Digital Literacy Presentations from Adventures in August

Hello Library Community,

The Adventures in August workshop on Digital Literacy and Reference, hosted by WVLS on August 14th was a wonderful success.  We had presentations of a caliber typically found at state and national level conventions, and my only regret is that we did not offer our excellent presenters a larger venue.  I'm not writing to pat ourselves on the back however, I'm writing to share the well crafted presentation slides from the morning sessions focusing on Digital Literacy.

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This post is a bit late in coming but the content should be worth the wait.  Our first session had two parts, the first of which featured the nationally recognized former Technology Consultant for Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Division for Libraries and Technology, Robert Bocher.  Bob spoke to us in the context of national agenda, specifically discussing the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) Digital Literacy Initiative.

     Link 1 - Please click here to download Bob Bocher's presentation.

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The second part featured Wisconsin Library Services (WiLS) Library Consultant Mark Beatty.  Mark spoke about the very interesting topic of community platform and content creation facilitation.  His topic, "Libraries as Platform" ranged from presenting libraries as a platform for community information collection, processing and sharing, to libraries as Maker Spaces, giving community members access to resources which help them to create digital content and physical "things."  He talked about how libraries are service and reference providers as much or more than they are simply information and entertainment warehouses.

     Link 2 - Please click here to download Mark Beatty's presentation.

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Our second morning session featured Adam Brisk, an ALA and WAPL regular, who worked for Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College (WITC) until recently accepting a position at Marshall Preparatory School.  He joked about about his fluctuating title but as of this writing LinkIn has him as Help Desk Specialist and Technology Integration Specialist.  Adam delivered an excellent presentation on Digital Literacy in Academic Libraries.    Adam has conveniently uploaded his slides to SlideShare.

     Link 3 - Please click here to view his presentation.

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Last, but certainly not least, our afternoon session featured WiLS director, Stef Morrill, and WiLS cooperative purchasing librarian, Sara Gold.  This dynamic duo delivered a phenomenal presentation on digital content and the ever turbulent relationships between libraries, digital content publishers, and middle tier vendors.  Their presentation will be delivered again at various events around the state, so if you missed this one, please contact Stef or Sara (click here to visit the WiLS website) to find out about catching a future event.  Unfortunately their presentation slides include some proprietary data so I am unable to share it in this open blog.  However, we have a copy of the presentation and permission to deliver it solely to our librarians for informational/educational purposes.

I will be sending the slides to our closed listserv for Library Directors, so if you are interested in viewing it, please look to that list or ask your director about it.

Thank you,

Joshua Klingbeil - IT Director

Wisconsin Valley Library Service

Wisconsin Library Association Announces Awards Recipients

The Wisconsin Library Association is pleased to announce this year’s library luminaries, selected as outstanding for their contribution to libraries and librarianship:

• Citation of Merit: Dr. Lelan McLemore, retired director, Carroll University Library
• Special Service Award: Anthony (Tony) Driessen, WLA Lobbyist
• Trustee of the Year: Jim Backus, Trustee, Wisconsin Valley Library Service
• Library of the Year: David A. Cofrin Library, UW-Green Bay
• WLA/DEMCO Librarian of the Year: Stephen Proces, Director, Neenah Public Library

For more information about the winners, visit the WLA Blog:

http://wla.wisconsinlibraries.org/wla-blog/entry/2012-08-31-wisconsin-library-association-awards-celebrating-excellence-in-library-service

 

(Lisa K. Strand, Executive Director - Wisconsin Library Association/WLA Foundation)

 

 

 Congratulations!

WiscNet Separating from UW - What Does It Mean?

Short answer? Business as Usual.

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WiscNet staff and board members have been working toward internal changes that will allow the UW to maintain access to the affordable advanced networking services WiscNet offers. This will help the UW to overcome one of the many challenges it faces with the broad reaching legislation that went into the UW Budget bill last summer.

The changes to WiscNet will be virtually transparent to the libraries which indirectly utilize its services through WVLS membership. Even as a direct member, WVLS does not anticipate any changes to its service levels or membership fees at this time.

