In This Issue
- IFLS Offering 2020 Continuing Education Scholarships
- ALA Announces Facilitation Skills Training for Small and Rural Library Workers
- Library Selectors Are Personal Shoppers for Their Community
- DPI Activities for PLSR Implementation Webinar Recording Available
- Homelessness Virtual Training
- Resource Sharing Helps the Department of Children and Families
- Wild Wisconsin Winter Web Conference
- Calendar and Continuing Education
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IFLS Offering 2020 Continuing Education Scholarships
The IFLS Library System is offering eight $400 scholarships to library directors and staff in 2020. Please note: MORE has different funds set aside to provide scholarships for people to attend the IUG Conference (April 15-18, Minneapolis).
- IFLS will offer eight scholarships. Deadline to apply for all conference scholarships is January 7, 2020. Winners will be notified by January 10.
- Funds can be used for registration fees, hotel, meals (limited to $38/day), and mileage.
- Eligible conferences are listed below. If you have another conference you would like to attend, please contact Leah at IFLS (langby@ifls.lib.wi.us) before applying.
- In most cases, $400 will not defray all the costs of attending a conference. Libraries or library staff will have to supply the remaining funds.
- In order to be reimbursed, recipients will need to submit receipts for reimbursement of up to $400 after the conference, along with a short, written report for IFLS staff and board about their experience.
To apply, please fill out this form. To increase your chances of receiving a scholarship, please provide as much information as possible. IFLS staff will evaluate applications based on the following criteria:
- Directors will need library board approval, and staff will need supervisor/director approval.
- Demonstrated financial need.
- Explanation of how this specific conference will help you with your work in the library.
- Librarians who have not received scholarship aid to attend conferences in the recent past will be given priority for funding.
Scholarship Options:
Public Library Association Conference, February 25-29, Nashville TN. Registration $350 (members); $585 (nonmembers)
Lead the Way: Libraries at the Heart of Community Engagement, April 20-21, Madison WI. Registration $325
Wisconsin Association of Public Libraries Conference, April 29 – May 1, Oshkosh WI. Registration in 2019 was $130 for members.
American Library Association Annual Conference, June 25-30, Chicago IL. Registration $365 (members); $475 (nonmembers)
Association for Rural & Small Libraries, September 30-October 3, Wichita KS. Registration estimate $285
Association for Library Service to Children Institute, October 1-3, Minneapolis MN. Registration $425 (members); $500 (nonmembers)
Wisconsin Library Association Annual Conference, October 27-30, Green Bay WI. Registration in 2019 was $185 for members.
Let me know if you have questions!
Leah Langby, Library Development and Youth Services Coordinator
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ALA Announces Facilitation Skills Training for Small and Rural Library Workers
Hi folks, this looks like an excellent opportunity, and most of the libraries in our system qualify, it is for libraries serving populations of under 25,000 people. If you need someone to eyeball your application and give suggestions, let me know!
Leah Langby, Library Development and Youth Services Coordinator
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Please see below for an opportunity for small and rural libraries. Please feel free to contact my office (ALA’s Public Programs Office) with any questions: publicprograms@ala.org.
Looking to lead? ALA announces free facilitation skills training for small and rural library workers
The American Library Association (ALA) has announced a professional development opportunity — including funding to attend an in-person workshop at the 2020 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago — to help small and rural library workers develop the communication skills they need to thrive in the 21st-century library.
Twenty-five library workers will be selected to be part of Libraries Transforming Communities: Facilitation Skills for Small and Rural Libraries. Participants will complete a five-part online course, participate in virtual coaching sessions, and attend an in-person workshop — free of charge and with travel funding provided — specially designed to address the community engagement needs of small and rural libraries.
The opportunity is open to library employees who work in small or rural communities with a legal service area population of 25,000 or less, in accordance with the Institute of Museum and Library Service (IMLS) definition. All library types (e.g., public, college/academic, K-12) are welcome, and no facilitation or community engagement experience is necessary.
Learn more and apply online. Applications are due by Jan. 20, 2020.
Participating library workers will learn:
- Basic skills for facilitating a conversation
- How to ask the right questions
- How to move from talking to action
- Strategies for discussing divisive topics
“Whether hosting a storytime or leading a town hall meeting, library workers today need communication skills to fulfill their broad mission as community educators and leaders,” said ALA President Wanda Brown. “Since launching ALA’s Libraries Transforming Communities initiative in 2014, library employees from small and rural communities have been asking ALA for facilitation training to help them become better conveners, and we’re proud to deliver with this special project.”
Participants will be selected through a competitive, peer-reviewed application process. Grantees will receive free entry to the one-day workshop; travel expenses paid to Chicago; and two nights lodging at a conference hotel.
Libraries Transforming Communities: Facilitation Skills for Small and Rural Libraries is made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services grant number RE-17-19-0041-19.
The initiative is offered by ALA’s Public Programs Office in collaboration with the National Coalition of Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD), the Association of Small and Rural Libraries (ARSL), and the Chief Officers of State Library Associations (COSLA).
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Library Selectors Are Personal Shoppers for Their Community
Collection Development - building and maintaining a library collection – can sound daunting. To feel less overwhelmed and in the spirit of the holiday shopping season, let’s break the job down into what every personal shopper needs to know.
Who is your client & what’s already in their closet?
Look at what is on your library’s shelves to meet the needs of your community. Also, run reports on item & title trends and turnover ratios (MORE libraries can find these report tools in Decision Center).
