Rhodarian

This is a followup to the OLIS web article Libraries Helping Rhode Island Get Back To Work. The following books were posted in an article entitled 100 Useful Tips, Tools and Tutorials for Job-Seekers over 45. As helpful job search advice, the article lists the following books to check out at the library.

Age Discrimination in the American Workplace: Old at a Young Age, by Raymond F. Gregory: Learn about the role age discrimination plays in the workplace in America and abroad.

The Third Age: Six Principles of Growth and Renewal After Forty, by William Sadler: Learn how to make the most of your “third age” in this book that offers career and personal advice. Learn how to make the most of your “third age” in this book that offers career and personal advice.

Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life, by Marc Freedman: If you’re looking for a second career later in life, this book can be a great source of inspiration and advice.

Age Power: How the 21st Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old, by Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D: Learn how ideas about aging are changing as health care advances and people are staying younger longer.

Age Works: What Corporate America Must Do to Survive the Graying of the Workforce, by Beverly Goldberg: Learn why your role as an older worker could actually be pretty important from this book focused on the aging workforce.

Happy About Working to Stay Young: Expanded Careers for Boomers and Seniors, by Jacky Hood: This book focuses on making your career matter later in life and how you can keep working and stay strong in a society focused on youth.

The Power Years: A User’s Guide to the Rest of Your Life, by Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D. and Daniel J. Kadlec: Read this book to learn how to make the years after 40 the best and most empowered of your life.

Resumes for the 50+ Job Hunter: This book offers a wide range of sample resumes that can be great reference material for older job seekers.

What Color Is Your Parachute? 2009: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers by Richard N. Bolles: This book can be a good read for those looking for work or planning to work in another field regardless of age.

The Executive Job Search: A Comprehensive Handbook for Seasoned Professionals by Orrin Wood: If you were pretty high up in the ranks in your former job, this book offers you some advice on how to be competitive in the job market, create good resumes and more.

The Providence Community Library, which consists of the nine branch libraries of Providence, is the state’s newest library.  PCL officially opens on July 1 with celebrations around the city.  The July 1 Providence Journal includes a story about the transition of management of the branches from the Providence Public Library to the PCL.  Providence Public Library will continue its role as the Statewide Reference Resource Center, including the services of AskRI, and continue to serve the people of Providence and the state.

Microsoft has launched a new search engine, Bing.  It’s an interesting entry to the search world, and worth taking a look at.  Bing is promoted as a “decision engine” rather than a search engine: it provides search results in specific categories and attempts to direct the user to a result that says “this is the answer.”  In other words, there are fewer, but hopefully more helpful, search results.  To learn more about how Bing works and what makes it different from Google, see Search Engine Watch’s Bing: The Agency Perspective.

In the June 2009 IMLS newsletter, Primary Source, Anne-Imelda M. Radice, the IMLS  Director, wrote:  "Around the country, public libraries are responding to the consequences of the economic downturn. Librarians guide patrons to online resources to help them build effective resumes, submit applications, access training and testing opportunities, and get advice on developing small businesses. . . . Helping job seekers is an increasingly critical role for libraries, with 62.2 percent of libraries reporting it as mission critical up from 44 percent a year earlier . . . " (more)

Dr. Radice continues: "We are hearing more and more about state agencies that are working in partnership with state library agencies to disseminate information about unemployment, health care, and mortgage relief programs. So my message today is one of appreciation for our state library agencies and public libraries for stepping up to the plate and responding in such a meaningful way to the needs of their communities."

OLIS is grateful for statement of support from its federal counterpart and funder under the Library Services and Technology Act. As the RI state library agency, OLIS continuously seeks to develop partnerships with other RI state agencies to disseminate, deliver, and otherwise provide access to information that will benefit all RI residents of any age and circumstance.

WebJunction has aggregated and synthesized competency definitions from a number of library organizations, subjected them to rigorous subject matter expert review, and compiled them into a Competency Index for the Library Field. The Index can be used by libraries of all types and sizes to build competency sets to meet their organization’s needs. Librarians and library staff are welcome to download the PDF file, distribute it widely, re-mix, and re-purpose as they see fit.

WebJunction Competencies are also linked to WebJunction courses and content so that you can improve or brush up your skills in certain areas. WebJunction courses are free to members of WebJunction RI.

Check out the Competencies Index on WebJunction Rhode Island.

The latest round of Big Read grants was just announced by IMLS and NEH. The Rhode Island winners are:

• Preservation Society of Newport County  Newport, RI for The Great Gatsby. Award amount: $7,500

• Rhode Island College - James P. Adams Library, Providence, RI for  Edgar Allan Poe. Award amount: $20,000

To read more about the Big Read project and other 2009 winners, see the official press release.

Congratulations to the four most recent RI organizations to be awarded Connecting to Collections Bookshelves. The Bookshelf comprises resources for collections typically found in art or history museums and in libraries’ special collections, with an added selection of texts for living collections. It is a component of Connecting to Collections: A Call to Action, a strategic initiative by IMLS to address the challenges described in A Public Trust at Risk: The Heritage Health Index Report on the State of America’s Collections, an IMLS-funded study conducted by Heritage Preservation.

• Linden Place Museum - Bristol, RI
• Jamestown Historical Society
• Little Compton Historical Society
• Rhode Island Historical Society Library

For the full story and contact information for the list of winners, see the IMLS press release.

Need a resource for job-hunters?  Check out the US Department of Labor’s CareerOneStop for Careers and Career Information.  See especially the resume and interview tools.

Duke University has launched DukeMobile 1.1 to access the most comprehensive university digital image collection specifically formatted for an iPhone or iPod Touch. As written up on the blog Mobile Libraries, the collection includes thousands of photos and other artifacts that range from 19th century American sheet music to materials on San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury scene in the 1960s. While a growing number of scholarly institutions offer images and other material online, Duke is the first to offer collections that take advantage of the iPhone’s design, navigation and other features.

Learn more about Duke’s innovative project, complete with video demos, in Library Digital Collections? There’s an App for That. Then download it to your iPhone or Touch.

Can you post a message for me to the public libraries?

Cheryl R. Banick, MLIS
Chief, Library Service
VA Medical Center
830 Chalkstone Avenue
Providence, RI   02908
Phone:  401-457-3001
Fax:  401-457-3097
Hours:  M-F, 8a-4:30p EST