1. State of Wisconsin submits $28.7 million federal broadband grant application
2. DWD to implement new job skills assessment tool
3. DPI VISTA worker featured on Serve.gov
4. Webinar on WISCAT's recent changes
5. BadgerLink's EBSCO Animals no longer stand-alone database
6. September is Library Card Sign-Up Month
7. Website of the Week
8. Calendar
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1. STATE OF WISCONSIN SUBMITS $28.7 MILLION FEDERAL BROADBAND GRANT APPLICATION
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) includes $7.2 billion in competitive grants to help build the nation's broadband infrastructure and improve broadband access to consumers and community anchor institutions, like K-12 schools and public libraries. On August 19 the State of Wisconsin, Department of Administration (DOA) submitted a $28.7 million grant application to bring fiber connectivity to the schools and public libraries that are on the BadgerNet network but still do not have fiber. The application includes: 74 school districts, 385 public libraries, and 8 higher education institutions. A decision on whether the application is funded will likely be made in November. If the grant is awarded, all public libraries in the state will receive 20Mbps broadband capacity at $100/month. Currently, over 90% of our libraries have less than 3Mbps. See the grant application's Executive Summary (
http://dpi.wi.gov/pld/pdf/btopgrantsum.pdf) for more information. Department of Public Instruction staff assisted DOA in writing the grant. If you have any questions, contact Bob Bocher at 608-266-2127 or
robert.bocher@dpi.wi.gov.
2. DWD TO IMPLEMENT NEW JOB SKILLS ASSESSMENT TOOL
On September 1, the Department of Workforce Development's (DWD) Job Service Bureau will implement a new initiative to help Unemployment Insurance claimants demonstrate their work readiness and return to work more quickly. DWD will be contracting with ACT to administer a job skills assessment tool known as WorkKeys.
In order to make this initiative successful, Job Service staff will need access to computer labs to prepare customers and proctor WorkKeys assessments. They are only looking for a few hours per week or month.
This is an alert that some public libraries may be contacted by Job Service staff about this initiative.
3. DPI VISTA WORKER FEATURED ON SERVE.GOV
A story about a DPI VISTA worker was recently featured on the website of President Obama's "United We Serve" initiative. The story illustrates the variety of impacts a VISTA member can make. The VISTA worker in Woodville played a key role in starting a Friends of the Woodville Library group. For information about the Woodville project go to
http://serve.gov/stories_detail.asp?tbl_servestories_id=100.
4. WEBINAR ON WISCAT'S RECENT CHANGES
A one-hour Webinar on WISCAT's recent changes will be held September 9, 2009, at 9 a.m. (CDST). The session will address the new functionality in WISCAT's ILL forms, change in due date calculation, and other changes with this latest upgrade. This session will be hosted by Mary Jackson from Auto-Graphics. This will be a repeat of the last webinar for those who could not attend, but please feel free to participate again if you have questions that you would like to ask Mary.
Who should attend--everyone, ILL folks, reference librarians? The webinar will be geared toward mostly ILL staff since they are responsible for setting up and dealing with WISCAT, generally speaking (although I am sure that differs from system to system and library to library). IF reference librarians are involved in system maintenance OR have some request for what information is included on the ILL form, then perhaps she/he should attend the webinar to better understand the options/parameters for new ILL forms.
Multi-library grouping is encouraged to mitigate the cost for the webinar. If you are in the same building or town or perhaps could get together with another nearby library...please do!
Please note that a phone line will be required for audio and to ask questions. If the library only has one line then that line will be tied up for the hour.
Also, as with the last time, the session will be recorded so folks that cannot make it during that time can view when they have free time. That probably helps both the folks who can't make the time and anyone who might be marginally interested if he/she has time later.
Registration for the webinar in WisLine Web is a multi-step process. Only one person per site must do this. You must complete the entire process.
IF you do not already have a WisLine account you must sign up first. The process is simply filling out a form with name and address. The form can be found at
http://www.uwex.edu/ics/wlwreg/signup.cfm. Anyone with an existing account must sign into his/her account (skip to step 4 below). If you forgot your login info, there is a reminder function.
