LibraryLinkNJ News

For more details about any of our projects, programs, or services, please visit the LibraryLinkNJ website!

For questions, suggestions, or help with your account, please reach out to our CE Team: ce@librarylinknj.org

Thanks to NJASL, and in particular the NJASL Conference Committee, for welcoming us as sponsors to the Fall 2022 NJASL Conference: Unleash Your School Librarian Super Powers. The LibraryLinkNJ team enjoyed the opportunity to connect with our school library colleagues face-to-face, and we were especially pleased to have the opportunity to celebrate the passage of Bill S588 (the “Information Literacy Bill”) with the super powered librarians who worked so hard to make the bill a reality. Congratulations to the advocates and supporters from across the library landscape who were part of this incredible achievement!

We look forward to connecting you with another superhero librarian, Martha Hickson, at our upcoming Membership Meeting on Tuesday, December 13th, where she’ll present her program “The State of Censorship.” Martha is an award-winning school librarian who has made headlines and won accolades for her successful battles against censorship in her school and community. All are welcome to join us for this important and timely program, as well as the brief membership meeting and LLNJ updates to follow. You can find more details about registration in the Announcements section below.

Finally, please join us in welcoming LibraryLinkNJ’s newest team member, Jennifer Bruno, to her new role as full-time Administrative Operations Manager. Jennifer will begin working with us on December 12, bringing extensive experience in office management, accounts payable and receivable, and human resources management. Jennifer will supervise our office staff and be responsible for overseeing all of our administrative and office services.

Wishing you the happiest of holidays and a fantastic new year.

Best regards,

Ralph

The next LibraryLinkNJ Executive Board Meeting will take place on Thursday, December 15 at 2:30 pm. All LibraryLinkNJ members are welcome to attend.

https://librarylinknj.org/about-us/executive-board

Our annual fall membership meeting will be held on Tuesday, 12/13 at 2pm online via Zoom!

Join us for a virtual membership meeting featuring a keynote presentation from award-winning school librarian Martha Hickson. Martha's presentation, "The State of Censorship" will be a discussion designed to educate, aggravate, and activate as she delivers the latest news on censorship, shares the strategies she used to fight back here in NJ, and provides attendees with tips and tools to help keep people reading freely.

Updates on the state of LibraryLinkNJ from our Executive Director and Program Coordinator will follow Martha's presentation!

All are welcome to join us (you don't need to be a voting rep or director to attend), but registration is required. Register now via the Zoom link below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEucumprTIpHN3ygOtjHdhj3I6ag3UBu-Ff

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The New Jersey State Library and LibraryLinkNJ are exploring the possibility of hosting an in-person, one-day Current Director’s Training event in 2023. We’re seeking your help to ensure that we plan topics and speakers of relevance and interest. If you are a New Jersey library director, please take a few moments to fill out the survey linked below!

Director Training Topics Survey

Responses will be accepted through January 1, 2023.

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If you've been waiting to watch the recordings of our Summer Book Bash virtual author conversations, this is your last chance alert! Videos will be removed from our YouTube channel at the end of the year, so be sure to take a look by the end of December!

• Virtual Author Event with Nisha Sharma and Shannon Chakraborty: https://youtu.be/yqv8L35os0E
• Virtual Author Event with Fabian Nicieza: https://youtu.be/qWYdIybhf1o
• Virtual Summer Scares Author Event featuring Stephen Graham Jones, Grady Hendrix, Aliza Layne, and Kelly McWilliams: https://youtu.be/IwsA-yBrFY0

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The MentorNJ Task Force is hard at work updating and upgrading MentorNJ's offerings, including the MentorLIB Mentors' Directory. As we continue to try to grow and enrich the MentorNJ program to bring you the best possible statewide mentoring experience, it has become clear to us that many of the existing Directory profiles have become outdated, rendering the Directory difficult to use.

