March Meeting Minutes

Hi Everyone!

The Adult Services Roundtable met on March 29th at the new Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest which is fantastic! In attendance were Katie Moellering (EOL), Mary Donlevy (EOL), Jason Brown (HV), Deni Owens (HV), Gina Robertson (Gardendale), Joy Lee (Clay), David Ryan (BPL), and Dianne Clark (Bessemer). We were led on a tour by our great friend and Reference Librarian Leslie West. After the tour we convened in the beautiful meeting room looking out over the forest to discuss A to Z Databases, a new database company whose product we recently previewed on a trial basis. The consensus among members at the meeting (as well as via members not present who provided an email response) was that the database was still too new for us to consider switching from Reference USA. Additionally, Ref USA offered the cooperative a discount to renew this year. The members at the meeting unanimously felt it would be in the county's best interest to remain with Reference USA for the time being.

Additionally, Amanda Bonner at Hoover requested that we share information regarding Free Legal Assistance for self-represented parties. This service is offered by the Birmingham Volunteer Lawyers Program - check it out!

And speaking of they law, our topic for the meeting this month will be business and legal resources - please bring your books and ideas! We will meet at Emmet O'Neal Library on March 29, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. in the library's Conference Room.

-Katie M.

Adult Programming - PLD Presentation

Hi Everyone
For those of you who attended the PLD presentation on Adult Programming at Homewood back in January, I have FINALLY added my presentation to the blog.

And here it is!

I hope you enjoy it!

Also, in the very near future I will post some information about free or almost free speakers and programs in and around the Birmingham area. If you are outside Jefferson County and have some speakers you would like to add, please let me know!

katie m.

Best Practices Meeting Minutes

The Adult Services Roundtable met on Tuesday, January 18th at Emmet O'Neal Library at 10:00 a.m. Our topic was best practices.

In attendance were:

Katie Moellering (Emmet O'Neal)

Mary Donlevy (Emmet O'Neal)

Dianne Clark (Bessemer)

Lorraine Walker (Five Points West)

William Darby (Eastwood)

We discussed best practices in various areas of day to day library business including paging list, staffing and collection development.

Changes to our downloadable collection were discussed.

We talked about magazines and circulation, newspapers, Consumer Reports (which is a favorite resource for many patrons) and use of databases.

We had a lively discussion about tax forms, the ease of receiving them (!!!!) and what we will do now that many libraries have received drastically fewer copies of them form than in previous years.

Lorraine brought a flyer from Five Points West that she uses to promote new books each month.

We discussed which libraries have and use televisions in their libraries (such as at Eastwood and Five Points).

We also discussed best practices for cell phones, computers and privacy issues and finally security issues.

Our next meeting is scheduled for March 29th. We hope to meet at Vestavia's new library for a tour.

Ebook Meeting Minutes

November 2010

ASRT Meeting Minutes - E-books

The Adult Services Roundtable meeting took place on November 16, 2010 at Emmet O’Neal Library.

In attendance were:
Theresa Davis (Hoover) Dianne Clark (Bessemer) Bonnie Bannister (Warrior)
Sally Sizemore (Hoover) Patricia Guarino (Hoover) Mary Donlevy (Emmet O’Neal)
Jared Millet (BPL) Deni Owens (Hoover) Katie Moellering (Emmet O’Neal)

Members of ASRT discussed the issue of ebooks. It was mentioned that the website would be re-designed to reflect new content including more drop down options for patrons to choose from. There is also a “buy it now” option which allows patrons to purchase titles directly rather than checking them out. A portion of the proceeds comes back to JCLC. In general, the website should have a cleaner look and better organization.

We discussed the forms of software required when a patron downloads title for the first time. In addition we discussed some of the problems patrons have reported when downloading.

Patricia Guarino told us Hoover will host meetings on a regular basis to cover developments and other issues with downloadable audio and ebooks. She also mentioned a project funded by Overdrive - an ebook accessibility program. called LEAP through which our library members apply and their fees are paid by Overdrive.

Information and an application can be found here:
http://www.overdrive.com/files/LEAP.pdf

Hoover will be offering classes once a month on using ebooks. Staff from Barnes & Noble will be on hand to provide information on downloading, browsing the store and the library’s websiteas well as features of the Nook, how to download, etc. The library cannot and will not sell the Nook or take orders.

One of our members reported that Overdrive’s blog is very good and offers lots of tips and advice to its users.

Overdrive’s blog can be found here:
http://overdriveblogs.com/library/

Remember, there is also a wiki for JCLC library staff to use. If you would like access to it, go to the Shared Resources section of the JCLC intranet. For a password to add to or edit the wiki, please email Elizabeth Swift

Our next meeting will be January 18, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. at Emmet O’Neal Library.

Katie Moellering

Emmet O'Neal Library