August

2016

North Central Library District

Going the Extra Mile for Libraries

Joshua Hudson Joins the District Team

We're excited to introduce Joshua Hudson as our new District IT Consultant. Joshua is a graduate of Penn State University with a degree in Information, Science, and Technology with a small focus in business. He moved to Lock Haven from Lewiston for better employment opportunities and to be closer to some local hobbies. Joshua is looking forward to meeting you and identifying your technology needs.

Joshua will be in the field visiting your libraries, troubleshooting, inventorying, and providing support. Joshua will also be evaluating and creating training tools and scheduling training sessions where needed.

Joshua can be reached via email: jhudson@jvbrown.edu or call (570) 326-0536, extension 152.

STEM Maker Kits Coming Soon!

The North Central Library District received funding through a Library Services and Technology Act grant to provide STEM Maker Kits for our member libraries to check out. We'll be providing a complete list soon. Here are a few of the items that have come in so far:

littleBits Electronics Gizmos and Gadgets Kit

4M Salt Water Powered Robot kit

Young Scientist Series Set 1

Zometool Creator 3 Construction Kit

Ravensburger Science X CSI Crime Scene Investigation Activity Kit

Young Scientist Series Set 4

Forensic Science Detective

Dash Robot

And more...

We ordered duplicates of several kits so that kids can work in groups with the same kits. Keep these in mind as you plan childrens programs!

Youth Services Update

Summer Reading: The Summer Reading Survey is now open. It is accessed in the same way as the annual report. Go to pa.countingopinions.com. login with the annual report username and password.

One Book Library Survey: In return for the One Book materials, all libraries are asked to answer a few questions in this survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/onebooklibrary. Your input will help to ensure that funding will remain available for the program.

Mother Goose on the Loose: Registration links will go out soon for two Mother Goose on the Loose workshop opportunities. Two workshops will be offered in the Pittsburgh and Lancaster areas with more to be scheduled in 2017.

Books on the Go: Twelve activity sheets that feature BookFlix pairs have been created and are available on the Cruise game website www.pacruisetok.org. The sheets promote the portability of BookFlix and provide extension ideas for families.

Cruise Day: Saturday, October 15 will be the second and hopefully now annual Cruise Day. The workshop will take place at the Kalahari Conference Center the day before PaLA begins. This year's program will focus on language, literacy and STEAM with found and upcycled materials. Our speakers will be Lisa Daly and Miriam Beloglovsky, authors of Loose Parts and Loose Parts II.

Block Parties and Wee Build: Susan Pannebaker will be sending information and applications out for libraries to apply for one of the two programs soon. This opportunity will only be open to those libraries who do not currently offer either program. So far we have the programs in 260 libraries. Watch for this opportunity!

Overdrive

Need to find Overdrive stats for your library? Click here. The statistics are updated around the first of every month.

Need instruction sheets for devices? Click on the links below to access eBranch2Go Getting Started sheets:

Don't Forget the Compendium

Don't miss out on news at the state level. The latest Compendium is packed with information about workshops, webinars, the recent PEW Research Report, library news and more.