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Hello World Technology and Youth Services

Bunnies and Books & Felines and Flicks

Holly at the Schuylerville Public Library has started up a weekly posting on both their Facebook and YouTube account where a member of staff recommends a book or movie and they pair it with an adoptable animal from either HOPE or Saratoga County Animal Shelter.

Holly does a Bunnies and Books post every Friday, and a Felines and Flicks post every Saturday (and there may soon be a possible Programs and Pups Sunday post as well). I wanted to reach out to see if more local members of SALS may be interested in contributing to this project?

Holly is looking for more library staff members to send her more recommendations, and for us to also spread the reach of these posts by joining other libraries. It is our hope we can spread the word that libraries are awesome AND get some more adoptable animals into loving homes!

If you are interested please either reach out directly to Holly Wright (hwright@sals.edu) or me and I'll put you in touch with Holly.

Their videos are posted on the SVL's Facebook page, but we also have them on a YouTube playlist: Here if you wanted to check out more of these awesome videos!

Reader's Advisory

After sending out a survey regarding the most popular reader's advisory tools the results are in:

Others of note: Many people wrote in that they use Fantastic Fiction and quite a few requested Novelist. I will find out the feasibility of Novelist and bring it up at the next directors' council.

Syndetics Unbound

In the meantime I would also like to mention that Novelist was replaced with Syndetics Unbound in Polaris.

So if you are on the website https://pac.sals.edu and search for an item you'll see the You May Also Like section.

For example I enjoyed the Three Body Problem, a scifi book, and these were the readalikes and series recommendations.

Heritage Quest

HeritageQuest® Online is a comprehensive treasury of American genealogical sources—rich in unique primary sources, local and family histories, convenient research guides, interactive census maps, and more.

Patron's are able to access this content from home using their library card, but only by following a specific link related to their home library. If you would like this information added to your website. I would be happy to help.

Here is some info on what is offered:

Powered by Ancestry®, this collection consists of the following core data sets:

  • Census collection contains over 700 million records from the U.S. Federal Census 1790-1940, and national censuses including Argentina, Netherlands, Czech Republic and several other countries.
  • Books collection contains over 22,000 family and local histories, compiled genealogies, documentary collections, church records, military records, vital records, city and county histories, and more.
  • City Directories with over 1.5 million records from various US city and county directories during 1821-1989.
  • Military Records containing over 2 million records from selected state and country military records including the US Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files 1800-1900, US Records of Confederate Prisoners of War 1861-1865, and US Remarried Widows Index to Pension Applications 1887-1942.
  • Wills and Probate Records has more than 170 million pages from the largest collection of wills and probate records in the United States, with searchable records included from all 50 states spread over 337 years (1668-2005).
  • Freedman’s Bank contains an index and original images of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company's registers of Signatures of Depositors 1865-1871.
  • US Serial Set (subset) contains more than 140,000 private relief actions, memorials, and petitions drawn

Facebook and Instagram embeds to be deprecated October 24th

Facebook and by defacto Instagram, as of Oct. 24th, will no longer allow WordPress plugins access to your feeds without registering a developer account with Facebook.

What this means for you... If you have an Instagram or Facebook feed on your website it will most likely fail on or before October 24th. If you want to keep the feed on your site and need any assistance please let me know and I can help you create a developers account on Facebook and then update your plugin so you can continue your social media feeds uninterrupted.

Google Knowledge Panel

Please be aware that many patron use the Google Knowledge Panel (That side bar you see when you do a google search) to check your opening hours and phone number. It is quite easy to update and add information. Including hours of operation, covid-19 updates, events, links to your social media, and so much more.

If you just want to update your hours and can use the Suggest an Edit. You will need to have a google account. If you don't have an account/don't want one please let me know of any changes you would like made and I can request the edits.

Royalty Free Images

Due to budget concerns SALS will not be renewing our contract with Britannica's ImageQuest for 2021. So for those that are currently using the product your account will expire in mid-November. The good new is there are several free option that I would recommend.

Unsplash

Unsplash https://unsplash.com/ is what I use most frequently to find freely-usable images. It is free and very easy to use.

Adobe Stock

Adobe Stock https://adobe.ly/34SheH7 was always a premium service but as of two days ago they now offer a freely-usable portion of their stock images (70,000 to be exact). As it is brand new I haven't had a chance to really explore all the options. But it looks like they are offering images, vector art, and videos.

Events

The Development of Early Literacy Learners

Thursday, October 29, 2020. 1:30 PM - 3 PM.

Join us for the free webinar presented by Donna M. Scanlon, PhD, Professor in the Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Participants will gain a stronger understanding of early literacy learners and what prepares them for success; many children's book examples highlighting the features that support growth in early literacy skills and knowledge; and new tools to further enhance programming, outreach, and collection development related to Ready to Read at New York Libraries' goals.

Registered attendees are asked to review the early literacy booklet Helping Your Child Become a Reader before the start of the webinar. Download the booklet here.

Exploring the New York State Parent Portal

Friday, November 20, 2020. 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM.

The Parent Portal (www.nysparenting.org) houses the four websites created by the NYS Council on Children and Families with state agency partners to help parents and caregivers by providing positive parenting resources.

You will learn how to use these resource to make families aware of childcare options, helpful hints to navigate concerns about development delays, and parenting support in your community!

Presenters:

  • Cate Bohn, NYS Council on Children and Families, Kids Count Director and KWIC Coordinator
  • Ciearra Norwood, NYS Council on Children and Families, Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Coordinator
Created By
Jack Scott
Appreciate

Credits:

Created with an image by Simon Berger - "Colors are an imagination of our humans brains — I don´t care says the plant."