Index
- Member/Staff News
- New Titles Added to Professional Collection
- Play Make Learn 2023 Call for Proposals is Open
- OverDrive App Sunset Timeline and User Messaging
- Peggy Barber Tribute Grant
- ALA’s Great Stories Club Grants
- Continuing Education Calendar
Member/Staff News
Congratulation to Rob Franklin and Willie Glenn, both from Madison Public Library, for being recognized as two of Wisconsin’s 52 Most Influential Black Leaders by Madison365. To read the complete 5-part series, check out Madison365.
Rob Franklin, better known as Rob Dz, is a hip-hop artist and music community organizer. Professionally, he is the Media Projects Bubblerarian (which he calls “a creative way to say that I am a digital media instructor”) for the Madison Public Library. As a Kennedy Center certified teaching artist for the Making Justice program, his primary focus is on creating workshops on Hip Hop, Spoken Word and Personal Branding as positive forms of self-expression. Rob has held residencies with Madison youth in elementary, middle, and high schools, community centers, the Dane County Juvenile Detention Center and Juvenile Shelter Home, Neighborhood Intervention Program, Madison Jazz Consortium and with The Black Star Drum Line. As a musician, he has performed with the likes of Nas, Eminem, Common, Talib Kweli, Dead Prez and others. In 2017, he was inducted to the American Folklife Center at the Library Of Congress and The National Museum of African American History and Culture as a member of The Story Corps program. He is also the lead organizer of the Mad Lit free concert series. https://madison365.com/wisconsins-52-most-influential-black-leaders-part-3/?fbclid=IwAR1JYlbVO4Y1JFT9S0-qRokfF2EIxb2PLYoWSHsgOxWnYSDgiKoyEvea6U0
Willie R. Glenn Sr. is the first Black teen librarian at Madison Public Library, where he also previously served as youth services librarian assistant. He began his journey here in Madison as Student Support Service Coordinator for UW-Madison’s PEOPLE program, and later as the Assistant Director at Meadowood Neighborhood center. He has served in several capacities in youth and adult education, including as a lead instructor with UW-Madison’s Odyssey program, Out of School Youth Coordinator for Madison Metropolitan School District and a program coordinator for the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee. One of his proudest moments is helping spawn Madison’s “Parks Alive” from his “It Takes A Village Community Resource Fair” which brings people together over the summer months. https:/madison365.com/wisconsins-52-most-influential-black-leaders-part-5/
Welcome to Melissa Everson, Library Director at Albertson Memorial Library, Albany. Melissa is an avid reader, whose first real memory of libraries is reading the entire Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series in one summer. Melissa has been an early childhood and elementary teacher for over 35 years and currently is Albany School District’s 4-year-old Kindergarten teacher. Melissa and her husband love Albany. They have three adult children and 5 grandchildren and recently purchased a new home for their nine-acre woods. Welcome Melissa!
New Titles Added to Professional Collection
Listed below are the newly added titles to the professional collection as of January 6, 2023. Books are available and can be requested. Click the book link to request.
25 Ready to Use Sustainable Living Programs for Libraries by Ellyssa Kroski
Better by Design: An Introduction to Planning, Designing and Developing Library Buildings, Second Edition by Khan, Ayub and Stella Thebridge
Change the World Using Social Media (LITA Guides) by Paul Signorelli
Five Steps of Outcome-Based Planning and Evaluation for Youth Services by Melissa Gross, Cindy Mediavilla, and Virginia A. Walter
Intellectual Freedom Stories from a Shifting Landscape by Valerie Nye
Library Services to Homeschoolers: A Guide by Christina Giovannelli Caputo
Liven Up Your Library: Design Engaging and Inclusive Programs for Tweens and Teens (Digital Age Librarian's Series) by Julia Torres
The Black Librarian in America: Reflections, Resistance, and Reawakening by Shauntee Burns-Simpson
Play Make Learn 2023 Call for Proposals is Open
The invitation is now open for library and educational practitioners to submit proposals to present at the 2023 Play Make Learn Conference. The conference takes place July 20-21 at the Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St., Madison, WI.
The Play Make Learn Conference is a chance for collaboration between peers on research and innovative design of playful learning games. Librarians, educators, researchers, game designers, makers, and artists are encouraged to submit new ideas or follow this year’s Play Make Learn Conference themes:
- Playful learning
- Games for learning and positive social impact
- Making and makerspaces
- STEAM education
- Arts integration in formal and informal spaces
- Research/practitioner partnerships
Several formats offered for presenters are workshops for 90 minutes, panel presentations for 60 minutes, and individual presentations for 20 minutes. Additional sessions include poster presentations, Arcade Playtest or Demo interactive sessions, and Break the Mold Session for those presentations that do not fit any of the listed formats.
