Go Local Nebraska in the news

We have received copies of two recent articles about Go Local Nebraska: one in Doniphan's Herald on April 5, and one in Lexington's Clipper-Herald on April 11. If you happen to see any media reports on Go Local Nebraska, please let us know so we can add the event to our publicity file.

May 11th presentation in Oakland

Marie Reidelbach, chair of the Go Local Nebraska committee, presented the new service during the Eastern Library System's Direct meeting on May 11, 2007. Hosted by the Oakland Public Library, the meeting was attended by nine area public library directors and Kathy Tooker, director of the Eastern Library System. Marie gave a personal invitation to the group to become Go Local Selectors. Seven of the library directors present agreed to become the first class of Selectors in Nebraska, and are eagerly awaiting their first assignments.

Back at McGoogan after a great trip!

We had a wonderful time last week, traveling Nebraska and telling librarians about the Go Local Nebraska initiative. We visited with 38 libraries and 3 system offices, delivering a poster and a bag of promotional items, or a poster alone if the library was visited during our 2006 trips. We taught the Go Local Nebraska class to over 60 library staff members that traveled to Alliance, Kearney, Norfolk, and Lincoln for the Spring Meetings. Total mileage driven from May 6-11: 1474 miles.
This was a great start to our 2007 travel season!

In Lincoln, after a successful Thursday

Travel yesterday was very successful. The NLA Spring Meeting class went well, with a potential Selector nominating themself for service. Starting off in Stanton, where we found a CHIRS poster up at the public library. The library director and assistant director were very glad to hear about the free display that any library can request - it will come in handy during their city-wide celebration this summer. Some libraries, like the one in Ulysses, were closed when we drove by, but we will get back to them during our future travels. The last stop, Milford, happened just as the library was about to close, but the staff received us warmly.
Today we have the final NLA Spring Meeting class, one more library visit, then home to Omaha.

In Norfolk, NE, and the week is half over

We had an enjoyable day, traveling to 10 libraries after the training we conducted at the Kearney Public Library. Saint Paul, Silver Spring, Genoa, all the way up to Oakdale and Battle Creek - the libraries and towns in Nebraska are varied and vibrant. We had a great reception in Oakdale - the librarian had attended our February training in Norfolk, and not only reads each issue of Year of CHIRS that she receives, she shares it with her board members so they will understand what health information services exist for Nebraskans through our public libraries. We have a full class set for Norfolk in the morning, then we will begin visiting libraries all the way down and past Lincoln, our training site for Friday. Today's items of interest: pairs of ducks on ponds, chipmunk-looking critters that played chicken with our rental car, and guinea hens on the side of the road. Next stop - Lincoln!

Now in Kearney

We are waiting for a great sunset here in Kearney. Today, we visited the library in Paxton, meeting a new librarian and introducing her to CHIRS and Go Local Nebraska. She liked the free display that we circulate to any library in Nebraska, and may request it for an event coming up this summer.
We also visited the librarian at Wallace, who also runs the town hotel. She was glad that we provided information on how to promote health information services to her community.
Items of interest today: whitetail deer, turkey (1 male, 1 female, but about a county apart), and a peacock.

Hello from Ogallala

We have arrived at Ogallala after a long day of travel. We conducted a Go Local training at the Alliance Public Library this morning to an enthusiastic crowd of 26 public librarians and staff. The training was part of the NLA 2007 Spring Meetings. Then we hit the road, visiting Hemingford, Harrison, Mitchell, Morrill, Minatare, and Bayard. At some of the towns, we just took photos of the library, since we were able to give the brand new Go Local Nebraska posters and promotion material in person at the training in Alliance. In other towns, like Morrill and Harrison, we were able to meet the library staff members, give the materials and share the news that Go Local Nebraska has been designed for them and their community's health information needs. Other items of interest we saw today: antelope, buffalo, meadowlarks, and redwinged blackbirds. We will post the number of miles we have driven each day so far in tomorrow's entry. -Roxanne and Teri

Next week: follow the CHIRS Road Team's progress across Nebraska

Roxanne Cox and Teresa (Teri) Hartman are traveling across Nebraska from May 6 - May 11. In addition to conducting consumer health information training sessions at the NLA Spring Meeting sites of Alliance, Kearney, Norfolk, and Lincoln, the pair will take the message of Go Local Nebraska to public libraries that were not visited during the 2006 travel. Photos and descriptions of the visits will be uploaded to this blog every evening (barring any technology difficulties), so stay tuned!
You can see the travel log of trips made in 2006 at this site: http://www.unmc.edu/apps/library/travelog/log.cfm . After the trips are made next week, they will also be added to the travel log.