LTLS - Quick Connections

Try It Illinois

The eighth annual Try-It! Illinois database trial, sponsored by Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White and the Illinois State Library, launches this Monday October 1 and runs through November 30.
Try-It! Illinois offers the 5,000+ ILLINET member libraries, their staffs and their communities-library users, customers, clients, faculty, students, and boards--a wonderful opportunity to survey and evaluate a wide variety of electronic resources. Thanks to an agreement between the State Library and the participating electronic resource vendors, there is no charge for accessing these databases during the trial period.
Libraries are encouraged to share Try-It! Illinois with their library users, providing them with the opportunity to use and recommend electronic resources for possible purchase at the local level. Try-It! Illinois users are also invited to suggest electronic resources for consideration in E-RICH, the Illinois State Library's electronic resource service that works with vendors to negotiate best prices for Illinois libraries.
Try-It! Illinois will be available at:
http://www.eliillinois.org/tryit
http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/library/what_we_do/erich.html
http://www.finditillinois.org
If you have questions, contact Gwen Harrison at gharrison@ilsos.net or 217-785-7334.

Weekly Poll

Be sure to check out our weekly poll below, or on our home page.

You can also view results from previous weekly polls.

School Per Capita Grant applications

The Illinois School District Library Grant Program (commonly referred to as School Per Capita) grant packets have been mailed to Superintendents. School librarians/grant writers should contact their superintendent for the packet. The FY08 grant application consists of three components: (1) online; (2) attendance centers; and (3) signature page. Take note that the attendance center component and the signature page are paper components that each have unique deadlines and must be postmarked and returned separately. Grant information and the online component are accessible here.

Reference Books to Give Away

Mahomet Public Library has two reference books to donate to any library:

The 2006-2007 United States Government Manual, Publisher Office of the Federal Register
Washington Information Directory 2006-2007, Publisher Congressional Quarterly, Inc.

Call 217-586-2611.

Fifth Annual Midwest Literary Festival

Spend the weekend with 50 of your favorite authors at the 5th Annual Midwest Literary Festival in historic downtown Aurora, IL October 6-7, 2007. For more information, go to http://www.midwestliteraryfestival.com/sponsors.htm.

Call for Participants!

The Second Annual Diversity Fair, sponsored by DEMCO and the Illinois Library Systems Directors Organization, will be held on Thursday, October 11 from 2:00-3:30 during the Illinois Library Association 2007 Annual Conference in Springfield. The Diversity Fair is a chance for conference attendees to learn about programs and initiatives around the state that address diverse user populations. Participants in the Fair will be provided with space for a poster or table-top display and will have the chance to interact with conference goers to explain more about their projects. There will also be prizes awarded to the top three displays!

To register your library for the event, please take a few moments to complete the brief submission form, which can be found here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=5VOXWvX1pjTPAS7l_2fFmuOg_3d_3d. If you have any questions, please contact Amanda McKay at amandamckay@lcls.org or 618-656-3216, ext. 143.

WebJunction IL - Ribbon Cutting

Meet at the crossroads of WebJunction Illinois for…Information. Need to know how to write a disaster plan for your library? Looking for a sample materials selection policy? Want to know how you can beef up your youth services programming? Interested in the topic of blogging in special libraries? You'll find it all and much more on WebJunction Illinois < http://il.webjunction.org >.

Register with WebJunction Illinois between September 21st and October 5th and we'll enter your name in a drawing for a $25 gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. Plan today to explore this new resource for the Illinois Library community and attend the official ribbon cutting on October 11, 10:30 am at the Illinois State Library Booth at ILA.