Kidding About Blogs

Here is another good reason to watch what you talk about at the reference and circ desks. Liz Carrol's mother came into our branch Thursday evening to obtain articles about the case. What if we had been talking about it in a negative way?

In the upcoming days, we will be talking about a mission statement for youth services. We'll be starting on it tomorrow at our meeting. In the meantime, think about youth services in terms of mission. What do we hope to accomplish? What are our core values? What is our vision? Please blog any ideas or thoughts as they occur to you before and after the meeting.

Liz

Check this site out and tell me if this is something we can do as an organization to raise money. If we can't do it could we pitch it to the Friend's Umbrella Group?
paperretriever.com

This was so good, I have to share it!

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06222/712245-55.stm

http://teentechweek.wikispaces.com/

The YALSA web site has a link for a teen tech week wiki (see above URL). Check it out and see what you think.

http://blogs.ala.org/yalsa.php?title=6_steps_to_save_your_library_from_dopa&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

If any of you are interested, the above link (through ALA YALSA) provides some information about how to contact your senators and voice your concern.

I don't know about you guys, but if I never see a "gumby" style cat or dog toy again it will be too soon! Thanks to all of you for your promptness in dealing with the need to call all those parents and kids. I know it was a lot of work, and that it wasn't fun but was stressful. I appreciate the time you took to do it. On the administration front Tracey, Laura and I have fielding phone calls and questions most of the day. ( Oh, and emails, let's not forget the emails.)

If you haven't already seen news about it, you can expect to see some on channel 5, perhaps channel 19 and in the Enquirer. The Batavia Branch staff got stuck handling the channel 5 reporters today as well as photographers from the Enquirer. Angi R. was thrown into the role of impromptu library interviewee, and she did a wonderful job. I'm very proud of her.

Tracey and Laura should have sent out additional information today on talking points and agencies to contact. I know that Julie's on top of the website. It was a slow news day today apparently, and everyone seems to be picking up on it. (Gee it would be nice if someone else in the world had a crisis that needed to be reported on.) The Board is aware of the situation, and has been satisifed with the staff response. I've made a point of telling them how quickly staff responded to the crisis.

The interesting aspect of this is the email I got from OLC late this afternoon. Apparently they had just been notified about it. Their recommendation was to do nothing until Highsmith re-tested the product (about 4 weeks). They also recommended that if anything else had to be done, it be very low key and to limit library actions to consulting legal council. I let them know what we have already done, because it doesn't fit their suggestions at all. They are NOT going to be happy with us, but in this case, I don't think their advice is sound.

I'm amazed at how quickly word on this item got out via the internet in the first place. We were already getting phone calls from members of the public yesterday before we decided to do a voluntary recall of the item. I think Tracey was probably one of the first people to fill out a request for testing on the item. One county agency picked up a few of the toys today to test them. I get updates on library articles in the news from google on a daily basis, and today's articles indicate that there are libraries in Indiana, Oregon, Michigan, Ohio, Wyoming and I'm assuming Illinois that are recalling the item.

With luck, some other library will do something spectacular in a day or two and this will become old news. In the meantime, you guys are great! Thanks for the work you put into this process.

Hi everyone. I just wanted to share an idea for a successful teen program. I did a program based on the movie High School Musical. We played nerf basketball knock out, used a dance pad or you could let them dance to the dance portion of the video or the soundtrack. We had a trivia contest with prizes and we set up a concession stand with popcorn, candy, snacks and soda. We also made buttons with pictures of the characters from the movie. The kids had a great time and so did I!

http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006608050330

Just wondering if there were any plans to do a recall/replacement for our system?

It's always something, isn't it????


edited 8/9:

Sorry. I was home sick for 2 days, posting while on decongestants. (Blogging under the influence?) I did see the barrage of memos regarding this issue today.

Glad to see that there's replacement underway!

Okay folks, the program is over! I can tell from observation and informal feedback that it went well this year. But does anyone have any specific comments to make?

I think Kevin and Erin up in Milford did a bang up job working on it. Wow!

Bad news, in the OLC electronic newsletter this week they announced that the House of Representatives had just passed a bill that requires library and schools getting e-rate refunds to filter and block social networking and chat sites for children. We get e-rate and it's a fair amount of money, so if the bill passes the senate, we'll probably have to deal with the results. The senate will take up debate on it next week.

If you want to weigh in on the topic either pro or con; let me suggest you get in touch with your US Senator and tell them what you think.