After creating an account, you will be presented with the webpage that says, "Welcome to the WisLine Web Registration System. You can search for events..."
To find our event click on the "WI Dept. of Public Instruction" option under the "Organizations currently offering events." Select the August 5th webinar by clicking on the date.
The system may then ask for your account name/password, again. If so, please enter this in the appropriate boxes on the right.
Upon logging in, the system will present you with a confirmation of your contact info AND ask for "additional attendees." Add this information as appropriate.
Click on the 'Registration for this event' button at the bottom of page.
You should receive an email within 30 minutes or so with all the info for the day of the session.
5. BADGERLINK'S EBSCO ANIMALS NO LONGER STAND-ALONE DATABASE
EBSCO Publishing has significantly improved the EBSCO Animals collection, now called Encyclopedia of Animals.
Formerly, EBSCO Animals was a stand-alone database. It is now part of these product families: Science Reference Center, Middle Search and Primary Search and is accessible via the EBSCOhost, Searchasaurus, or Kids Search interface. Articles within the Encyclopedia of Animals can now be found more easily through improved citations with added subject headings and an abstract. In addition, each article includes a Lexile value. New images and maps have been included into the 'Related Item' section of the full text.
Searchability and Content Improvements:
Source Type Searching on Searchasaurus and Kids Search:
The search for the keyword 'tiger' will return a Result List that allows filtering by Source Types. The Encyclopedia of Animals articles can be accessed via the Source Type 'Animals.'
Citation Improvements:
The Encyclopedia of Animals contains added subject terms and an abstract making the content easier to find in the student's keyword search.
Each article now has Lexiles.
Full Text:
Articles contain a 'Related Item' feature with additional images and maps available through the interface Kids Search.
With these changes, EBSCO Animals will no longer be available as a stand-alone database starting Fall 2009. Please remove any database specific links to this product.
For questions or concerns, please contact BadgerLink Technical Support, at
http://dpi.wi.gov/rll/wiscat/bl_sup.asp.
6. SEPTEMBER IS LIBRARY CARD SIGN-UP MONTH
Celebrate Library Card Sign-Up Month during September with the Kids! @ your library® Campaign. The online tool kit, at
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/initiatives/kidscampaign/kidstoolkit.cfm, provides ideas and templates that you can adapt to showcase materials and resources in your library.
You can also find free resources at the official site for Library Card Sign-Up
Month:
http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/advocacy/publicawareness/alainitiatives/otherinitiatives/card/librarycard.cfm. The Association for Library Service to Children, Public Awareness Committee (PAC) wants to hear about your success stories. Share program ideas and resources by adding content to the Kids! @ your library® Campaign wiki at:
http://wikis.ala.org/alsc/index.php/Main_Page. They also want to hear if you have used resources from the Campaign tool kit. Please add content directly to the wiki or email information to Bethany Lafferty, PAC Member, at
balaff12@yahoo.com.
7. Website of the Week
The Earth Calendar --
http://www.earthcalendar.net/index.php -- This site is a "daybook of holidays and celebrations around the world. For the purpose of this web site a 'holiday' is any day that recognizes a cultural event, and not necessarily a day when businesses are closed." (website reference courtesy of refdesk.com)
8. CALENDAR
September 11, 2009 - Council on Library and Network Development meeting, Beloit
September 28, 2009 - Delivery Services Advisory Committee, by webinar from Madison
October 13, 2009 - Library Information Technology Advisory Committee, Madison
October 20-23, 2009 - Wisconsin Library Association Annual Conference, Appleton
November 11-12, 2009 - Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Advisory Committee, Madison
April 11-17, 2010 - National Library Week
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To access previous issues of Channel Weekly, or to subscribe or unsubscribe,
go to:
http://dpi.wi.gov/channel/chweekly.html
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Roslyn M. Wise
Editor, Channel Weekly
Department of Public Instruction
Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning
PO Box 7841
Madison, WI 53707-7841
Phone: (608) 266-6439
FAX: (609) 266-8770
For questions about this information, contact Roslyn M. Wise (608) 266-6439
Last updated on 8/28/2009 11:51:10 AM
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