NCET

“Designing Your Future Library: A Community Conversation”

LIBRARY OF THE FUTURE TO BE DISCUSSED AT PUBLIC SESSIONS

What should the library of the future look like? Washoe County Library System wants to hear your thoughts, ideas and wishes. A public forum will explore “Designing Your Future Library: A Community Conversation.” There will be three sessions at various library locations in July.

Tuesday, July 14, 11:15 a.m.-12:45 p.m.

South Valleys Library, 15650A Wedge Parkway, Reno, 851-5190

Sunday, July 26, 1-2:30 p.m.

Downtown Reno Library, 301 S. Center St., Reno, 327-8300

Monday, July 27, 6-7:30 p.m.

Spanish Springs Library, 7100A Pyramid Highway, Sparks, 424-1800

At these informal gatherings, you’ll have an opportunity to offer your ideas and suggestions to help define the future of library programs and services. There will be progressive rounds of conversation in which you can share opinions and brainstorm with others.

“We want to find out what the community needs from our libraries, and how today’s programs and services might have to be modified to meet those needs,” said Washoe County Library Director Arnie Maurins. “We also hope to get a better sense of how to use technology to link the library with the community and with individual customers.”

These “future library” meetings are being presented as a follow-up to the town hall budget meetings that were held earlier this year. Who should attend? “Everyone and anyone who cares about the library,” Maurins said. “Especially in light of the budget cuts that have impacted the library system, we’re eager to hear from the community so that we can design programs that best meet future needs.”

Advance reservations are not required. For more information, please call 775-327-8350.

Technorati Tags: Washoe County Library System, Reno, Arnie Maurins, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

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Ancient carbon from Pleistocene era (10,000 years ago) animals, along with chunks of green grass growing in the ancient soil is being flushed into Arctic lakes and rivers as the long-frozen permafrost thaws, producing methane gas and possibly carbon dioxide which may be causing further global warming.

To study this climate change phenomena, Sudeep Chandra, University of Nevada, Reno professor and researcher will be returning for his second year as one of the principle investigators with the Polaris Project, an international team of scientists and students studying climate change in the Siberian Arctic.

Joanne Heslop, an undergraduate at the University, was one of the few students across the country chosen in the highly competitive selection process to participate. It will be her first year in the month-long program. They leave July 2 for the research and field course.

The Polaris Project program is training future leaders in Arctic research and education, and informing the public about the impacts of climate change; essential goals given the rapid and profound transformations underway in the Arctic.

In addition to the field course, The Polaris Project includes research experience for undergraduate students in the Siberian Arctic, several new arctic-focused undergraduate courses taught by project co-primary investigators at their home institutions, the opportunity for those scientists to initiate research programs in the Siberian Arctic, and a wide range of outreach activities. All project participants, both students and faculty, will visit kindergarten through grade 12 classrooms in their home cities to convey the excitement of polar research.

Technorati Tags: Sudeep Chandra, University of Nevada Reno, Polaris Project, Joanne Heslop, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

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NV Energy’s latest action plan for new power capacity will rely almost solely on eco-friendly measures, executives for the power utility said in a meeting Tuesday with Review-Journal editors and reporters.

When NV Energy files its three-year integrated resource plan with the Nevada Public Utilities Commission today, its proposal will feature $500 million for a green-energy transmission line, $325 million for efficiency and conservation and $100 million for solar-power arrays. But it won’t include any requests for funds to build projects that generate power from fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.It’s the first midrange agenda without carbon-fueled capital improvements since 2003, when NV Energy launched an aggressive initiative to buy and develop its own generating stations in Nevada. NV Energy spent $1.5 billion in recent years acquiring and building power stations so the company could avoid the whims of pricey wholesale markets. The strategy means the company will get 77 percent of its power through its own plants in 2009, up from 39 percent in 2005. Read full story:

Technorati Tags: Las Vegas Review-Journal, NV Energy, Nevada Public Utilities Commission ,Michael Yackira, One Nevada Transmission Line, ONLine, renewable energy, Reno, Las Vegas, Jennifer Robison, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

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NV Energy has agreed to buy energy from Massachusetts-based American Capital Energy’s 20-megawatt solar photovoltaic power plant to be built near Searchlight.

The plant is expected to be completed by mid-2010 and, if built to its proposed 20-megawatt size, would exceed the country’s largest solar facility at Nellis Air Force Base that produces 14 megawatts of energy.

Construction of the plant would create 120 jobs.

Terms of the agreement, subject to Public Utilities Commission’s approval, were not disclosed.

All of the energy produced will go to NV Energy’s customers in Southern Nevada, the companies said. By 2025 NV Energy’s energy portfolio is required to include 25 percent in renewable resources and energy efficiency and conservation programs.

Technorati Tags: NV Energy, Nicole Lucht, In Business Las Vegas, American Capital Energy, Searchlight, Nellis Air Force Base, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

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The Licensing Executives Society (United States and Canada) Inc. has launched a Nevada chapter spearheaded by Reno-area entrepreneurs.

The organization’s worldwide membership includes attorneys who specialize in intellectual property, inventors, academics, consultants and others involved in the transfer and development of intellectual property.

Lee “Ky” Good, founder and chairman of the group, said the Nevada chapter expects to extend its reach into southern Nevada by the end of this year. Organizers hope to grow membership, which currently stands at about 10, to approximately 50 during 2009.

Spearheading the Nevada chapter’s development along with Good are Lexi Fox of the commercial real estate firm Metzker Johnson Group, Tim Casey of the intellectual property firm SilverSky Group LLC and Lawrence Udell, who is the managing director and co-founder of the Silicon Valley chapter of the Licensing Executives Society.

Also among the early supporters of the new chapter is the law firm of Holland & Hart LLP.

Technorati Tags: The Licensing Executives Society Inc.,Reno,entrepreneurs,Northern Nevada Business Weekly,Lee “Ky” Good,Lexi Fox,Metzker Johnson Group,Tim Casey,SilverSky Group LLC,Lawrence Udell,Holland & Hart LLP. NCET,Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

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