Maricopa Library Council offers scholarship for new librarians

Download  PDF version of the application form.

Professional Conference Scholarship Program
Maricopa County Library Council
January, 2012

                       The Maricopa County Library Council (MCLC) sponsors a scholarship program for librarians who are in the first five years of their career. This program will provide financial support to tomorrow’s librarians as they develop the experience and skill set to lead our libraries and our profession

What does the scholarship program provide?

MCLC will award two (2), $1,500 scholarships for attendance at a professional library conference. Some examples are:

• ALA, the American Library Association
• ACRL, the Association of College & Research Libraries
• MLA, the Medical Library Association
• PLA, the Public Library Association
• SLA, the Special Libraries Association

 Who is eligible?

Librarians who are in the first five years of their career and who are members of ALA, or another relevant professional association.   Applicants must have worked for their Library for at least six months and must have their library director’s permission to attend the conference.

Scholarship recipients’ responsibilities:

• Attendance at a variety of programs and exhibits at the conference.
• Written and verbal reports about the conference to MCLC at an upcoming meeting.
• Written report to recipient’s supervisor and library director.

How to apply:

Complete the attached application and submit it to your library director for their approval.  Email application to jddoyle@email.arizona.edu

New InfoGraphic – Top Technology Trends

Be Your Library’s Greatest User – from DBL

Note: I wrote this a few days before the untimely and unfortunate passing of Steve Jobs. Jobs did so much to add to our understanding of what it means to deliver a great user experience – and a total, systemic experience. Although he is gone his presence will continue to have a lasting impact on the study of user experience and his accomplishments will no doubt continue to influence our thinking and writing on this subject.

There are many different ways a library staff can express its desire to become more focused on designing a better library. Some of them fall into the realm of improving the user experience. It might be something as basic as usability tests on the library website. It could be creating a staff position dedicated to user experience. It may even take the shape of a larger, staff-wide initiative to design an experience that emphasizes totality. Whatever initiative your library takes up to improve the user experience, it may be wise to step back and position yourself as a user of the library, and not the creator of its services.

Since Steve Jobs announced his retirement as Apple’s CEO numerous articles have both celebrated and critiqued his leadership of the world’s leading technology firm. More than a few could be said to go overboard in their praise of Jobs, and lead us to wonder if it isn’t all a lot of hype. After all, Jobs is but one more CEO of a technology company, albeit one whose vision and innovation has impacted many lives. One of the dozens of articles about Jobs that most captured my attention was featured in Fast Company. Titled “What Steve Jobs Can Still Teach Us” it too puts Jobs up on a pedestal despite a few obligatory remarks about his micromanaging and berating employees over minute product details. What it expresses well however was the way in which Jobs excelled at designing products for passionate users.

What Cliff Kuang eloquently points out is that in order for Jobs to do that he had to be Apple’s greatest user. He tells a story that shares, from Kuang’s view, the moment that more than any other shaped Apple’s future. When Jobs returned to Apple after a 12-year hiatus he found a company ill prepared to compete with Dell, IBM and others. Apple was only doing what all the others did but with higher priced, less competitive products. What happened? Jobs encountered an unknown Jonathan Ive (now Apple’s top designer) working on the iMac. That’s when their long-time relationship began, with an emphasis on great, user-centered design. Kuange writes…READ ALL HERE

ACRL in New Orleans

ACRL programs at the ALA Annual Conference

ALA’s 130th Annual Conference was held June 23–28, 2011, in New Orleans. Approximately 20,000 librarians, library support staff, exhibitors, writers, educators, publishers, and special guests attended the conference. Ed. note: Thanks to the ACRL members who summarized programs to make this report possible. From idea to innovation to implementation: How teams make it happen. Jason Young (president of LeadSmart and author of the book Culturetopia: The Ultimate High-Performance Workplace) was the featured speaker at Lisa Hinchliffe’s ACRL President’s Program. To a standing room only crowd, Young challenged attendees to come together and to “get in rhythm” in order to be creative, innovative, and make significant changes at our libraries. Young’s high energy program showcased how intentional teamwork can result in quality staff performance. During his program, he expressed that teams can be highly successful if there is trust among members, the expertise of staff is tapped into and used efficiently, alignment and commitment to the organization’s mission/vision is a priority for everyone at every level, and measurement and accountability is part of the culture. He used his branded TEAM framework to shape the program. Young additionally challenged the attendees to inspire those who they interact with. He often repeated that “leadership is not about title or position, instead it’s about influence.” He asked the crowd, “What influence do you produce every day?” It’s an interesting question for us all to reflect on in our interactions with colleagues, students…READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE.

