Index
- SCLS Hiring New Technology Solutions Architect
- New Belleville Library and Community Center Opens
- Rock Springs Continues Search For New Director
- Member/Staff News
- Marketing Plan Template Available to Guide Your Efforts
- Share Stories with Libraries Step Up Advocacy Toolkit
- Data That Counts: An Introduction to Census Data for Public Libraries
- How Women Shaped Our Nation: Inspiring Today’s Students With a Peek Into the Past
- Continuing Education Calendar
SCLS Hiring New Technology Solutions Architect
The South Central Library System (SCLS) seeks a Technology Solutions Architect to lead a team of seven IT professionals in all aspects of technical support for SCLS staff and staff at the public libraries. The Technology Solutions Architect will define the architectural requirements of the SCLS network, server and PC systems as part of its dynamic technical support at 57 public library sites. See full position description for more details.
Performance Expectations
SCLS seeks someone who is an expert in server administration, virtualization and storage, and Windows domain services, but who also has an understanding of all components of technology infrastructure (network, server and PC). The Technology Solutions Architect will ensure continuous innovation within the organization and will look to the broader Information Technology community for identifying solutions to the library technology needs. The Technology Solutions Architect will lead the SCLS IT professionals through evaluation of services by following an established set of evaluation principles. The ability to explain complex technical issues to non-technical people is critical.
Essential Functions
The Technology Solutions Architect:
- Defines architectural requirements of all systems and assures all platforms, systems and applications are integrated and secure
- Has primary responsibility for server administration virtualization and storage, and Windows domain services
- Assures that the systems meet the needs of member libraries by soliciting input from member library staff through committees and other means
- Leads the Technology Planning Team to select, implement, maintain and provide ongoing support for all systems and ensures continuous innovation by following an established set of evaluation principles
- Provide leadership to SCLS technology staff by ensuring that every team member has a role to play in achieving the team vision and coaching team members to achieve set goals
Required Qualifications
Position requires excellent oral and written communication skills. A true passion for technology and libraries is essential. Ability to see color. Must have physical capability to transport and install computer equipment and peripherals. Must be able to travel independently and have access to a personal vehicle. A flexible schedule is required. Must be able to lift 50lbs. Must be able to provide proof of auto insurance, and a copy of a valid driver’s license annually.
Preferred Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in computer science or Bachelor's degree plus Associate's degree in computer science. At least 5 years of relevant work experience, to include working with integration technologies related to system design. Proven understanding of the components of technology infrastructure, including hardware platforms, operating systems, cloud computing platforms and networks. Expertise in server administration, virtualization and storage, and Windows domain services. Experience with deploying and supporting enterprise class IT network and infrastructure solutions. Excellent leadership skills including collaboration, accountability, results driven, self-motivation, big-picture thinking, building strong relations, and negotiating. Exceptional communication skills including documenting, visualizing, presenting to a mixed/large audience, and balancing talking and listening. Supervisory and management experience. Library experience is desirable.
The starting salary is $82,173 and the application deadline is April 5, 2021. You can find the application online at SCLS Human Resources page, and attach your resume, three references, and cover letter outlining your qualifications and vision for this position. E-mail submissions to Kerrie Goeden, HR & Finance Coordinator, at kgoeden@scls.info no later than April 5, 2021. Selected candidates will be contacted for an interview after the closing date. Position is available immediately.
A Staff Benefits Overview Document is available on the SCLS website.
New Belleville Library and Community Center Opens
The Village of Belleville marked the completion of its new library and community center by National Construction with a ribbon cutting Wednesday, March 17.
Having launched a capital campaign in 2016, broken ground just after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, and “been a bright spot for many” in the 11 months since, the Belleville Library and Community Center’s construction is complete, and it has begun its “next chapter of Belleville’s 140-year history of library use,” said the library’s director, Bronna Lehmann.
Madison-based, family- and employee-owned general contractor National Construction built the 13,805-square-foot facility located at 20 S. Park St. on the former Landmark mill site. The firm also recently completed the village of Belleville Police Station and has constructed several other area libraries.
The new facility includes a community room, kitchen, training room, large gathering space for preschoolers through teens, quiet area for reading, makerspace, study rooms, and public computers. Meeting and training space is also available for community group and business use. The expanded space will enable the library to offer additional programming for all ages. The new building was designed to meet the needs of the community for years to come.
The building’s design and technology will assist with the capacity limits of its phased opening -- visitors can check a monitor in the front lobby to ensure adequate social distancing and see most of the facility from the central hallway and circulation desk.
Both Lehmann and National Construction Owner Jeff Grundahl spoke at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Also in attendance from the National Construction team were project manager Scott Johnson and superintendent John Buszta. “The project team and our company as a whole are honored to have been part of creating what will be such a valuable resource for the village for years to come,” Grundahl said.
The library and community center was designed by architectural firm FEH Design. A United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development loan helped make the project possible.
The former library closed on March 3 to provide ample time for the move.
Curbside delivery will continue to be offered for those who cannot wear a facial covering or prefer that option. As part of opening, the Library will resume pre-COVID hours of Monday-Thursday 9 a.m.-7 p.m.; Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Saturday 9 a.m.-Noon.
