The Library Connection

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

Volume 29 Number 7   July 2009

Click here for the Summer 2009 Bookmobile Schedule

Mead Public Library's MoE 

Recently, a number of articles and editorials have been written about Mead Public Library's maintenance of effort. To participate and benefit from membership in a library system a library must meet specific statutory requirements.  Maintenance of effort is one of these requirements.  Maintenance of effort (MoE) is a state mandate which requires libraries be funded by their municipalities at a level at least equal to the average of the three previous years.  Mead Public Library is in compliance for 2009 and participates in the Eastern Shores Library System. The type of services a library receives by participating in a system can be found at the Department of Public Instruction website.  

The City of Sheboygan has projected a $2.2 million deficit for 2010.  To deal with the deficit the city has developed the STARR program (Sheboygan Transition and Recovery Resolution) directing all specified department heads of the City of Sheboygan to prepare and implement a 1%-3% reduction in their current 2009 operating budgets.  

The City of Sheboygan, according to Alderman James Gischia "has a balanced budget for 2009.  The STARR Resolution was specifically designed to ease us into next years budget and spread the expected impact of cuts over a longer period of time rather than beginning these changes on January 1, 2010."  Any savings from 2009 will be placed into the Contingency Fund, " an un-designated fund that can be used as the Council sees fit", according to Alderman Gischia.

As introduced to the Common Council on May 4 the STARR Resolution called for the Library Board to reduce 2009 expenditures by $80,000 and for the Common Council to reduce its 2009 funding for library services by the same amount.  This would have taken the library below the MoE for 2009.  At the May 18 meeting this was amended to a budget reduction of $20,000 which does not adversely affect the City’s ability to continue participation in Eastern Shores Library System in 2009.

However, according to the library's  May Library Board Report: The Mead Public Library Board, at its May 28 meeting, approved several recommendations from the library director to decrease 2009 expenditures in line with the 3 percent($80,000) reduction required by the City of Sheboygan STARR program (Sheboygan Transition and Recovery Resolution). 

The City of Sheboygan per the amended budget, is still only reducing the library's budget by $20,000 instead of the $80,000 initially proposed.  The other $60,000 operating budget reductions have all been decisions made by the Mead Library Board. "Wisconsin Statutes give the library board exclusive control of the expenditure of all moneys collected, donated, or appropriated for the library fund."  Those funds have not been and will not be returned to the City (which will keep the library at the MoE for 2009) but will remain within Mead Public Library resources.

As stated in the May Library Board Report, the $80,000 ($20,000 by the City of Sheboygan and $60,000 by the Library Board) budget reductions will be made as follows:  "The board voted to suspend the July 1 general salary increase of 1.5 percent for library staff members."  This reduced the budget by $17,000. "The board also approved a furlough for staff of one week during which time the building will be closed for public service. The furlough week is tentatively planned for the second week in August."   The furlough reduced the budget by $43,000.  An additional $20,000 will come from a reduction for library materials.

For the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article go to: http://www.jsonline.com/news/ozwash/49986327.html . 

Congratulations Joann! 

Joann Wiesner a member of the Eastern Shores Library System Board and the Oscar Grady Public Library Board recently received the Government Achievement Award from the Saukville Chamber of Commerce.  Joann is currently serving as President of Oscar Grady Public Library and is a former high school librarian.  She has served on the Oscar Grady Library Board over 20 years and has been a member of the community for 33 years.

The recipient of the award is nominated by the village administrator and the board of directors and the Chamber must approve it.  The recipient can be a government employee or an appointed committee/board member.  Joann was "selected for her service on the library board as well as in the community."

Mead Closing for a Week

Mead Public Library will be closed August 10 through 15 due to a staff furlough week. This includes the drive-up materials return, phone and e-mail responses.  The staff furlough is part of the Library Board's STARR program reductions.  While the building is closed to the public and staff, other work will be underway.

At the June 18 meeting of the Mead Public Library Board, according to the June Library Reports, the construction contract for the Myrtle and Hazel Hansen Teen Library Center on the second floor of Mead Library in the area just north of the staircase was awarded.  The area is named in memory of the women whose bequest will fund the project. 

The Board report states: The Library Board awarded the contract to Chappa Construction of Sheboygan Demolition work is scheduled for the week of August 10, during which time Mead Library will be closed for a staff furlough week.  The demolition is related to the future installation of a stairway in the Hansen space on the second floor.   It will lead to the third floor area that is designated as the future Dr. Jerome M. Maas Teen Learning Center, a project to be funded by a bequest from Dr. Maas to the Mead Public Library Foundation designated to improve library services for young people.

The board approved a second project that will take place during the furlough week: replacement of very worn carpeting in the high traffic areas of the first floor.  Dulmes Decor will perform the carpet installation.

During the week of closure items that are to be returned to Mead Public Library through the delivery van service will be stored at the Eastern Shores Library System office.  

Children's Librarians Corner

"Be Creative"

Debbie Krueger, Youth Services
U.S.S. Liberty Memorial Public Library, Grafton

"Be Creative" with story times this summer and watch the kids have lots of fun and as an extra bonus you will too!  Here are a few suggestions:

Shaky Eggs –

Shaky eggs are fun to make.  Use plastic eggs (they usually are on sale after Easter), fill them with beans, rice, macaroni, or birdseed, glue or tape the eggs together and you’re ready to go.  Use the shaky eggs with songs.  “I Know A Chicken” by Laura Berkner from the Whaddya Think of That CD is great, or “Shake Your Sillies Out” by Raffi from the More Singable Songs album.  After you sing, hide the eggs and tell a story about a hen who is looking for her eggs or decorate one special egg for the kids to find and read The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett.   

Scarves –

There lots of places to find play scarves.  Find them in catalogs, get silky scarves at thrift shops or if you’re handy, buy a length of material, cut and hem stitch your own.  The scarves are fun to twirl and float to the ground.  For your littlest listeners, use books from Marie Cimarusti’s great series Peek-a-Boo, Peek-a-Pet or Peek-A-Zoo  and use the scarves for peek-a-boo.

Parachutes –

Multicolored parachutes with handles at least six feet in diameter are always fun.  Use brown pom-poms as meatballs and sing “On Top of Spaghetti” as the kids launch the pompoms into the air or use five little stuffed monkeys as the kids chant the rhyme “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.”  Beach balls and parachutes go well in summer and in winter white pom-poms make great “snowballs.”  For toddler-types it’s fun to sit down and move the parachute up and down to music or walk in a circle to “Ring-Around–the-Rosy.” 

Bean Bags-

Some of the best bean bag music is on Georgianna Stewart’s CD Bean Bag Rock.  Hap Palmer’s “Bean Bag Song” from the CD or Can a Jumbo Jet Sing the Alphabet gets your group moving, too.

Flannel Board Participation Stories-

There’s nothing kids like more than audience participation and that’s where the flannel board comes in.  There are lots and lots of books that can be adapted for the flannel board.  If you have access to a color copier and a laminator, there’s no limit to the fun you can create.  Just use some Velcro (you can buy “latch only” packages of Velcro), stick them to the back of your story items and you’re ready to go.  Jane Cabrera’s Old Mother Hubbard is perfect as the kids bring up the different items that are found in the cupboard.  Use Don’t Rock the Boat by Sally Grindley, Pigs Love Potatoes by Anika Denise, Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard or A Dog Needs a Bone by Audrey Wood.  Once you get started, you’ll find many, many more. 

Creative dramatics can enhance family story times as well.  It’s a great way for all family members to participate during story time and “Be Creative @ Their Library."

