"Words are your wheels" was the theme this year for Wal-Mart's
literacy outreach program. The Plymouth Public Library was one of the recipients
of a literacy grant in the store's nation-wide campaign. The local store
contacted Plymouth's Library Director to inform her of the grant funds
available. The library was awarded $1,000 at a short ceremony at the Plymouth
Wal-Mart on April 12th. The grant funds were used to help sponsor this summer's
reading program activities at the library. Because these funds were received,
the library was able to budget many quality performers for the reading program.
This year's summer reading program was a huge success, based upon a monthly July
circulation which was higher than any previous month in at least three years at
the library. Part of that success can be attributed to the extra funds available
for the reading program. Nation-wide, Wal-Mart gave more than $ 1.4 million in
donations to local non-profit or educational organizations to be used as
literacy initiatives.
Martha Suhfras, Plymouth Library Director, achieved a first in her life when she
was asked to conduct a workshop at the recent Church and Synagogue Library
Association convention. The convention, which is held annually in cities around
the country, was held at Elmbrook Church in Waukesha this year. The Library
Association is a national association which has nearly 2,000 members. Once
Martha said she would do a workshop, she was assigned the topic of cataloging in
the church library. The workshop was entitled "Dewey Decimated: Cataloging
in the Church Library." Unable to back out after the topic assignment, her
time slot assigned was 3:45 p.m. on Monday afternoon. Her first thought was,
"wow, fascinating topic for a late afternoon workshop!" Also coming to
mind was the fact that when she took that class for her master's degree at UWM,
it was during the summer with an interim professor from North Carolina. So much
was left out of the course, that UWM refunded some of the course costs. This
meant that cataloging was not exactly the best subject for her to do. Wonder of
wonders. Twenty-three people attended the workshop (to have ten was considered a
successful workshop) and actually stayed interested for nearly one and one-half
hours - without chocolate!! Covered in the workshop were: Dewey numbers,
especially the 200's; standard subdivisions; subject headings; how to find
information from a bib record, whether from a simplified one in a book or by
connecting to an on-line library catalog; labeling materials; collection
development; and weeding. There was time for questions, and many good ones were
asked. Most church libraries are run by volunteers and apparently they are very
thankful for any help they can get. The workshop was a "fun"
experience. Contact Martha for
copies of the overheads she used.
Many of the public libraries in the Eastern Shores Library System either sponsor
book clubs, have one or more book clubs that meet at the library, or obtain
multiple copies of books for community book clubs.
Port Washington sponsors three clubs, two of which are led by staff members.
Plymouth sponsors two clubs--one meets in the afternoon and one in the evening.
An employee leads both discussions. They usually select the titles six months in
advance and alternate between fiction and nonfiction. Two book
clubs in Cedar Grove are sponsored by the library, with an employee facilitating
one of them. Sheboygan uses funding from an endowment fund to sponsor book
discussions several times a year, with participants reading 3 books on a similar
theme. The discussions are led by a subject matter expert from the community.
At Grafton, Random Lake, and Kohler, an employee also leads a library-sponsored
book club. During the summer, Grafton youngsters ages 9-12 participate in a book
discussion group as part of the summer library program. The library-sponsored
group in Oostburg is led by participants--historical fiction is a popular genre
there. The group in Elkhart Lake is sponsored by the Friends of the Library--a
different member leads it each month. Sheboygan Falls is in the process of
starting a book club and is surveying customers to see what they would like.
Three groups meet at the Cedarburg Library and two groups meet in other
buildings. The senior center in Cedarburg hosts one of the groups. Once a year
they meet at the middle school with a group of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders to
discuss a YA book that they all have read.
Mequon has a group of primarily employees or former employees with the name Keep
in Touch (KIT) Book Club. One group in Mequon is a newcomers group--two others
are spin-offs from a newcomers club. The library currently works with six groups
on a regular basis and two others occasionally. Staff members from Mequon
recently did a presentation on online resources for book discussion groups.
Random Lake has discovered that when the local newspaper prints an article about
a group reading a specific title, requests for that book increase, most coming
from customers who are not part of the discussion group. Members of informal
book discussion groups who meet in homes in Elkhart Lake purchase copies of the
book and then donate them to the library for the book sale. David Nimmer,
director of the library in Port Washington, is trying to recruit more men for
the book groups at the library.
