Top Ten Data Entry Errors

Millennium Data Entry Training: Learn about the top 10 mistakes you might be making!

Presented by Laurie Shedrick, MHLS Automated Systems Manager and Karen O’Brien Cataloging & Database Maintenance Supervisor.

The Directors Association recommends that at least one staff person from each library should attend this training to ensure that our shared database be as accurate and efficient to use as possible.

The workshop will cover:
· The most common errors made in entry and the best practices to avoid making them
· Most common misconceptions
· Searching –the best methods
· What goes where
· Item records-format and fields
· Movies, magazines, audio and other oddballs
· What’s new in your cataloging, Data Entry world!
Questions are encouraged, so bring them along!

· Tuesday, May 13, 2008 10:00am- 12:00pm
Mid-Hudson Library System Auditorium | Market Street, Poughkeepsie

· Thursday, June 5, 2008 10:00am- 12:00pm
Chatham Public Library | 11 Woodbridge Ave in Chatham

· Wednesday, June 18, 2008 10:00am- 12:00pm
Catskill Public Library | 1 Franklin St. in Catskill

· Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:00am- 12:00pm
Elting Memorial Library | 93 Main Street in New Paltz

· Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:00am- 12:00pm
Mahopac Library | 668 Route 6 in Mahopac

Register online through the MHLS calendar by going to http://midhudson.org and clicking on Calendar OR get there directly at http://calendar.midhudson.org/

MHLS Announcements
From Michael Borges, Director of the New York Library Association: “The 2008-09 State Budget has both good news and bad news for libraries. First, the good news is that the $5 million cut in Library Aid proposed by the Governor was restored. The budget also continues the $14 million in public library construction aid. The bad news is that the Division of Budget imposed a 2% across the board cut in many, but not all, state funded programs. Meaning overall Library Aid will be $2 million less than last year.”

While this is not the outcome New York’s library supporters were hoping for it is very good overall given the economic climate in our state.

Please thank your local legislators for restoring the $5 million and start laying the groundwork for next year’s budget negotiations. Don’t let them forget about libraries.

Thank you to all the MHLS area library people who wrote a letter, made a call, sent a fax and came to library lobby day. Without your efforts who knows where we’d be!

MHLS Libraries
Did you know? 70% of MHLS member libraries now offer free wireless (a.k.a. Wi-Fi) access to the Internet for patrons.

Putnam County Libraries facing a 20% cut in county funding: “Libraries, museums, cultural organizations stand to lose 20 percent of the county's contribution this year, Bondi announced in his state of the county speech last month. The time is now for their constituencies to make some noise or suffer the cuts quietly. Although it is called a "county budget," the budget that the county executive and legislature will be assembling in the coming months is really a residents' budget. Putnam residents will get the services they are willing to speak up for, defend and then pay for.”
-A Journal News editorial, 4.9.08

Professional Development
Save the Date: Library Celebrity Nancy Pearl will be speaking at the Clifton-Park Halfmoon Library on May 21st from 7:00-8:30pm on the topic “Opening Books, Opening Doors: Providing Effective Reader’s Advisory Service,” geared toward young and YA readers. Registration is required, call 518.371.8622 to reserve your space starting Friday, April 18th. Nancy Pearl, a former librarian at the Seattle Public Library, was the model for the “Librarian Action Figure” (shown above). Learn more about Nancy at http://www.nancypearl.com.

Training On The Go! Online training covering a variety of library-related skills for all levels of public library staff is available FREE thanks to a grant from the Gates Foundation. Element K* and WebJunction are the two providers of the online training available to public library staff (NYLA Membership is NOT a requirement of participation.) Courses range from office productivity (i.e. MS Office, web development software) to grant writing, communications and other library management skills. There are a limited number of access codes left, so act now to take advantage of this excellent opportunity. To see which courses are available from the online training providers, visit the Training on the Go! Web page located at http://www.nyla.org/index.php?page_id=1291. Once you have decided which provider you want to use, simply fill out the application form, which will be used to verify your eligibility to enroll in the FREE Training on the Go! program. An access code and instructions will be sent to your work email within three business days. If you have any questions, please contact Johanna Geiger at events@nyla.org or by calling 518.432.6952 x102.


Resource Sharing & Millennium
For staff that enter patron and item records in Millennium: You will encounter a new required field, "e-entered by" when you create new patron or item records. Please enter your library's 3-letter code followed by a dash and then your first and last initials. Example: adr-ls

Marketing, Advocacy & Funding
Something for Everyone: Web sites featured in the Stone Ridge Public Library’s e-Newsletter for April 2008:
· Eurocheapo, a budget travel resource
· Factory Farming Campaign Victories of the Humane Society of the United States
· WildflowerInformation.org
· MIT Museum Holography Collection
· Women in the Literary Marketplace, 1800-1900 from the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
· Discounts for the 50+ Crowd From Dow Jones MarketWatch
· Recognize! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture exhibit from the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute
· Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Norway’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food
· Top 10 Amazing Chemistry Videos (WIRED Magazine)
· Glen Canyon National Recreation Area from the National Park Service

Youth Services
Reminder: Putnam County librarians: Don’t miss this chance to network with school librarians and teachers from your community. The 2008 Book Banquet for Putnam County public and school librarians will take place at the Mahopac Public Library on Wednesday, May 28th from 4:00 - 7:00pm. Contact your local school librarians and encourage them to attend this event; perhaps you might suggest carpooling, giving you even more opportunity to network with them. Register online at http://calendar.midhudson.org. Send a $15 check, made payable to MHLS, to: MHLS Business Office, 103 Market St., Poughkeepsie, NY 12601. Mark Putnam Book Banquet on the check. You will be officially registered when your check is received at MHLS.

Administration & Management
Web 2.0 explanations in “plain English”: Check out the short videos at Common Craft [http://www.commoncraft.com/] for quick and easy to understand explanations of the most popular Web 2.0 tools like Twitter, RSS feeds, Wikis and Social Bookmarking. This resource has been added to the Administration & Management Section of the MHLS web site: http://midhudson.org then Administration & Management then Technology, scroll down to the Web 2.0 area.

Member Libraries are welcome to submit items of interest and job openings to the MHLS Bulletin: bulletin@midhudson.org. The MHLS Bulletin is available on line at http://midhudson.org/bulletins/main.htm.