Friday Grab Bag, February 15, 2019

The Friday Grab Bag is a weekly series that highlights fun, unique, and interesting happenings in Colorado libraries, and includes news from the Colorado State Library.  So get up from your desk, have a stretch, and let’s open the Friday Grab Bag!

Attention Worthy:

Small Business Revolution:  Canon City, Colorado is competing to be in a reality show called Small Business Revolution. The Canon City Library is heavily involved. They are the only Colorado town represented and have made it to the top 6. Now the winning city will be determined by who has the most votes from the public.  The winning city will get $500,000 for 6 main street businesses. The recipients will have access to marketing advice, business makeovers, as well as the reality show coming to Canon City, even non-profits can compete for the money! This could really help out the Canon City Library. Every vote counts and could help the Canon City area.  If you have the time and inclination, you can vote at – www.votecanoncity.com

CALCON Needs You:  CALCON2019 is starting to ramp up and they need you!  The deadline for submitting proposals is looming – March 1st.  Presenting at CALCON is a great experience and something anyone can do.  Why not take the plunge and give it a try.  Learn more here:  Deadline for CALCON Session Proposals is Coming Soon!

Also – once those program proposals come in – someone need to review them – and that is where CALCON needs you again.  They are looking for volunteers to reveiw proposals.  Share your knowledge, expertise and curiosity with others within the library profession in Colorado.  Get involved.  For more information, click here:  Call for Program Review Volunteers (CALCON)

Mancos Fun Run:  The Mancos Public Library is gearing up for the 6th Annual Mancos Cowboy Half Marathon, 5K and Fun Run on Saturday, June 22. This has turned into a really fun community event and fundraiser for us.Our race courses are beautiful and we get participants from 8-80. Last year was our biggest yet with 176 registered runners and walkers. We raised about $13,000 through sponsorships, donations, and registration fees. This event makes a great destination race as Mancos is located just five miles from Mesa Verde National Park and 30 miles from Durango.For the second year, we will have a team competition in the 5K — maybe we could get some library rivalries happening!Our race website is: http://mancoshalfmarathon.com

Going Fine Free:

  • Clear Creek County Library District:  In order to provide fair access to materials and to promote literacy in our communities, the Clear Creek County Library District is no longer charging fines for overdue reading materials, and all existing fines for overdue reading materials have been erased.

Grant/ Assistance Funding Opportunities:

Native American Library Services Basic Grants program:  Recently, IMLS announced an April 1 deadline for applications for the Native American Library Services Basic Grants program. Basic grants support existing tribal library operations and help maintain core library services. All federally recognized tribes and Alaskan Native villages and corporations with libraries are eligible and welcome to apply. Last year, IMLS awarded over 180 basic grants. They’ve put together a new list of tips to help you submit a successful application package this year—here’s what you need to know.  Read More.

CLIR recently opened our 2019 call for proposals for our Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives program.  Click for further details.

CHNC New Content Support Program:  

The Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection (CHNC) is excited to announce that the 2019 program to support the addition of new historic news in the CHNC is now open for applications.  The Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection New Content Support Program for newspaper digitization is designed to help cultural heritage organizations across our state increase online access to historic community news through the CHNC.

Libraries Making News:

Pikes Peak Library District:

Learning for Everyone:

Citizen Science Day 2019: Add Real Scientific Research to Your Library Programming! – February 20, 3:00-4:00 PM CT – Citizen Science Day 2019 is Saturday, April 13th. You and your library are invited to participate in the Stall Catchers Megathon, in which people all over the world will analyze real research data in a game format that would normally take researchers over a year to complete. Join PSR for this webinar to learn more about Citizen Science (real people doing real science), and see how your library can get on board through citizen science activities and programming at different levels.

The Elephant in the Room: Helping Your Community Navigate the Financial Aspects of Healthcare – February 21, 2:00-3:00 PM CT – Financial health literacy occurs at the intersection of managing personal finances and health literacy. This hour-long webinar with GMR will explore the four components of financial health literacy and how librarians can support education and awareness to empower health consumers as they navigate complex issues of terminology, insurance, unexpected costs and financial barriers to healthcare. Better understanding the financial aspects of healthcare provides one key to unlocking health equity and wellness.

Food for Thought: Exploring Nutrition Information Resources – March 18, 12:00-1:00 PM CT – Sponsored by MAR, this class is designed to assist librarians, public health workers, health professionals, and the general public in locating authoritative information on nutrition and topics relating to nutrition. Background information on the importance of nutrition information to other health-related topics will be included, and resources for locating nutrition-related statistics and evidence-based practice will also be identified.

PubMed for Librarians: Introduction to PubMed – March 26, 1:00-2:30 PM CT – Attend this class to learn about the difference between PubMed and MEDLINE, how to run a basic PubMed search, assess your search results, analyze search details, customize PubMed with My NCBI, search for a known citation; plus, brief introductions to MeSH, automatic term mapping, search tags and subheadings.

CSL In Session:

  • Tear Down This Wall: Find & Remove Barriers to Library Use:  February 20 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm – While your library is ADA compliant and welcomes all, there may be hidden barriers for some in your community that hinder them from using your library.  Join us for this interactive session to discuss how to find out who isn’t coming to your library and why, and talk through strategies for breaking down road blocks that some members of your community have to enable them to become more active library patrons.
  • Helping Patrons with Legal Questions: Part 1 – Legal Research Basics:  February 21 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm – This first webinar in a series of three presented by the Colorado Association of Law Libraries and the Colorado State Library will address aspects of providing legal research services to patrons.  In this session, attendees will learn the following: what are the basic concepts involved in legal research; how to conduct a legal reference interview; and where to refer patrons in order to find forms and legal clinics.  This session will provide attendees with a basic overview of these concepts.  Sessions two and three will delve more into where to locate free legal research resources.

CLiC Spring Workshops:  The CLiC Spring Workshops are just around the corner and registration is open now.   The dates and locations for 2019 are: Grand Junction: March 21 & 22 @ Colorado Mesa University Fort Morgan: March 29 @ Fort Morgan High School Pueblo: April 15 & 16 @ CSU-Pueblo

Weekly Vocabulary Word:

This week’s word comes from the third century Ancient Greek.  You’ve met them, you’ve dined with them, perhaps you are one.  Deipnosophist – a person skilled in the art of dining and dinner-table conversation.  Having one of these around certainly takes the pressure off of the rest of us during meal times.  So – all hail the deipnosphist. We thank you for your gift.

What’s New at the Colorado State Library

Summer Reading/Summer Learning:  The Colorado State Library has once again renewed their support for ReadingRecord summer reading tracking software!  ReadingRecord is a web-based application for libraries to track reading program participants. It is a cloud (hosted) service, meaning that no additional equipment is required to use ReadingRecord. It can be used to track most any kind of reading program: traditional summer reading programs, winter reading programs, 1,000 books before kindergarten programs, year-long programs, etc.

Helping make history more accessible:  The Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection (CHNC) is not just a spectator sport – you can help make history brighter and more accessible by getting involved.  Make your connection to history deeper by becoming a text corrector in the CHNC database.  It is easy, effective, rewarding, and really addictive.  Learn more about OCR correction and how you can participate here.

Library Related Employment:

Are you thinking of making a change this year in your job?  Check out Library Jobline for hot new library employment opportunities.

Have a great weekend everyone! This post is part of the Spotlight on Sharing initiative, which aims to increase the visibility of resource sharing in Colorado libraries.   Whats going on at your library?  Let us know what you want to share!  Email Regan Harper, harper_r@cde.state.co.us.  Also, be sure to follow Colorado State Library on Twitter and Facebook.