Recent Messages to Libraries
Find messages from State Library staff posted on mailing lists.
Labor Law Posters Are Free!
Libraries are sometimes approached by companies selling labor law posters. Posters that you are required to display are available at no charge. This page has links for Iowa and Federal labor law posters. The list indicates which posters are required and which are recommended.
EBESCOhost Buying Groups
Iowa Library Services is again offering buying groups for public libraries featuring great products from EBSCOhost databases. This offer is for the time period July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013. We will be offering 7 database packages to libraries. All of these databases require that the library have a basic EBSCOhost account through Iowa Library Services.
Open Access and NEIBORS / WILBOR
We are responding to questions about Open Access and NEIBORS/WILBOR raised by a March 9 message sent to Iowa libraries. In that message, we said “Please note that the agreement includes this statement: “The Library agrees to make this service available only to residents of its own city, rural residents of its own county, and/or residents of contracting cities. Open Access customers are not eligible for this service.” We included the statement about Open Access because we are expected to abide by the terms of the contract with Overdrive, the company that provides the service. The contract says “The Consortium will take reasonable measures to ensure that only authorized Patrons of their Library have access to the Consortium Website for access to Digital Products or Content.” To clarify, Open Access users are not considered authorized patrons for the purposes of Overdrive. Open Access users can check out physical items from your library; unfortunately, they are not eligible for WILBOR/NEIBORS.
Library Supply Discounts
Library Supply Discounts are now posted at the Iowa Educator's Consortium (IEC) website. These discounts run 30-40% off regular pricing. We are happy to be in partnership with the IEC to have them manage the discount suppliers for us. Many thanks to IEC staff Jerry Cochrane and Joni Puffett for providing this service to Iowa libraries.
Friends Book Sales
Recently, there have been many questions about the practice of library Friends groups selling weeded library books with the proceeds going to the Friends group. According to information provided by the State Auditor's office and the state attorney assigned to the State Library, you may need to change current practice regarding book sales held by the Friends group. Please contact your city attorney for advice on how to proceed. The state auditor said "the library cannot give books which are public property and purchased with public funds to a private non-profit organization" such as a library Friends group. The state attorney is in agreement.
Iowa Workforce Development and Public Libraries
On February 17, 2011 the new director of Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) proposed to a legislative appropriations subcommittee that the agency close 39 of its field offices across the state, and involve public libraries in some way in providing services to job seekers. Information about what has happened since...
Bibliography of Non-fiction for Preschoolers
As part of my work with the statewide Every Child Reads team, I compiled an annotated bibliography of nonfiction for children ages 3-5 years. This 19-page annotated bibliography lists new nonfiction (most entries published 2009-2011). Topics into which entries are categorized include biography, concepts, math and science, and social studies.
Percentage of Iowa Households with Internet Access
"The Connect Iowa survey data shows that as of April 2010, approximately two-thirds (66%) of Iowa residents have a broadband connection in the home, which implies an adoption gap for the state of Iowa of 34% of households, in line with the national adoption gap measured by the FCC.2 On the supply side, according to Connect Iowa broadband inventory estimates, 95.36% of all Iowa households have terrestrial, fixed broadband service available at the basic speeds of 768 Kbps download/200 Kbps upload, and 99.37% of households have fixed or mobile broadband service available at this basic level.3
New Weapons Carrying Law
The debate over cities' and counties' ability to ban weapons from their public buildings and properties continues. A thorough treatment of the debate is in the January 24, 2011 Des Moines Register. There was an article in the Des Moines Register on Dec 31, 2010 entitled "New gun law triggers many questions from public." In the article it said "The Iowa attorney general's office on Thursday sent two letters stating that cities and counties do have the authority to regulate weapons on property owned or directly controlled by the local government. The letters went to public officials - a state legislator and a county attorney - who had questioned whether such bans were permitted under the new law taking effect Saturday. One of the letters answering "yes" was copied to all 99 county attorneys."
Headphones for the Adobe Connect Classroom
The State Library is using online web conferencing software called Adobe Connect. We are very happy with Adobe Connect but we know that it greatly enhances the online experience if you have the right set of headphones for use with this product. These headphones connect to your computer or laptop and have an attached microphone that you can use to talk to the rest of the class over the computer. We wanted to provide libraries with some examples of the kind of headphones that work with this system while also giving you the opportunity to buy these headphones with a discount.
Inflation Rates for Books, Audios and Periodicals
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf, for the unadjusted 12-month period ending August 2011, consumer prices - all items - rose 3.8%. The following information is from the 2011 Library and Book Trade Almanac (formerly the Bowker Annual). Figures are for 2010, the latest available, except where noted.
Also in this section
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Library Supply Discounts
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by
Sandy Dixon
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last modified
Apr 04, 2012 04:49 PM
- Library Supply Discounts are now posted at the Iowa Educator's Consortium (IEC) website. These discounts run 30-40% off regular pricing. We are happy to be in partnership with the IEC to have them manage the discount suppliers for us. Many thanks to IEC staff Jerry Cochrane and Joni Puffett for providing this service to Iowa libraries.
