Index
- Short Takes for Trustees includes bonus webinars
- New Guest Pass portal for MyPC
- Columbus Public Library receives IMLS grant
- Member/Staff News
- Serving homeless patrons will be the focus of August workshops
- Hold the dates for Trustee Training Week Aug. 13-17
- New OverDrive functionality enhances user experience
- Wisconsin Author Project information
- BadgerLink promotional materials available
- Continuing Education Calendar
Short Takes for Trustees includes bonus webinars
SCLS renewed its subscription to the Short Takes for Trustees webinar series. These webinars are 8-10 minutes long and cover a variety of topics including Library Advocacy, Library Policies, and Strategic Planning. An email with the login and password was sent to all SCLS Directors. Please contact Jean at [email protected] if you need help.
In addition to these videos, SCLS has added three recorded webinars for 2018. They are:
- Troubled Library Boards: Prevention & Survival-- Troubled library boards are increasingly common. Serving on a troubled board is stressful, and it can take the focus away from a board’s primary mission. What essential practices can prevent or minimize board problems? When a board does become dysfunctional, how can those involved survive and create change?
- With Friends Like These-- Friends are wonderful assets to their libraries... until they're not! Sadly, some Friends groups fall into cliques, start demanding to determine how the money is spent, start believing that they "own" the money raised rather than understanding their role as "trustees" of the money, and even start wanting a say in the library’s governance and/or operations. Based on her recently published book, The Good, the Great, and the Unfriendly: A Librarian's Guide to Working Effectively with Friends, Sally Gardner Reed discusses ways to work with Friends who go rogue, how to bring them back in line, and what to do when nothing works.
- Merging Your Library’s Friends Group and Foundation-- In the library world today, there is a huge need for support organizations -- Friends and Foundations -- but often the lines between these two groups are blurred and their work counter-productive. In this webinar, presenters Peter Pearson and Sue Hall discuss the difference in the roles of Friends and foundations and identify areas where there can be conflict -- and present strategies for minimizing conflict. They also address the question, “When is it time for the two organizations to merge?” and share solutions for engaging in a merger process that minimizes pain and maximizes potential. Pearson and Hall also talk about national challenges and trends for Friends and foundations.
For library directors, each of the webinars counts for one (1) CE hour in Category C.
Short Takes is now available to all library Trustees and staff in the South Central Library System. Use the login and password available from your library director.
New Guest Pass portal for MyPC
Our vendor for MyPC has developed a web-based staff Guest Pass portal to take the place of the Guest Pass application. We must move to the new portal because the old Guest Pass application is not compatible with future versions of MyPC. We have completed some pilot testing (thanks to Lodi and Reedsburg for help with this), and we are ready to roll out the new Guest Pass portal to all MyPC libraries.
Here are the details:
- Beginning on Monday, April 23rd, all libraries will switch over to using the new Guest Pass Portal-- You will be able to log into the new portal and look around before then, but printing Guest Passes will not work until April 23. You may also use the documentation to create a desktop shortcut before we go live with the portal.
- URL: http://mypc.scls.info/tbsportal/
- Documentation: scls.info/sites/www.scls.info/files/GuestPassPortal.pdf
- Use your MyPC staff credentials to log into the portal
- The new Guest Pass portal will replace the old Guest Pass application, and the old Guess Pass application will be unavailable starting on April 23
-- from SCLS Technology Blog
Columbus Public Library receives IMLS grant
Columbus Public Library has received a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to explore strategies for rural libraries to lead and facilitate community-led, municipal design processes. The grant is in the program category Community Anchors -- Planning Grant.
Civic engagement tools, like asset mapping and dialogue facilitation, will be used to build and train a representative, citizen-made Community Engagement Team. The team members will serve as community organizers, receive training in these strategies, and use a customized set of tools to connect with their individual networks and ensure full community representation in the municipal design process.
"We're so excited to have this opportunity to continue exploring the role of our library as a leader in the community," said Library Director Cindy Fesemyer. "In the case of this IMLS-funded project we'll be exploring the role of the Columbus Public Library as a leader within municipal structure. It's a bold new opportunity for any public library, much less a smaller one like Columbus."
Results will include a blueprint for citizen-led engagement drawing from multiple community engagement toolboxes, a podcast of their experiences featuring interviews with other library leaders in the field of community engagement, and the development of national conference and webinar sessions.
PLA members recently elected Cindy Fesemyer (at right), director of the Columbus Public Library, as one of two new directors-at-large. She will serve a three-year term beginning after the 2018 ALA Annual Conference. On the national level, Cindy is a 2017 PLA Leadership Academy Fellow. She sits on advisory councils for the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, “Skills for Community-Centered Librarianship,” and for ALA's Libraries Transforming Communities: Models for Change. She was also a group leader for ALA’s Libraries Transforming Communities: Turning Outward cohort. In 2017, her library was a finalist for Library Journal's Best Small Library in America.
Sarah Lawton, manager of Madison Public Library’s Pinney and Monroe Street Branches, wrote an article in the January/February 2018 issue of Public Libraries titled “Reflections on Gender Oppression and Libraries.” It is one of four feature articles in the edition. The article Sarah reflects on how gender dynamics play out within a female-dominated profession like librarianship, which has long been viewed as women’s work but within which men, perhaps disproportionately, occupy positions of authority. (full article)
Sun Prairie Public Library librarians Steev Bakerand Shauna Koszegiare hosting a new radio program and podcast called “The Tallest Building in Town.” What is the tallest building in town? The library. Because it has the most stories. Stories about people who use libraries, people who work in libraries, and the wonderful, amazing, sometimes strange things that libraries do. You can learn more about each episode and listen from the website, and you can follow on Facebook. Episodes are also available through iTunes.
