EBSCO Publishing and Marketing

EBSCO has launched a brand new promotional/marketing page on their site.
Public Library Marketing Materials

Also, there are two resources that are free that we should promote.
History is Happening

Reading Rave

I sometimes think that the databases are the ones that should be marketing themselves better. Why is the onus on libraries to do the marketing, get people excited about these resources, etc?

It's great when companies put out this stuff though. Don't get me wrong. I just wish that database companies, etc. would take into account that libraries themselves are not exactly masters of marketing. How can we change that?

I'm trying to market the library's website, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and other social media things. But what else can we do?

I ended up blogging here and there for PLA and neglected to post much to my blog while I was in Anaheim for ALA Annual.
Here are my PLA Blog entries:

• ALA-APA : A cause to support


• Digital Storytelling: Where Outreach, Local History & Technology Collide

I'm not sure if I could/will be writing more for the PLA blog. I'll keep you posted if it's a go.

I also need to write up a post about my new job. I really enjoy it. It is without a doubt, my dream job. I've been busy with a lot of things there:

• a new website launch that incorporates a brand new reader's advisory area.


• various web updates and getting others trained in how to update the website as well.


• getting things up and running for the Heights Library 23 Things.It started this week!


• handling database vendors and juggling any problems that occur.


• doing the reference thing here and there. I love working with such a diverse community!


• meetings...Ah, the joys of a coordinator/manager!


• many projects on the horizon that include digital storytelling, teen photography, text to chat application for our chat server, etc.

I have been wanting to do the 23 Things for a while. Now that it is a self learning project at the Heights Library, I'm totally in!

Pointing everyone to my 23 Things blog!

Blogging - ALA ...and Iowa

I have been meaning to write in my blog for a while. I don't know why I find myself blogging in spurts. Nonetheless, here I am....Amy Harmon: Occasional Blogger. :P

There are a number of entries that I've been meaning to make. I write them in my head but unfortunately I don't set them to digital format. However, I'll be writing a number of entries in the PLA Blog. So...maybe I'll get some of my other entries down now.

I just flew over the Mississippi River. I think I'm near Iowa. The river seems really swollen. I can't tell if this is anywhere near a city or if there are structures under water, etc. What is striking to me is that the Mississippi is swollen, beyond capacity. Part of my wishes to wax poetic about this new flood that our country has faced/still facing. Anthropomorphizing the river delta does not really help though. There are those that have lost everything. Since this is mainly a library blog, I'll focus on the libraries that have been affected.

Library Journal has written a great article and has a wealth of information there as well.
The State Library of Iowa is serving as an aggregate site for information here.
The Iowa Library Association has a number of first person accounts of the flood as well.

I'm half Slovak and learning that the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library was affected by the flood struck a chord with me. While there may be some areas of the country that are less likely to be effected by hurricane versus earthquake versus typhoon, there will always be those that are effected by the loss of works of importance to one's heritage and culture.

The libraries that were heavily damaged by the floods are asking for donations of money, rather than books and materials. Unfortunately, they do not have anywhere to put donated materials. Funds to pay for the remediation process are much appreciated.

Donations to the Cedar Rapids Library should be sent to the Cedar Rapids Public Library Foundation at 500 1st St. SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52401.

Donations to the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library Flood Relief Fund may be made at the NCSML website, at any Wells Fargo Bank location in the U.S. or by mailing a check to: National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, 30 Sixteenth Avenue SW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404.

Donations to the New Hartford Public Library should be sent to the Friends of New Hartford Public Library, PO Box 292, New Hartford, IA 50660.

Any other places that need help?

I'm in Anaheim and will post my schedule soon.

Book displays

I've rotated out three of the fiction displays and created two non-fiction displays. The displays are:
1. "I've Got the Music in Me!" - Musical fiction
2. "A Passage to India" - Indian fiction
3. "Step up to the Plate" - Baseball fiction
4. "Drinks are on me!" - non-fiction
5. "It's All About ME!!" - autobiographies.

Some musical fiction titles:
- Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
- The Gutbucket Quest by Piers Anthony
- A & R: a novel by Bill Flanagan
- An Equal Music by Vikram Seth
- The Year the Music Changed: The Letters of Achsa McEachern-Isaacs & Elvis Presley by Diane Coulter Thomas
- The Choir by Joanna Trollope
- We Interrupt This Broadcast by K.K. Beck
- And My Shoes Keep Walking Back To You: A Novel by Kathi Kamen Goldmark
- High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

Some Indian fiction titles:
* The Unknown Errors of Our Lives: Stories by Chitra Divakaruni
* The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
* The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
* Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
* Londonstani by Gautam Malkani
* The Tree Bride by Bharati Mukherjee
* Serpent's Shadow by Mercedes Lackey

Some baseball fiction titles:
- Strike Zone by Jim Bouton
- The Natural by Bernard Malamud
- Murder at Fenway Park by Troy Soos
- Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella
- Summerland by Michael Chabon
- The Sweetheart Season by Karen Joy Fowler
- Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris

I used LibraryThing for my links. This was because I had some difficulty linking entries to my catalog. I would create the link in my entry but, after a while, the links would not work. Each link would go to a screen that stated my catalog session had expired. It would have been great to link to the catalog. I need to investigate with CLEVNET to see if this is a possibility.

