Points North Newsletters
Page 4
May 2008
Professional Development Grants Provide Opportunities
During the past several months library personnel of Northern New York Library Network member institutions have taken advantage of the Network’s Professional Development Grant Program.
The following are excerpts from brief essays they have written describing their experiences:
Connie Holberg with Jefferson Community College attended the 2007 annual conference of the State University of New York Librarian’s Association held at SUNY Maritime, the Bronx.
"The keynote speaker was Matt Goldner from OCLC WorldCat. He spoke about Open WorldCat’s goal to facilitate the connection from the open web to the library," she said.
"I had the opportunity to attend several valuable workshops over the course of the conference. Two themes emerged: one was the creative use of Web 2.0 applications in instruction and reference service; and the second was a growing interest in digitization of special collections materials," Ms. Holberg said.
"I attended two presentations about digital history websites using ContentDM, including one by SUNY Plattsburgh’s Debra Kimok, who spoke on the NNYLN’s Northern New York Digital History Project. She stressed the viability of the project has been due to the collaboration amongst a diverse group of institutions and the NNYLN," Ms. Holberg said.
Michelle Parry of SUNY Oswego’s Penfield Library attended the 2007 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.
"A poster session entitled ’De-desk reference: Using Web 2.0 to provide services away from the reference desk’ started out as an inquiry and exploration of information to take back to our Coordinator of Reference. Along the way I discovered some possible ways to utilize the social networking software, del.icio.us, to share links, but with notes and tags, that I want some of my interlibrary loan folks to have easy access to without having to remember to go to a variety of URLs," Ms. Parry stated.
"I also liked the proposal made by one of the presenters that LES (the Literatures in English Section of ACRL) actually work on creating an online resource on Shakespeare that would actually be scholarly, reliable and as inclusive as the many less-than-reliable and less-than-inclusive Shakespeare current sites claim to be," she added.
Ms. Parry said the conference provided her with "...a wonderful experience and has added to my professional growth."
Debra Kimok of SUNY Plattsburgh’s Feinberg Library attended the 2007 ACRL National Conference in Baltimore.
"I had the opportunity to attend several presentations, covering topics such as online gaming for information literacy, library web page redesign, improving subject guides, using Special Collections in undergraduate education, and more," she said. "There were hundreds of poster sessions to visit covering a myriad of topics.
"Attendance at this conference topped 3, 100 and set a record for ACRL," Ms. Kimok noted. "This has been a very useful and educational experience for me."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Information on the NNYLN’s Professional Development Grant Program may be found at www.nnyln.org/profdev.html which includes guidelines and an application.
The purpose of the Northern New York Library Network’s Professional Development Program is to provide assistance to the staff of member libraries in their professional development. Financial aid from this program enables staff to attend conferences, seminars, workshops and other educational activities which are not available locally and for which funds might not otherwise be available. Eligible activities do not need to be sponsored by a library or library organization.
The guidelines discuss conditions, eligibility, the application schedule, the selection process, award funds, criteria, and information sharing.
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