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Is it sometimes difficult to determine if a patron’s question would be better covered by medical information or resources covering psychology?  Come learn about the resources the Boston Public Library has available – for both remote and in building access – to help you with these questions.  There will be an overview of resources and then examples highlighting various databases available remotely to all Massachusetts residents.  

Enrollment Limit : 25

Instructor:Subject librarian from the Boston Public Library’s Research Division General Reference Department., which covers both Science (medicine) and Humanities (psychology).

Disabilities affect one-fifth of all Americans. What can your library do to provide an accessible library experience for patrons with disabilities? We will discuss practical guidelines for providing assistive technologies, accessible workstations, and a trained staff to assist your patrons with disabilities. We will also include discussion on disability etiquette and awareness.

Enrollment Limit : 30

This course presents an overview of key metadata concepts with a focus on making sense of the fundamentals. Discover what acronyms such as METS, MODS, and OAI stand for and what they really mean. Understand the impact emerging metadata standards will have on your institution. Also included is a brief survey of additional topics and issues in the library field that relate to metadata. Find out what you need to know to stay current on this important topic.

Topics include:

• Definitions and key concepts
• Metadata standards
• Impact of metadata on library systems and collection access

Enrollment Limit : 30

Come advance your Word skills with this 3 hour course dedicated to intermediate Microsoft Word. The course will explore the use of tabs, tables, bookmarks, mail merge and enhanced formatting techniques. Partially funded by the BPL Training Committee.

Enrollment Limit : 15

Come advance your Excel skills with a 3 hour course dedicated to intermediate Microsoft Excel. The course will explore managing worksheets, sorting data, filtering data, subtotals and an introduction to charts. Partially funded by the BPL Training Committee.

Enrollment Limit : 15

Is your collection stale?  Musty?  Dated?  Cluttered?  You need to weed!  But where to begin?  This class will give you an idea how to get a handle on what might seem to be an insurmountable task.  Sara Slymon recently weeded an entire building, reducing the size of the collection by 1/3.  It was daunting, and it was dusty, and she wants to tell you how she got it done.

Enrollment Limit: 30

Presenter: Sara Slymon, Branch Librarian, Boston Public Library, Mattapan Branch

BPL MecKim Conference Room

Join your colleagues in the Boston Regional Library System for an afternoon of learning, networking, and socializing. Each year Boston Regional Library System members are invited to come together to hear what the Regional Office has been up to for the past year and what we're planning for the future. Rob Maier, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners will share his State of the State address, and a keynote speaker will offer provocative ideas for library service. Afterwards, enjoy a lovely wine and snack reception, and tours of the Frederick S. Pardee Management Library at Boston University.

Keynote Address
Design as a Tool for Welcome and Inclusion

Valerie Fletcher
Executive Director, Institute for Human-Centered Design

It is a time of big visions for the changing role of libraries as centers of community. The dual catalysts of an increasingly diverse audience and shifting expectations and needs fuel the appetite for revitalization. Fletcher will offer a framework for strategies that use inclusive design of built environments, information, communication and policy. She’ll share a practical rationale and some library case studies that illustrate potential. Given the depth of the current national fiscal crisis, she’ll pay particular attention to economically sustainable options.

Enjoy an opportunity to enjoy wine and delicious hors d'oeuvres, network with your colleagues in the Boston Region and tour the Frederick S. Pardee Management Library located on the 3 rd floor of the BU School of Management’s Rafik B. Hariri Building, which opened in October 1996. The library opened in March 1997.

Executive Leadership Center , 4th Fl
BU School of Management
595 Commonwealth Ave. , Boston

The Kirstein Business Branch of the Boston Public Library is dedicated to serving business patrons of all kinds-- from small businesses to CEOs, marketing and consulting firms to students, job hunters, and Mom and Pop investors.   The entire print collection is an in-building research collection, but with telephone and electronic reference and a wide array of electronic resources available remotely to all Massachusetts residents, Kirstein’s staff can assist you and your patrons in many ways.  Laura Pattison will be providing an overview of all of Kirstein’s resources and highlighting various remote access resources.

