Know More

Spring Scholarships Available

SCLS is offering two* scholarships this spring and they both are for leadership events. First is the Lead the Way Conference provided by the UW iSchool Continuing Education Department. This event will be held on April 24 and 25 at the Pyle Center on the UW Madison campus. The scholarship will cover registration, transportation, lodging, and meals. The deadline to apply for the scholarship is April 10, 2023.

The Wisconsin Library Association is hosting its Leadership Development Institute (LDI) this year. This will be a six-month program with two in-person sessions and monthly virtual sessions. Applications for LDI are due to WLA on March 6, 2023. If you are accepted into the LDI program, SCLS offers a scholarship to help offset the costs of participating. The scholarship will cover the cost of registration, travel to the in-person sessions, and meals. The scholarship will NOT cover the cost to attend the WAPL or WLA Conference.

IMLS1The SCLS CE Scholarship and Grant programs are funded in part by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services which administers the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). Thank you!

*We'll have a WAPL Scholarship available as soon as registration opens for the conference.

February 15, 2023 in Conferences, Grants - SCLS, UW Madison - SLIS, WLA | Permalink | Comments (0)

WLA Scholarship Reports

BackOnTrackLast November, the Wisconsin Library Association Conference was held in Green Bay. Four SCLS member library staff received full scholarships to attend the conference. Here are a few highlights from their conference experiences.

Chris Baker, Portage Public Library

  • How to Position Your Library as a Partner in Workforce Development: Staff Training, Marketing Resources, and How to Use Them presented by Tovah Anderson, Cole Zrostlik, Rebecca Kilde, and Jennifer Savino

This presentation offered a comprehensive overview of the three-year Libraries Activating Workforce Development Skills (LAWDS) project; LAWDS has resulted in a thorough web of collaboration throughout the state of Wisconsin between diverse service agencies and workforce development offices.

Why was this presentation meaningful? Since transitioning from my Teen Services role at the Portage Public Library to the Adult Services Librarian, I have heavily focused my energies on the development of partnerships between area service agencies and Workforce Development in Columbia County; Mark Jochem and I, in tandem with other service figures, have created the Portage Area Workforce & Service Connection (PAWSC). PAWSC includes the Portage Public Library, Forward Services, Columbia County Health & Human Services, the Workforce Development Board of South-Central Wisconsin, River Haven Homeless Shelter, WorkSmart Network, and more. Similar to LAWDS, the hope for PAWSC is to eliminate service redundancies, facilitate better communication, streamline the service/benefit process for clients and patrons, save money, and reach more people-in-need, better. It goes without saying that I’ve learned a lot from LAWDS and have tried to implement some of the resources and strategies that they’ve found success with. This presentation was an excellent opportunity to harvest information, learn from my (and their) mistakes, and identify opportunities that I can bring back to strengthen PAWSC.

Courtney Cosgriff, Waunakee Public Library

  • Barriers to Equitable Hiring Practices in Libraries and How to Unmake Them presented by Adriana McCleer and Nick Demske

Wow! I loved this session. The presenters suggested a great barrier to librarianship is the MLS degree. There are so many great community members who would make great librarians, but only like .01% of them have the degree. You should still hire people with MLS degrees, but don’t make it the end all be all to candidates. I have already suggested this to my director and will be discussing it for our future hires.

  • Public Libraries and Fake news: How to Educate and Connect With Your Community presented by Barbara Alvarez and Samuel Molzahn

I also loved this session! It was great that they started off with the definitions of fake news, misinformation, and disinformation. This is such a relevant and hot topic and I love that the speakers gave tips on how to diffuse any frustrated patrons during the program. Presenters made doing a program like this at your library completely feasible!

Andrea Halbersma, Lester Public Library of Vesper

  • We've Got Style, Yes We Do! We've Got Style, How About You? presented by Jennie Fidler and Lissa Radder

This was presented by staff from the Oconomowoc Library, they discussed how to create a style guide for your library, where to go to get inspiration for it, and the importance of having a cohesive style throughout the library. I have been working on a marketing plan for the Vesper library and this is a huge part of it. It made me realize how important even just having the same font and color scheme on your flyers, postings, etc. and how it can be used to make the library recognizable.

I have already started working on a style guide for our library. I spent time pouring over fonts and decided on 3 main ones, like they recommended, and choose colors that speak of the interior of the library and our logo to represent it in all our social media and hard copy postings. I also began making a template for flyers, so they are easily recognized as a flyer from our library regardless of content.

Lisa Renier Thomas, Spring Green Community Library (now at George Culver Community Library)

  • Rethinking Library Services and Design in a Post-COVID World presented by Gregg Baum, Emily Kornak, and Bill Wilson

The Lake Geneva Public Library, a Taliesin Architects building located in a lakeside park, was planning for a large-scale expansion and renovation. When the pandemic hit they scaled back to focus on: creating a healthy building, weeding, and reevaluating their service model.

