At the February 4 meeting of the Ozaukee County Board
of Supervisors the following residents were approved to be representatives
on the Joint Library Planning Committee:
Mary Becker (Port
Washington) - Resident at Large
Sonia Lear (Saukville)-
Public Library Board Member
Nancy Szatkowski
(Mequon)- County Board Member from a Libraried Community
Donald Dohrwardt
(Fredonia)- County Board Member from a Non-Libraried Community
Amy Rachuba
(Belgium)- Eastern Shores Library System Board Member
These members will
join the five individuals representing Sheboygan County to form the Joint
Library Planning Committee. This is the first time for a joint
committee. The joint committee idea can from the current Sheboygan
County plan.
Linda Pierschalla, Director of Oscar Grady Public Library, Saukville
As
the year 2009 begins, so does my term as Chair of the WI Association of
Public Libraries (WAPL). I had a crash course last year as
Chair-Elect and served under Rhonda Puntney the 2008 Chair.
Rhonda somewhat encouraged me to run for the position so I threw my
hat into the ring thinking I may have a shot at it but wasn’t going to
hold my breath.
After all, I have PLENTY of other things to do!
So, of course, I ended up winning the election and now have a whole
extra set of duties to add to my list.
However, I can’t complain because being involved in WAPL and WLA
has really opened up my network of colleagues and friends, which has been
the best part.
I can now travel almost anywhere in the state and know someone at
the local public library, which is very cool.
Our
first WAPL Board meeting will be the evening before Library Legislation
Day in early February. There are 6 other people serving on the Board with
me and our main focus is planning for the WAPL conference in May which
will be at the beautiful new Glacier Canyon Lodge Convention Center which
is part of the Wilderness Resort in the Dells.
There is a large amount of volunteer work and planning that goes
into a conference and one of my responsibilities is to select the luncheon
speakers.
After some discussion about the big flood in the Dells this past
spring and the loss of so much that was of both historical and personal
importance, we created the theme for the conference to be “Saving Our
Stories”.
The theme helps with the selection of the speakers and programs
that are offered.
I am particularly excited about our Thursday luncheon speakers,
John and Lisa Ivanko.
The couple and their young son live and operate a farm and bed and
breakfast called “Inn Serendipity” located outside Monroe, WI.
Everything on their farm is organic and their way of living is
sustainable, in other words, everything is used for a purpose and nothing
goes to waste.
They are both prolific authors and have published books on the
green movement in WI and also tour on the speakers circuit throughout the
country.
They have a great story to tell and I think the conference
attendees will enjoy them.
The
other responsibilities of WAPL Chair include promoting the vision,
mission, and goals of the WI Library Association (WLA). This
includes creating public awareness that libraries are a vital part of the
community as information resource centers that reach out beyond their
books and brick walls by providing needed service from free Internet
access for job searching to checking out the latest DVD or CD for
entertainment.
Story times to senior programs can be found at many local public
libraries and WAPL helps support this mission by providing informational
programs at the spring annual conference
If
you have any comments about the state of public libraries to pass along to
me as WAPL Chair I'd be happy to take them, and I hope to see you at the
WAPL conference in May in the Dells!
Contact
Linda Pierschalla at lpiersch@esls.lib.wi.us
and for more information about the Conference go to: http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/wapl/conferences/2009/index.htm
.
Children's
Librarians Corner
Karin Menzer, Mead Public Library
Recently libraries have begun to focus more attention
on services to teens. The Adolescent Literacy Initiative for Public
Libraries is promoting a wealth of training opportunities around the state
this year. We will be fortunate to host the Eastern Shores Library System
training with Dr. Winnie Huebsch at Mead on Friday, April 24 from 9:00 –
12:00.
Another resource for information about teens and teen
development is the Search Institute. The Search Institute, whose mission
is to provide leadership, knowledge, and resources to promote healthy
children, youth, and communities, has identified a list of building blocks
to healthy teen development. They work with community leaders, educators,
youth-serving organizations and others to promote practical steps to
positively impact youth. The framework of their approach is based on years
of research and is known as the “40 Developmental Assets for
Adolescents.”