Most of the libraries report that fiction is the genre most often read and
discussed, but the groups are often willing to explore other types of
literature. Mequon has a group that focuses on the classics and Sheboygan has a
play-reading group.
Library staff work closely with many of the groups, making suggestions, and
helping them obtain copies. Librarians first place holds on as many copies as
are available through EasiCat and then request additional copies through the
ESLS clearinghouse function in interlibrary loan. A new addition to the ESLS
website at www.esls.lib.wi.us
is a Books
& Book Clubs link, which leads to numerous web sites that have
suggestions and/or discussion questions for book groups.
netLibrary was first introduced to Eastern Shores in 2001 when the system became
part of the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium. System membership in the
Consortium allows all residents of Sheboygan and Ozaukee counties to
"borrow" the electronic books that are part of netLibrary. 403
customers registered the first year and another 171 registered during 2002.
During the first six months of 2003, another 92 individuals become users of the
electronic book library. The total number of registered borrowers is now 666 and
they have browsed or read 2,788 books since the service began, which is 4.2
items for each user. 550 uses were reported thus far in 2003. The most popular
subject was Business, Economics, Management; followed by Computers, Literature,
and Medicine.
All of the titles owned by the Consortium are included in EasiCat,
which has direct links to netLibrary.
Customers can browse books twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week at any
computer, but must be registered borrowers to "check out" a title.
Registration must be done at a computer at one of the public libraries.
As part of a statewide initiative to improve early childhood development, the
DLTCL is providing training sessions throughout the state on the important role
public libraries play in the early learning of children birth to five.
Manitowoc-Calumet and Eastern Shores will be sponsoring their workshop on
Thursday September 18 from 9:15 - 12:30 in the Rocca Meeting Room at Mead Public
Library in Sheboygan. Registration forms were sent to all libraries earlier this
month. The information is also available on the ESLS web site at www.esls.lib.wi.us
Librarians are encouraged to invite early childcare educators and daycare
providers from their communities to attend this workshop also. To register or
for more information, contact Ann at ext. 13 or akrueger@esls.lib.wi.us
At its July meeting, the ESLS Board of Trustees adopted a resolution supporting
the continuation of free public libraries in the state of Wisconsin. The
resolution states:
WHEREAS, the Eastern Shores Library System was established in 1987 and serves to
extend and improve public library service to all residents of the library
system, and
WHEREAS, the Eastern Shores Library System supports the Wisconsin Library
Association's goal of "Open Access" so that the people of Wisconsin
shall have the broadest possible access to information resources and materials,
and
WHEREAS, the State of Wisconsin adopted a Statute in 1872 providing that public
library service shall be free to the inhabitants of those communities that
establish and maintain them, and
WHEREAS, denying free access to public library material would be undermining the
very foundations of our democracy by denying access to library materials and
services to people who cannot afford to pay a fee,
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the
Eastern Shores Library System Board of Trustees supports the 131-year
fundamental principle of public-supported free and open access to library
materials to all Wisconsin citizens; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Eastern Shores Library System Board of Trustees
encourages resistance to any attempts to change the 1872 free library statute
principles for free access to public libraries and information services, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Eastern Shores Library System Board of Trustees
transmit a copy of this Resolution Affirming Free Public Library Services to all
county, state, and federal legislators representing constituents within its
districts and to Governor Jim Doyle.
The foregoing resolution was duly adopted by the Eastern Shores Library System
Board of Trustees at a meeting held on the 28th day of July, 2003.
Channel Weekly, August 14, 2003
September is National Library Card Sign-up Month, which is a great time to
publicize the free availability of a library card and describe in detail the
free resources available to those with a library card. Many libraries use this
opportunity to encourage parents to take their children to the library to apply
for a library card.
The American Library Association (ALA) has public relations ideas, sample press
releases, and other items to help publicize National Library Card Sign-up Month.
These ideas and other information can be found on the ALA website at http://www.ala.org/.
