Annual Membership Retreat a Success

NOLA's Annual Membership Retreat was held yesterday at The Avalon Inn in Warren. Over 60 folks from the membership attended to discuss the future direction of our consortium. Participants were greeted with a NOLA Desktop coffee mug and winners of the Desktop "Find your Name" contest picked up giant candy bars.

Speakers included Roger Verney with a good presentation concerning LSTA funding, Don Barlow discussing future directions for libraries using Westerville's unique programs as a model, Ken Bell continued the push for community building via electronic networking, and Carolyn Brodie presented some great information about public library/school cooperation.

After the speakers and a wonderfully nutritious lunch, the members reconvened and broke up into small working groups. Each group tackled an area of interest and developed outlines of recommended directions for NOLA. Breakout groups included Technology, School/Library Cooperation, Membership, CE, Resource Sharing, Intranet and Youth Services. Excellent insights were then presented back to the full group with a Q&A session afterwards.

We will be constructing a section on The Desktop about the Retreat after we can cull the breakout session information together. Keep an eye on The Desktop News for further info.

Thanks from NOLA Board Chair; Kathy Sauline

Thank you to each NOLA member who took the time and invested themselves and their library in the long-range planning process for our cooperative. As you are absorbing the many informative presentations let me know if your impressions differ from mine. I was encouraged by Roger Verney's verbal expression of the State Library's commitment to the regional library systems and yet concerned about the proposed elimination of the set-aside for regionals in the LSTA program. I was inspired by Carolyn Brodie's recap of public library / school cooperation. Carolyn's examples were concrete and realistic. Don Barlow may call his vision "estimated guessing" but I'll place my bets with him in many cases. He too, seemed very encouraging about regionals and saw NOLA as the vehicle for many of the advances he is proposing.

I also want to thank Sue and the entire staff for their efforts to create a good planning environment. I appreciate the involvement of Board members who lead the breakout sessions. But most importantly, the member reps and others who were present made the day a successful planning event. Thanks again and stay involved to assure the implementation of your plans as you intended. After all, it's your regional library system. NOLA: prepare for tomorrow through your network for today.

Kathy Sauline
President
June 16,1997

NewtonFalls.org registered

http://www.newtonfalls.org is now active and online. The site is still heavily under construction, but looks like it will be a fairly comprehensive example of a community network.

Openings for Webmaster Class on the 20th and new classes in development.

There are still a couple of openings for the Web Development and Maintenance class on Friday the 20th. We will be scheduling more of these classes througout the summer. Also, we are working on a few new related classes. First, there will be an advanced Web Dev. class for folks who will be in charge of ongoing development and want to keep their site on the cutting edge. We will discuss advanced design concepts, some of the new code tricks, dynamic html and even some JavaScript.

We will be offering a comprehensive Browser Usage and Using the NOLA Desktop course shortly. This class will be geared at helping staff get the most out of the online experience at work. It builds on the knowledge gained at OPLIN training and will provide insite into NOLA's Intranet.

Finally, I am beginning the process of building some courses targeted at the System's Admin people out there. We will probably offer a basic Novell Administration and a Microsoft NT Server Administration class. Each of these will be targeted to help the staff who wears the Network Guru hat but maybe does not have the formal training. Participants should be able to follow up these classes with certification testing.

NOLA Notes Online Versions Available

Due to recent goings on, etc., the NOLA Notes online versions were not available. They have been created and placed online. You can find them under the General Info section of The NOLA Desktop.

Judi Burdette on Vacation

Judi Burdette; NOLA Office Assistant and general all around keep the balls in the air person is on vacation this week. Calls to the NOLA office will be handled by Elaine Casterline and you can leave voicemail for any of the staff.

Items submitted by: Kenneth S. Bell - 09/11/98 08:32 AM
Webmaster - NOLA Regional Library System

Got a neat idea for fostering communication among members, let us know!