NOYS: Teen Poetry Contest

April is National Poetry Month! Youth Services is excited to bring back our annual Teen Poetry Contest. We’ve made a few changes this year, so please note the guidelines below.

Teen Poetry Contest

• The contest runs from April 1-30.


• All poems must be submitted electronically using the form on our teen website, Read.Watch.Listen. Visit http://www.fresnoteens.org/ to see rules and to submit poetry.


• There are two categories: middle school and high school. Participants must be between 7th-12th grade. One winner from each category will receive Barnes & Noble gift cards.


• Poems will be published on our website as we receive them. They will be published in a book, available for free at all library branches, after the contest is over and winners have been chosen.


• Each poet’s name will appear on our website as a link. The link will take you to that poet’s poems.


• Students can submit as many poems as they like but only one will count for the contest (chosen at the discretion of the judges unless otherwise designated by poet).


• Only one poem per person will be printed in the book.


• Special judges are FCPL staff James Tyner & Will Cooper; we are also delighted to have award-winning author Margarita Engle as a judge.

Please encourage teens in your branches to participate.

Donor Quilt

Rebecca Matli, Community Libraries West


After more than a decade in the making, the Donor Wall at the Caruthers Branch Library can finally showcase local donors. The project began with the FOCAL (Friends of the Caruthers Area Library ) support group discussing possibilites for a new library and organizing and garnering funds more than 10 years ago.

As part of the building project, a donor wall was brought to the Support group's table in January of 1998. How did the group want to showcase donors - through tiles, bricks, etc.? Ideas were explored and shared and vendors were reviewed for costs, but no definitive decision was made on how to proceed with the wall after the branch dedication on April 24, 2003.

One of the determining factors on a quilt donor wall was a change order for the branch lighting fixtures. The intent of the architect’s building design had included high ceilings to create depth. And in my thinking, to showcase quilts. Unfortunately, a change order came into play during construction, resulting in more practical lighting fixtures. The idea of quilts hanging from the ceiling had to be scrapped. Then, the idea of a donor quilt came to fruition within the support group. The group took their “Bunches of Grapes” donation theme and translated that into a quilt which was custom designed for the donor wall in the lobby area.

Support group member Mary Ann Adams spent about a year planning and looking for an appropriate design and material, which was unanimously approved by the group and the library. Mary Ann then turned the quilt over to Velma Barber, another longtime support group member, who sewed the pieces together, which took about 4-5 months. The 104 donor names were printed with an inkjet printer onto the quilt showcasing all the support the branch received from donors. The quilt was finally completed and shown in last fall’s Caruthers Fair, winning a special recognition ribbon in the Home Arts Display division.

Although it was a very long process, the donor wall is beautiful and preserved under plexiglass. Our Maintenance staff worked with Mary Ann, Velma and other staff to ensure that the quilt was properly hung in the right light. What a wonderful tribute to Caruthers!

File Saving with Windows XP CD Burning

Jill Potter, Support Services

I am very happy to be writing this bit of Tech info! It seems that Windows XP includes an easy-to-use CD burner that blows away the other programs that we’ve used in the past. The Windows XP CD burning program is so easy to use that not a single one of us will have a good excuse for not backing up our files and clearing stuff off of our K drives. It’s as simple as this:

1. Place a blank CD-R or CD-RW disc in the disc drive of your computer.

2. Wait until a box that looks like the image below pops up. Be patient, it may take a minute or so. Select the option "Open writable CD folder using Windows Explorer."

Check the "Always do the selected
action" box if you don’t want to be
prompted for this again.

3. You should now have a box like the one below.



4. Next, you can drag-n-drop your files to this open window. To do this, simply open the folder where the files that you want to save are located. Typically, these will be somewhere within your K drive. With both of the windows open on your desktop, (you may have to click on the two little boxes at the top right of the window to shrink it so both windows can fit on the desktop), place your mouse curser on the file you want to save to the CD, hold the left mouse button down while dragging it to the CD drive window. The original file will stay in the original folder so you don’t have to worry about the file being deleted when you drag it to the CD window. You can also select and delete files in the CD window if you change your mind about which files to save/burn. If you attempt to place more content on the CD than its capacity allows, you will be notified.