Enrollment Limit : 25

Instructor: Laura Pattison, Economic Development Librarian, Boston Public Library, Kirstein Business Branch

Evidence-based practice grows out of a movement in the medical and health sciences field which uses research literature to identify best practices and to inform decision-making. The emphasis is on not only locating relevant research, but evaluating it for its appropriateness and applicability before deciding whether to implement its suggestions. Libraries are currently faced with enormous uncertainties and areas of significant change. From choosing resources in different formats, to the hiring and training of staff, to implementation of new programs, and decision on budget allocations, librarians are constantly making decisions that will directly affect their users, workflow, and staff. This workshop will assist librarians in understanding and applying evidence-based practice to their own work in order to make the most informed decisions. Participants will learn the foundation of evidence-based practice, methods for implementing it, and tips and tricks on finding and evaluating relevant research.  

Instructors: Gianna Gifford, Librarian for the School of Social Work, Simmons College; Laura Saunders, Adjunct Faculty, Simmons College Graduate School of Library Science

THE DIGITAL DELIVERY ROOM:
WE’VE BEEN EXPECTING LONG ENOUGH

The Boston Public Library’s digitization lab and imaging studio is where items from the library's vast and varied collections will begin their new lives as electronic files in the long-overdue BPL Digital Library. Come learn about out the gadgets and procedures that will help grow our digital library into one of world's most unique and accessible repositories on the internet. You will also see the recently opened mass-digitization center at BPL: 10 high-speed book scanners, run by the Open Content Alliance, paid for and used by the Boston Library Consortium.

Tours will be held in the studio where demonstrations of the state-of-the-art digital capture station will take place. Participants will be able to see high-resolution files on screen. Discussions and questions will center around the implications of such technology both locally and globally, as well as the current state of and future plans for digital initiatives. Enrollment Limit : 10

Instructor: Thomas Blake, Digital Imaging Production Manager, Boston Public Library.

Put a face to the screen name of your fellow marathoners upon completion of the 26.2 Things About 2.0 online course that you’ve worked on for the past 10 weeks. Receive your Creative Labs ZEN multimedia player if you’ve completed all 26.2 elements of the course. We will also have a few other tricks up our sleeves to help celebrate your journey, along with refreshments.

Enrollment Limit : 25

Instructor: Jennifer Koerber, Reference Librarian, Boston Public Library, Honan-Allston Branch

Learn about Web forums and how you can use them to encourage feedback and participation from your library community. The instructor will demonstrate the installation and administration of phpBB, an open source forum application, and discuss ideas for successful implementations.

Enrollment Limit : 15

Instructor: Stephen Spohn, Senior Consultant, NELINET

MEETING CUSTOMERS ON THEIR OWN TURF

Looking at the trends in library service that focus on providing opportunities for librarians to meet customers where they are online - Facebook, Digg, MySpace, iGoogle, etc.  Includes discussion of widgets and other tools for meeting customers on their own turf. .

Instructor: Linda Braun, Project Management and Consulting Coordinator, LEO: Librarians and Educators Online

Enjoy a tour of the Boston Athenaeum, a library and cultural center for members and scholars, led by their professional staff. Learn about the Athenaeum’s history, collections, programs and services, with visits to the Print Room, Art Department, Conservation Department and Children’s Library.

Coordinator: Stephen Z. Noncak, Head of Reader Services, The Boston Athenaeum

ADVANCED LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CLASSIFICATION

This course will concentrate on understanding and applying Library of Congress Classification (LCC) subdivision techniques. Through examples and exercises participants will learn about using tables, cutter numbers, and other methods used in LCC for subdivision. We will concentrate on examples and exercises from the P, H, and L classifications.

You will learn about:

• The relationship between LCC collection arrangement and notation
• LCC subdivision techniques
• Applying tables
• Geographic subdivision
• Using ranges of numbers and cutter numbers for subdivision

Instructor: Margaret Lourie, Senior Consultant, NELINET

BOARD GAMES AND THE AASL STANDARDS
FOR 21ST CENTURY LEARNERS

The American Association of School Librarians' (AASL) Standards for the 21st-Century Learner define student interactions with information in terms of an inquiry-based experience. Rather than learning by lecture and rote memorization, today's students need to explore information in a process not unlike the scientific method.

The member libraries of the School Library System of Genesee Valley BOCES in New York have developed a document that aligns the AASL standards with specific games that can be utilized as learning resources in school libraries. Come to review the new AASL standards and apply them through trying some tabletop games! Several games will be raffled off to attendees.

Enrollment Limit : 20

Instructor: Beth Gallaway, Library Consulting, Information Goddess Consulting