The SELCO supply of the new Minnesota writers' maps has begun to trickle into the office and will be distributed (slowly) around the region so libraries and their patron can take a literary look at Minnesota’s landscape.
Minnesota Writers on the Map is a project undertaken by the Council of Regional Public Library System Administrators (of which SELCO is a member) working together with the Minnesota Book Awards (MNBA), the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS), …
Calling all library staff members, board members and library Friends group members! Please join us on Tuesday, June 18, 9:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. at the SELCO Headquarters in Rochester for a day of sharing, brainstorming, and planning at the Sharing Between Friends Workshop! In the morning, MELSA Director and former Minnesota Library Association of Friends (MALF) President Chris Olson will be speaking. In the afternoon, …
Backstage Library Works recently announced they are hosting a free RDA webinar on June 18th. Backstage Library Works is an authority control agency much like Marcie. This free webinar will cover the background of RDA, the basics of the FRBR model on which RDA is based, some of the major differences between RDA and AACR2, and MARC fields added to accommodate RDA elements. …
Tyler Irvin, Technology Support Librarian
While using the OverDrive collection, there are a variety of formats to download the eBooks. They can be a bit confusing particularly for a new patron. …
SELS is offering up to four scholarships of $250 each to defray the cost to attend the 16th American Association of School Librarians (AASL) National Conference & Exhibition in Hartford, Connecticut, November 14-17, 2013. Scholarship recipient must be willing to share conference experiences on The SELCO Librarian blog. …
The following information was sent via e-mail on June 5, 2013 from Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Lobbyist. Additional linked information added.
State Budget Overview
The Legislature and Governor Dayton agreed on a budget for the 2014-15 biennium that erases a projected $627 million deficit and provides additional funding for education and local governments. In order to raise the revenue to accomplish this, income taxes were increased on the top 2% of income tax filers, …
The Minnesota Certification for Library Staff Program, formerly known as the Minnesota Voluntary Certification, is officially concluded. The Council of Regional Public Library System Administrators (CRPLSA) announces that the Minnesota Certification Program for Library Staff has successfully achieved the program goals.
For anyone still engaged in the Minnesota program, contact the SELCO office and staff will continue to work with you on completing the program. …
Calling all library staff members, board members and library Friends group members! Please join us on Tuesday, June 18, 9:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. at the SELCO Headquarters in Rochester for a day of sharing, brainstorming, and planning at the Sharing Between Friends Workshop! In the morning, MELSA Director and former Minnesota Library Association of Friends (MALF) President Chris Olson will be speaking. In the afternoon, …
Spots are still available for the Mystery Reader's Advisory Workshop on Tuesday, June 11, 2013, 12:30-3:30 p.m. at the SELCO Headquarters! Check out the agenda below!
11:30 a.m. -- Pizza Lunch
12:30-1:05 p.m. -- Crime Mysteries with LaVonne Beach, LaCrescent Public Library
1:05-1:10 p.m. -- Break
1:10-1:45 p.m. -- Unique Mysteries with Stephanie Hall, Meinders Community Library in Pipestone, MN
1:45-1:55 p.m. -- Break
1:55-3:00 p.m. …
As the school year is winding down, I would like to draw your attention to 5 locations that will be open for the Summer months.
Goodhue School, Lyle School, Ridgeway School, Shattuck St Mary's School and Crossroads College.
They will be doing their pull lists and also will be having delivery every Wednesday. This is a great opportunity to get items that you might not have been able to in the past because the location was closed. Have a great Summer!
Posted for Jonya Pacey, ILS Manager
Horizon allows each Online Library to customize block language, which is used by blocks in My Account and on the patron’s block windows, and is also used for notices. There is a Horizon Behind the Screens episode here to complement this post.
Throughout this post, the word ‘block’ means an entry on a patron’s record whereas the word ‘notice’ means something sent to the patron, but they are both triggered by the same situation. …
Greetings! This year, the Minnesota Summer Reading Program and Youth Services Committee has decided to recognize a Blue Ribbon Reader from each region to help celebrate Summer Reading! Each public library in the SELCO region is asked to submit the name of one child (k-12th grade age) who has shown great enthusiasm in the summer reading program and who deserves to be recognized for summer reading achievements. …
The Media Com Internet outage has been resolved and all sites are back up.
