C J R L C  UPDATE

Program Coordinator's Notes

    Sometimes non-librarian friends ask me how I find topics and speakers for workshops. I assure them that’s the easy part; there are many more programs and excellent presenters than there are spaces in the calendar. The real challenge is to schedule programs for the days and times when the people who want to attend can make it! Although there’s more administrative support for continuing education, it’s harder to schedule release time.

    We are also competing for your time with other organizations that run interesting and valuable programs. We don’t really think of it as competition, since we’re delighted to see more continuing education for library staff from any source — it ultimately benefits us all. But we do need your feedback to help us provide the right class at the right time. Please let me know if there are topics that you’d like to see presented; either repeats of previous programs or new ones. Call or email me anytime. I do read all the program evaluations and take them seriously, so that’s another way to indicate your needs and interests.

    Don’t forget to join us for the Monmouth Librarians’ luncheon on June 15th; it should be a lovely event, with Leslie Burger, incoming ALA President as our guest speaker. It’s not just for members! Check our website for details.

    A reminder for school librarians: I will be glad to present workshops on the free databases for faculty and administrators at in-service days at your school. In some schools, those days are being scheduled now for next year, so feel free to call or email me (roz@cjrlc.org).

Phyllis’ Favorites for June

Columbus and the Age of Discovery
http://muweb.millersville.
edu/~columbus/
http://www.columbus
navigation.com/

Drop Me Off in Harlem
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.
org/exploring/harlem/

Figure This!
http://www.figurethis.org/

Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive
http://jarda.cdlib.org/

MASSIVE: Math And Science Song Information, Viewable Everywhere
http://www.science-groove.
org/MASSIVE/

Mozart Project
http://www.mozartproject.org/

New York Public Library Digital Galley
http://digitalgallery.nypl.
org/nypldigital/

Online Etymology Dictionary
http://www.etymonline.com/

Quick World Maps
http://www.theodora.com/maps/
Countries of the World
http://www.theodora.com/wfb

Science Teachers’ Resource Center
http://chem.lapeer.org/

Virtual Training Suite
http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/
http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/teachers/

WebAnatomy - Physiology and Anatomy
http://www.msjensen.gen.
umn.edu/webanatomy/

Windows to the Universe
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/

Editor’s Note: To subscribe to an email list of selected daily websites 5 days/week, email Phyllis above.

Please notify Carol at carol@cjrlc.org if you know of retirements, new positions, or changes in position, so we can let all know and keep our membership directory up to date. The Membership Directory is available on our web site.

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ListenNJ.com

The service went live in January 2006 to twenty public, high school and community college libraries. Since then, customers have downloaded audiobooks over 5500 times from a collection of 944 general interest titles.

Rosalind Reisner works with a small team to review the “wait list” regularly. This group buys copies as needed and adds new titles monthly. We are approaching the time for participating libraries to renew and for new libraries to join the Digital Audiobooks Consortium.

If you are interested in Year Two, come to an information session on either July 6 (CJRLC) or July 20 (INFOLINK) at 10 AM. This year’s members are also encouraged to attend. Sign up with carol@cjrlc.org. And look at www.listennj.com!

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Health information for travelers at www.cdc.gov. Click on Travelers’ Health on the left side of the home page.

Thank you, Flora Higgins!

    Flora Higgins has mixed feelings about her June retirement from Monmouth County Library HQ in Manalapan: “I love everyone in this building; they’re family to me.” But she’s looking forward to having time for other activities: writing and teaching writing again, cooking, sewing, playing the piano, and walking on the beach. She’s been head of Public Relations for the library system for sixteen years, coordinating a full array of community programs and being the “voice” of the library with the media.

    Flora’s MLS from Rutgers SCILS came after teaching English at the college level. She cataloged at East Orange Public Library and spent four years at Newark PL in the humanities department, where her love of poetry enriched the library’s programs. Newark was an area reference center then, and Flora still remembers some of the more unusual reference questions that came across her desk.

    She eventually gave up the train commute to take several positions in Monmouth County in public and special libraries. In 1990, she came to Monmouth County Library and the public relations position.

    Members of the Monmouth County community know the wide variety of programs Flora arranged. Many programs were memorable, especially one sponsored by Rutgers Agricultural School faculty, “The Amazing New Jersey Sweet Corn: A Hands-on Show and Tell, Finger-Licking Good Lecture.” The smell of roasted and buttered corn permeated the library!

    Flora has been a valued member of the Monmouth County library community and the Region; her thoughtful, wise voice was heard on the interim planning committee that created CJRLC years ago, and in the Monmouth Librarians Association. Good luck, Flora — we’ll miss you!

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