I suppose I really can't call myself a "blogger" if I post as infrequently as I do. That will soon change. Announcement will follow in this entry.

I went to PLA. I was floored by how well the conference was organized. Some rooms did not have the capacity for the number of enthusiastic participants though. But I think that happens at all conferences. I was very pleased with the quality of workshops and can't wait to attend again in Portland.

Starting May 19th, I'll be the Web Library Manager for the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library. I'm really excited about this position. It is pretty much my dream job. It's half reference, half working on web content and training others on how to get things up, etc. I'll be getting social networking projects off the ground. It is in a bit of flux as well since this is a brand new position for them. It's all the things that I have wanted to implement. I'm jumping off of walls, vibrating at the speed of light, etc.

So...I guess I'll be blogging a bit more. I've been using Twitter and exploring other tools here and there. I'll keep posting more often since I think this is the path of libraries' future and well, mine.

On my way to PLA

Waking up in Chicago, heading up to Minneapolis today. I love driving. There is nothing like seeing the country, whizzing past you at 70+ mph. I'm taking a leisurely drive up. I'm heading up to the Public Library Association Conference. I'm pretty excited since this will be my first PLA Conference and it has been a part of my long term professional goals.
I'm looking forward to attending programs like Mix It Up: Using Blended Learning for Staff Training and Think Outside the Book: Online Services as Outreach. There's a lot of amazing programs lined up and I'm looking forward to exploring a new city. I hope to run into some friends as well. See you in Minneapolis!

Ohio Library Council Northeast Chapter Conference

I attended the Ohio Library Council 2008 Northeast Chapter Conference on 19 March 2008. I think by far this was the best chapter conference I've attended.

The first workshop that I attended was the Many Genres of Christian Fiction that was presented by: Claudia Zimmerman, Holmes County District Public Library. There were many handouts for this workshop. The genres that were discussed were: chick lit, mom lit, lad lit, lady lit, contemporary fiction, fantasy & science fiction, suspense, legal thrillers and Anabaptist fiction, romance, westerns, historical and end of times/apocalyptic and biblical fiction. Since Hudson has a strong Inspirational section and I am unfamiliar with many Christian authors, I appreciated attending this workshop.

The second workshop that I attended, Under the Radar: Great Books that didn’t Make the Bestseller List, was absolutely amazing. The speakers were phenomenal and the handouts were comprehensive. The speakers gave impressive and quick book talks for a number of books. The subjects were Whodunnit? (Suspense/mystery books that were sure to keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat), It’s All About the Girl (female protagonists), Crazy Family Tree (quirky family stories), and Don’t Label Me! (books that really didn’t fall into any particular category). I got a lot of great ideas for book displays as well as handouts.
One of their handouts was a very small booklet that was made up of bookmarks folded over. It would end up using three pages of paper for each booklet. They asked everyone at their library for a list of their ten favorite books. I would like to do this if at all possible. It would be a neat thing to do amongst the staff and could be paired with the staff picks display downstairs. This was one of the best RA workshop that I have attended. This was presented by Carol O’Keefe and Stacey Hayman, Rocky River Public Library.

The third workshop I attended was Using WordPress for Internet Publishing (Laura Solomon, OPLIN) I appreciated observing a WordPress installation and configuration. If the Library would ever want to delve back into the blogging sphere, WordPress would be a great avenue. We could host it ourselves and not have to rely on any other company to host it. If anything, I learned a lot about the backend of WordPress.

The last workshop I attended was Writing and Crafting Your Virtual Library. It looked at how one presents their library on the Internet, ie. the face of the library is the library website. This was presented by Kathy Schnell, Cuyahoga County Public Library. Website usability and natural language (non jargon) can assist in creating a tool that can be informative and enhance the desirability of the library as an organization. Since I know that the Hudson Library is contemplating a website upgrade/update/overhaul, I felt this was very timely.

I obtained the handouts for Multigenerational Gaming @ Your Library. This seemed like a great program for Teen librarians and those that would like to plan cross generational programming involving gaming. I liked that the handouts included budget breakdowns for different funding levels and his proposal to the board.
I think Wii golf or bowling tournaments would be a hit for older patrons and would love to try it out.

I also got the handouts for Catch the Reading Bug: Update on Statewide Summer Reading Program in hopes of sharing this information with the Children’s Department. While this does not apply to my area, I was primarily hoping to grab information that would be useful for other departments.

The Northeast Chapter Conference continually has amazing workshops and I often find myself scrambling to grab handouts for those workshops that I’m interested in attending but can’t attend since I can’t be in two places at once.