Stephanie Gerding's blog

Yesterday's webinar on Facebook was FAN-tastic. Social media consultant John Haydon had great tips and practical advice for libraries and any group or organization starting a page and building a fan base.

March 16, 2010, 11 a.m. Pacific time
Register: online

Twitter has claimed its place on the short list of communications tools for nonprofits and libraries to consider when designing online strategies. This webinar will survey the Twitter landscape, explaining core concepts, enumerating best practices, and describing the tools and tactics that exist to leverage Twitter's strengths.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) invites you to help invent the future of museums and libraries through your participation in UpNext: The Future of Museums and Libraries Wiki. IMLS’s first-ever wiki is a platform where individuals inside and outside of museums, libraries, and related fields can discuss, dissect, expand, and inform the issues outlined in the Future of Museums and Libraries: A Discussion Guide. IMLS will use the knowledge shared in the wiki to help shape the agency’s strategic plan, research directions, publications, convenings, and grant making. The wiki officially launched today, March 3 and will be accepting comments until May 12th, 2010. 

Register online for a TechSoup webinar and learn how to start a program at your library or nonprofit to refurbish computers. Find out how to get good refurbishable equipment donations and how to economically set up an operation that is suitable to your budget and the space you have.

I'm learning to tweet as part of my work with TS for Libraries...we are TechSoup4Libs, if you'd like to follow us! I love that libraries are using this tool to market their services and reach out to their community members. As reported by NFI Research, these are the top public libraries active on twitter who regularly communicate with their community and have a proportionate number of followers to following. Interesting that there aren't many listed on the West Coast.

February's library spotlight is on Jarvis Sims, Technology Services Manager of the Hall County Library System in Gainesville, Georgia. Jarvis shares invaluable lessons learned from his experiences managing existing branches and planning for the construction of a new building. Read his spotlight and check out his tips. Thanks for sharing with us, Jarvis!

WebJunction's Online Conference, Technology Essentials 2010, has begun today! I'm presenting Winning Grants tomorrow, and really looking forward to it. I just checked the tweets and sounds like it is going great. I also peaked into Pat Carterette's session on Learning When There's No Time (or Money) to Learn.

What Should a Website Cost?
Thursday, December 17, 11 a.m. Pacific time

Are you thinking about revamping your website but not sure where to start? Are you working with a web developer but wonder if you're paying too much? With all the tools and strategies available, it's hard to know where to start and what to expect. Attend this free webinar where Allen Gunn, Executive Director of Aspiration, will share valuable information about:

The ALA Washington Office will be participating in the Google Policy Fellowship program for the summer of 2010. Google Policy Fellows work for ten weeks during the summer at ALA Washington or at other public interest organizations involved in debates on broadband and access policy, copyright reform, online privacy, and open government. In particular, ALA encourages master’s and doctoral students in library and information studies with an interest in national public policy to apply for this fellowship.

Check out the Google Policy Fellow website for pertinent details. Applications are due Monday, December 28, 2009.

In TechSoup's Unpower Yourself! contest in November, we shared our Five Things You Can Do in Five Minutes to Reduce Your Power Use and asked you to take a survey sharing how you've reduced your IT energy use. We had 137 entries! We're happy to announce our three randomly-selected contest winners: