Don’t Forget to Sign up for a Tagging Class starting next week.  There are 4 locations to take the class. 

 Find a date/location and Register Here.

Directions and dates are below:

December 5: 

Facility: 
      Florence County Library, Computer Training Room
      509 South Dargan Street
      Florence, SC 29506

Phone:   

(843) 662-8424

Driving Directions:

Take I-20 or I-95 going toward Florence. I-20 becomes David McLeod Blvd.  (You will pass Magnolia Mall on the left.)  Go straight through stop light at W. Evans Street.  Turn left at the next light onto West Palmetto Street (US-76).  Go 2.6 miles, then turn right onto South Irby (US-301/US-52), and the Library will be on your left at 509 South Dargan Street.

Click here for a map to Florence County Library.

  December 6: 

Facility: 
      Greenville County Library, Computer Training Room
      25 Heritage Green Place
      Greenville, SC 29601-2034

Phone:   

 (864) 242-5000

Driving Directions:

Computer training lab.  Parking $4.00 per day. 

Click here for a map to the Hughes Main Library of the Greenville County Library System.

December 7: 

Facility 

     Charleston County Public Library, Computer Training Room      

     68 Calhoun Street
     Charleston, SC 29401

Phone:   

(843) 805-6948

Driving Directions:

Facility Description:   Charleston County Public Library is located at 68 Calhoun Street in downtown Charleston. Classes are held in the Technology Learning Center, 2nd Floor.  Parking is available at the Library. Bring parking ticket to class with you for validation.

Click here for a map to Charleston County Public Library.

December 13: 

Facility: 
      SC State Library, Computer Training Room
      1500 Senate Street
      Columbia, SC 29201

Phone:   

803-734-8026

Driving Directions:

The Computer Training Room is located on the basement level of the SC State Library building at 1500 Senate Street, Columbia.

Click here for parking information, map and driving directions to the SC State Library.

Welcome back after the Thanksgiving holiday!

The South Carolina Library Association Annual Conference is this week in Hilton Head. I hope that many of you will be joining in on the sessions and discussions there. It promises to be a good week.

There are two sessions in particular that I hope you’ll attend:

Sustainable Libraries: The Next Generation, Wednesday, 11/29, 1:30pm
Presenters include David Warren, Richland County Public Library Director, and David Milling, President of David Milling & Associates/Architects. This session will focus on creating “green” library buildings, facilities that are energy efficient and more environmentally friendly. It’s an exciting trend in library design. Mr. Warren is well-known in SC and national library circles. RCPL was Library Journal’s Library of the Year in 2001. Mr. Milling is a nationally recognized library architect, featured recently in the American Libraries 2006 Showcase of New and Renovated Facilities.

Rural Library Service in the 21st Century: Lessons from WebJunction’s Rural Library Sustainability Project in South Carolina, Friday, 12/1, 9:00am
The Rural Library Sustainbility Project is a national grant from WebJunction, intended to identify the challenges facing rural libraries in today’s changing climate. Shae Tetterton, Julie Boller, and I will discuss what we learned from our three workshops and what the State Library’s Library Development Services hopes to do to address the needs of public libraries in SC.

While you’re there, don’t forget to stop by the South Carolina State Library exhibit booth!

Now that South Carolina librarians have completed the first TechTracks sessions on Blogging, we anticipate a new flowering of S.C. library weblogs well before winter is over.   We’ll link to new blogs here on LibraryTrax, so send us your blog names!

As blogs proliferate it gets harder to find that one blog you read one time on that one crucial topic.   A solution:  LISZEN, a new search engine that indexes more than 500 library blogs.

Other ways to bag a blog by librarians about real-library issues:

• The Blogging Libraries Wiki - Be sure to add your library blog to this list.
• There’s a good list of library blogs at the Internet Public Library. 
• And the most comprehensive directory to library blogs, LibDex - Puts the feeds right up front, so you can bag ’em for your Bloglines account!

Partly as a means of answering challenges to social networking presented in the DOPA proposed legislation, YALSA librarians blogged about the benefits of online social tools.  The results:  30 positive uses of social networking, that are making a difference in the way young people learn, communicate, and use the library.   Some extremely positive outcome of social networking: 

• Teens are empowered
• Teens have the chance to meaningfully serve the community
• Teen reading and writing skills are supported
• Teens have opportunities to create and collaborate
• Teens learn to plan and manage projects
• Teens communicate with community members
• Teens learn how to be smart and safe when using technology.

Read the compiled results here.   This easy-to-follow roundup of new (and newer!) softwares also includes real-library examples of how teens are using them. 

Yesterday, Felicia Vereen, Julie Boller and I attended a meeting regarding a new initiative from ETV. They are developing plans for a statewide (yes, statewide) wireless broadband service that will reach all corners of the state. Right now they are developing the vision and negotiating the contract. They have asked the State Library and many other agencies to participate in the planning process.

Since I am proponent of the “wisdom of crowds” please contact us if you are interested in participating in the process. They will be releasing a survey soon to gauge interest and the ways we will use the service.

We have already alerted the ETV staff of your needs for this service for the mobile libraries and bookmobiles. This is a great opportunity to expand your mind and think of the opportunities this will give our libraries and citizens. Please note that these services will not change anything regarding the CIO network upgrade.

Please go to SCETV’s web page describing the plans for this new service. SC could be the first state in the nation to offer this service. Let’s be part of it!!