Newsletter of the Maine Library Association and the Maine State Library

VOLUME 23, NO. 1 ~ JANUARY 2001

Editor
Anastasia S. Weigle
Editor's Note: The Maine Memo comes out during the first week of each month. If you would like to send information to be put on the Maine Memo, you can e-mail me at aweigle@warren.lib.me.us.

If you have a change of address, please contact:
Joan Kiszely
Maine Municipal Association
60 Community Drive, Augusta, Maine 04330
Tel: 623-8428/1-800-452-8786
Fax: 626-5947

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE ONE
Calendar of Events
Education/Training/Workshops
Here's an F.Y.I.
Job Opportunities

PAGE TWO
ALA News
Library Electronic Mailing Lists
News from the Maine Libraries Conference
Web Links of the Month


CALENDAR OF EVENTS 2001



EDUCATION/TRAINING/WORKSHOPS
 
PUBMED CLASS. A PUBMED class will be held, weather permitting, on Friday January 26, 2001 at St. Joseph's College from 1:00pm - 4:00pm. The class will be taught by Daniel Dollar, Education Coordinator, from the NNLM office in Connecticut. The cost for the class is free. If you are interested in joining us for the class, then please send an email to Jackie Hittner at jhittner@sjcme.edu and include the following information:
 
Name:
Address:
Work Phone:
Email Address:
 
Directions to the school will be sent to those interested. Hope many will take this opportunity to learn about PUBMED. PUBMED is MEDLINE - the medical journal database produced by the National Library of Medicine. About 3 years ago, the American public was given free access to this database through the NLM in the hopes of getting medical information more widely distributed. This database is used by physicians, nurses, researches in medicine and now that it is available to the public - the public is using it to obtain medical information. Hope this answers the question of what is PUBMED.
 
CATALOG CLASS. The Central Maine Library District is sponsoring a six-week cataloging class March 6 - April 10. "Get to the Point: An Introduction to Cataloging" will be held on six Tuesday afternoons from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. at Lewiston High School. The instructor will be Bonnie Collins, who was the Director of Technical Services at the Maine State Library for 26 years.
 
This introductory course offers both beginners and experienced librarians an opportunity to develop skills that will increase the accessibility of their library collections. "Get to the Point" looks at all the latest bibliographical cataloging rules and procedures and adapts them to your library's needs. MARC format and non-book items will be also be covered.
 
Registration fee is $140. (postmarked by Feb 6th), or $150 after Feb 6th. Two CEU's will be awarded for successful completion of the course, which includes homework assignments and a project. Space is limited. To receive a registration flyer, contact Cheryl Ramsay at the Maine State Library mailto:cheryl.ramsay@state.me.us or call 287-5620 or 1-800-322-8899.
 
CLASSES AT SUNY BUFFALO. The Department of Library and Information Studies at the University at Buffalo will offer two graduate courses over the Internet for Spring 2001 (January 16 - April 30). They are:
 
** Selection, Acquisition and Management of Non-Book Materials http://www.sils.buffalo.edu/faculty/ellison/Syllabi/519Complete/519_home.html
 
** Intellectual Freedom. http://www.sils.buffalo.edu/faculty/ellison/Syllabi/580/580_home.html
 
For more detailed information regarding these courses and off campus completion of the MLS, read "Distance Learning": http://www.sils.buffalo.edu/faculty/ellison/distance.html. Persons with questions regarding the above courses should contact: Dr. John Ellison at ellison@cecomet.net
 
ACRL NEW ENGLAND CHAPTER CALENDAR OF CONFERENCES AND CONTINUING EDUCATION 2000 & 2001
 
January 12-17. American Library Association Midwinter Meeting, Washington, D.C. Info: http://www.ala.org/events/mw2001/

February 2, Friday. ACRL/NEC Information Technology Interest Group "XML/XHTML"
 
March 15-18, Thursday-Sunday. Association of College & Research Libraries 10th Conference"Crossing the Divide" Denver, CO
Info: http://www.ala.org/acrl/denver.html
 
SAVE THE DATE: April 20, Friday. New England Technical Services Librarians (NETSL) Spring Conference. "Subject Organization of Web Resources": keynote with Lois Mai Chan, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA. Info: http://www.nelib.org/netsl/
Contact: John DeSantis, John.C.DeSantis@Dartmouth.edu
 
August 16-25, Thursday-Saturday International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) "IFLA 2001" Boston, MA
Info: http://www.ifla2001.org/
 
September 30-October 2, Sunday-Tuesday New England Library Association Conference (NELA) Burlington, VT
Info: http://www.nelib.org/
 
CONTINUING EDUCATION WEBSITES.
 