Remember to tell friends & colleagues about these scholarships!

MLGSCA Student Scholarship

Submission Information and Application

The Medical Library Group of Southern California and Arizona (MLGSCA) continually and vigorously supports the recruitment of outstanding candidates to the profession of health sciences librarianship. One mechanism employed by MLGSCA is through the provision of student scholarships. Three scholarships of $1000 are awarded annually to excellent library/information science students who have shown evidence of interest in pursuing the health sciences specialization in librarianship.

The scholarship is intended to provide support during a student’s course of study. The scholarship funds can be used as desired by the recipient.

Eligibility

• Any individual who is enrolled in or entering an ALA-accredited masters program in library and information science and who shows evidence of interest (through their application) in health sciences librarianship.
• The applicant must be a citizen of or have permanent residence in either the United States or Canada .
• Past recipients of the MLGSCA Student Scholarship are not eligible to apply.
• Priority will be given to applicants enrolled in a library school located in Southern California or Arizona .
• Applicants need not be a member of MLGSCA or the Medical Library Association to be considered.

The following materials are required for application and must be received by December 15.

• one copy of the completed application form
• a minimum of two letters of reference and no more than three
• a transcript (unofficial copy is satisfactory) from each college or university attended
• a statement of career objectives

Scholarship payment will be made at the time of the award. The recipient will be notified in April. If there are no appropriate candidates, the association may elect not to award the scholarship in a given year.

Preferred: Please email as an attachment to: Laura dot stubblefield at sharp dot com

or

Print one copy of the completed application and related documents and mail to:

Laura Stubblefield, Chair MLGSCA Awards Committee
Sharp Memorial Hospital Medical Library
7901 Frost Street
San Diego, CA 92123

Three Mindsets of Search: Answer Me Educate Me Inspire Me

From LIS News  and About.com

Are these the same for in person reference questions in a library?

According to a survey by About.com, people do it for one of three reasons. They want answers, they want to be educated or they want to be inspired.

Study revealed three distinct search types:

1. Answer Me (46% of all searches) – People in a “answer me” search want exactly what they ask for, and no more, delivered in a way that allows them to get to it as directly as possible.
2. Educate Me (26% of all searches) – People in an “educate me” search want 360 degrees of understanding, and multiple perspectives on critical topics. They will search until their goal is achieved – this may stretch over long periods of time and through related topics.
3. Inspire Me (28% of all searches) – The fun “browsy” type of search, where people are looking for surprises, have open minds and want to be led.

The 20 most-watched TEDTalks (so far)

More from Stephen’s Lighthouse

Stephen’s Summer Vacation viewing list:

The 20 most-watched TEDTalks (so far)

Sir Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity (2006): 8,660,010 views
Jill Bolte Taylor‘s stroke of insight (2008): 8,087,935
Pranav Mistry on the thrilling potential of SixthSense (2009): 6,747,410
Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense (2009): 6,731,153
David Gallo‘s underwater astonishments (2007): 6,411,705
Tony Robbins asks Why we do what we do (2006): 4,909,505
Hans Rosling shows the best stats you’ve ever seen (2006): 3,954,776
Arthur Benjamin does mathemagic (2005): 3,664,705
Jeff Han demos his breakthrough multi-touchscreen (2006): 3,592,795
Johnny Lee shows Wii Remote hacks for educators (2008): 3,225,864
Blaise Aguera y Arcas runs through the Photosynth demo (2007): 3,007,440
Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing your genius (2009): 2,978,288
Dan Gilbert asks: Why are we happy? (2004): 2,903,993
Stephen Hawking asks big questions about the universe (2008): 2,629,230
Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation (2009): 2,616,363
Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice (2005): 2,263,065
Richard St. John shares 8 secrets of success (2005): 2,252,911
Mary Roach 10 things you didn’t know about orgasm (2009): 2,223,822
Simon Sinek on how great leaders inspire action (2010): 2,187,868
Chimamanda Adichie shares the danger of a single story (2009): 2,143,763

The Future Of Libraries In The E-Book Age

by Lynn Neary on NPR

April 4, 2011

View Of New York Public Library Building

A lot of attention has been focused on the way bookstores and publishing companies are managing the e-book revolution. The role of libraries has often been overlooked. But when HarperCollins Publishing Co. recently announced a new policy that would limit the number of times its e-books can be borrowed, it sparked a larger conversation about the future of libraries in the digital age.