To that end, we'd like to make everyone aware that all MentorLIB Directory profiles will be deleted on January 11th, 2023. What does that mean for you, and for other potential Directory users? Let us answer your questions below:

• Is the MentorLIB Mentors' Directory Going Away? No! In fact, this is simply the first step in making the Directory bigger and better than ever.
• What happens after my profile is deleted? In short, we'll ask you to create a new one. It will contain much of the same information and function very similarly, with a few tweaks. It should be available a few days after January 11th, but we'll be in touch with an exact date.
• My profile is perfect! Why can't you just delete the out of date profiles and leave mine alone? The honest answer is, we just don't have the time or capacity to sort through them all and determine which are truly current. We're relying on you, our brilliant partners and colleagues, to spend just a few minutes each rebuilding your profiles for the good of the whole NJ Library Community!
• Won't we just have to do this again in a few years, though? Definitely not. The MentorNJ Task Force is hard at work as you read this, creating some internal procedures that will help us better maintain the Directory on a regular basis as we move forward!
• I don't have a Directory profile now; will I be able to join once the new profiles launch? Yes! We hope that all of our current Mentors and many new ones will join us for the relaunch in the new year.

Further details about when and how you'll be able to create your new MentorLIB Directory profile will be available in early January, so stay tuned! In the meantime, if you'd like to save any of the content from your existing profile, please remember to visit the directory and do so before Wednesday, January 11th, 2023.

Questions, thoughts, or suggestions can be directed to our MentorNJ Task Force Chair:

Darby Malvey, darby@librarylinknj.org

Skill Sharing Conversations

Share your knowledge and learn from your colleagues in these attendee-driven conversations focused on specific library skills. Come ready to share experiences and ask questions!

• "Facilitating Book Groups and Book Clubs"; Thursday, December 8th, 10am - 11am; Moderated by Mary Martin, Wanaque Public Library

Webinar: Digital Literacy - RESCHEDULED, NEW DATE!

• "Video Games as Tools for Digital and Visual Literacy"; Thursday, December 8th, 2:00PM - 3:00PM; Video gaming is more than play! The newest research suggests that video games can have a profound impact on childrens' literacy attitudes, behaviors, and skills. Video game enthusiast and teen librarian Melissa Brinn will present on video games and their potential as literacy tools, suggest literacy-supportive video games for librarians to be aware of, and discuss her experience building an online gaming community while running a Twitch stream for the Cherry Hill Public Library.

MentorNJ Upcoming Meetups

Small Group Meetups (Online or In Person) are a chance for library workers to come together in a safe space to discuss concerns, share ideas, or just "hang out" with colleagues! Discuss a particular topic or just chat about life in the library world.

More Details & Full Meetup Schedule Here

• API Meetup; Thursdays @ 2PM: 12/8 & 1/12
• Services to Immigrant Communities; 12/15 @ 11AM
• Adventures in Administration; Thursdays @ 10:30AM: 12/22, 1/5, & 1/19

• Latino Library Staff Meetup; Tuesdays @ 10AM: 1/10
• School Libraries Meetup; Wednesdays @ 4:30PM: 1/18
  
• Youth Services Meetup; Tuesdays @ 1:30PM: 1/24
• Juggling Librarianship and Parenting; Wednesdays @ 2PM: 1/25
• Tech Meetup; Thursdays @ 3PM: 1/26 In Person at Cherry Hill Public Library
  
• *NEW* Leading Lean Libraries Meetup; Tuesdays @ 2:30PM: 1/31

Mental Health First Aid Training

LibraryLinkNJ is proud to partner with Hackensack Meridian Hospital System to offer both Adult and Youth Mental Health First Aid training to our members. Mental health emergencies can touch nearly any aspect of library service, and we invite staff in any position from any library type to register for this valuable training course. *Capacity for each training has increased to 25 participants!*

• Adult Mental Health First Aid; Online Training, Wednesday, December 14th; Training provided by certified Mental Health First Aid instructors from Hackensack Meridian Hospital System *Limited to 25 Participants - This event is currently full, but a waiting list is available*
• Save the Date: Youth Mental Health First Aid Training; Online Training, Wednesday, January 25th. *Registration coming soon!*
• Save the Date: Adult Mental Health First Aid Training; Online Training, Wednesday, February 22nd. *Registration coming soon!*

Mark your calendar for these exciting, full-day, in-person events coming in the spring!

More details, including registration dates and links, are coming soon!

