I hadn't fully understood Emerging Leaders when I applied. I knew it was a program for newer librarians, you have to be under 35 or in the profession for less than five year, and I fit both those bills. What I didn't understand was its purpose - what was I leading or learning to lead? Emerging Leaders is not a program that teaches you how to be a leader at your library. Its goal is to create leaders within the American Library Association. You are meant, after completing the program, to have gained the experience and connections necessary to work on American Library Association committees and roundtables in a leadership capacity.

My first hurdle after learning I had been accepted was finding funding to attend both the Midwinter Meeting and the ALA Annual Conference. Only 50% of Emerging Leader Participants get sponsorship by various roundtables and organizations along with their acceptance into the program - the rest need to look for institutional, scholarship, or state association support. I spoke with the Massachussets Library Association (I work in Massachusetts), URI GSLIS, my library, and I applied for any scholarship could think of. URI promised some support, as did the trustees of my library, and MLA promised to start thinking about creating a mechanism for Emerging Leaders support - just finding money to go to the conference felt like committee work!

Emerging Leaders are asked to choose a program or committee work proposal from a several options, then they are placed in groups of four or five people and tasked with working on their selected project for six months. The project I chose was the Public Library Association Conference Committee - I would be working with five other public librarians to help the PLA conference committee choose what programs would be a part of PLA 2012 in Philadelphia, I would be helping to plan an "Unconference," and present a program at the conference. I was ecstatic.  

My group and I began brainstorming what program we would present when we realized - the conference is in 2012, that is not a six month project, it is a year and a half away! Together we came up with a small project idea that we could present after our six-month-long EL tenure was over, but we learned a valuable lesson - the Emerging Leaders program doesn't have a beginning and an end - it is a jumping off point for increased engagement in association work.

Conference planning means looking further ahead in my professional life than I ever have before.  How will I know what librarians will be interested in in a year and a half? Will Web 2.0 be passe`? Is it passe´ now?  Working with people across the country (which poses the extra challenge of coordinating time zones), and learning to be confident in myself as a professional with ideas to contribute at a national level is a challenge I welcome. 

Have you noticed a surge in questions about downloading eBooks since the holidays? No surprise, since eBook readers were the hot gift this year. OSL statistics show a sharp rise in eBook downloads since the holidays, and there are currently over 2,000 holds pending for eBooks. The demand will only continue to grow.
 

As librarians, our patrons look to us for help navigating technology and sifting through information. Are we prepared to help them? If you don't have an eReader, it can be difficult to assist patrons when they ask for help. Never fear, RILA is here to provide a quick and easy guide to helping people download eBooks.   

Ereaders: Nothing to be afraid of

The least you need to know:
Although the Kindle is probably the most well-known brand of eReader, you cannot download books from the library E-Zone onto a Kindle. Why? Kindle is owned by Amazon, and the device only works with titles purchased from Amazon. So if someone owns a Kindle, there's nothing the library can do for them - at least until Amazon decides to cooperate.

There are many, many other devices that WILL work on the OSL E-Zone. You can check which devices are supported here.

Okay, you've guided your patron to information on which eReader is right for them. Well done! What's next?

It's not quite so simple as "check out and enjoy." There's a learning curve, at least at first. There's free software to download and activate. A detailed explanation of each step of the process would make this guide neither quick nor easy. Ever-helpful libraries have begun posting videos and guides that will help you and your patrons through every step of the process. We've listed a couple below.

Nooktalk

Warwick Public

• Auto-suggest feature matches the question you start to type with existing question and answer pairs.  Also matches keywords in a question, so if you just type "hours" into the search box, it will match a question that answers what the library's hours are.
• Questions and Answers can be organized into topic categories.
• If your question is not already answered in LibAnswers, it defaults to a yellow submission form that allows you to ask it and receive an answer via email.  This question/answer pair can then be added into the LibAnswers system for future users to access.
• You can embed your own Instant Message Reference service, like MEEBO
   
• LibAnswers offers its own SMS text reference service that allows you to send and receive text messages from patrons through the LibAnswers web-based platform (so you don't have to actually send the texts from a cell phone)
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• "Where was a question asked?"
• "Who asked it?"
• "What was the transaction duration?"
• "What was the question's subject?"
• The month, day of the week, and time a question was asked.

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• I've had many nice things said of/to me and one that stands out is something my assistant director said the other week.  She said, "Thank you for being you."  It made me happy.  It's not something you hear often, especially at work!

• Once, I had a patron thank me by baking me a cake.  It was a delicious way of saying, "I appreciate your help."

• At least once a week, I get a thank you from a patron and I really know that they mean it.  It's my favorite part of being a librarian. 

• An elementary education student from RIC came in every week with a different assignment involving children's books.  Everytime she saw me she said "thank goodness you are here you always save my life."

• High school students telling me that they wish I was a teacher at their school because I am one of the nicest people they have ever met.

• Families who have immigrated to this country have on numerous times called me their "guardian angel."

• Parents ask me to talk to their teenagers for them because I'm young and I'm cool and they will listen to me over their parents.

• Every time I get in late to my building after a meeting somewhere in the state I have a group of middle/high school students waiting for me and as I walk in they bombard me with : "Where have you been?? We have been waiting for you! You know we only come here to see you."  

