The Library Connection

The Monthly Newsletter of the Eastern Shores Library System
www.esls.lib.wi.us

Volume 31 Number 8   August 2011

Click here for the Fall 2011 Bookmobile Schedule

Balancing the Budget (Part 1- Staffing Changes)

Facing a ten per cent budget deficit ($64,283), the members of the Eastern Shores Library System Board of Trustees have found themselves discussing various avenues to a solution. After many meetings and debates the Board passed a motion on Monday, August 29 for an early retirement incentive for one part-time employee.  

The part-time position will not be filled thereby saving the System $38,185 in wages and benefits in 2012.  The Board also decided that the position would be eliminated this October, creating wage and benefit savings of $9,546, which could be used as carryover funds to balance next years budget.   This position helped provide interlibrary loan and cataloging services. 

The motion passed is to grant the soon to be retired part-time employee (30 hours/week) who has the part-time health insurance benefit of single coverage and pays 50% of the premium, to continue that coverage for 5 years.  In the first year, the person would pay 50% of the annual premium and the Library System would pay 50% of the annual premium.  The Library System’s payment in subsequent years would be limited to a 5% increase in its payment toward the premium.  The cost of the incentive over 5 years has been estimated to be $25,960: (2011: $ 1,075; 2012: $4,698; 2013: $4,933; 2014: $5,180; 2015: $5,439; 2016: $4,635). 

If the employee had received unemployment compensation over two years, for 83 weeks, the cost to the System would have been $18,876 in 2012 and $12,342 in 2013 or $31, 281 total.  Paying unemployment would have cost the System $5,322 more in a shorter period of time.  

The other staffing change will be in the area of Special Needs.  Since 2007, Connie Meyer and Sue Potter have been fulfilling these duties.  Starting in 2012, Director David Weinhold and Administrative Assistant Paula Siefert will be the contact persons for any Special Needs concerns.  This will save the System, $6,217.

Progress Report on the Digitization Project

Ozaukee County currently has little or no presence in the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections( UWDC) or other online resources. Four ESLS member libraries are participating in an LSTA grant to correct this : Frank L. Weyenberg Library of Mequon-Thiensville; Lakeview Community Library, Random Lake; U.S.S. Liberty Memorial Public Library, Grafton; and W. J. Niederkorn Library, Port Washington. 

Alison Ross, Project Administrator and ESLS Cataloging Librarian has been informed by the UWDC  that our project is set with a go-live date the beginning of November.  That could change slightly but, hopefully everything will stay on track.  According to Alison, "The go-live date is when we'll be given a permanent URL to make the content accessible to the public. The actual content will be hosted with the UWDC".

CDs will also be created with the images for libraries to use locally, but that will take place after the go-live date and takes several weeks, so those would be available closer to December or January.

Children's Librarians Corner

Free Online Music (Legally)

Erin Coppersmith, Director of the  Kohler Public Library

Two of the best ways to listen to music online are Pandora and Spotify.  If you haven't heard of them, it's worth your time to check out both for personal and professional use.  

Pandora is similar to listening to a radio station, but the stations that you create can be tweaked by you with thumbs up or thumbs down for each song that plays.  The station "learns" what you like and creates the perfect selection of songs just for you.  You'll be surprised with songs you loved but forgot about and excited about new songs by bands you haven't heard of but love instantly.   You can create stations such as "children's favorites", "Christmas Songs", or "Disney favorites".  Pandora is a web-based program...no downloading needed, which means you can even listen to your stations on your smart phone. 

Spotify is similar to Pandora in that you listen to music online without downloading individual songs, but instead of a radio station format, you choose individual songs from their enormous database and create play lists that can be saved on your computer and shared with your friends.  The songs themselves aren't on your machine (that would be illegal) but links to play them are.   Spotify requires a small amount of software to be installed on your machine. 

What's great about Spotify is that it's not limited to songs!  You can listen to comedians like Bill Cosby, storytellers like Raffi, and even classic audio books (but fair warning...audio book narrators' voices sound computer generated).  This morning I listened to the original broadcast of Orson Wells' War of the Worlds and a few of Shakespeare's Sonnets!  I've already used Spotify during story time to add variety to my program. 

Spotify is still new to the US so you'll need to request an invitation from the site to set up an account, but one usually arrives within 24 hours.  

