Friday, August 19, 2011

Manatee Teens Geek the Library

These Florida teens from Manatee County Public Library have put together a great video about their passions. They all geek the library in a different way.
http://geekthelibrary.org/archives/2011/08/florida-teens-geek-the-library.html

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Unemployed without Internet service head to libraries

Sun Sentinel story describes impact on libraries of new Florida law requiring that unemployed persons now file claims online.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/careers/ask-marcia/sfl-unemployed-online-filing,0,6365487,print.story

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

At The Library: Online Resources Available For Job Seekers

At The Library: Online Resources Available For Job Seekers
By VIC NUNEZTHE LEDGER
Published: Tuesday, July 5, 2011 at 12:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, July 1, 2011 at 4:31 p.m.
Job-seekers often come to the library to search for jobs online; indeed, many companies expect prospective employees to fill out their applications, and submit their resumes electronically. Polk County libraries offer more than just Internet access.
Visit www.cityoflakewales.com/library, and check out "Career Transitions" available on their home page. This is a well-conceived web application that residents access with their library card. Once validated, users can create a personal account and explore their career interests, prepare a proper resume, and search jobs via their database search tool.
Another opportunity -- the Job & Career Accelerator atwww.lakelandgov.net/library: click on "Services" on the bar, then "Online Resources" to the left, and then the "Research" tab in the center pane. JCA is the bottom link, and invites users to create an account, validating with their library card number as "User Name." As above, JCA leads users to explore careers, create their resume, and search for jobs across many databases.
Contact your librarian for information on how to access these services.
http://www.theledger.com/article/20110705/NEWS/107055005/1308/TIMEOUT?Title=At-The-Library-Online-Resources-Available-For-Job-Seekers

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Libraries and Independence - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Libraries and independence
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
by M.C. Coolidge
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110704/COLUMNIST/110709950

Americans no long have to fight for our independence, as we did in the Revolutionary War, but we pay homage to the hard-won struggle every year on the Fourth of July, most notably with fireworks - our version of the "rockets' red glare."

As a community, we take that celebration of triumph very seriously. In 2008, when budget concerns led officials to decide that the city of Sarasota should no longer fund the bayfront fireworks, private businesses and individuals generously stepped up to the plate to continue the tradition of lighting up the sky to celebrate our freedom.

Now, local leaders are considering new cutbacks to our budget - but this time to something far more integral to preserving our independence than a fireworks display. They're talking about closing public libraries on Sundays.

There are only two Sarasota County libraries open on Sundays - Selby and Jacaranda. Closing their doors an additional 52 days a year would probably shave a couple of hundred thousand, maybe more, from our county budget. All libraries are generally open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and most stay open three days a week until 8 p.m.

Carl Sagan said, "... the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries." I couldn't agree more.

Contemporary independence is not won on a battlefield, but gained largely through individuals' ability to support and sustain themselves and their community. That ability is dependent upon access to education and resources that allow citizens to inform their minds, gain context for their experiences, and have access to the tools and information necessary to feed, clothe and house themselves and their families over the long haul. By offering spaces for knowledge-sharing, the communication of ideas, and technology not available in every home, our public libraries create and preserve a culture of independence and democracy for all. An informed public is a voting public.

The American Library Association's 2011 "State of American Libraries Report," released in April, suggests that people are using public libraries more than ever - to search for jobs and gather information about starting businesses, and they are particularly used by working mothers.

The recession means that more people might also be using the library to learn about government services and assistance, and that more people might not be able to afford Internet access and need to use the library to research career options and stay in touch with professional contacts.

Children in particular should be plowing through one book after another to stretch their minds and ignite their imaginations. Libraries are the most affordable way parents can feed the demands of a growing young mind.

Sunday library closings, on top of already restricted schedules, will surely impact the very people in our community who might need it most - people who, because of work, family or other scheduling constraints, are only able to get to the library on Sundays.

Sarasota County is the heart of Florida's "cultural coast." There's irony in the fact that we are in danger of losing Sunday access to one of the most crucial elements of a cultured, democratic and independent society.

Libraries are repositories of truth and power. They hold the veritable foundations of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness within their walls. And they hold their doors open to all, regardless of wealth or circumstance, to come inside and seek their own path to independence.

I hope we can find a way to preserve that.

M.C. Coolidge is a columnist for the Herald-Tribune's Ticket section and a free-lance writer. Website: www.coolidgewords.com

Friday, March 25, 2011

UF Libraries now adds Creative Commons CC0 to original catalog records

Beginning March 2011, the University of Florida Smathers Libraries implemented a policy to include a Creative Commons public domain dedication in all of its original cataloging records. The records are considered public domain with unrestricted downstream use for any purpose.

The following MARC 588 field (Source of Description Note) is added to new records contributed to WorldCat. It has not been added retrospectively to University of Florida original records in WorldCat.

588::|a This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CCO public domain dedication. The University of Florida Libraries, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

The University of Florida OPAC (a Solr/Lucene search engine) is configured to display a Creative Commons CCO statement based on the presence of a University of Florida OCLC symbol in the MARC 040 field |a. The specified 040 |a is mapped to the original cataloger_text field in the Solr/Lucene record if it exists in incoming records. This allows the statement to be displayed in the OPAC for original records retrospectively, i.e., records without the 588 field, and appear in RSS feeds.

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.


The University of Florida Libraries has waived all rights to this bibliographic record worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

Examples from the OPAC: