#BookFaceFriday “A Line In the Dark”

Posted on October 19, 2018 by Tessa Timperley

Eat your heart out with this week’s #BookFaceFriday!

With Halloween right around the corner we just loved the cover of this teen thriller! “A Line In the Dark” by Malinda Lo (Dutton Books for Young Readers, 2017) is the perfect choice to get your blood pumping. Love, loyalty and murder make this dark physiological thriller one you just can’t put down.

This title comes from our large collection of children’s and young adult books sent to us as review copies from book publishers. When our Children and Young Adult Library Services Coordinator, Sally Snyder, is done with them, the review copies are available for the Library System Directors to distribute to school and public libraries in their systems.

“A twisty, dark psychological thriller that will leave you guessing till the very end.”—Teen Vogue

This week’s #BookFace model is one mother you don’t want to mess with. She’s also our Information Services Librarian, Aimee Scoville Owen!

Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

Posted in Books & Reading, General | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

NEST 529 College Savings Rewards 15 Summer Readers in Capitol Ceremony

Posted on October 17, 2018 by Tessa Timperley

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                        
October 17, 2018

Media Contacts:
Terry Severson
Director of Marketing
First National Bank
tseverson@fnni.com
402.602.6549

Jana Langemach
Director of Communications
Nebraska State Treasurer’s Office
Jana.langemach@nebraska.gov
402.471.8884

NEST 529 College Savings Rewards 15 Summer Readers in Capitol Ceremony

Winners Announced for Read to Win $529 Drawing

Lincoln, Neb. (October 17, 2018) – First National Bank of Omaha and Nebraska State Treasurer Don Stenberg today announced the 2018 NEST Read to Win $529 Drawing winners at a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda. Each of the 15 winners received a $529 contribution to a NEST 529 College Savings account. The library of each winning reader also received a $250 donation.

In all, the NEST Read to Win $529 Drawing, offered in partnership with the Nebraska Library Commission, is awarding more than $10,000 to children and libraries across Nebraska in 2018. Libraries receiving donations are Omaha Public Library, $1,250; Lincoln City Libraries, $1,000; Grand Island Public Library, $750; and Franklin Public Library, O’Neill Public Library, and Blair Public Library and Technology Center, each $250.

The NEST Read to Win Drawing was open to young readers between ages 3 and 18 from May to August in participating public libraries throughout Nebraska. Winners were selected at random in each of Nebraska’s three congressional districts.

“This year 17,071 children and teens from across Nebraska completed summer reading programs in their local libraries and were entered in the Read to Win Drawing. That’s 4,000 more entries than last year and the second largest number of entries in the five years of the drawing,” Treasurer Stenberg said.

“Instilling a love of reading—and an appreciation for public libraries—in children from a young age is important for academic readiness and personal growth. We are excited to see the widespread enthusiasm for Read to Win across Nebraska, and we hope families will use the NEST Read to Win Drawing as an opportunity to prioritize academic goals and to plan for the future,” Stenberg said.

This year’s winners and their affiliated libraries are

District 1:
Annelise Angelbeck, Lincoln, Lincoln City Libraries
Emily Bauman, Lincoln, Lincoln City Libraries
Keaden Perkins, Lincoln, Lincoln City Libraries
Alex Rasmussen, Lincoln, Lincoln City Libraries
Briella Kastrup, Blair, Blair Public Library and Technology Center

District 2:
Payton Hammond, Omaha, Omaha Public Library
Miles Heesch, Omaha, Omaha Public Library
Akeelah Cotton, Omaha, Omaha Public Library
Ella Sater, Omaha, Omaha Public Library
Ean Villa, Omaha, Omaha Public Library

District 3:
Ryan Bartels, Riverton, Franklin Public Library
Izzac Cacy, Grand Island, Grand Island Public Library
Alisea Sweet, Grand Island, Grand Island Public Library
Benjamin Vasquez-Felix, Grand Island, Grand Island Public Library
Andrew Ohri, Spencer, O’Neill Public Library

“The Read to Win $529 Drawing poses an exciting challenge for preschool and school-age children and their families to support their educational development over the summer, while gaining insight on how to start saving for higher education,” said Deborah Goodkin, Managing Director, Savings Plans, First National Bank of Omaha.

“At NEST 529 we strive to provide unique and diverse opportunities for students to learn the importance of saving and develop good financial habits. We are delighted to partner with the Nebraska Library Commission and are thrilled to see how many children qualified for the Read to Win $529 Drawing by reading this summer,” Goodkin said.More information is available at NEST529.com or treasurer.nebraska.gov.