Media Com Internet outage estimated time of repair has been changed to 8:00 P.M. CST.
We are performing system maintenance related to the Storage Area Network (SAN) migration on Wednesday, May 29, 2013, between 9:00 PM and 6:00 AM the following morning. During this time, a number of SELCO services will be down for brief periods. In most cases, we don't expect services to be down for more than 30 minutes. One exception is the Horizon database, which will be down for one to two hours. A few key points:
- It's difficult to predict exactly when a given service will be down, …
Media Com is experiencing a major Internet outage issue that is affecting Southeastern Minnesota. Technicians are currently being dispatched to try to identify and resolve the issue. At this time there is no ETA for resolution of the Internet Outage.
Better Futures Minnesota made another trip to Southeastern Minnesota last week (actually it was 3 trips)! On Tuesday, May 21 they stopped at Red Wing and Lake City collectiong 150 boxes. Wednesday May 22 found them at Kenyon-Wanamingo School and another stop here at SELCO to fill their truck with over 300 boxes and Thursday was spent at Rushford-Peterson School to load up over 30 boxes for the second time at this location. …
SELCO is happy to announce registration is open for our 5th Annual Camp Read-a-Lot on August 6, 2013, focusing on literature for Grades 2-5! This year, we are hosting Camp at Cascade Meadow Wetlands & Environmental Science Center in Rochester. Heidi Hammond from St. Catherine University and Gail Nordstrom from Viking Library System will discuss the selection process for the Caldecott Award, …
Greetings! We are happy to announce the SELCO MNBA 25th Anniversary Gala on May 7, 2013 at the Rochester Civic Theatre was a true success! Over 100 folks from the SELCO region gathered for an evening of author presentations, book sales and signings, yummy food and great discussions! Our Silent Auction raised over $400 for the SELCO Library Foundation, too! …
We are performing maintenance related to the Storage Area Network (SAN) upgrade between 9:00 PM, May 23, 2013 and 6:00 AM, May 24, 2013. During this time, Citrix (and, by extension, the Horizon client) will be unavailable for logins. Please note that Horizon and all related systems will continue operating normally; staff will simply be unable to log into the Horizon client during these off hours.
Thank you for your patience.
Thanks to Van Horn Public Library Director Morgan Hansen for donating a NEW Book Club in a Bag kit to the SELCO Professional Collection! The title is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. The kit includes seven copies of the paperback version and four copies of the hardcover large print version, along with book club discussion questions. Interested? …
Calling all library staff members, board members and library Friends group members! Please join us on Tuesday, June 18, 9:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. at the SELCO Headquarters in Rochester for a day of sharing, brainstorming, and planning at the Sharing Between Friends Workshop! In the morning, MELSA Director and former Minnesota Library Association of Friends (MALF) President Chris Olson will be speaking. In the afternoon, …
SELCO is performing maintenance related to the Storage Area Network (SAN) upgrade between 9:00 PM, May 22, 2013 and 6:00 AM, May 23, 2013. During this time, the Help Desk website at http://helpdesk.selco.info may be down for a few hours.
We are also performing work on Pharos during this time but do not anticipate it having any impact on the service during business hours. If you do have any issues with Pharos on the morning of the 23rd, please try rebooting your Pharos sign up server. …
In observance of the Memorial Day holiday, the SELCO office will be closed on Monday, May 27, 2013. There will be no Automation Support that day. Also, there will be no delivery service on Monday - a regular Monday delivery will be done on Tuesday that week.
