December 2022 Newsletter

For State Employees

Palace Project App and You

ABLE Library & Inclusive Services

ABLE Book Club

Inclusive Library Services



Are you looking for ways to make your library services accessible for people with disabilities? The Vermont Department of Libraries staff created a webpage that can help library staff achieve this goal. You'll find examples of accessibility policies from other libraries, training opportunities, accessible digital resources, and much more. Visit Resources for Libraries on Accessibility to discover resources that can help you make your library more accessible. 

Cataloging Spectacles

Noteworthy Finds from the Cataloging Desk

Jesse Jackson in Montpelier, February 5, 1984 – Cassette Tape Recording

Youth Services

New England Teen Summit

Continuing Education & Small and Rural Libraries

The new year will feature reference and collection development courses for the Certificate of Public Librarianship, as well as topics that will hopefully appeal to library staff with various levels of experience and from different types of libraries. On January 13, 2023, there will be an Open House for the Certificate of Public Librarianship featuring an overview of the program and Q&A for any considering the program for themselves or for staff they supervise. Also look for deep dives into cataloging, personnel management topics, multilingual and multicultural health reference, and how to manage special collections housed in public libraries. Workshops are added regularly to the VTLIB website CE page: https://libraries.vermont.gov/services/continuing_ed. We welcome suggestions for training topics; please send ideas to joy.worland@vermont.gov.

The Small & Rural Library Round Table is hosted quarterly by the Department of Libraries. The goal of these informal gatherings is to help staff from small libraries develop a community of practice and support. Whether the topic is how to scale a great idea to a small library space and budget, what diversity looks like in rural Vermont, or what training and retention looks like for staff or volunteers who only work a few hours a week, it can be enormously helpful to talk to other people who have dealt with similar issues. 

The definition of small and rural in this context is broad: if you consider the governance, staff, budget, or character of your library small or rural, this space is for you. The next one will be held virtually Friday, December 16, 2022, at 10:00am. The session will begin with an exploration of the decision-making process around how to let go of initiatives that either no longer fit the library’s mission or need to be set aside to make room to try new things. Organic evolution into adjacent topics is welcomed and celebrated in these settings, so other topics are also likely to surface. Registration link and the Teams meeting link are available on the VTLIB website CE page: https://libraries.vermont.gov/services/continuing_ed. 

Governance & Management

While Town Meeting Day and its election of trustees is three months away, now is an excellent time to work on your new trustee orientation plan. The director and current trustees play a role in ensuring the success of new members. With clear and concise information, they can feel confident as they take on their new role and have the knowledge to make well-informed governance decisions for the library. 

The Department offers many resources to support trustees. For example, a trustee job description. This should be much like one of the library staff job descriptions, providing an overview of expected duties and responsibilities. This helps them know what is expected of them. You can also supply them with the last six months of board meeting minutes so they can learn how the meetings run and more about items of recent interest.

Once someone joins the board, be sure to provide them with important resources including the library’s current policies, the last year of board meeting minutes, and financial reports. You could make these available in printed format, as a link to the library’s website (if these items on the website), digitally, or as a combination. Share a link to the Department’s trustee page with them: https://libraries.vermont.gov/services/public_libraries/trustees.

Prior to their first meeting, trustees should review the Library Trustees’ Manual, the Law of Public Libraries publication, and Working Together Chart. These documents are on the trustee page. Trustees should sign up for the Trustee Niche Academy for video resources.

Once trustees are familiar with the resources, you can contact the Department about board training. We offer training virtually through Teams by default. In addition, the Department is working to release an update to the Library Trustees’ Manual. 

CLOVER Corner

Top 5 most requested DVDs

• The Walking Dead (all seasons)
• Sarah, Plain and Tall
• Dogma
• Buffy, the Vampire Slayer
• The Old Man and the Sea

Information & Access

Online Resource Use October 2022 

We’d like to share the October stats for online resources offered by the Department of Libraries.

Learning Express and Vermont Online Library are free to all libraries (public, school, or academic),

while Universal Class is only available to public libraries.

