News & Events
2024 KLAS Mini-Conference LBPD Track Recordings
Below are the recordings, presentations, and other resources shared in the library for the blind and print disabled track of the 2024 KLAS Users' Mini-Conference.
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2024 KLASUsers' Mini-Conference
In May of 2022, we held the first KLASUsers' Mini-Conference to provide space and time for Keystone Staff and KLAS Users' to connect and learn from one another as well as share / discuss Keystone company updates and KLAS new features, tips & tricks, and new development suggestions. 2024's Mini-Conference will offer all of that and MORE!
The 2024 KLASUsers' Mini-Conference will be a free, online event accessible via Zoom held:
- Tuesday, May 14 - 1:00-5:00 PM Eastern Time / 10:00 AM-2:00 PM Pacific
- Wednesday, May 15 - 1:00-5:00 PM Eastern Time / 10:00 AM-2:00 PM Pacific
Add the event to your calendar now, then review the initial schedule, and submit your registration form. If you use the below "Add to Calendar" button, the day / time of the conference as well as relevant Zoom connection info will be included.
Zoom
We will use one Zoom meeting link with 3 breakout rooms during the Mini-Conference. Attendees will be able to navigate between breakout rooms as they like.
- Zoom Meeting Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89346254714?pwd=eHFpQmdlU2d3elVadldTNVMwSWlVUT09
- Dial-in for Audio: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kd4eiKdpib
- Meeting ID: 893 4625 4714
- Passcode: 769337
To move between breakout rooms:
- Select Breakout Rooms
in your meeting controls. - This will display the list of open breakout rooms including: Glenwood, Raleigh, & Pinecrest
- Select the number to the right of breakout room you wish to join, select Join, then confirm selecting Join.
- Repeat as necessary to join other breakout rooms.
Zoom Accessibility:
We will have captions enabled, and Zoom provides an extensive list of hotkeys and keyboard shortcuts to help users navigate meetings.
Sessions
This year will again feature sessions with topics of interest for all KLAS Users, as well as more specific Instructional Resource Center (IRC) and Library for the Blind and Print Disabled (LBPD) sessions. New for 2024 will be two sessions featuring updates from staff of the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) and from the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS).
Session Types:
General sessions will share information and updates relevant to all KLAS Users, and no conflicting sessions will be scheduled at the same time they are offered. During these sessions, there will limited time for questions and answers.
Workshop sessions are presented by Keystone staff member or a guest speaker. Attendees are encouraged to ask questions throughout the session. These in-depth presentations share information via different tools such as slides, live examples, and / or user experiences.
Birds-of-a-Feather (BoaF) sessions give participants the opportunity to exchange ideas in a group discussion setting. All KLAS Users are invited to participate in the BoaF sessions they feel are relevant to them. However, we do indicate for each session whether an IRC or LBPD audience might find it more applicable. Topics range from making the most of KLAS features to exploring broader service-related ideas. These sessions are not formal presentations with slides or software demonstrations. Instead, the format is casual and open. Moderators launch the discussion and keep the conversation on topic; participants are asked to come prepared to share and learn.
Tuesday, May 14
This is an initial schedule, and sessions are subject to change. Want to get more involved with the Users' group? Volunteering to moderate a BoaF session is a great way to get started!
Time |
Breakout Room |
Session Type |
Session |
Speaker(s) |
| 1:00-2:15 PM ET | Raleigh | Workshop |
Title: KLAS Updates for Library for the Blind and Print Disabled Users |
Katy Patrick, Keystone Systems |
| 1:00-2:15 PM ET | Glenwood | Workshop | Updates from American Printing House for the Blind (APH) Staff | Anthony Phillips, APH |
| 2:30-3:30 PM ET | Glenwood | General |
Title: State of Keystone: Company Updates & Highlights |
James Burts & Drea Callicutt, Keystone Systems |
| 3:45-5:00 PM ET | Raleigh | Workshop | Updates from National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) Staff | Jason Yasner, David Perrota, & Justine Walp, NLS |
| 3:45-5:00 PM ET | Glenwood | Workshop |
Title: KLAS Updates for Instructional Resource / Materials Center Users |
Katy Patrick, Keystone Systems |
Wednesday, May 15
Time |
Breakout Room |
Session Type |
Session |
Speaker / Moderator |
| 1:00-2:15 PM ET | Glenwood | General |
Title: KLAS Users' Group Business Meeting |
Traci Timmons, KLAS Users' Group President |
| 2:30-3:30 PM ET | Raleigh | Birds-of-a-Feather (IRC) |
Topic: Census & Yearly Updates |
Marion Campbell, Keystone Systems |
| 2:30-3:30 PM ET | Glenwood | Birds-of-a-Feather (LBPD) |
Topic: Reader Advisor |
Sara Zapotocky, Arizona Talking Book Library |
| 2:30-3:30 PM ET | Pinecrest | Birds-of-a-Feather (LBPD) |
Topic: LBPD Reports & Queries |
Lee Anne Hooley, Worcester Talking Book Library & Maureen Dorosinski, Florida Braille and Talking Book Library |
| 3:45-5:00 PM ET | Raleigh | Birds-of-a-Feather (IRC) | Topic: IRC Reports & Queries Description: Do you have a favorite report? A query that made your work easier? Come share with fellow IRC users--and you're bound to leave with a few new ones to try! |
Marion Campbell, Keystone Systems |
| 3:45-5:00 PM ET | Glenwood | Birds-of-a-Feather (LBPD) |
Topic: Circulation |
Jesse McGarity, Virginia Beach Public Library, Accessible Resources & Services |
| 3:45-5:00 PM ET | Pinecrest | Birds-of-a-Feather (LBPD) |
Topic: Outreach |
Lori Brown, Wolfner Talking Book & Braille Library & Judy Gray, Indiana Talking Book & Braille Library |
Registration
Registration is not required, but doing so helps us know approximately how many persons to plan on for each session. You will automatically be emailed a copy of your registration upon submission.