Many thanks to everyone who joined us on Tuesday, November 15th for our first ever Adult Craft Staff Show & Share event, co-sponsored by the Woodbridge Public Library! Nearly 50 library staff members from across the state joined us at the Woodbridge Main Library to show off their successful adult craft projects and learn from each other's expertise.

Library staff who have led successful adult crafting programs—like the step-by-step painting classes displayed in the photo to the left—took turns presenting to attendees, sharing tips and tricks for planning projects that keep audiences engaged while navigating tight budgets and limited staff time and resources. Attendees were able to view sample projects up-close, and had ample time to ask questions about everything from timing to cost to where to purchase materials! More than 30 individual craft projects were presented, featuring a wide range of costs and levels of expertise.

Following the presentations, attendees were able to browse the "Swap Shop" of leftover craft materials that their colleagues had brought to trade. Staff cleaned out their library's supply cabinets, craft closets, and even some personal stashes to give new life and new homes to unused crafting leftovers. The Swap Shop featured everything from yarn and scrapbooking materials to sample take-and-makes and weaving looms. Nearly everything that was brought found a new home—helping to inspire new crafting programs and events for libraries around the state!

Use the button below to access the Adult Craft Show & Share Resources Guide, put together by many of the day's attendees. Or find the Guide any time by visiting the Library Staff Show & Share: Adult Crafts event page on our website! This Guide includes instructions, video links, web resources, photos, and more to help you recreate many of the successful craft projects that were shared at the event. Many thanks to all who contributed!

We were thrilled to partner with Woodbridge Public Library for this event, and want to thank them for being an excellent host for this first-ever statewide program offering! Many thanks to Ilyssa Wesche of the library's Fords Branch—pictured here with our Programming & Outreach Coordinator Darby Malvey—for bringing this idea to our attention and collaborating with us to bring it to life!

Is your library interested in hosting a craft Show & Share event for Adult or Youth Crafts? Reach out to our Programming & Outreach Coordinator, Darby Malvey (darby@librarylinknj.org), to get started!

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LibraryLinkNJ was a proud sponsor of the NJASL Fall 2022 Conference: Unleash Your School Librarian Super Powers! Held on December 4, 5, and 6 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, NJASL's fall conference provided us the rare treat to connect face-to-face with our school library colleagues!

In addition to being a conference exhibitor and seeing both familiar faces and new friends at our booth in the exhibit hall, we were thrilled to sponsor the keynote address by picture book author Josh Funk, and host Josh's book signing at our booth. Josh, pictured to the left with NJASL Past President and T. Baldwin Demarest Elementary School Librarian Lisa Straubinger, is the author of such popular books as How to Code a Sand Castle, My Pet Feet, Dear Dragon, Lost in the Library, and the Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast series. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to get a book signed, meet Josh, and learn a little bit more about LibraryLinkNJ!

We were also so excited to see lots of new faces at our panel discussion "LibraryLinkNJ: A Librarian's Super Sidekick." Many thanks to the nearly 40 attendees who joined us to hear our panelists discuss what LLNJ can offer school librarians, and how media specialists can get involved with the cooperative. Our panel of school librarians who are active LibraryLinkNJ participants included:

• Michelle McGrievey; Librarian at Hoboken High School and MentorNJ Task Force Member
• Skye Silverstein; Librarians at Rosa International Middle School and recipient of a LLNJ Ready for Anything Mini-Grant
• Laurie Matassa; Librarian at Jackson Liberty High School and LLNJ Executive Board Member

Our thanks to Michelle, Skye, and Laurie, (pictured below) for joining us to share their experiences!

Even with all the hard work at hand, we took the time to celebrate with our NJASL partners at their Monday night Engagement Session, where we gathered to celebrate the passing of the "Information Literacy Bill." The bill, which originated nearly 6 years ago with a joint NJLA/NJASL Task Force, is a triumph for librarians and students alike, and a testament to what the NJ library community can accomplish when we work together. Our Executive Director, Ralph Bingham, joined past NJLA Executive Director Pat Tumulty and NJASL Legislative Consultant Mary Moyer—both of whom have been tireless champions of the bill over the years—to celebrate this milestone achievement!

