Infoblog

I frequently find out about new and exciting training tools both from Infopeople and the Continuing Library Education Network & Exchange Round Table (CLENE) of the American Library Association. In June 2007, I read a wonderful blog entry, A Quick Intro to ScreenCasting by Steve Garwood in CE Buzz, CLENE's blog. Steve describes how he used Camtasia software to record a PowerPoint presentation he did on ScreenCasting as he spoke.

Since I recruit instructors for Infopeople I contacted Steve and voilà, his Infopeople onground course became a reality, Tutorials 2.0: Teaching the Public and Training Staff with Online Screencasts; sessions start this month.

Even if you aren't ready to take a course, do check out the course description and sample shown in his blog entry to see a really cool tool your library could use to do tutorials for the public or for staff training.

Posted by gail mcgovern at 7:38 PM in Cool Tools | Infopeople News | Training | Permalink

Infopeople instructor and podcaster Michael Cart is the inaugural winner of the YALSA/Greenwood Publishing Group Service to Young Adults Achievement Award! YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) is the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association (ALA).

Here is the full press release. Way to go, Michael!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 7:54 AM in Infopeople News | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thought I'd do a little Friday p.r. for a new Infopeople series. It's called Moving Libraries Forward to Web 2.0 and we have a web page and a wiki that give you all the specifics. The bad news: the online course Web 2.0: Developing a Successful eBranch is completely and utterly filled. The good news: we're going to offer another session! So email assist@infopeople.org to be added to the "Yes, I'm interested!" list. Note: due to a special grant, this series is free to the California library community. What this means for you out-of-state folks is that you won't be able to take any of the online courses, at least in this first round of training.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 5:34 PM in Infopeople News | Training | Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)

A nice little video tour of the CLA 2006 conference has been posted to Google Video. Check it out here! Our technology petting zoo & booth area is featured, along with special appearances by assorted Peeps. Thanks to Bernadette Swanson from UC Davis for the link! Check out more info from the conference on the CLA Blog.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 11:28 AM in Conferences | Infopeople News | Permalink | Comments (0)

The winners of the drawing at the Infopeople booth at the CLA 2006 annual conference were:

Saturday -- Grace Francisco, Oceanside PL
Sunday -- Seng Lovan, Danville Library, Contra Costa County

Congratulations! Each will receive a Creative Zen V MP3 player.

Posted by holly hinman at 10:14 AM in Infopeople News | Permalink

The California Library Association held its annual conference this past weekend in Sacramento. Infopeople, along with the California State Library's other LSTA-funded state projects were there, and we all shared a joint booth area that we called, "A Roaring Collaboration." It was a blast!

One of the new things we did this year was to put on a "Technology Petting Zoo," where we had a lot of devices from MP3 players to ergonomic keyboards on display for people to hold and actually use (you could pet them too, of course). Beth Gallaway, Information Goddess, came (thanks, Beth!) and was an enormous all-around help but most importantly was the resident expert and tour guide of our Second Life demo. Michael Stephens of Tame the Web gave a great, very well-attended talk and mentioned Second Life and Beth which needless to say kept her a very busy person!

This was the first time we've ever done anything like the zoo, and while everyone enjoyed it, we see a lot of room for improvement, and hope to do it again next year with new and different items.

Beth started a Flickr group for CLA 2006 photos, which you can view here. I've posted a bunch of photos (which are also part of the Flickr group) here.

We also managed to capture on film the inimitable Margaret Miles leading a room full of librarians in the "library cheer." Check it out on YouTube here!

