Index
- SCLS implements suggestion link on home page
- Still time to order SLP school visit video
- State Superintendent appoints new LSTA Advisory Committee members
- Save the date: PSC Broadband Planning Symposium scheduled July 8
- Libraries are dying? Think again
- ALA releases 2014 State Of America’s Libraries report
- Continuing Education Calendar
SCLS implements suggestion link on home page
Where do you start with an idea or suggestion before taking it to a committee? Great innovations often start with a "what if" statement. SCLS is always on the lookout for ways to improve its services and encourage members to share their expertise and ideas.
In an effort to give member libraries an easier way to share ideas with the South Central Library System (SCLS), we have implemented a “Make A Suggestion” link in the upper right-hand corners of the SCLS home page.
Because this new resource is intended for member library use, library staff will need to provide the library’s username and password to access the page. Once there, you’ll be able to select one of the following links that will take you to the correct form for submitting your idea.
- Delivery Ideas
- LINKcat Ideas
- Technology Ideas
- SCLS Governance
- Not sure? Everything Else
Start sharing your ideas today.
Still time to order SLP school visit video
In preparation for the 2014 Summer Library Program (SLP), libraries can once again obtain a personalized school visit video from the South Central Library System.
You can view a sample of this year’s video below, and as in year’s past we’ll customize an introduction and ending that features your SLP dates and photos of your library and/or staff.
To order your video, and submit a photo, please complete the form on the SCLS website. If you’ve ordered a video before, and you’ve submitted a photo of your building, there is no need to send another photo. If you’re building has changed, or you want to submit a photo of 2014 SLP staff, please do so when submitting the form.
The DVDs are available at no cost to SCLS member libraries, but DVD orders should be placed by April 28 to ensure delivery in time for school visits. We also can produce a version for online use, so be sure to check that box on the order form.
If you have questions about the video, or other SLP promotional materials, contact Mark Ibach.
State Superintendent appoints new LSTA Advisory Committee members
State Superintendent Tony Evers announced five appointments to the Library Services Technology Act (LSTA) Advisory Committee. The new members are Stacy Fisher, Library Media Specialist, Waunakee High School; Erin Foley, Director, Rio Community Library; Kelly Hughbanks, Coordinator of Youth & Community Outreach Services, Milwaukee Public Library; Nyama Marsh, Director, Whitefish Bay Public Library; and Kristin Stoeger, Director, Farnsworth Public Library, Oconto.
Continuing members of the committee are Mary Driscoll, Outreach Librarian, Dane County Library Service; Gerri Moeller, Library Automation Manager, Outagamie Waupaca Library System in Appleton; Krista Ross, Director, Southwest Library System in Fennimore; Cherilyn Stewart, Director, Manitowoc Public Library; Linda Stobbe, Office Manager, Northern Waters Library Service in Ashland; Jennifer Einwalter, Director, Slinger Public Library; Gus Falkenberg, Technology Consultant, Indianhead Federated Library System, Eau Claire; Eric Norton, Head of Adult Services, McMillan Public Library in Wisconsin Rapids; and Marla Sepnafski, Director, Wisconsin Valley Library Service, Wausau.
Members of the committee serve staggered three-year terms. The committee advises the state superintendent and the Division for Libraries and Technology on the development of the long-range plan for the LSTA program, annual grant priorities and categories as well as applications and recommendations for grant awards. LSTA program details are available at http://pld.dpi.wi.gov/pld_lsta.
For more information, contact Terrie Howe at (608) 266-2413.
--from Channel Weekly (Vol. 16, No. 26 – April 10, 2014)
Save the date: PSC Broadband Planning Symposium scheduled July 8
The 2014 Public Service Commission Broadband Planning Symposium will be held July 8 at the Monona Terrace Convention Center in Madison.
This event is an opportunity to build partnerships with fellow stakeholders, explore broadband planning efforts, share your broadband successes and challenges, and discuss the future of broadband mapping in Wisconsin.
More information about broadband issues in Wisconsin is available at www.link.wisconsin.gov.
Libraries are dying? Think again
A recent article in CNN Travel takes a look at libraries and make the following observation:
“Despite enduring budget cutbacks and being forced to reinvent their services in the face of the ubiquitous Internet, public libraries remain staple institutions in various communities. There's been an increase in the use of public libraries in the U.S. over the past decade. Services such as public computers doubled in usage in the past 10 years, and libraries saw a circulation increase of 2.46 billion materials in 2010, the highest ever reported, according to a report by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.”
Read more on the CNN Travel website.
ALA releases 2014 State Of America’s Libraries report
Libraries continue to transform to meet society’s changing needs, and more than 90 percent of the respondents in an independent national survey said that libraries are important to the community.
