The Library Connection
The Monthly Newsletter of the Eastern
Shores Library System
www.esls.lib.wi.us
Volume 30 Number 8 August 2010
ESLS's Alison Ross's contribution to the Community Chalk
Art Event at Thiensville Village Park
August 10, 2010
Click here for the Fall 2010 Bookmobile Schedule
MOE's for 2011
Budget time is once again upon us. Local communities will be contemplating budgets for the next year deciding the best use of local funds. These are the calculations for the MOE's for the communities with libraries in Eastern Shores Library System. Maintenance of effort- 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. Meeting the MOE means that a library has met one of the criteria to continue to be a member of the Eastern Shores Library System and receive its state-funded services.
Libraried Municipalities Maintenance of Effort Calculations for 2011
| 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |
Required amount for 2011 |
|
| Cedar Grove | $ 79,639 | $ 83,361 | $ 84,235 | $ 82,412 |
| Elkhart Lake | $ 65,464 | $ 70,534 | $ 66,242 | $ 67,413 |
| Kohler | $ 165,080 | $ 172,645 | $ 176,719 | $ 171,481 |
| Oostburg | $ 79,324 | $ 83,000 | $ 79,000 | $ 80,441 |
| Plymouth | $ 345,625 | $ 355,302 | $ 366,813 | $ 355,913 |
| Random Lake | $ 150,387 | $ 149,957 | $ 149,589 | $ 149,978 |
| Sheboygan | $2,651,435 | $2,629,075 | $2,635,988 | $2,638,833 |
| Sheboygan Falls | $ 250,525 | $ 252,537 | $ 298,123 | $ 267,062 |
| Cedarburg | $ 421,525 | $ 428,454 | $ 428,454 | $ 426,144 |
| Grafton | $ 572,411 | $ 602,832 | $ 604,094 | $ 593,112 |
| Mequon | $ 987,578 | $1,007,330 | $1,007,930 | $1,000,946 |
| Port Washington | $ 424,550 | $ 453,103 | $ 446,792 | $ 441,482 |
| Saukville | $ 277,933 | $ 288,130 | $ 279,737 | $ 281,933 |
County Maintenance of Effort: to retain system membership, counties must maintain their total public library funding at a level at least equal to the average funding provided for the previous three years.
| 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | Required Amount for 2011 | |
| Ozaukee County | $ 301,680 | $ 315,772 | $ 502,957 | $ 373,470 |
| Sheboygan County | $1,060,538 | $1,086,682 | $1,099,757 | $1,082,326 |
Welcome to Interim Director McCartney
Elizabeth (Betty) McCartney is the interim director at the Elkhart Lake Public Library. Some of you are familiar with Betty from working at Mead Public Library the last two and one half years in the Adult Services Department as a Library Assistant. Betty has also been a resident of Sheboygan County for approximately 17 years.
Betty received her M.L.S. from the University of
Missouri-Columbia. She then worked at the University of Illinois-Chicago
(Main and Library of the Health Sciences) as a Circulation Librarian. She
also worked for NOTIS, a library software company, as a Customer Services
Librarian. Prior to going to library school she was the Stack Supervisor
at the University of Georgia.
Betty’s hobbies include gardening, genealogy,
cross-stitch and quilting. Living in Plymouth with her husband David,
Betty had owned the Sewing Basket in Plymouth.
Betty especially enjoys reading British mysteries (George, James,
Rankin, Jandine, etc.) but is known to read just about anything.
As interim director she hopes to keep Elkhart Lake running smoothly until a permanent director is hired.
Children's
Librarians Corner
Summer Reading Wrap-up
Beth Kiskunas—Cedar Grove Public Library
We tried some new ideas with our summer reading
program this year that worked well.
Youth Helpers-We put flyers and announcements
out in the Middle School and ended up with 10, 6th and 7th
grade helpers. They were a tremendous help with the weekly grade school
programs—adding a lot of enthusiasm and energy to these events. We had a
pizza/movie party to thank them for their help. Hopefully we have started
a good foundation of helpers
for next year.
Evening Family Events-We had two evening family events-a Learn to Fish Night at a local stocked pond and Water Olympics at the Middle School pool. For our fishing night, a local fisherman borrowed poles from the DNR, brought bait, and was on hand to remove fish from lines. Every child caught at least one fish. They were thrilled!! We played simple games for the Water Olympics followed by free swim time, with each child receiving a medal at the end of the evening.
Our numbers were not as high as the afternoon programs (due to summer baseball games), but the events were really enjoyable and added good variety to our programs.
Reading Incentives-For finishing our reading program this year (7-1/2 hours), children received a sand bucket ($.50-$1.00) filled with a book (mostly donated or bought cheap at Scholastic), a stuffed animal (all donated-parents are really happy to give these away), and a small toy (donated or left over from previous years). These really caught the children’s attention and we increased the number of children that finished the program by at least 50 per cent.
WISCAT Training
Don't forget to attend the Interlibrary loan training session on Thursday, October 7, from 9:30 - 12:00 at the Eastern Shores Library System offices. Vickie Long from Resources for Libraries & Lifelong Learning (formerly Reference and Loan) will be here to answer all your questions and give great tips on the recent upgrades to WISCAT.