Tyler Irvin, Technology Support Librarian
One of the most commonly used tools to gain statistical information on library transactions of SELCO Online Libraries is WebReporter. As a product of SirsiDynix, it integrates with Horizon to extract information on circulation, borrowers, the collection, fines, and interlibrary loan requests. What is commonly forgotten is that there are a limited number of licenses available for use to log into WebReporter. For the SELCO region, …
SELCO’s traveling art exhibit, easel – Experience Art in Southeastern Libraries moved to Red Wing. The Library will host the display of regional artwork from May 17 through June 28. Red Wing is the final location of a tour that began in January 2012 and spanned 18 months at 13 locations around southeastern Minnesota. Each piece was created by an artist residing in the SELCO region and represents the artist’s depiction of reading, the library, books, authors, a letter, or letters.
The 33 pieces represent a wide range of artistic mediums, all within the limited size of 12x12 for two-dimensional work. The 3-D pieces must also conform to the size limitation with at least one side actually measuring 12 inches. This uniform size provides ease of transport and enables libraries with limited wall and display space to host easel for the public.
The Friends of the Red Wing Public Library will host a reception for local participating artists and library patrons on Monday, May 20, 2013 from 4:00 – 7:00 p.m.
The following information was sent via e-mail on May 20, 2013 from Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Lobbyist. Additional linked information added.
UPDATE: Click here for the Legacy Conference Committee Report. Specifically, see pages 68-69 for regional public library funding (listed under Department of Education) and pages 71-72 (starting on line 71-28, specifically) for information on the Minnesota Digital Library.
Great news! …
After the the first RDA class, the catalogers and I (Becky. Kristi and with help from Cindy) evaluated the class and decide to break the class into two separate offerings.
Each cataloger may choose which class they feel is appropriate for their cataloging level. Both classes fulfill your RDA cataloging requirement. Each classes will last approximately 3 to 4 hours. …
On Friday the Minnesota House will take up the bonding bill on the floor. The bill as it emerged from committee did not include any funding for libraries. However, Rep. Alice Hausman, chief author of the bill, has posted an amendment to the bill online that would appropriate $1.5 million for Library Accessibility and Improvement Grants. …
The House and Senate conferees for the Legacy bill have been appointed.
Please contact them and urge them to support the House position on Legacy funding for regional public libraries.
The House maintains the current funding level of $3 million per year, whereas the Senate reduces it to $1 million per year. With the Senate version, SELCO would go from $308,016 it received in FY2013 to $96,000 in FY2014, …
| As a part of its 25th anniversary season, the Minnesota Book Awards is proud to announce a new literary map of our state: From Main Street to Your Street: Minnesota Writers on the Map, featuring more than 100 writers from historical to modern times, whose contributions to the state’s literary legacy are profound. Copies of the map will be available in public libraries beginning at the end of May. In early June, the map will move online with more information on each of the authors listed, and new interactive elements. There will be links to the Minnesota Historical Society’s author biographies pages, as well. This project was produced in partnership with the Minnesota Historical Society and Explore Minnesota, and made possible by funds from Minnesota’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund through a designation from the Council of Regional Public Library System Administrators (CRPLSA), Explore Minnesota, and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. |
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Circulation privileges in Horizon control how long items check out, what your fine rates are, and twelve other circulation rules in use in our region. There is a Horizon: Behind the Screens episode to go along with this post.
Every location has distinct privileges, meaning you have your own default value and exception views. Exceptions are based on item location, BTYPEs and ITYPEs only. …
As previously discussed, we are migrating data and virtual servers to a new Storage Area Network this week. Work is still progressing. It's fair to say that the migration is taking a good deal longer than anyone at SELCO or our vendors expected. We are, however, making progress.
In consultation with Davenport Group, the vendor for this project, we have decided to take a break after three long nights of work. …
The House conferees for the Legacy bill were appointed this morning.
Please contact them and urge them to support the House position on Legacy funding for regional public libraries.
The House maintains the current funding level of $3 million per year, whereas the Senate reduces it to $1 million per year. With the Senate version, SELCO would go from $308,016 it received in FY2013 to $96,000 in FY2014, …
The following information was sent via e-mail on May 15, 2013 from Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Lobbyist. Additional linked information added.
With just a few days left in the legislative session, final decisions are starting to be made on budget bills.