Developmental assets are defined as positive
experiences, opportunities and personal qualities that adolescents need to
be responsible, successful and caring. The more assets adolescents have in
their lives, the less likely they will be to take part in high risk
behaviors, such as drug or alcohol abuse, etc. and the more likely they
will be to engage in positive activities.
The assets are grouped into eight categories:
support, empowerment, boundaries & expectations, constructive use of
time, commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies and
positive identity. The
complete list of the 40 assets can be found at http://www.search-institute.org/assets/forty.htm
.
A study in Sheboygan County completed by the
Sheboygan Area United Way discovered that the average young person
surveyed experienced only 18 of the 40 assets, that older youth have lower
averages than younger youth, and that boys experience fewer assets than
girls. A more complete look at the findings can be found at the following
Sheboygan Area United Way web site http://www.sauw.org/pdf/Healthy.pdf .
Serving the youth in our communities is an important
role for libraries and we can utilize the 40 assets approach to improve
our services to teens. In fact, Patrick Jones, in his book New
Directions for Library Service to Young Adults (ALA, 2002) includes
information about the 40 assets program. He suggests that libraries
develop and manage services based on the Search Institute’s
developmental assets model to demonstrate support for positive youth
development.
When looking at the list of 40 assets, some of them
seem very well suited to library services. The most obvious, “reading
for pleasure,” is an asset we promote daily. Other assets include
“youth programs” and “creative activities,” and again it is easy
to see ways for a library to provide these opportunities. Libraries can
also provide the opportunity for “service to others” if we allow teens
to volunteer at the library. Libraries that give young adults the chance
to serve on a teen advisory group or a Junior Friends of the Library
organization are developing opportunities for “responsibility” and
“planning and decision making.”
Perhaps one of the most important assets a library
can offer the adolescents in the community is under the category of
empowerment. By providing collections, programs and services specifically
for teens and making them welcome in the library we are showing that we
value the youth of our community.
E-mail
is a part of our home and work life. I keep in touch with my family and friends through e-mail.
We share stories, pictures, make arrangements for visits -
everything we use to do by mail or telephone in years past.
The new software for EasiCat makes sending e-mail messages to
patrons easier. Our patrons like e-mail messaging since it is less intrusive
than the telephone call. Correspondence
with other librarians is a very common use of e-mail.
This
article is to provide some tips and resources on using e-mail
professionally and in a business-like manner.
@
Be informal but not folksy. Your
e-mail message reflects you and your library.
Make use of those spelling, grammar, and punctuation rules you
learned. Spell check your
message and proof read it before sending it.
I often forget to type some words when composing the message.
@
Messages should be brief and to the point.
Keep the message to one subject whenever possible.
Try to keep the recipient from having to scroll to get the whole
message.
@
Format the message in the same manner that you would create a
business letter. Use upper
and lower case letters. Do
not use all capital letters. In
the e-mail world, all CAPS looks as if your shouting.
For emphasis, use asterisks or bold formatting for important words. Be careful with other colors or graphics since the
recipient’s e-mail program may not display them.
@
Use BCC - Blind Copy or CC - Courtesy Copy appropriately. Copy your message only to people who are directly affected by
your message. If your e-mail
program has the capability, make e-mail groups.
@
Do not use e-mail when it would be more effective with a face to
face meeting or a phone call. I
try to return phone calls when receiving phone calls.
However, I may follow-up with an e-mail if a I left a voice
message. E-mail isn’t
effective for emotional, difficult, or complex messages.
There is no way to convey tone of voice or facial expressions in an
e-mail. Emoticons can be
useful but use them sparingly.
@
E-mail isn’t private. E-mail
is considered company property and can be retrieved, examined, and used in
the courts. Do not put
anything in an e-mail that you would not put on a postcard.
E-mail can be forwarded, so your message may get to a person for
whom it was not intended. Direct
all personal e-mail to your home e-mail account.
