President’s Message

December 2018

A warm welcome from your incoming President! I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about plans for the Nevada Library Association in 2019. This is a legislative year, so I have deemed this year our Year of Advocacy!

In the 2017 Nevada State Legislative Session, the Nevada Library Association coordinated the energy of Nevada library staff and library supporters to advocate for the Nevada State Library, Archives, and Public Records budget. This budget supports libraries throughout the state. We sat in and spoke at hearings for the budget, education, and library legislation.

In April, we held Library Legislative Day in Carson City where librarians across the state came to advocate for libraries. We spoke to every legislator and sat with them during the House and Senate floor sessions. We came out in force and netted the State Library $500,000 for the two-year budget cycle. We were thrilled when every single legislator voted in favor of this funding. The State Library then allocated this funding for competitive state grants, community grants, bookmobile services, emerging technology, and workforce development throughout Nevada. However, this funding is temporary. We need to fight again this year with a more robust strategy.

The 2019 Nevada State Legislative Session begins in February with the release of the Governor's budget. Our plan is to have libraries show up to advocate and show off all we can do. We have planned sessions in the legislative exhibit hall on March 6th, March 27th, and April 10th. During National Library Week (April 7-13) we will be out in full force with April 10th being our official Nevada Libraries Legislative Day. We will be asking for librarians across the state to help us tell our story. One of my biggest beliefs in advocacy is that we need to show up all the time to show all the work we do. We shouldn't wait for a crisis before we reach out.

Our goals for this session are as follows:

• $1.5 Million Permanent Funding for Library Databases, Emerging Technology, Bookmobiles, Materials Collection
• $13 Million to Support a remodeled State Library building, renamed the Knowledge and Information Center (K.I.C.)

You can find out more information about these initiatives at the Nevada State Library website: https://nsla.libguides.com/library-home

We will send updates through the NLA website, www.nevadalibraries.org, on social media, and through the new email blast system to keep our membership informed. Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. You can email me jscott@washoecounty.us or find me online at twitter.com/jdscott50.

More information will be coming out shortly. Meanwhile, we will also be hard at work planning the 2019 NLA Conference in Downtown Reno, November 2-4 2019!
 

Jeff Scott

Library Director | Washoe County Library System 

State of Nevada Self-Help Center

Did you know that the Nevada Supreme Court recently launched the State of Nevada Self-Help Center?  The Self-Help Center is intended to provide general information, forms, and resources for people who are representing themselves in Nevada's courts without a lawyer.   It includes free forms and information to familiarize self-represented litigants with courts, court forms, and the law and procedures that may apply to their case.  The State of Nevada Self-Help Center can be found at:  http://selfhelp.nvcourts.gov/.

Questions?  Please contact the Nevada Supreme Court Law Library at reference@nvcourts.nv.gov or (775) 684-1640.

Submitted by Shanna Pritchett
Nevada Supreme Court Law Library

Online Learning…

Nevada State Library and Archives (NSLA) provides access to continuing education, including webinars, on a variety of topics. There are seats for Infopeople, WebJunction, and Library Juice Academy webinars that are available to all in the Nevada library community for free, provided by the State Library with federal grant funds.

The NSLA website reminds us “Advances in information technology and expanding library user expectations require continuous education. The statewide continuing education program works collaboratively with Nevada libraries to address the need for continuous library education through planned, coordinated and varied statewide continuing education programs to hone staff expertise, foster professional development, empower library trustees, broaden public awareness and ultimately improve library services.”

Pop on over to https://nsla.libguides.com/continuing-education-2/home or go to the Nevada State Library and Archives >Library>Continuing Education, and see what you can learn—for free! 

Nevadan receives MPLA Unsung Hero Award

Ellen Fockler was awarded the Mountain Plains Library Association (MPLA) Dan Chaney Unsung Hero Award at the KLA/MPLA joint conference in Wichita, KS.  This award is given to an MPLA member who has consistently worked behind the scenes to create, administer, or support a library-related organization or project but has not been recognized by MPLA to the degree their work merits.

