A new year is always a good time to reflect, and 2006 was certainly an incredible year for us here in LDS. Here are some of the highlights:

  • We added two great new people to the department: Kathy Sheppard and Julie Boller.
  • We had our first joint meeting (of many, we hope) with LDS staff at the State Library of North Carolina.
  • We hosted the Leadership Institute in partnership with the University of South Carolina, School of Library and Information Science.
  • Library 2.0 became an all-consuming passion for all of us, resulting in the creation of this blog, new Bloglines accounty, MySpace and/or Facebook accounts, Flickr accounts, Second Life avatars, etc.
  • We hosted Tech Express, the first ever technology institute for SC public libraries and met the fabulous Jenny Levine, Michael Stephens and Stephen Abram. Tech Express was really a landmark event for us, and we hope to do it again…..soon!

2007 promises to be just as exciting.

We’ve decided to organize our efforts a bit this year, and in doing so, we’ve created the South Carolina Libraries 2.0 Initiative. The initiative brings together several different training programs, services, and development tools for libraries. The objective is to help libraries of all types, but particularly public libraries, to plan and create strong services for the ever-changing demands of an increasingly sophisticated population. Some of the programs included are:

  • TechTracks, a series of training classes on various social networking technologies and services
  • An update of the South Carolina Public Library Standards
  • A restructuring of the certification program for the state’s public librarians and staff
  • Extreme Teens, a weeks-worth of activities all over the state during Teen Read Week, October 2007, including a teen institute, featuring teen-services guru, Patrick Jones
  • Participation in the Hispanic Outreach Grant program from WebJunction

…And these are just a few of the things we have in mind!

What’s happening in your libraries this year? Leave some comments on the blog. You might inspire others to mirror your program or partner with you to expand its success. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

Felicia