@
Be careful when replying to a group e-mail.
Only reply to the group if the information is useful to the group.
Reply directly to the sender if it is just to confirm receipt or
answer a question.
@
Use the subject line to alert the recipient to the purpose of the
e-mail.
@
Be careful when forwarding a message.
I really don’t want to know all the other people who forwarded
the message before you. Delete
all the extraneous stuff before sending it on.
Perhaps summarize the message or highlight a relevant sentence when
including your response.
@
Use a signature that includes contact information such as full
name, mailing address, website, and phone numbers.
Other
resources:
www.netmanners.com
& www.businessemailetiquette.com
Judith Kallos is an accomplished and good-humored Technology Muse
who specializes in WordPress
Consulting.
Check out her popular email etiquette web sites, books and free tools at
the addresses above.
www.emailreplies.com
This site explains how to send effective email replies. It
discusses why email etiquette is necessary, lists email etiquette rules,
and explains how to enforce these rules by creating a company email policy.
www.101emailetiquettetips.com
It is important that whether for business or personal use that you
follow the basics of email etiquette. This document covers for you the top
tips for email etiquette that everyone needs to be aware of and
follow. By
doing so you will be a joy to communicate with while being perceived as a
caring and intelligent human being.
iwillfollow.com/emailetiquette.pdf
This document is intended to offer guidance to users of electronic
mail (e-mail) systems. This
is not a "how-to" document, but rather a document that offers
advice to make you more computer-worthy (probably more worthy than you
desire) and to prevent you from embarrassing yourself at some point in the
near future.
ESLS had added two kits to its circulating
collection. Requests for
these kits are to be made through local public libraries interlibrary loan
service.
Favorite Things is a collection of books about
the favorite things in a child’s life.
The kit includes 12 favorite toys for kids to enjoy as well.
Suggested reading, storytime hints, programming ideas and learning
activities, reprinted from The Early Learning Initiative for Wisconsin
Public Libraries by Barbara Huntington, are also included in the kit.
The kit is geared to children ages 6 months – 8 years.
The Dairy Industry, Agricultural Resource Tub,
is a gift from the Sheboygan Farm Bureau.
Unlike most of the kits in the collection, this kit is appropriate
to students from Kindergarten – 12th grade. In addition to books, DVDs and videos about the dairy
industry the kit includes useful, hands-on educational materials to help
educate children about the importance of Wisconsin’s Agriculture.
It was reported in the Fall, 2008 edition of Literacy
Matters, the newsletter for Wisconsin Literacy, Inc., that 24 of the
49 literacy providers have a waiting list of learners and that there are
currently 662 learners on the waiting list.
While that may be the case throughout the state, literacy providers
within ESLS report that they are meeting the demand in Ozaukee and
Sheboygan Counties.
The Adult Literacy Center of Ozaukee County provides
free Adult Basic Education (ABE) and English as a Second Language
(ELL) classes for adults. The
Center has 40 volunteer tutors who devote a total of 130 hours a month to
teaching. They currently serve 4 ABE students and 19 ELL students.
The Center collaborates with the libraries in Ozaukee County to set
up meeting times for students and teachers.
At this time they do not have a waiting list for learners.
The Literacy Council Project of the Family Resource
Center of Sheboygan County is also a volunteer-based organization.
Each of the 40 tutors spends an average of 8 hours per month with
students, in addition to the preparation time spend before the session.
Students and tutors arrange tutoring times to suit the
individual’s schedule. The
Coucnil has 45 active students in the one-on-one Adult Tutoring program.
25-30% of the students are in the basic literacy program.
ELL students make up 70-75%. In
addition, the tutors also provide tutoring support to students at
Lakeshore Technical College, the Sheboygan County Detention Center and to
the Sheboygan Family Literacy program’s adult literacy classes (formerly
Even Start). The Literacy
Council’s Partners in Reading program has approximately 85 volunteers
who provide reading support to elementary school students in Sheboygan
County.
