We are so excited to announce the launch of our Feedback Feature. This feature is now available in all of our courses that are available to our library customers. The Feedback Feature is available as a tab on each slide of each course on the left hand side.

We really value all the feedback we get from our customers. We have created a feature that allows anyone who is using Mango to submit feedback, ask questions, or report any issues directly from the course. You can now submit any feedback without interrupting your studying! This features allows us to streamline all the awesome feedback in a timely manner and to make sure your questions are answered and your suggestions are tracked and recorded.

We hope you enjoy this new feature as much as we do. We look forward to hearing from you!

Take look:  http://gowyld.net/list.cfm?AlphaName=M

Wyoming State Library announces intent to purchase 3M Cloud Library as ‘early adopter’

November 15, 2011

The Wyoming State Library is happy to announce that the Wyoming State Library will contract with 3M to become an early adopter of 3M’s Cloud Library. We hope to begin implementation in January 2012 and we hope that this downloadable eBook platform will provide a good solution for our state. More details about this new service will follow as we begin implementation, but here is brief review of some of the features.

• Every library in the WYLDcat system will have access to a shared site with a shared collection. (Unfortunately, 3M cannot currently work with multiple authentication services, so UW patrons cannot be included in the license.)
• We will purchase title-by-title and will own the titles we purchase. Like most other downloadable eBook platforms, 3M employs a one-book, one-user-at-a-time model.
• New titles can be added to the group collection and will be accessible to everyone. Some Wyoming libraries have already offered to contribute funds to add more titles to our collection.
• 3M currently works with most eReaders except for Kindle. We know that this is a disadvantage. 3M also knows that this is a serious disadvantage for their product and they are currently negotiating with Amazon.
• 3M has developed eReaders that can be purchased by libraries and circulated among patrons.

Again, we will know more soon and will keep you informed as the implementation progresses. If you have questions, please ask and The State Library will do their best to find the answers. Also, please refer to the 3M Cloud Library overview for more information, or to this short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOYSQv-12RY.

The Rock Springs Library is planning an eBook Reader user’s group.  Are you reading on a Kindle, a Nook or a Sony eReader?  Are you considering purchasing an eReader? We would like to start a group to learn and share what you know and what you don’t know about the devices.  We see more and more people in the library with questions about the readers, we own a couple of them ourselves and are hopeful that libraries will have more access to materials for them in the future. Would you like to be part of a user’s group? Following are the facts from Shelf Awareness:

Some 12% of all adults in the U.S. own an e-book reader like the Kindle or Nook, a number that has doubled in the six months from November 2010 to May 2011, according to a Pew Internet survey of 2,277 adults. People most likely to own e-readers are Hispanic adults, college graduates, members of households earning at least $75,000 annually and those under age 65. Parents are also more likely than nonparents to own e-readers.

At the same time, 8% of adults own tablet computers like the iPad, up from 5% last November, a lower rate of growth than for dedicated e-readers. Similarly the highest rates of tablet ownership are among Hispanic adults and those from households with incomes of at least $75,000. Some 3% of all adults own both an e-reader and a tablet computer.

Taken from the Mango blog: http://blog.mangolanguages.com/2010/11/12/now-theres-even-more-mango-to-love/

From the our new website, and new product features, to new courses and languages, the Mango elves have been very busy around here.What are we celebrating this fine, foggy, Friday?  We have just launched an additional 9 language courses!

What are the new language courses? Well, I’m glad you asked:

Farsi Complete 2.0

ESL French Complete 2.0

ESL German Complete 2.0

ESL Greek Complete 2.0

Hebrew Complete 2.0

ESL Italian Complete 2.0

Korean Complete 2.0

ESL Korean Complete 2.0

Vietnamese Complete 2.0

You will find a link to Mango here.

Thank goodness for librarian Kee Malesky — who, for 20 years, has been saving NPR’s hosts and reporters from themselves. Malesky is the organization’s longest-serving librarian, and Simon says he suspects that she is actually the source of all human knowledge.

In her new book, All Facts Considered: The Essential Library of Inessential Knowledge, Malesky catalogs some of the facts that she has researched so dutifully over the years.

A Few Of Malesky’s Favorite Facts, Distilled
(Full explanations of these tidbits of knowledge can be found in All Facts Considered.)

Red hair, the rarest human color (less than 2 percent of the population), is caused by a variation in what is called the “Celtic” gene.

George Gershwin wrote Rhapsody in Blue in about three weeks and found his inspiration in the sounds and rhythm of a train as he traveled to Boston.

Tiny parasites — eyelash mites called Demodex — live and die on the faces of most of us; they walk around, eat, rest, mate and lay eggs.

The great Russian epic Doktor Zhivago was first published in Italy, not in the Soviet Union.

A Steinway grand piano comprises about 12,000 individual parts, and it takes 450 skilled artisans to create one.

Candidates in the 2008 U.S. elections spent as much money on their campaigns as it cost to build the nuclear submarine USS Jimmy Carter.