About Nebraska Library Commission
As Nebraska’s state library agency, the Nebraska Library Commission is an advocate for the library and information needs of all Nebraskans. The mission of the Library Commission is statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library and information services—bringing together people and information. Visit nlc.nebraska.gov.

About NEST 529
NEST 529 is a tax-advantaged 529 college savings plan and provides four plans to help make saving for college simple and affordable: NEST Direct College Savings Plan, NEST Advisor College Savings Plan, TD Ameritrade 529 College Savings Plan, and State Farm 529 Savings Plan. The Nebraska State Treasurer serves as Program Trustee. First National Bank of Omaha serves as Program Manager, and all investments are approved by the Nebraska Investment Council. Families nationwide are saving for college using Nebraska’s 529 College Savings Plans, which have more than 261,000 accounts, including over 84,000 in Nebraska. Visit NEST529.com and treasurer.nebraska.gov for more information.

About First National Bank of Omaha
First National Bank is a subsidiary of First National of Nebraska. First National and its affiliates have more than $21 billion in assets and 5,000 employee associates. Primary banking offices are located in Nebraska, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota, and Texas.

Investments Are Not FDIC Insured* · No Bank, State or Federal Guarantee · May Lose Value
*Except the Bank Savings Individual Investment Option

Posted in General, Youth Services | Tagged , | Leave a comment

$10,000 American Dream Adult Literacy Grants Available

Posted on October 16, 2018 by Christa Porter

The American Library Association (ALA) and Dollar General Literacy Foundation invite public libraries to apply for grants to expand services for adult English language learners or adults in need of basic education and workforce development.

Up to 16 grants of $10,000 each will be awarded. Public libraries are eligible if they serve adult English language learners and are located within 20 miles of a Dollar General Store, distribution center or corporate office. Visit the Dollar General Store Locator to check eligibility.  

Read the project guidelines and apply online by Dec. 14, 2018.

ALA will host a free webinar at 1 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, Oct. 24, for people interested in learning more about the American Dream grants. Register for the webinar here. (Note that the webinar will be recorded and available for free viewing on ALA’s Programming Librarian website.)

The American Dream Literacy Initiative strives to develop tools and resources for libraries and library staff to provide effective literacy services to adult English language learners in their communities and across the country.

Since 2008, 188 libraries in Dollar General communities have initiated or expanded literacy services for adult English language learners. The grants allow libraries to augment their print and digital English as a second language (ESL) collections; increase computer access and training; provide job training; hold English language learning (ELL), general educational development (GED) and citizenship classes; and raise the visibility of services for immigrant populations.

American Dream libraries build replicable programs, develop coalition-building strategies, and provide annotated lists of vetted resources for libraries across the country. ALA shares the libraries’ successes and strategies through the website, on webinars, and at state, regional and national conferences.

The American Dream Literacy Initiative is made possible through the generous support of the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. It is administered by ALA’s Public Programs Office and Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services.

Posted in Grants | Leave a comment

NEST 529 Read to Win Drawing Winners to Be Recognized

Posted on October 15, 2018 by Tessa Timperley

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                        
October 15, 2018

Media Contacts:
Terry Severson
Director of Marketing
First National Bank
tseverson@fnni.com
402.602.6549

Jana Langemach
Director of Communications
Nebraska State Treasurer’s Office
Jana.langemach@nebraska.gov
402.471.8884

**MEDIA ADVISORY**

NEST 529 Read to Win Drawing Winners to Be Recognized

State Treasurer Stenberg, NEST 529 College Savings, Nebraska Library Commission to Honor 5th Annual Summer Reading Scholarship Recipients and Libraries

WHAT:                 The 2018 NEST 529 Read to Win $529 Drawing winners will be announced in an event in the Capitol Rotunda. Fifteen summer readers (five in each of Nebraska’s three congressional districts) will each receive a $529 contribution to a NEST 529 College Savings Plan. Winners were randomly drawn from those who completed the summer reading programs as defined by their local libraries. The library of each winning summer reader will receive a $250 donation.

