WebJunction

Hello,

My name is Al Peterson. I'm the Training Coordinator at the North Dakota State Library. I've been the Head of Public Services, Reference librarian/trainer, and Head of Disabilities Services prior to moving into a full time position of Training Coordinator. I've been at the State Library for six years. I've been traveling around the state conducting some basic training on using the online catalog and the databases for teachers and staff at schools and public libraries. I'm also involved with library services promotion by staffing booths at different trade fairs, in fact, I'm going this afternoon to staff a booth at the North Dakota Tribal Leaders & tribal Councils Summit. I'm looking forward to learning more about the Rural Library Sustainability Project and promoting Webjunction throughout North Dakota.

Greetings from Delaware and Maryland! My name is Cathay Crosby. I work for the Cecil County Public Library in NE Maryland as the Electronic Services Librarian. My responsibilties include computer training for staff and public, Web master, AskUsNow Liasion for the Cecil County team, eLibrary, and databases.

I'm just finishing up my MLIS with Drexel University. My final class is "Library Automation" - highly appropriate focus upon how libraries' ILS and Web-based resources have evolved and where we can lead them in the near future, including how to make our online resources accessible for all.

I look forward to meeting everyone - especially in light of how important our computer resources and materials are for our service communities. Our library is currently conducting a user satisfaction survey; the results will be waiting for me when I return...and I'm sure I'll be pumped up with all the new ideas and motivations. See you in Seattle!

Hello from Idaho:

My name is Erin McCusker and I am a Library Consultant with the Idaho Commission for Libraries. I am based in our state capitol of Boise. I am a liaison between the librarians at the local level and the Commission. I spend time on the road visiting librarians in person, working with trustees and providing continuing education and meeting facilitation, then more time in the office preparing for all these activities. The Commission administers the LSTA grant program, so all consultants are involved in this as well.

One of the very cool things that we are doing at this time is showcasing “e-branch in a box” – a new project to help all libraries in Idaho to have an interactive, vital web presence. Using the open source software Drupal, librarians can provide a website for their customers with a minimum of training and time. We have a few pilot libraries using the system and our training to bring others on occurs this fall.

This project came out of our 2020 Vision statewide futuring efforts over the last year. One of the statewide initiatives of the 2020 Vision was to serve digital natives. This also led to a Digital Natives Symposium held this past July. Attendees were challenged and inspired by our guest speakers – Stephen Abram, Alane Wilson, Sarah Houghton and Aaron Schmidt. It is exciting to see the enthusiasm this symposium generated in Idaho’s libraries and the changes that are being made to better serve this population.

I’m looking forward to working with all of you and hearing about the exciting things that are happening in the libraries in your states.

See you next week, Erin

My name is Charles Bolles and I serve as the CE Consultant for the Idaho Commission for Libraries. I have been in this position for only a few months and have been enjoying working at this level after many years in state library administration. I am also serving as the Idaho Coordinator for the Rural Library Sustainability Project, and if needed, as a backup trainer. Small library management has long been a priority of our agency's CE efforts and we are hoping that this project will be a natural extension of those efforts. Erin McCusker has done a very nice job of summarizing the state of library development in Idaho at this stage so I will refer you to her entry rather than repeat what she has reported. I would only add that the Commission is an agency in transition and that this is a challenging and exciting time in our history.

I'll post this elsewhere too, but John, here's the contact for the tangle toys:
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<a href="http://www.shumsky.com/index.cfm">Shumsky</a>
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Jennifer Sanderow [jennifer.sanderow@shumsky.com]