The Library Connection
Volume 24 Number 1 January 2004
Lakeland College's new web site gives prospective students and others a technological look at the Sheboygan County-based liberal arts school. The site's new look and content tie into a new set of recruiting materials which all feature the theme "findyourself@lakeland."
Included on the new site is a link to EasiCat, the shared automated catalog of the holdings of Eastern Shores public libraries and Lakeland College. With this catalog, Lakeland students have access to everything owned by the public libraries and customers at the libraries can browse, request, and check out materials from Lakeland's collection. In addition to being a full participant in the shared catalog, Lakeland also receives delivery five days a week from Eastern Shores. Faculty and students can request an item and have it delivered to the campus when it becomes available.
In addition to its main campus located just west of Howards Grove, Lakeland has adult learning centers in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Chippewa Falls, Neenah, and Wisconsin Rapids. Lakeland serves about 4,000 students in all of its programs.
Quality Planning Corporation recently used data collected by insurance companies on 1 million drivers. They ranked 40 occupations by number of speeding tickets. Only homemakers got fewer tickets than librarians--even law-enforcement officers got more!
The extremely talented youth services staff at the F.L. Weyenberg Library of Mequon-Thiensville composed a poem to remind parents of the rules of the children's area.
They decorated a bulletin board with a Dr. Seuss theme and posted the following poem on the bulletin board.
We were reading and playing in the library one day
when the Cat in the Hat had a few things to say...
The library is cool we can have fun here all day
But parents should always be near when we play.
If we play with a puppet, a cow, or a block
And we start to run fast or jump high a lot,
Before it is TOO MUCH
It's much better to STOP.
Messes are fun the Cat in the Hat knows,
But when we are done that mess just must go.
If we've got something to tell, like a song, or a call.
Horton says "Say it in a wee voice that's small."
Most important of all, the staff are your friends.
They're always about from beginning to end.
No question's too long, too deep or too hard.
Well, Gee, that's what you get with your library card!
The City of Cedarburg is accepting applications for a full-time Head of Circulation Librarian at the Cedarburg Public Library. Responsibilities include: plan, organize and direct library circulation services; handle overdue notices; handle interlibrary loan requests; customer service; train and supervise library aides and pages; oversee revenue and petty cash accounts; design public information flyers and announcements handed out at circulation desk; provide reader's advisory, especially to book clubs; outreach to Lasata Heights; collect statistics. Bachelor's degree or library related coursework and two years of working in a public library required. Some evening and weekend hours. Starting wage based on qualifications, excellent benefit package.
The Cedarburg Public Library is a joint library serving the City and Town of Cedarburg. The library is located in the heart of the downtown area. The staff of 10.58 FTEs has a history of customer service and dedication.
Send letter of application and resume by February 9 to Mary Marquardt, Cedarburg Public Library, W63 N583 Hanover Avenue, Cedarburg, WI 53012 or email mmarqrdt@esls.lib.wi.us Application and job description available www.ci.cedarburg.wi.us EOE
As members of the Eastern Shores Library System, Ozaukee and Sheboygan Counties are required to adopt and maintain plans for county library service. Each county adopted a plan for 2001-2005, both of which recommended that a committee be formed in 2004 to review and revise the plans.
The creation of County Library Planning Committees have been authorized by both counties. Ozaukee County's committee will be made up of a public library board member, 2 county board members (one from a libraried area and one from a non-libraried area), and 2 county residents (one from a libraried area and one from a non-libraried area).
Sheboygan County's committee will include 2 public library board members, 2 county board members (one from a libraried area and one from a non-libraried area), and 1 resident from a non-libraried area. David Weinhold, system director, will be an advisory member of both committees.
The duties of the committee are to review and revise the current library services plans, conduct library services surveys, hold any necessary public hearings, and make final reports to the county boards by December. The prepared plans must provide for library services to non-libraried residents. They will also specify methods and levels of county funding to implement the plans. Each committee will also be responsible for recommendations on a consolidated county library, a county district library, the percentage level of the reimbursement of public libraries, standards for exemption from the county library tax, and bookmobile service. In addition, the Ozaukee county committee must study and make recommendations on the county's criteria for exemption from the county library tax.
