All LLMA Institute alumni (2005 and 2007) are invited to a follow-up workshop On Negotiation at the Massachusetts Library Association Conference, SeaCrest Resort and Conference Center in Falmouth. The session will take place on Friday, May 9, from 1:45-4:30. Maureen Sullivan is the speaker.

Maureen is an organizational development consultant who focuses on the delivery of consulting and training services to libraries and other information organizations. She designed and facilitated the LLMA 2007 Institute with Jack Siggins. On the faculty of the annual ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute, Maureen is a professor of practice in the new Ph.D./Managerial Leadership in the Information Professions program at Simmons College.

Participants will have the opportunity to:
• Learn and practice the skills for effective negotiation
• Understand the key steps in the negotiation process
• Determine specific steps to improve their effectiveness in negotiation and exercising influence
• Identify next steps in their leadership development

The workshop will be followed by a reunion of 2005 and 2007 alumni. You’ll have an opportunity to re-connect with your LLMA colleagues amid conversation and refreshments.

Join us! It will be a pleasant way to wait out the Cape traffic and start on the road re-charged!

See the full Conference program at: http://www.masslib.org/conference/2008Conference/index.htm

Stay in touch with the LLMA Blog! : http://llma.blogspot.com/ Add your news, questions, and accomplishments!

April 10, 2008, 6:00 pm
Rabb Auditorium, Boston Public Library Copley Square

Spend an evening with Amnesty International Peace Activist and Reebok Human Rights award winner Arn Chorn-Pond. Arn’s story connects his unique personal experiences as a Cambodian Genocide survivor to universal experiences of others who find their way to the United States each year.

This event is an opportunity to listen to Arn Chorn-Pond, who is featured in one of the components of the Choosing to Participate exhibition and study guide, tell his story in his own words.

Presented in partnership with the Facing History’s Choosing to Participate and the Lowell Lecture Series.

To learn more about Arn, and other young human rights activists, please visit Be the Change: Upstanders for Human Rights.

The Head of Special Collections is responsible for the Special Collections Department. The Department contains the Library’s most valuable materials and is a repository of information about Massachusetts history and government.

The job of the Head of Special Collections is to provide leadership, organization and management and to ensure that the collection is available to researchers, is preserved for future generations of users, and grows in rational directions. The Head ensures that the physical plant protects the collection from harmful physical conditions so that long-term access is assured. The Head is also involved in materials acquisition for the State Library and works with various historical agencies and institutions to acquire appropriate items. The Head of Special Collections reports to the State Librarian. Starting salary: $46,000.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Establishes policy for the Special Collections Department, use of library materials, reproduction of materials, and security of the Deptment.
• Establishes policy for preservation, including prioritization of preservation projects and techniques of preservation and works with facility and construction employees to ensure climate-control of the vault.
• Ensures that the material in Special Collections is appropriately accessible to the public by overseeing cataloging of special collections items and preservation efforts.
• Establishes and implements the collections development policy for Special Collections by identifying, acquiring and processing appropriate manuscript Collections.
• Provides reference and information services to the public in person, by e-mail, and by letter, and ensures that the other staff members who provide such service are adequately trained.
• Provides supervision, coordinates staff workflow and participates in hiring, and evaluating departmental staff.
• Prepares and maintains departmental statistics.
• Maintains federal documents housed in the department, following FDLP guidelines.
• Experience developing exhibits and public program to promote archival holdings.
• Participates in meetings of the Library Management Team (Department Heads) to discuss policy and projects for the Library.
• Serves on committees and task forces in the Library as well as participates in the wider community of special collections librarians and archivists.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Please send cover letter and resume to: Albie Johnson, State Librarian,

State Library of Massachusetts, State House Room 341, Boston, MA 02133, or e-mail: library.director@state.ma.us.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Minority and women applicants are encouraged to apply.

Northeastern University Libraries is pleased to announce the acquisition of the historical records of Boston’s Chinese Progressive Association, a grassroots community organization that works for full equality and empowerment of the Chinese community in Boston and beyond.