Beyond the exciting initiatives in which we were able to participate, the conference boasted a wide array of valuable and inspiring sessions, speeches, and activities. A few highlights included:

• A keynote address from National Book Award winning author Malindo Lo
• A keynote address from award-winning author and artist Jarrett Lerner
• A packed Author's Alley, featuring authors and illustrators for all ages
• Inspiring conference sessions on everything from copyright and fair use, to advocacy and censorship, to engaging readers with graphic novels
• A tribute to the late Dr. Ross Todd
• Award and scholarship announcements
• An AASL Instagram Takeover
• An NJASL Membership Meeting featuring partner updates
• And much, much more!
  

Many thanks and a hearty "Congrats" to the NJASL Executive Board and Conference Committee for hosting an inspiring, energizing, and enriching event. We've returned to the LibraryLinkNJ offices with new ideas and plans, and we're looking forward to another great year of collaboration and partnership with the school library community!

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On Thursday, November 17, 2022 NJLA's Diversity & Outreach section held its annual Unconference at Elizabeth Public Library, co-sponsored byNJLA, LibraryLinkNJ, and the New Jersey State Library. The morning began with a moving keynote from Rev. Dr. Anthony Forbes (pictured on the right), Manager of The Hoboken Shelter, Founder of Street Life Ministry, and Commissioner on the Hoboken Housing Authority Board of Commissioners in Hoboken, NJ. Dr. Forbes spoke on the need for libraries to cultivate a sense of belonging for and empathy toward both patrons and staff.

After the keynote, the nearly 75 attendees took advantage of several attendee-suggested topics, including Social Work in Libraries: Getting Started, which was among the most popular sessions. Other well-attended sessions included Starting Racial Equity & DEI Teams and Initiatives, Accessibility Services & Supporting Patrons and Staff with Disabilities, What’s Up With WhatsApp?, Meeting Your International Community Where They Are, and Community Outreach (Getting Outside the Building).Those interested in seeing more notes from various sessions of the Unconference can visit http://bit.ly/doschedule.

The D&O section was thrilled to see longtime and new members, as well as those curious about the section, but who wanted the chance to learn and grow with colleagues from around the state. The section meets on the 4th Thursday of each month, and always welcomes new members. For more information, visit https://twitter.com/njlado or https://www.facebook.com/njladando.

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Our friends at the Connecticut Library Consortium encourage New Jersey's public libraries to get involved in the 12th annual International Take Your Child to the Library Day on Saturday, February 4th, 2023!

With roughly 1500 participating libraries each year but only a handful from the Garden State, CLC would like to invite you and your library to get involved and quite literally put New Jersey on the TYCLD map!

Use This Link to register your library as a TYCLD site and be added to the map of participating libraries!

Need more info before you sign up?

• Details, FAQ, marketing materials, and more can be found on CLC website at: https://www.ctlibrarians.org/page/Take
• Or, visit their public-facing website to see what TYCLD is all about: https://takeyourchildtothelibrary.org/

We want to hear what you've got to say.

Please email suggestionbox@librarylinknj.org with feedback about our services and programs. Suggestions for new services and programs are welcome, too.

LibraryLinkNJ: Moving Forward Together

LibraryLinkNJ (formerly known as INFOLINK) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. Its members are multi-type libraries and library-related agencies located in the twenty-one counties of New Jersey. This area includes 8.79 million people. The population of the state is highly diverse and includes some of the largest communities of Spanish speaking and Asian Indian persons in the U.S.

LibraryLinkNJ – The New Jersey Library Cooperative has over 1100 voting representatives from over 2,500 public and private school, public, academic, institutional, corporate, health sciences and special libraries and library-related agencies. A member-elected Executive Board meets regularly to oversee the programs and services of the organization.

LibraryLinkNJ and its services are funded by the New Jersey State Library, which is responsible for the coordination, promotion and funding of the New Jersey Library Network. Members join at no charge and pay no dues.

Email: info@librarylinknj.org
Website: www.librarylinknj.org
Location: 2300 Stuyvesant Avenue, Ewing Township, NJ, USA
Phone: 732-752-7720
Facebook: facebook.com/librarylinknj
Twitter: @librarylinknj