As library people, we think about making our information and materials available to our communities every day. Part of that work is a responsibility to think about making it all available to people in the future. The Web is like a living thing – it changes, grows, and pieces can die; thinking about preserving information needs to take into account those potential changes.
The Digital Preservation Network is already thinking about this, and helping to establish a safe system as well as best practices for you to preserve information. Their audience is academic environments, potentially producing unique material that may not be available elsewhere. As we have seen in the recent news, turbulent political changes can cause information to disappear or to be suppressed; the DPN can help libraries to preserve and share their information. Likewise, natural disasters can destroy buildings holding both paper materials and servers holding backups, ransomware attacks can happen, institutions can change or fall, and just bad luck and bad planning can destroy years of work. Having information available through something like the DPN will help to ensure its survival. Continue reading Preserve your past; Think about the future!→
Dementia is an issue many kids and young adults will deal with, through family members, neighbors, and friends. Recently, a library listserve from the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) had members who shared suggestions for books they could recommend to their patrons.
Many suggestions were offered. And as this seemed to be a very popular discussion, we wanted to share some of these books with our members who may also need these in your collections! Read on, for a bunch of book suggestions: Continue reading Recommended kid’s books on dementia→
Would you like to give your patrons free access to Photoshop training? Would helping them learn about video and animation at no cost to you or to them be good? How about your patrons who need to learn to use Microsoft Office – would you like some free training??
I’m sure the answer to all of that is yes!
The American Graphics Institute has established a Library Partner Program, that gives you access to self-paced online classes and digital books your patrons can use in your library. Read on, for all the details! Continue reading Free online training for your patrons!→
This month we have talked about a few different strategies for grant writing, and shared some ideas on places to go for grants. All of this will be collected on our website, under Monthly Topics. We will also have material available in our Grants and Fundraising section.
If you are in an academic library, or looking at academic information (as many of you are), you may want to be involved in a sandbox project from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). You can look through the contributions and information other people are creating, and you are very much encouraged to contribute information yourself! No need to be a member; they want contributions from everyone, so feel free to dive in here and browse around for information that might be relevant to you and your library! Continue reading Contribute to the ACRL Framework Sandbox→
Partnering with libraries for visioning, advocating, and educating