Her work with MPLA includes serving on the Awards Committee, Nominating Committee, Membership Committee, and volunteering as proofreader for MPLA newsletters.  As part of Ellen’s tenure with the MPLA Membership Committee, she guided the development of the Author membership category, a first for library associations.

Ms. Fockler served as the NLA Delegate to MPLA from 2011 through 2014.  She worked at Washoe County School District for 23 years, has been involved with NYRA, the Nevada Arts Council, and the Historic Reno Preservation Society.  In 2008 she was named Librarian of the Year by the Nevada Library Association.  Ellen currently is the sole proprietor of Fockler Library Consulting, chairs the Nevada Reading Week conference and is an instructor for University of Nevada, Reno.

Congratulations Ellen!       

Submitted by Luise Davis, Douglas County Public Library

Nevada Libraries Advancing Emerging Technology

• Launched and deployed at least one program
• Used the State Library website to report activity, post pictures, and share news  

None of the NV XR Library Pilots have begun the Libraries = Education program

What the State Library team is doing:

• Aligning the NV XR Pilots with classroom science teachers using Lifeliqe content.

• Working with the school librarians and the science teachers to connect VR resources with classroom needs.

• Generating enthusiasm about XR among high school librarians and science teachers

• Using a Lifeliqe-crafted survey to measure how science-based XR content impacts student engagement and persistence in learning an abstract concept.

Submitted by Tammy Westergard,

Nevada State Library,Archives and Public Records

AFTER NLA: LET'S KEEP TALKING!

Key to library success is the ability to combine forces to face challenges. With this in mind, members of the State Council on Libraries & Literacy (SCLL) initiated an in-depth, 90-minute workshop using an interactive Aspen Institute model SOAR analysis, at the 2018 Nevada Library Association conference in Las Vegas. The session involved members from the entire library community. The aim was to ask people to express ideas and raise points about the current state of Nevada libraries: school, special, academic, and public. Watch it all in five minutes here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0UBjP9G5W8

And they did! Participants discussed views, emphasized commonalities, and pledge to move forward in proactive way. The Let's Talk! session was of vital importance as it offered insights from Nevada librarians about what is working and what needs help in our institutions. Critically, the results of the session will aid SCLL in its ability to lead and advance solutions needs. The top “aha!” moments, concepts, ideas, or insights that emerged from group discussion are listed below and have become fodder for further discussion and deliberation.

•  Mindset: traditional vs. emerging role for libraries

• Staff mindset change

• Promotion: marketing, telling a story, awareness, relevancy

• Importance of recording the library story

• SOAR-like conversations are important

• Outreach essential

•  Importance of partnerships with agencies and organizations

• Marketing to reach new audiences and increase funding

• Tell stories more effectively, rather than touting statistics.

• Invite people to ‘share their library stories’ in a statewide campaign.

• Importance of strengthening community partnerships and advertising them

• Adaptability

• Responsiveness

• Leveraging relationships

• Importance of statewide programs

• Unified voice for library advocacy

• Standing up for the First Amendment

• Library trustee training

Seventy-one librarians and library staff took the Let's Talk! Pledge, promising further action to discuss, strategize, and implement the lessons learned from the Let's Talk! SOAR session. But the conversation doesn't stop there. We need YOU to remain engaged in order to move our agenda forward. Find resources and information on advancing the Let's Talk! Conversation here: https://nsla.libguides.com/after-NLA-2018  

Submitted by Tammy Westergard,

Nevada State Library, Archives and Public Records

Nevada Knowledge & Innovation Center (KIC)

Nevada Department of Administration director Patrick Cates is advancing a vision to transform the current Nevada State Library into a Knowledge and Innovation Center (KIC). The redesign will provide a new environment for state employees to strengthen work skills in technology and problem-solving, develop synergistic approaches to challenges, and create efficiencies that cross state agency lines.

“As we strive to provide efficient and responsive public service in state government, I envision a facility such as KIC to be an integral capstone in our approach to take customer service, business processes and employee enrichment capabilities to the next level. With the help of a reimagined state library, state employees can be increasingly self-directed in 21st century skill development and 21st century public service,” says Cates.

The Nevada KIC project is still in its planning phase. State Library administrators, along with TSK Architects and Ruth Metz Associates, are working together to develop a bold plan to ensure the State Library and Archives remains the hub of innovation for decades to come.

“It is very exciting to see how Nevada’s libraries, at the local and state levels, and in universities, are partnering with schools and industry to invent the future of the state. The world of work is changing rapidly, and these partnerships offer the best chance for Nevada’s youth and adults for success and for communities to thrive,” says Milton Chen, PhD, senior fellow, George Lucas Educational Foundation during a visit to Carson City.

Stay tuned for future developments!

Submitted by Tammy Westergard,

Nevada State Library, Archives and Public Records

Reading is Healthy - Introducing the NNLM Reading Club!

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) is pleased to announce a new mini-award program for network member libraries in the Pacific Southwest Region! To help grow health literacy, the NNLM All of Us Community Engagement Network announces the launch of the NNLM Reading Club to support libraries' health literacy efforts by supporting book clubs that pertain to important National Health Observances and related health topics.

Over the next five months, NNLM PSR - the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Southwest Region - will award up to 100 Reading Club Kits to network member libraries in the PSR region, which includes Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Nevada. The Kits will come in a sturdy duffel bag with 8 copies of a selected book, 8 tote bags, discussion guides, bookmarks, and other materials. Libraries who receive the kits will be asked to complete a survey three months after receiving the kit. The first set of available books are in support of Family Health History; the titles for selection are The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, She Has Her Mother's Laugh, and It's All Relative.

Membership in NNLM is free; members belong to a network of many types of libraries across the country that are interested in providing quality health information services in their communities through training, funding, and other free NNLM services. Learn more and apply to become a member at nnlm.gov/psr/members.

bulletin from Kelli Ham
Community Engagement Librarian
NNLM All of Us Community Engagement Network

Considering Library School?

Here is some information recently sent to us by Emporia State University:

Dear Nevada Library Community:

Emporia State University's School of Library and Information Management (SLIM) is accepting applications for our new Las Vegas Cohort, which will start Fall Semester 2019. There are a number of MLS programs available to you as a prospective student. Many programs are strictly online, meaning you participate in discussions, submit assignments and communicate with professors and other students online only. Some offer an online program with a few days of intensive classes at satellite locations. What makes Emporia State University (ESU) unique is our blended face-to-face and online classroom approach.

The program at SLIM is a 36-credit hour program, designed to be completed in two years (including summer semesters) though some students may take longer. All courses are facilitated online for the full semester with face-to-face courses meeting for two Friday evening/Saturday classes during the semester. Professors teach the weekend courses, allowing you to meet with other students and have personal interaction with your professors and your regional director.  

This blended program allows you the flexibility of the online component with an interactive classroom experience, which are generally between 15 and 30students.  Other library school programs may have up to 100 students in a class. Our Las Vegas face-to-face classes will be held at the College of Southern Nevada Charleston Campus.

ESU's MLS program no longer requires a GRE. The admissions requirements (sent to the Graduate School) consist of an application, an application fee (paid to the Graduate School), transcripts from all post-secondary institutions attended, two (2) letters of recommendation (either academic or professional orboth), a statement of objectives, a resume, and an advisory interview. Current tuition for the MLS Program with fees is about $25,000. Andpresently, we have a matching scholarship of $666.00.    

The following is a link to the application page:
https://www.emporia.edu/slim/prospectivestudents/applying/applying-for-master-of-library-science.html
The following is a link to our Office of Financial Aid, Scholarships, VeteranServices:
https://www.emporia.edu/finaid/
And the curriculum for the  MLS can be found here:
https://www.emporia.edu/slim/programs/master-of-library-science/master-of-library-science-curriculum.html

The Emporia State University SLIM program is an excellent learning experiencewith high quality instruction and personalized advising.  Do pleasecontact me if you have any questions.     

Regards,

Dale Monobe, Ph.D., MLS
Utah Regional MLS Director
School of Library & Information Management (Est. 1902)
Emporia State University
dmonobe@empora.edu
801-946-5265

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