Today I completed the RSS exercises.  I subscribed to the events at the library in the community in which I live and learned all about the upcoming events at that library.  When I was done with the exercises, I unsubscribed to the ones I created during the exercise and have started to add actual feeds that are of interest to me.  I started with the RSS feed from the California State Library.

Today I spent some time becoming familiar with Instant Messaging and, with a lot of help from Doug Thomas, Peer Trainer, I think I’m getting the knack of it.    As you can see, I was able to put a meebo widget on my blog.  I also received a couple of messages from other staff members but they came while I was offline so I could not respond.  Doug showed me how to set up my own meebo room. 

I can see how this could be used for reference and other kinds of communication with the library.  It could also be used by me to communicate with groups of people.  I wonder why I would use this rather than Skype?

I’ve recently received several questions about the library’s budget as a result of comments made in the press and elsewhere.   Based on the questions I have received, I thought it would be useful to get you the following facts about the library’s budget:

1.         Dan Borenstein’s column over the weekend reported that almost half of the County’s $12.7 million property tax revenue shortfall will have to come out of fire and library services.  The library’s projected revenue shortfall is $803,000, which is about 6.5% of $12.7 million.     

2.        While significant, $803,000 represents less than 3% of the library’s budget of $28 million.   At the direction of the CAO, we have begun internal discussions to generate ideas for closing this gap and have intensified our efforts to control current year’s expenses.   As many of you know, the library sets aside operational reserves so that our service levels do not fluctuate with annual revenue changes.    Although we will take a more detailed plan to the Board of Supervisors in the near future, I anticipate that we will be able to close this gap without reducing our open hours at the 25 community libraries.

Please let me know if you have any questions – thanks 

http://del.icio.us/ahcain

The Contra Costa County Library’s newest library is located in Hercules.  Here are some pictures of the Hercules Library.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44206442@N00/sets/72157606339321957/

I just finished a book that I thoroughly enjoyed, The World Rushed In,  and I’ve written a review for the Staff Picks Wiki.

http://staffpicks.pbwiki.com/Books+for+Adults

It was my great pleasure to attend the annual meeting of the American Library Association in Anaheim last weekend.  Along with Greta Galindo and Kathy Middleton from the Antioch Library, I attend the ASCLA Awards Ceremony.  The Antioch Library won a top national award jointly sponsored by ASCLA and the National Organization on Diability for a program developed by Kathy Middleton called the Wednesday Club, a highly successful outreach program to adults with developmental disabilities.  The program is so successful in fact, that Kathy told the audience in accepting the award that they may need to add a Thursday Club!  Congratulations and thanks to Kathy for developing this program and to Greta for encouraging and supporting staff efforts to reach underserved members of the community.

Next I was on to our two poster sessions, one of which was on the Wednesday Club program.  Here is a picture of Kathy at her poster session.  Kathy did both of the posters for the sessions - they are beautiful as well as informative. 

 

 

The other poster session was on Library a Go Go.  Several staff members were available to answer the many questions about this project which generated considerable interest in the library community.  As you all know, we were the first library in the country to offer this service.  And, it is being very heavily used at the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station.

 Catherine Scheer, Kathy Middleton, Greta Galindo, Jon Solomon

Jon Solomon, Greta Galindo, Cathy Sanford

Either today or tomorrow the library will hit 6 million items circulated for the year – we operate on a fiscal year, so that means that 6 million items have circulated since July 1, 2007.  I am thrilled at what this means for our library customers and I am grateful to all staff for achieving this huge accomplishment!  Whether you helped a child located a favorite title, selected an item for the collection, checked out a book for someone or installed a self-check machine, unpacked a shipment or shelved a returned book, paid a bill to a book vendor, cataloged or processed an item, drove a truck that delivered library items or enrolled a student in our literacy program,  you helped make this happen.  Congratulations and thanks for all that you do!