The Ozaukee Humane Society will be bringing adoptable animals to the U.S.S. Liberty Memorial Public Library in Grafton one Saturday each month during February, March, April, and May. Visitors to the library will be allowed to interact with the dogs, cats, bunnies, and guinea pigs in the library's atrium entrance. If they wish, they can apply to adopt any of the animals from the Humane Society after a 24 hour wait. During this time, the society will get the pet ready for adoption and process the application.
In addition to partnering with the local agency, the library will have the opportunity to educate future (and current) pet owners using displays of their books, magazines, and videos about pets and pet care.
As aging baby boomers move into the senior demographic of 55 and older, personnel at reference desks around the country are likely to see more seniors requesting information from libraries. Seniors are perhaps the most diverse group of individuals in our culture, but they are also most prone to be stereotyped and targets of ageism by younger people. Practicing reference librarians and health professionals specializing in aging have come up with the following list of suggestions for serving seniors.
Trust Your Instincts -- Let your inner sense inform your response to a question--the right tone in a reference interview goes a long way.
Listen Attentively -- Especially important when dealing with such a wide range of individuals who have more life experience than we do.
Be Patient -- Adjust your response to match the pace of those who may move more slowly.
Make no Assumptions -- The mind behind the question may be very keen indeed--life experience can make up for any memory decline in older adults.
Don't Embarrass -- Make accommodations for hearing or vision loss as unobtrusively as possible.
Show Respect -- Understand the reticence of some seniors to articulate in language that they find socially unacceptable.
Go the Extra Mile -- Offer to borrow items from other libraries that are not available in your collection.
Appreciate the Older Adult's Wisdom -- Creativity in seniors is likely to be at a lifetime high.
Enjoy Your Work! -- Relax at the reference desk and find delight in your older-adult customers. Don't become too serious about your work, your lives, your everything. Senior customers can remind us that in life, as in reference work, appreciating the interaction is sometimes very nearly all that is truly important.
Beginning January 1, the Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning allocated LSTA funds in an attempt to fill some gaps in interlibrary loan services. Funding in the amount of $36,000 was allocated to Milwaukee Public Library to fill requests from their collection from January 1-December 31, 2004. Funding in the amount of $40,000 was added to the WiLS contract to allow WiLS to fill requests from the State Historical Society and UW-Madison campus libraries. Ten thousand was also allocated to South Central Library System to maintain the delivery service to Milwaukee Public Library.
Milwaukee Public Library is now accessible for limited interlibrary loan. The new contract covers only materials owned at Milwaukee Public Library and its branches, but not for titles owned at the Milwaukee County suburban libraries. Two of the suburban libraries, Wauwatosa and Greenfield, are already using WISCATILL as Responder and Requester.
The Reference and Loan Library Staff plan to verify that the request is complete and check the availability of requested materials before referring, and regulate the number of requests. As a result, libraries and system ILL clearinghouses should not send requests directly to Milwaukee Public Library.
The additional WiLS funding will allow the Reference and Loan Library to refer more requests to WiLS during the year, and fewer requests will be referred to out-of-state libraries. Reference and Loan Library staff will check availability before referring the requests.
These changes should not impact how libraries create requests. The WISCATILL software has been profiled to default requests for the Milwaukee Public Library and other Milwaukee County libraries not using WISCATILL. As in the past, libraries and ILL clearinghouses should not refer requests directly to WiLS.
It's scary the influence we children's librarians have. This recently became apparent after the library tours I did for the local elementary school classes. I walked the classes around the library pointing out the various sections. Using a suggestion out of Rob Reid's latest book, I said, " We even have cookbooks ...and it's a little known fact that if you make something out of one of these cookbooks, you have to bring in a sample for the librarian." No, I didn't get any treats, but we sure did check out cookbooks! And we continue to check out children's cookbooks after every class visit.