Now that you have all the files that you want to save to the CD, click Write these files to CD in the task bar to the left. The CD Writing Wizard opens and prompts you for a label (name) for the CD. You can add up to 16 characters. Click Next and the wizard displays a progress bar indicating the status.

After a few moments you should see a message that You have successfully written your files to the CD and Do you want to create another CD using the same files? So you can either burn these same files to another CD or click on the finish button and close out of the program.

Hurray! You’ve successfully saved your files to a CD and can now safely delete the original files from your K drive clearing up space for ALL those new documents that will be created in the future.

NOYS: Big Read at the River

On Saturday, March 21st, at the Coke Hallowell Center for River Studies on the San Joaquin River parkway, library staff spent a day in the past at the Tom Sawyer Big Read Adventure Day on the River.
There were games to play, displays, music, crafts, and performances for everyone’s enjoyment. Youth Services staff facilitated old-time games for children of all ages to play. Magnet fishing was the biggest hit but everyone tried their luck at the beanbag toss, while volunteers gave away prizes to all the winners. We practiced playing jacks, learned to play pick-up sticks and jumped rope between hopscotch matches.
YS Manager Lisa Eckman and Teen Coordinator Connie Urquhart were the voices behind the curtain once the announcement was heard - “Ladies and Gentlemen! Windblown Theater proudly presents: The Adventures of Tom-cat Sawyer!”

Over 900 people attended the event and even the weather cooperated to make this an incredible day to remember.

Attracting Job Seekers

Sean Aragon, Reference

Staff will find an article of interest at http://www.freep.com/article/20090126/NEWS06/901260342/1008 which details efforts of libraries to serve job seekers in today's tough economy. The article also includes online comments from our own jobs librarian, Bernice Kao.

Dewey's Profile: Meet Marita

Marita Dimond, Community Libraries


I was hired by Fresno County as a Librarian I and generalist on October 6, 2008. My home library is in Kerman. However, I will be in Sunnyside on Mondays, Tuesdays in Mendota, and Thursdays in Fowler. This gives me an opportunity to learn the best from others.

My education consists of a Bachelors of Art in German studies from Brigham Young University, and an MLIS degree from San Jose State.

I was raised in Susanville, California, with my older sister. Susanville is 90 miles northwest of Reno, Nevada, and a 7 hour drive north of Fresno. Our mother stressed the love of education and the cultivation of the arts and our talents. We both took dance lessons, music lessons, and swimming lessons. I was fortunate enough to be an exchange student in Germany while I was in high school—something that changed my life forever and gave me a broader outlook on life.

My earliest library memory was when I was 5. At that time our family lived on an army depot close to Susanville. My mother would take us to the depot’s community center that housed the library; I remember the librarian there was very nice to me. My second memory was going to the Susanville Library and seeing a bright mural of animals in the children’s section. I also remember using the blue punch cards to check out books.

I am a crafty person. I love to sew, crochet, quilt, work with stained glass, play my cello, and tap dance. My creativity comes out mainly at Christmas time.

My favorite children’s author and illustrator is Janosch from Germany. And out of his books, my favorite is "I’ll Make You Well, Tiger, Said the Bear." Janosch’s books center around two friends, a tiger and a bear and their delightful adventures.

Providing story time for children is what I enjoy best about working at the library. Whether I have just one child or 38 children at a time, it is especially rewarding for me to make each child smile. I am also appreciative of the library staff with whom I have been working here in Fresno County.

Mardi Gras Library Style

Anne Neal, Auberry

The Auberry Branch Library celebrated the good times and Mardi Gras on "Fat Tuesday," February 24.

Jemmy (Bluestein) and the Lunatics performed Cajun/Zydeco music, which was irresistable for dancing.

King and Queen were Bonnie and Ray from the Intermountain Nursery (dressed as woodland folk with grandson Paul as the Prince).

A wonderful time was had by all!

NOYS: New Video Game Collection

Connie Urquhart, Youth Services

Sunday marks the beginning of Teen Tech Week, a nationally-recognized library event celebrating the positive connection between teens and technology. FCPL is participating in Teen Tech Week in many ways, including programs every day at various branches, and special posts & discussions on Read.Watch.Listen.