Make Time to Learn about Search Engines

Gail Skiff, Reference Librarian
Cedarburg Public Library

There are so many search engines that it is hard to keep up with them and to know which one to use and when to use it.  But as a reference librarian for over 35 years, I still call on the same guidelines I used “way back when” for print sources,  I just adjust them to Internet search engines.  

Keep up with the changes for your search engine of choice. 

If after the reference interview, all things are equal, I go to Google first to find an answer.  If you use Google, sign up or check out Google Tutor and various Google blogs.  You’ll find the latest features to help make the search successful.  The image search recently added a feature I will be promoting to customers.  It finds images that you can use for free. The Official Google Blog states “this feature allows you to restrict your Image Search results to images that have been tagged with licenses like Creative Commons, making it easier to discover images from across the web that you can share, use and even modify.”  To access this go to the advanced image search screen and choose one of the options under “usage rights”.  The blogs keep you up with other changes, such as the new look and features on Google’s finance page. I also go to Google when asked for the time or currency somewhere; just type in “time in Paris” or “dollar euro” to get fast results. 

Try other search engines.

There is a basic article about some of the differences between Bing, Google and Yahoo! in PCWorld.  I’ve been asked to find online pictures of customer’s homes and some of the views are different in Bing and Google. I like the option in Bing to see website summaries by placing your mouse to the right of the text result.  Also the reviews stress that Bing is great for hotel and airfare searches since Bing incorporated Farecast technology.  Yahoo has recently changed their frontpage.  You can add widgets from your favorite sites and make it a more useful homepage.  If you are big on privacy then try the metasearch site, Startpage.  This was formerly called ixquick and it does not keep your IP address or make a record of your searches.  It pulls results from several places including Yahoo and Ask. 

Discover alternative search engines.

AltSearchEngines is a great starting place to learn about other search engines.  In June of this year they released a revision of their “Top 100 Alternative Search Engine Lists.”  Wolfram/Alpha, really is a “fact engine” rather than a search engine, and is starting to look interesting.  It is good for almanac type questions and also has U.S. occupational data.  Type in one or more occupations and you quickly receive salary information.  Try it for math questions since it is founded on Wolfram’s Mathematica, a computing software program. I also have to admit to using Zabasearch, the public information search engine.  It is often the only place I can find birth date data.  There are many sites that compare search engines.  Blindsearch returns 3 unlabeled columns.  After checking the results you can “vote” for one and see that the results are either, Bing, Google, or Yahoo.  Similar websites are SearchBoth, BingandGoogle, and Bingle. 

Have fun with the new search engines.

There are search engines that are just plain fun to discover.  Some may be of help and others have a “wow” factor such as Taggalaxy.  

I know we’re all busy, but we must “make time” to learn about search engines in order to “save time” when we search.  I hope you can continue to learn about them and incorporate the ones that bring you success in finding quality answers to your customer’s questions. 

Links to sites mentioned in article:

Google Tutor: http://www.googletutor.com
Google Blogs: http://www.google.com/press/blogs/directory.html#tab0
Creative Commons Image search: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/find-creative-commons-images-with-image.html

Feature smackdown in PCWorld: http://www.pcworld.com/article/165749/bing_vs_google_vs_yahoo_feature_smackdown.html

http://startpage.com                            http://www.altsearchengines.com

http://www.altsearchengines.com/category/the-top-100-lists

http://www.wolframalpha.com             http://www.zabasearch.com

http://blindsearch.fejus.com                http://us.searchboth.net

http://www.bingandgoogle.com            http://bingle.pwnij.com

http://taggalaxy.de

Assisting the Unemployed

At the recent workshop on Assisting the Unemployed in Sheboygan County, Brian Ognacevic, program manager for the Great Lakes Training and Development Corp., from the Sheboygan County Job Center had a number of suggestions for libraries.

2010 Budget Update

Work has started on 2010 budgets.   Eastern Shores Library System will receive $622,950 in system aides in 2010, which is $23,819 less than we received in 2009. Compared to the current 2009 budget this would create a $46,115 deficit.  Various scenarios have been discussed by the staff to address this situation.  The other libraries have reviewed the budget for input.  The ESLS Board will be meeting in regular session in August when they will address this fiscal matter.