2025 Julie Klauber Award Info
The Julie Klauber Award is one way we at Keystone Systems recognize the invaluable support that volunteers and staff provide to their organizations and their patrons. Each organization may nominate one staff member or volunteer using the nomination form at the bottom of this article. The EXTENDED deadline for nominations is Friday, January 31. The selected 2025 Julie Klauber Award Honoree will receive a trip to the 2025 KLAS Users' Conference to be held in Indianapolis, IN, March 17-20. More information about the award, nomination and selection process, etc, is below.
Who was Julie Klauber?
Julie Klauber was a national expert and leader on disability issues and was instrumental in helping develop Keystone's growing national presence. In 2012, Julie received the ASCLA Francis Joseph Campbell Award recognizing her work advancing library services for patrons who are blind and print disabled. Julie served as the director of the Talking Books Plus Library in Suffolk, County, NY and authored several articles on library resources and services for people with disabilities. Additionally, she created and maintained the newsletter Disability Resources Monthly and the corresponding website www.disabilityresources.org. Julie passed away on September 3, 2002 after a long, brave struggle with cancer.
A word about Julie Klauber from her former coworker:
Valerie Lewis sent the below email to the KLASUsers listserv in January, 2011:
It has been more than eight years since Julie passed away. Her name comes up every day.....truly, it does. I work with 5 other people who worked with Julie for many years. I sit in the office that was once hers. Her husband and sons are often in my home. I work with her husband Avery, to continue the important work that she and he started many years before I was lucky enough to meet them.
Julie was a librarian, but more she was the truest advocate for access to library programs, services and materials for all, particularly people with disabilities.
In addition to being the librarian for the sub-regional library that served Long Island, NY, Julie and her husband established a non-profit organization that provided information and referral resources for librarians, service providers and individuals living with disabilities.......long before and into the earlier days....of the internet.
Julie spent truly all of her time making sure that people with disabilities had access to information.....all information. She created partnerships with local and national corporations that brought assistive technology to local libraries. She created library resources in alternative formats and worked with libraries and librarians across the country, to promote accessible library services.
It has been my honor to be a member of the Julie Klauber Award Committee. It has given me the opportunity to read about lbph staff and volunteers who create new and innovative ways of making library materials, services and programs accessible to their patrons. Something still so difficult to do, even in these technologically advanced times.
You may think that the daily practices and procedures of operating a library for the blind and physically disabled are hum-drum and nothing out of the ordinary, but think again. It is through the work and creativity of each and every member or your organization, that people with disabilities have access to information....something we treasure so dearly and take so for granted.
On that note, we encourage you to think about how the wheels of your organization turn and who are the people turning it.
With warm regards,
Valerie Lewis, Director
Long Island Talking Book Library
Who can be nominated for the Julie Klauber Award?
Each KLAS library or organization may nominate one staff member or volunteer who:
- Works with KLAS in their daily job functions.
- Has demonstrated outstanding service to their organization and / or their community in the spirit of Julie Klauber during their time with the library.
- Will appreciate and benefit from attending the KLAS Users' Conference.
Please use the below form to submit your nominee's info before end of business Friday, January 24.
What does the award recipient receive and how are they selected?
The selected Julie Klauber Award Recipient receives a trip to the 2025 KLAS Users' Conference to be held in Indianapolis, IN, March 17-20 and will be will be honored as part of an award ceremony held during the conference's opening general session the afternoon of Monday, March 17 including receiving a personalized plaque to commemorate their achievement. The trip includes one round-trip coach ticket on Delta Airlines from the recipient's nearby major city to an airport near the conference location and hotel expenses for a single occupancy for March 17-20. Conference registration fees are covered by Keystone Systems, Inc. and meals are provided by the conference. If the recipient needs / desires a travel companion, such a person may be accommodated at Keystone CEO James Burts' discretion.