Minitex/MnLINK
Great news! The higher education conference committee reached agreement on the omnibus higher ed bill this evening (May 15, 2013) and it includes the $300, …
Legacy funding for SELCO's cultural programming is in jeopardy of being reduced by 2/3.
In FY2013, SELCO received $308,016 but under the proposed Senate Legacy bill that amount would be reduced to $96,000 in FY2014, greatly affecting SELCO's ability to support local programming efforts.
Call or email your Senator today and share your story about Library Legacy activities in your community. …
It's no longer a mystery! The Mystery Reader's Advisory Workshop has been rescheduled! Join us on Tuesday, June 11, 2013, 12:30-3:30 p.m. at the SELCO Headquarters! Check out the agenda below!
11:30 a.m. -- Pizza Lunch
12:30-1:05 p.m. -- Crime Mysteries with LaVonne Beach, LaCrescent Public Library
1:05-1:10 p.m. -- Break
1:10-1:45 p.m. -- Unique Mysteries with Stephanie Hall, Meinders Community Library in Pipestone, …
| You're invited to the Minnesota Writers' Map reception! Tuesday May 21, 6:30 p.m. Minnesota History Center, Heffelfinger Room 345 Kellogg Boulevard West Saint Paul RSVP by Friday, May 17 Beverages and hors d’oeuvres will be provided. Please join the Minnesota Book Awards, Explore Minnesota, … |
The Senate Legacy Bill (SF 1051), authored by Senator Richard Cohen (D-St. Paul), was unveiled in the Senate Subcommittee on Legacy on Thursday, May 9, 2013, and included funding for $1 million/year for regional public libraries. This amount is a major reduction from the $3 million/year currently allocated to regional public libraries. In the House companion bill, [HF 1183|https://www. …
A new grant competition will award $150,000 to libraries, museums, and other nonprofits to provide hands-on learning opportunities this summer for youth across the country to help make the online experience more civil, safe and empowering. The Project:Connect Summer Youth Programming Competition is administered by the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC), …
The following information was sent via e-mail on May 12, 2013 from Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Lobbyist. Additional linked information added.
It's crunch time. The Legislature must adjourn on May 20, 2013 -- one week from Monday.
Budget Deal
Today (May 12, 2013) the Governor and legislative leaders announced that they have agreed on a budget deal. …
SELCO is migrating to a new Storage Area Network (SAN) during the week of May 13, 2013. The SAN stores all SELCO data and the virtual servers that provide most of our services. A few points to be aware of:
- The SAN was assembled and installed last week. This week, we are migrating all data and virtual servers from the old SAN to the new.
- A technician from Davenport Group, the SAN vendor, will be present to assist us in carrying out the migration. …
PC Reliance is the offline circulation capturing tool associated with Horizon. This is an optional program loaded onto circulation workstations so that your staff can easily continue to check out items to patrons during network outages. There is a Horizon: Behind the Screens episode to accompany it.
PC Reliance records patron barcodes and the item barcodes the patron is taking out with them. It can also produce a receipt, if you wish, and if you have set it up correctly, …
This post is about understanding how we manage your calendars and pull lists. This post should help you understand why these are two separate actions in Horizon. There is a Horizon Behind the Screens episode to accompany it.
Although weekly schedules do not change very often, we work with you to assure your annual holiday and other closed dates into Horizon are accurate. We can add in unexpected dates, such as snow dates, …
The Group 2 OCLC Project Kickoff that was scheduled for today will be postponed to a later date. With several folks unable to attend due to closed libraries, no power, or anything else that this crazy May snow is wreaking havoc with, we will find a new date in the next week or so to have that kickoff. Cheryl will be in contact with those of you who are in that group of libraries.
The Circulation training class, scheduled for today from 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM has been cancelled. We will look at re-scheduling this for a later date.
I can't believe I'm even writing this on May 2, 2013, but with the horrible road conditions around the region and travel not advised almost everywhere, we are cancelling Delivery for today. We plan to resume regular Delivery on Friday, May 3, 2013 when we hope to be able to safely deliver your tubs. Stay safe!