Children's Librarians Corner
Connie Meyer, Bookmobile
Personally, and I'm sure many of you feel the same way, I find it almost
impossible to actually throw a book away. That's one of the reasons that weeding
our collection is such a difficult task. The other reason is obviously the
problem we have in finding a convenient place to store the discarded items until
we can get rid of them.
Like most libraries, we have an area where we continually sell items that we've
deleted from the collection (at the bargain price of 10¢). Unlike most
libraries however, our area is only a shelf, 20 inches long, located at the
check out desk. Even with its prime location and clear labeling, our shelf can't
handle a massive discarding project. Because (after a subtle hint from our
director) we made weeding our #1 project this summer we had to come up with a
better way to handle the material we planned to discard. After tossing `the
problem' around on the bookmobile and in the office we came up with a list of
contacts that included organizations, institutions and customers who we thought
might be interested in what we were discarding.
After speaking to a few people I learned that Safe Harbor and Bridgeway House,
two organizations who provide assistance for families in need are always in need
of adult and juvenile material. The Literacy Council of Sheboygan County needed
material to add to their resources library. A contact for Lakeside Canning
Seasonal Workers Camp in Belgium, Wisconsin was eager for anything we had to
donate, both the Ozaukee and Sheboygan Counties correctional facilities and the
Kettle Moraine Correctional Institution were happy to go through our discards
for material they could use for the inmates and for public use in their visitors
centers. We also included on our list day care providers and homeschooling
families from our service area.
Next, we established some rules (bring your own boxes, park here, not there and
bring your own muscle); chose three consecutive days; set hours of operation (9
a.m. - 3 p.m.) and sent everyone as invitation. We prepared for the event by
scheduling our summer help to set up the tables in the meeting room, shift the
discards from our cramped shelves to the tables and man the front door. At the
end of the three day event, we invited our member libraries to come and take
whatever is left for their next book sale. We hoped that this project could be
accomplished without having to actually throw a single item away!
Connie Acker, Cedar Grove Public Library
Laugh It Up @ Your Library has been one of the best Summer Reading Program
Themes ever. We all love humor, and with such an open theme, it was just plain
fun! Rob Reid's workshop and books were excellent resource materials.
When we can all "shake my sillies out", story times loosen up and
giggles abound. There are so many wonderful, humorous and outright funny stories
to share with the storytime kids. The fun the kids had encouraged the
programming staff to relax and enjoy the fun as well. For a session entitled
Silly Eats, the all time favorite book was I Stink by Kate & Jim McMullen.
For one on silly animals, a puppet show of Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock
brought lots of giggles - especially when lion leaned top heavily on the stage
and it collapsed! We used lots of songs - from Tom Pease's I'm Gonna Tell to old
favorites like She'll Be Comin' Around the Mountain.
For the school-aged children, the theme was an easy and excellent one to work
with - from a clown workshop (put on by a local family) to a Junie B. Jones
Party, and (either brave or stupid on the part of the program staff) a Captain
Underpants Party. The book parties all had various relays with a connection to
the books. For example there was the "Sparkle the Fish Relay" in which
stuffed paper fish with string attached were pulled along the floor. The
"Boss of Lunch" relay used plastic gloves and plates of sugar cookies.
(The contestants had to fill the cookie plates wearing the plastic lunch mitts).
Yes, one of the contests for the Captain Underpants party was an underwear fling
to see who could "slingshot" a pair of underwear the farthest. The
challenge with this party was to connect to the books without descending very
far into potty humor.
The biggest challenge of the summer theme was finding a good supply of humorous
books for YAs. They are out there, but compared to the abundance of "teen
angst" books, they are a real minority. Yes, there are serious books with
humorous interludes - such as Joan Bauer's Rules of the Road, and there are
books that are touted to be "hilarious" that turn out to be ho hum or
almost insultingly dumb. And as an adult, it can be a challenge to find what it
is that teens find funny. One book recommended by a student is Robert Lipsyte's
One Fat Summer. Do you have a list of humorous tried and true YA books you'd be
willing to share? It's a little late for this year, but it's never to late to
Laugh It Up @ the Library.
It was a busy summer at Eastern Shores as area children read books and enjoyed
programs at their libraries. All of the libraries participated in the consortium
theme "Laugh It Up @ Your Library." All of the libraries also had the
children report the number of minutes read, rather than the titles. The
libraries reported that the children, parents, and staff really liked this
method. Program attendance was up and more important, the children read more.