These days, you don’t have to go anywhere near a library to check out an e-book. You can download one to your digital device in a matter of seconds. And there’s no more pesky overdue notices — the e-book simply disappears from your device when your time is up.

“The fact is that with a digital item, if you give it to somebody you still have it. It doesn’t have to come back,” says Eli Neiburger, the director for IT and production at the Ann Arbor District library in Michigan.

E-books, says Neiburger, are really digital files, but libraries and publishers are still trying to deal with them as if they are just like print books. In other words, they’re trying to do business the way they have always done business

“Part of the models we’ve seen so far are still trying to force 20th century business models onto digital content,” Neiburger says. “And any digital native says, ‘You mean I have to wait to download an e-book? What sense does that make?’ And they’re off to the Kindle store to spend $3.99 or $4.99 or $9.99 to get that same book.”

Architectural Record Honors Peoria PL!

Richärd + Bauer, Peoria, Arizona

By Jenna M. McKnight

Photo © Bill Timmerman

In the political realm, Phoenix generally toes the conservative line. Fortunately, when it comes to civic architecture, the city takes a more progressive stance. A case in point: In 1995, residents celebrated the opening of Will Bruder’s colossal Burton Barr Central Library, which quickly earned icon status in the Valley of the Sun. In the following years, as Phoenix expanded at breakneck speed, prominent Southwest architects were tapped to design a string of branch libraries, many of which have appeared in Architectural Record.

Slide Show

Drawings

People & Products

• Desert Broom Library
• Arabian Library

The Sunrise Mountain Library, conceived by the local firm Richärd + Bauer and finished in 2009, marks yet another example of the city’s willingness to embrace singular architecture. Constructed for $7.7 million, the 22,000-square-foot building rises from a partly developed swath of land in Peoria, a municipality in northwestern Phoenix. Surrounded by rows of bland, beige homes, the library adds some much-needed pep to a suburban neighborhood.

To Library, or Not to Library

January 13, 2011, by David Moltz in IHE

Community colleges are growing by leaps and bounds these days. And much of that growth has been in branch or satellite campuses.

This kind of expansion, however, has created a vexing question: When is the right time to add a library? Accreditors require community colleges to provide library services to all of their students, no matter their location. Still, there is some leeway as to whether a physical space is needed on all branch campuses. Given this gray area, some community college officials wonder when simply providing library services to branch campus students is insufficient and a physical library is necessary.

Mt. Hood Community College, in Oregon, reached just such a tipping point at its Maywood Park Campus last fall, when it was decided that existing virtual resources were not enough and the 10-year old branch finally needed a physical library of its own.

“The main reason why we decided to put a library here is that we’ve grown quite a bit in student demand [for courses], physical space on the premises and classes offered,” said Sergio Lopez, branch coordinator of the new library, which opened last September. “We have 10 classes going on at any particular point in time now. But mainly, given the distance of this branch from our main campus, there’s just been a need for people to access information to support their coursework.”

A couple of credit courses are taught at the branch, but mostly it houses the college’s adult basic education program, whose offerings include GED, ESL and Head Start courses. Initially, the branch had a small bookstore, which Lopez said met most students’ needs.

With enrollment and program growth at the branch, Lopez said the college recognized that even so-called nontraditional students, typically adults with jobs and families, wanted the research materials and technology offered by a library. He added that not only did they want to check out reference books and laptops for academic use, but also they wanted to have a quiet place to study, something that might not be an obvious demand for on-the-go working adults with families and other obligations.

“When you’re talking about people taking GED and ESL classes, even though they’re nontraditional students, we assume that a lot of these students are going to continue to go into college for an associate degree, a certificate or to learn some sort of trade skill,” Lopez said. “So again, even though they’re nontraditional students, we want to give them a feeling of what a traditional college experience feels like. ‘This is what college looks like. You’ll be expected to do work outside of class.’”

For a campus that serves about 5,500 students, the new library is small. Located in an old classroom, it is 500 square feet and has four tables, about 400 books and 20 laptops to check out. It has significant ties to the college’s main library; students can access digital offerings online and books via a sharing program….read entire article here.