Among the photos you will find several labeled "Carole's retirement party." It is with great regret (for us) and great pleasure (for her) that we are announcing Carole Leita's retirement from Infopeople. CLA 2006 marked her last foray as a Peep, and we'll miss her! But she's going to be having a lot of fun golfing, traveling, and just plain living so we can't feel too sorry for her. We love you, Carole! And you can keep editing my typos as long as you want! ;-)

Posted by eileen o'shea at 8:08 AM in Infopeople News | Odds & Ends | Technology Updates | Training | Permalink | Comments (0)

Phew! After a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, Infopeople is officially unveiling its all new website! This is the biggest redesign we've EVER done, and features an all-new workshop registration program. You can create and save your profile in the new system, and here's what's extra neat: you can see a historical record of all the courses you've taken with us! Pretty cool! We have a new section called Web 2.0 that features this blog, all of our wikis, and links to all of our podcasts. And of course, our perennial favorites, the Best Search Tools and the Search Tools Chart are still right there on the home page under Search Tools. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Now, for a trip down memory lane! I dialed up the Wayback Machine and came up with screen shots of our various websites over time that you'll see with this entry - unfortunately for the first version, it didn't have the image :-(

circa 1999


circa 2002


circa 2006

Posted by eileen o'shea at 9:18 PM in Infopeople News | Permalink | Comments (0)

The California State Library, in partnership with Infopeople, is pleased to offer an exciting new professional development initiative – the EUREKA! Leadership Program. This 4-phase program, which will take place over two years (July 2006-July 2008), includes a variety of approaches to leadership development. We're currently offering Exploring Library Leadership, and coming in October there's Building Leadership Skills: Convincing and Influencing Others.

Check out the glorious color brochure here for more information (it's a 2.3MB PDF file, so be warned).

Posted by eileen o'shea at 5:21 PM in Infopeople News | Permalink

Due to a power outage at de Anza College, where we film the infopeople webcasts, the archive of Mary Minow's July 11 webcast, Collection Policies that Stave Off Lawsuits will not be available until early next week. That means the podcast will also be delayed. Sorry about that!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 8:58 AM in Infopeople News | Webcasts | Permalink

The Infopeople webcast Gary Price's Quarterly Search Update that was scheduled on Wednesday, May 24 has been postponed. As soon as we know the new date, we will send out an announcement.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 6:46 AM in Infopeople News | Permalink

We recently received an email from Lauren John announcing the publication of her new book, Running Book Discussion Groups: A How-To-Do-It-Manual by Neal-Schuman publishers. ($65)

Lauren says, "The book is a direct result of online classes that I taught for Infopeople in 2004 and 2005. Infopeople is acknowledged in (where else?) the acknowledgment page and suggestions/ comments from one of my class bulletin boards are included in Chapter Four (pages 50-54)-- "Planning When and Where to Meet" (I got permission first from the librarians, Sandy Smith of Lodi, Deborah Dean of Shasta County, and Pat Koskinen of Oroville who posted)."

To order the book, go to:
http://www.neal-schuman.com/db/4/524.html

It is also selling on Amazon.

Congratulations, Lauren, on this accomplishment!

Posted by holly hinman at 2:27 PM in Cool Tools | How We Did It Good | Infopeople News | People | Permalink

If you're in California, be sure to check out State Librarian Susan Hidreth's webcast today at noon. We do limit the live attendees to California residents. If you can't catch the live version, don't be dismayed: archived webcasts are free and available to all. We will also be putting up a podcast of her talk.

Stay tuned! Here's a link to the webcast page.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 7:54 AM in Infopeople News | Permalink

Mark your calendars! Next Wednesday (that's November 7) at noon, California State Librarian Susan Hildreth will be doing another in her series of webcasts for Infopeople.

These quarterly updates on the state of the State Library have been quite popular, so you might think about having a webcast lunch and invite some friends to gather 'round the computer for a listen! If you miss the live presentation, we will be archiving the webcast and will also be offering a podcast version for your listening pleasure.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 1:10 PM in Infopeople News | Permalink | Comments (0)

Holly Hinman, director of Infopeople, talks about the goals of Infopeople in the coming year, and training needs and trends that have been observed over the past year in this 17 minute podcast. Her talk comes from a presentation prepared for Infopeople trainers at this year's CLA annual conference.

