LARS Participants Council Meeting on Oct. 1st

The LARS Cataloguing Committee &  Subcommittee will be bringing the following items to the LARS Participants Council Meeting this Friday, Oct. 1st:

• Overdrive Records (Ginger has finished cleaning up the Overdrive records so that in no longer looks as though we have no copies available)

• Meeting with Jane Richards from WiLS ( LARS Cataloguing will be meeting with one of our WiLS reps to discuss the new OCLC package--how much is it costing libraries, what's included, etc.)

• Chris Moede will be submitting the new LARS Cataloguing Policy, that was created by the LARS Cataloguing Subcommittee, to the Council for approval.

If anyone has anything else that they think we should mention at the meeting, please leave a comment or send an email.

LSTA GRANT NEWS!!!

Becky handed in the "Enhancing Use of Technology in Libraries and Library Systems" LSTA Grant that we've been working.

If accepted, the grant will help us make the most out of the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC, also known as our Sirsi E-Library) we currently have.

Glimpse of our current OPAC:

The project will focus on:

Design - larger & more consistent font sizes, layouts that look good on any size screen and that don't look so generic and unappealing.

Results - continuing to tweak our settings in Sirsi so patrons get the best search results the system can offer.

Content - adding content to the OPAC that the patrons want, such as, series information, "if you like this you might also like...", virtual bookshelves, format icons (for books, CDs, DVDs, e-books), etc. 

Sounds good, right?  So cross your fingers toes and eyes for us!

We Are Visible

Homelessness appears to be on the rise, and while it may not be as prevalent in our small communities as it is in cities like Milwaukee and Madison, it does still exist.

Mark Horvath, the head of Invisible People, has started a project called, We Are Visible, which is designed to help homeless people connected with the rest of the world via social networking.

The site teaches people how to set up Gmail, Twitter, Wordpress, and Facebook accounts, and urges them to choose one or more mediums to share their stories, their daily lives, and their knowledge with other homeless people as well as the rest of the world.

It would be nice if we could find an innovative way to share this information in our own libraries.

Any ideas?