GTO ELL Newsletter - January 9, 2022

Hello GTO English Language Library Patrons and Friends,

This newsletter will help to keep our patrons and the subscribed Guanajuato English-speaking community informed of news and events. You are invited to suggest content about upcoming events and information or links of interest to our subscribers.

Next ELL staff Meeting and Meet-and-Greet

The next volunteer staff meeting will be at 4:30pm, Wednesday, January 18th. Later that evening, at 6pm, is the Meet-and-Greet which is open to all. Both events will be at the ELL (address at bottom).

La Presa Reading Event

The inaugural reading for the latest issue of La Presa (Guanajuato's bilingual literary journal) will take place at 5 pm on Saturday, January 28. It will be in the new reading/screening room at Cinemanimal, Paseo de la Presa 30 (across from PRI), La Presa, GTO.

New ELL Web Site

The GTO ELL web site is taking shape at https://englishlibrarygto.mx/. The home page and Catalog page are mostly ready. Much of the content of the home page was taken from the old site. Let me know what needs revision. The catalog is not complete but already has in excess of 5,000 searchable titles. The site attempts to be "responsive": it should reshape itself to be usable on phones, tablets, and computers, or any Internet-connected device. Plans are to set up a connected blog that will allow patrons to input reviews and recommend books. A spanish version of the home page will also soon be available.

The focus now is on getting the catalog complete and updated. The software in use will allow us to add circulation features later that will allow staff to keep updated the patron list as well as check out books and track their status: who has them, when due. etc. Also what books any given patron has out. This will help us track our books and patrons more easily. Catalog and patron management should be doable from any phone or computer.

I don't envision all volunteers are interested in learning how to use the software. Hand written records are still ok, so long as some of us are comfortable regularly entering the hand written records into the online collection and circulation databases so it stays updated and useful. I will be happy to train anyone when we get that far along...

Other News

We'll be posting here changes to our normal library hours (below) such as holiday closures, etc.

Memberships

If you are not already, please consider becoming a supporting member of the library: monthly - 50 pesos; annual - 500 pesos. You get liberal borrowing privileges and this helps us grow.