What does your client want/need and when?
How often do you need to purchase work clothes (non-fiction), ugly Christmas sweaters (holiday books), and beachwear (summer reading)? Everyday wear may translate to genre fiction, the little black dress is a bestselling DVD, and the rental tuxedo is obtained through interlibrary loan.
What has your client set for their budget?
Break down your materials budget into manageable pieces by material types and/or months to match up with above.
What items are available for sale & when, plus their reviews; and what stores have the items needed & the best deals?
What selector tools are you using to help you discover the materials available for purchase along with reviews? Do you have access to catalogs from your distributor? Signed up for library publications’ newsletters?
What needs to be cleared out of the closet to make room for all the new stuff?
Run collection evaluation & weeding reports. Go into the stacks and look for the curb appeal of a couple of shelves. Would you want to check out that title which is looking dated and/or ratty? Would you trust a medical book from 2005? Do you have room on the shelf to show face out titles?
Know you will make mistakes (one size doesn’t fit all), but you’ll learn what works best for your community as you get feedback from your client (library statistics). And reach out for help, the IFLS staff would love to work with you on your collection development needs.
Maureen Welch, Reference and Interlibrary Loan Coordinator
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DPI Activities for PLSR Implementation Webinar Recording Available
At the end of November, DPI presented two webinars that described planned activities related to the Public Library System Redesign (PLSR) recommendations delivered by the PLSR Steering Committee in April 2019.
Recordings of both webinars are now available on the COLAND PLSR website.
Both webinars consist of the same initial content, but the question and answer periods differ based on questions asked by attendees. For your convenience, direct links to the questions are also included on the site.
Webinar Recordings:
November 19 Webinar Recording (direct link to Q&A)
November 25 Webinar Recording (direct link to Q&A)
We welcome additional feedback and questions about DPI activities related to implementing PLSR recommendations. Feel free to email us a DPI-PLSR@dpi.wi.gov.
Ben Miller, Resources for Libraries and Lifelong Learning, December 9, 2019
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Homelessness Virtual Training
We all want to provide the best possible service to all people. Some patron interactions require a more thoughtful and deliberate approach. To help library professionals better help ALL of their patrons, DPI has purchased a subscription to Ryan Dowd’s Librarian’s Guide to Homelessness training. The virtual training will:
- Give you more confidence working with patrons struggling with homelessness, mental illness or substance abuse.
- Help your library remain an inclusive library, able to serve everyone.
- Provide tools to achieve fewer problems and less conflict in your library.
Ryan is the Executive Director of a large homeless shelter who trains libraries around the world on how to compassionately and effectively manage problematic behavior from troubled and traumatized individuals. The training teaches you the practical skills and tools to prevent and manage conflict with all patrons.
The training is three and a half hours long and is on-demand, so you can watch it little by little or in bigger chunks whenever works for your schedule. The subscription goes into effect on January 1, 2020 and runs to the end of the calendar year. Leah will help you access the course.
Leah Langby, Library Development and Youth Services Coordinator
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Resource Sharing Helps the Department of Children and Families
It is well known that Wisconsin’s resource sharing system serves public and academic libraries, K-12 schools and technical colleges, but it also serves state agencies that support a multitude of state services. One of these agencies is the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF). Childcare providers all over Wisconsin look to DCF for guidance.
Many providers learned about Interlibrary Loan (ILL) from the Child Care Information Center (CCIC), a small special library in DCF, Division of Early Care and Education. CCIC is a lending library and information clearinghouse specifically for Wisconsin child care providers and trainers. They encourage providers to take advantage of their local library’s ILL service to conveniently access books and DVDs they could never afford to purchase.
On the flip side of the coin, DCF employees depend upon interlibrary loan for research articles that are not available to them online or on the UW-Madison campus. The federal government encourages states, in addition to universities and think tanks, to conduct and use research to find ways to improve their childcare subsidy programs (Wisconsin Shares), childcare quality rating and improvement systems (YoungStar), and other programs that make a significant positive difference in the lives of children and families. Some of the articles needed by DCF researchers and policymakers are hard to find in full text but, when the CCIC librarian runs out of ideas, the ILL experts at Resources for Libraries and Lifelong Learning always find a way!
Guest Post Written By: Glenna Carter, Librarian, Child Care Information Center, Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, Division of Early Care and Education
Posted by: Christine Barth, Resources for Libraries and Lifelong Learning
WI Libraries for Everyone, December 4, 2019
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Wild Wisconsin Winter Web Conference
Registration is now open for the 8th Annual Wild Wisconsin Winter Web Conference.
The conference will take place on January 22-23, 2020. Fourteen sessions will be available in 4 different tracks, including Library Management (new!), Adult Services (new!), Small and Mighty, and Tech Trends. There is something for everyone (including youth services librarians, even though that track went away this year). Please take a look at the offerings!
Planning has been underway since April to give you and your library staff an excellent conference experience. All 16 public library systems in Wisconsin, along with the Department of Public Instruction, make it all possible. Each session is worth 1 contact hour for public library certification.
All of the sessions will be recorded and captioned in case there are some that you miss.
For more information on the conference, contact Jamie Matczak at jmatczak@wvls.org or 920-455-0668.
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Calendar and Continuing Education
Here is a link to our calendar on the IFLS website.
Go there to get more information about IFLS meetings and workshops including Finding Grants and Donations, Annual Report Workshops, and Using Wisconsin Standards.
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