Continuing on with our OCLC reclamation project, over 400 boxes of books were picked up from SELCO on Monday April 29 by Better Futures Minnesota formerly known as Network for Better Futures. Rushford-Peterson School and Red Wing Public Library were 2 additional stops made on Friday April 26 with over 30 boxes each. Better Futures Minnesota will attempt to resale the books, give some to local prisons, …
National Science Foundation "Pushing the Limit" Programming Grant
If your Friends group represents a small and rural Minnesota library looking to bolster its Adult programming offerings in the S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields, the National Science Foundation wants to work with you!
Last year, in a special pilot program, …
The following information was sent via e-mail on April 29, 2013 from Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Lobbyist. Additional linked information added.
The Legislature must adjourn three weeks from today (April 29, 2013). Most of the omnibus budget bills were passed on the floor of the House and Senate last week (week of April 22, 2013). Conference committees are in the process of being appointed and will begin meeting later this week. …
Twenty five years of the Minnesota Book Awards
A quick video rewind with some of Minnesota's most talented writers, illustrators, and literary figures at the annual Minnesota Book Award celebration.
The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library is pleased to announce the winners of the 25th annual Minnesota Book Awards announced and presented on Saturday, April 13. More than 800 people gathered in St. Paul for the award ceremony hosted by author and comedienne Lorna Landvik. The winners of the 2013 Minnesota Book Awards are:
 … |
There's a new program on SELCOtv! What does that mean? is a very short (about a minute) program featuring definitions of library and technology terms. Ever wondered what Jonya means when she refers to SQL? Or tried to explain what digitization means to your Board? What does that mean? is the show for you.
Each episode is short and sticks to just the facts with a quick, easy to understand definition of the term in question. …
Our eCommerce problem has been resolved. We apologize for this inconvenience.
Greetings! Please save the date for an upcoming summer workshop called Sharing Between Friends on June 18, 2013, 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. at the SELCO Headquarters in Rochester. This day-long workshop will feature Chris Olson, MELSA Director and former Minnesota Association of Library Friends (MALF) President, in the morning. The afternoon session will feature a series of best practices and programs from regional Friends groups and time for sharing and discussion. …
We are experiencing a problem with EnvisionWare, which has made fine/fee payments through My Account in the online catalog unavailable. We are working with the vendor to fix this problem and will send out updates as they become available.
We regret this inconvenience to library patrons.
MnLINK has informed us that the MnLINK Gateway is back up. Some text from their message:
The MnLINK Gateway and VDX are now available to use. You may experience some slowness with request searching or updating requests. The system's indexes are catching up, but we expect this to be OK by tomorrow. You may want to avoid doing large bulk actions today.
Tyler Irvin, Technology Support Librarian
SELCO will be offering the introductory Circulation I class on Thursday, May 2nd, 9:30-12:30 at the SELCO offices; see course description below. To register for the class, go to the CourseWhere site's event posting. If you have never registered for a class before, …
Interested in attending Camp Read-A-Lot? Or know someone who might be? Click HERE to access the 2013 Camp Read-A-Lot flyer for more info! Help us spread the word!
This post is about understanding your collection codes and ITYPEs. There is a Horizon Behind the Screens episode to accompany it.
Collection codes help your patrons find items in your library. Optimally for the patrons, you have one collection code per set of shelves to make that clear – that can be the entire back wall of shelves or it can be the first column of shelving and half of the next. …
Tyler Irvin, Technology Support Librarian
As it happens everywhere, from the Twitter FailWhale to George Takei crashing a website by a Facebook mention, occasionally systems go down unexpectedly. This happens here at the SELCO now and then as well. When something like this happens, we have a variety of methods to get the message out there.
The primary method of contact now that we switched to Google Apps is through email. …
Good morning! It's no longer a mystery! The Mystery Reader's Advisory Workshop has been rescheduled! Join us on Tuesday, June 11, 2013, 12:30-3:30 p.m. at the SELCO Headquarters! Check out the agenda below!