Award finalists will be selected from all nominated individuals by the 2025 Julie Klauber Award Committee including:
- Teresa Kalber, Colorado Talking Book Library, 2011 Julie Klauber Award Recipient
- Lisa Nelson, Utah State Library Program for the Blind and Disabled
- Pepper Watson, Oklahoma Library for the Blind, Accessible Instructional Materials Center
- Erin Pawlus, Arizona Talking Book Library
- James Gleason, Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library
- Andrea Ewing Callicutt, Keystone Systems, Inc.
James Burts, CEO of Keystone Systems, will then determine the 2025 recipient after consulting with all the finalists' supervisors.
Biographies of previous Julie Klauber Award Recipients are available at the Julie Klauber Award Winners page.
Julie Klauber Award Nomination Form
2025 Julie Klauber Award Winner
We'd like to introduce you to our 2025 Julie Klauber Award winner, Natalia Renfro, Kansas State Library Talking Books, and thought the best way to do so is by sharing the nomination we received for her. Maggie Witte, Kansas State Library Talking Books, described Natalia (Nataly) as "a hard, consistent worker who works well with the library team dedicated to making sure all of our patrons have access to the players and materials they need for a fulfilling informed and personalized reading experience."
Keystone Systems is honored to provide Nataly a trip to the 2025 KLAS Users' Conference, where she will be recognized during Monday's opening general session. An official press release will be published just before the award ceremony.
Nataly's Nomination for the 2025 Julie Klauber Award:
How do you know the nominee? Have you worked with them? If so, in what capacity?
Nataly started working for Kansas Talking Books in 2016 as one of our circulation clerks working closely with all of the staff and working as our machine for the last few years. I have worked with her in ensuring all of the books are found, creating No Due Date titles such as the Bible, helping patrons figure out issues with their DTBMs, and just as a team to ensure everyone has access to what they need.
What service(s) has the nominee done in the spirit of Julie Klauber?
Nataly ensures that patrons have access to our services by carefully managing the checking in and out, storage, and upkeep of the digital talking book players so patrons have as little disruption in their reading experience as possible. She is patient and supportive when patrons call with player issues, helping them check for errors if they can and/or getting replacement players in the mail as quickly as possible. When mail issues arise, she calmly works with patrons, other Kansas Talking Books (KTB) staff, and even the post office to see if the issue can be determined or to find a solution, if possible. She also helps patrons get access to audio-described movies, advocating for the addition of movies that meet their needs, circulating those movies when the patrons request, and making sure they are ready for the next patron. It is through her efforts that our patrons have access to informational and recreational materials and the playback equipment to access those items. She is also bilingual and assists our Spanish-only patrons to find and check out the books they like or adjust their accounts accordingly.
How do they affect your library/community and/or the KLAS Users’ Community?
She is always supportive of all the efforts of staff, assisting in any way she can. She is compassionate towards patrons, caring for their point of view. She helps the library circulation run smoothly with her efforts.
What are the nominees job responsibilities and how do they relate to KLAS?
Her job responsibilities are:
- maintaining the inventory of digital talking book players and check players in and out to patrons when they return them for maintenance or for other reasons using Equipment module;
adding No Due Date materials, such as the Bible and other religious texts, using KLAS, ensuring there are always the religious texts patrons are interested available using the Circulation module; - adding audio-described movie titles to the collection and maintaining that collection which she creates records for those titles in the collection and adds all the necessary metadata for them using the Catalog module;
- handles the readers advisory and circulation of audio-described movies to patrons who ask for them using the Patron module;
- assisting patrons with player issues or calling previous patrons or their family members to attempt to retrieve digital talking book players which she uses KLAS to look up accounts and make notes in the comments using the Patron and Equipment modules;
- assist Spanish-only patrons with their accounts by making changes to preferences or adding books to their service queues in the Patron module;
- assists in cataloging duties as available in the Catalog module.
2025 KLAS Users' Group Proposed Bylaws Updates
From Maureen Dorosinski, KLAS Users' Group President:
There will be a discussion and a vote on the edits below, and for anything else about the bylaws the users would like to discuss, during the 2025 KLAS Users' Conference Users' Group Business meeting. This will be held during the last day of the conference, Thursday, March 20, 2025, This is a hybrid general session from 11:45 am-2:00 pm Eastern time.
- Article VI, Vice-President: the sentence, "May be required to perform President’s duties if the President is unavailable." now says "The Vice-President may be required to perform President’s duties if the President is unavailable."
