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Feature Stories |
By Marsha McDevitt-Stredney, Director, Marketing & Communications, State Library of Ohio
WebJunction Ohio reached its one year anniversary this summer and we now have over 1800 affiliated members. In partnership with WebJunction, the Ohio site continues to grow with up-to-date content in areas such as Ohio’s LSTA, E-Rate, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Opportunity Online Hardware Grants. Our original vision to move the Librarians’ Toolkit content from the State Library website to WebJunction Ohio has been realized. Today the Ohio Center on WebJunction Ohio includes resources and information about library programs, services, and management originally found in the Toolkit as well as much more.
While it has been a challenge to get Ohio library and library organizations’ staff to play a part in adding content and participate in discussions, we continue to solicit contributors. The momentum is growing and the value of the site increases with each opportunity to share and learn from one another.
BlogJunction Ohio is kept up to date by monitoring a wide variety of library listservs, Blogs, Tweets, Facebook postings, Google alerts, and other web 2.0 resources. The Training and Events calendar includes links to information and registrations for various opportunities throughout the state. If you would like to have something posted to BlogJunction Ohio or on the Events calendar just send an email to marshams@library.ohio.gov.
We recently asked staff from all types of libraries to complete a survey about WebJunction Ohio. The survey results show a strong interest in and high value expressed for the online courses provided by the State Library on WebJunction Ohio. In light of most libraries having reduced budgets for professional development, we have recently seen an increase in course enrollments. For many libraries, providing opportunities for courses of this quality would not be possible on their own. According to the survey responses, courses that were considered the most beneficial to the daily work of library staff were in the areas of library management and general technology. The survey results also showed strong support for webinars, resources and information about funding opportunities, and library services and programs.
If you haven’t had an opportunity to see the WebJunction Ohio site I encourage you to browse the resources and become an affiliated member. You must be an Ohio affiliated member in order to enroll in the online courses from the Ohio course catalog at not cost to you. We have plenty of course units available through July 2010.
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