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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.

Librarian 2.0 Manifesto

The Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto, written in 2006 by Laura Cohen of the University of Albany, isn't new.   But its powerful message is very current today and deserves to be revisited from time to time. It is an inspiring personal manifesto for librarians who want to serve users in changing times.  Originally a text document, the Manifesto has been mashed up with Burning Man images into a YouTube video (caution: very brief non-sexual nudity), and is also available in the original text version.

ALA World Book Award for Info Literacy

World Book and ALA announce the creation of the new World Book/ALA Information Literacy Goal Award, a grant of $5,000 to a public and school library literacy program. The award is designed to encourage and support innovative and effective information literacy programs in today’s school and public libraries.

Information literacy is the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information. An eligible literacy program should focus on school library users or public library users who are likely to need the most help to obtain access to information, in print or digital form, and to evaluate the quality of the information available to them, especially information they may find outside the school library, school classroom, or public library. The ultimate goal should be to help people of all ages become effective users of information by fostering a better understanding of the research process.

The two page application can be accessed online through the ALA website. Deadline is Dec. 1, 2008

PLA Extends Deadline for 2008 PLDS Questionnaire

The Public Library Administration (PLA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA) is extending the deadline for public librarians to complete a questionnaire to provide essential information for the Public Library Data Service Statistical report. The new deadline is April 30. The Public Library Data Service (PLDS) Statistical Report, a project of the PLA, is designed to provide public library administrators and others with timely and library-specific data that illuminates and supports a wide variety of management decisions. In addition, since its beginning in 1988, the PLDS reports have been used extensively by the press to understand the public library and its environment. To complete the survey online, visit http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/PLDS. Respondents will need a PLDS ID number and username to access the survey. If you cannot locate a PLDS identification number and username, send an email to Virgil Varvel, (vvarvel@uiuc.edu) or Kathleen Hughes (khughes@ala.org).

LSTA Reminder from the Illinois State Library

If your library is submitting an LSTA application under the In Sync with Technology category, remember that letters of support from community agencies should be attached to the application, not mailed to the State Library.