Thinking about exporting, but don’t know where to start?  As part of World Trade Month, SBA will host a Google+ Hangout on May 22. The hangout will highlight ways that business can use federal government resources to increase exports.

Date: Wednesday, 22 May
Time: 3:00pm ET
Where: Watch the Hangout live at SBA’s Google+ page or SBA’s YouTube Channel

Who:

• Dario Gomez, U.S. Small Business Administration, Associate Administrator for International Trade
• Antwaun Griffin, U.S. Department of Commerce- International Trade Administration, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Domestic Operations
• Dontai Smalls, UPS, Vice President for Public Affairs
• Al Youngworth, CEO of Rekluse and SBA’s Exporter of the Year
• Brian Kim, BBCN Bank Los Angeles and SBA’s Export Lender of the Year

Join the Conversation: Submit your questions via Twitter using the hashtag #TradeChat

Find more information for small businesses online at SBA’s Community.

In this installment of #SLAtalk, we’ll discuss collaborating to achieve better results and greater impact:

1. In your experience, what are some skills or tricks of the trade for successful collaboration?
2. What online or in-person resources or technologies are key to successfully collaborating on a project?
3. How do you handle difficult, slacking, or reluctant to engage group members?
4. Without disclosing proprietary information, what were the outcomes of the most successful collaboration you’ve had?

When: 2 choices on Tuesday, May 14th
Session #1 – 1:30 p.m. Eastern
Session #2 – 11:00 p.m. Eastern

Full details: http://www.sla.org/slatalk-lets-collaborate-better/

After the session:  Check back into the SLA Blog after the #SLAtalk, where we’ll post some of the best ideas that you all have tweeted. Notice your tweet being favorited from @SLAhq? Your handle and tweet will be posted to the SLA Blog!

New to Twitter chats? Check out these helpful tips and highlights from our first #SLAtalk.

Best Practices in Virtual Reference series: Spring/Summer 2013

All webinars are free, and will be recorded and posted on the QuestionPoint site for future viewing. Each webinar begins at 12:00 (Noon) Eastern Time and lasts approximately one hour.

17 May – 24/7 chat service for Small Libraries
Register

Eleanor Sathan of Memorial Hall Library in Andover, Massachusetts will speak about why she joined the (at the time California-based) 24/7 Reference Cooperative. Memorial Hall was the first library outside California to join the Cooperative, back in 2000, so Eleanor has participated in the Cooperative since its infancy. As a result of Memorial Hall’s experiences, all Massachusetts Reference Centers joined the Cooperative as part of a statewide project in 2003. When the statewide project dissolved in 2010, Memorial Hall Library made the decision to continue to provide chat reference service to the Andover community, through continued membership in the Cooperative. Eleanor will discuss why chat reference is viewed as an important component of reference service for her library, and the value that a 24/7 service brings to small library.

14 June – Engaging with Patrons Online
Register

What makes a chat session good and what makes a chat session exceptional?
How do you know you’re truly helping a patron?
Sometimes it’s not always clear from working with a patron in a virtual setting to know when you have satisfied their request. There has been a large amount of research done on how to reach and engage with patrons in that online environment. Carla Pfahl, Coordinator of AskMN (Minnesota’s statewide virtual reference service), and Merrie Davidson, Social Sciences Librarian and fellow AskMN librarian at the University of St. Thomas, will look at how to conduct a reference interview and what makes an exceptional reference transaction.

2 July – Chasing the Sun: a 24/7 chat service by medical librarians for health professionals
Register

The Chasing the Sun service enables health professionals to contact a medical librarian whenever help is required in using information resources after normal library hours. Although most hospital-based health professionals have 24/7 online access to a collection of bibliographic databases and full text products via their library services, but sometimes expert help is needed to use the resources or to perform a search outside of normal business hours. Chasing the Sun was started by medical librarians in Australia and England to take advantage of global time differences and offer out-of-hours librarian support for health professionals, in a cost-effective way. Join Mary Peterson, SA (South Australia) Health Library Network Knowledge Manager to find out more … and, if you are a medical librarian, how your library can join this global cooperative group!

