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Image of the Montana State Library Logo
This newsletter serves a biweekly digest to consolidate and archive events and news from various library directed outreach from the Montana Library Network within the Montana State Library. This newsletter will go out on the first and third Tuesdays of each month.
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The people who use libraries are the best at explaining why libraries matter. Montana State Library staff have created a one question survey designed to capture why people value libraries. We plan on coding survey responses and creating a public facing dashboard that highlights why libraries matter. Library directors, board members, and staff can share with the public, with community leaders, and government officials. The dashboard will be available in January 2023.
We need data to build the dashboard. Please post the following survey link on your website, share it with patrons on social media, or in newsletters. By December 15, 2022, staff from the Montana Shared Catalog will add the survey to the online Enterprise catalog.
Please encourage people to complete the survey. Their stories are powerful and MSL staff hope this dashboard will be useful to library supporters in Montana.
Survey Link
or
https://tinyurl.com/b9924zd4
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Many of us have some experience in working with partner organizations.
We'll explore how a coalition is different. And we'll work on how to
identify potential coalition partners as well as how to approach and
work together. This is more of a long term strategy but can be
invaluable when it comes time raise funds for a building or gather
support for a mill levy or even fight off book challenges.
Tuesday, December 13 @ 2pm
Register in ASPeN for CE credit and/or find the link to join us live or
find the recording.
https://mslservices.mt.gov/ASPeN/Events/Event_Detail.aspx?Event_ID=22343
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Libraries that would like to lend or borrow book club kits may browse holdings or add their own to a list maintained by Eli Ritterpusch at Laurel Public Library. You may view the list here: https://tinyurl.com/mpx3cxzr
Contact Eli at laurelpltech@outlook.com if you have questions or would like to contribute to the list.
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MontanaLibrary2Go's magazine collection, added in early 2021, is set to pass the 100,000 checkout mark this month. The collection of simultaneous access titles now averages around 5,600 monthly checkouts.
The top ten most popular titles were:
Us Weekly
Cook's Illustrated
The Economist
The New Yorker
HGTV Magazine
Woman's World
Good Housekeeping
Backpacker
Cook's Country
Country Living
The magazine collection has been funded with federal CARES and ARPA pandemic relief funds to help enhance remote access to library materials.
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The Montana State Library provides lifelong learning support to all Montanans through a combination of librarian professional development and training, program development, and meaningful partnerships. Lifelong Learning projects include sustained, long-term efforts in early literacy, economic development, and summer reading, as well as other topics such as health information, STEM programming, wildlife education, and civic engagement.
For those looking for technology training opportunities, please consider applying to participate in the first Tech Skills Winter Cohort! Led by Bobbi deMontigny and Amelea Kim from the Montana State Library, the Tech Skills Winter Cohort is a new professional development opportunity designed to help Montana librarians learn, practice, and strengthen the tech knowledge and skills needed to accomplish their work. This cohort will cover the absolute basics of computers and tech skills to make sure that Montana librarians have baseline tech knowledge in order to easily participate in Montana library services and projects. This cohort is best suited for librarians who want to practice the basic computer skills used in everyday work.
Please note that this cohort will NOT focus on troubleshooting patron tech questions or issues. Please see the information below for details on the cohort structure and learning outcomes.
Learning Outcomes
- Librarians gain confidence with basic tech skills, and develop the skills to troubleshoot common problems
- Librarians practice the skills needed to easily participate in Montana library services, projects, and programs
- Librarians will be able to specifically identify the areas needed for further training and learning
- MSL staff gain a better understanding of the tech topics that librarians need training in
- MSL staff can better design future tech training offerings.
Course Structure
- This course will consist of 6 online, self-paced modules that will be completed on your own time AND 6 online discussion meet-ups that will happen at set times. The online discussion meet-ups will be one hour each.
- There will be one week between each online meet-up. The meet-ups will be on Thursdays from 11 am - 12 pm, and have been scheduled on the following dates: 1/26. 2/2, 2/9, 2/16, 2/23, 3/2
- You will receive 2.5 hours of CE credit for each module. 1.5 hours of CE is given for the self-paced work that you do in preparation for the online meet-up, and 1 hour for the meet-up itself. If you miss an online meet-up, there will be a recording that you can watch afterwards, but you will only receive credit for the self-paced work.