Founded on July 17, 1977 in Boston’s Chinatown, the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) supports adult education, civic empowerment, workers rights, youth leadership, and community information and referral services. It also participates in citywide and regional coalitions, including the Asian Pacific American Agenda Coalition, Boston Tenant Coalition, Civic Engagement Initiative, Fair Wage Campaign, Immigrant Workers Center Collaborative, New Majority, and Whose Boston. Among its early activities, the CPA helped found the Chinatown Housing and Land Development Task Force, worked with other activists to conduct voter registration and organize the first mayoral candidates’ forum in Chinatown, and joined African American and Latino community leaders to file a successful lawsuit against gerrymandering of state electoral districts. In 1986, CPA organized with dislocated garment workers from P&L Sportswear and from Beverly Rose, another sportswear manufacturer, to win the first Chinese bilingual retraining programs in New England. The following year, the CPA Workers Center was established to continue organizing immigrant workers to advocate for their rights. In 1993, CPA worked with other Chinatown organizations and the American Friends Service Committee to organize a plebiscite on the Parcel C parking garage proposed for the center of residential Chinatown, eventually winning the designation of the parcel for community development. More recently, in 2005 the organization launched its Immigrant Workers Center Collaborative to build immigrant worker organizing and solidarity in the Chinese, Brazilian, and Latino communities. In 2006, CPA strengthened ties with communities of color, tenant organizations, and housing advocates to secure changes in Boston’s Inclusionary Development Policy and its definition of housing affordability in an effort to stabilize Boston neighborhoods.

The 19 linear feet of material dates from 1977-2005 and includes board and committee minutes, correspondence, grant proposals, newsletters, press clippings, and audio/visual material.

This rich collection contributes to the University Archives and Special Collection Department’s collecting focus on the records of private, non-profit, community-based organizations that are concerned with social justice issues. For a list of all collections available for research in the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections Department, please see: http://www.lib.neu.edu/archives/collections/manuscript_collections/.

The National Endowment for the Humanities’ Small Grants to Libraries program brings traveling exhibitions and other types of public programming to libraries across the country.

“John Adams Unbound” is a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Boston Public Library, and the American Library Association (ALA). The exhibition is based upon a major exhibition of the same name that was on display in the galleries of the Boston Public Library, Copley Square, in 2006 and 2007 (see www.johnadamslibrary.org).

The NEH has just published the guidelines for libraries to apply for the John Adams Unbound traveling panel show, and the Boston Public Library would love to see your library host this exhibition! The information can be found at http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/SGL_JohnAdams.html and the deadline for application is April 4th.

The Massachusetts Center for the Book and the State Library of Massachusetts are co-hosting the 7th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards on Thursday, February 7. The awards event will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Grand Staircase, and a reception will follow in the State Library reading room.

The awards are presented annually to books from the previous calendar year that were published by Massachusetts authors or that convey important Massachusetts themes. Twelve books, an award winner and two honors books, in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s/young adult literature become part of a year-long reading promotion initiative sponsored by the Center in collaboration with Massachusetts libraries.

This year’s award winners include some of the most important voices writing in the U.S. today. Former U.S. Poet Laureate and Cambridge resident, Louise Glück, is the award winner in poetry. She will be joined by renowned Amherst poet Martín Espada and Pulitzer prizewinning poet Franz Wright, both honors writers in poetry this year.

Nathaniel Philbrick, one of our most important contemporary historians and Nantucket resident will receive the nonfiction award this year. Claire Messud, Somerville resident and acclaimed novelist will receive the fiction award. The award in children’s/young adult literature goes to Alice Hoffman, a much applauded Cambridge writer.

Also joining the celebration will be Kim McLarin, Milton resident, novelist, and current host of WGBH’s Basic Black, and Mameve Medwed, Cambridge novelist, both of whom are honors writers in fiction this year.

The event is open to the public. Porter Square Books will handle book sales during the reception and book signing. For more information and to RSVP, contact the Massachusetts Center for the Book by email – massbook@simmons.edu – or phone – 617.521.2719.