Happy Listening!  

* There will be a Youth Services meeting on Friday, October 7 at Mead Public Library beginning at 9 a.m.

SHEBOYGAN CHILDREN’S BOOK FESTIVAL 

 October 14-16, 2011

Paula Siefert, Administrative Assistive and Youth Services for Eastern Shores Library System

The 2^nd Annual Sheboygan Children’s Book Festival October 14-16 brings a stellar slate of children’s book creators to the community for three days of free, public events in celebration of books, reading, writing, and art.  The Sheboygan Children’s Book Festival features noted authors and illustrators of picture books for young children, non-fiction books, and novels for elementary and middle grades and young adults. 

Friday, October 14:
Authors and illustrators visit area schools and make children’s literature come alive in the classroom.  Bookworm Gardens will host an after-school author/illustrator appearance.

Saturday and Sunday, October 15 and 16: 
Mead Public Library, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and Bookworm Gardens host free author talks, readings, and illustrator workshops for all ages.  Authors and illustrators will sign books after their presentations. 

These outstanding children’s book creators are scheduled to appear:  

Mark your calendars and plan to attend! For complete event details, visit http://SheboyganChildrensBookFestival.org or call Mead Public Library at 920-459-3400 extension 3404.   

The Sheboygan Children’s Book Festival is a cornerstone of the Sheboygan Shindig, a celebration of art, books, dance, music and more.  The theme for this year’s Sheboygan Children’s book Festival is Memory and festival goers will have the opportunity to hear authors and illustrators speak about how memory has played a role in their books.  The John Michael Kohler Arts Center will be concurrently featuring the Hiding Places: Memory in Art exhibition and programming. 

  Turns 40

WorldCat is 40 years old. It is "the world’s most comprehensive online library database".  Thousands of librarians and catalogers around the world have cataloged more than 1.7 billion items.  Mead Public Library joined the throng in 1980. The Sheboygan County Federated Library System began using OCLC cataloging in 1982.  When Eastern Shores Library System formed in 1987 the libraries from Ozaukee County became part of the WorldCat holdings.

In 1967, it was originally called the Ohio College Library Center (OCLC).  Three university presidents, three university vice presidents and four university library directors from the Ohio College Association met on the campus of Ohio State University to sign the articles of incorporation for a nonprofit organization.  On August 26, 1971, the Alden Library at Ohio University became the first library in the world to do online cataloging.  That first day, Ohio University cataloged 133 books online. Today, the Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC) provides services to over 25,900 member libraries around the world.

According to their press release, "WorldCat is a singular achievement. It represents the cooperative spirit at the heart of what makes libraries unique among cultural, educational and civic services. It is a shared resource that is built and maintained by thousands of members for the good of all. We who work at OCLC are proud to have been a part of this remarkable story, and I want to thank our member institutions and employees for the years of dedicated effort that helped build this unique resource. Fred Kilgour’s vision—improving access to information through library cooperation—is every bit as vital today as it was in 1971. This anniversary is an important milestone in a shared journey that, I believe, will continue for many decades to come".

News From the Area

The U.S.S. Liberty Memorial Public Library in Grafton has passed their 2012 budget request for the Village.  According to the July minutes, "money budgeted for books and audio visuals will decrease 15 percent.  Money budgeted for the Reference Librarian position is for a 32 hour work week. The position is currently funded as a 40 hour position".  Director John Hansen stated "administrators were directed to come up with substantial cuts, in the neighborhood of seven per cent".  He met with the staff and with the Library Board to get their input.  

Their new web site is up and running, take a look by clicking here. 

Much as been said about the state furloughs, but did you know that the library at the University of Wisconsin -Sheboygan campus has had to reduce their hours significantly during the summer.  Starting in July, 2010, while summer classes were in session (June-July and first week of August), the library was open only Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00 a.m. - 7 p.m.   In prior years, the library was open Monday thru Thursday from  8 :00 a. m. - 9:00  p. m.  and Friday from  8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.  During August when there were no classes, the library was only  open Tuesday  thru Thursday from  12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.  Previously, it was open Monday thru Thursday 8:00 a. m. - 4:00 p.m.   

Library Director Jeff Ellair, stated, "We’re trying very hard to minimize any effects of these cuts during the regular academic year so far we have been able to preserve those library hours as in the past.  Of course the reduction of what we’re able to accomplish in the summer does have some impact throughout the year".   According to Director Ellair, the staffing reduction is understood to be permanent at this time.  

      Mead Public library will be offering a Homework Help center in the Jerome M. Maas Teen Learning Center starting September 24. Brainfuse software has been selected as the online tutoring program. The Footnotes newsletter  states, "The Homework Help Center is based on an online subscription service where qualified professionals offer "virtual tutoring" to students...contract personnel will be hired to supervise the Homework Help Center, helping students use the online tutoring service when needed for assistance".   This new service has been funded by a generous contribution to the Mead Public Library Foundation "designated for this purpose".  For more information click on the Footnotes link above.

The June, Mead Library Board Report noted that the Library Board by "taking no action, has allowed the Employment Agreement between the Board and the Library Director to automatically renew for two additional years".

Due to the costs involved the "Library Bay" development project for Random Lake has been  canceled. The bidding for Phase One of the "Library Bay" project had been approved by the Random Lake Village Board.  Two Milwaukee firms drew up plans and conducted the bidding process. 

In April 2009 when the bidding process was approved the expected cost of Phase One was $395,000. but the three bids opened in June 2009 ranged from $613,110 to $782,408.  A Department of Natural Resources $200,000 matching grant for this project has a time limit.  A $100,000 donation for Phase One was made by the family of the late Harold J. Mueller and the former Wisconsin State Bank.  Those funds have been returned.   It had been hoped that the  project would control the constant shoreline erosion of Lakeview Park lying between the lake and Lakeview Community Library.   The plans for the Library Bay project will be kept on file. 

1,000,000 Checkouts- Digitally

Jane Richard, WiLS

Congratulations to the L.D. Fargo Public Library in Lake Mills for having the 1,000,000th digital checkout from the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium Digital Download Center (http://dbooks.wplc.info). The Digital Download Center is a collection of audiobooks, e-texts, music and video distributed through OverDrive, which is available to all library patrons in Wisconsin through the cooperative efforts of the state's 17 library systems. Library patrons have used the service more and more each year since the collection was formed in 2005.  

How library e-Books work

Library users with a valid library card are able to download e-Books directly to their mobile e-Book readers and MP3 players, in addition to downloading to their computers. Titles automatically expire at the end of the lending period. There are no late fees. 

About the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium

The Wisconsin Public Library Consortium (WPLC) was created in 2000 among Wisconsin public libraries and Wisconsin public library systems to provide all Wisconsin citizens with access to a collection of electronically published materials which they may access from home, work or school or from any library in the Consortium. http://www.wplc.info/ 

About OverDrive

OverDrive is a leading full-service digital distributor of e-Books, audiobooks, music, and video. It delivers secure management, DRM protection, and download fulfillment services for hundreds of publishers and thousands of libraries, schools, and retailers serving millions of end users. OverDrive has been named to the EContent 100 as a company that matters most in the digital content industry. Founded in 1986, OverDrive is based in Cleveland, OH. http://www.overdrive.com

Interesting Items

* In case you missed it, check out the article in Publishers Weekly, Children's Books Finally Receive Exemption from CPSIA Testing Requirements

* The never ending cycle begins on  Tuesday, November 1, 2011 with a planning session for the 2012 Summer Library  at the Planetarium in Milwaukee. The date was chosen because WLA conference begins on Wednesday in Milwaukee.  Bob Bonaduer, Director of the Planetarium, will also present a program.  Contact Paula Siefert for more information.

The 2012 themes are Dream Big - Read; Own the Night; and Between the Covers .  

* Yes it's that time of year.  Time to realize the world is changing and you can't do a thing to stop it. Check out the 2011 Mindset List by Beloit College:  #66.  The World Wide Web has been an online tool since they were born.

* The webinar, Libraries in a Post-Print World will be held on Tuesday, September 13 starting at 2:00 p.m. This webinar will last approximately one hour. Webinars are free of charge and registration is ONLY done on the day of the event on the WebEx server. No Passwords are required.  For Tips and Registration Information please go to http://infopeople.org/training/webcasts/tips.html    For more information and to participate in the September 13 webinar go to http://infopeople.org/training/libraries-post-print-world  

www.esls.lib.wi.us