• A high school student from the Dominican Republic who always tells me that I am his best friend because I always know what kind of movies he will be interested in.

• In general, when any student, parent, or child comes into my room and says "yes! you're here!"  always makes my day

• About seven or eight years ago, our branch had a young man in storytime who took a particular shine to Mrs. McMillen, storytime assistant extraordinaire. (He was one of many throughout the years.)  This boy of four years knew that usually adults who are not family are generally not pals with kids the way other kids are, but he really, really wanted Mrs. McMillen to be his friend. So he came up with a plan and told Mrs. M, 'If you can get really small, as small as me by this afternoon, I want you to come to my house to play video games."  As you can imagine, the whole staff knew that Mrs. McMillen had been paid the greatest compliment ever.

• The reference staff at Warwick Public Library have been included in the Acknowledgments section of 2 books written by a local Warwick author--Les Rolston.  He was very thankful for our generous assistance when conducting research when he was writing Long Time Gone: Neighbors Divided by the Civil War and Lost Soul: A Confederate Soldier in New England. Each staff member was mentioned by name!
   

• Local author Mike Stanton thanked the staffs of Cranston's William Hall Library and the Providence Athenaeum his book The Prince of Providence - the book was recently adapted into a movie and is coming soon to a theater near you!
   

• This may not be the nicest thing--at least I hope not--but when the ProJo carried a picture and a tiny article about my appointment to the Advisory Committee to the 1991 White House Conference on Library and Information Services, the elementary-school-age daughter of a patient of my late husband read the article and told her mother that she wanted to be a librarian when she grew up!

• My favorite patron story is a very energetic 80 year old woman who worked on a Bachelor's degree in history and finally received it from URI last spring. She was a Registered Nurse with a large family who promised herself that if she ever had the chance, she would study history, which she had always wanted to do. Her father wanted her to have a practical job she could support herself with, hence the RN. After many years of putting her family first, she finally retired and started working on a degree in the field she'd always loved. She was a frequent visitor to the library while she worked on her degree and I helped her multiple times. She was so grateful every time I found the right book, or showed her database searching, she made me feel wonderful. She was really excited to get her degree and came in to express her gratitude again. She thinks the library and librarians are fabulous! She is a very special person and I always enjoyed helping her.

• About six or seven years ago while I was working in the Young Readers area at the North Kingstown Free Library. Two middle school-age boys were looking for information about daily life in ancient Egypt.  While I was showing them books on the subject, they looked through several, and one exclaimed something like, "Yes! We have information" while high-fiving each other.  A few months later, one of the boys came up to me and asked me if I remembered helping him and his friend with their research, and he said they received an A on their project.

• "Your library, with your librarians, is the only place in our community where my son, age 4, inquires, speaks, plays and interacts independently, with great confidence and enthusiasm. Thank You!"

• A patron wanted to show me a new piece of technology he'd gotten for Christmas, but before taking it out he said, "You probably know all about this already, because you're a librarian and librarians are smart." Although I wasn't familiar with the handheld device he proceeded to show me, I certainly appreciated his faith in my chosen profession!

• In the late 1970's, we got together magazine articles and books on cancer treatments, including diet, for a male patron.   Some of these were specific topics and titles he requested, others were resources we felt would be helpful to him.   He wrote us a letter and also thanked us in person for "saving his life."   There is no feeling better than that!

• Once while working at the reference desk, a young woman asked me for David Macaulay's "Motel of the Mysteries" which in our library is shelved in PN which is on the first floor. So when we went down and got it, she was so happy that she turned and gave me a big hug! Clearly she was happy to relive some fond childhood memories.

This grant will assist PCL in pursuing a major goal for this year - to begin creating a unified, system-wide after-school educational program that will be built on a foundation of highly successful programs that have been offered at the nine libraries throughout the years.   PCL wants to provide formal year-round programming and daily after-school homework help and tutoring for youths ages 7-18 in each of our nine libraries.
 

Providence Public Library is pleased to announce their new website!  The site was redesigned to make it easier to use and to highlight their unique collections, resources and services.  Stop by provlib.org and check it out.
 

Newport Public Library has a new website as well.  New features include online magazines, a database slide show and much more!
 

President Obama Signs Museum and Library Services Act of 2010

 The President signed into law the Museum and Library Services Act of 2010 (S. 3984) on December 22, 2010.

AskRI-- On Nov 15 Mango Languages added 9 new languages.  On Dec 10 they added another seven:

So now whether you or your patrons are going to Prague, Amsterdam or Jakarta, you can go armed with the ability to communicate with the natives!

TAP Information Services and the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University are pleased to announce another in the ongoing series of online conferences on hot topics that librarians can enjoy right at their desktops. 

Keynote Speaker:  Dr. Sandra Hirsh, Professor and Director of the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University.  She will draw from her experiences working in libraries and in industry to discuss the current and varied job opportunities for information professionals both inside libraries and in other job settings.
 

Full schedule, registration and a complete list of programs are available on the Trendy Topics website.

Grants:

2011 National Leadership Grant Guidelines are now available.  The Institute of Museum and Library Services is accepting grant applications for the agency's 2011 National Leadership Grant.  Applications, guidelines and examples of successful proposals are available on the agency's website.  The deadline for application is February 1, 2011.