WebJunction

Now that the RLS project is really getting rolling, I'd like to meet all of you who will be participating in it. Since I can't visit all the small community libraries in the country (maybe when I retire?), I'm asking you to introduce yourselves and give me a glimpse of life at your library.

I'll start.

My name is Betha and I'm the Community Associate here at WebJunction. I get to meet-and-greet people from all over libraryland through the message boards --very cool! I'm the behind the scenes support for your project leaders, Jim and Michelle. I have a passion for small "heart of the community" libraries --maybe I'll get to work in one someday. In the meantime, I will be eagerly following the stories that you all have to tell.

Who's next?

Welcome, incredibles! I just looked up the location of the Lovington Public Library in New Mexico and it looks like it totally fits the category of rural. You must have an "incredible" staff to take to cross-training and keep everything operational.

As for the hotspot in your future, you might be interested to read this WJ member's story about [url http://webjunction.org/forums/click.jspa?searchID=-1&messageID=23544 ]Making the case for Wi-Fi to the Board[/url]. I love library stories with happy endings.

I hope we'll hear more about the [url http://webjunction.org/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=193 ]outreach[/url] you do in your community.

Thanks for being the first brave project participant to jump into this conversation. I'd give you a 5-star rating for that! *****

My name is Susan White and I am the representative from Georgia that will be going to Seattle in one month. I have been in the library world for over 34 years - some in urban areas and some in rural. I began a new job in September 2005, but before that I was manager of a county library in northern Georgia (the mountain area). One library in a county of 28,000 that served a very diverse population. The mountain area of Georgia is rural so I am very interested in helping these libraries, as well as the very rural farmland of the southern part of the state. I am looking forward to meeting people from the other 14 states when we meet in Seattle in a month.

Hello Shae and Susan and Linda. Welcome to the conversation!

For those of you who will be coming to Seattle for the training institute, I'll get to greet you in person --always my preference. In the meantime, it's great to get to know something about each of you in this virtual meeting place. It sounds like we have a real power group to implement the RLS program in the coming months.

Welcome to all the new subscribers! I think that you will find using WebJunction a great place to discuss the sustainability project. Everyone is reallly helpful and have great ideas that they don't mind sharing.

I recently ran across a book that I think can be of some help when your libraries start working on their projects. You all may already be aware of this particular book but thought I would pass it on anyway.

Helping Business -- The Library's Role in Community Economic Debvelopment: A How To Do It Manual for Public Librarians. Bleiweis, Maxine. 1997. Neal-Schuman Publishers. $55. It is kind of expensive but I find it quite useful for what we plan to do.

Good luck with your projects.

Rebecca Van Der Meer
Continuing Education Consultant
West Virginia Library Commission

Hi! I'm Cassandra Osterloh, Continuing Education Coordinator at the New Mexico State Library and participant in the first round of training.<br><br>
I want to echo Rebecca's welcome and great words about WJ. I also would like to suggest another resource <i>The Visible Librarian: Asserting Your Value with Marketing and Advoccacy</i> by Judith Siess. I have purchased and sent this book to all my workshop attendees. Many have already commented on its helpfulness to them.<br><br>
I will be in Seattle at the end of February helping out with the 2nd round training. I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone. In the meantime, if you have any questions or want to chat, please feel free to contact me.<br><br>
~ Cassandra

Hello, My name is Eric Trahan, and I am the Director of the Canajoharie Library and Art Gallery in upstate New York. I know that many people around the country don't believe that any part of New York is rural, but we, along with many other areas of the state, are. We are in a village with a population of 2,200. Our library is a combined library and museum, with a well known art collection. We are in the middle of expanding our facility to serve as more of a community center. I was introduced to this forum through my participation in the New York version of the EqualAccess libraries program of the Libraries for the Future Foundation.

Hi, I'm Ellen Wood from Maine, joining everyone in Seattle at the end of February as one of the trainers. I work at the State Library as the Web Coordinator and am a strong advocate for equal access to information, serving on the government web accessibility committee. Before my current job I was a teacher for 20 years in Upstate New York then moved to Maine, becoming involved with libraries. At one point I was the librarian at a small island community library and experienced many of the issues I see discussed in the forums-lack of money, time, how to advocate.

Instead of a obtaining a library degree I went back to school a few years ago for another master; this time Teaching with Technology and specializing in Web Accessibility. During school online forums were the key way to communicate and we had many discussions on how to help future colleagues and students join in a topic...a topic I see discussed on WebJunction. Now if the spell check would just pick up the words I leave out because I think faster than type, my online comfort zone would be increased!

I'm excited to meet everyone and appreciate the tips and suggestions from those of you in Round 1 as I read this topic and others connected to the Rural Sustainability project.

Hi, I'm Linda Gens and I'm the project coordinator for Oklahoma. Oklahoma is one of the Round 1 states. Our trainer is Ginny Dietrich and so far, we have done 2 workshops. We will be in Seattle for Round 2 and look forward to meeting all of you. Putting these workshops together has been a great experience for me and the workshops have been very interesting. We are doing our 3rd one tomorrow and the rest (3) will be in April, so I will have 3 workshops under my belt and so will Ginny.

BTW, Cassandra, I checked out The Visible Librarian and it looks interesting.

I'm Elaine Stanley, the Reference Services Coordinator at the Maine State Library. I'm looking forward to meeting all of you at the meeting in Seattle at the end of the month -- it doesn't seem possible that's just next week ! It will be my second visit to Seattle (previous visit was in summer 2001). I'll be there with Ellen Wood, the web master for the Maine State Library web site and advocate of accessibility for all.

Much of my work time involves training, either of other librarians or the general public. I'm fortunate to have a small computer lab to offer classes in, but I'm also "on the road" in small public and school libraries as well. I'm looking forward to learning more about sustainability issues and sharing what is happening in Maine, but I'm eager to share and learn training tips, as well.

Since I'm "multi-tasking" right now (I'm covering the Reference Desk during a night shift as I write this), I will keep this pretty short.

See you all in a few days !