Serving homeless patrons will be the focus of August workshops
by Jean Anderson, SCLS Continuing Education Consultant
Last fall, I attended Ryan Dowd’s program at the Wisconsin Library Association Conference called Practical Tips for Difficult Homeless Patrons. It was an excellent workshop and I wanted to bring Ryan and his training to SCLS.
We’re doing that two ways in 2018. First, we have Ryan Dowd coming to do a six-hour workshop on Aug. 22 at Olbrich Gardens in Madison and at the Everett Roehl Marshfield Public Library on Aug.23. Save the dates! More information and registration to come later this year.
Second, Ryan has an online training program, Practical Tips for Difficult Homeless Patrons, that covers much of the same content in a video format. SCLS has purchased access to this training for 2018.
The training is hosted on Niche Academy, and when you access our Academy, select the How to Enroll in the Homelessness Training. Most library staff will be able to create an account and start the tutorials. A few libraries and their staff, Albany, Arpin, Monticello, Pittsville, Vesper, Verona, and Fitchburg, will receive individual email invitations with a temporary password. If you are interested and aren’t able to create an account, please let me know so I can send you an invitation.
For library directors, completing this training, including the Completion Quiz, will count as three (3) hours of CE credit.
If you have any trouble accessing the training, please contact me at [email protected].
Hold the dates for Trustee Training Week Aug. 13-17
Planning for Trustee Training Week 2018 is in progress, and more information and registration will be available soon. In the meantime, hold the dates Aug. 13-17, 2018.
Library Trustees are instrumental to the success of public libraries, and the annual program Trustee Training Week is a great opportunity for trustees to learn ways to be more effective library leaders and advocates.
The project is sponsored by the South Central Library System, with financial support from other Wisconsin Public Library Systems. It is also supported by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s Public Library Development Team, with funding support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services
Webinars will be held each day from noon to 1 p.m. on topics of particular interest to Wisconsin library trustees.
In addition to this year’s program, trustees can also access the recorded webinars from past years at the Trustee Training Week website. Webinar recordings from 2015-17 are available for streaming.
New OverDrive functionality enhances user experience
In a continuing effort to enhance the user experience, the following functionality has been added to Wisconsin’s Digital Library OverDrive site and the Libby app.
- Users can now choose their lending period after clicking the ‘Borrow’ button on a title from anywhere on the site.
- After selecting a lending period, users are presented with the options to either read/download the title or close out of the pop-up window to continue browsing. This provides a more instant borrow and delivery flow, and the option to download or open a title is still available from the Loans page.
- Users are now automatically placed on hold for any titles they recommend to help streamline the process when recommended titles get added to the collection and help users get access more easily.
Also, in the coming weeks, OverDrive will be adding the option to run an Advanced Search by Award.
Wisconsin Author Project information
Through the Wisconsin Author Project, made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, libraries are helping local authors get the recognition they deserve for writing great books. Wisconsin residents who are authors of self-published adult or young adult fiction will be invited to submit their work. One winner will receive $1,000, a write-up in Library Journal’s December Best of Books print issue and Library Journal’sDigital Review, be honored at ALA Midwinter 2019 THRIVE event in Seattle, and be invited to speak at the Wisconsin Library Association Annual Conference in October. One runner-up will receive a write-up in Library Journal’sDigital Review and an invitation to speak at the Wisconsin Library Association Annual Conference in October.
Submissions are due June 30. The submitted books will be reviewed by staff at Library Journal and by members of a WLA committee. The winner and runner up with be announced this fall.
For more information or to submit a book for consideration, visit the Wisconsin Author Project website. For more about the project, watch this recording of the April 9 webinar with BiblioBoard or view the slides.
If you'd like to promote this contest to your community, here are some marketing materials to use:
- Press release template
- Writers' groups email template (in addition to any local groups you may know about, click here to see a list of potential writers' groups to reach out to)
- Wisconsin Author Project logo
- Printable Flyer
- Printable Poster
- Other marketing collateral (Google Drive folder of alternate logos and images)
In the coming weeks, we will be introducing some more tools and collections for Wisconsin authors and readers, including Pressbooks, SELF-e, and digital collections from BiblioBoard. If you'd like to learn more, register to attend one of two upcoming webinars with BiblioBoard (they will be the same presentation):
These webinars will be recorded and shared. If you have any questions, contact [email protected].
BadgerLink promotional materials available
BadgerLink is Wisconsin’s online library which provides residents access to licensed content such as magazines, newspapers, scholarly articles, videos, images, and music not available through regular search engines.
BadgerLink is a service provided by the Department of Public Instruction, and its resources and staff are paid for with state funding and federal funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
To help libraries promote the many resources available through BadgerLink, bookmarks and posters are available to Wisconsin libraries at no cost simply by placing a request. Materials are mailed or sent through library delivery. Libraries also can download BadgerLink outreach materials.
The BadgerLink website also has resources to help libraries create great and easy programs. There are multiple links that connect you to a GoogleDocs folder with a plan and pre-made promotional materials you can customize.
Finally, there are training links on the BadgerLink website, including printed materials and videos.