Posted by eileen o'shea at 10:18 AM in Infopeople News | Podcasts | Permalink

This shot was taken at the Infopeople booth at CLA earlier this week. The peeps from left to right are: Carole Leita, Lori Ayre, Holly Hinman, and Cheryl Gould. Missing are geek peeps Chuck & Eileeen O'Shea who were slaving away taking library superhero pictures while these folks were whiling away time in the booth. ;-)

Update: I also forgot to mention some other missing peeps: Gail McGovern and Linda Rodenspiel! Sorry 'bout that, kids!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 8:03 AM in Infopeople News | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, so I promised a bunch of interesting podcasts from CLA (I hoped they would post some good stuff on their blog, but so far not much is there, oh well.). Here's the thing: we were SO BUSY that we never had time to do them! A poor excuse, but here's a podcast with Gail McGovern and me, about setting up the Infopeople booth and what was going to be happening there. It's not Edward R. Murrow quality or anything, but we're newbie podcasters, okay?

Our big draw giveaway this year were framed photos we called "Library Heroes" which was in keeping with the theme of this year's conference: Everyday Heroes @ Your Library. They were two life-size cardboard figures of superheroes (with "Infopeople" emblazoned across their respective male and female chests). People stuck their heads through the cutout faces and hey presto! they became instant library heroes! We had a bustling business for the three days the exhbit hall was open, and at some point or another, most of the "peeps" had their picture taken. A rogues' gallery of sorts can be found here, along with assorted other photos from the conference.

On a personal note: what was with the complete lack of food or drink in the conference center? Aside from the no host bar on Friday, it was tough to find even a working vending machine in the place! As one who was stuck in there for three days straight, hey conference organizer people! We're thirsty folks here!

Update: Sarah Houghton (one of our fab mini-demo presenters) over at LibrarianinBlack has some good content on the CLA conference. Check it out!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 9:00 PM in Infopeople News | Permalink

Infopeople will be at CLA for the next few days, and we plan on doing a series of podcasts from the floor of the exhibit hall. So stay tuned! Here is the first (it's just a hello). More better stuff coming soon!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 9:54 AM in Infopeople News | Podcasts | Permalink | Comments (0)

To carry out CLA's conference theme of "Celebrating Everyday Heroes @ Your Library," Infopeople has arranged for two slightly larger-than-life-size library superhero figures created by comic book artist Topper to be available for photo opportunities at the Infopeople booth, #231-232. Please stop by and pose as one of the "library heroes." Take your photo home in a souvenir photo holder.

And remember, we will also be offering a series of mini-demos throughout conference. Check this schedule and mark your calendars now!

Posted by holly hinman at 9:56 AM in Infopeople News | Permalink | Comments (0)

A belated "thanks" to all of you who took the time to respond to our website survey. We did indeed do a random drawing and the winner of the iPod Shuffle was Zoe Anderson of the Napa County Library -- who, as you can see, loves it!

Seriously, you gave us a lot of very useful information and we have incorporated many of your ideas into our website redesign, which is still in progress. Those of you (the majority) who expressed a dislike for lime green (my term for the color - most of you were less kind) will be happy to know that there is NO green in the new design! The redesign is going a bit more slowly than we expected (I'm told that they always do), but we'd rather take a bit longer and "get it right." So don't look for the new website to debut at CLA (sigh!).

Posted by holly hinman at 8:42 AM in Infopeople News | Permalink

Infopeople is gearing up for the California Library Association's annual conference, coming up November 4-7 in Pasadena. We will have a full slate of activities at our exhibitor's booth area, and a busy mini-demo schedule. The mini-demos are 10 minute introductions to such topics as downloading digital books, the new LII, summer reading programs, a chat with Susan Hildreth, and much more. Check out the schedule here, and make plans to visit us at Booth 232. Just look for the propeller hats!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 10:22 AM in Infopeople News | Permalink | Comments (0)

Infopeople introduced its first blog, Wazzup?, in August 2004 to replace the "New on the Site" section of the Infopeople website. Wazzup included information about new additions to the Infopeople website, but also presented general news from and about Infopeople, and offered library-related information that various Infopeople staff members ("Infopeeps") found interesting.