So, now I try to highlight a different section or genre at each monthly class visit. It's great to be able to tie their visit in to something the classes are doing in school too. The third graders are writing their own biographies so I read a selection of "Boy" by Roald Dahl (the sweet shop chapter) and pointed out and highlighted the biographies. Across the circ desk went the biographies. The second graders are doing folk tales, so I read Steven Kellogg's Paul Bunyan to them and showed them where to find the folk and fairy tales. Out go the 398s. The first graders are reading books for Pizza Hut's Book-It so I featured the easy readers ...now they take those out .
Since the first, second, and third grades visit me once a month for half an hour at the library. I try different things to "capture" their interest. For some of the kids, this is the only opportunity to visit the library (sad to say) so I want to try to make it a place they want to come to and maybe they can talk their parents into bringing them in at other times. Some of the other things I have done are Reader's Theater (Caroline Feller Bauer's book is good); Mad Libs (telling the kids "we're going to be authors and "write" a story together"); having kids dramatize a story as I read it (familiar classics are good for this); and even the good old flannel board stories have appeal.
Another "old" venue that has surprising appeal is filmstrips. We have a few and they work great to read a story to a large group-think of a wall-sized "big book." The kids are able to see the illustrations well and this video generation seems to relate to a projected image..and then I can display the book to do a great tie in.
So every month, September through May I try to find ways to get the kids turned on to the library so they see us as a place to go, not only when their teacher brings them but as a choice destination.
In 1930, an American heroine was born-a teenage detective named Nancy Drew. In the seven decades since, Nancy has matured from sixteen to eighteen years old while solving over 350 mysteries. Her popularity is both enduring and international; Nancy Drew books have been translated into Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Malaysian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. The original Nancy Drew series we know and love is ending with #175 in November. Look for a new paperback series, aimed at the same age group (ages 8-12) and due to start in March, 2004, called Nancy Drew, Girl Detective. This series will start over with #1, and numbers 1-4 will be released simultaneously. Aladdin has enhanced and expanded everything you love about Nancy, Bess, George and the rest of Nancy's crew. In this new series, Nancy has a new look, a new car, some new friends, and loads of new cases to crack. You'll learn why River Heights is such a hotbed of criminal activity, meet some new key sources of information Nancy uses in her new cases, become acquainted with Nancy's new nemesis, and really get to know Bess and George. Here's a little more about each of the first four books in the new series:
• Without a Trace #1 - Nancy takes on a case of a very delicate nature. A very old and valuable Fabergéé egg has disappeared-and the owner suspects "fowl" play. Can the teen detective crack this case without getting scrambled?
• A Race Against Time #2 - Nancy and her friends compete in a huge charity bike race. When the money that's been raised is stolen, Nancy switches gears and veers off-road to track down the thief.
• False Notes #3 - Nancy's on the lookout for a birthday present for her father, Carson. Instead, she finds a mystery involving the kidnapping of a talented musician who is at the center of both a political feud and a fight over a scholarship.
• High Risk #4 - Nancy follows Ned's lead and takes some flying lessons. It's all fun until she starts noticing suspicious behavior on land and in the air that interferes with her lessons. Once she puts two and two together, she realizes that major smuggling is going on right before her eyes.
Newbery Medal (distinguished writing for children) - The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DeCamillo. Newbery Honor Books - An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy and Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes.
Caldecott Award (distinguished illustration for children) - The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein. Honor Books - Ella Sarah Gets Dressed by Margaret Chodos-Irvine and What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? illustrated by Robin Page, written by Steve Jenkins.
Coretta Scott King Author Award (outstanding writing by a Black author) - The First Part Last by Angela Johnson. Honor Books - Days of Jubilee: The End of Slavery in the United States by Patricia C. and Fredrick McKissack, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson, and The Battle of Jericho by Sharon M. Draper.
Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award (outstanding illustrations by a Black artist) - Beautiful Blackbird by Ashley Bryan. Honor Books - Almost to Freedom, illustrated by Colin Bootman, written by Vaunda Micheaux and Thunder Rose, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Jerdine Nolen.
