A New Year’s Present

It’s a new year, and we have a present for you! The Marmot Digital Archive became accessible via Pika (the patron interface for AspenCat) starting on January 2, 2018.

The Marmot Digital Archive has been beautifully integrated into Pika and allows for seamless discovery for anyone using the interface. You’ll see links to relevant “digital archive objects” in search results as well as in grouped works and individual records.

For example, if a patron searches for the keyword “quilts” they’ll see books and the usual material AND ALSO see links to items in the Vail Vintage Quilts archive collection! At that point, the patron can click on one of the archive objects and will be drawn directly in to explore that item and other digital objects.

Similarly, when exploring digital archive objects, will see links to other related objects in other collections as well as physical holdings at the library.

The Marmot Digital Archive holds several different collections provided by participating Colorado libraries featuring a range of topics and items specific to Colorado history. The value of these digital collections is immeasurable. Dive in for yourself and you’ll soon be “thumbing” though all kinds of digital objects: oral histories, postcards, yearbooks, quilt squares, and photographs. These collections will have particular value for students looking for primary resources, patrons doing genealogy research, and anyone who loves to follow the rabbit hole of discovery!

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you might have.

Oh, and did we mention: this new access to digital content comes part and parcel (with a bow!) with your library’s membership in AspenCat, so there will be no additional cost for access to this amazing resource.

2017 AspenCat Users Group Meeting Digested!

The 2017 AspenCat Users Group Meeting continued the tradition of a fun and informative event focused toward AspenCat libraries. It was great to see so many of you this year and we really appreciate your participation and enthusiasm. [Read more…]

2017 AspenCat Users Group Meeting!

It’s September and you know what that means … time for our annual in-person AspenCat Users Group Meeting! [Read more…]

AspenCat Regional Workshops — Coming to a Service Area Near You!

Bringing training right to your back yard!

We will be offering the regional workshops on a variety of different dates and locations to best accommodate AspenCat member libraries all over the state. We did our best to find dates and locations that would work well for everyone’s schedules and we hope to see lots of you there for a fun, focused afternoon of learning.

This year’s workshops will be shorter, have more focused content, and more breaks sprinkled throughout. These workshops should provide a good breadth of different topics that should be useful for AspenCat library staff in all areas of service.

The workshops are free of cost to you and CLiC will be providing lunch and light breakfast snacks. We will try to accommodate dietary restrictions to the best of our ability, however if you have a very specialized diet, we recommend that you bring along your own lunch and snacks.

All workshops start at their respective locations at 10AM and run until about 2PM. Dates and locations are listed below, for reference. When registering, you’ll be required to pick ONE location.

  • Pueblo County Library (Rawlings Branch) – Pueblo, CO : July 17th
  • Center Consolidated Library – Center, CO : July 18th
  • Berthoud Community Library District – Berthoud, CO : July 21st
  • Dolores Public Library – Dolores, CO : July 27th
  • Las Animas Bent County Library District – Las Animas, CO : August 2nd
  • Yuma Public Library – Yuma, CO : August 3rd
  • Hub City Senior Center – Limon, CO : August 4th

REGISTER HERE!

2017 Spring Workshops Presenter Materials

It feels like the 2017 Spring Workshop season was just a few weeks ago, but we’re already gearing up for our 2018 season!

So, while we prep for the next amazing set of workshops, you might want to review some of the fantastic content from last spring (2017). [Read more…]