In September 2005 we decided to do a bit of blog-cleaning, and primary among the tasks we undertook was to rename Wazzup. After a year it seemed a little, well, hokey, as a name and not representative of what we wanted the Infopeople blog to be. As of today, it is becoming Infoblog.

Its focus will remain what Wazzup has evolved into over the past year: a resource for keeping libraries up to date with new information and technologies that we think may impact them now or in the future. And of course, we will also continue to use the blog as another way to communicate Infopeople news, such as upcoming webcasts or special workshop offerings. We also plan on offering more podcasts in the coming months. We hope you like the new and improved Infoblog!

Posted by eileen o'shea at 9:35 AM in Infopeople News | Permalink

We just finished converting Susan Hildreth's March 9, 2005 "state of the State Library" webcast (her first) into a podcast (you can also click on the podcast graphic)! Check out this previous post for the lowdown on getting and listening to this audio treat. Stay tuned for new podcast offerings as we work through Infopeople's archived webcasts and create some new content worthy of podcasting (but that's it for this week, as the geek peeps are pretty pooped at this point and need a break).

Posted by at 12:27 PM in Infopeople News | Podcasts | Permalink | Comments (0)

We took Susan Hildreth's latest "state of the State Library" webcast on August 3 and turned it into a podcast. You can listen to it here (it's in MP3 format, perfect for your iPod or other audio player).

If you're using iTunes 4.9, it's easy to subscribe to our podcasts. just go to the Advanced menu, click on Subscribe to Podcast, then enter http://infoblog.infopeople.org/index.xml. Once you do this, you will get new podcasts from us as they become available (this URL will also work in other news aggregators). For other player options, check out this page from Microsoft (you can also use Windows Media Player 10 to listen to podcasts).

Posted by at 4:18 PM in Infopeople News | Podcasts | Permalink

Infopeople is in the process of working with a design and web development firm to redesign the Infopeople website. As part of that process, we need some information from you, our users. Please take a few minutes to complete our brief survey to tell us how you use our website, what you like and don't like about it, and what you would like to see changed. The survey can be found at http://infopeople.org/survey/. You may take the survey anonymously, but to entice you to do this, we are offering a prize drawing for those who are willing to give us their names and email addresses. We will not use the names and email addresses for anything other than the prize drawing; they will be discarded immediately after the drawing. The prize is an iPod Shuffle. The winner will be notified by email, at which time we will ask for a mailing address to which we can ship the prize. The survey will be available from today through Saturday, August 20.

Oh, and you must be a library person in California to take the survey and win the Shuffle (sorry!).

Posted by at 2:42 PM in Infopeople News | Permalink

Tune in to this Wednesday's Infopeople Webcast from 12 noon - 1:00pm PDT and find out as the State Librarian delivers her quarterly update. Susan will touch on hot topics in the California library world, emerging library trends and services available to you from the California State Library. She will also be available for live questions and answers during the webcast.

If you miss any of our live webcasts (or just want to check out a favorite one again), archived versions are available at any time here. To view and hear this webcast, you'll need the RealPlayer.

Posted by at 9:57 AM in Infopeople News | Permalink

Infopeople is always trying to find new and better ways to keep you informed of what's happening. And in that spirit we now offer the Infopeople Events Calendar, a handy dandy one stop way to see what's happening in the Infopeople world. The calendar offers month, week, or day views, and contains events pulled from the California Library Training Clearinghouse (another useful tool to make note of). You can sort by on-ground workshops, online training, webcasts, library events like CLA, US hoildays (cuz we love them so), or look at the whole shebang at one time. Enjoy! Oh and as an added cool feature, you can subscribe to the RSS feeds for the calendars as well! Not sure what an RSS feed is? Check this entry in the Wikipedia.