Several children's librarians also reported that they would be going on vacation
the week after the program ended!
Random Lake -- Tammy reports that the Welcome To Seussville program that the
library planned and presented had the best attendance. They made daisy head
Maisy head bands with pipe cleaners and flowers using the Ellison machine. They
set up tables with sheets over them with balloons and streamers inside. When the
kids crawled through the Star Belly Sneetches Tunnel they got a star to put on
their belly!
Sheboygan Falls -- The Reed Marionettes "Treasures of the Great Lakes"
was a big hit with both the younger and older children. Lynn reports that the
parents also had many positive comments about it. The program was scheduled
during the same week that the "Amistad" was in the harbor.
Bookmobile -- Sue and Connie received many positive comments from parents who
stated that, in addition to making readers of their children, the opportunity to
earn "Bookmobile Bucks" helped them increase their math skills and
manage their money as they made decisions as to what they wanted to buy and how
much reading they needed to do to make their purchase. Adults and children
looked forward to reading the jokes posted around the vehicle at each stop.
Plymouth -- Children loved the "library loot" and spent a lot of time
at the display case deciding whether to save it or spent it right away. Carol
reports that every performer was great--entertaining as well as educational. The
Chance It game for older readers was very popular this year--participants read
more and completed more games then in previous years.
Cedarburg -- Erika's first year was a success! As the children turned in their
time sheets she took their pictures so she can make posters of all the fantastic
readers in Cedarburg. Bubblelogy was a big hit--the weather cooperated
and the kids could go outside and make big bubbles.
Elkhart Lake -- A librarian, the middle school principal, and a science teacher
did programs on cooking and science at the public library. A retired teacher did
the Read To Me program. Nancy also had a group of local kids who do juggling
present a program. The grand finale of the program saw them juggling flaming
torches!
Cedar Grove -- Connie loved the theme because it was so easy just to relax and
have a good time with. The library did more programs themselves this year. The
bike rodeo with the sheriff's department was a success again--State Farm did
laminated "licenses" for the kids and the Boy Scouts helped with mini
first aid kits.
Sheboygan -- It was the 53rd year at Mead for the summer library program.
Everyone had positive comments about the change from tracking titles to tracking
minutes read. Amy reports that the 2,158 children who were registered liked the
theme--they said it was easy to remember. They particularly liked the free
tickets to the Sheboygan A's baseball games that they received.
Grafton-- "Care for Critters" from the Milwaukee Zoo and Pick `n Save
was the most popular program again. The library sponsored two children's book
discussion groups and had a volunteer high school student who read Harry Potter
and the Order of the Phoenix at the library every Thursday. Judy reports that
the program finished with an outdoor pool party, with entertainment by Stuart
Stotts and ice cream treats.
This is from Rob Reid's e-newsletter
The Golden Archer Award is presented to authors of books nominated by students.
Nominations are compiled by the Wisconsin Educational Media Association (WEMA)
Golden Archer Award Committee and sent back to all schools for the students to
vote.
The nominations for the 2004 Golden Archer Award are below. Wisconsin public
libraries should be sure to have copies in their collections in anticipation of
thousands of kids pursuing the same titles in the upcoming year.
Primary Level:
Duck on a Bike by David Shannon
A Fine, Fine School by Sharon Creech
Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
How to Speak Moo by Deborah Fajerman
Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler
Intermediate Level:
The Color of My Words by Lynn Joseph
The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
Double Fudge by Judy Blume
Judy Moody Saves the World by Megan McDonald
Middle Junior High Level:
Touching Bear Spirit by Ben Mikaelsen
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
Things Not Seen by Andrew Clement
A Boy at War by Harry Mazer
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
For more information about the Golden Archer Awards, go to: www.wemaonline.org/cm.archer.cfm
Eastern Shores Library System owns nineteen BiFolkal program kits for use by
libraries and community groups who work with seniors. They can be reserved for a
specific date and may be kept for 2 weeks. The ILL departments at the public
libraries request the kits and the ESLS van delivers them to the requesting
library.