Do you know someone who consistently provides service above and beyond the call of duty and is a problem solver with a can-do attitude? If so, you can honor them now! Let them know they are appreciated and that their hard work makes a difference with a nomination for OUTSTANDING Paralibrarian of the Year!

And if you know a director, trustee, supervisor, colleague, paralibrarian or anyone who knows the value of paralibrarians and works to increase visibility and opportunities for non-MLS staff, why not nominate them for Paralibrarian Advocate of the Year?

Click here for details about how to nominate someone today!

The Outstanding Paralibrarian of the Year Award is given by the Paralibrarian Section of the Massachusetts Library Association.

Today’s libraries are no longer just places to check out books: they have something for everyone. With the launch of a new advertising campaign and website, mass.gov/libraries, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) seeks to increase awareness that today’s libraries offer everything from Internet access to music, movies, 24/7 on-line access to resources and databases, newly released books, literacy programs for children as well as a variety of programs and events for adults.

To direct the public to this new website, the MBLC has developed a television and radio ad that are currently airing on network television during key hours. I’d like to invite you to take a look at the ads and leave some feedback about them that I will be happy to convey to the MBLC. You can find the ads at the following links:

For television ad: www.masslibraries.org/tv

For radio ad: www.masslibraries.org/radio

In addition to helping people locate a library near them, the new Web site will highlight some of the services that libraries offer. Users will be able to locate a library with Wifi (almost 70% of libraries offer this service), reserve books, movies, and music on-line, and use on-line resources. “Our on-line resources give people the simplicity of Google-like search with a yield of information that is from reliable sources and includes full-text articles,” stated MBLC Director Robert C. Maier. Visitors to the new Web site can access the on-line resources using their library card from anywhere Internet is available.

Funding for the Web site is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners

Barbara Preece, Director of the Boston Library Consortium alerted me to this interesting article about Facebook’s addition of WorldCat Local to their host of applications. It’s pretty interesting, and I’ve already added it to my Facebook Account. Read the article from The Chronicle of Higher Education’s website.

A fundamental goal of Northeastern University Libraries’ Meet the Author program is to engage our community in exploring important issues that foster thought and discussion. The spring line-up will help us expand upon this goal by bringing published authors of a diverse body of work to campus. All of the talks in the Meet the Author program are free and open to the public. We invite you to join us for these exciting events.

Charles Enderlin: A provocative account of the struggle for power in the Middle East.
The Lost Years : Radical Islam, Intifada, and Wars in the Middle East, 2001-2006
Wed. 1.23.08 @ Noon
108 Snell Engineering Center

Charles Enderlin is a veteran journalist and expert on Israeli-Palestinian relations. Enderlin’s recent work draws upon his firsthand experience within the political arena of the Middle East in order to challenge decisions leaders have made over the past decade. Examining past and present political calculations and military doctrines, Enderlin chronicles the resulting events including the war in Iraq, the withdrawal from Gaza, and the electoral victory of Hamas. Kirkus Reviews describes The Lost Years as “An evenhanded view of a most partisan conflict.” Sponsored by the NU Libraries, the NU Middle East Center for Peace, Culture, and Development, and the NU Bookstore.

Jonathan Schell: Explosive! Schell speaks of the current state of nuclear affairs.
The Seventh Decade: The New Shape of Nuclear Danger
Thurs. 1.31.08 @ 7pm
90 Snell Library

Best-selling political writer and journalist Jonathan Schell will discuss his latest work, which presents a critical view of the status of nuclear affairs worldwide and argues that a revolution in nuclear affairs has occurred under the watch of the Bush administration. Schell warns of an increase in proliferation of global trafficking in nuclear weapons and embraces the idea of the United States using cooperative means rather than force to defuse this potentially explosive issue. The New York Times Book Review calls The Seventh Decade “a passionate and cogently argued case for the complete abolition of nuclear weapons.” Sponsored by the NU Libraries, the NU Philosophy and Religion Department, and the NU Bookstore.