WHEN:                 11 a.m., Wednesday, October 17, 2018

WHERE:               Nebraska State Capitol Rotunda, Second Floor, 1445 K Street, Lincoln

MEDIA TAKEAWAYS:     

  • Photo opportunity of children being presented with scholarships
  • Interviews with
    • Don Stenberg, Nebraska State Treasurer
    • Sally Snyder, Coordinator Children and Young Adult Library Services, Nebraska Library Commission
    • Deborah Goodkin, Managing Director, Savings Plans, First National Bank of Omaha

About NEST 529
NEST 529 is a tax-advantaged 529 college savings plan and provides four plans to help make saving for college simple and affordable: NEST Direct College Savings Plan, NEST Advisor College Savings Plan, TD Ameritrade 529 College Savings Plan, and State Farm 529 Savings Plan. The Nebraska State Treasurer serves as Program Trustee. First National Bank of Omaha serves as Program Manager, and all investments are approved by the Nebraska Investment Council. Families nationwide are saving for college using Nebraska’s 529 College Savings Plans, which have more than 261,000 accounts, including over 84,000 in Nebraska. Visit NEST529.com and treasurer.nebraska.gov for more information.

About First National Bank of Omaha
First National Bank is a subsidiary of First National of Nebraska. First National and its affiliates have more than $21 billion in assets and 5,000 employee associates. Primary banking offices are located in Nebraska, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota, and Texas.

Investments Are Not FDIC Insured* · No Bank, State or Federal Guarantee · May Lose Value
*Except the Bank Savings Individual Investment Option

Posted in General, Youth Services | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Friday Reads: Rabbit & Robot, by Andrew Smith

Posted on October 12, 2018 by Susan Knisely

I’m a huge fan of Andrew Smith’s Grasshopper Jungle, so I’ve been anxiously anticipating his latest release, Rabbit & Robot. It arrived in my mailbox on Tuesday, September 25 (its release date), and I finished it this past weekend. Like Grasshopper Jungle, Rabbit & Robot is apocalyptic and darkly humorous; its plot unfolds in a similarly absurd fashion, and the social commentary is unmistakable.

Rabbit & Robot is set in the future, at a time when regular people work as either bonks (soldiers) or coders. v.4 cogs, humanlike robots programmed by the coders, perform all other tasks that people “no longer wanted to waste their time doing” (57), including performing surgery, building roads, and caring for children.

As foreshadowed by one of the book’s epigraphs (“Education makes machines which act like men and produces men who act like machines” – Erich Fromm), schools are the primary mechanism for turning regular people’s children into bonks or coders. To facilitate this process, students receive carefully calibrated doses of Woz, a drug designed to help them learn. The ubiquitous and addictive Rabbit & Robot television program, “which was all about getting kids to embrace their inner bonks and coders” (33), reinforces this learning.

The book’s narrator, sixteen-year-old Cager Messer, and his best friend, Billy Hinman, are not regular kids: Cager’s father, the fifth richest man in America, owns a line of lunar cruise ships and is the creator of the Rabbit & Robot television show; and Billy’s father, the richest man in the world, owns the company that manufactures the world’s supply of cogs. Cager and Billy do not attend school and have never watched Rabbit & Robot. Billy has never taken Woz, but Cager, in his own words, is “pretty much an out-of-control addict” (24). The addiction is so bad, in fact, that Billy and Cager’s caretaker, Rowan, transport him to his father’s newest cruise ship, the Tennessee – “as big as a Midwestern city, staffed by hundreds of v.4 cogs” (28) – to detox.

This act of intervention is the story’s precipitating event; me recounting the many zany and surreal events that follow won’t adequately convey what the book is actually about though. For that, we must turn to a handful of passages in which Cager directly addresses the reader. This first occurs on page one, before it’s even clear who is speaking. The as-yet-unnamed narrator asks a question, and offers an explanation:

Are you a person, or are you some kind of cog?
Either way, I feel a compelling obligation to tell you what it meant to be a human, at least as far as I can describe it accurately. (1)

The difference between people and cogs is a thread that runs throughout the story. From the start, Cager struggles against the empathy he feels for v.4 cogs, which not only look and act like human beings, but are also beginning to exhibit human emotions. He tries to short-circuit this impulse by telling himself cogs are no different from egg beaters or coffee grinders, but it doesn’t work. As the story progresses, Cager becomes increasingly unwilling to treat cogs as inanimate objects. And after a particularly traumatic, paradigm-shifting revelation, Cager begins wrestling with concepts like what it means to call someone he’s close to a thing, and how doing so makes this someone “something other than us” (403).