But at the same time, school libraries continue to feel the combined pressures of recession-driven financial pressures and federal neglect, and school libraries in some districts and some states still face elimination or deprofessionalization of their programs.
These and other library trends of the past year are detailed in the American Library Association’s 2014 State of America’s Libraries report, released during National Library Week, April 13-19.
Ninety-six percent of the Americans that responded to a survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project agreed that public libraries are important because they provide tech resources and access to materials, and the same number found libraries valuable because they promote literacy and a love of reading.
More than 90 percent of traditional public schools have a school library, but public schools continue to struggle with the impact of funding cuts. For public school libraries, that means that professional staffing has been targeted for cuts nationwide.
The ALA is on the forefront of efforts to shore up support for school libraries.
“On one hand, budget and testing pressures have led to decisions to eliminate or de-professionalize school libraries,” said Barbara K. Stripling, ALA president. “On the other hand, the increased emphasis on college and career readiness and the integration of technology have opened an unprecedented door to school librarian leadership.”
Stripling and the ALA are undertaking an advocacy campaign for school libraries that sets goals in five critical areas: literacy, inquiry, social and emotional growth, creativity and imagination, and thoughtful use of technology. The task for school librarians, Stripling said, is to fulfill the dream that every school across the country will have an effective school library program.
On another front, Banned Books Week, sponsored by the ALA and other organizations, highlights the benefits of free access to information and the perils of censorship by spotlighting the actual or attempted banning of books.
A perennial highlight of Banned Books Week is the Top Ten List of Frequently Challenged Books, compiled annually by the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF). The OIF collects reports on book challenges from librarians, teachers, concerned individuals and press reports. A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that a book or other material be restricted or removed because of its content or appropriateness. In 2013, the OIF received hundreds of reports on attempts to remove or restrict materials from school curricula and library bookshelves.
The most challenged books of the year were: 1. “Captain Underpants” (series), by Dav Pilkey; 2. “The Bluest Eye,” by Toni Morrison; 3. “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” by Sherman Alexie; 4. “Fifty Shades of Grey,” by E.L. James; 5. “The Hunger Games,” by Suzanne Collins; 6. “A Bad Boy Can Be Good for A Girl,” by Tanya Lee Stone; 7. “Looking for Alaska,” by John Green; 8. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky; 9. “Bless Me Ultima,” by Rudolfo Anaya; and 10. “Bone” (series), by Jeff Smith.
The ALA is leading a broad effort to guide libraries and librarians through a process of transformation that deals not just with quantitative change -- doing more, for instance -- but with qualitative change.
“This means fundamental change in the very nature of what we do and how we do it,” said Keith Michael Fiels, ALA Executive Director, said, including fundamental changes in community relationships.
“As communities have changed, so has the relationship of the library to the community,” Fiels said. “The traditional library was a passive provider, reacting to community needs. The library opened its doors, and people came in to use its materials and services.
“Today, the library must be proactive; it must engage its community… Increasingly, libraries are serving as conveners, bringing community members together to articulate their aspirations and then innovating in order to become active partners and a driving force in community development and community change.”
Libraries witnessed a number of developments in 2013 in the area of ebooks and copyright issues. Ebooks continue to make gains among reading Americans, according to another Pew survey, but few readers have completely replaced print with digital editions — and the advent of digital reading brings with it a continuing tangle of legal issues involving publishers and libraries.
“Print remains the foundation of Americans’ reading habits,” the Pew researchers found. Most people who read ebooks also read print books, they reported, and only 4 percent of readers described themselves as “ebook only.”
After years of conflict between publishers and libraries, 2013 ended with all the major U.S. publishers participating in the library ebook market, though important challenges, such as availability and prices, remain.
In November 2013, after eight years of litigation, a federal court upheld the fair use doctrine when it dismissed Authors Guild v. Google, et al., a case that questioned the legality of Google’s searchable database of more than 20 million books. In his decision, the judge referenced an amicus brief co-authored by the ALA that enumerated the public benefits of Google Book Search. The Authors Guild has filed an appeal.
Other key trends detailed in the 2014 State of America’s Libraries Report:
- More and more public libraries are turning to the use of web technologies, including websites, online account access, blogs, rich site summary (RSS) feeds, catalog search boxes, sharing interfaces, Facebook and Twitter.
- The economic downturn is continuing at most institutions of higher learning, and academic librarians are working to transform programs and services by re-purposing space and redeploying staff in the digital resources environment.
- President Obama signed a $1.1 trillion spending bill in January that will fund the federal government through September and partially restore funding to the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) -- the primary source of annual funding for libraries in the federal budget -- that were dramatically cut in the 2013 fiscal year under sequestration.
The full text of the 2014 State of America’s Libraries report is available at www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2014.