianship and/or information theory. Some of the titles will be very obviously related, while others may not seem so on the surface but there is a connection. Your assignment will be to read the book and create a blog post answering some questions about the title.

The BookThing for May is: “Confessions of a Public Speaker” by Scott Berkum.

Nebraska Learns 2.0 is the Nebraska Library Commission’s ongoing online learning program. It is a self-discovery program which encourages participants to take control of their own learning and to utilize their lifelong learning skills through exploration and PLAY.

Each month, we offer you an opportunity to learn a new Thing (or lesson). You have all month to complete that Thing and receive one CE credit. You may choose which Things to do based on personal interest and time availability If the Thing of the month doesn’t interest you or if you are particularly busy that month, you can skip it.

If you are new to Nebraska Learns 2.0, your first assignment is to sign up to participate. This program is open to ALL Nebraska librarians, library staff, library friends, library board members and school media specialists.

We hope you’ll join your library colleagues in the fun as you learn about new and exciting technologies!