Graduate School of Library and Information Science / Simmons College
http://www.simmons.edu/gslis/programs/ce.html
 
Library Association Conferences
http://www.ala.org/cro/cal.html
 
Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners Continuing Education
http://www.mlin.lib.ma.us/noflash.html
 
Massachusetts Health Sciences Library Network (MAHSLIN)
http://nnlmner.uchc.edu/mahslin/calendar.html
 
Nelinet, Inc. Library Conferences and Meetings
http://www.nelinet.net/conf.htm
 
New England and Environs Preservation Calendar
http://www.mlin.lib.ma.us/mblc/ldev/preservation_calendar.shtml
 
New England Library Association (NELA)
http://www.nelib.org/
 
Southern Connecticut State University, Library Science and Information Technology
http://www.southernct.edu/catalogue/grad/LSC-ITC.html
 
University of Maine at Augusta, Library and Information Technology
http://www.uma.maine.edu/libraries/l&it_WEB/ulibMAINl&it.html
 
University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Libraryand Information Studies
http://www.uri.edu/artsci/lsc/conedu1.htm


HERE'S AN F.Y.I.

Gray Public Library Awarded Grant. The Gray Public Library is pleased to annouce that a grant submitted to the Davis Family Foundation in Falmouth, Maine has been funded. The grant was titled "Serving the Needs of the Homeschool Population." It was funded in the amount of $6,200.00 and will allow us purchase laptop computers and microscopes that can be loaned to community members as well as materials on Maine History, United States History and money to do some programming. We are very excited about this opportunity to extend services to this population of library users.
 
Maine Student Book Award Committee Welcomes New Members. The Maine Student Book Award Committee is pleased to introduce the Committee's newest members. Joan Spurgat is the Children's/Young Adult Librarian at the Wiscasset Public Library. She has been involved with library work in one way or another for her entire adult life. Joan is a member of the Maine Library Association. She lives in Edgecomb.
 
Connie Burns is the Library Media Specialist at Mahoney Middle School and the K-12 Library Coordinator for South Portland. Connie has been reviewing middle grade fiction for School Library Journal for over twenty years. She is a member of the Maine Association of School Librarians.
 
Linda Stanton is the Librarian at North Yarmouth Academy and before that was the Director of the Lisbon Falls Community Library. Linda is a member of the Maine Association of School Librarians and lives in Topsham.
 
Donna Maxim is a teacher at the Center for Teaching and Learning in Edgecomb. She is a member of the Maine Reading Association and past president of the New England Reading Association. Donna served on the National Council of Teachers of English during which time she was co-editor of School Talk.
 
The Maine Student Book Award Committee is composed of twelve members, four each from the Maine Library Association, the Maine Association of School Librarians and the Maine Reading Association. Each committee member makes a commitment to serve for four years, reading, reviewing and sharing the tasks, which support the Maine Student Book Award.
 
Biographical sketches of all of the MSBA Committee members, an annotated reading list of the 2000-2001 titles and a review form may be seen on the
official MSBA website: wwww.windham.lib.me.us/msba.htm.
 
SURVEY REQUEST FROM PASCAL. Tami Christorpher, who is now working at the Maine State Museum and is doing a presentation on outreach, would like to put out a survey that will help shape her program to PASCAL's specific needs and wishes. Please answer the questions below and return it by email to Ms. Susie Bock, Special Collections Librarian as USM at bocks@me or print out and
send to: Susie Bock, Special Collections, USM Library at bocks@usm.maine.edu or mail to: Susie Bocks, Special Collections, 314 Forest Ave., PO Box 9301, Portland, ME, 04104-9301.
 
K-12 Educational Outreach Survey
 
Name:
Organization:
Address:
Phone:
Email:
 
1. Does your organization currently provide any educational outreach programs? If so, please explain briefly.
2. Are there any particular types / methods of educational outreach that you are interested in? If so, please explain?
3. Is there a particular component of your collection that you are interested in using for education? If so, explain briefly.
4. Do you have a website?
5. Please list any particular questions or issues you would like addressed.
 