- Bobbi deMontigny and Amelea Kim will be the facilitators for this learning cohort.
- We will be using the GCF Learn Free tech tutorials for the self-paced portion of this cohort, specifically the Computer Basics, Basic Computer Skills, and Tech Savvy Tips and Tricks tutorials
How to Apply
- Please fill out an Application Form by December 16th, 2022
- We will notify selected participants by December 21st, 2022
Please reach out to Amelea Kim at akim@mt.gov or Bobbi deMontigny at bdemontigny@mt.gov with any questions that you have!
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CSLP Summer Symposium on 12/8/22!
CSLP is hosting another national Summer Symposium for librarians to meet, learn, and brainstorm for the 2023 Summer Reading program! Any and all are welcome to attend for free.
This VIRTUAL symposium has multiple sessions and workshops. Registration will open on Monday, November 14th!
Find more information and 2021's Summer Symposium on the CSLP website.
Not able to attend on December 8? Save the seats for those that can attend live. Fill out the Summer Symposium Recording Form be notified when the recorded webinars are posted.
The CSLP Inclusion Committee has just hosted a webinar with the Kaleidoscope Youth Center in Columbus, OH. The recording, slides, and handouts will be posted to CSLP's website in the next week. Please see below for a link to the Inclusion Committee Webpage, as well as links to past webinar recordings they have hosted
CSLP Inclusion Committee Webinar Archive
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STEM Workshops for Libraries in May 2023
If any of you are interested in STEM Programming in Libraries, the State Library is working with the Space Science Institute to bring two all-day STEM trainings for librarians to eastern and western Montana in 2023! Here are the dates and info (might be subject to change):
Workshop 1 for Western Montana - May 15th, 2023 in Helena (location change from Bozeman)
Workshop 2 for Eastern Montana - May 17th, 2023 in Glendive
- Both trainings will be 10 am to 4 pm
- Lunch is provided to attendees and all workshop-related costs are covered by the Space Science Institute.
- Attendees will need to cover transportation costs on their own.
Workshops are limited to 30 attendees.
Interested in attending?
Please fill out the STEM Programming in Libraries Workshop Interest Form.
Filling out this form is not a commitment that you will attend. We will ask for final commitments in early 2023.
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Please check out the StoryMap Reports for the 2022 Summer Reading Program, and the 2022 Bat Week program! Thank you to everyone who submitted data and feedback, and to all who participated! Feel free to share these reports with whomever as well.
Lifelong Learning Data Dashboard
If you are interested in a data overview of Lifelong Learning programs, please visit the FY23 Lifelong Learning Data Dashboard!
You can also see the Data Dashboards for all of MSL's Services and Programs.
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The Montana Library Spotlight is an opportunity for us to highlight and celebrate the awesome things that Montana libraries are doing! Today's Montana Library Spotlight features the work that the Sidney-Richland Library did around the Marc Steinberg Alzheimer’s Art Exhibit. We talked with Kelly Reisig, the director, to learn more.
Marc Steinberg's Artwork on display at the Sidney Richland County Library
What is the Marc Steinberg Alzheimer’s Art Exhibit?
Marc Steinberg is a Missoula resident and retired doctor (who served the White Sulphur Springs area for many years) who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2020. He took up painting as a way to cope, and created an art exhibit. The exhibit consists of 15 framed and matted original paintings from Marc, a framed artist’s statement/info, and a short biography of Marc. Marc’s courage, strength, and talent inspired many conversations around our community about how we can provide a more supportive network of both formal and informal resources for those who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and Dementia, and their families.
How did you display the artwork, and how did your community react?
We positioned the display on the main floor near our circulation desk, and as a result, almost every single visitor took time to walk through the art and read the biography and artist's statement. Although we did not do an official count for the display itself, we do have a counter at our door. We had the display for 15 days (we were closed for 3 days in November for holidays) and we averaged 65 visitors a day in the library. Our counter showed a total of 986 people that visited the library. As I mentioned, the artwork spurred lots of conversations. Some shared their own experiences with family members who had or have Alzheimer's/Dementia, while others asked about resources in our area and where we could improve
What else did you do in addition to hosting the exhibit?
