A Newsletter for New England Library Association Members
Vol. 3, No. 5: June, 2007

NETSL Awards Two for Technical Services Excellence

by Christina Bellinger

This year the NETSL Board faced a conundrum as we tried to decide between two finalists for the annual Excellence Award: Catherine Willis, Technical Services Manager of the Boston Public Library, and Lisa Palmer, Librarian, Technical Services Department, University of Massachusetts Medical School's Lamar Soutter Library. Faced with the overwhelming evidence of each librarian's excellence, the Board decided to give the award to both finalists. The awards were presented at the spring conference, "Re-imagining Technical Services", held at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts on April 13.

Lisa and Catherine are both obviously worthy of the award, while their endeavors are distinctly different. Catherine's work may be characterized as more traditional, if one can use such a term in library work these days. Her focus has been on advocating for technical services to ensure the best public services in the face of "blistering staff cuts" and simultaneously cleaning up and converting the records for one of the oldest research collections in the United States, just to mention a few of her accomplishments. Scholars everywhere will benefit from her leadership in adding this wealth of resources to the World Wide Web. Meanwhile, Lisa was setting up an institutional repository for the UMass Medical School, taking charge of the Lamar Soutter Library website, becoming certified as a NACO participant, making her library one of the NACO medical funnel libraries, publishing in professional journals and being a leader in professional organizations. Her work brings special expertise to the national authority file and increased access to important medical information to users everywhere.

The NETSL Board congratulates Catherine and Lisa for their fine accomplishments.

Christina Bellinger is the Head of the Technical Services Department at the University of New Hampshire Library. She has been a catalog librarian and cataloging teacher for many years. She is a long-time member of NETSL, and has served as Member-at-Large, Corresponding Secretary, Vice-President, President, and is currently on her second term as the Corresponding Secretary.

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ITS Program Touts Open Source

Randy Robertshaw, Tyngsborough Public Library, Elizabeth Thomsen, North of Boston Library Exchange, Joshua Ferraro, LibLime, and Wes Hamilton, Technology Coordinator, Western MA Regional Library System presented talks on libraries' use of Open Source software at NELA's Information Technology Section's spring program, held on June 6, 2007, at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston MA.

• Program details
• Pictures from conference on Flickr

Presentation Links:

• Open Source for an Open World, Elizabeth Thomsen, Member Services, North of Boston Library Exchange (NOBLE)
• Open Source Solutions for Public Libraries, Randy Robertshaw, Director, Tyngsborough Public Library
• Flavors of Open Source: Emacs to Ubuntu, Wes Hamilton, Technology Coordinator, Western Massachusetts Regional Library System

Bloggers postings:

• Brian Herzog Blog Postings, Brian is a member of the ITS Executive Board and is Head of Reference at the Chelmsford Public Library.
• Emily Alling Blog Postings – Emily is Coordinator, Learning Commons and Undergraduate Services Librarian at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library at UMass Amherst.

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NELA Scholarship Winners Announced

NELA's Educational Assistance Committee is pleased to announce this year's Graduate study scholarship winners:

Full-time students receiving $2000 scholarships:

• Akunna Eneh, a student at Simmons College in Boston, hopes to encourage young people to be lifelong learners, and she wants to work where she can reach out to those who may not yet have access to adequate library service.
• Christina Wolfskehl, a student at the Univ. of Rhode Island (URI), has many years of experience as a paraprofessional in academic libraries, and is eager to return to a library and "deliver superior assistance" after completing her degree.

Part-time students receiving $1000 scholarships:

• Patricia Fickett, a distance education student at the Univ. of Wisconsin., Milwaukee,  currently works in a small New Hampshire public library, and has already enriched services there as a direct result of her education.
• Alice Campbell, another URI student, sees a wide variety of opportunities for librarians, and looks forward to serving a diverse community, most likely in a public or academic setting.

We congratulate the winners, and wish them the best as they complete their degrees.

Vickie Turcotte
Educational Assistance Committee Chair
Chelmsford Public Library, MA

Committee Members:
Victoria Antonitis, N. Providence P.L., RI
Marjorie P. Convery, Vineyard Haven P.L., Vineyard Haven, MA
Sherry Evans, Portsmouth P.L., Portsmouth, NH
Debbie Lozito, Edythe Dyer Library, Hampden, ME
Karen Patterson, student, SCSU, CT
Cynthia Watters, Middlebury College Library, VT

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"Shaping Outcomes" Takes OBPE Training Online

Shaping Outcomes, a new online course in outcomes-based planning and evaluation (OBPE), is available to library professionals. Shaping Outcomes is a collaboration between the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis (IUPUI) to create an instructor-mediated online course that trains library professionals to master and apply OBPE concepts to library programming. Participants in Shaping Outcomes work at their own pace through five interactive modules over approximately five weeks. With the support of an instructor, they learn the vocabulary and methods of OBPE and develop a logic model for a program or project at their own institution.

Shaping Outcomes courses are being offered in the Summer and Fall of 2007, free of charge, for library and museum professionals nationwide. A special section for library and museum studies faculty, professional trainers, or others who might teach Shaping Outcomes or incorporate it in their own curriculum is being offered in October 2007. If you are interested in registering for one of these courses or learning more about these course offerings, you can explore their website: www.shapingoutcomes.org, or contact the project manager by email at outcomes@iupui.edu or through postal mail at:

Shaping Outcomes Project Manager
Cavanaugh Hall #413
425 University Blvd.
Indianapolis, IN 46202

317-274-1406
317-278-5220 fax

"The Shaping Outcomes course has been of tremendous help in my daily activities. Learning about the principles of OBPE and how to apply them in real life has been an invaluable addition to my professional toolkit. Being new to outcome-based planning and evaluation, the learning curve for me was very steep. There was so much to learn! The Shaping Outcomes course took me step-by-step and showed me the principles, with real-life examples for implementation. I am still learning to use OBPE methods, but thanks to Shaping Outcomes, I know I have a solid foundation of knowledge."

Juan Tomás Lee
Library Consultant/State Data Coordinator

"I have learned a lot. I am redoing all my outreach programs since taking this program."

Susan Polumsky
Library Director

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NELA Calendar

NELA maintains a calendar of events – both events sponsored by NELA and its sections, and non-NELA events that we think might be of interest to our members.

This calendar is also available on the NELA web site (www.nelib.org/calendar).

For additions or corrections, please contact NELA's publications manager (publicationsmanager@nelib.org).

To print the current calendar, please go to www.nelib.org/calendar,
select the calendar style (and period) you'd like to print, and print from there.
Thanks!