SIGNAL - an e-mail newsletter  

February 28, 2004

Published by the Southern Ontario Library Service

The introductory page for the Southern Ontario Library Service is www.sols.org . From that page, you can move to any other pages created by staff at the Southern Ontario Library Service, as well as to links to resources and professional information.

Note - as this is an older newsletter, some links may no longer be valid, or may refer you to a section of the site that has been updated in the interim. Please contact if you want more information on a specific initiative.

In this issue:

1. SOLS UPDATES
2. COOL
3. CONSORTIA PURCHASING AGREEMENTS (CPA)
4. DELIVERY SERVICE
5. TRAINING WORKSHOPS
6. EXCEL
7. SOLS LAUNCHES "Friends of First Nation Public Libraries" PILOT PROJECT

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1. SOLS UPDATES

The physical space that was the SOLS Ottawa office is now closed. However, the SOLS staff and services that were a part of this office are alive and well. Seven staff members from the Ottawa office are now teleworking from their homes, and job duties have been realigned to ensure that the change will remain seamless to client libraries, especially those in eastern Ontario.

Southern Ontario public libraries can use the SOLS Delivery routes to send material to our teleworkers. For addresses, telephone numbers and SOLS route numbers, please consult our personnel directory, "SOLS source" at http://www.sols.org/directory2/solsourc.html

For general information and referrals to SOLS staff on topics of interest or concern, the SOLS Helpdesk can be reached at 1-800-387-5765; press 4. SOLS has also contracted with Clarence-Rockland Public Library to provide VDX Interlibrary Loan HelpDesk support for staff in SOLS libraries who wish to communicate in French. The service will commence on April 1, 2004. Further details about this new service will be available in March.

EXCEL course registration and day-to-day operations will continue to be handled by Diane Lozanski. She can be reached at her home office by telephone at 1-866-304-7988 or 613-260-2503 or by e-mail at . Canada Post mail for EXCEL can be sent to P.O. Box 39030, R.P.O. Billings Bridge, Ottawa, ON K1H 1A1.

The SOLS Training and Meeting Events coordinator is Nancy McPherson. Nancy can be reached at her home office at 1-866-303-2695 or 613-260-2695 or by e-mail at . Canada Post mail for training and meeting events can also be sent to P.O. Box 39030, R.P.O. Billings Bridge, Ottawa, ON K1H 1A1.

The contact information for the three Ottawa-area SOLS Library Consultants is as follows:

Terry Sarazen – Telephone: 1-866-891-4388 or 613-228-1171 and e-mail:

Claire-Marie Paquette-Finlay - Telephone: 1-866-862-4596 or 613-446-4480 and e-mail:

Peggy Malcolm – Telephone: 1-866-380-9767, 613-826-1003 and e-mail

The SOLS Library Development Director, Bill Mitchell, can be reached by telephone at 1-866-786-1669 or 613-256-4563, by fax at 613-256-1440 or by e-mail at

The SOLS Translator, Louise Godbout-Legault, can be reached by telephone at 1-613-837-4860 or 1-866-345-2358 or by e-mail at .

The administration of the POOLS, formerly done out of the Ottawa office, will move to the Resource Sharing Unit in the Toronto office at the beginning of March 2004. The work will now be done by Lynda Dowdle. She can be reached by telephone at 1-800-387-5765 ext. 5124, by fax at 416-961-5122 or by e-mail at the same address as previously used, . Further information on the transition of the pools administration will be available in March, and will be communicated to the members of the various pools.

As outlined in previous editions of Signal, SOLS negotiates charitable/consortia purchasing agreements (CPAs) on behalf of SOLS libraries. CPAs are ‘economies of scale’ pricing for the purchase or lease of a range of goods and services.

Through one of our most recent offers, a CPA with Janway, 50,500 fridge magnets were ordered. We are pleased with its success and will be responding to client requests for another fridge magnet agreement in the near future.

Further information on CPA can be found at http://www.sols.org/resourcesharing/coolcpa/index.htm

COOL information is now available at http://www.sols.org/resourcesharing/coolcpa/index.htm

Over the last year, SOLS has been improving access to the information on its Web site. As part of this process, you will now be able to find information about licensing electronic resources at http://www.sols.org/resourcesharing/coolcpa/index.htm

The information found at this new location is a result of the collaboration between universities (Ontario Council of University Libraries), colleges (Bibliocentre), schools (Marilyn Kogon, formerly of the Toronto District School Board), and public libraries (Southern Ontario Library Service) sector representatives, working as COOL.

Access to information on electronic resources can be navigated with greater ease. You will be able to search for specific products by subject, subscription period, vendor, or by product name.

Pricing and Licence Agreements are also available on the new site. This information is password protected; please contact Brenda Lewis at for username and password.

We welcome your input regarding the site. Please forward your comments or suggestions to either Brenda Lewis at or Barbara Franchetto at

4. SOLS DELIVERY SERVICE

This winter has caused service delivery delays and cancellations to our libraries. We would like to take this opportunity to apologize for these inconveniences to you and your patrons. Delivery problems have been due to:

• Illness and injury amongst our driving staff, we currently have two staff members on extended sick leave.


• Winter weather conditions.


• Mechanical breakdowns of our vehicles.
  
  

We are currently working on the personnel issues and have hired new staff to work part time and to cover any absences for our full-time drivers. There is not much we can do about the weather conditions we experience in Ontario but we will continue to make every effort to provide service to your library by rearranging the routes when and where it is appropriate.
SOLS vehicles are serviced regularly but mechanical failures, like the weather, are out of our control. Wherever possible, we rent vehicles in order to ensure delivery to our libraries. Nevertheless, routes sometimes may be cut short or rearranged in order to accommodate all of our library deliveries. Our vehicles are also getting older, and with our projected budget shortfall, we cannot replace the vans at the rate we would prefer.