At any given moment, there are 10 quintillion individual insects on Earth — flies, mosquitoes, beetles, bees, etc.

There are 785 million illiterate adults in the world, and two-thirds of them are women.

The oldest zoomorphic structure in the U.S. is Lucy the Elephant, a former hotel in Margate, N.J.

The first e-book was the Declaration of Independence, typed into a computer in 1971 by the founder of Project Gutenberg.

Read the rest of the article or listen to an interview with Ms. Malesky here.

The University of Wyoming Libraries have acquired a large new database called ProQuest Central. In the licensing agreement, they were able to include the public, special and school libraries (community colleges already have access). This new database offers twice the number of full-text titles as any other database we have. Included in ProQuest Central are a number of subject specific databases, as well as ProQuest Newsstand which includes the Wall St. Journal, L.A. Times, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times and hundreds more. For a complete description of ProQuest Central visit the official product brochure.

Access this great new resource from the GoWYLD databases site, courtesy of the University of Wyoming Libraries.

Get the Smartest Card @ your library®

September is Library Card Sign-up Month, and the Sweetwater County Library System wants to make sure that all children in Rock Springs and Green River have the smartest card of all – a library card.

Public library programming and books for children make a difference in the lives of students. By providing school-age children with engaging programs and amazing collections, students from all backgrounds become excited and enthusiastic readers.

“A library card has always been the most important school supply of all,” says Cindy Moore.  “Today’s libraries are thriving technology hubs that millions rely as either their first or only choice for computer and Internet access. In doing so, libraries provide children with not only the tools to be literate, but information literate as well.  There’s a lot happening at all of the Sweetwater Libraries, and the best part for both children and parents – in these though economic times – is that it’s all free with a library card.”

Getting a library card is easy.   Simply request an application at your library’s front desk and fill it out. The application is short and only takes a few minutes to complete.  You will be required to provide a picture ID before a library card can be issued to you. A parent or guardian’s signature is required for applicants under the age of 16.

You will not receive your card immediately after completing your application; your card will be mailed to you within the week. You may check out any two (2) items after your application has been completed. Upon receipt of your card your borrowing privileges will be extended to include the following: books, audio-books and periodicals, seven (7) DVDs, seven (7) VHS tapes and seven (7) music CDs.

Borrowing periods are as follows: three (3) days for AV equipment, seven (7) days for DVDs, VHS tapes, and music CDs, twenty-one (21) days for all other library items.

During the month of September, all library card holders may turn in their old library cards in exchange for a new one.  The new library cards also come with a key chain card, making having your card convenient for everyone!

Observed since 1987, Library Card Sign-up Month is a time when the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country remind parents that a library card is the most important school supply of all.

For more information on how to sign up for a library card, visit one of your the Sweetwater County Libraries or visit online at http://www.sweetwaterlibraries.com.

Library Card Sign-up Month 2010

Proclamation

Whereas, the smartest card is a library card;

Whereas, in times of economic hardship, Americans turn to – and depend on – their libraries and librarians;

Whereas, libraries nationwide design and offer programs tailored to meet their local community’s economic needs;

Whereas, public library staff help students learn how to perform age-appropriate Internet searches, online tutoring and Web-based resources for homework help using free, public-access computers;

Whereas, children who have library cards and use the library perform better in school;

Whereas, by motivating children to read, librarians create lifelong readers, and that makes for better citizens, which makes for a healthier democracy;

Whereas, the most important school supply of all is a library card;

Whereas, be it resolved  that September is Library Card Sign-Up Month in Rock Springs and Green River, Wyoming and we encourage everyone to sign up for the smartest card @ your library.

Mango is the fast, easy, and most effective way to learn to speak a foreign language!

Mango is an online language learning system that teaches real conversation skills for practical communication. Through fun and engaging interactive lessons, Mango makes learning a new language fast, easy and incredibly effective.

Mango’s unique methodology copies the way people learn when surrounded by a foreign culture – through practical conversation. Every lesson incorporates all 4 conversational components (Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Grammar and Culture), each of which is critical to your ability to communicate in a foreign language. At the same time, you’ll be increasing your ability to actually USE what you learn, with a variety of critical thinking and memory exercises. As you listen to and repeat after native speakers, you’ll learn more than just words and phrases. You’ll learn how those pieces can be rearranged and combined to make new thoughts, new conversations, and even more practical communication!

The Mango system is completely web-based and remotely accessible, so you can learn anywhere you have an internet connection — at the library, a coffee shop, or even at home in bed. Choose from 36 guided language experiences, 14 English as a second language experiences, and different levels of fluency. All you need is a library membership.

Mango is built to be both effective and fun. You’ll see progress with every session, and be encouraged to keep talking. In no time at all, you’ll be able to navigate all sorts of everyday situations — get directions, order a meal, make new friends — the possibilities are endless!

Mango is FREE at your library – learn more by visiting us online:  http://gowyld.net/list.cfm?AlphaName=M