- Article IX: the underline for Robert's Rules of Order extended past the word "Order.", this is fixed.
- Also, Robert's needed an apostrophe "s", this is fixed.
- Added to Article X: Minor revisions like the correction of typos, misspellings, or grammatical errors do not require the approval of the membership.
Current KLAS Users' Group Bylaws with above suggested edits:
8/15/2024 KLAS Users' Group Officer & Committee Meet & Greet
Per your KLAS Users' Group Bylaws, KLAS Users' Group Officer transitions occurred on August 1, 2024. Now, your 2024-2025 Officers' and Committee Chairs want to have a chance to introduce themselves to you and answer your questions.
Are you interested in what being an officer entails / what role do they play in the users' group, and / or how your program, logistics or development advisory committee operates? This session was an opportunity for KLASUsers' to get answers to these these questions and more!
KLAS Users' Group Officers:
- Traci Timmons, Immediate Past President
- Maureen Dorosinski, President
- Josh Easter, Vice President
- Sara Zapatocky, Secretary
KLAS Users' Group Committee Chairs:
- Jesse McGarity, Program & KLAS Development Advisory Committee (KDAC)
- Maureen Dorosinski, Logistics
A look back: 2022 in Review
Another year is in the books, and we’re stoked to be officially in a conference year! But, before we barrel ahead, let’s take a look back at 2022.
Around the Office
The Keystone offices were a little less quiet this year as some of the staff have transitioned back to working from the office on a regular basis. However, there have been even bigger transitions as we've seen some staffing changes.
Longtime developer Brian White and customer support specialist John Owen retired, but new faces George and Katharina have joined the family in their stead.
Events & Training
This past summer, we held our 2022 KLAS Mini-Conference to help fill the gap between conference years. Thank you to everyone who joined us and helped make it a successful event! We hope to see you all again either in-person or online for the 2023 Users Conference!
We also held the first online IRC Administrator's Training! Thanks as well to our first round of IRC Admins, and we hope everything you learned has been serving you well.
Last but not least, we want to highlight the Onboarding New KLAS Users webinar. If you've had staffing changes of your own, or expect to bring on some new staff in the new year, make sure to check it out!
KLAS Development
Finally, 2022 has been a big year for KLAS development, even if it has sometimes seemed quiet from the user's side, as we made big strides in some big projects. Here's some of the highlights:
- Scribes can now unlock NLS Cartridges making it easier to repurpose physical collections and quicker to start using new white cartridges.
- To meet PNDB funding requirements, a major integration project with Rolka-Loube was implemented and is in Live use now as agencies complete their year-end reporting.
- The New WebOPAC, while not yet ready for release, is coming along beautifully. Thank you everyone for your feedback and feature requests!
- APH Integration for our IRC customers is another ongoing project which, while not yet in Live release, should be ready to go very soon.
And of course, there was much, much more--all of which can be found in the 7.7 Release Lists.
August & September 2022 KLAS Users' Programs
In collaboration with the KLAS Users' Group Program Committee, we're excited to announce the next two upcoming KLAS Users' Programs. In August, there will be a roundtable for staff of libraries for the blind and print disabled and in September Katy will be hosting a webinar for all KLAS Users' who want a preview of the new KLAS WebOPAC. Mark your calendars now for one or both of these events and join us! More details about each are below.
8/25/2022 KLAS LBPD Roundtable: Talking Book Topics
Date: Thursday, August 25
Time: 3:30 PM Eastern / 12:30 PM Pacific
Description: With the recent loss of the physical Large Print Talking Book Topics from our Reader Advisory Tool Box, libraries are crafting new strategies to keep readers informed about new titles being added to the collection. Attend our August roundtable to hear how other libraries are addressing these changes and share your own successes in addressing the changes with TBT.
Hosts:
- Michael Lang, Kansas Talking Books Service
- Maureen Dorosinki, Florida Braille & Talking Book Libraries
- Crystal Grimes, Oregon Talking Book & Braille Library
Recording:
9/22/2022 Keystone Webinar: WebOPAC Revamp
This webinar will be recorded and posted to klasusers.com for later review.
Date: Thursday, September 22
Time: 3:00 PM Eastern / Noon Pacific
Description: You've probably heard the good news about an upcoming revamp of the WebOPAC for LBPH. Ready for more info and a first look at our prototype? Take a look at what we have so far and provide feedback to help shape the future OPAC!
Presenter: Katy Patrick, Keystone Systems
Zoom Link & Audio Dial-in Info:
- Zoom Meeting Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88585822893?pwd=VUFabU1NYTBVcmpNRERxem9EQnd3QT09
- Find your local number to dial-in for audio: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdA5mXTjhQ
- Meeting ID: 885 8582 2893
- Passcode: 137231
