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From Mary Frances Cooper, President and Director, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and District Administrator, Pittsburgh District Library Center, CLP
Welcome to Toby Greenwalt, Director of Digital Strategy and Technology Integration
I am pleased to announce that Toby Greenwalt has accepted the position of Director of Digital Strategy and Technology Integration at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Previously Virtual Services Coordinator for the Skokie Public Library, Toby has a national reputation as a leader in digital initiatives in public libraries. He has a strong track record of accomplishments and is much in demand as a conference speaker and presenter. Toby began with us on Tuesday, January 20. We are very fortunate to have a librarian of his caliber join our staff.
In addition to providing leadership and vision to CLP as we effectively integrate established, new and emerging technologies into our services, Toby will work collaboratively with eiNetwork and with ACLA on initiatives in support of a digital future for library service in our County. I expect you will be seeing him at various meetings as he learns more about us.
Facilitation Training Thanks
Thank you to everyone who participated in the Facilitation Training with Nicole Swerhun on January 9 and 10. As you schedule conversations with your community, remember that the CLP Facilitation Team is available to assist. Feel free to reach out to Molly Krichten, Karen Rossi, Karen Brooks, Julie Kuchta, Maggie McFalls or Holly Anderton if you have questions or need support. (You may, of course contact Nicole directly as well at nswerhun@swerhun.com).
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Teen Services
- LeeAnn Anna
When tragedy strikes, it can change our lives forever. There seems to be no one to turn to, and sometimes not even our best friends or family understand what we're going through. What's worse, we feel stuck and think that we may never be happy again. The books on this list, whether fiction or factual, speak of teens' lives after a tragic event and how the teens ultimately were able to get through difficult times.
Featured Resource
The Office of  Disability Employment Policy has developed two free career development resources to help young workers - both with and without disabilities - hone vital workplace skills. Called "Skills to Pay the Bills: Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success," the series includes a curriculum, videos and a discussion guide.
Targeted at youth ages 14 to 21, the resources include modular, hands-on activities that focus on six key skills: communication, enthusiasm and attitude, teamwork, networking, problem solving, and critical thinking and professionalism. The materials can be downloaded from the website or ordered by mail.
* View the Resources
* Read the Blog Post
Upcoming Events
The next Teen Services District Meeting will be held on February 14 from 10 am - 12 pm at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh - East Liberty, Programs and Partnerships Conference Room (2nd Floor).
See the new office space for CLP's Office of Programs and Partnerships, which includes Teen Services, and connect with colleagues! If you haven't done so already, please RSVP to LeeAnn at annal@carnegielibrary.org.
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Our Wired World - Sarah Beasley
A New Year Brings New Services
We're starting 2014 off with a bang as we continue to expand our county-wide eResource offerings. County-wide access to the Freegal digital music service was launched in January. This service allows anyone with an ACLA library card in good standing to download three free songs per week. There are millions of songs from tens-of-thousands of musical artists in hundreds of music genres. What library users find amazing about this service is that the music is theirs to keep!
Later this year we'll launch the Hoopla digital video and music service. Hoopla will offer thousands of movies and television episodes and more than 100,000 full music CDs. Customers will be able to stream or download the content (downloading is available on mobile devices only).
One of the best things about both Freegal and Hoopla, as well as our Zinio digital magazine service, is that every movie, show, song and magazine is always available. It doesn't matter if someone else already selected the item you are interested in; it's still there for you too. What's more, services like these allow us to expand our collections far beyond what any of us could feasibly house in our buildings.
Services like Freegal, Hoopla and Zinio are changing the way we think about library services. What remains the same is our focus on the library user. We are experimenting with new models that allow us to meet demand in a different way. To complement our well-loved standard services we are offering options to satisfy our users whether they can get to one of our libraries or not. It's a great time to be a librarian and a library user!
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Professional Resources: Help for Updating Job Descriptions
Looking for Library Staff Job Descriptions? Don't forget that WebJunction has hundreds of public library Job Descriptions posted for all levels of positions from libraries across the country.
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Name Change for the (former) CLP Foundation Center
In order to distinguish our Foundation Center from the stand-alone Foundation Center organization in New York and emphasize the breadth of our resources, CLP has renamed the department. Starting this month the department will be known as the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh - Nonprofit Resource Center. Our homepage has been updated to reflect this change.
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Job, Career & Education Center News
Major Changes to GED Testing in 2014 -
Is Your Library Prepared?
As of January 2, 2014 the General Education Development (GED) exam has been completely overhauled. This change will have several major impacts on those taking the exam:
- Anyone who made progress in the exam but did not complete it before the end of 2013 must now restart the process in 2014.
- The new version of the exam is more difficult.
- The new version of the exam is more expensive at $120 per attempt.
- The new version is completely computer-based.
The Pittsburgh Tribune Review provided a local take on these changes. The GED Testing Service website also provides information about the updates, including a FAQ.
Librarians who regularly encounter GED exam takers should be prepared to explain these changes. Likewise, if you have test books in your collections, make sure the GED study guides are the latest available.
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Music Department Reaches its Diamond Anniversary
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's Music Department is celebrating its 75th birthday! Since 1938 we've collected books about music, sheet music and scores. Formats have come and gone, with LP recordings replaced by CDs. Streaming and downloading may be the latest methods to obtain music for listening, but CDs, of which we have more than 30,000, are still a convenient way to go.
Our room full of CDs is divided into 39 genres including Accordion, Ballet, Blues, Choral, Chamber, Country, Folk, Gospel, Jazz, Musicals, Soundtracks, Opera, Rap/Hip Hop, Ragtime, Rock, Wedding and many more.
Browsing in the Music Department remains a wonderful way to discover music that's new to you. But don't forget there are options for borrowing from wherever you are. You and your library users can request any circulating item and have it delivered to your library. Or give our Department a call at 412.622.3105, and we'll be happy to assist you. Our full name is the Music, Film & Audio Department, and you can also call for assistance with our outstanding collection of DVDs.
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News and Reminders from Commonwealth Libraries
Ever Wonder "What do Library Users Want?"
The Impact Survey is an online tool developed specifically for libraries that want to survey their community about public access technology services at the library, and how to improve those services to enable better user outcomes.
The tool creates an "app-like" link to the survey that libraries can place on their public access computer terminals and their websites. The library receives reports and analysis of their community's responses, and also gets access to communications tools that can help them share the information with community leaders and decision makers.
Watch this archived webinar, Impact Survey: Understand Your Community's Technology Needs for more information.
Check out some of the Grant Opportunities on WebJunction Pennsylvania:
- Lego Children's Fund -April 15
- Honda - February 1 and May 1
- Safeway
- Google Ad Grant
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Professional Development
Looking for professional development opportunities? Consider the free webinars listed on the WebJunction Events Calendar.
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