For more information on literacy in our area visit the National Center
for Education Statistics (NCES). A report
containing estimates on the percentage of adults—for all states and
counties in the U.S.—who lack basic prose literacy skills is available.
NCES gathered data from the 2003
National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), a nationally
representative sample of more than 19,000 Americans age 16 and older, and
the 2000 Census,
which provided "predictor variables" such as education and
income.
* Check out these websites and blogs for
information concerning the Consumer Product Safety Act passed by Congress
imposing strict limits on the amount of lead permitted in anything
intended for use by children aged 12 and under, including books.
Prior to 1985, many books were printed with inks and paints that used lead
pigments. A one-year stay of enforcement on having to test for lead
in books geared to youngsters under the age of 12 is in place until
February 10, 2010.
The ALA website: http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2009/January2009/leadlawstayed.cfm
the Consumer Product Safety Commission letter of February 3, 2009: http://www.cpsc.gov/PR/Moore020309.pdf
. What the Morton-James Public Library of Nebraska City, NE is doing
: http://www.ncnewspress.com/articles/2009/02/20/news/doc499ed094480fd323904423.txt
and an interesting take from Daniel Kalder at :http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/feb/20/kalder-childrens-books-lead-panic
.
* ALA
Newsletter
A product of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Rural
Initiative, the Rural Assistance Center (RAC) http://www.raconline.org/about/
was established in December 2002 as a rural health and human services
"information portal." RAC helps rural communities and other
rural stakeholders access the full range of available programs, funding,
and research that can enable them to provide quality health and human
services to rural residents.
* Alison Ross, Cataloging Librarian for Eastern Shores Library
System, is vice-chair/chair elect of WLA's Technical Services
Section. She will serve as vice-chair in 2009 and as chair in 2010.
*
It's coming. Check out the DPI's 2009 Wisconsin Summer Library Program
website at: http://dpi.wi.gov/pld/slp.html
and the Collaborative Summer Reading Program site for information on
copyright use http://www.cslpreads.org/
and other valuable information.
Don't miss your chance for valuable idea sharing at the Youth Services
Meeting on Friday, February 27 at the ESLS offices.
* The CCBC Choices 2009 is coming. It will be available
on March 7, 2009. The booklet includes annotations for each of the 248
books that have been chosen. You can view the list of items at: http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ccbc%20choices%202009%20citations.pdf
* Check the following website for information on provisions of
the Recovery Bill for particular relevance to libraries: http://www.ala.org/knowyourstimulus
. The site also includes a state-by-state breakdown of relevant funding
and other material for use in state-level advocacy.
* Stories about increased library use at local libraries has
appeared in The Sheboygan Press and The Ozaukee Press.
Comparing January 2008 to this year, there is almost a 6000 circulation
increase with the communities of Plymouth, Sheboygan, Cedarburg, Grafton,
and Mequon-Thiensville seeing the largest increases. Unfortunately,
these numbers do not reflect increased internet usage and other types of
in-house services.
* Linda Pierschalla (right) and David Weinhold (left) met with
Senator Glenn Grothman in the State Capitol at the Wisconsin Library
Association's Library Legislative Day on Tuesday, February 3 to review
library related legislative issues. Pierschalla spoke about the use of the Oscar Grady Library by citizens who
are unemployed or underemployed. She stated that bandwidth for
Internet access is a critical part of the library's service.
Weinhold spoke to the Senator about the value of the statewide delivery
service to public libraries and public library systems. Both of
these items are part of the Wisconsin Library Association's 2009
Legislative Agenda. The agenda can be found at http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/legis/priorities.htm
It includes links to background papers on many of the issues.
Photo courtesy of Steve Platteter, Automation Librarian, Mid-Wisconsin
Federated Library System
Library Legislative Day February 3, 2009
Left to Right: ESLS Director, David Weinhold, State Senator Glenn Grothman
and Linda Pierschalla, Director of the Oscar Grady Public Library, Saukville
www.esls.lib.wi.us
