WebJunction

Congratulations to the 135 librarians selected to attend the Rural Forum at ALA Annual in Washington, D.C., next month! All of those chosen were participants in a Rural Library Sustainability workshop in one of the 34 states involved in the project this past year. Attending a national conference is an exciting and sometimes overwhelming experience, but it certainly is a well-deserved opportunity. Many of the librarians have begun to introduce themselves on WebJunction, foreshadowing the great sharing to come.  The July Rural Update will include resources, highlights, and pictures from the event...stay tuned!

In Focus Webinar: Tools for Outreach

Each month the Rural Library Sustainability Project presents an hour-long webinar related to the work of sustaining Rural and Small libraries. Join us next on May 24, 9:00 a.m. PT/12:00 p.m. ET, when we discuss Tool for Outreach: Best Practices from the Spanish Language Outreach Program. We'll explore the resources available on WebJunction as a part of our sister project, the Spanish Language Outreach Program, and how the tools can be applied to your planning for outreach of all kinds. Find out how to assess your community's needs, determine how successfully your library has integrated cultural awareness into your services, and, finally, learn how you can better connect to your changing community. Find instructions on joining as well as the archives and quick links at Rural In Focus.

Weekly Tips, Weekly Treasure

It's no secret that WebJunction is loaded with ideas to help make our jobs easier, but let's face it, who has the time to look? There's a great way to efficiently explore some hot topics through WebJunction's Weekly Tips featuring treasures like this one on Friends of the Library or this one on Teen Outreach. Best of all, you can subscribe to our weekly tips and receive them in your email inbox each week!

Course Highlights

Take a look at all the great learning opportunities in our Courses area. Each month we like to highlight a few of these great learning opportunities relevant to your work in rural and small libraries including the Course of the Month which is made available for the low price of $10! (WebJunction Community Partners may enroll in this course and all others in the course catalog at no cost, thanks to their state libraries). May's Course of the Month is Networking for End Users and in June we'll feature Building Relationships. And remember, any course you purchase through WebJunction is available to you for one full year.

Rural Message Board Highlights 

If you're new to WebJunction, be sure to visit Getting Around WebJunction Rural, which includes instructions on posting to the discussion boards.

Texas In Action!

It's time to highlight the great action planning from workshop participants in the Lone Star State! Everyone is always free to view the state specific discussion areas areas and glean from the great ideas that are being generated, and so this month be sure to check out Texas Action Plans. Thanks for all your great work for your communities and for your state!