The Hellenic American Union is asking NH libraries for donations of surplus materials covering topics such as Business, Writing, and Computers. Libraries willing to donate materials can send them to Michael York's attention via the state library van by September 15th. Contact Michael York for more information about the kind of materials needed by this Greek institution.

The State Library was faced with many difficult choices during the recent preparation for the 2004-2005 biennial budget. We were instructed to develop a budget for the biennium that would be 5% less than the current budget for 2004 and 2% less than the current budget for 2005. In making decisions on the cuts, the State Library staff chose for elimination those services and programs that would have the least impact on New Hampshire libraries. One service we have chosen to eliminate is the toll-free number that connects to the State Library in Concord. With the use of the NHAIS listserv and the use of email, the toll-free number was considered less vital than other services being offered. During this difficult period, the need for cooperation among New Hampshire libraries is greater than ever. We are here to help in any way we can to facilitate that cooperation. The 800 numbers for Library Services to Persons with Disabilities in Concord and the North Country Office in Lancaster will remain in effect. Thanks for your understanding.

Center for the Book - 603-271-2866

Mary Russell is the new Acting Director for the Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library.

The Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library now has a website! Please go to http://www.state.nh.us/nhsl/bookcenter/index.html to find out what the Center for the Book is all about and for information on New Hampshire's Literary Community and New Hampshire's Literary Tradition, as well as information on Programs/Activities and News/Events.

If you received a Kids, Books and the Arts grant this summer, please send your evaluation form to Ann Hoey as soon as possible. She needs these so that she can complete the report required by the NH State Council on the Arts.

The list of Ladybug Picture Book Award nominees for 2003 can be accessed from the Center for the Book's website at: www.nh.gov/nhsl/bookcenter/literacyc/awards.html. Please let Ann Hoey know if you have any questions, ahoey@library.state.nh.us.

You will soon be receiving information about Letters About Literature, a national reading-writing contest, co-sponsored by the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress and Target Stores. To enter, readers write a personal letter to an author, living or dead, from any genre-- fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classic-- explaining how that author's work their of thinking about the world or themselves.

There are three competition levels: Level I for children in grades 4 through 6; Level II for grades 7 and 8, and Level III, grades 9 - 12. Winners receive cash awards at the national and state levels. Ann Hoey is the state coordinator for this project.

Electronic and Government Information Resources - 603-271-2143

NHewLINK continues to offer a wide variety of databases to public and school libraries, including EBSCOhost general periodical, health , business and children's databases for in library and remote use; and NewsBank including the Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News. Also for public libraries AncestryPlus is available for in-library use.

The Electronic and Government Information Resources Section of the State Library will again be offering workshops this fall. The workshops will start in mid September and run until early December. In addition to courses on the database products provided through NHewLINK additional courses covering everything from Online Ready Reference to Web Design will be included. The online Course Catalog can be found at http://nh.gov/nhsl/training/course.html.

Library Development Services - 1-800-462-1726 (Lancaster)

Children's Book Review--Preview new children's titles in nonfiction, picture books, chapter books and YA novels at two locations this fall. The Children's Book Review will take place at the Pease Public Library in Plymouth on Monday, September 22 from 11:00 am to 8:00 pm; Tuesday, September 23 from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm; and Wednesday, September 24 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. The Review will then move to the state library in Concord from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm for the following dates: Friday, September 26, Monday, September 29, and Tuesday, September 30. For more information, contact Ann Hoey.

Grant Alert- The ALSC/Book Wholesalers Reading Program Grant is designed to encourage reading programs for children in a public library by providing financial assistance of $3,000, while recognizing ALSC members for outstanding program development. The applicant must plan and present an outline for a theme-based summer reading program in a public library. The Committee encourages proposals with innovative ways to encourage involvement of children with physical or mental disabilities.

How to Apply for the 2004 ALSC/Book Wholesalers Reading Program Grant:

For a printable copy of the ALSC/Book Wholesalers Summer Reading Grant application, go to http://www.ala.org/Content/NavigationMenu/ALSC/Awards_and_Scholarships1/
Professional_Awards/Book_Wholesalers_Reading_Program_Grant/BWI04.doc

Or, request a copy by postcard to:
ALSC/Book Wholesalers Reading Program Grant,
ALSC, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611 or via e-mail at alsc@ala.org. Don't forget to include your mailing address. Applications are due December 1, 2003.

The Trustees of the Richards Free Library are pleased to announce that Jay Parini is the Sarah Josepha Hale Award winner for 2003. Mr. Parini is a novelist, poet, literary critic, historian, editor, and biographer. He is the Axinn Professor of English at Middlebury College, the Director of the Creative Writing Program, and on the staff of the Bread Loaf’s Writers Conference. Jay Parini has written over a dozen books, including the biography of the first Hale Award Winner, Robert Frost. His poetry and literary criticism and essays have appeared in many journals including The Hudson Review, The New Yorker, The Paris Review and The Sewanee Review. Mr. Parini, a native of Pennsylvania, graduated from Lafayette College in 1970 and received his Ph.D. in 1975 from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He came to New England in 1975 to teach at Dartmouth College. He is married to writer Devon Jersild and lives in Vermont.