Posted by at 7:38 AM in Infopeople News | Permalink

Infopeople is debuting an exciting new webcast series, "Management Mondays," beginning on June 27 with Dr. Steven Albrecht's presentation titled "The Skill-Building Supervisor #1: The Four Functions of Supervision: Planning, Communicating, Delegating, and Monitoring."

The series will continue monthly through June 2006. Topics for July through November 2005 are listed below. In addition to Dr. Albrecht, other presenters in the series will include Sara Laughlin, Paula Singer, and Joan Frye Williams. Future topics will include: Effective Library Job Descriptions; Interviewing Techniques for Libraries; Retaining and Motivating Excellent Library Employees; Making Performance Evaluation Work for You; Working with Boards and Commissions; Conducting an Environmental Scan for Your Library; Survey and Focus Group Techniques for Libraries; Working with Community Groups; Getting the Library Message Across; Working with Consultants;Working with Vendors; Working with Unions; Politics 101 for Libraries.

At the end of the series, all of the webcasts and support materials will be collected on a DVD.

This series will be of particular interest to anyone new to or preparing to enter library management.

July 18, The Skill-Building Supervisor #2: Delegation and Decision-Making

September 12, The Skill-Building Supervisor #3: Making Meetings Matter: Communicating Through Tailgate Talks

October 10, The Skill-Building Supervisor #4: Managing Conflict: Communicate-Clarify-Commit

November 14, The Skill-Building Supervisor #5: Fighting Your Time Bandits: Setting Priorities and Reaching Goals

Mark your calendars now!

Posted by at 10:32 AM in Infopeople News | Permalink

Infopeople is embarking on a reconceptualization and redesign of our website. We have developed an RFP that has been sent to a number of firms known to and recommended by several of the peeps, but we are interested in diversifying our potential bidder pool. If you know of a web design firm that you think is good, please let me know as soon as possible, as the deadline for replies is June 17. Send an email with the firm name and any contact information that you can provide to hinmanh@infopeople.org. Thanks!

Posted by at 6:43 PM in Infopeople News | Permalink

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will remember that Carole Leita had hip replacement surgery last November. Yesterday she demonstrated her total recovery by going with me on a 14-mile hike along the West Fork of the San Gabriel River, north of Azusa.

Although we did spend some time discussing Infopeople business (we can’t stay away from it!), the hiking time was primarily recreational. We can strongly recommend the route we followed to anyone who wants to get away from urban Los Angeles and enjoy a day with nature. The trail is accessed from the Azusa Avenue (route 39) exit on the 210 freeway. Simply take route 39 for 11.5 miles north of Azusa, and park in the marked parking lot. Walk back across the bridge and through the gate onto the paved fire road. The road follows the river up to Cogswall Dam and Reservoir, which is 8 miles one way. Even though John W. Robinson’s Trails of the Angeles rates the hike as “strenuous,” we found it to be more like what the ranger in Arcadia told us it would be – “really a walk.”

We were surprised to find that wild flowers were not only still blooming, but appeared to be at their peak – the canyon was filled with many different varieties, including Mariposa lilies, wild columbine, monkey flowers, lupine, poppies, and forget-me-nots. Because of the flowers, the canyon was also filled with many different varieties of beautiful butterflies. My faithful German Shepherd, Mac, went with us and was able to make almost all of the hike off leash because there were almost no other people on the trail. He particularly enjoyed the wheelchair-accessible fishing platforms, which provided him with easy access to really good doggie swimming holes. We’re going to try to gather more of “the Peeps” for an autumn trek in the same place.

