News

Scholarships Available!

TRaiLS is offering 20 $250 scholarships to assist attendance of the NLA/NSLA Annual Conference in Omaha, NE scheduled for October 19-21. The deadline to apply is September 21st.

We are also offering one $500 scholarship to assist attendance of the ARSL Annual Conference in Fargo, ND scheduled for October 27-29. The deadline to apply is September 29th.

The Scholarship Opportunities page of our website is experiencing some technical issues. We hope to have it working again soon.

Click the link below to download the scholarship application. Applications can be emailed to trls.director@gmail.com or mailed to the office 11929 Elm St. suite 18 Omaha, NE 68144

Scholarship application 2015-16

Applicants must work for a library (any type), be a library student or public library trustee within the TRaiLS service area to be eligible. 

Continuing Education/Library Training

DiSPEL Meetings Scheduled

DiSPEL pictureDiSPEL stands for Directors Sharing Practice, Experience, and Learning. It is intended for public library directors to gather together for networking and professional development.

The following meetings are scheduled for the remainder of 2016:

August 19 at the Tekamah Public Library

September 9 at the Madison Public Library

September 30 Creighton Public Library

October 7 Gretna Public Library

November 10 Hartington Public Library

Please join us at one or all of the meetings! 2.5 continuing education hours available. All meetings are from 9:00-11:30am. Stick around after the meetings to grab lunch if you can. Register at http://bit.ly/DiSPEL

 

News

TRaiLS Annual Board Meeting!

mThe TRaiLS Annual Meeting  will be held on August 5th at the Neligh Public Library.  Pat Wagner will be joining us via webinar to present a one-hour session of Bully-Proofing Your Library. Lunch will be provided after the NLC Report followed by the TRaiLS Board Meeting. This event has 2 CE credit hours available.

There’s no cost to register! Online registration is at: http://bit.ly/TRaiLSAnnual 

The full program schedule is as follows:

9:30am – Registration

10:00am  – Bully-Proofing Your Library Webinar with Pat Wagner

11:30am – NLC Report

1:00pm – TRaiLS Board Meeting

Continuing Education/Library Training

The 22nd Annual Joint Youth Services Retreat: Aug. 25-26

prairie

As always, this year’s youth services retreat will be a great chance to relax, participate in sessions directed towards youth services, enjoy wonderful food, network, share ideas, and play. As in past years, the retreat will be held at Carol Joy Holling Camp and Retreat Center near Ashland. New this year is an option to stay overnight not only Thursday evening, but also to arrive the evening of Wednesday, August 24, and stay overnight. This might make it easier for those traveling from a distance.

You can easily register at http://bit.ly/22ndRetreat by the end of the day on August 8th. If for some reason you can’t make the retreat, you can still hear the two feature presenters at the CPLS Youth Services Day on August 19 or at the TRAILS Fall Library Workshop on September 21.

Following is the full program:

Wednesday, August 24th, Optional Early Arrival beginning at 6 pm. Includes breakfast the next morning.

Thursday, August 25th, 22nd Annual Youth Services Retreat, Day One

8:30-9:00 Registration

9:00 – 11:00 Libraries Serving Youth: Growing the Brain! With Sheryl Feinstein,Dean of Education, UNK                                                                                                                  Feinstein
This special interactive presentation will focus on the transforming brain of our babies, children, and teens in relation to libraries. The fascinating changes that are popping, generating, and igniting in our youths’ brains shed light on how to best understand, support, and mentor these mystifying creatures.

11:10 – 12:00 Book Clubs for Youth with Anneka Ramirez, TRLS
Book clubs are a great tool for instilling literacy skills and maintaining a love for reading. This session will discuss using book clubs for youth as part of your library programming.

12:00 – 1:30 Lunch

1:30 – 2:30 Crowdsharing: “Booktalk” Your favorite websites and resources
In this session, retreat participants may share favorite websites, resources, program and craft ideas. If you go on too long…

2:45 – 3:45 Out of Box Programming Ideas for Teens with Lucy Adkins and Becky Breed
Interested in encouraging young people to tap into their creativity using the resources of the library? In this presentation, we will discuss how writing groups and writing partners—using the generative writing process—can inspire potential slam poets, songwriters—all writers—to dream more and unleash the imagination.

4:00 – 6:00 Best Games for Programming with Spielbound volunteers
Board Games can be used in library programming for all ages to educate, engage, and create community. Volunteers from Spielbound will demo games and guide us as we learn to play games that are new to us.

6:00 – 7:00 Dinner

7:00 – 10:00 Time to exchange ideas, hang out, play games

Friday, August 26th, 22nd Annual Youth Services Retreat, Day Two

7:30 – 8:30 Breakfast

8:30–9:00 Registration

9:00 – 9:50 Tween Read-a-Louds with Denise Harders, CPLS
Story time should not be reserved for preschool or kindergarten children. Listening to stories should be a frequent and enjoyable experience for all readers. Hear about the benefits of reading to older children, learn how to introduce a book you are about to read aloud, and take home a long list of suitable books to read. (And the great thing is, you probably already have the books in your library!)

10:00 – 10:50 The Future of Virtual Reality for Youth Services with Craig Lefteroff
Virtual and augmented reality devices have been hyped for decades, but the technology is finally starting to reach its full potential. In this presentation, we’ll talk about the differences between VR and AR, discuss the plethora of VR devices, and explore how to utilize them in a library setting.