Important News

Gale’s ChiltonLibrary, available through Vermont Online Library, was recently updated. Chilton provides repair and maintenance guides for a wide range of cars and trucks. This update improves the interface and search and adds better videos, animations, and VIN searching. Read more at Gale’s page.

Learning Express

Learning Express provides training for workplace, academic, and job-hunting skills. It offers training for occupation exams, skills for school, exploration of careers, resume and interview help, and more.

Sessions – 42 | Registrations – 23

Tests – 13 | Tutorials – 0 | Computer Courses – 4 | eBooks – 8

Resumes – 1 | Cover Letters – 0 | Job Searches – 1

Most Used Resources:

• Tests – Praxis Writing, Culinary Arts, TOEFL, WorkKeys Job Assessment, Vocabulary & Spelling
• eBooks – Becoming a Culinary Arts Professional, Becoming a Nurse, Business Writing, MCAT,
• Proofreading, Public Speaking
• Computer Courses – Intro to Personal Computers, Microsoft Office 365, SharePoint

Universal Class

Universal Class offers a wide range of online courses (from business to cooking, computers to social work) that are led by a real instructor, and that can be completed at your own pace.

New Registrations – 65 | New Courses Started – 259 | Login Sessions – 971

Lessons Viewed – 11,489 | Videos Watched – 8,328 | Student Submissions – 11,082

Most Active Classes – American Government, How to Draw, Salem Witch Trials, Anatomy, Ancient Civilizations, Mixed Media Art, World War II, Business Math

Vermont Online Library

Vermont Online Library covers everything from magazine and newspaper articles to DIY car repair and business help. Users can (with a bit of work) even read articles by issue from some popular magazines, such as The New York Times, Economist, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Highlights for Children, National Review, and Runner's World.

Sessions – 42,046 | Average Session Length – 9.57 minutes | Text Retrievals – 28,043

(Note about Sessions – This number is a bit misleading, as it counts multiple sessions when a user searches multiple databases at once)

Most Used Databases – Academic OneFile, Opposing Viewpoints, General OneFile, News, Biography



Chilton Library Retrievals – 44

Read more about Learning Express, Universal Class, or Vermont Online Library, or email Josh Muse (Joshua.Muse@vermont.gov) with any questions.

A CLIC Holiday 

Have you ever thought about how much the law impacts our everyday lives? Even holidays? 

Holidays are, generally, a time for get-togethers and good cheer. All the same, CLIC would like to remind you that the law can find its way into any aspect of our lives, and possibly put a damper on holiday fun.

Consider these questions and notice how family law, labor law, business law, tort law, and constitutional law impact our holiday celebrations and our daily lives.

• Can you put up a holiday display in a public location?
• Can you have a holiday celebration or party in a public school?
• A divorced parent wants to know who gets the children this Christmas?
• If you work on Christmas Day are you entitled to enhanced pay? 
• What happens if the deadline to file your complaint with the court is on Christmas Day, and the court is closed?
• Finally, there is always the question of holiday party liability, whether the party is at home or the office?

For answers to questions about the intersection of holidays and the law or any other legal question that you or your patrons may have, please contact CLIC by calling (802) 831-1313 (the “Ask a Law Librarian” Line) or emailing clic@vermontlaw.edu.

You can also borrow: The Little Book of Holiday Law, by Ursula Furi-Perry.

Please note: The Julien & Virginia Cornell Library and CLIC will be closed from December 23, 2022 through January 2, 2023, and will reopen on Wednesday, January 4, 2023.   

2023 Winter Trivia Series

The Vermont Historical Society's popular trivia program is back for a four-week run in January, plus a championship round the first week of February. Test your knowledge of Vermont or just come to laugh and learn as participants play an online interactive trivia game together.

Round 1: January 4th, Vermont Geography

Round 2: January 11th, Vermont Nature

Round 3: January 18th, Vermont Symbols

Round 4: January 25th, Famous Vermonters