Posted by at 7:42 PM in Infopeople News | People | Permalink

Mark your calendars! Infopeople has some upcoming webcasts that are worth noting. On June 16 we'll be offering Digital Reference: Legal Issues, presented by the ever popular Mary Minow. This webcast will take an updated look at the legal issues raised when a library offers digital reference service. Then on June 20, you can tune in to Tips for Working with Your Board, presented by Sara Laughlin, which will give you ideas for communicating effectively - both formally and informally - on board-related issues. Lots aof good stuff coming up! if you want to stay in touch with new offerings, be sure to sign up for the IFPworkshops mailing list.

Posted by at 10:47 AM in Infopeople News | Permalink

Infopeople had a staff meeting this past Friday, and we were all in the same place at the same time which has actually never happened before. So we seized the opportunity to take a group photo. So here we are, in all our glory: the peeps!

Posted by at 2:27 PM in Infopeople News | Permalink

State Librarian Susan Hildreth will deliver periodic webcasts through Infopeople beginning March 9, 2005. Each webcast will feature Susan's thoughts on a topic of her choice, as well as news from the State Library and from other libraries around the state. Webcast viewers will have the opportunity to interact with Susan via live chat. Future webcasts are scheduled for August 3 and December 7, 2005. Like other Infopeople webcasts, the State Librarian webcasts will take place from noon to 1 PM. For more information, including access details, go to the webcast page on the Infopeople website.

Please note that for the State Libarian webcasts we have increased our maximum number of simultaneous connections to 150 from our usual 80. Like other Infopeople webcasts, the State Librarian webcasts will be archived for viewing after the live event.

We believe that California is the first state to feature the State Librarian in webcasts.

Posted by at 9:17 AM in Infopeople News | People | Permalink

We talked to literally hundreds of people during the three days of this year's CLA Conference, and we're curious to know what you thought of the Infopeople/State Library/Other State Projects booth space. What worked for you and what didn't work? We are turning on the comments function of the blog so that you can let us know your thoughts and opinions. Thanks in advance for your input.

Posted by at 6:10 AM in Infopeople News | Permalink | Comments (0)

Carole Leita is home again after her hip replacement surgery last Friday. Doctors described her as a "model patient" (we knew she would be) and were so pleased with her progress that they sent her home yesterday. She is walking (with a walker), her pain is under control, and she is in excellent spirits.

Posted by at 11:48 AM in Infopeople News | People | Permalink

This was the last day of CLA. Things wrapped up at noon, but in the morning, Infopeople had another busy schedule of demos, and a last rush of visitors to the booth. We gave away the last of the Infopeople rocks (that makes them collectors' items now!), then packed up and headed for our various homes. Watching the booth area come down was amazing - it was completely disassembled and packed up by 2:00pm - 2 hours to take apart what took close to eight hours to build! A few final images here. Hope to see everybody again next year in Pasadena!

Posted by at 8:31 PM in Infopeople News | Permalink

Day three at CLA, and another full day of demo sessions at the Infopeople booth area. Everyone is pretty pooped at this point and looking forward to heading home tomorrow. But it's been a lot of fun! Here are some images of today, for a flavor of all the happenings.

Posted by at 8:05 PM in Infopeople News | Permalink

And this Infopeep should be in bed asleep, but noooo...instead the ever faithful web manager is slaving away over a hot computer doing another late night update from CLA. It was quite the busy day, starting bright and early meeting up with the Rural Initiative folks to help them with their great conference idea: cow bookmarks! This entailed poor Dan Theobald dressing in a very heavy, very warm cow costume and then helping him down to the State Librarian's breakfast so he could pose with State Librarian Susan Hildreth. It was all pretty funny, especially as poor Dan had very limited vision in the suit and the way he moved reminded us of a bovine version of the robot from Lost in Space. Then it was off to the exhibit hall, and more setting up, then off to the opening session where, among other things, the chief Infopeep, Holly Hinman, was named CLA Member of the Year and Infopeople trainer and webcaster Mary Minow was awarded the first ever Zoia Horn Intellectual Freedom Award. Congrats to Holly and Mary!

