Blues at the Library @ Upper Tampa Bay Regional Library

Wednesday, Feb. 24, 7 p.m.
Blues at the Library
Upper Tampa Bay Regional Public Library, 11211 Countryway Blvd. in Tampa

Live guitar performance by Dr. Scott Simon of University of South Florida, followed by a presentation on music libraries. This is a free program provided by the Friends of the Upper Tampa Regional Public Library.

~SS

SLIS Students Publish Article in BRASS

Two of our own SLIS students, Marilyn Hart and Dave Davisson, co-authored the latest edition of BRASS (Business Reference and Services Section — RUSA) Public Libraries Briefcase. Their article, “A Few Social Networking Tools Not to Miss for Business Information: Social Networking for Business Librarians,” describes several free social networking resources for business librarians, including some popular sites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as other, less well-known tools, such as LibraryThing and StumbleUpon.

Marilyn and Dave collaborated on the Winter 2009 issue of BRASS with Assistant Professor, Dr. Stephanie Maatta, for their LIS6624 Business/Legal Information Sources and Services class. Way to go Marilyn & Dave on getting published!

sdg

David Davisson

Marilyn Hart

SLIS Student Mary Barrett Featured in The Ledger

SLIS Student Mary Ellin Barrett

The SLIS Department would like to recognize Mary Ellin Barrett for all of her achievements and hard work.  Although still a SLIS student, Mary has earned the position of Director at the Polk City Library. During the past 16 months, Mary’s efforts have focused on revitalizing the library, including adding six public computers, installing Wi-Fi, and instituting new reading programs.

Mary was recently featured in a November issue of The Ledger, and they had nothing but praise to say about her:

“Ms. Barrett has increased patronage of the library and instituted many new programs such as the children’s story time and the adults’ book club,” Carrier said in an e-mail to The Ledger. “She has made the library a warm and welcoming place to be. She and other staff have culled the books in the library, added additional computers, purchased new furniture and painted.”

….

Circulation rose 68 percent from 8,894 books, CDs and other materials for its fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2008, to 14,927 items in the recently completed year. The number of visitors to the library at 215 S. Bougainvillea Ave. nearly doubled from 6,510 people to 12,864 patrons during the same period.

The increases stem from adding the adult and children’s reading programs and six new public computers to the four there were when Barrett started, she and Carrier agreed.

Click here to see the full article.

-JP

USF SLIS students attend “Fast Track” adult literacy workshop

Gina Bingham-McIntyre

Gina Bingham-McIntyre and Arlen Bensen (current USF SLIS students) made the trek to Lake County on Friday, October 23, 2009 to learn about a new adult literacy teaching technique developed at Jacksonville Public Library.

Graduate Assistant Arlen Bensen

Fast Track Reading System

Exploring the Relationship Between Sounds & Syllables

The program is called Fast Track Reading System and it was developed at JPL with help from a grant through the Florida Department of State and the State Library and Archives of Florida. This system is aimed primarily at basic reading students, although parts of it appear to have useful applicability in ESOL courses, too. Fast Track II is currently in development to take successful Fast Track students well beyond the basic reading level.

Instruction is designed to take place over 26 weeks with about 3 hours per week of face-to-face class time. It centers on syllable division and helps students find patterns in the English language to pierce the randomness that confronts most adults who are learning to read. Syllable division is certainly not anything new, but the way the principles are described is extremely accessible (as opposed to the bewildering consonant-vowel-vowel-consonant-c-v-v-c-c previously employed). The success of Fast Track is measured by the high (80%) retention rate achieved in Jacksonville.

The October 23^rd workshop was led by Sharon Jaskula, Literacy Program Manager at the Center for Adult Learning in Jacksonville Public Library. She also spearheaded the development of the program and sits on the board of the workshop’s sponsor VALF (Volunteers for Adult Literacy in Florida).  The session was held, primarily, so that literacy volunteers teaching in the Lake County Library System might learn this technique. The session was put together by Erika Greene, who coordinates literacy efforts for that system. Not only was she extremely gracious to encourage outside attendees, but she also did a fantastic job managing and supporting the day’s activities.

One warning flag for libraries raised by Ms. Jaskula on the 23^rd concerns Florida community colleges converting to 4 year schools.  As they do so, they relinquish the part of their mission to provide remedial help to students seeking to pass standardized minimum achievement level exams required by the state for studying in higher education.  As a result, many of these adults who were formerly served by community colleges are now turning to public libraries as their only source of remedial instruction to make the grade needed on these standardized tests.  This encumbers sorely pressed public libraries even further during this economic downturn.  Ms. Jaskula says JPL is able to serve about 1,000 students per year in their Center for Adult Learning but that the demand is much greater. She has a significant backlog of students wishing to participate.  [Posted by AB]

Sharon Jaskula: Sharon@coj.net (904) 630-0353

Erika Greene: 352-253-6183 or egreene@lakeline.lib.fl.us

http://literacyfloridavolunteers.blogspot.com/

Visit the wiki for more details… http://literacyflorida.wikispaces.com/

Florida Literacy Hotline
(800) – 237 – 5113

Public Library Directors Conference

Each fall, The State Library and Archives of Florida hosts a conference for Public Library Directors from all over the state. This year’s conference was held on October 8-9 at The Doubletree Hotel in Tallahassee, FL. Directors met to discuss new ideas and tackle common issues faced within the Florida public library community.

Some of this year’s primary issues of interest included addressing the benefits and challenges of E-governence, evaluating strategies for internet safety, and coping with budget constraints on library resources. Attendees were invited to share thoughts and ideas in both a small and large group setting, focusing especially on cutting-edge trends within libraries that would allow libarians to better serve individuals from many diverse backgrounds, as well as reach out to individuals within each library’s respective community.

Dr. Debra Slone was one of seven active participants in a Public Library Directors’ Program Focus Group sponsored by the Florida State Library. The topics included fund-raising and alternative funding, budgeting, marketing, partnerships and strategic planning. She was requested by the state library to research ethics policies of public libraries in Florida and across the U.S.

~DR

Libraries and Community Preparedness

Sarasota County Libraries hosted a Community Preparedness Day on September 26^th, from 10.00am to 4.00pm. The event, a pilot program of the National Library of Medicine, was organized by Selby Public Library and Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s Bishopric Medical Library. USF SLIS students helped with the activities, which provided the community with valuable information about how to be prepared and informed during major emergencies.

Families enjoyed meeting members of the K-9 Search and Rescue Unit

Exhibitors included representatives from the local Fire Safety Division, the Emergency Call Center, Beach Patrol, Sarasota Memorial Hospital, Mosquito Control, K-9 Rescue Unit, and others. Among the speakers, Jim Mitchell, from the Sarasota County Library System, shared his personal experience of the role of libraries during Katrina recovery.

Firefighters read books to children during storytime

AKL

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month.

September is Library Card Sign-up Month – a time to remind parents and kids that a library card is the most important school supply of all.

–KldPMc