We held a public outreach/awareness event around Alzheimer’s, and partnered with Beth Ammon, a palliative care nurse who worked with Marc, to do a virtual event at the library. The event was perfect for our group. Beth gave some background information about Alzheimer's & Dementia, Created Connected Aging, and the new approaches to patient care. She then showed the video of Marc's interview at the Missoula Public Library Memory Cafe. As the participants watched they also did the artwork. We set up the tables & art supplies in the same fashion as in Missoula. Then each participant showed Beth their painting, shared their own experiences, and how it related to what they had created. We had a small turnout but a big impact. Two of the participants were from our Sidney Health Extended Care facility. One person is the Activities Director, and she intends to use what she learned at the event to work with patients that are in the Extended Care's Angel Avenue. She also hopes to continue to work with Beth to expand activities for all patients in the facility. Our second person is a nurse in Extended Care's Angel Avenue and she left equally committed to adding artwork opportunities for her patients. I know she will also be working with Beth. Another person was a community member, and her twin sister was recently diagnosed. Ironically, her twin is the artist in the family. She was shy about doing artwork with her twin because she didn't think she was "good enough" to do it. She shared her story and newfound confidence during the event that she now believed that she absolutely should do art with her twin sister. Her artwork was beautiful and had so much meaning and it really brought tears to my eyes that she made the connection during the event.
Additionally, I sent out a press release, along with a copy of Marc's Artist Statement and Biography, to our media outlets, as well as health care foundations, doctors, hospitals, etc. This has brought about a larger discussion about the role our library can play in creating a stronger network of support and resources for patients and their families. We have discussed many different ideas and it will be exciting to see this progress. Our local paper featured a full page article about Marc and the exhibit in their Thanksgiving edition of the paper. Our library has never received that much dedicated newspaper space before, and I was so excited that they chose this important story to do so.
Scan of Newspaper Article
Going-to-the-Sun Road Construction and Dedication (1924-1934)
This collection documents the original survey and construction of the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park from 1924 to 1934. Reports, photos, and maps from the Glacier National Park Archives provide insight into the challenging conditions faced by the engineers and contractors who worked on this landmark project.
Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site Photographs
Once the headquarters of a 10-million-acre cattle empire, Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site preserves these symbols and commemorates the role of cattlemen in American history. We recently uploaded 113 new images to the collection - we hope you will check them out.
Jim Annin Photo Collection
This collection, from the Museum of the Beartooths, has a focus on the people of Stillwater County. Over the past week we've uploaded 25 new images - with many more planned for the future.
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Continuing Education and Certification Task Force
The Task Force wrapped up its meetings on November 30. Next steps will be forwarding recommendations to the Network Advisory Council, gathering more public comment, and then presenting final recommendations to the State Library Commission in late spring 2023.
Thank you to everyone who took time to respond to the surveys from the Task Force over the last few months. Your ideas and input are very important for this project to update the MSL Continuing Education and Certification Program.
To access Task Force meeting materials, recordings, and member list please visit
https://msl.mt.gov/about/commission_councils/CE-Task-Force.
On-Demand Learning for Libraries
Visit the MSL Continuing Education webpage to find out about continuing education opportunities.
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WebJunction Webinars:
MSL sponsors access to WebJunction for Montana librarians. Stay in the know and build your skills through the webinars and courses offered through this service. All WebJunction webinars are recorded and available for free in the Course Catalog.
New MSL YouTube Channel Content
Visit the new MSL YouTube Channel to access meeting recordings, webinars, and training from across all MSL Programs.
Please subscribe!
You can still access content created prior to July 2022 in Vimeo. All new recordings and content will be posted to the MSL YouTube Channel.
Is your ASPeN account up to date?
Updated contact information in ASPeN helps with event registration, claiming credits and completing certification!
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You can subscribe to our YouTube channel
The old Vimeo channel is no longer being updated, and you might be missing out on the latest additions to this rapidly growing resource! Stay in the know and subscribe at https://youtube.com/@montanastatelibrary!
Don't worry, the older videos have been archived. You can find them linked in the about section of the new channel.
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November/December
Click on the image below to see the coming months and register for upcoming events.
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