Bibliocycle

One of the great advantages of belonging to the NOBLE consortium is the opportunity it affords for professional development of the entire staff.  OWHL team members perform many different jobs, but NOBLE provides opportunities throughout the year for professional and paraprofessional staff to get together with their peers to share ideas and learn new tips and techniques.   Probably our favorite professional development opportunity of the year is the annual NOBLE Tech Expo.

The recent Tech Fair featured a wide variety of programming.    Jeffrey Marzluft, the OWHL Associate Director and I attended a session on Open Source Library Systems. NOBLE Executive Director Ron Gagnon provided an overview of the grant application process and timeline, and Elizabeth Thomsen  and Martha Driscoll demonstrated Evergreen and Koha, two of the leading systems.  I have agreed to serve on a working group which will begin this summer to evaluate the options and propose our ideal system.

Emma McElfresh, who manages the library’s Facebook presence, attended a session featuring staff from NOBLE libraries using Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.  The OWHL has long had an active presence on Flickr, and is developing  a new presence on Facebook.

Tim Sprattler, the OWHL Assistant Director and I attended a  session by  Heather Cole, Assistant Director of the Massachusetts Studies Project, on the Mass Memories Road Show.   The Road Show, an initiative of the Massachusetts Studies Project at UMass Boston, is a  project of  UMass Boston and is cosponsored by Mass Humanities.  The project documents Massachusetts history by collecting and digitizing family photographs and their narratives.    Tim has just assumed new responsibilities as Andover’s interim Archivist, and we are exploring the possibility of holding a “Road Show” to collect memories from our alumni in conjunction with reunions.