PLA Open 24/7 @ www.pla.org
Janet Foster
PLA’s virtual presence is a dynamic Web portal where public librarians can join the association, learn about continuing education, discover the latest news about conferences, and surf to sites about jobs, marketing, and technical information. The best part is that it’s open 24/7, making PLA as vital, valuable, and virtual in the twenty-first century as it was in the previous millenium!
The PLA site emphasizes the mission of the association, which includes providing a diverse spectrum of communication, publication, advocacy, continuing education, and programming for its members and others interested in the advancement of public library service.
The PLA Membership Benefits section includes an online membership form that makes it easy to join or renew membership. Just print out the form and mail or fax as indicated.
Continuing Education
If you weren’t able to attend the PLA National Conference in North Carolina (March 28- April 1, 2000) but are interested in knowing about the great programs that were presented there, you’re in luck! Visit the Continuing Education Section for a list of program handouts, audiotapes for purchase, library consultants, and other hot topics.
For a sneak preview of upcoming programs, take a look at PLA’s Spring Symposium 2001. The Symposium will be held from March 1–3, 2001. Topics include emergent literacy, digitization, emerging formats such as e-books and DVDs, and planning and designing library buildings. The symposium also will feature an opening general session, author luncheon, tours, and a PLA store. Registration forms are available on the site.
Mark your calendars for the next annual PLA conference March 12–16, 2002, in Phoenix, Arizona. You can check out advance information at www.pla.org/conf02.
Tech Notes
Baffled by bits? Confused by chips? Tech Notes takes a byte out of the mysteries of technology by providing information on technical issues that affect the planning, support, and delivery of public library services. Conceived and produced by the PLA Technology Committee, these articles are written by GraceAnne A. DeCandido, editiorial and Web consultantand ALA council member. Current titles include “Digital Object Identifier (DOI): The Persistence of Memory”, “Intranets: The Web Inside”, “Metadata: Always More Than You Think”, “Video Teleconferencing: Here, There, and Everywhere”, “Electronic Statistics: Counting Crows”, “Wireless Networks: Unplugged, and Play”, “Push Technology: Pushed to the Brink”, “Digital Disaster Planning: When Bad Things Happen to Good Systems”, “Filtering: No Easy Answers”, “Geographic Information Systems (GIS): Mapping the Territory”, “E-Books: I Sing the Book Electric”, and “Unicode: From Chinese to Cherokee; from Kana to Klingon.” Tech Notes also appear in Public Libraries as a regular column.
Internet Resources for Public Libraries
Links to internet jobs and career sites can be found on the Internet Resources page. It provides a valuable compendium of cyber resources for job seekers and recruiters. There is also a link to the ALA Employment section, which breaks down jobs by specialty, making it easy to locate public library ads. The list is updated monthly and includes late job posting. The nice feature about having this information online is that it is dynamic. Unlike print publications, which have a month’s lag time between issues, new job postings can be continually added to the site.
You’ll also find links to other jobs and career sites in areas such as library and information technology, law and music libraries, and evene library jobs in Canada. Make this a permanent bookmark on your computer and check back frequently. It’s a good way to keep apprised of the job marketplace even if you are not actively seeking employment. And if you are, it’s the best place to start looking.
On the internet resources page, you can also subscribe to receive periodic updates about marketing your library and get more information about PUBLIB and PUBLIB-NET electronic discussion lists, PLA-ALLS’s “Top Titles for New Readers,” “Library Services to the Sandwich Generation,” ALA Scholarships and grants, PR materials, and a plethora of valuable information, including ALA Library and Research Center fact sheets. The entire PLA guide, “A Handbook of Policies and Procedures,” is also available in both HTML and PDF formats.
PLA’s Preschool Literacy Initiative
A recent addition to the site, the Preschool Literacy Initiative offers valuable cyber informationabout developing resources for early readers. The Born to Read link features the fact sheet “How to Raise a Reader,” which includes a list of some of the best easy-to-do tips developed by members of ALA’s Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC). This information is also available in Spanish.
The Write Stuff
Web surfers will find the table of contents and the Tech Notes and internet Spotlight columns of Public Libraries available.
Interested in more than just reading PL? The guidelines for submitting articles to the magazine are online. Submissions may be sent directly to the feature editor for consideration. Send queries to publiclibraries@aol.com.
Visit the PLA Web site often to explore your career options and keep apprised about vital, valuable, and virtual trends in public librarianship.