Director David Weinhold and four librarians (representing the communities of Cedar Grove, Random Lake, Port Washington and Saukville) met with the Ozaukee County Administrative Committee on July 23.  The committee asked the Library System to reduce the reimbursement to libraries to a zero levy increase.  This reimbursement is for the 2008 non-libraried use at the public libraries.  The next step in the official process will be for the Administrative Committee to review the request in October.

The Sheboygan County request for non-libraried use has not been reviewed by the County at this time.  The proposed request shows an increase of 1.5 percent based on non-libraried usage in 2008. 

Twitter

WSLL (Wisconsin State Law Library), July 2009
Tech Tip in Brief – Heidi Yelk

Is it Twitter time?

Is it time for you to have a Twitter account?

It seems that everyone - from your neighborhood dog to the White House - has a Twitter account. Is it time for you to have one, too?  What is Twitter, and how can law firms and lawyers use it successfully?  Here’s information that might answer some of your questions.

What is Twitter?  There are many wonderful, succinct definitions for Twitter.  Most people simply call it a “microblog.”  It can also be thought of as “public instant messaging.”  Users send out (tweet) short messages, limited to 140 characters, which can be anything: comments, questions, announcements, referrals, etc.

Is Twitter searchable?  Yes, at http://search.twitter.com/.  You do not need to have a Twitter account to search Twitter.

How are lawyers using Twitter?  Twitter can be used for marketing, to inform clients of new developments at your firm or new content on your webpage, and to network with other attorneys (For an example, see Foley & Lardner).  Twitter can also be used to measure public chatter on a subject of interest, such as the Wisconsin State Budget, the GM Janesville plant, or e. coli outbreaks.

How do I know if a Twitter account is genuine?  Twitter is experimenting with Verified Account for certain users.

How can I customize my Twitter account to protect certain information?  See this helpful article from PC World, “Avoid Twitter Disasters”. 

For more information, check out this excellent post and presentation by Chris Winfield, “How can Lawyers use Twitter?”  See also the Twitter section of Lawyercasting.com.  

Hoping to learn more about Twitter.  On Tuesday, August 4 from 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. a WiLS Hour presentation on Twitter and Facebook will be available.  Professional Uses of Facebook and Twitter with guest speaker-Andrew Burkhardt and Eric Robinson and Angela Milock of WiLS is a webinar available to ESLS library staff through WiLS (Wisconsin Library Services).  Register online to view this presentation free to level one members of WiLS. 

For additional information you can also read the article from Piper Mountain Webs, a company specializing in library websites.  

Interesting Items

* Libraries are not the only ones trying to keep teens reading.  Publishers are using the new technology to attract them.  Read the article from USA Today. 

* You can join ESLS staff and learn more about the upgrades to WISCAT on Wednesday August 5  during the ILL webinar.  You can participate from your own library however, if you have limited phone lines participating in a group may be more advantageous.  Contact Denise Cook by e-mail or phone: 920-208-4900 ext 313 if you would like to utilize the ESLS offices. 

* Weekly delivery to Kettle Moraine Correctional Institute will be made on Wednesdays, beginning Wednesday, September 9.

* Polaris is getting an update on Tuesday, August 11!

* On Monday, August 17 BCN will be increasing the bandwidth for ESLS and Manitowoc Calumet Library System.  We are currently at 10Mbs and will increase to 25Mbs between libraries and to WiscNet. 

* Director Dave Weinhold participated in the Community Chalk Event on July 24th in Mequon.  The even was co-sponsored by the F.L. Weyenberg Library of Mequon Thiensville and the Town Center Committee.  

Weyenberg's Patron Services Manager, Jan Gerber (below) organized the event.

www.esls.lib.wi.us