11:30 a.m. -- Pizza Lunch
12:30-1:05 p.m. -- Crime Mysteries with LaVonne Beach, LaCrescent Public Library
1:05-1:10 p.m. -- Break
1:10-1:45 p.m. -- Unique Mysteries with Stephanie Hall, …
The MnLINK Gateway will be going down for a software upgrade on Monday April 22, 2013 around 9:00 PM. We expect the system to return Tuesday April 23 around noon. Thank you for your patience during the downtime.
SELCO is happy to announce registration is open for our 5th Annual Camp Read-a-Lot on August 6, 2013, focusing on literature for Grades 2-5! This year, we are hosting Camp at Cascade Meadow Wetlands & Environmental Science Center in Rochester. Heidi Hammond from St. Catherine University and Gail Nordstrom from Viking Library System will discuss the selection process for the Caldecott Award, …
The following information was sent via e-mail on April 17, 2013 from Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Lobbyist. Additional linked information added.
Total Operating Capital
Doug Tomhave, technology director for the South St. Paul Schools, recently raised a concern that a provision brought forward by the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) to prohibit using total operating capital to pay for annual licensing fees for software might prohibit paying for licensing fees for electronic texts and library media resources. I communicated that concern to MDE's government relations staff. After some conversation, MDE agreed to drop the language about annual licensing fees.
Google is reporting that their outage this morning has been resolved. Gmail and other Google Apps should be working normally now. If your experience differs, please contact the SELCO Help Desk.
Greetings! To celebrate National Poetry Month, SELCO is hosting the Poets at the Library tour around the SELCO region. Check out the updated schedule of events below -- there's still time to see some amazing poets!
| Location |
Poet |
Date |
Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| University Center, Rochester |
Su Smallen |
Thursday, April 18, 2013 |
7 p.m. |
| St. Charles Public Schools |
Laura Purdie Salas |
Thursday, April 25, 2013 |
afternoon |
| St. Charles Public Library |
Laura Purdie Salas |
Thursday, April 25, 2013 |
6:30 p.m. |
| Owatonna Public Library |
Todd Boss |
Tuesday, April 30, 2013 |
7 p.m. |
Hope to see you there!
Update, 04-17-2013, 09:05 PM – Many SELCO users are reporting that Google Apps is working for them again. Having said that, Google's App Status Dashboard still shows them having a partial service disruption. If you can get in, go for it. But we're not sending out a general All-Clear just yet.
Google Apps for Business is down this morning. This is s widespread issue, folks on the [Search Engine Roundtable|http://www.seroundtable.com/comments. …
The latest Delivery Count was done on Monday, March 25, 2013 and 3423 items passed through SELCO Delivery. Compared to the Delivery Count done in March 2012 of 3740, this shows that Delivery decreased in March by 8.5%. This time around, we found that the number of items from schools increased while the number of items coming from public libraries and academic and special libraries decreased slightly. However, …
The following information was sent via e-mail on April 9, 2013 from Elaine Keefe, MLA/MEMO Lobbyist. Additional linked information added.
House Omnibus Education Bill
The House omnibus education bill was posted online this afternoon (April 9, 2013). It maintains current funding for all library appropriations -- Regional Library Basic System Support (RLBSS), …
Greetings! It's time to apply for the 2013 Evy Nordley Minnesota Association of Library Friends (MALF) Best Project Award by a Friends Group. No Friends' project is too big or small -- awards have been given to large scale projects and small smartly-crafted projects. The Evy Nordley Award is given each year at the Minnesota Library Association conference. This year, the award will be given during the 2013 MLA Conference in St. …
Tyler Irvin, Technology Support Librarian
We've had a few emails into the Help Desk over the last few days about Aquabrowser not functioning properly for patrons, namely it not even loading correctly. If a patron contacts you about this, ask what browser they are using. It is very probably Internet Explorer 10 which has known compatibility issues with the Javascript used in Aquabrowser. The quick fix for now is to turn on IE's compatibility mode. If problems persists, …
Happy National Library Week! This year's theme is Communities Matter @ Your Library and it's a perfect opportunity to write your legislators and let them know how important libraries are to you and about the positive differences libraries make in your community! Libraries need your voice! Click HERE to start sharing a personal story about how your public, school, …