But here’s the most exciting part. Teen Tech Week is also the debut of our video game collection! Video games are on their way to your branch as we speak. The collection is just getting started and as such is small, but we’ll be buying them on a regular basis from now on. For security reasons, please keep them behind the circ desk. The current collection is for children and teens, but of course adults may check them out too.

Most of your questions about the new video game collections should be answered on our website’s video game FAQ. A video game portion of the collection development policy will be available on the Intranet as well. Finally, the American Library Association has put together a gaming toolkit to help guide libraries & communities through this new phase of library service.

Special thanks to Youth Services Librarian Faythe Arredondo, who has worked tirelessly in putting this new collection together. Questions should be directed to her, as she is our resident gaming expert.

Update on Library Budget

Karen Bosch Cobb, Headquarters

All supervisors and professionals received an update on the library budget and the change process we will use to implement changes, which need to be made in order to cope with significant revenue losses, uncertain future funding, workload increases and workload shifts, which have taken place in our organization. Supervisors will be sharing the results of this meeting with staff. The PowerPoint is available at http://intra.fresnolibrary.org/ (Click on PowerPoint from Professional Meeting).

These two meetings were only a beginning and many changes will be unrolled in the coming months. During this time of change and uncertainty, please communicate with your managers and supervisors. We are also setting up a comment section in this blog so that you may ask questions through the blog. Though we always prefer questions with signatures, the opportunity for you to ask anonymous questions will also be available.

TECH TALK: LOG OFF OR REBOOT?

Jill Potter, Headquarters

If you have ever phoned Fresno Library Tech Support for a computer related problem at your branch you will probably be asked to either REBOOT or LOG OFF the computer.

So what is the difference between LOG OFF and REBOOT?

LOG OFF:
Log Off means to end a session at the computer. A session is the time spent logged in or using a specific profile on a computer. To LOG OFF of a session, click on START and click LOG OFF. You can also hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete and select LOG OFF.

REBOOT:
Reboot means to restart a computer. To reboot your computer, click on START and click SHUT DOWN and select RESTART from the drop down menu. Sometimes a simple REBOOT will fix the problem and you should try this troubleshooting technique before calling Tech Support.

If you can’t perform a REBOOT using the Start Menu button because of a “frozen” mouse or keyboard, then you can perform a HARD BOOT. This is achieved by pressing and holding the main power button on the computer tower until the power goes off and the computer shuts down. Wait for about a minute then press the button again and wait for the computer to boot up back to the Ctrl-Alt-Delete screen is on the monitor.

Promotion Ideas for March

Roberta Barton, Headquarters

From the "Marketing Library Services" newsletter, here are a few ideas to creatively highlight libraries in March:

March 8 is the 150th anniversary of the birth of author Kenneth Grahame. Celebrate this old favorite by creating programming around his book The Wind in the Willows.

March 8-14 is "Read an E-Book Week." An author-created website is set up for the event at http://www.ebookweek.com/. This is the week to showcase your branch's e-book collection and help people learn how to use the new technology. This week is also "Teen Tech Week" so come up with a unique way to combine the two tech-oriented observances.

March 9 is the 50th anniversary of the first Barbie doll appearing in stores. How about a "Bring Your Barbie to the Library" party? Kids AND adults (reliving their childhood) could have a lot of fun with this one.

And don't forget that we have our own promotion calendar too. In March, we will be promoting The Big Read and Cesar Chavez as well as Fit for Life. And, of course, as the economy continues to present challenges, we will continue to promote the value of the library as a free resource in tough times.

Bereavement

Several staff lost loved ones during these past weeks. All of us send our condolences and heartfelt sympathies to these co-workers and their families:

Anthony Avila, maintenance janitor at westside branches and regionals on weekends, passed away last night following a serious illness. Anthony will be tremendously missed by staff and friends.

Richard Mann's mother, Ann, passed away in Cornwall, New York. Richard works for SJVIS. Richard's wife, Susan, supervises the Ivy and Gillis branches.

Ernst Vitovec, Reedley branch supervisor, is mourning the death of his father with family members in Victoria, BC.

Louise Richardson's husband, Tom, passed away last week. A full obituary is expected in The Fresno Bee. Louise works at the Central Library in Reference.

Darlene Morse, program assistant in Literacy Services, is mourning the death of her mother. Darlene's husband, Ron, works at the Central Library.