OEMA Newsletter

An Electronic Newsletter
of The Oregon Educational Media Association
Volume 17 No. 2
October, 2004

Is it October already? Just the other night I heard a news announcer saying it was the last sunset of summer. And it's noticeably darker when I leave the house in the morning.

Fall is indeed upon us, and with it all of the excitement and challenges of a new school year. Lexiles, state standards, leadership, collaboration. I don't know about you, but my head is spinning!

One way to stop the spin is to attend the OEMA Fall Conference next week. It will be one of the best, with great speakers, authors, vendors and workshop sessions. The very latest information on OSLIS and EBSCOhost will be available at workshop sessions scheduled throughout the day on Saturday. Come prepared to learn, to spend money, and above all to have fun! See you there!

If you are still thinking about attending the OEMA fall conference this weekend, I hope that you will think of the many things that you will miss if you decide not to attend:

If you'd like to help out at the Fall Conference in a simple, low-key way, we need volunteers to be "lunch buddies" for vendors during the Saturday lunch. Duties are simple - you'd need to introduce yourself to your assigned vendor, and then escort them to lunch with you.

This year the vendors asked if they could be included in our Saturday lunch so that they could visit informally with librarians. The "lunch buddies" job is just to help them feel welcome.

OSLIST is the name of the listserv for public schools that the state library created to send information about OSLIS and EBSCO. A second listserv is being created for librarians from private schools. It will be called OSLIST-P. Members of OSLIST received the UserID and passwords for remote access earlier this week. People are subscribed to the listserv when they return the form to the Oregon State Library. If you need a form, please contact Sheryl Steinke at sherylsteinke@comcast.net

NEW PROFILES to the EBSCOhost databases are now available from OSLIS. You will see a new link on both the elementary and secondary pages to an All Alphabetical list of the EBSCOhost databases.The En Espanol links to the alphabetical listing of databases in Spanish. There are 5 databases available at the elementary level, and 9 databases for middle schoolers. The HS Search leads you to a choice of databases and subjects. These new profiles are based on input from members of the OEMA Board and the OSLIS Committee.

WORKSHOPS to show librarians how to use OSLIS, L-Net and EBSCOhost were held in eastern and southern Oregon the last week of September. Blake Albretsen and Tony Larsen from EBSCO were joined by OSLIS trainers Patty Sorensen, Jim Tindall, Kate Grant, Char Wisely, Allen Kopf and Judy Jacoby in these well-attended workshops. More workshops in the Portland and Willamette Valley are being planned for the first week of November.

FALL CONFERENCE will have OSLIS sessions all day Saturday during the concurrent sessions. Calab Tucker-Raymond from L-net will act as host introducing the two OSLIS and one Ebsco trainer and briefly promote L-net through printed material. Melanee Lucas and Jim Tindall will provide the overviews of OSLIS and its two interfaces and then begin to demonstrate sample searches using the Ebsco databases, at which point Blake Albretsen from EBSCO will share search strategies with emphasis upon the Lexile framework and the translation software.

IP ranges for school districts are required to access the EBSCOhost databases from OSLIS. If your school is in one of the ESD regions listed below, we do not have your IP range. Harney Co., Lake Co., Region 18, Southern Oregon ESD, Umatilla Morrow ESD, Union Baker ESD. Please contact your ESD technology person and ask her/him to send the IP ranges to Sheryl Steinke <sherylsteinke@comcast.net> or to Patty Sorensen <pdsorensen@comcast.net>.

Have a great program idea to promote literacy? Need a little money to make it happen? Apply for a $200 Connie Hull mini-grant from OEMA- Deadline November 19. Download information and an application at http://www.oema.net/ConnieHullApp04.pdf

Oregon Libraries Network is expanding its service to 24/7 beginning October 1, 2004. The free online information service provided by Oregon libraries announced today that the service is now available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Anyone in Oregon with a computer and Internet access can go to http://www.oregonlibraries.net and connect to a knowledgeable reference librarian to have questions answered at any time from anywhere.