11:00-11:50 Green Screen Magic with Sara Lee, Judy Marco, and Jamie Wright
You don’t have to have a Hollywood budget to have fun with green screen effects. Join staff members from Central City Public Library, to see how they have used green screen effects at events for all ages, to create some amazing looking photos and videos.

12:00 – 1:00 Lunch

1:00 – 2:30 Behind the Scenes with Bruce Arant,arant Author and Illustrator
Children’s book author/illustrator, Bruce Arant, provides an entertaining glimpse of the twists and turns he has encountered along the path of traditional publishing. His book, Simpson’s Sheep Won’t Go to Sleep!, has garnered notable attention including: two 2014 Nebraska Book Awards, nominee for the 2015-2016 Golden Sower Award; selected to represent the state of Nebraska at the 2015 National Book Festival; placement on the Nebraska 150 Book List.

2:30 – 3:00 Book Sales and Signings, Evaluations and Giveaways

We must leave the premises at 3:00 pm.

News

Elect Your Board of Directors

We have experienced a delay in the TRaiLS Board of Directors voting form opening. If you tried to vote yesterday and were not able to access the form, please give it a try now. The form should be live and ready to go!

Voting will be open now through the 30th.The voting form may be accessed at http://bit.ly/TRaiLSVoting

Get your vote in by June 30th!

News

TRaiLS Board Elections coming soon!

The TRaiLS Board of Directors strives to represent the full diversity of library service interests and geographical parts of the System. The 2016 3-year term candidates have been nominated by library colleagues from the service area. Five current board members are running for shortened terms to facilitate continuity as the TRaiLS transitional board phases out.

Voting will be open June 13th through the 30th.

Our candidates are:

Class A- 1 year term

Francine Canfield, Director at Baright Public Library, Ralston

Beth Foulks, Director at Ponca Carnegie Library; Ponca Public              Schools

Class B- 2 year term

Rose Barcal, Director at La Vista Public Library

Laura England-Biggs, Youth Services Librarian at Keene                             Memorial Library, Fremont

Aimee Morlan, Director at Weeping Water Public Library

Class C – 3 year term

Staci Sandman, Director at Albion Public Library

Karen Drevo, Youth Services Supervisor at Norfolk Public                        Library

Ann Bachmann, Director at House Memorial Library in Pender

Kate Ostenrude, Director at Brunswick Public Library

On June 13th, the voting form may be accessed at http://bit.ly/TRaiLSVoting

Get your vote in by June 30th!

 

Continuing Education/Library Training, News

Library Strength Training Workshop!

LibStrengTrain Option

Session Descriptions:

Horrible, Evil, Library Books with Tammy Parrott, Tiffany Mautino, and Katie Gregory (Mid-Continent Public Library): Intellectual Freedom is a core value of library service. A publicly supported library provides free, equitable, and confidential access to information for all people in the community. We will talk with you about how Intellectual Freedom effects collection development, collection management, reference services, customer privacy, and even shelving practices. Primarily, this workshop will give you experience through guided discussion about how to practically and purposefully engage with Intellectual Freedom and how to protect the rights of library users to read, seek information and speak freely.

Communities in Poverty with Drew Pauly (inCOMMON) : Poverty is both relational and material financial. Libraries play a crucial role in their communities by providing resources otherwise not readily accessible. We will explore the role libraries can play in being an advocate and stronghold in their communities. We will look at the power of taking an Asset Based approach in strengthening our communities and addressing poverty.

CES 2016: One Librarian’s Experience with Michael Sauers (Do Space) : In this one hour presentation, Michael Sauers, Director of Technology for Do Space in Omaha, NE will share his experience and discoveries at the 2016 International Consumer Electronics Show last month in Las Vegas, NV. As one of the more than 170,000 attendees, Michael took in everything with a librarian’s eye, and will share the overall trends and many of the discoveries he made traversing more than 2.5 square miles of technology in just four days.

Don’t forget, it’s free to attend! To register go to the event registration at http://libraries.ne.gov/trls/calendar/event-registration/

News

E-Rate Form 471 deadline extended

The application filing window for libraries for E-rate Form 471 has been extended to July 21! (this extension date is not reflected in our current newsletter)

See the USAC Special Edition News Brief for details.

Find helpful information to complete E-rate forms on the NLC E-rate webpage.

Christa Burns, NLC Library Development Consultant, is available for questions and assistance. She can be reached at 800.307.2665, 402.471.3107, christa.burns@nebraska.gov

 

Continuing Education/Library Training, News

Bully-Proof Your Library

Bully-proofing your library (simple)

Register at: http://goo.gl/forms/mm4oOoI50Y  

Session 1: Bully-Proofing Your Library presented by Pat Wagner
10:00 am – 3:00 pm (with one hour lunch)

Whether you call it bullying, harassing, intimidating, stalking, threatening, tormenting, browbeating, needling, or pushing people around, commonsense calls it bad behavior. What steps need to be taken during your library’s employment cycle and regarding the culture of your library to prevent bullying behavior? To address incidents with staff and library users, particularly young people?
—sieralearn.com

Session 2: Anti-Bullying Workshop with Michael Fitzsimmons
3:00pm – 4:00pm

Music has been recognized world wide as a way to break down barriers. This workshop focuses on increasing awareness of the unique value each of us brings to a group, as well as the joy of being part of a group.  —michaelfitzsimmons.com 

 

Serving the libraries of the Platte, Elkhorn and Missouri River valleys