Learning Session Scheduled for January 30th at 1PM - Lessons of a first time digitizer

Session Description: Lessons of a first time digitizer

Most presentations provide "best practices" in undertaking digitization projects. In this case study, disclosures of two incorrect approaches will be discussed leading to a final correct outcome. This program is specifically geared toward solo librarians who have little or no experience in undertaking a digitization project. Please note that this presentation will not cover digital preservation.

Presenter Biography: Jackie Kilberg has been a corporate librarian for over 25 years. During that period she served on the audit, membership and employment task force committees for the SLA New York Chapter. While working as the research associate and corporate archivist for The McGraw-Hill Companies in New York City, Jackie was involved in several library and archival associations. As a member of the Business Reference and Services Section of ALA's Reference & User Services Association, Jackie moderated programs at two national conferences featuring McGraw-Hill reference products. This past June, Jackie presented at the SLA National Conference on becoming an accidental archivist and has addressed this topic at NCSU. Jackie and the McGraw-Hill Corporate Archives have been featured in the Society of American Archivists - Business Archives Section newsletter and Metropolitan Archivist magazine.

Jackie was also a board member for the McGraw-Hill Women's Networking and Success and the Society of American Archivists - Business Roundtable Section. Since relocating to North Carolina in August, Jackie, a certified competent communicator of Toastmasters International, is now Vice President of Membership and Public Relations for Cary Club Toastmasters and has currently joined the Society of North Carolina Archivists. While looking for new employment opportunities, Jackie is volunteering at her daughter’s middle school library, conducts database evaluations for Lexis-Nexis, provides pro-bono career advisory services to SLA colleagues and continues to write articles for the SLA New Chapter Newsletter.

Make sure to mark your calendars for January 30th at 1:00PM (ET) so that you can call in to learn more. The registration deadline is January 25th.

*A 15-min Q&A is scheduled after the 30-minute learning session. Please do not use a speakerphone to call in. Remember to write down the call-in information and passcode that will be shown in the confirmation message once you submit your registration.

Register for this learning session by January 25th.

Friday Roundup

Here is a listing of articles published in the last 7-10 days that may be of interest:

Health
1. 1 of 7 state residents lacks health insurance; The Seattle Times, December 13, 2011
Brief Introduction: The number of people in Washington state without health insurance has risen sharply since the end of 2008 and is expected to reach 1 million by the end of the year, according to a new report from state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler

2. Wisconsin gets OK for some Medicaid cuts; Businessweek.com, December 9, 2011
Brief Introduction: Gov. Scott Walker's administration received preliminary approval Friday from the federal government for some Medicaid cuts it sought to balance a budget shortfall, but a final determination won't come until later, raising the possibility 53,000 people may lose coverage in the meantime.

Education
1. Judge rules Colorado education law unconstitutional; Reuters, December 10, 2011
Brief Introduction: A Colorado judge ruled on Friday that the state's education law is unconstitutional because it underfunds public schools and fails to provide a "thorough and uniform" education to all students.

2. Safety violations found at Head Start Centers; Boston.com, December 13, 2011
Brief Introduction: It's the kind of stuff that gives moms nightmares: a machete near a play area, household chemicals accessible to preschoolers, and instructors teaching without a criminal background check. These violations and others were found at Head Start centers across the country, according to a report released Tuesday by the inspector general of the Health and Human Services Department.

Race
1. Black women were hit hard with job losses in economic crisis; Washington Post, December 11, 2011
Brief Introduction: According to a recent study by the National Women’s Law Center, black women have lost more jobs during the recovery — 258,000 — than they did during the recession — 233,000. Put another way, black women represented 12.5 percent of all women workers in June 2009. But between then and this June, black women lost 42.2 percent of jobs lost by women overall.

2. New Frisco ISD program tackles black student's low test scores; CW33, December 12, 2011
Brief Introduction: African-American students within the Frisco Independent School District do just as well as their White and Hispanic peers on state TAKS tests. But when it comes to college entrance exams, the failure rate for black students in FISD is almost twice as high.