NYLA, SCRLC, and Finger Lakes Library System (FLLS) are happy to announce a free

Digital Literacy Train-the-Trainer workshop

Date: Thursday, 23 May
Location: Tompkins County Public Library, Ithaca (map)
Cost: Free
Registration: NYLA events

This six-hour workshop is designed to instruct library staff on how train colleagues and the public, providing uniform and standardized digital literacy content throughout the state. It also provides tips and techniques on teaching the curriculum to adults. Travel and substitute staffing reimbursements are available to eligible libraries, and the workshop provides continuing education credit.

For more information, visit the program website.

Registration for the 2013 New York Archives Conference is open.

The New York Archives Conference (NYAC) 2013 annual meeting will be held at LIU Post Campus of Long Island University in Brookville, NY on Wednesday, June 5 through Friday, June 7, 2013. This year’s conference will be a joint meeting with the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan NY, Inc., (ART) and will be co-sponsored by the Palmer School of Library and Information Science at LIU Post Campus. Online registration is now open.

The deadline to apply for a Professional Development Grant has been extended to 5pm on April 29th.

Introduction to Geospatial Literacy with Eva Dodsworth

This class will be available in asynchronous mode from April 21 through May 5. The two-week class consists of a combination of recorded lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on tutorials. Participants can access and complete the on-demand tutorials and assignments at their convenience during the two-week period, receiving online feedback and guidance from the course facilitator as-needed.

Created specifically for library staff, this course will provide students with an introduction to the latest and greatest “geo” technologies currently being used by library administrators, librarians, library support staff, and library users.

Registration: http://www.ny3rs.org/educational-opportunities/event-registration/?action=evregister&event_id=6
Cost: $50

SLA’s Online Content Advisory Council presents SLA’s 2nd Twitter conversation

#SLAtalk: What would you tell your past MLIS-student self?

Not sure what all this chirping is about? We are harnessing the power and reach of social media to have a discourse with information professionals from around the world on Twitter. We have structured questions and follow our hash tag #SLAtalk to see the answers roll in! Read our “How to #SLAtalk” post on the SLA Blog.

Date: Tuesday, 9 April
Time: Two sessions to choose from

• Session 1 at 1:30-2:30 pm Eastern
• Session 2 at 7:00-8:00 pm Eastern

Questions to Answer:

1. What subjects or skills do you wish you were taught or exposed to in LIS school?

-Session 1: 1:30 – 1:45
-Session 2: 7:00 – 7:15

2. What was your favorite class or project in LIS school? How have you applied what you learned to your career?

-Session 1: 1:45 – 2:00
-Session 2: 7:15 – 7:30

3. What formal supplemental education, if any, have you pursued after LIS school?

-Session 1: 2:00 – 2:15
-Session 2: 7:30 – 7:45

4. What recommendations would you give an LIS school student?

-Session 1: 2:15 – 2:30
-Session 2: 7:45 – 8:00

After the session: Check back into the SLA Blog after the #SLAtalk, where we’ll post some of the best ideas that you all have tweeted. Notice your tweet being favorited from @SLAhq? Your handle and tweet will be posted to the SLA Blog!

New to Twitter chats? Check out these helpful tips and highlights from our first #SLAtalk.

SCRLC is delighted to present

Solving Personnel Questions

Date: Wednesday, 17 April
Time: 1:30-3:30 pm EDT
Location: webinar
Registration: http://www.scrlc.org/PersonnelQuestions
Cost: $10 SCRLC members, $15 non-SCRLC members, and $25 for groups

Description: This course is particularly suitable for directors, managers, and those currently (or hoping to) supervise employees. Are you…

• Looking for new ways to work with difficult staff members?
• Trying to create an effective working group of very different personality types?
• Wanting to improve the performance review process through more effective coaching throughout the year?
• Trying to help your staff successfully navigate transitions at work?
• Hoping to find ways to effectively integrate your team of full-timers, part-timers, and/or telecommuters?

Join us for an engaging conversation about positive psychology research and discover simple, straightforward tools to help you and your team thrive even in times of disruptive organizational change. At the end of the session, you will have tool kit of strategies to help you and others at your library can use to increase levels of personal and collective happiness, engagement, creativity, and inspiration.

This training is funded in part by Federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds, awarded to the New York State Library by the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

About the presenter: Linda Bryan, owner of Management Training and Consulting Services, has a passion for sharing empirically-researched tools, techniques, and practical approaches proven to increase individual and organizational well-being. She holds a Masters in Professional Studies from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University and over a decade working with employees at Cornell University Library.