State Librarian Michael York has announced Year-Two grant awards to nine organizations totaling $44,000 through the Conservation License Plate Program. The New Hampshire General Court passed the Conservation License Plate or "Moose Plate" initiative in 1998 as a way to supplement existing state conservation and preservation programs with funding through voluntary public purchases of the plates.

The conservation license plate supports the protection of critical resources in New Hampshire, from scenic lands to historic sites to wildlife. Revenues from the sale of the plate are distributed through five state agencies.

This year, the Town of Northwood received $875 to preserve two 1860 paper documents. The Deerfield Historical Society was awarded $2,900 to conserve two documents, including the 1920 checklist of voters containing the names of all women who registered to vote after the passage of the Women’s Suffrage Act. The Town of Northfield plans to preserve 19th century town meeting records and a town road book dated 1782 with a grant of $3,025. The Town of Bow will preserve Town Meeting records 1970 – 1979 with their award of $3040. The Rye Historical Society was granted $3,760 to process and write a finding aid for town records dated 1731-1942. The Berlin Public Library will use $4,240 to microfilm five years of the Berlin Daily Sun. The NH Division of Archives and Records Management will preserve Manuscript Acts of the General Court spanning the years dated 1865-1868 with a grant of $6,304. The Towns of Hill and Merrimack each received an award of $10,000 to preserve town records dating back to the 1700s.

To be considered eligible for funding through the State Library, projects had to conserve publicly owned artifacts, be they paper-based collections, photographs or manuscripts. Successful applicants demonstrated the New Hampshire significance and enduring value of the materials to New Hampshire’s historic and cultural heritage. For more information on "Moose Plates" visit: www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Moose_plates/moose_plates.htm.

The State Librarian and the NHLA Executive Board spent several hours last week at the Franklin Public Library sorting and packaging the music-CD antitrust settlement discs; they are being distributed to public libraries in two waves, via van delivery.  Libraries that don't have van service are being asked to pick up their CDs at the nearest van stop.

Electronic and Government Information Services - 603-271-2143

Please let Diana Degen know if you have a change in IP or e-mail so that she can keep you current with NHewLINK databases. If you have changed, please send the updated information to her at ddegen@library.state.nh.us.

Library Development Services - 603-271-2865 (Concord) - 1-800-462-1726 (Lancaster)

For those of you who like to collect statistics, here are some from the FY2003 NH Public Library Annual Report: 204 public libraries in NH have Internet access for the public; that's 88.3% of the total of 231. There are 187 MLS-bearing public librarians (staff - not just directors) in the state; 42 have other master's degrees. The rest have bachelor's degrees, Library Techniques certificates, and high school diplomas.

The NH Library Trustees Association asks that we remind libraries of the 04 October 2004 deadline for their awards nominations. Further information may be found at www.nhlta.com.

The process or reviving the Association of NH Library Friends is continuing after a very successful meeting of interested Friends in August. They are encouraging regional group meetings (based generally along library cooperative lines) of local Friends groups, to choose representatives to a statewide meeting in Concord on 06 November. A letter to this effect is being sent to each library to pass on to their Friends group. For more information, see the link at: http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/ldss/RGfriends.html.

The Fall NHSL Modular Library Education Program Courses have been announced. They will include "Cataloging Overview" and "Classification" in Bedford, "Puppetry Programming" in Stratham, and "Budgeting for the NH Public Library" in Hancock, as well as a "Librarian Orientation" at the State Library in Concord. For full information and a registration form, please go online to: http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/libed/modules.html.

The New Hampshire Area Health Education Center (AHEC) will be offering a workshop for public librarians this Fall on providing public access to health information resources. This FREE workshop will be offered 10 times (once in each county) under a grant program. Look for details via the NHSL Education Opportunity Alert e-mail system and other updating measures soon.

Watch the NHSL Training and Events Calendar (http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/calendar/calendar.htm) for all known NH training opportunities.

Library Services to Persons with Disabilities - 603-271-1498

The State Library received a waiver to fill the vacant Librarian III position -- Supervisor of Library Services to Persons with Disabilities -- and the job is being advertised in the Concord Monitor, The Union-Leader, and the NH Library Job Line.

NHAIS Services - 603-271-2141

Charlie LeBlanc has set up Remote Patron Authentication (RPA) on the State Library's Dynix system to allow librarians access to certain restricted databases that are available via Z39.50 service. More information will be provided as it's released.

A small statistic from NHAIS Services:

In May 2004, 1679 brief records were added to the NHU-PAC by member libraries through the Holdings Maintenance module.

1463 (87%) of these were matched to existing records by NHAIS Services staff.