In a late chapter, titled “Are You One of Us?” Cager again addresses his reader:

And maybe that’s the whole point, after all – that every one of us who ever existed spent all those limited days over the thousands of centuries we were here just trying to figure out what it meant to be us. The mousetrap trigger is this precise point: Pour the word “us” into the coding of a human, and we immediately discount as inferior or useless all the not-us things in the universe. (404-405)

To summarize, then, on the surface this is a book in which a lot of weird and wacky stuff happens; in the end, though, it winds up being about what it means to be human, and the ludicrousness of some of the fine distinctions we make between ourselves (us) and others (not-us).

Smith, Andrew. Rabbit & Robot. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018.

Posted in Books & Reading | Tagged | Leave a comment

NCompass Live Rescheduled: Virtual Tours in the Library with Nebraska History

Posted on October 12, 2018 by Christa Porter

Due to unforeseen circumstances, this week’s NCompass Live, ‘Virtual Tours in the Library with Nebraska History’, has been rescheduled for next Wednesday, October 17, 10:00am – 11:00am CT.

Featuring “Tusker Power!”, a virtual field trip to visit ‘Archie’ and company in the Elephant Room at the University of Nebraska State Museum, this workshop is designed to show you how easily you can bring virtual tours to your library.

Presenter: Annie Mumgaard, Virtual Learning Educator/Coordinator, University of Nebraska State Museum.

Upcoming NCompass Live events:

  • Oct. 24 – Strategies for Identifying Fake News
  • Oct. 31 – Teaching Digital Literacy in Your Library

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.

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

#BookFaceFriday “Open Your Eyes”

Posted on October 12, 2018 by Tessa Timperley

This #BookFaceFriday is a real nail biter!

#BookFace this week is a new kind of thriller. “Open Your Eyes” by Paula Daly (Dreamscape Media, LLC, 2018) is a new audiobook available to all Nebraska OverDrive Libraries! 173 libraries across the state share this collection of 12,407 audiobooks and 24,143 eBooks, with new titles added weekly. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this brand new title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

“An evenly paced thriller; Daly delivers just enough clues and twists, a little bit at a time, to keep the reader guessing . . . [Open Your Eyes is] A satisfyingly original thriller.”―Kirkus Reviews

This week’s #BookFaceFriday model is our State Documents Staff Assistant, Bonnie Henzel.

Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available at Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

 

Posted in Books & Reading, General | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

2018 NLC Grants are Open for Applications

Posted on October 11, 2018 by Tessa Timperley

Are you  thinking about applying for one of the three NLC grants? Youth Grants for Excellence, Continuing Education/Training, and Internship Grants all are available right now! Don’t let your library miss out on these opportunities! Recent NCompass Live sessions have featured these grants and are available below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msnyWYPo_JM]

Youth Grants for Excellence makes funding available specifically for innovative projects for children and young adults in accredited public libraries and state-run institutional libraries in Nebraska. The program is designed to encourage creative thinking, risk-taking, and new approaches to address problems and needs of children and young adults in your community. This grant application is due October 15, 2018. Applications must be received by the Nebraska Library Commission submitted electronically by 11:59 p.m. CT. You will be notified by November 16, 2018 if you are awarded a grant.

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aHY2F3wm8U]Continuing Education/Training grants help assist Nebraska libraries to improve the library services provided to their communities through continuing education and training for their library personnel and supporters. Successful applications will show how the continuing education and/or training proposed will support the library’s mission. Applications must be submitted electronically by 11:59 p.m. CST on December 7, 2018. We will inform applicants whether they have received a grant on or before January 11, 2019.

Internship grants work to introduce high school and college students to the varied and exciting work of Nebraska libraries. The internships are intended to function as a recruitment tool, helping the student to view the library as a viable career opportunity while providing the public library with the finances to provide stipends to the student interns. This grant application is due November 16, 2018. Applications must be received by the Nebraska Library Commission submitted electronically by 11:59 p.m. CT. The Award Announcement will be December 21, 2018.

For more information on these grants contact our Library Development Director, Christa Porter by email or at 402-471-3107.

Posted in Education & Training, Grants, Now hiring @ your library, Youth Services | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Celebrate Nebraska’s 2018 Book Award Winners at December 1st Celebration

Posted on October 10, 2018 by Tessa Timperley

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 10, 2018

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Tessa Terry
402-471-3434
800-307-2665

Celebrate Nebraska’s 2018 Book Award Winners at December 1st Celebration 

Celebrate Nebraska’s 2018 Book Award winners with author readings and an awards presentation ceremony at the Nebraska Center for the Book’s Celebration of Nebraska Books on December 1 at the History Nebraska’s Nebraska History Museum, 131 Centennial Mall North, in downtown Lincoln. Winners of the 2018 Nebraska Book Awards will be honored and the celebration will include readings by some of the winning authors, designers and illustrators of books with a Nebraska connection published in 2017. And the winners are:

Children’s Picture Book: Simpson’s Sheep Just Want to Sleep by Bruce Arant. Publisher: Peter Pauper Press, Inc.