Photos and a virtual tour are available on the library website.
Rock Springs Continues Search For New Director
Applications are still being accepted for Library Director at the Rock Springs Public Library, a member of the South Central Library System. This is a part-time position in a small but active rural library. Duties include administering, conducting and planning library services and programs, developing library policies and advising the governing board. The Director will also help organize the move into a new facility in Summer 2021 (pictured at right).
The ideal candidate is community focused, inclusive, creative, and detail oriented. Knowledge and use of computers and software, organizational skills and customer service experience are important. Applicants must be eligible for Grade 3 Wisconsin Public Library Certification, requiring 54 semester credits from an approved college or university. The position is approximately 20 hours per week including occasional Saturday mornings.
A position description can be found at rockspringslibrary.com/employment-opportunity or a copy can be picked up at the library. For questions or more information please call Jean Holtz, Library Board President, at (608) 963-3053.
Applications will be accepted until position filled. All applications will be kept on file for six months. Send cover letter, resume and three references in PDF format to jaholtz2000@yahoo.com or mail a copy to:
Rock Springs Public Library
Attn: Jean Holtz
P.O. Box 246
Rock Springs, WI 53961.
Natalie Jones is the new director at the LaValle Public Library and looks forward to helping get the community reacquainted with the library as doors begin to reopen. For the past 22 years she has been a field technician and manager for Richland County DHI, and she worked as a part time library assistant at the Brewer Public library the past 20 years. On the side she played tour director for Badger Tour and Travel for nine years before COVID derailed travel. She cross stitches, seeks out the woods and waterfalls, and is perpetually plotting and planning the next travel adventure.
Marketing Plan Template Available to Guide Your Efforts
The key element of effective marketing is that the "publicity" you get is planned. How can you make this happen? The answer? With a marketing plan. A marketing plan is a document that supports your vision and mission statement through different methods of outreach. Your marketing plan is the vehicle that helps you move toward a predetermined goal primarily because it is a tool that can help increase public support for the library on a continuous basis. The plan includes an outline for the year that supports the execution of your goals. Your marketing plan will include all of your campaigns, branding and programs.
Your plan should also include measurements. You want to be able to grade yourself as to how well you kept to your plan and you want to be able to measure the success of your strategies. A slogan, logo, website, social media and programing are all parts of your plan, but the plan defines the overarching marketing goals that your library has for the year. As with your strategic plan, this is a living document. You may make changes throughout the year and the plan may serve as a template for next year when you will no doubt rewrite and refine this year’s plan based on your results. Obviously, year two is easier since it builds upon what you have already written.
Based on Kathy Dempsey’s “Cycle of True Marketing,” a state-wide public library system marketing cohort has drafted a marketing plan template that any library of any size can model and adapt. The template includes:
- A customizable marketing framework that can be adapted to suit a library’s unique needs and community
- A sample marketing plan, budget, and calendar guides
- Links to resources that expand on the information presented
For more information watch the webinar introducing the marketing plan template, or you can contact Mark Ibach at 608-246-5612. More resources are available at www.scls.info/pr/toolkit.
Share Stories with Libraries Step Up Advocacy Toolkit
Collecting and sharing stories about the impact and value your customers experience through use of your library is vital advocacy. These real stories can influence local decision makers as they grapple with funding decisions. A new statewide project has created materials that can help you collect and share stories.
Libraries Step Up is a collaboration between OWLS, Bridges, Nicolet and IFLS library systems to draw attention to all the work libraries did in 2020. They have developed postcards and a toolkit of plug-and-play and customizable communications resources that are available for use by libraries across the state.
This effort is to counter the misperception that libraries have been closed during the pandemic. Libraries are encouraged to promote the postcard-writing campaign and the general message through the state, county and municipal budget processes. We want your excellent work to be communicated loud and clear! Empowering your community members to speak up for libraries is a great way to amplify this message to elected officials.
What Can Libraries Do?
Make the postcards available. Identify your key advocates, trustees, friends and fans and ask them personally. There’s an email in the Toolkit.
Give people a way to request postcards or just stuff curbside bags with the postcards and bag-stuffer instructions. Alternatively, make a display with poster, instructions and postcards located where people pick up their holds. Libraries can encourage community members to get and send their postcards using social media and posters.
More information and links to toolkit materials are available on the OWLS website. If you have questions about using these materials or just want to talk about library advocacy opportunities, contact Mark Ibach at (608) 246-5612.
Data That Counts: An Introduction to Census Data for Public Libraries
Libraries were central to helping people be counted in the 2020 Census. Now, learn how to make the data count for your library and community! This free webinar (April 6 at 1 p.m.) will introduce you to the important role that public libraries can play in assisting individuals, groups, and organizations with finding, accessing, and using census data for planning and decision-making. Resources and tools for searching basic census sources will also be covered. You will hear from librarians who have offered data literacy programs at their libraries to reach multiple audiences, including small businesses and entrepreneurs, local historians, students, and nonprofits and government agencies. Register now.