All in all, it was a pretty crazy day as on top of everything else, the Infopeople web managers also rolled out the new Infopeople website! Some things have changed: the old "How To" section has been renamed "Resources" and the old "About Infopeople" has been renamed "Contact Us." If you can't find something, or have comments about the new website, use our feedback form, and we'll get back to you - probably after we get a good night's sleep! Here are pics of the day.

Finally, an update on Alpha Infopeep Carole Leita: she came through her surgery a-okay and is now recuperating. We all talked to her on the phone today, and she sounded pretty darned good for somebody who just had major surgery. We all are hoping she'll be back keeping us on the straight and narrow soon!

Posted by at 11:25 PM in Infopeople News | Permalink

It was setup day at CLA. All us Infopeople were busy opening boxes, setting up booths and in general preparing for opening day tomorrow. There's a busy demo schedule planned, so things should be hopping. Here are some photos of the day's events. Stop by our booth if you're here in San Jose! Can't misss us, we're right in the middle of all the action in the exhibit hall. We're the ones with the blue sails soaring overhead (and no, we're not kiddding!).

Posted by at 11:24 PM in Infopeople News | Permalink

The "alpha Infopeep," Carole Leita, who has been involved with Infopeople from the beginning and who is, in many people's minds, synonymous with Infopeople, is scheduled to have hip replacement surgery this Friday, November 12, at the UCSF Medical Center. Carole is one of our most popular instructors, and unfortunately the pain caused by the degeneration of her hip has caused her to cut back on her teaching schedule -- so we are glad that she is having this surgery and look forward to her being back on her feet and in teaching fettle in the not-too-distant future. (And I personally am looking forward to her being able to hike with me again.)

We are turning on the comments feature of this blog so that Carole's many fans can send her messages. If you want to send a snail mail card, she will be in the hospital at least five days, and cards should be addressed to her at:

UCSF Medical Center
505 Parnassus Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94143

Posted by at 12:55 PM in Infopeople News | Permalink | Comments (5)

At next month's conference in San Jose, Infopeople is coordinating a giant shared exhibit space devoted to "Celebrating Collaboration." Eleven organizations and statewide projects are participating in the exhibit, i.e.: Califa Group, California Center for the Book, California Library Literacy Services, California Preservation Program, California State Library/Library Development Services, California State Library Rural Initiative, clioinstitute, Infopeople, Librarians' Index to the Internet, Libris Design, and UCLA Department of Information Studies. The common booth number is 413, and you can find us right in the center of the exhibit hall, clustered around the lounge area, which will be used for a sensational array of demonstrations. Please check out the demonstration schedule with descriptions or the demonstration schedule chart and plan your schedule accordingly. This is a great opportunity to sample current and upcoming Infopeople workshops, catch up with your favorite instructors, take a tour of the new Rural Initiative Clearinghouse, get a preview of upcoming changes in the LII, get valuable building project advice from Libris Design, and hear about all the fabulous deals you can get through Califa! And the Rural Initiative folks have a very special surprise that involves ..... well, if we tell you, then it won't be a surprise! To find us, as you enter the exhibit hall, look for the ceiling-mounted "sails" decorated with moving images and words evocative of collaboration.

Posted by at 12:34 PM in Infopeople News | Permalink

Popular "Extreme Googling" instructor Joe Barker is experiencing back problems that will prevent him from teaching on-ground sessions of this course for the next two months. Accordingly, Linda Rodenspiel has notified those registered for the upcoming sessions of this workshop that the sessions have been cancelled and will be rescheduled when Joe is cleared to teach again. That's the bad news. The good news is that Joe can - and is eager - to teach an online version of "Extreme Googling" in the interim. Those of you who were registered for one of the on-ground sessions therefore have two options: you can wait for the rescheduled on-ground workshops (sometime early in 2005) or you can register for the online course. Details about the online course will be forthcoming shortly.