Chapter Book: George and the Stolen Sunny Spot by Kristin Bauer Ganoung. Publisher: Prairieland Press

Young Adult: The November Girl by Lydia Kang. Publisher: Entangled Teen

Cover/Design/Illustration: Nebraska’s First College: Shaping the Future Since 1867 by Dan Sullivan. Design by Christine Zueck-Watkins. Publisher: Peru State College Foundation

Fiction: World, Chase Me Down: A Novel by Andrew Hilleman. Publisher: Penguin Books

Fiction Honor: Kings of Broken Things by Theodore Wheeler. Publisher: Little A

Fiction Short Story Honor: One With Bird: And Other Stories by Douglas K. German. Publisher: iUniverse

Nonfiction Biography: The Weight of the Weather: Regarding the poetry of Ted Kooser edited by Mark Sanders. Publisher: Stephen F. Austin State University Press

Nonfiction Culture: The Sex Effect: Baring Our Complicated Relationship with Sex by Ross Benes. Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.

Nonfiction History: Homesteading the Plains: Toward a New History by Richard Edwards, Jacob K. Friefeld, and Rebecca S. Wingo. Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

Nonfiction Immigration Story: Short Hair Detention: Memoir of a Thirteen-Year-Old Girl Surviving the Cambodian Genocide by Channy Chhi Laux. Publisher: Archway Publishing

Nonfiction Memoir: What is Gone by Amy Knox Brown. Publisher: Texas Tech University Press

Nonfiction Reference: Atlas of Nebraska by J. Clark Archer, Richard Edwards, Leslie M. Howard, Fred M. Shelley, Donald A. Wilhite, and David J. Wishart. Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

Nonfiction Sesquicentennial: 150@150: Nebraska’s Landmark Buildings at the State’s Sesquicentennial by Jeff Barnes. Publisher: The Donning Company Publishers

Poetry: Rock Tree Bird by Twyla M. Hansen. Publisher: The Backwaters Press

Poetry Honor: Blind Girl Grunt: The Selected Blues Lyrics and Other Poems by Constance Merritt. Publisher: Headmistress Press

Poetry Anthology: Nebraska Poetry: A Sesquicentennial Anthology 1867-2017 edited by Daniel Simon. Publisher: Stephen F. Austin State University Press

The Celebration of Nebraska Books, free and open to the public, will also honor winners of the 2018 Jane Geske and Mildred Bennett awards. The Mildred Bennett Award recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to fostering the literary tradition in Nebraska, reminding us of the literary and intellectual heritage that enriches our lives and molds our world. The Jane Geske Award is presented to a Nebraska organization for exceptional contribution to literacy, books, reading, libraries, or literature in Nebraska. It commemorates Geske’s passion for books, and was established in recognition of her contributions to the well-being of the libraries of Nebraska.

The 2018 One Book One Nebraska selection, Nebraska Presence: An Anthology of Poetry (The Backwaters Press) edited by Greg Kosmicki and Mary K. Stillwell will be featured in a keynote presentation at 2:45 p.m.

The Nebraska Center for the Book Annual Meeting will be held at 1:30 p.m.—just prior to the 2:30-6:30 p.m. Celebration. An awards reception honoring the winning authors, book signings, and introduction of the 2019 One Book One Nebraska/All Iowa Reads book choice will conclude the festivities.

The Celebration of Nebraska Books is sponsored by Nebraska Center for the Book and Nebraska Library Commission, with support from History Nebraska’s Nebraska History Museum. Humanities Nebraska provides support for One Book One Nebraska. The Nebraska Center for the Book is housed at the Nebraska Library Commission and brings together the state’s readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, publishers, printers, educators, and scholars to build the community of the book, supporting programs to celebrate and stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the written word. The Nebraska Center for the Book is supported by the national Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and the Nebraska Library Commission.

As the state library agency, the Nebraska Library Commission is an advocate for the library and information needs of all Nebraskans. The mission of the Library Commission is statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library and information services, “bringing together people and information.”

###

The most up-to-date news releases from the Nebraska Library Commission are always available on the Library Commission website, http://nlc.nebraska.gov/publications/newsreleases.