Creating a healthy building: upgrading HVAC system to include air filtration (at least MERV 13) and increased fresh air intake.

Weeding: Changes to the library layout needed to be made in order to reflect the current ways patrons interact with the building and staff. In order to make this happen, major weeding has begun. “Just in case” collections are being discarded. Instead, they are focusing on what patrons have been utilizing over the past three years. The goal is for 95-99% of the collection to be actively used.

Service model reevaluation: Fortress-like circulation desk in the center of the library replaced by smaller one along the edge, adjacent to staff areas. Staff areas moved from lakefront to street-side of building, so that patrons can enjoy best views. Bookshelf height reduced, and huge, original magazine display removed to improve sightlines. Two study rooms are to be added. Local artist creating large, Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired stained glass separators to define seating areas and deflect the noise. Paint and other new décor will reflect the building’s Prairie style.

The Spring Green Community Library is also a Taliesin Architects building with some of the same challenges (linear design, no study rooms, outdated HVAC). Spring Green’s 100th birthday is fast approaching, and I have been encouraging the board to consider investing in improvements to mark the occasion.

Interested in attending a conference? Scholarship applications are currently being accepted for the Public Library Association Conference in March of this year. Deadline extended through January 21, 2022. Scholarships for the spring WAPL Conference will be available later this spring.

*Image by Laura Sauser, Executive Director of WLA, shared from the Whova App.

January 07, 2022 in WLA | Permalink | Comments (0)

CE Scholarship Recipients for the Fall WLA Conference

CelebrateCongratulations to the first round of SCLS CE scholarship winners! The scholarships are for the fall WLA Conference being held in Green Bay from November 16-19. As part of the scholarship, each recipient will complete a report on their conference attendance and I'll share those reports here.

SCLS CE SCholarship recipients:

  • Chris Baker, Adult Services Librarian at the Portage Public Library
  • Courtney Cosgriff, Outreach Librarian at the Waunakee Public Library
  • Andrea Halbersma, Director of the Lester Public Library of Vesper
  • Lisa Thomas, Director of the Spring Green Community Library

The next round of scholarships is for the upcoming Public Library Association Conference in Portland (OR). The conference is scheduled for March 23-25, 2022. SCLS has two (2) scholarships available for the PLA Conference and you can apply here. The deadline for applying for the scholarship is January 7, 2022.

The SCLS CE Scholarship program is funded in part with a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services which administers the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). Thank you!

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

 

October 28, 2021 in Conferences, PLA, WLA | Permalink | Comments (0)

WAPL Conference Registration Open

WAPL 2019 ConferenceThis year's Wisconsin Association of Public Libraries (WAPL) Conference is from May 1 - May 3 at the Central Wisconsin Convention & Expo Center in Rothschild (just south of Wausau). Registration is now open.

Here are a few highlights from this year's exciting lineup:

  • Poster Sessions featuring topics such as TEACH program, Leadership Development Institute, and Conference Orientation
  • Luncheon with Michael Perry!! on Thursday
  • Programs on Escape Rooms, Genealogy, Movies, Grant Writing, and much more
  • Jessie Vieau, Madison Public Library, is the Friday luncheon speaker - one of SCLS's own!

For SCLS libraries, remember that your library is eligible for CE Grant funds to help your staff attend this - or other conferences.

I hope to see you there!

March 19, 2019 in Conferences, Grants - SCLS, WLA | Permalink | Comments (0)

Know More with Jean & Shawn, October 19, 2012

Originally presented Friday, October 19, 2012 with Jean Anderson, Shawn Brommer, Ruhama Kordatzky Bahr, and Amy Lutzke
Join us for brief, lively programs in which SCLS and area librarians discuss current topics, trends, and, of course, books. These 30-minute programs are designed around the letter E: to educate, energize, engage, enlighten, and excite you. Each month's program will feature a different topic.

October's topic: WLA Literary Award Winners

November's Know More with Shawn & Jean is scheduled for Friday, November 30 at 9 a.m. Our topic is Weeding and Denise Anton Wright will be our guest. Register here!

Slides

Recording

October 19, 2012 in Books, SCLS, WLA | Permalink | Comments (0)

WLA Conference

It was great seeing so many of you at WLA in Appleton last week. I hope you enjoyed the conference and learned a lot of new things to take back to your libraries.

If you want to know what happened, check out some handouts, or see the slides from the Lee Rainie's keynote presentation - you can!

Search Twitter for #wla09 to find out what people were saying during the conference. You might find some new tweeps to follow, too!

Check out the WLA blog for reviews and notes of some of the conference presentations.

Check out the WLA Conference page for available handouts.  If you are interested in the handouts from the SLP Pre-Conference, they are here.

Slides from Lee Rainie's Keynote presentation, The Magic of Social Networks are available here.

Links from the Have You Heard presentation are collected on Delicious.

This isn't an exhaustive list - if you know of more, please let me know and I'll add them here.

October 27, 2009 in Conferences, WLA | Permalink | Comments (0)

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