Posted by at 11:40 AM in Infopeople News | Training | Permalink

Under the auspices of the 2004/05 Rural Initiative grant, awarded to the North State Cooperative Library System by the California State Library, Infopeople will expand training in the rural areas of California. In this grant year, we will offer a total of 20 on-ground workshops in rural areas. Various locations in North State will host 10 workshops while Mono County and Calexico will each host 3 workshops. Training will be extended into the Central Coast and the western Sierra regions, which will each receive two workshops. As the workshops are scheduled, they will be announced on the rural library listserv, CALIX, and the Infopeople lists and will also appear on the Rural Initiative website.

Posted by at 10:12 AM in Infopeople News | Permalink

There are a number of changes in the membership of the Infopeople Advisory Board. The Board provides crucial guidance and advice on the training and technology needs of California libraries, and helps to keep Infopeople firmly in touch with its user base. We greatly appreciate the service of the three outgoing Board members. Susan Hildreth had to step down when she left the San Francisco Public Library. Joan Bartel retired from LAPL and, therefore, from the Board. Susan Rawlins, of Colusa County, has left the Board for personal reasons. We will miss all three.

We do have three outstanding replacements, however. The three new Board members are: Ann Cain of Contra Costa County, Eleanore Schmidt of the Long Beach Public Library, and Sandra Tauler of Camarena Memorial Library in Calexico.

The full Advisory Board roster follows:
Ann Cain, Contra Costa County Library
Linda Crowe, Peninsula Library System
Les Kong, California State University San Bernardino
Mary Ann Laun, Pasadena City College
Jane Meyer, Ventura County Law Library
Jo Ellen Misakian, Fresno Pacific University
Eleanore Schmidt, Long Beach Public Library
Sandra Tauler, Camarena Memorial Library, Calexico
Tom Andersen, California State Library, ex-officio
Rushton Brandis, California State Library, ex-officio

Posted by at 2:04 PM in Infopeople News | Permalink

The Blackboard courseware upgrade that we announced week before last has been completed. Now, when you go to http://elearn.infopeople.org/ you will be logging into version 6.1. It looks very similar to the earlier version but has a lot more functionality and stability for instructors and administrators.

This seems like an appropriate time to announce a new policy that we have adopted in regard to course availability to students after the official end date of an online course. Effective immediately, the policy will be that the instructor will be available for two weeks after the official end date to answer questions, review coursework, and generally assist students who need a little extra time to complete the course. The course materials will remain available for an additional two weeks (in other words, a total of a month after the course end date) for students to access for self-directed work. Exceptions to this policy can be negotiated on an individual basis but require the approval of the Infopeople Director.

Posted by at 9:56 AM in Infopeople News | Permalink

We are in the process of upgrading our Blackboard courseware, which is used for all of our online courses. The upgrade started on Saturday and should be completed tomorrow, August 17. After the migration is complete, the web mananger and Infopeople Blackboard support consultant will have to go through all of the course materials to check for problems and restore broken links. We ask anyone who is currently accessing course materials and doing coursework (I know a few grantwriting students are still at work) to please not go into the Infopeople Blackboard site, http://elearn.infopeople.org/ until after this Saturday, August 21.

For those who might be wondering, the courseware changes are mostly on the instructor side; students should see little difference.

Posted by at 9:43 AM in Infopeople News | Permalink

Happy Friday! You may have noticed Infopeople has made some changes to its home page. We now have a new link called Partnerships, which provides links to projects and associations Infopeople supports. We also have a link to InfoBlog, our weblog that replaces the old "New on the Site" link. Small changes, but we feel important ones. Enjoy!

Posted by at 12:59 PM in Infopeople News | Permalink

Sites to try when other engines fail you - Infopeople instructor and blogger Gary Price is quoted extensively in the San Jose Mercury News (requires free registration).

Posted by at 12:38 PM in Infopeople News | Web Searching | Permalink