What's new in Philanthropy

Articles of interest in philanthropy and nonprofits published in the last 10 days:

1. Controlling trillions, women drive charitable giving; Reuters.com, December 12, 2011
Brief Introduction: Because they live longer than men, women could oversee more than $41 trillion passed from generation to generation during the next 50 years, according to the Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University, which researched the Bank of America report. For most women, however, philanthropy is much more than writing a check.

2. The joys of nonprofit re-gifting; The Nonprofit Quarterly, December 12, 2011
Brief Introduction: As part of an annual urban studies class at the University of Pennsylvania this semester, students not only got the chance to assume the role of philanthropists but they also got $100,000 to back up their choices. According to NewsWorks, this was the first year that an anonymous donor made a gift to the university in support of the program, which, along with many other smaller gifts, included $20,000 for a neighborhood-based nonprofit with an operating budget of $160,000.

3. Gates working with China on poverty, hunger and nuclear power; Bloomberg.com, December 7, 2011
Brief Introduction: A partnership between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and China’s Ministry of Science and Technology announced Oct. 26 aims to start work “quickly,” Gates, the foundation’s co- chairman and Microsoft Corp. chairman, said at a briefing in Beijing today. The two sides are still in talks on how to make the accord “come to life,” he said.

Friday Roundup

Here is a listing of articles published in the last 7-10 days that may be of interest:

Health
1. Study: More evidence links specific genes to ADHD; USA Today, December 5, 2011
Brief Introduction: Variations in genes involved in brain signaling pathways appear to be linked to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a new study. The findings suggest that drugs that act on these pathways may offer a new treatment option for ADHD patients with the gene variants, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia researchers said.

2. Too few doctors may be telling parents their kids are overweight; Los Angeles Times, December 5, 2011
Brief Introduction: Parents can sometimes be clueless about the fact that their kids are too heavy, but doctors may not be steering them in the right direction. A study finds that less than a fourth of parents recollect their healthcare providers telling them their children were overweight.

Education
1. Study: Phys. Ed., recess mandates boost school physical activity time; Education Week, December 5, 2011
Brief Introduction: Schools are more likely to offer students 150 minutes of physical education per week if located in a state or district that mandates that level of P.E., according to a study published online today in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

2. Education a fresh start for those in poverty; Marionstar.com, December 6, 2011
Brief Introduction: Wiseman, 20, is among students enrolled at Marion County Jobs for Ohio's Graduates. Its students refer to it as their second chance, and sometimes as their only hope as many struggle to not fall into a cycle of poverty.

Race
1. Postal service cutbacks to hurt blacks; Chicago Tribune, December 6, 2011
Brief Introduction: The U.S. Postal Service's announcement Monday that it plans to close 252 mail processing centers and trim 28,000 jobs to fend off possible bankruptcy is part of a growing trend of shrinking government employment opportunities. For its workforce, which is disproportionately composed of African-Americans, the news means a lot more than the prospect of slower mail delivery.

2. Nudging Latinos toward math and science; Chicago Tribune, December 7, 2011
Brief Introduction: For Chicago-area educators such as Adrianzen, empowering Latino boys and girls to enroll in and excel in math and science classes is important to combating relatively high absenteeism and dropout rates, low college enrollment rates and disproportionately low numbers of minorities working in STEM careers.

What's new in Philanthropy

Articles of interest in philanthropy and nonprofits published in the last 10 days:

1. MBAs lend their skills to nonprofit boards; Bloomburg Business Week, December 5, 2011
Brief Introduction: Programs like the one Bell participated in, known as Board Fellows, are becoming increasingly common on business school campuses throughout the country. The initiatives are a way to get young people—a demographic that most nonprofit boards have trouble connecting with—involved with boards at an early stage in their careers. On average, only six percent of nonprofit boards have members under the age of 35, according to a 2008 Urban Institute study of nonprofits with annual expenses between $500,000 and $5 million

2. Five fascinating philanthropists; Barrons.com, December 3, 2011
Brief Introduction: Barron's is profiling five of these innovative philanthropists, looking at the entrepreneurial spirit that propelled them to think of new solutions for social problems. None of our picks are headline-grabbing billionaires using $100 million grants to wipe out a disease, but each is deploying grants and sweat equity in such an original way that it changes the world.