Posted in Books & Reading, Nebraska Center for the Book | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Submitting NLA/NSLA Conference CE Hours

Posted on October 9, 2018 by Holli Duggan

Back from this year’s NLA/NSLA Conference? Remember to submit your hours for CE!

For those in the Public Librarian Certification program and Library Board Members, use the NLA/NSLA Conference Continuing Education Report Form here: http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ce/nlaform.asp

The preconferences and all sessions are listed already. Just go through and click on the ones that you attended then hit submit. We’ll get these added to your (or your library’s) CE record.

If you have any questions, please let me know!

-Holli Duggan, Continuing Education Coordinator

Posted in Education & Training | Leave a comment

NCompass Live: Virtual Tours in the Library with Nebraska History

Posted on October 5, 2018 by Christa Porter

Join us for the next NCompass Live, ‘Virtual Tours in the Library with Nebraska History’, on Wednesday, October 10, 10:00am – 11:00am CT.

Featuring “Tusker Power!”, a virtual field trip to visit ‘Archie’ and company in the Elephant Room at the University of Nebraska State Museum, this workshop is designed to show you how easily you can bring virtual tours to your library.

Presenter: Annie Mumgaard, Virtual Learning Educator/Coordinator, University of Nebraska State Museum.

Upcoming NCompass Live events:

  • Oct. 17 – Cataloging Picture Books Made Easy
  • Oct. 24 – Strategies for Identifying Fake News
  • Oct. 31 – Teaching Digital Literacy in Your Library

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.

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

#BookFaceFriday “Promoting Great Reads”

Posted on October 5, 2018 by Tessa Timperley

You don’t want to miss this #BookFaceFriday!

#BookFace is all about Teen Reads this week with. “Promoting Great Reads to Improve Teen Reading: Core Connections with Booktalks and More” by Lucy Schall (Libraries Unlimited, 2015). This title is part of our Library Science Collection, it provides professional and reference materials for Nebraska librarians and library science programs! You can check this out yourself by searching the Online Catalog,

This week’s #BookFaceFriday model is Sally Snyder, our Coordinator of Children and Young Adult Library Services! Sally will be presenting ‘Popular Teen Novels: New Books They Need to Read’ at #neblib2018, Saturday, Oct 6th at 9:00 am. Don’t miss it! #2018books4teens (Sponsored by the School, Children, and Young People’s Section) Learn about qualities to look for in books teens are reading, and the titles Nebraska teens are seeking at their libraries. The presenters will discuss new books that are popular with teens in their communities and describe the qualities these titles possess that make them good choices for many libraries. #BookFaceFriday #TeenBooks #Read

Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

 

Posted in Books & Reading, General | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Friday Reads – The Last Cruise: A Novel by Kate Christensen

Posted on October 5, 2018 by Rod Wagner

Kate Christensen’s The Last Cruise is not a memoir, travel guide or cruise promotion. It is a novel rich with a range of disparate, colorful and conflicted characters. The 400 some travelers are on an ocean voyage destined for unexpected and challenging adventure. While dissimilar, the book reminded me of Katherine Anne Porter’s Ship of Fools, a book I read many years ago before taking a first cruise. The Last Cruise might be better likened to the Titanic, and throw in the Love Boat, too. There are elements of all with personal crises, conflict, satire, romance, and bits of comedy.

The cruise ship is the Queen Isabella, a 1950s elegant and vintage ocean liner. The voyage is the ship’s last and intended to be followed by a trip to the scrapyard. Guests board the ship at Long Beach, California, for a two-week cruise to Hawaii and back. A retro theme is planned in recognition of the ship’s origins and fate. Passengers expect to enjoy the experiences of mid-20th century luxury cruising with fine dining, cocktails, string quartets, and jazz. Central to the story is Christine Thorne. Thorne, a former journalist, joins the voyage as an escape from her Maine farm home. She meets aboard ship with her long-time friend, a journalist seeking her own escape. The story evolves with the mix of passengers, crew (notably food service workers), and musicians. Before long, the voyage is disrupted by personal conflict and ship mechanics.

The book title has a double meaning, if not more than double. The multiple meanings are revealed early and more surprisingly in the final pages. I’m curious to know how many cruise ship libraries have this book on their shelves. I hope they do.

Kate Christensen’s fourth novel, The Great Man, won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. She has also written two food themed books, Blue Plate Special and How to Cook a Moose. The latter won the 2016 Maine Literary Award for Memoir. Food elements are also prominent in The Last Cruise.

Kate Christensen. The Last Cruise: A Novel. (New York: Doubleday) 2018.

