Commonwealth Libraries has sent a message to all Pennsylvania library mailing lists announcing the POWER Library resources for 2012. The basic content is reproduced below.

Periodical, newspaper and business resources will remain the same. This is the last year of a three year contract with the database vendors and work is underway to procure resources for 2013-2015.

The AP Multimedia Archive, Auto Repair Reference Center, Contemporary Authors, and SIRS Discoverer will continue through 2012. Commonwealth Libraries is working to keep Consumer Health Complete available, and if there are any changes you will be informed as soon as possible.

Funding has been lost for Career Library and it will no longer be available after January. Any library interested in subscribing to Career Library should contact Ted Wallus, Account Executive at EBSCO via phone at (800) 653- 2726 ext. 2188, via fax at (978) 356-5640 or via email at twallus@ebscohost.com.

CyberSmarts, a new resource targeted at elementary and middle school aged students, will be available by the end of January. CyberSmarts: Staying Safe Online, is a unique collection of five Interactive e-books which give students hands-on experience in navigating the online world in a safe, controlled environment.

Titles include:

Stopping Cyberbullying
Avoiding Predators Online
Protecting Your Privacy Online
Using Social Networks
Playing Games Online

Created for elementary students, the guided learning simulations safely teach users to:

Create a username
Choose an avatar
Chat
Send messages and emails
Create profiles
Receive and respond to friend invitations

Easy to use with a group or individually, these Interactive eBooks can be projected on a whiteboard or viewed on individual student computers. Instructional tools include lesson plans, reproducibles, and research prompts.

For a "guided tour" of the CyberSmarts program, go to: http://www.cybersmartsdemo.com/.

As stated earlier, Commonwealth Libraries is beginning the process of acquiring resources for the next three years. The outcome will be based on the amount of money available for POWER in next year's budget. Please be sure your elected officials know how important the Library Access line item is to your library. That is the line in the state budget that includes POWER Library, Access PA and IDS.

Are you enrolled in one or more courses at WebJunction that have not yet been completed? The systems upgrade to WebJunction's course catalog will impact any courses you do not complete by the end of January 2012. The upgrade will result in the loss of record of any incomplete courses. Records of all your completed courses will be retained, and you will still be able to print certificates for those.

To avoid losing any current course progress, please complete all enrolled courses by January 30, 2012. Any course still in your active My Courses list after that date will need to be re-added and restarted after the upgrade.

If you have any questions, please contact support@webjunction.org. 

To all PA School Librarians: We hope you have found Ask Here PA a valuable resource for your students! The staff of Ask Here PA has enjoyed working with them.

To better serve you, please notify us when you, or a teacher in your school, plan to have a group or class visit on Ask Here PA. We will try to add appropriate staff for the increased demand. Also, please do not have more than 12 students at a time logon to use Ask Here PA. If you have more than 12 students, please have students work in pairs or have them stagger their logon times by at least 15 minutes so that librarians have the time to provide the best service possible to each student. Also, if this will be the students' first time using Ask Here PA, please have them prepared with a question for the librarians staffing the service.

Please pass this information to the teachers that use Ask Here PA! Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

Website: http://www.askherepa.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/askherepa
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ask-Here-PA/148629061859944

The Schuylkill Intermediate Unit #29 provides support for POWER Library. If you need assistance accessing POWER Library or any of its databases (except for the Access Pennsylvania Database), please use the Technical Problem Form (http://www.powerlibrary.net/Secure/TechForm/TechForm.asp). This will provide POWER Library support staff with the needed information to resolve your issues as soon as possible.

To access this form, you will need to enter your "Library Use Only" username "(your county)" and the POWER Library website password. If do not know the POWER Library website password, or you experience problems with the form, please call 570-544-9131 ext. 1274.

If your library is planning to close for a week's vacation or for a small amount of time for renovations, or your library is closing for the summer, you may suspend or remove your library temporarily from the Rota. Note: While suspended from acting as a potential responder, your library may retain the ability to place ILL requests, if necessary. To do so, follow these steps:

1. In the Location Search screen, click on the Edit Own button at the top of the screen.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the Location screen to the Local Holidays area Click the New Holiday button.
3. In the Description box enter Thanksgiving, Christmas, Renovations, Vacation, etc.
4. Enter the Start Date and End Date, using the pop-up calendar, or enter the dates manually in the format shown in the example to the right of the pop-up calendar.
5. Use the down-arrow to the right of the Closure Type box to select *Suspended - Requesting OK, then click the Save button or Save & Close button.

*Suspended - Requesting OK: When your library is suspended from appearing in Rota configurations, make sure Suspended - Requesting OK is always selected. That way, even if you do not want to receive ILL requests, you are always able to place them.

These instructions, along with illustrations, are available at:

http://www.accesspa.state.pa.us/vdx4.1.3_manual/location.htm#srlr.