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November 20, 2008

Finding NSLS Membership Awards just got easier.

We’ve added a link to the Membership Awards area of our site. Here’s a bit about the awards:

The awards honor many things including dedicated service, innovative ideas, and a strong spirit of collaboration. This is also a great way to celebrate your own accomplishments or those of your library. In previous years, self nominations have been common for both the Library of the Year and Innovation Award. All NSLS member library staff and trustees, as well as NSLS staff are eligible to place nominations.

This morning I created a graphic to show you just where you can find this new link on our homepage.

Be sure to let us know if you have any problems with the nomination process.

posted by Christina at 1:23 pm | Comments (0)

November 17, 2008

NSLS Twitter

We’ve just set up an NSLS Twitter account:

twitter.com/nsls

If you use Twitter, please “follow” us!

posted by Ian at 10:04 am | Comments (0)

November 13, 2008

A change to posting library newsletters.

We know that with everything else you have to do, remembering to delete older newsletters that your library has previously uploaded to the NSLS site can be difficult. This area of the website isn’t intended to archive library newsletters, but rather to make the latest issues available for everyone to view online. In light of that, we recently changed the process so that each library will only have up to two newsletters viewable at any time. You don’t have to do anything new; we’re handling it for you!

Now you can cross “Delete old newsletters on NSLS site” off of your to-do list.

Questions? Drop me a comment.

posted by Christina at 4:41 pm | Comments (0)

November 10, 2008

What does NSLS do for you?

I have worked at NSLS for over 9 years and I still have trouble answering the question “What do you do?” Depending on my audience I either say “A little bit of everything” or I start my laundry list of jobs and things I am responsible for. In either case people look bored and stop listening. But, I am proud of what I do and I believe the work we do here actually helps you, our members.

That is why I volunteered to help write our annual report card that we send to our members. It is loosely based on the very popular NSLS Return on Investment (ROI) Calculator.  We tried to think of and list either a dollar  or intrinsic value for each of our many services. It is easy to put these kind of documents aside or just roll your eyes and say NSLS is at it again.  Please keep an open mind and take a look.

There is a lot of useful information and you may discover some services you were not even aware that NSLS offers.  Mary Witt, Judy Hoffman, Alan Minarik, Ian Baaske, and myself worked hard on this document and sincerely hope it will provide you with a better concept of not only what we do  but what we can do for you.

posted by Admin at 5:38 pm | Comments (0)

November 5, 2008

Bookmobile Gertie survives hurricanes.

You may remember in 2006 we had a featured item in Members Corner and a press release about Waukegan Public Library donating their bookmobile–Gertie–to Jefferson Parish Library in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck. Gertie helped out at the library in Grand Isle, a location that never reopened. Along with another bookmobile, Gertie was permanently parked adjacent to the battered library facility which housed the computer networking equipment.

 

According to a recent press release,

Everything was fine until Hurricane Gustav hit the area on September 1, 2008. It was feared for several days that the storm had probably swept the bookmobiles out into the Gulf of Mexico. Fortunately, both of them were dry and perfectly safe. When Hurricane Ike slammed the Louisiana coastline on September 12, the bookmobiles were written off again. But once again, they were fine. However, Gustav ripped the roof off the old library and left the computer networking equipment and the building’s electrical system in disarray.

 

This time it was the Grand Isle Port Commission which came to the library’s rescue. Located almost across the highway from the library, the staff there invited library officials to park the bookmobiles on the property it shares with the Tourist Information Center. 

Way to go, Gertie. Read the full press release for more information.

posted by Christina at 12:39 pm | Comments (0)