The 2003 Isinglass Teen Read Award winner is Monster by Walter Dean Myers. 2nd, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. 3rd Place Tie, Katie.com by Katherine Tarbox and Silent to the Bone by E.L. Konigsburg. The new list for 2004 can be found at www.barringtonlibrary.com. Click on the teen page for cover shots and short descriptions of the books.

As you may or may not be aware, Oprah has started up her book club again! The first selection is East of Eden, by John Steinbeck. In the past ALA has partnered with the Oprah show to provide free copies of the chosen title to ALA member libraries (high school, public, and ALA Chapters). With the new club, they will once again to be able to offer this benefit. In addition, ALA will now be providing free copies to member community college libraries. Please visit the Oprah.com website to find out more about the book club.

Network Services - 603-271-2141

With many ILL staffers taking vacations this month, there have been a number of messages recently about libraries not being able to process ILL requests for a range of dates. These messages are being sent in accordance with the agreement signed by all NHAIS ILL users, which requires participants "to notify all ILL users if unable to respond to requests for an extended period."

The required notification has traditionally been done through a message to a distribution or mailing list. However, because the NHU-PAC allows Network Services to set individual ILL accounts as temporarily unavailable for lending, notification of vacation periods sent to Network Services at NetworkS@library.state.nh.us will fulfill the obligation. When a library's account is set to unavailable, borrowers will find no check box next to the library's name when selecting a lender string.

When writing to Network Services, please include your library's name, HAS code, and the range of dates during which your library will not be answering requests on the system. Changes in lending status are made during regular business hours; if you give us a Saturday or Sunday date to turn your lending status on or off, we will make the change either Friday afternoon or Monday morning.

Sometimes when an ILL staffer is away libraries continue to process requests placed through the NHU-PAC but not requests sent to a specific e-mail address. In that case, a message to the NHAIS-ILL mailing list at nhais-ill@webster.state.nh.us would be appropriate.

If you have any questions about setting your ILL "on vacation" please call the NHAIS Help Desk at 271-2141.

Reference and Information Services - 603-271-2144

The state library has weeded its Children's Historical Collection so that the collection now holds only children's titles by NH authors or illustrators or those with a NH subject or setting.

Most of the weeded materials were published before 1980, but there are some more recent titles among those weeded. The state library would like to offer these children's materials to libraries on a first-come, first-served basis. We ask that libraries take only those titles that they will add to their circulating collections and make available for interlibrary loan through the statewide catalog.

We have designated the following days and times for librarians to come to the state library and make their selections: September 8-12, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. After making selections, librarians will be asked to leave the materials so that Technical Services can de-process them. The materials will then be sent to the requesting libraries via van at a later date. If your library is not on a van route, you will have to arrange to pick them up at the state library.

Due to the volume of materials, the state library cannot publish or distribute a list of weeded titles. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Ann Hoey.

In June, the State Library began to use QuestionPoint, virtual reference software developed by the Library of Congress and OCLC, for e-mail reference questions. On July 1, 2003, the chat feature of Question Point was installed. This allows a patron to chat over the Internet with a Reference Librarian at the NH State Library. An excellent feature of chat is the ability to push a web page to the patron’s display monitor. When a question can be answered by directing the patron to a web page, the Reference Librarian can "push" (or send) the web page directly to the patron’s PC. This is a great improvement over providing detailed instructions over the telephone on where and when to click to get to a particular web page. Now, when someone clicks on the Ask a Librarian link on the homepage of the State of New Hampshire, the virtual patron is given two options: send a question to the NH State Library via e-mail or if it is between 11 and 2 pm during the week, the patron can send a question via chat and get an immediate response from a Reference Librarian at the State Library. To view the Ask Librarian web page please go to: http://www.state.nh.us/ask/index.html.

Libraries are welcome to use Ask a Librarian to submit a reference question either via e-mail or to try out chat. This is an opportunity to see how chat works from the patron’s end. For basic information on QuestionPoint, please go to the following web page: http://questionpoint.org/

For information and instructions on how to use other services offered by the Reference and Information Section of the State Library, please go to the following web page on the NH State Library’s web site : http://www.state.nh.us/nhsl/refinfo/index.html.

Special Services - (Family Resource Connection, Best Schools Resource Center) - 1-800-298-4321

A proposal to expand the Books for Babies…and Beyond project to Hillsborough County has been submitted to the National Child Care Bureau. If the grant is obtained, Reading Together Kits of children’s books geared to infants, toddlers and preschoolers will be offered to all the public libraries in Hillsborough County as they have been to the libraries in Rockingham and Strafford Counties under the present grant that ends in February. The announcement of grants awarded is expected early in September.

Since the NH Department of Education’s Best Schools Leadership Initiative ended as of June 30th, the Best Schools Resource Center (which has been operating as part of the State Library’s Family Resource Connection) has officially ended also. However, the Family Resource Connection will continue to provide library services relative to educational issues, and is continuing to build a library collection of educational materials helpful to families, teachers and educators. Nancy Cristiano, Reference Librarian with the Family Resource Connection, is the Education Coordinator and can be reached at 1-800-298-4321.