Ideas for Intergenerational Programming. Use the:
¨ Pets kit and host a pet show (real or stuffed).
¨ School Days kit and conduct science experiments.
¨ Fun and Games kit and invite everyone to play Monopoly or checkers or balloon
volleyball.
¨ Fashion kit and host a fashion show.
¨ Music kit and form a rhythm band.
¨ Work Life kit and play charades. Everyone acts out a job.
¨ Summertime kit and have a picnic.
This month's idea from the publication "Adults
with Special Needs: A Resource and Planning guide for Wisconsin's Public
Libraries" by Barb Huntington and Coral Swanson is from the chapter on
Mobility." Contact the local senior center, drug store or medical supply
store, nursing home or hospital, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), and disabled
veterans group to request the donation of a used wheelchair." "If the
library has a wheelchair, scooter, or wheeled walker, evaluate how visible and
accessible it is. Review possible alternatives that would allow the mobility
aids to be located at the main entrance. Visibility is better than a sign. The
more accessible they are, the more they will be used. Allow mobility aids to be
used to help people get to and from their cars."
Channel Weekly, August 7, 2003
Questions have arisen recently regarding fees for interlibrary loan by
individual public libraries and by public library systems. This article is
intended to clarify the relevant statutory requirements.
Charging individuals fees for access to the information services provided by a
public library, including interlibrary loan, violates the legislative policy and
specific statutory provisions of the Wisconsin Statutes. This is true whether or
not a public library is a member of a public library system. However, if the
public library is a member of a public library system, charging such fees also
would violate a requirement for participation in the system. A public library
that is a member of a public library system must provide its users access to the
interlibrary loan service of the public library system, and it must fill
interlibrary loan requests from other system member libraries within the system
area. However, it is not required to forward an interlibrary loan request from a
library user to any library or library organization that charges a fee for this
service. If it does so, it cannot pass the fee on to the library user.
A public library system may not charge a member library or a library user for
handling or filling an interlibrary loan request within the system service area,
or for referring the interlibrary loan request to a library outside of the
system area. It would be legal, but not desirable, for a public library system
to pass on an interlibrary loan charge from a library or library organization
outside of the system service area to a member library. However, that charge
could not be passed on to the library user, and the public library would not be
under any obligation to pay the charge. Public library systems and member public
libraries are not required to fill or facilitate the filling of interlibrary
loan requests received from other library systems or libraries outside of the
system area. This is done on a voluntary, reciprocal basis, or through
agreements between systems and libraries. However, without the cooperation
involved in this program of reciprocal lending, patrons from all library system
areas would be denied access to the information resources they need.
Although the State Superintendent is required to contract with library resource
providers in and outside of the state for specialized library materials and
information not available at the Reference and Loan Library, the extent of those
contracts is determined by the amount of funding made available by the
Legislature for this purpose.
Public libraries and public library systems are required to certify each year to
the Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning (DLTCL) that
public library service is free to residents of the municipality and the system.
A public library that charges fees for information services, including
interlibrary loan, cannot make this certification. Failure to do so could result
in penalties to the public library and the public library system.
For more information about these issues, contact Mike Cross at (608) 267-9225
michael.cross@dpi. state.wi.us, or Sally Drew at (608) 224-6161 sally.drew@dpi.state.wi.us.
Channel Weekly, July 24, 2003
Full text back files of the "Consumer Reports" Magazine have been
restored to the EBSCOHost databases, available through BadgerLink.
Full text is not available for the most current three months, although indexing
and abstracting is done.
"Consumer Reports" is available in the MasterFile Premier, Academic
Search Elite, Business Source Elite, and MAS Online Plus databases. Full text
coverage begins with the May 1, 1990 issue; indexing and abstracting goes back
to Jan. 1, 1985. Older full-text articles are available in PDF format; more
recent articles are available in both PDF and html format.
Other "Consumer Reports" publications available in various EBSCOHost
databases on BadgerLink are "Consumer Reports Buying Guide," indexing
and full text available from Dec. 1998-present; "Consumer Reports on
Health," indexing and full text available from Jan. 1, 1992-present; and
"Consumer Reports Travel Letter," indexed July 1996 through Jan. 2002
and full text available Oct. 1996 through Jan. 2002.