Our goal in Delivery Services is to provide our libraries with prompt and efficient. We regret any inconvenience we may have caused. If you have a comment or concern about the delivery to your library, please contact Mary Jo Lynett, Delivery Service Supervisor at or at 1-800-387-5765, ext. 5127.

Staff Changes and Route Updates

Rob Gray, a 22 year staff member of SOLS and Route 1 driver, London depot, retired on December 31, 2003, but has continued to work as our relief driver. He trained our new driver, Lesley Renshaw, to take over the delivery service on Route 1.

Patricia Herlovitch, from the Kitchener depot, has been on an extended health leave since May 2003. Kelly Townsend has been off on a Health Leave and will return on March 15, 2004. Ken Sargeson was hired to work on Routes 3, 4 and 14.

Donna Sherman, from the Hamilton depot, has left SOLS and Route 12 will be moved to Kitchener depot. Mike Faubert and Ron Kells will be the drivers responsible for Route 12. They will also act as the relief drivers at the Kitchener depot for Routes 3, 4, 12 and 14. Delivery on Route 12 will be reorganized to accommodate the relocation but the number of days of delivery will remain the same. Libraries will receive notification of these changes in the first week of March, and the changes will take effect on Friday, March 12, 2004.

Bill Pink has joined the staff in Ottawa to replace John Robertson on Routes 10, 11 & 15. Delivery on Routes 10, 11 and 15 will be reorganized by May 1, 2004. The closing of the Ottawa office has resulted in the need to find a new location for our vehicles. Once everything is finalized, a notice will be sent to the libraries. The relocation will not affect the number of days of delivery that a library receives but the actual days of delivery and/or the route number might change.

All routes and route changes will be posted in the Delivery Service section of the SOLS Web site at http://www.sols.org/resourcesharing/delivery/index.htm  

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5. TRAINING WORKSHOPS

Registration for the Spring session of Training workshops is now open. Workshops are filling up briskly, particularly Part 2 of "Playing the Match Game" [workshop #3] and "Developing communication strategies to raise your library’s profile in the community" [workshop #2]. Please see the SOLS Web site at http://www.sols.org/librarydev/training/clinicsworkshops/index.htm  for more details on how to register.

There is now a full description of "Developing communication strategies to raise your library’s profile in the community", accessible from the above page.

Also, for our French-language libraries, full details and an electronic registration form are available from the above page, regarding the third session of the extremely popular workshop, provided by Communication Jeunesse, "Toup’tilitou" .

Further information on the joint SOLS/OLBA Trustee Orientation Workshops will be posted on the SOLS Web site shortly.

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6. EXCEL

The registration form for the Summer 2004 Semester will be posted on the SOLS Web site by Thursday, March 25, 2004. Information about EXCEL is posted on the Web site at http://www.sols.org/librarydev/training/excel/index.htm  

In the Summer 2004 semester, we will offer the following English courses:

#1 - Introduction to Public Libraries
#4 - Information Services
#8 - Collection Development for Young Adults
#16 - Professional Development
#17- Electronic Information Sources

In the Summer 2004 semester, we will offer the following French courses:

#1 - Introduction aux bibliothèques publiques
#7 - Développement des collections pour enfants
#10 - Acquisitions et publication en série

Please note that, beginning with the Summer 2004 Semester of the EXCEL Certificate Program, the tuition for each course will increase from $125.00, plus GST, to $145.00, plus GST. This increase will help to cover the increased costs of producing and providing the course to students in Ontario.

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7. SOLS LAUNCHES "Friends of First Nation Public Libraries" PILOT PROJECT

to contribute to relationship building between Native and non-Native public libraries;
to strengthen First Nation public library collections;
to provide non-Native public libraries with an "in-our-own-backyard" solution for extending the public library use of quality but space-challenged materials.

The steps in building a successful "Friends" relationship include:
an exchange of information about the partnering libraries;
the provision of a community-based collection development profile by the First Nation Library to its partner;
the profile-based selection of materials by the partnering library;
joint, regularly scheduled feedback sessions;
regular review and needs-based updating of the collection development profile;
the possibility of "friendly" site visits or even staff exchanges in the future.

Anticipated benefits to the First Nation public libraries include:
growth of collections;
support for weeding collections based largely on donations;
the acquisition of professionally selected materials related to their communities’ needs and interests;
the acquisition of already catalogued and processed materials;
reduced reliance on random donations;
a personalized bridge-building relationship with the non-Native public library community.

Anticipated benefits to the non-Native public libraries include:
the opportunity to extend the life of materials purchased for public library use;
the opportunity to support a developing library in Ontario;
a personalized bridge-building relationship with the First Nations public library community.

SOLS will support the Friends of First Nation Public Libraries program by making the "friendship" matches, supporting First Nation libraries’ collection profile development, delivering materials via the SOLS courier service, facilitating meetings and matters, as requested, and assisting with program assessment. For more information about the Friends of First Nation Public Libraries program, or to indicate interest in becoming a First Nation Public Library Friend, contact Patty Lawlor, First Nations Consultant, by telephone at 1-800-387-5765, extension 5107 or e-mail at .

All issues of SIGNAL, including the French version of SIGNAL, can be viewed online at http://www.sols.org/librarydev/publications/Signal/index.htm . However, if anyone would like to receive the e-mail version of this newsletter, please send a message to . You can reach the editor of SIGNAL at: or by telephone at 1-866-380-9767.