3. CPS vies for Gates Foundation funding; Chicago Tribune, December 6, 2011
Brief Introduction: Chicago Public Schools have signed a charter school compact agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in an effort to increase funding for charters and improve collaboration between charter and neighborhood schools.

Friday Roundup

Here is a listing of articles published in the last 7-10 days that may be of interest:

Health
1. More kids skip school shots in 8 states; Usatoday.com, November 28, 2011
Brief Introduction: More parents are opting out of school shots for their kids. In eight states now, more than 1 in 20 public school kindergartners aren't getting all the vaccines required for attendance, an Associated Press analysis found.

2. Medicare in America: "It has to get better"; CNN Money, November 29, 2011
Brief Introduction: As administrator of Medicare and Medicaid, Donald Berwick has been in charge of paying for the health care of nearly one in three Americans. He has also had an important role in implementing last year's health reform law, which uses the Medicare system as a big lever to change how doctors and hospitals do business, in hopes of containing costs.

3. Pastor fights HIV stigma in Southern town; CNN.com, November 28, 2011
Brief Introduction: It's a problem all across the Bible Belt. In 2007 -- the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- the rate of diagnosed AIDS cases in the Southeastern United States was much higher than in other regions of the country: 9.2 per 100,000 people, versus 2.5 in the Midwest, 3.9 in the West and 5.6 in the Northeast.

Education
1. Detroit schools face fines over truancy; UPI.com, November 28, 2011
Brief Introduction: The Detroit News reported Monday the documents it obtained show the financially struggling school district could lose about $25.9 million because attendance fell below the state minimum of 75 percent on 46 days last school year.

2. Homeless children snap their dreams; Detroit News, November 28, 2011
Brief Introduction: When asked what she wishes for, Julie, a 10-year-old resident of a homeless shelter, said she wants her mother to feel better. Nine-year-old Dearon, also a shelter resident, wants to go to college. Diamond, age 7, hopes to make her mother proud. The children were among 15 Detroit kids living in the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries shelter who articulated their hopes and dreams by taking photographs as part of the nationally acclaimed Pictures of Hope project.

Race
1. As public sector sheds jobs, Blacks are hit hardest; The New York Times, November 28, 2011
Brief Introduction: Mr. Buckley is one of tens of thousands of once solidly middle-class African-American government workers — bus drivers in Chicago, police officers and firefighters in Cleveland, nurses and doctors in Florida — who have been laid off since the recession ended in June 2009. Such job losses have blunted gains made in employment and wealth during the previous decade and undermined the stability of neighborhoods where there are now fewer black professionals who own homes or who get up every morning to go to work.

2. Ruling on Ala. immigration law averts exodus, groups say; USA Today; November 29, 2011
Brief Introduction: Civil rights groups say a judge's decision to halt part of Alabama's strict illegal immigration enforcement law averted a Thanksgiving weekend exodus of Hispanics from the state. Some portions of Alabama's law, known as HB 56 and described by supporters and critics as the harshest state immigration law in the country, were already blocked by a federal judge. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson took an additional step by ordering the state to stop denying manufactured home registration permits to people who couldn't prove their U.S. citizenship.

3. Black and Hispanic N.J. residents less likely to own homes following housing crisis, U.S. Census reveals; NJ.com, November 26, 2011
Brief Introduction: Sixty-five percent of Garden State householders live in homes they own. But for black households, that number drops to 40 percent. For Hispanics, the home ownership rate is even lower, at 36 percent, even as the community’s population has exploded in the last decade, according to data from the 2010 Census.

December Podcast: Mr. Paul Brest, President, Hewlett Foundation

For this month's podcast, I had an opportunity to interview Mr. Paul Brest from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Mr. Brest shared information that included his view of strategic philanthropy, creating a learning culture in his organization, and lessons learned during his career. This is an excellent interview and well-worth your time to listen:

MP3
WAV

Many thanks to Mr. Brest for his participation.