Vickie will cover basic searches along with book club requests, newspaper and periodical requests, in-house kit requests and patron initiated WISCAT requests. For questions about the session email Denise Cook at dcook@esls.lib.wi.us or call her at 920-208-4900 ext 313.
LearningExpress
and ACT Scores
Wondering why the ACT books are never around? According to a recent announcement by the Department of Public Instruction 47,755 of Wisconsin's 2010 graduates took the ACT at some time during their high school career. That represents 69 percent of the state's most recent graduating class, the largest number of high school graduates to ever take the test.
Wisconsin libraries are now able to direct students to a new ACT testing resource, LearningExpress Library. Put signage up near the location of your ACT and SAT materials and inform students about the database offerings. If the books are not available the database is a great alternative. High school and middle school students are usually computer literate and should not have a problem using the database. Get the word out about LearningExpress Library!
International Literacy Day
Do you know the facts about literacy? September 8, 2010 is International Literacy Day. The International Reading Association has a great idea starters page, some of these ideas could be used for the next Summer Reading Program themes: Children's - One World, Many Stories; Teen - You Are Here; Adult - Novel Destination.
Literacy starts at birth and libraries are there to facilitate literacy development. According to the Early Learning Initiative for Wisconsin Public Libraries, " Language and communication skills begin at birth and are core to many readiness skills. The vocabulary and language skills children bring with them when they start school depend on their language experiences in infancy and as toddlers. Children entering school with limited vocabularies and experience with conversation are usually not able to catch up to children who start school with extensive vocabularies, conversation skills, and other experiences with language. Research indicates language experience before the age of three is an excellent predictor of reading ability in third grade".
For more ideas and information about literacy for young children go the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction's Early Learning Initiative web site. Included is a link to the State Library of Louisiana's series of 24 one-page Printable Nursery Rhyme Mini Books for children to color and keep.
Reaching the Hispanic Community
Looking for a way to reach out to your Hispanic
community? September 15 to October 15 is National Hispanic Heritage Month.
According to Fact
Monster. com :September 15 is the anniversary of independence for five
Latin American countries—Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,
and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico declared its independence on September
16, and Chile on September 18.
Confused by the term Hispanic. "As defined by the U.S. Census
Bureau, refers to Spanish-speaking people in the United States of any
race. On the 2000 Census form, people of Spanish/Hispanic/Latino origin
could identify themselves as Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, or "other
Spanish/Hispanic/Latino."
Check WebJunction's report from the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute detailing a telephone survey about Latinos and Public Library Perceptions. A few of the highlights include :
 | Although Spanish language materials are of importance to Latinos, their perceptions of staff service are a stronger factor in terms of increasing visits than Spanish language materials |
| The more fluent a person is in English, the more likely they are to have visited the library and accessed its services |
| Availability of resources including computer access, information on jobs, and general information influence library visits. |
WebJunction also has a Spanish Language Outreach Action Plan . More than 35 million people identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino on the 2000 Census. You can also visit the Library of Congress website for more information.
Library Card Sign-up Month
What goes with promoting literacy and attracting diverse patrons of your community ? Registering new library card holders. The month of September is Library Card Sign-up month.
Launched in 1987, Library Card Sign-up Month reminds public and school libraries to join in a national effort to remind parents and children that a library card is the most important school supply of all. The Smartest Card campaign was developed in 2004 by the Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the ALA.
Will you sign up more library card holders this September than September 2009?
Public Records and Open Meetings
An updated version of the Open Meetings Compliance Guide and the Public Records Compliance Outline has just been posted by the Wisconsin Department of Justice's website.
Three
free seminars will be held in Madison
(September 20th),
Interesting Items
* More authors and illustrators will be attending the Sheboygan Children's Book Festival. Check out the additions at the Sheboygan Children's book Festival website.
* Two more libraries involved with the WiLS website design service are up and running: the W. J. Niederkorn Library of Port Washington and Elkhart Lake Public Library. Watch for Plymouth and Sheboygan Falls's new sites in the future.
* Be sure to check out librarygrants.blogspot.com by Stephanie Gerding & Pam MacKellar .
* Thanks to a grant from Target® visiting the Milwaukee
Art Museum is even better. Museum admission is free
every first Thursday of the month courtesy of Target®. (This does not
apply to groups). All adult
tour groups or school groups should call 414-224-3842.
* Not feeling old enough today? Check out the annual Beloit College Mind Set list for 2010.
* 
Check out Book
Blogger Appreciation Week, September 13- 17.
* 
Check out the upcoming WebJunction
webinars, including one on Using
Technology to Move your Small/Rural Library Forward (Sept 21) and mySkills,
myFuture: A New Tool for Job Seekers (Sept 29). This free online tool
will be available in September. It will "enable job seekers to increase their
career mobility and economic prospects". mySkills,myFuture: is "part
of the ongoing collaboration
between IMLS and the Employment & Training Administration of the U.S.
Department of Labor (DOL/ETA)".
* OCLC has a new campaign available to United States public libraries "designed to highlight the vital role of public libraries in today’s challenging economic environment and to increase local library support". The awareness campaign dubbed, Geek the Library "has proven ability to improve public perceptions about local library funding needs in test communities" . For details about how libraries can use the campaign to increase local support go to get.geekthelibrary.org.
* Maggie Boller, Children's Librarian/Webmaster of the New Carlisle Public Library in Ohio has this information for fellow librarians:
