Author Archive: Jill R

Simply Strategic Webinar

Simply Strategic Webinar

Wednesday, May 4
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
This Webinar Will Be Hosted at SALS: 22 Whitney Place, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

Ron Kirsop, from the Pioneer Library system, will talk about a simple strategic planning process that any library can implement to build a meaningful strategic plan. The key elements of the process include aspiration-oriented focus groups, a simple community survey, and discussions with internal members of the library. This presentation will explain the evolution of the model, the elements applied during the planning stages, the responsibilities of all parties involved, and how this model promotes future planning.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Steps involved with a simplified strategic planning process,
  2. How to use data to set priorities for your library,
  3. Questions to ask your community through surveys, focus groups, and interviews

SALS & MVLS Enter Next Phase of Zepheira Experimenter Program

In today’s world, people expect information to be available with the tap of a finger.  When questions arise, they turn to their smartphones, tablets and other devices for instantaneous answers.  Many think to search the web before searching their local library’s catalog.  Search engines such as Google help people globally with daily tasks.  Yet until recently, there was no way to find library material without first going to the catalog; this is changing.

Member libraries of the Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS) and the Mohawk Valley Library System (MVLS) are participants in the Zepheira Experimenter Program, and have joined their Libhub Initiative.  The first step in this program was to reformat up to 1,000,000 member library records to Bibframe—a web-friendly vocabulary for describing library resources utilizing linked data principles.

These records are now part of the collaborative Library.Link Catalog, which has turned the data into web pages that can be indexed and then easily found through Google searches. This indexing process is still progressing, so not all data is available yet.  However, users can already find links to our catalog at the top of some web searches.

Library offerings will rise to the top of direct Internet searches.  Adding either “Mohawk Valley” or “Southern ADK” to a web search — let’s use “Downton Abbey Season 6” as an example — will bring you to the Link.sals.edu site, and then redirect you straight to the cataloged holdings of that item.  If you search “Battle of Saratoga Southern ADK,” library collections will appear on the first page, enabling you to quickly find the item in the catalog through a single Google search.  Numerous other items have already been indexed; we encourage you to explore this new option.

At the library, we often hear sentences that begin, “I didn’t know the library had…”  By making our data accessible to search engines we hope that new, existing, and potential patrons will discover that there is far more available at their library than they realized.

This endeavor is supported by funds allocated by New York State Senator Farley to both library systems; the program will run through June 30, 2016.

View the Press Release

About the Southern Adirondack Library System
The Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS) is a voluntary association of 34 public libraries in Hamilton, Saratoga, Warren and Washington Counties. SALS is one of 23 public library systems in New York State; its mission is to help member libraries meet community needs.  http://www.sals.edu

About the Mohawk Valley Library System
The Mohawk Valley Library System (MVLS) is a co-operative library system supporting public libraries in Fulton, Montgomery, Schenectady, and Schoharie Counties.  http://www.mvls.info

About Zepheira
Zepheira was founded in 2007 and has extensive experience creating products and solutions focused on the modernization of library information systems. Zepheira’s founders and staff have played key roles in pioneering the next generation of the Web, including the semantic technology underlying most Web applications. http://www.zepheira.com

Accessible Library Customer Service

Accessible Library Customer Service
Tuesday, March 22, 2016 at 10:00am

Please join us to learn and talk about how to provide outstanding customer service to all of your patrons, including patrons with disabilities. Valerie Lewis, the Administrator of Outreach Services at the Suffolk Cooperative Library System, will highlight easy and cost effective ways to ensure access to all front line customer services. We will focus on:

  • What does the law say
  • Who is responsible for accessible library services
  • Communication Tools
  • Appropriate Terminology
  • Accessible Library Materials
  • Assistive Devices in Your Library
  • How to get started

The link to the March 22nd webinar is:   https://www.gotomeet.me/SCLS

All are welcome and encouraged to participate. The webinar will be recorded and available at a later date.

If you have questions, please contact Valerie Lewis 631-286-1600, x1354 or by email at valerie@suffolknet.org