Coretta Scott King John Steptoe/New Talent Author Award - The Way a Door Closes by Hope Anita Smith.
Coretta Scott King John Steptoe/New Talent Illustrator Award - My Family Plays Music, written by Judy Cox, illustrated by Elbrite Brown.
Pura Belpre Author Award (outstanding book by a Latino author) - Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez. Honor Books - Cuba 15 by Nancy Osa and My Diary from Here to There by Amada Irma Perez.
Pura Belpre Illustrator Award (outstanding book by a Latino artist) - Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book by Yuyi Morales. Honor Books - First Day in Grapes, illustrated by Robert Casila, written by L. King Perez; The Pot That Juan Built, illustrated by David Diaz, written by Nancy Andrews-Goebel; and Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez, illustrated by Yuyi Moralies, written by Kathleen Krull.
Mildred L Batchelder Award (to the publisher of the outstanding translated book) - Run, Boy Run by Uri Orlev. Honor Book - The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon by Bea Uusma Schyffert
Robert F. Silbert Informational Award (outstanding book of information) - An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy. Honor Book - I Face the Wind by Vicki Cobb.
Michael L. Printz Award (literary excellence in young adult literature) - The First Part Last by Angela Johnson. Honor Books - A Northern Light byJennifer Donnelly, Keesha's House by Helen Frost, Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going, and The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler.
Scott O'Dell Award (best historical fiction for children or young adults) - A River Between Us by Richard Peck.
Created by ALSC and ALA "The Librarian's Guide to Great Web Sites for Kids" offers tips and guidelines to help children, parents, and caregivers safely enjoy the benefits of the Internet. It includes special sites for parents and caregivers, suggested family Internet safety guidelines, suggested rules and Netiquette for children when using the Internet, definitions of Internet terminology, and more. Libraries and other organizations can download the PDF version of the brochure and distribute it to patrons and clients. Sharing this brochure is a proactive way to assist in the positive, safe use of the Internet by children.
State Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster has named Michael Cross as the new director of the Public Library Development Team in the Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning. Mike has been the acting director since the retirement of Larry Nix. He has worked for the DPI since 1998 as consultant for Public Library Administration and Funding. Before coming to the DPI he served as the director of the Arrowhead Library System from 1994-97 and director of the Northern Waters Library Service from 1990-94. Mike brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to his new position serving the public library community. Congratulations Mike!
The 2004 Great American Bookmobile & Outreach Services Conference included a session on "How to Attract New Customers." The workshop focused on traditionally underserved populations. The discussion at that meeting demonstrated the concerns for serving this population. The Office for Literacy and Outreach Services of ALA summarized the feedback from the workshop.
ADULT LEARNERS
Stereotypes: Lazy, picky, risk for employers, can't learn well and lack initiative. Slow learners, unreliable, unmotivated, non-readers and welfare dependent.
Realities: Embarrassed to ask for help, motivated, are responsible and employed, resourceful and add to the community. Possess good coping strategies.
Delivery Strategies: Community outreach, partner with agencies/literacy groups, promotion, meeting rooms, GED and computer courses, literacy and tutoring. Deliver coping strategies and provide handouts. Bookmobile, deposit and collection.
Delivery Successes: Partnering with community groups, bookmobile stops, deposit and collection, staff training and literacy festivals.
Resource Needs: Literacy grants, marketing, staff development and assessment. Puppet tutoring materials, volunteer recognition programs plus administrative support. Make sure that resources match the needs of the community.
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Stereotypes: Unclean, beggars, incapable of achievement, angry and needy, never satisfied, most likely to milk the system.
Realities: Eager to learn, are motivated and not helpless, can improve quality of life by networking with others.
Delivery strategies: Books by mail, talking books, flyers, library assistance devices, bookmobile, deposits. Deaf interpreters needed plus resources for shelter, food and clothing.
Delivery Successes: Partner with churches, libraries, educational institutions and deposits.
Resource Needs: Human resources, churches, Salvation Army and staff development.
Resource Needs: Staff for creating lists and book displays.