Posted in Books & Reading | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Internship Grants Now Available

Posted on October 3, 2018 by Christa Porter

Nebraska Library Commission Internship Grants are now available!

Accredited Nebraska public libraries are invited to apply for up to $1,000 to fund a high school or college intern in 2019. Applicants may partner with other types of libraries to provide a variety of work settings – partnerships with other public, school, academic, or special libraries are encouraged. The deadline to submit an application is November 16, 2018.

This internship program works to introduce high school and college students to the varied and exciting work of Nebraska libraries. The internships are intended to function as a recruitment tool, helping the student to view the library as a viable career opportunity while providing the public library with the finances (up to $1,000 per library or branch) to provide stipends to the student interns. In the past student interns have helped the libraries expand programs, complete projects, improve websites, and expand social media use, while bringing fresh ideas into the library.

Visit the Internship Grant website for details and the Application Form.

If you have any questions please contact Christa Porter, 800-307-2665, 402-471-3107.

Posted in Grants, Now hiring @ your library | Leave a comment

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

Posted on October 1, 2018 by Mary Sauers

New state agency publications have been received at the Nebraska Library Commission for September, 2018.  Included are reports from a variety of Nebraska state agencies: Nebraska State Treasurer, University of Nebraska-Lincoln,  Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education, Nebraska Office of Probation Administration, Nebraska Supreme Court, and new books from the University of Nebraska Press, to name a few.

All 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.

The Nebraska Legislature created the Nebraska Publications Clearinghouse in 1972, 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.

Posted in Books & Reading, Education & Training, General, Information Resources, What's Up Doc / Govdocs | Leave a comment

National Book Award 2018 Longlist for Young People’s Literature

Posted on October 1, 2018 by Sally Snyder

The National Book Award organization recently announced their longlists for the selected categories of literature. Here are the ten books on their longlist for young people. The winners will be announced on November 14, 2018.Some I have read and some I haven’t even seen yet. Time to go to the library! You can challenge the young people in your community to vote on the title they think will win and display the local winner in your library. Or, you can ask them to vote for their favorite title in the Teens’ Top Ten event by October 13!

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

Applications for CE/Training Grants are Open!

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Holli Duggan

The Continuing Education/Training Grants are back this year and the applications are now open!

The purpose of these grants is to assist Nebraska libraries to improve the library services provided to their communities through continuing education and training for their library personnel and supporters. Successful applications will show how the continuing education and/or training proposed will support the library’s mission.

This year we are offering grants in three different areas: attending an out-of-state professional conference, taking an online CE course, and other larger CE group/staff projects.

Applications are due December 7, 2018

Applications will be evaluated and applicants notified by January 11, 2019

For more details about filling out the applications, the archived session “NCompass Live: 2018 Continuing Education/Training and Internship Grants” is now available.

Grant information and Application Forms

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

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

Friday Reads: Dopefiend

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Sam Shaw

For a little while, I have been thinking of reviewing an urban fiction book for Friday Reads. Not that I am an avid urban fiction reader, because I am not. But rather this is a specific genre of fiction that no one has ever reviewed on FR. Urban fiction, for me at least, is very difficult to read, but I finally made it through one to write about it here. First, a basic definition of urban fiction. Sometimes called “hood books” or “the good books”, urban fiction often tells stories of inner cities, typically graphic in nature and tackling issues of poverty, abuses (drug, domestic, and others), crime, hustling, and street life. A number of urban fiction books have been written by authors while in prison. The challenge here is that for me some urban fiction is just plain unreadable. I tried numerous books and did not get very far into them before giving up. Some examples: True to the Game series (didn’t make it to chapter 2), The Thug Series of books (I tried a few, including Every Thug Needs a Lady, Honor Thy Thug, and Justify My Thug), and the Girls From Da Hood series (I thought they must be decent because there are 13 of them – unfortunately in my opinion they weren’t readable). About to give up, I finally decided to try Donald Goines’ classic Dopefiend, published in 1971. While I made it through, I cannot say I would recommend it overall. However, it might serve a purpose in a scared straight sort of fashion, maybe to high school or college aged students.

Dopefiend tells the story of a group of addicts in an inner city (Detroit) in a raw and graphic manner. The story mostly follows the decline of the main character Terry, spiraling downward into the depths of her addiction. Most of the story is disturbing, following not only Terry but also the side characters Teddy, Minnie, Porky, Snake, and Dirty Red. The story involves numerous crimes to support their habits, lies and ruined relationships, exploitative drug dealers, and prostitution. For me it was reminiscent of parts of Requiem for a Dream (both movie and book). While the depiction in Requiem for a Dream consists of mostly white characters, the characters in Dopefiend are overwhelmingly African American. Dopefiend is uncomfortable on many levels. I will say that after trying to read contemporary urban fiction, which often glamorizes the life of the hustler, Goines paints an entirely darker and realistic picture in the opposite direction.

