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Important News
A
discussion meeting for the County Coordination Plan- which establishes
the annual priorities for the use of County Coordination Aid in 2010-is
scheduled for Tuesday, September 1 at 11:00am in Classroom A, Carnegie
Library of Pittsburgh- Main. We do not yet know how much the
County Coordination Aid allocation will be cut. Keep an eye out for
more details as this meeting approaches.
Vendor
Discounts on Library Material Orders
Susan Hudak, Tina LaMark and Mike Nangia negotiated new purchasing
agreements for all libraries with Baker & Taylor, Ingram Library
Services Inc. and Midwest Tape. The Ingram and Midwest
discounts are the same as the past two years. These discounts are
generous considering the difficult financial times vendors are facing.
The new agreements became effective July 1, 2009. The Ingram agreement
is for two years and carries through June 2011. The agreements are
posted to the District Services Web site under Directories and
Resources, Discounts.
The details are password protected. Please contact Phyllis
DiDiano by phone at 412.622.3140 or email
for the password.
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 Teen Services
The August Teen District Services Meeting will be held on
Friday, August 28 from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm at the Mt. Lebanon Public
Library. The focus of the meeting will be crafts and
multigenerational programming. Come with your ideas and questions!
We will also discuss Teen Summer Reading, favorite books for teens and
much more. Hope to see you there! RSVP to Karen Brooks Reese by
email at Brooks1@carnegielibrary.org
or call 412.578.2599.
Collection
Corner
School is starting
soon. What better way to get in the mood than with one of these
great school stories?
Spotlight
on Professional Development
A new school year
means new school visits! But, really, who has time to write
dozens of booktalks from scratch? Try one of these resources for
ready-made booktalks.
Nancy Keane's Booktalks Quick
and Simple: Hundreds of booktalks written
by librarians from around the country, arranged by author, title and
subject.
Novelist:
Not only a great reader's advisory resource, Novelist contains very
well written booktalks for both teens and tweens.
Random House Booktalks:
Looking for a booktalk for a book published by Random House? Be sure to
check the publisher's website!
Scholastic Booktalks:
Scholastic knows that booktalks are "one of the most effective
ways to get kids reading," so they make dozens of booktalks
available on their website! They even give explicit permission to adapt
them as needed.
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 Web
Resources
The CREW: A Weeding Manual for Modern
Libraries has been revised and updated by
Jeanette Larson. This manual provides an easy-to-follow system,
called CREW, for continuously reviewing and weeding your library
collection. This resource and others are available to download by
clicking on the link above. Lisa Dennis, Coordinator Children's
Collections, CLP, wants to call attention to the fact that this edition
includes suggestions specifically on CREWING Children's
Materials. In addition, weeding reference resources are covered
and guidelines for timely weeding of all the Dewey classes.
David Lewis, Ph.D., directed a research study recently for
Mindlab International at the University of Sussex, UK, where he found
that reading a book for just six minutes reduced heart rate and
measurable stress by 68%. Playing video games lowered stress
levels by only 21% and left heart rates racing.
Dr. Lewis says, "Losing yourself in a book is the
ultimate relaxation. This is particularly poignant in uncertain
economic times when we are all craving a certain amount of escapism. It
really doesn't matter what book you read, by losing yourself in a thoroughly
engrossing book you can escape from the worries and stresses of the
everyday world and spend a while exploring the domain of the author's
imagination. This is more than merely a distraction but an active
engaging of the imagination as the words on the printed page stimulate
your creativity and cause you to enter what is essentially an altered
state of consciousness."
Of course, we already knew this! Read more about the study in The Telegraph.
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Shipping Update
There has been no
'summer recess' in shipping! Numerous items continue to move
through our location. Shipping has increased 10% from this time
last year. From January through June, 2,273,602 items were
handled. This includes mail, opera trunks, boxes, distributions
and the many materials being sent to and returned by customers.
Some of those materials are being sorted through the automated system.
However, many other items must still be sorted manually. If you
have any delivery issues, such as items coming to you that you should
not have received, please contact Tina LaMark
and/or Perry
Munyon. We need to know about any issues in order to ensure
materials are correctly sorted and delivered!
In 2008,
Interlibrary Loan received 46,428 requests and supplied 21,043
items. The Interlibrary Loan staff also borrowed 12,938 items on
behalf of all libraries, out of the 20,464 requests received.
While staff make every effort to obtain materials, because some items
are rare or the owning libraries charge a fee, not all requests can be
filled. If there are any ILL issues, please contact Tina LaMark
and/or Laura
Perrier - we are always happy to hear from
you and work with you or your customers in trying to obtain materials
from outside our consortium.
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Commonwealth
Libraries 
Funding
Resources
Recently Diana Megdad, Keystone Fund Facilities Advisor, sent out a useful list of
numerous funding resources for public libraries via
email.
Carnegie Library of
Pittsburgh was the only ACLA library to submit a Keystone Recreation,
Park and Conservation Fund grant this year. Unfortunately, the
opportunity to apply for Keystone grants in 2010 will not be extended.
The application process will not be available again until 2011. More information
will be coming soon from Diana Megdad, Keystone Fund Facilities
Advisor.
Institute of
Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
IMLS recently issued
a 138 page report to State Library agencies about the services provided
through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grants. Catalyst for Change: LSTA Grants to
State Program and the Transformation of Libraries Services to the Public focuses
on the services provided through LSTA; the single largest source of
federal funding for the nation's libraries and the only library grant
program that requires state-wide planning. IMLS conducted the study to
inform the American public, the Administration, Congress and the library
community about the program's contributions.
Based upon the data, IMLS identified three broad strategies advanced by
Grants to States programming: human capital development, library services
expansion and access and development of the information and technology
infrastructure. The report also provides a description of the LSTA
program, a discussion of local factors that affect state program plans, a
review of program activities nationwide and an analysis of program
expenditures.
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