I'm sure that the WiscNet employees and other board members are as proud as I am to have been able to help WiscNet adapt in such a way that it is able to help taxpayers like your patrons and yourselves save hundreds of thousands and potentially millions of dollars by creating a legislatively compliant means for the UW to access high quality advanced networking services at a reasonable cost.

Joshua Klingbeil - IT Director
Wisconsin Valley Library Service

Up Coming Continuing Education Opportunities –

Have you registered for the Adventures in August – Digital Literacy and Reference workshop? Scheduled for August 14, 2012 at the Great Dane Pub in Wausau, WI. Contact jathomas@wvls.org for more information.

Various organizations offer great opportunities using online webinars – they are worth a look:

ALA: http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/search/node/online%20webinars

Infopeople: http://infopeople.org/training/view/webinar/archived

Library Journal: https://shop.mediasourceinc.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ocid=239&src=LJTDS12LJEMAILCP

WebJuntion: http://www.webjunction.org/events/webjunction.html

Other library systems around the state open up their continuing education events to other system libraries - check out the following:

Indianhead Federated Library System: http://www.ifls.lib.wi.us/Default.aspx?tabid=136

Outagamie Waupaca Library System:  http://www.owlsweb.info/ce/classes.asp?x=2

Nicolet Federated Library System:  http://www.owlsweb.info/ce/classes.asp?x=2

South Central Library System: http://www.owlsweb.info/ce/classes.asp?x=2

The CCBC has wonderful ideas and great events coming up – checkout their website at: http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/events/default.asp

Have you been to the Overdrive site lately? If not perhaps attending a session in September during Overdrive Training Month would be a wise choice.

http://overdriveblogs.com/library/2012/08/06/get-your-seats-for-training-month/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OverdrivesDigitalLibraryBlog+%28OverDrive%27s+Digital+Library+Blog%29

Watch for future information reagarding the October16, 2012 Youth Services workshop on the 2013 Summer Library Reading Program.

Juanita Thomas, Outreach Coordinator 300 N 1st St. Wausau, WI 54403 (715) 261-7258 jathomas@wvls.org

Be Wary of Fake Invoice Scams

WVLS has had a few calls in recent days from "Customer Service" letting us know that they are our toner supplier and that they need the model number off of our printer or copier. Well I've heard this question before so I just ask them "What's the name of your company?" ... click ... and that ends it. Call over, scam avoided.

Wait what? Scam? What?

So yeah. The above call describes a practice used in which an organization, group of people, or even just an individual will call a company, ask for some information that would help them craft a fake invoice, and then, well, craft a fake invoice and send it to you. The hope is that maybe some small percentage of organizations that receive these fake invoices actually pay them, without understanding what happened.

http://www.scambusters.org/invoicescams.html


When you're managing IT at all but the most gigantuan companies, you may typically work with a concise group of vendors, and it can seem easy to know what you have, where you get it from, what it should cost, and who you should pay for it for just about everything within your purview. After all, the technology used to keep track of that info is, well, technology and we are, well, technology people.

That's not to say we know everything (we're working on it)but, it can therefore also seem easy to identify scams and rogue agents trying to elicit your business in a shady fashion. It helps to have experienced it multiple times before. We're also super paranoid about people hacking our systems, stealing our info, and making us look bad. If there's anything IT people hate more than haggis, it's being made to look bad.

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/2135371909

What about when you're not in IT, or not familiar with every single service provider and every single cost item your department or organization deals with, or not familiar with invoicing scams through past experience in dealing with the methodology?

Well hopefully you are acquainted with wonderful and smart technology professionals, or other trade professionals such as financial services personnel who want to get the word out, and have access to creating content on a fairly well read blog. You are? Great!


What can you do?

1. Be wary - Question all "vendors" soliciting information. Ask for their info so you can have time to validate their request and get back to them.
   
2. Be vigilant - Review and audit all invoices. This may be verifying quantities received or verifying the invoice is genuine period.
   
3. Be proactive - Did you catch a scam before it caught you? Did you get caught? Let the rest of your peers know either way to help prevent others from this fate.

Think you have a scam on your hands or have been hit by one recently? Give me a holler.

Good luck out there!

Joshua Klingbeil