This webinar -- the first of six -- is presented as part of the Census Data Literacy project, an initiative of PLA in partnership with ALA’s Public Policy and Advocacy Office, which aims to build data literacy skills among library staff with the overall goal of promoting awareness and use of Census data in their communities. These webinars will be facilitated by Karen Brown, manager, ACRL Consulting Services.
Learning Outcomes
At the conclusion of this webinar, participants will be able to:
- Understand the potential role of public libraries to promote data literacy;
- Know how census data can be used for decision making, planning, and community and economic development;
- Develop strategies and ideas for data literacy services and programs to reach multiple audiences in your community; and
- Identify resources for learning how to search census data sources.
Instructors
Linda Hofshire directs the Research Institute for Public Libraries (RIPL), serves as the instructional designer for Embedding Evaluation in Libraries, and is the training coordinator for Infopeople, the education and training arm of the Califa Group. Linda serves as the chair of PLA’s Measurement, Evaluation, and Assessment Committee. She has an MA and PhD in mass media from Michigan State University, and an MLIS from the University of Illinois.
Kirstin Krumsee is a library consultant for data and research at the State Library of Ohio. She serves as Ohio's state data coordinator and was named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker in 2019 for her work on Libraries by the Numbers, an online tool to help libraries tell their stories with data.
Burton Reist is the U.S. Census Bureau’s assistant director of the Communications Directorate with responsibility for operations and management. He oversees the Public Information Office, the National Partnership Program, and the Program Management Office for the Integrated Communications Contract which provides extensive communications support for the 2020 Census. In all of these areas, he provides executive leadership for ensuring ongoing strategic communications for the 2020 Census Program.
How Women Shaped Our Nation: Inspiring Today’s Students With a Peek Into the Past
by Erica Jaros
“Women's history is American history,” said Mia Nagawiecki, Vice-President for Education at the New-York Historical Society. “Leaving them out neglects the truth, stifles nuance, and robs girls and women -- as well as all Americans -- of important stories of resilience, empowerment, and courage.”
In 2016, the New-York Historical Society created the Center for Women’s History in response to more than a decade of requests from educators. The Center’s flagship education initiative, Women & the American Story (WAMS), provides educational materials about historical women throughout U.S. history.
“Teachers had been asking for more women's history materials consistently because only 13 percent of historical figures in U.S. history textbooks are women,” Nagawiecki said. “They know that is an inaccurate reflection of our nation's past, and that many of their students were disengaged with history because they couldn't see themselves.”
WAMS is geared toward middle school students but can be adapted for younger or older students. Nagawiecki explained that the website content includes resources to help students understand primary sources, including document transcriptions and "translations" into modern English, vocabulary words, and discussion prompts. The site is also free and openly accessible, so that curious lifelong learners may be inspired by the stories.
To get the project off the ground, the New York Historical Society applied for and received a three-year Museums for America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
“We were fortunate to receive this critical support early on when we embarked on creating WAMS, which in total will be a five-year process,” Nagawiecki said. “The IMLS grant has directly supported the creation of the six units currently live on the site, as well as two additional units currently in development.”
In total, WAMS will be comprised of 10 units, which covers 1492 through 2018. The newest unit, Building a New Nation 1783-1828, will be available in November this year.
Additionally, the grant allowed them to send staff members to conferences and deliver professional learning workshops for teachers in New York school districts and across the country. Most importantly they were able to establish critical partnerships, which is how they receive materials for WAMS. Those partners also facilitate distribution of the resources through their teacher programs and networks. Nagawiecki said that because of the IMLS grant, well over 150,000 users have already accessed WAMS in the two years it has been available.
Nagawiecki and staff knew the immensity of the project as they began. It needed to be a delicate balance of inclusive, comprehensive materials, but also user-friendly. Getting it done would require a large team of the Center’s staff and outside help to ensure the project’s depth, breadth, accessibility, and accuracy.
“The support we received from IMLS enabled us to establish a deep team of advisors and establish connections across the country to ensure the work was representative of American history as it is taught in all regions of the country,” said Nagawiecki.
They started working with teachers, including their recently established "WAMSbassadors" teacher ambassador program to understand what it’s like teaching a particular topic or era in today’s American classrooms. For each unit, they employ a prominent historian as an advisor. They also reach out to partner institutions -- Atlanta History Center, Chicago History Museum, Huntington Library, Missouri Historical Society, and Oregon Historical Society -- for relevant and powerful resources from their collections that could help bring the unit to life.
WAMS also pulls resources from previous exhibits. Nagawiecki recalled that Ariana DeBose’s reenactment of Francis Ellen Watkins Harper's "We are all bound up together" speech, a resource in the A Nation Divided, 1832-1877 unit, was originally created for the Center’s Women March exhibition.
For Nagawiecki, one of the most important aspects of WAMS is that it demonstrates how women's history can be integrated into the mainstream American historical narrative.
“Women's lives were -- and in many ways continue to be -- shaped by legal and cultural barriers, but that does not mean their roles and experiences are tangential to the American story,” said Nagawiecki. “Rather, it is critical to our understanding of history that we include diverse women's perspectives and actions because they were critical to shaping our nation.”
Photo courtesy of the New-York Historical Society.