The deadline for submissions is March 12, 2023. To submit a proposal or to find out more on the submission process, visit the Play Make and Learn website. If you have additional questions, contact PML Conference organizer and WI Department of Public Instruction Public Library Consultant Chris Baker at [email protected].
OverDrive App Sunset Timeline and User Messaging
The OverDrive app will be sunset at the end of April 2023. This change will simplify how you promote your digital collection, train your staff, and support your users. In the weeks before the OverDrive app sunset, current in-app messaging will be updated to give users a final reminder to switch to Libby.
After the OverDrive app is sunset, users who try to access your library’s collection in the OverDrive app will see the following message, informing them they need to upgrade to Libby:
The OverDrive app has been discontinued. Upgrade to Libby to continue using your library’s digital collection
Use the following resources to help your library and users through this transition:
For library staff:
- OverDrive app sunset overview and FAQs: Bookmark this Resource Center page for helpful FAQs, a preparation checklist, and staff training materials.
- Transition to Libby marketing kit: Use this marketing kit to help get the word out to your staff and community.
For users:
- Libby help: How-to videos and step-by-step instructions on Libby Help explain how to use the app.
- Overview page about the transition to Libby: This informational page for users includes an overview about the sunset, FAQs, and training opportunities.
- Virtual training: Users can sign up for a virtual training session hosted by team OverDrive.
- Options for Kindle Fire devices: Amazon has not yet accepted our submission of the Libby app to the Amazon Appstore so the OverDrive app will remain available for Kindle Fire users to download and access until further notice. Users with Kindle Fire devices can also sideload Libby manually following these steps.
The Peggy Barber Tribute Grant is an annual grant that recognizes, promotes, and supports meaningful programs in libraries that have limited and/or no access to budgetary support for programming. This grant aims to help ease budget challenges by annually awarding three libraries $2,500 to support a proposed program, program series, or programming effort.
Applications for the award will be accepted from December 1, 2022, to February 1, 2023. Read the grant guidelines and apply online.
Each year, the grant will focus on supporting a specific type of library programming. For the 2022–2023 cycle, libraries are invited to submit applications for a grant to support programming related to increasing access for groups that are identified as undeserved or new library users in the community. Some example proposals could include increasing access to library resources for homebound seniors, media literacy focused programming and kits for patrons re-entering society to learn about local resources.
All library types — including public, academic, K-12, tribal and special libraries — in the U.S. or U.S. territories are eligible. Applicants must have a personal or institutional membership with either the American Library Association OR the Association for Rural & Small Libraries.
Peggy Barber served as ALA's associate executive director of communications from 1970 to 2000. In that role, she established ALA’s Public Information Office, Public Programs Office and the ALA Graphics department. After leaving ALA, she was a principal consultant with Library Communication Strategies and served as co-president of Friends of Libraries USA, now known as United for Libraries. She passed away in August 2019.
The Peggy Barber Tribute Grant was created with donations from Barber’s friends and colleagues. To support the grant, make a contribution to the Peggy Barber tribute fund within ALA’s Cultural Communities Fund.
ALA’s Great Stories Club Grants
The American Library Association invites library workers to apply for ALA’s Great Stories Club (GSC), a thematic reading and discussion program that engages teens who are facing difficult challenges through literature-based library outreach programs.
For this round of grants, library workers may apply to host one themed series: "Deeper Than Our Skins” or “Finding Your Voice."
Library workers may apply online for grant funding until March 15, 2023 at ala.org/tools/programming/greatstories/apply.
Up to 50 libraries will be selected to receive a "Deeper Than Our Skins" grant, and up to 50 libraries will be selected to receive a "Finding Your Voice" grant.
ALA will accept applications from January 18, 2023 to March 15, 2023
Participating libraries will work with small groups of approximately 10 teens; provide up to four theme-related books for each participant to keep as their own; and convene opportunities for exploration and discussion of relevant humanities content among peers. Book discussions will be led by an experienced programming librarian, often in cooperation with staff from a partner organization or department, such as teachers and counselors.
Because the Great Stories Club seeks to engage libraries in different areas of the country, serving high-need and diverse groups of teen readers, ALA invites interested librarians to get in touch if there is a specific need for flexibility with the program model or requirements.
Applications will be accepted from all types of libraries (public, school, academic, special, etc.) in the United States and its territories that meet one of the following criteria:
- The applicant library is located within an organization that reaches underserved, under-resourced, and/or at-risk teens (e.g., alternative high school, juvenile detention facility, tribal library), OR;
- The applicant library is working with a partner organization that reaches underserved, under-resourced, and/or at-risk teens. Possible partner organizations include but are not limited to juvenile justice facilities, drug/alcohol rehabilitation centers, nonprofits serving teen parents, alternative high schools, agencies serving teenaged foster children, and shelters serving young adults and families experiencing homelessness
Learn more about the benefits and requirements for selected sites.