NEW HOMEWORK HOUR AT MEMORIAL LIBRARY. The Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library is pleased to introduce The Homework
Hour to the community. The staff will make themselves available to help direct students to: research materials; navigation help on the Web; and interlibrary loan and copier services. Because the staff is entirely unprepared to assist with any homework that requires a post-multiplication level math, the library plans to offer subject-specific tutor services in the near future. We are looking for volunteers who are willing to give one hour a week of their time helping us provide education services in our community. The Homework Hour will run from 3:00-4:00 pm weekday afternoons, Tuesdays through Fridays. College and homeschool students are encouraged to take advantage of this program. Homework Hour is also available on Wednesday evenings from 6:00-7:00 pm with advance notice. Interested volunteers can call Diane at 633-3112.
 
NELA Counterparts. Conterparts is NELA's annual leadership retreat for members of state library association boards, regional library organizations, and others. This year's dates are Thursday-Friday, July 26 - 27, 2001, at Connecticut College, New London, CT (20 minutes from Mystic Seaport and Foxwoods). The program will generally be on the topic of leadership, perhaps surrounding developing a leadership academy for New England librarians. According to Lucy Langone, Past President of NELA, the meeting spaces and dorm are really nice and folks can stay CHEAPLY Friday night if they want to see Mystic on Saturday. NELA has a new website at www.nelib.org.
Also, the NELA Conference 2001 will be held at the Sheraton Burlington in Burlington, VT, from September 30 - October 2, 2001.
 
MLA PR Committee "HeadUp" Announcement! The co-chairs of the PR Committee are looking for creative and dedicated librarisn to join PR. If we could get one member per each library district, then PR could help promote Maine Libraries throughout the state. Public Relations is a big job and two people isn't enough to get the job done. So we're counting on other librarians to jump on the band wagon and give us a helping hand. If you're interested, please contact Carolyn Hughes at hughe@usm.maine.edu or 780-4671 or Anastasia Weigle at aweigle@warren.lib.me.us or 854-5891.
 
SAMPLE PRESS RELEASE PROMOTING ONLINE EBSCO DATABASES. The following is a draft press release concerning our online databases. Please put in the name of your library and share with a local paper or two. This should help increase public awareness of this wonderful resource. This can also go in newsletters, to heads of local organizations, and to whomever else you believe should see it. Feel free to edit it. By now some of you may have great local use stories to share. Since several people have said to me, "Why spend money on this when it's all free on the Internet", I added the addendum. Use it as and if you see fit.
 
All Maine Libraries Offer Online Reference Resources Thousands of Journals and other materials available for use both in libraries, schools, and homes. The (XYZ) Maine Public Library is pleased to announce the availability of electronic databases that provide our library patrons with access to thousands of periodical articles from a wide variety of on-line databases. Academic Search Elite, only one of the eleven databases purchased from EBSCO, provides cumulative full text coverage for more than 1,820 periodicals dating back to January 1990.
 
* Health Source Plus provides cumulative full text coverage for over 260 health-focused periodicals.
* Newspaper Source is an on-line collection of regional and national newspapers as well as several newswires and other news sources.
* MAS Ultra: School Edition contains general references resources.
* The Business Source elite database is the only online site containing the Harvard Business Review.
 
These titles represent only a portion of the information now available to every library (public, school, academic, and special) in the State of Maine.
Remote users (from home or other non-library sites) can access these same databases by entering the following web address: <http://libraries.maine.edu/mainedatabases/> and then clicking on "remote access". After entering your name, affiliate library and zip code, you may
access any of these databases from the comfort and convenience of your living room or den.
 
BIOSIS and Zoological Record, two databases with worldwide coverage of literature in the life sciences and literature with a focus on taxonomy are included in the roster. The Raymond H. Fogler Library, designated the Science, Technology and Business Library for the State of Maine, licensed these premier resources for statewide access. Please ask your local library for more information about these resources or call the Maine State Library at 287-5620.
 
FINAL NOTE: A model news release for use by libraries wishing to publicize the Maine Databases project with local media is available at: http://www.state.me.us/msl/ebrelease112001.htm In addition to an html version, document files in four word processing formats are also available for download and customization. Questions about the news releases should be directed to Linda Lord, Director of Library Development, Maine State Library, email Linda.Lord@state.me.us.


JOB OPPORTUNITIES


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The MAINE MEMO Deadline is the 25th of each month for the following month's issue.
E-mail the editor, Anastasia S. Weigle, at aweigle@warren.lib.me.us.

Updated: Friday, December 29, 2000