Geraldine Brooks: Book lovers unite for People of the Book, so March to Snell Library!
People of the Book
Tues. 2.12.08 @ Noon
90 Snell Library

In her latest novel, Geraldine Brooks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and novelist, focuses on the mythical and historical trajectory of the Sarajevo Haggadah, a rare illuminated religious text. Brooks intertwines past and present in this great historical adventure. The book follows the novel’s main character, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare book expert, as she decodes the Haggadah’s secrets. This novel weaves together Hanna’s adventures in 1996 with the exciting histories of the tome’s past owners—charting a course that reveals the Haggadah’s mysterious origins. Sponsored by the NU Libraries, the NU International Student & Scholar Institute, and the NU Bookstore.

Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein: Before Stephen Colbert there was Aristotle…
Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington: Understanding Political Doublespeak through Philosophy and Jokes
Wed. 2.20.08 @ Noon
421 Snell Library

Cathcart and Klein continue in the vein of what the Boston Globe proclaimed to be “the zaniest bestseller of the year,” Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar, mixing philosophy, politics, and comedy. Join us for some political humor as Cathcart and Klein unscramble rhetorical double speak such as the “With This, Therefore Because of This” fallacy to expose the bullying playground tactics couched in politico speak. Witty and humorous, Aristotle and an Aardvark will have you rolling with laughter. Sponsored by the NU Libraries and the NU Bookstore.

Steven Goldman & Christina Kahrl: Get the insider’s scoop!
Baseball Prospectus 2008
Wed. 3.12.08 @ Noon
322 Curry Student Center

Get the scoop from experts on who are this season’s top picks for your fantasy baseball lineup. Goldman and Kahrl will discuss player performance projections and break down all the stats you need to know. This is a must-read for fans of all stripes. “Baseball Prospectus continues to raise the bar for innovative baseball analysis every year.” – Mark Shapiro, General Manager, Cleveland Indians. Sponsored by the NU Libraries and the NU Bookstore.

Beth Helms: A thoughtful tale of cultural exploration.
Dervishes
Tues. 3.18.08 @ 6pm
90 Snell Library

Beth Helms, winner of the 2003 Iowa Short Fiction Award, presents this work. Helms draws from her childhood experiences living abroad in the Middle East to write this compelling story of a mother and daughter living in Ankara, Turkey, as the wife and child of an American diplomat. Restless within their closed community of Westerners and rich Turks, the two decide to venture outside the safety of their isolated community. Sponsored by the NU Libraries, the NU International Student & Scholar Institute, and the NU Bookstore.

Cynthia Baron: A behind-the-scenes look into photographic forgery.
Adobe Photoshop Forensics
Wed. 3.26.08 @ 4pm
90 Snell Library

Cynthia Baron, Associate Director of Northeastern’s Digital Media and Multimedia Studies program, reveals an interesting relationship between art and science as she describes how new technologies have assisted in the creation of altered images used for advertising, political propaganda, and even scientific fraud. In this work, Baron provides real historical examples and case studies of those who have used Photoshop to doctor photos for their own benefit and demonstrates the techniques used to deconstruct a photograph to detect fraud. This will be a fascinating discussion for anyone who enjoys shows like CSIor wants to learn more about advances in modern technology. Sponsored by the NU Libraries and the NU Bookstore.

Human Rights Panel: Uncertain freedoms—the struggle for human rights, with Editor Martha Davis
Bringing Human Rights Home
Thurs. 4.3.08 @ Noon
333 Curry Student Center

This anthology provides a history of the struggle for human rights in the United States and describes how the US has either promoted or discouraged human rights worldwide. This work also offers insight into the current political climate and describes how human rights activism is transforming domestic social justice work today. The panel will be moderated by Northeastern Law professor Martha Davis and will discuss both the anthology and its broader social implications. Sponsored by the NU Libraries, the NU School of Law Library, and the NU Bookstore.

For more information or for special needs assistance, please contact Maria Carpenter at m.carpenter@neu.edu or 617.373.2821.