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What’s new with BTOP? |
 The Idaho Commission for Libraries (ICfL) has identified several essential activities to expand under our Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grant and we have approval from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to extend the project timeline to mid-December 2012. Activities during the last six months of the project include the following:
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Scout Dialogue: Writers Collection coming soon! |
 Scout Dialogue: Writers Collection is coming soon toScout Video Collections. Join the Idaho Public Television crew as they interview authors, playwrights, and journalists about the craft of writing and examine individual works. Look for Scout Dialogue: Writers Collection videos on demand in July 2012 at http://scout.lili.org/.
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Registration now open for College and Career Ready Summit |
Registration is now open for the College and Career Ready Summit: Moving Idaho Forward, August 16–17, 2012 in Boise. This summit will facilitate discussion and next-steps planning with other community partners to address the student dropout rate in Idaho and ensure that more students are college and career ready.
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Library news from around the state |
 Find out what's been happening in Idaho libraries. Have news about your library you’d like to share in an upcoming Nexus e-newsletter? Please let Teresa Lipus know at teresa.lipus@libraries.idaho.gov.
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New Idaho Candidates for LSSC |
 Edie Lustig, Library Director, and Debbie Urquhart, Assistant Librarian, at Grangeville Centennial Public Library are the newest Idaho candidates working on their Library Support Staff Certification (LSSC). The LSSC Program is a national certification program that allows library support staff to demonstrate their competencies and be certified by the American Library Association. Candidates have four years to either take six classes to meet six different competencies or prepare individual portfolios to showcase experience that supports a specific competency. Currently, ten individuals throughout the state are working toward their certification.
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SPLAT turns 6! |
 Happy Birthday to the Special Projects Library Action Team (SPLAT)! This summer marks the sixth year that the Idaho Commission for Libraries-sponsored group has been working throughout the Idaho library community. This group, a result of the 2020 Futures Conference held in 2005, was charged to serve in a crow’s nest capacity to search for innovation, propose experiments, lead pilot projects, and discover new opportunities for the Idaho Commission for Libraries and the Idaho library community.
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SWIM Students to Graduate |
 This summer is the culmination of two years of long days and nights for twenty Masters of Library and Information Science (MLIS) students who participated in the University of North Texas SWIM Cohort. Two years ago these individuals from throughout Idaho began their journey toward achieving their goal of earning an MLIS.
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Internet Use Policy and Internet Filtering |
The deadline is fast approaching. As we prepare to comply with Idaho’s new law regarding Internet use in public libraries, here are a few tips to help you get up and running.
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| My First Books libraries |
 A record-breaking forty-seven public and school libraries applied to participate in My First Books for next year, requesting services for almost 4,500 children from birth to kindergarten. Read to Me has funding to serve a little more than 3,000 children in the coming year so the review process was very competitive. “The number of applications demonstrates how critical the need is to get books in the hands of children who are unlikely to have many books at home and are less-likely to visit their public library,” said Read to Me Project Coordinator Staci Shaw.
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Volunteer Appreciation at ICfL |
From January through December 2011, 119 individuals gave 10,000 hours of their time at the Idaho Commission for Libraries (ICfL)!This year we recognized their dedication and commitment during Volunteer Appreciation Week, April 15-21, with a tour of the State Historical Society, goodies supplied by staff throughout the week at the “Volunteer Café,” a photo poster, and a photo slide show.  In June we also had “Volunteer Lunch on the Lawn” and were treated with perfect weather for celebrating the 2011 volunteers and their many accomplishments, including the following:
- 70 recording production volunteers: 4,800 hours
- 33 Support volunteers: 3,200 hours
- 16 Telephone Pioneers: 1,200 hours
- 5 groups from schools, counties, and organizations:
800 hours
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| Teens and Technology Week 2012 |
 More than 1,600 teens statewide celebrated Teens and Technology Week in March. Forty-four public or school libraries used the YALSA theme “Geek Out @ Your Library” or a theme of their own to demonstrate to teens that libraries are more than just books. Programs included making posters with teens and community partners, opening a teen zone in the library, creating book trailers, hosting a Wii tournament, and exploring “retro” technology that teens might not be aware of (you used that before computers?!) Fourteen participating libraries hosted Teens and Technology events for the first time, and most participants indicated they would do so again.
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I wish I could sit and read all day, but I have a column to write |
Public library directors in Idaho are known for their resourcefulness. One of the tools they often make use of is the local or area newspaper. Writing a weekly or monthly newspaper column is an effective — and cost-effective — way of reaching your community and shaping its view of the public library.
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