INCARCERATED
Stereotypes: Dangerous, uneducated, come from rough environment, abused, dumb, lazy, stupid, troublemakers, drug users, poor, illiterate, repeat offender.
Realities: May be educated and intelligent, unsupervised, stereotypes might be true, can come from any socioeconomic class, may not be truthful. Kids - reacting to peer pressure. Limited services due to facility restrictions.
Delivery Strategies: Target materials toward their interests. Talk about service availability to unserved institutions. Deposit collections that respond to requests. Bookmobiles.
Delivery Successes: Some come to the library after their release, few have established book clubs, while some prisoners narrate taped books that they've read and send them home to their children. Work release, occupational related materials, training, and completion of GED. Use pamphlets provided by library to teach prisoner's children. Provide parenting classes.
Resource Needs: Work with administration on what needs are; funding, Spanish collection or other foreign materials, GED books, parenting pamphlets, legal collection, obtaining materials from other branches/locations to meet needs of incarcerated.
IMMIGRANT POPULATION
Stereotypes: Illegal, poor, ignorant, untrustworthy.
Realities: Have financial resources, highly motivated, diverse population, and trustworthy, different concept of library.
Delivery Strategies: ESL classes, book talk, bilingual staff.
Delivery Successes: Working with ministers, bookmobile stops to cultural grocery stores, OPAC with different languages, bilingual programs, partnership with community organizations. A special story time program was implemented that matched immigrant mother/child with indigent mother/child. Bilingual story times.
POOR AND HOMELESS
Stereotypes: Lazy, stupid, prone to stealing, unmotivated and uneducated, lack of mobility.
Realities: Intimidated, priority in making ends meet, educated book lovers, unaware of what services libraries offer today. The library has all of the basic amenities such as heat, air conditioning and working plumbing. This population generally shows signs of depression.
Delivery: Deliver service to place of employment, check with agencies, research demographics and advertise purpose of outreach. Deliver books to them as many lack transportation.
Successes: Develop relationship with social service agencies; install a timed aerosol scent delivery system in areas of the library where body odor creates an unpleasant atmosphere. Reciprocal cards (customers first obtain membership with their own library and are then able to obtain resident cards with other participating libraries), online referrals, deliver service to housing developments, small hamlets, send home registrations with children for completion, weekly stops, elimination of fines (stop access only for unreturned materials).
Resource Needs: Funding, sensitivity training, relationships with community partners, post phone numbers of who to call in an emergency at each workstation.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ISOLATED
Stereotypes: Not library users, poor and unmotivated to go outside community.
Realities: Appreciative of library services, intelligent and economically/financially sound.
Delivery Strategies: More stops, shorter time, need to know your audience.
Delivery Successes: Book groups, one on one delivery.
Resource Needs: Staff and technical training, provide Internet resource training.
GAY/LESBIAN/BISEXUAL/TRANSSEXUAL
Stereotypes: Defiant and different, flamboyant.
Realities: Diverse, educated and professional in every community.
Delivery Strategies: Outreach to clinics, hospitals and social service agencies. Use flyers and the media.
Delivery Successes: Build appropriate collections, "pride displays", films and books.
NewspaperDirect, which provides digital delivery of around 185 newspapers from around the world, will announce a new version of its service geared toward libraries. For $200 a month, libraries will be able to subscribe to the service, which covers 160 papers from around the United States and 27 other countries. Subscribing libraries can connect to NewspaperDirect's Web site to access papers, or they can use a print-on-demand feed to produce hard copies of papers for an extra fee. Since December 2002, Vancouver Public Library has tested the print-on-demand system, which reportedly can print an entire issue in less than five minutes. NewspaperDirect keeps records of which newspapers are accessed, either through the Web or the print-on-demand system, and returns those numbers to the publishers.
The Department of Employee Trust Funds (DETF) has redesigned its Internet site to better serve Wisconsin Retirement system employers and participants. The "What's New" section on the homepage showcases current items of interest to participants such as health insurance, calculators that estimate retirement benefits, employment news, governing boards, and benefit programs. Look for the new design the first week in February, 2004.