Goines, Donald (1971). Dopefiend: The Desperate Rage and Suffering of a Hardcore Junkie. Holloway House

Posted in Books & Reading, General | Tagged | Leave a comment

#BookFaceFriday “Fahrenheit 451”

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Tessa Timperley

This #BookFaceFriday is burning down the house!

This week’s #BookFace was an easy choice because it’s #BannedBooksWeek, an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury (Random House, 1953), set in a future where printed books are banned and actively destroyed, it’s become a hallmark for Banned Books Week. Ironically, it’s also been banned and challenged itself, as recently as 2006. This classic novel is a part of our NLC Book Club Kit collection, reserve it for your book club to read and discuss today!

“Brilliant . . . Startling and ingenious . . . Mr. Bradbury’s account of this insane world, which bears many alarming resemblances to our own, is fascinating.” —Orville Prescott, The New York Times

This week’s #BookFaceFriday model is Gabe Kramer, our Talking Book & Braille Service Audio Production Studio Manager!

Love this #BookFace & reading? We suggest checking out all the titles available for book clubs at http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ref/bookclub. Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

 

Posted in Books & Reading, General | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

NLC Staff: Meet Tan Ngo

Posted on September 26, 2018 by Tessa Timperley

The Nebraska Library Commission welcomed Tan Ngo (pronounced Go) in June of 2015 as an accountant. Tan was born in Binh Dinh, Vietnam and immigrated to the United States with her husband sixteen years ago. Even though she had completed three years of teacher education classwork in Vietnam, it wasn’t recognized in the United States so she began again. First she completed a yearlong ESL class and then completed a degree from Southeast Community College in Accounting.  She graduated from UNL with a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and Finance and just last year, achieved her Master’s Degree from UNL in Professional Accountancy. Tan credits her parents for instilling a value of education in her. In addition, her mother-in-law helped and supported Tan through the years of working, raising a family, attending classes, and completing coursework.

Before working for the Library Commission, and while attending school, Tan held many part time jobs including working as: a banquet server at the Cornhusker Hotel, a waitress at Eastmont Towers, a cafeteria worker at Lincoln Public Schools, an assembly line worker at Molex, and as a cashier at Russ’s Market. These experiences helped propel Tan to complete her education. Tan also worked full time for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and the Nebraska Department of Administrative Services (now State Accounting.) When I asked Tan what she thinks about working at the Library Commission, she says it is a very friendly and a supportive place to work.

As a young girl growing up in Vietnam, libraries were not free and required both membership and borrower fees which were prohibitive to her family. One way she read books was borrowing them from her friends. As an adult committed to spending time with her children, she reads the same books with her daughter and son.

Tan shares her home with her husband Duc, her daughter Vi, her son Khang, and her mother-in-law Tung Le. Duc is the oldest of 12 children and the gathering place for all of the family is Tan’s home, so a full house often totals upwards of 45 people. Husker football is often the focus of family events. Tan is also a Husker Volleyball fan and is fortunate to have a friend with season tickets so she can attend games in person. Life in Nebraska could be warmer but Tan says she likes the lack of traffic and ability to get around easily. Tan and her family returned home for her brother’s wedding this summer, closing a 5 year gap since her last visit. If Tan could have dinner with anyone famous, she easily answered, “I would want to have dinner with my Aunt who is 70 years old and lives in Vietnam. Family is the most important thing to me.”

If Tan didn’t have to work, travel would be her priority. First on her list of destinations would be Alaska to see the aurora borealis. As a young girl, Tan considered being a flight attendant most importantly for the travel benefits. The perfect day for Tan would include staying home with family, sleeping, and watching Vietnamese dubbed movies from Hong Kong. Tan’s exercise of choice is running and currently she and her son are completing a 9 week cardio program together.

One of the most challenging things Tan has achieved is learning English. Tan and her family speak Vietnamese at home and English at work and at school. At work, one of Tan’s accomplishments has been cheerfully teaching Commission employees to use the online payroll system. We are very proud of Tan and are grateful she has chosen to work at the Library Commission.

NLC Logo

Posted in General, Public Library Boards of Trustees, Public Relations | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment