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Ho-OPLA
The Electronic Newsletter of the Ontario Public Library Association
Fall 2008
1. FROM THE PRESIDENT’S PEN
2. WHAT'S NEW
2.1 They are out there. We know they are. Who?
2.2 Rotary International and Literacy Initiatives
2.3 News to share?
3. AROUND THE PROVINCE
3.1 The Blue Mountains Public Library Chooses Koha ZOOM
3.2 Niagara Falls Public Library Using PayPal for Online Payments
3.3. Adult Literacy Educator Honoured for Work on OPL Literacy Manual
3.4 New Library for Halton Hills!
3.5 Fort Frances Fundraising success
4. PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
4.1 Jane Pyper New Chief Librarian at Toronto Public Library
4.2 Willy Eisenbichler retires
5. NEXT ISSUE
1. FROM THE PRESIDENT'S PEN
It's been a busy time since I wrote to you last.
I was a part of the jury for the Ministry Award's this year for the first time. It is exciting to hear about all of the projects going on in the Province. The short list will be revealed during Ontario Public Library Week and the winning entries will be awarded at the OPLA Awards Dinner at the Superconference.
Lisa Weaver is the President of the Ontario School Library Association (OSLA) and also the chair of the Forest of Reading Program. This is a fabulous recreational reading program for all levels of readers. While this program has been school-based, some public libraries have been involved. Lisa is asking OPLA to encourage participation by Public Libraries. You can find out all of the details at www.accessola.com and click on reading programs. Lisa and I have discussed the value of having an OPLA member as Vice-Chair for the Forest of Reading Program and if this is something you would like to do, please contact me immediately.
OLA is creating a Web 2.0 Social Networking tool titled Library Networking Group that will be available shortly and will be promoted at the Superconference. You will be able to create groups, your own blog, and more. We had a sneak peak at it during the OLA Board of Directors meeting the first of the month.
Jefferson Gilbert who has been the Deputy Director at OLA for the past 18 years is taking the position of Executive Director of the Canadian Urban Libraries Council. In addition to this he is starting Gap.Point.Reach. Inc. a consulting firm for not for profit organizations specializing in leadership. His last day will be November 5. I know that you will all join me in wishing Jefferson all the best and in thanking him for his years of service.
The program for the conference is looking great. Richard Florida author of "Creative Class" and "Who's Your City?" will speak. Justin Trudeau has also been engaged for the event too. If you have read the "Black Belt Librarian: Every Librarian's Real World Guide to a Safer Workplace" you won't be disappointed when you hear Warren Davis Graham speak at this year's conference. These are only a few of the highlights for you to look forward to.
Shortly you will be receiving information about nominations for the OPLA Council. I urge you to consider participating on Council. It is an opportunity to have a voice for your area of the province, to network with other OPLA members and to make a difference in library service throughout the province. Nomination forms are available on the OLA website. If this isn't for you but you know of someone who might be interested, please encourage them to look into it. The commitment is approximately four meetings per year (3 in Toronto and 1 by teleconference) and attendance at the OPLA AGM at the Superconference. In addition to this you might have a secondary portfolio as part of another committee. What is important is that you are available and interested and that your immediate supervisor is supportive of your participation.
Cindy Weir, OPLA President
CEO Orangeville Public Library
2. WHAT'S NEW
2.1. THEY ARE OUT THERE. WE KNOW THEY ARE. WHO?
• Childrens librarians committed to excellent service in their community.
• Teen librarians creating innovative programs linking youth to their public library.
• Library staff serving children and teens every day in unique and thoughtful ways.
Now we need to hear about and celebrate these special people. The OPLA Child and Youth Services Committee is looking for nominations for both the Children's Librarian Of the Year and Leadership in Youth Services Awards.
Each year the Committee looks at nominations for these two awards. They see many facets of the profession and service through this nomination process. There are childrens librarians and youth service staff who are doing great things for the children and teens in their community and they too can be nominated for one of these awards. Anyone in the library can nominate colleagues at
http://accessola.com/ola/bins/content_page.asp?cid=130.
If you have nominated someone in the past : re -submit. The committee are always disappointed that they can only give one award each year when they receive nominations for many strong and deserving candidates.
Don't forget this is a great way to highlight what your community is doing for its children and teens. Many award winners have gone on to garner some very positive local media attention.
Speaking as a past recipient it is a great honour to receive the award. But it also feels wonderful to have an opportunity to highlight the good work your library is doing when the media spotlight shines on you for a brief time after the announcement.
These awards have been created to not only honour individuals who are leading the way in service to children and teens. These awards also highlight the interesting and innovative services that have been developed by the profession.
Do you have a childrens librarian who has developed a great new program or project to support early literacy and reading in your community? Is your teen librarian out in your community working and spreading the news that the library welcomes teens? Is your library a space full of families, children and teens every day of the week? Is your program room bursting with fun activities that bring the community together? If you answered yes to any of these questions - nominate the children's librarian or teen staff member in your library who makes it happen. This is your chance to highlight your library, your service, and your community.
Help us celebrate the great things happening in public libraries by honouring the staff who work each day to make their public library a special place for children and teens.
Jane Venus
OPLA Children and Youth Services Committee
2.2 ROTARY INTERNATIONAL AND LITERACY INITIATIVES
OLA met recently with R.I.'s Literacy Resource Group to learn about The Computer-Assisted Literacy Solution (CALS), a program offered through Rotary's Literacy initiatives. The program uses software developed in Ontario and enables users to improve English and math skills in a measurable way at their own pace.
Ontario's Premier, speaking at Rotary International's Los Angeles Convention, noted that the research for the software had been funded by the Ontario Government and he commended Rotary on using this software in their literacy initiatives.
Rotary has a history of working collaboratively and supportively with other community agencies, and has provided support to many public libraries across Canada. A program such as CALS certainly could assist libraries in their commitment to enhancing and developing literacy skills.
Wilf Wilkinson, 2007-2008 President, of Rotary International, recommends Rotary clubs and districts consider using CALS to help others. The Ontario Library Association applauds this spirit of collaboration and effort to build literacy skills in communities.
For more information contact vcw@idirect.com or visit the website www.autoskill.com/rotarians
Shelagh Paterson, OLA Executive Director,
416-363-3388 or 1-866-873-9867 ext 24
www.accessola.com
2.3.. NEWS TO SHARE?
Do you have some news you would like featured in between editions of HoOPLA? Consider submitting announcements about people, programs, or issues to OLA's Headline News on the web. Submit to: info@accessola.com
Shelagh Paterson, OLA Executive Director,
416-363-3388 or 1-866-873-9867 ext 24
www.accessola.com
3. AROUND THE PROVINCE
3.1 THE BLUE MOUNTAINS PUBLIC LIBRARY CHOOSES KOHA ZOOM
In September, the Blue Mountains Public Library announced that the Library has selected a Koha ZOOM for their new integrated library system hosted by LibLime.
“We're pleased to be able to work with Liblime to bring Koha ZOOM to our community,” says Carol Cooley, CEO of the Library. “We feel that we'll be using a powerful product which will greatly enhance service to our community but at an affordable price. I'm also pleased that we've made the decision to have LibLime host the software and assist us with implementation. In the long run, we expect this will be more cost effective than trying to hire staff to take care of the system in-house.”
Koha is an open source library system which was designed by librarians. Since it was first put into production in early 2000, Koha has enabled new realities of open access, affordability, and free innovation for hundreds of libraries around the world. Koha has lived up to its name, which means 'Gift' in the Maori language of New Zealand. From the outset, many libraries understood the power of this gift. They downloaded it, they installed it, they changed it, and they contributed their solutions back to the library community. Koha ZOOM represents a generational leap in Koha's development. Notably, it includes a powerful search engine based on Zebra, a high-performance indexing and retrieval engine.
“When selecting the software we looked at a variety of options.” stated Cooley. “Open source software is not used widely in Canada. It could move that way in the future because the product is as good as the more expensive proprietary products that are now being used and Koha ZOOM is available for nothing. Our only outlay is for data migration and annual hosting services. We feel this product will bring real value to our community and we're pleased to be among the first to use it in Canada.”
The new system will be available to the public in mid-October.
For more information contact: Carol Cooley at 519-599-3681
Or check out:
Koha info: Liblime info:
http://koha.org/support/ http://liblime.com/demos
3.2 NIAGARA FALLS PUBLIC LIBRARY USING PAYPAL FOR ONLINE PAYMENTS
The Niagara Falls Public Library needs to receive payments from many varied sources; fine payments, lost books, charges for image reproductions from our extensive online Local History Database, from Room Rentals and from Online Sales. The IT Department investigated options to coordinate these payments.
Our integrated library system (ILS) vendor offered a solution that addressed payments generated within that system, but would not easily be adaptable to address the other payment sources, such as rentals, research and reproductions. Given the cost involved for what would be a partial solution, staff decided to explore alternatives.
Although there had been some demand for electronic payment options, staff realized that there would not be a significant volume of transactions processed (we are certainly no Wal-Mart). In order to avoid the expensive monthly recurring costs associated with traditional online merchant services, staff proposed using the library's current PayPal account to receive payments by credit card or bank account. By using PayPal, which only charges a fee per-transaction, there is no risk that the library would be committed to monthly bank/merchant account fees for a service which could potentially not be utilized enough to recover those fees.
Other benefits to utilizing PayPal are that at no time is library staff handling personal credit cards, nor is the Library storing sensitive personal financial data on borrowers. All payment processing and exchange of credit card information happens on the PayPal site.
As mentioned, PayPal charges a fee for accepting payments. This fee (currently $0.55 + 2.9% of the payment amount) is offset by a $1.50 per transaction convenience fee assessed by the library. Payments collected via PayPal are transferred electronically to the Library's bank account by a designated staff person at regular intervals.
Christopher Dunn of the IT Department designed a software module which receives payment information from PayPal (via secure http), and passes this along to either the library's invoicing software (for charges generated outside the ILS) via XML API, or to the ILS using SIP2.
Borrowers can make payments from home by accessing their “Borrower Account” via the website at www.nflibrary.ca or from any OPAC or internet station throughout the library system. The only service that is not addressed is debit card processing. However, if a borrower wishes to set up a personal PayPal account it is possible to make arrangements to have funds drawn directly from their bank account. Development is ongoing at PayPal and I have no doubt that a true debit processing feature will be available down the road.
Is it successful? Yes, the project was launched on July 16th and use is growing. Our Local History Department receives requests for image reproductions from all over the world; previously we had to wait for payment to arrive before we would release the requested items. PayPal invoicing allows payment to be received almost instantaneously. Library users appreciate the anonymity of the service (versus face-to-face when dealing with large or long-overdue accounts), and amongst our first few payments were lost books from over five years ago totaling almost $300.
We were also able to add a “Shopping Cart” feature to our website for our fundraising sale of Local History books, also courtesy of PayPal. And best of all, the cost was minimal and the Niagara Falls Public Library has no added recurring monthly charges!
Jan Leak
Systems Administrator
Niagara Falls Public Library
3.3. ADULT LITERACY EDUCATOR HONOURED FOR WORK ON OPL LITERACY MANUAL
Ottawa Public Library is very pleased that Christine Harwood has received the 2008 Canada Post Educator Award for developing the curriculum for OPL's award-winning adult literacy tool, Getting to Know the Library.
Ms. Harwood was contracted through the Ottawa Community Coalition for Literacy (OCCL) to develop the content of the Library's adult literacy manual because of her imaginative and unique approach to teaching. The OPL literacy manual helps educators and adult learners, including students of English and French as a Second Language, meet the challenges of learning basic reading and writing skills. In receiving the award Ms. Harwood thanked the people she has worked with over the years in the area of adult literacy, “I am so proud to have received this award. I have great respect for the support shown by Canada Post to the field of literacy and to be recognized by them is a tremendous thrill. I am also grateful to the Ottawa Public Library for nominating me for this award.”
“The manual is an important tool for adult learners and their instructors in fostering literacy skills and life-long learning, which is one of the key strategic directions for the Ottawa Public Library,” said Ms. Elaine Condos, Division Manager at OPL.
Getting to Know the Library was designed to introduce adult learners to the resources and services of the library and to help learners feel more at ease when dealing with the library. The manual is composed of participant and instructor guides and offers 65 activities that can be used by adult literacy, ESL and FSL classes. The activities include joining the library, family literacy, career information, health information, finding information on specific subjects, the difference between fiction and non-fiction, choosing a good book and many more topics.
Getting to Know the Library is a free download on the OPL website at http://www.biblioottawalibrary.ca/explore/getting_e.html
OCCL has received provincial funding to produce the manual in American Sign Language for persons with hearing disabilities.
Alan Roberts
Manager, Community Partnerships and Programming
Ottawa Public Library
613-580-2424 ext./poste 41240
3.4 NEW LIBRARY FOR HALTON HILLS!
September 15, 2008 was an important day for the patrons, Board and staff of the Halton Hills Public Library. After two years of intense planning, Council approved a funding strategy for a much-needed renovation of the Library's Georgetown Branch. This $11M project will almost double the library's existing space to approximately 31,000 square feet. Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2010, with the newly renovated/expanded branch opening in the fall of 2011. The new building will be aiming for a Silver level of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, which will significantly improve energy efficiency and reduce the impact on the environment. During the renovation project, the Library will continue to provide a full range of services from a temporary location. For questions, please contact Jane Diamanti, Director, Halton Hills Public Library at diamantij@hhpl.on.ca.
3.5 FORT FRANCES FUNDRAISING SUCCESS
The Fundraising Campaign for the new Fort Frances Public Library and Technology Centre launched a "Drive for 35" Campaign in late September to raise the final $35,000 of its fundraising target $750,000. A small, but dedicated group of volunteers conducted a telephone blitz, resulting in $110,000 for a final total of $825,096! Shovels will hit the ground as soon as the frost is out of the ground in this community of less than 9,000 located on the Minnesota border between Thunder Bay and Winnipeg.
Margaret Sedgwick, CEO
Fort Frances Public Library
4. PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
4.1 JANE PYPER NEW CHIEF LIBRARIAN AT TORONTO PUBLIC LIBRARY
During the summer, Toronto Public Library Board announced the appointment of Jane Pyper as its new Chief Librarian, effective September 2, 2008.
Currently Director of Policy and Planning for Toronto Public Library, Ms. Pyper brings
over 25 years of diverse experience in all facets of library service and administration
including public service, information technology and collections management. Most
recently, as a member of the senior management team that shaped the Toronto Public
Library system post-amalgamation, Ms. Pyper has played a key role in building the
Library’s enviable global reputation, and has helped make Toronto Public Library the
busiest urban public library system in the world.
“Jane has an obvious passion for and commitment to public libraries,” said Toronto
Public Library Board Chair, Kathy Gallagher Ross. “She has made a significant
contribution to the building of our world-class library system, well known for its breadth
and reach and relevance to the city of Toronto, and we are confident that this
combination of passion, commitment and experience will serve the Library well as she
stewards it through its next phase of innovation and success.”
For more information, contact
Linda Hazzan, Director, Marketing and Communications
(416) 455-7360
lhazzan@torontopubliclibrary.ca
4.2 WILLY EISENBICHLER RETIRES
The Sault Ste. Marie Public Library Board announced that Wilhelm Eisenbichler, Director of Public Libraries since 1993, will retire at the end of 2008.
Eisenbichler has capably led the library through a period of change that has seen the introduction of new information technology into library operations and the consolidation and renovation of library facilities. Under his directorship, the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library system has successfully transitioned into the twenty-first century - a change which is reflected in the library's new logo launched earlier this year.
An effective administrator, Eisenbichler brought sound business principles and strong fiscal management into library operations. He is also credited for developing new revenue streams for the library, such as the Friends of the Library Bookstore and the library's Bestsellers Café.
Wilhelm Eisenbichler started his library career in 1978 with the Southeast Regional Library System in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. In 1980 he accepted the position of Assistant Adult Services Librarian with the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming Director of Public Libraries in 1993.
“The Library Board has relied on, and benefitted greatly from, Willy's knowledge and advice. His integrity and dedication to the library have been exemplary”, said Christopher Rous, Chairperson of the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library Board.
During his tenure at the library, Eisenbichler has also been active in community organizations including the Sault Ste. Marie Historic Sites Board, the Sault Ste. Marie Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee (now Municipal Heritage Committee), Heritage Sault Ste. Marie, and the Chamber of Commerce Education Committee. Mr. Eisenbichler is the recipient of the Ontario Heritage Foundation Community Recognition Award (1998) and the Sault Ste. Marie Cultural Advisory Board's Certificate of Achievement Award (2004).
For more information contact: Christopher Rous, Chairperson, Sault Ste. Marie Public Library Board (705) 942-3000
5. NEXT ISSUE
The next issue will be our annual conference issue, which will be in hard copy, and will be released at the 2009 OLA Superconference. Deadline is December 5st, 2008, and photos are welcome for this edition only. Please send submissions to Rudi Denham, Editor, rdenham@st-thomas.library.on.ca
Rudi Denham
CEO/Chief Librarian
St. Thomas Public Library
153 Curtis St.,
ST THOMAS, ON N5P 3Z7
tel: 519-631-6050
fax: 519-631-1987
www.st-thomas.library.on.ca
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Susan Dominus, New York Times columnist, describes libraries as
"free parks with a brain, providing education brilliantly disguised as leisure."
quoted in Library Journal May 15, 2008. p 8.
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