Eighteen libraries from across the state including university, public

and school libraries are participating to answer questions around the clock. The state has also contracted with Librarians by Request, a librarian staffing service from Tutor.com to help provide coverage throughout the night.

L-net is made possible with funds granted by the Oregon State Library under the Library Services and Technology Act and by the collaboration of Oregon's libraries. More information about the service is available at http://www.oregonlibraries.net, and the press release announcement is available at http://www.oregonlibraries.net/promote/. Contact Pam Horan for more information, pam.horan@state.or.us, 503-378-2112 ext.
224.

Oregonians are polarized, paralyzed, and apathetic about our public schools. Communication about how to improve Oregon public schools has all but collapsed. But constructive communication is more than talking or even listening. It's about connecting people: from information - to understanding - to action.

Chalkboard Project exists to inspire every taxpayer, teacher, parent "every citizen" to do what it takes to make our K-12 public schools among the nation's best, while living within our means.

Chalkboard is laying the foundation with unbiased, research-driven information that frames the constructive communication that will lead to action.

NASA has a free website at http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/st5/flingman.htm with a variety of teaching materials. Carol Dinges, Lebanon H.S. librarians suggests that most of it looks appropriate for elementary and middle schools.

Scholastic Library Publishing has just published a research foundation paper entitled "School Libraries Work!" The preface is that school libraries work. The school library is critical to the learning experience and student academic achievement. The paper mentions 14 state studies that demonstrate the benefits of school libraries and library media specialists on student achievement. If this paper was not received by your building administrator, you can download a copy at http://www.scholastic.com/librarypublishing. This is a great advocacy piece.

The next offering of a Master of Library Science (MLS) degree program offered in Portland by the School of Library and Information Management (SLIM), Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas, starts classes the weekend of January 21-23, 2005. Emporia State University has offered its MLS program in Portland since 1994 and more than 200 residents of the Pacific Northwest have earned the degree without ever having to attend classes at the Kansas campus.

Designed for non-traditional students with employment and family commitments, the program takes nearly three years to complete the 42-hour requirement for graduation. Classes meet on weekends, approximately fourteen times per year. The delivery format is a mixture of traditional face-to-face instruction with faculty from the Kansas campus and on-line coursework. The program is accredited by the American Library Association.

Applications for admission are currently being accepted. To receive an application packet, call the school at 1-800-552-4770 or send e-mail to sliminfo@emporia.edu. For more information about the MLS program in Portland, contact Ms. Perri Parise, the Director of the SLIM-Oregon Program, at 503-223-8280 or 800-236-7302. Her e-mail is parisepe@emporia.edu.

The General Election of 2004 is once again proving to be a popular choice for public libraries to go to voters for support. It is the one election, every two years, where the "double majority" is not required. In November 2002 there were 20 measures on the ballot throughout the state. This year, the State Library is aware of 12 measures, including two library district measures, four local option levy measures, and six building bond measures. Of particular significance are the two library district measures in the Salem area, and in the Creswell area of Lane County. If one or both of these measures were to pass, they would be the first new library districts in Oregon since 2000.

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OEMA Newsletter -- Editor: Sheryl Steinke

Published monthly on the 5th of the month September through May; also available on the web at <http://www.oema.net/newsletter>.
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Send news items for the Newsletter to:
* Email: sherylsteinke@comcast.net

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE : Martha Decherd	FROM THE CHALKBOARD PROJECT
OEMA FALL CONFERENCE ONLY THREE DAYS AWAY!	NASA MATERIALS
BE A BUDDY!	SCHOOL LIBRARIES WORK
OSLIS: FLURRY OF ACTIVITY	MASTER OF LIBRARY SCIENCE PROGRAM IN PORTLAND TO START IN JANUARY
CONNIE HULL MINIGRANT	MANY PUBLIC LIBRARY MEASURES ON THE NOVEMBER BALLOT
L-NET EXPANDS TO 24/7 DIGITAL REFERENCE SERVICE	CALENDAR