Loading...
#4 Reports A. Activities Report Hedberg Public Library Activity Report April 2009 Adult Services René co-hosted the county Service Coordination meeting at the Rock County Job Center on th April 9. Twenty-one people attended the meeting to learn ways they can publicize their agencies’ services, etc. Three representatives of the Rock County Health Department and René met to discuss their “Emergency Preparedness” program and materials in Spanish. HPL may host a future “Emergency Preparedness Fair” for families. th A student from Edgerton Middle School shadowed René on April 18. The student was interested in René’s job and how libraries serve the needs of our diverse population. René is developing a slate of programs to be taped for JATV broadcast in the future. She spoke to Sol Carbonell, a locally-based national associate of Consumer Action, about a new project called “Wisconsinites for Responsible Lending”. Sol may be one of René’s interviewees on a program. HPL’s “El dia de los niños/el dia de los libros” celebration was a great success. The April 30th event attracted more than 110 people, mostly Latinos. René coordinated the event, including the activities, storyteller, giveaways, volunteers from both high schools, etc. Sharon Grover and Youth Services supplied the majority of the free books which were available to all who attended. Cricket, a new local telephone company, donated prizes and books for the event. Jean “attended” two webcasts this month. The first was co-sponsored by the American Library Association, the National Institute for Literacy, and BuildAmerica.org. Suggestions for advocating libraries and literacy were made and discussed, including focusing more on adult literacy at the library, in addition to what we already do for early literacy efforts. JY will discuss the ideas that may work at HPL with Cathy Jennings and Bryan. The second webcast was also sponsored by the ALA. Thorndike Press was the co-sponsor of the webcast which featured ideas for promoting large print collections in libraries. In May, Jean and Elizabeth Hough will discuss possible ways to promote our collection locally and develop a plan for doing so for 2009-2010. The Downtown Riverfront Park Committee finalized plans for the annual spring clean up on th April 29. The Friends and Lions groups were asked to help the committee pull weeds, replace mulch, etc. Bryan will join Jean on the committee as representatives of HPL and the Friends. The residents of the Regency House apartments have been enjoying the Gruver collection of historical photos of Janesville. Many remember some of the old businesses, families, etc., photos of which are included in the collection. JY will be sharing the collection with the residents for the next two months. Twenty-eight residents at St. Elizabeth’s Nursing Home shared memories of spring and nature at the April program led by Jean. She shared photos of flowers from library books and quizzed residents on trivia related to important spring dates (Arbor Day, Earth Day, etc.). Jean, Bryan, Elizabeth, and Christine Moore met to discuss promotion of the downtown mural project in the library. There are several things the library can do to help promote the project. Future meetings will be held to determine what needs to be done for the project. The Rock County Health Assessment Planning Committee met in April at the Job Center to begin the final steps of the strategic plan. Next month, the committee will finish the plan and determine how to present it to the community at the June meeting. nd Jean read to a 2 grade class at Madison Elementary on April 17 as part of co-Operation Read. The class enjoyed listening to The Boy Who Was Raised By Librarians by Carla D. Morris and Winston The Book Wolf by Marni McGee. The class treated Jean to a special “firecracker” thank you before she left. The Mondays Are Murder book groups discussed Earlene Fowler’s Fool’s Puzzle at their April meetings. The discussions were good and many liked the selection this month. The May selection will be Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons. Jean and Carol are investigating the possibility of giving away two free tickets to one lucky person in each group for the May premiere of the Angels and Demons movie. th A Salvation Army men’s group toured the library on April 28. Jean provided a tour of the facility, highlighting adult collections, resources, and services, including the Job Resource Center and the Job Seekers Open Lab. Central Services Circulation showed a substantial increase from last April which may have been related to the thth relocation closing of the Beloit Public Library from April 6 to April 27. Circulation at HPL by BPL cardholders was 37% higher than April 2008. HPL also moved back to a net lender status this month. HPL adult described video circulation was a low 15 from a collection size of 82 items. Over half of the MP3 and Playaway audiobooks circulated this month. Youth Services “Illustrated” fiction collection circulation doubled from last month. Circulation for the “Job Resource” collection was 143. Print circulation continues to out number audiovisual by 57% compared to 42%. HPL is heading into its “slow” period since more items have been checked-in this month (129,809) than checked-out (125,342) prior to the summer reading program when circulation activity will rapidly increase. More than half of the number of patrons using OverDrive was HPL cardholders with 257 checkouts and 135 holds placed. The new thermal gate counter showed that library visits increased 27% from last April’s estimate. Collection Development April may be the “cruelest month” for some, but selectors were happy to welcome reference librarian Kate Hull as the newest member of the collection team. She joined the group at their April meeting, and picked up several selection assignments, including education, religion, and applied technology. Hedberg Library’s adult non-fiction video collection has become quite dated. For example, a cursory search of the science and technology sections, uncovered a series on the brain from 1984 and a 1985 video on acid rain. However, circulation statistics show that the majority of non- fiction video titles had circulated during the past year. The collection team discussed possible elimination of the collection and asked selector Rebecca Diedrick to identify and order replacement titles or more current titles in DVD format. Target date for elimination of the st collection has been set for January 1 2010. Human Resources/Accounting Susan Braden received an “I Made a Difference” award for initiating the transfer of documents related to GM history that would otherwise have been destroyed by contacting the GM archivist and arranging a plant visit with representatives from HPL, the Rock County Historical Society and the Wisconsin Historical Society. Linda Kerr received an “I Made a Difference” award for her ongoing work creating imaginative and eye-catching displays. Sharon Alfano received an “I Made a Difference” award for her work with the Fun Committee. The dissolution of TIF 15 resulted in an additional $13,039 in miscellaneous income. Three payrolls in April resulted in larger expenditures in Wages and Benefits. The telephone account reflects April’s annual maintenance payment of $2,640. Reference Services Statistics from the Reference Department: ? Patron questions asked at Reference Desk – 3532 ? Patron questions asked at Service Desk – 2984 ? Combined total of questions at both Desks – 6516 Statistics from InterLibrary Loan: ? Items requested from other libraries for Hedberg patrons – 488 ? Items received from other libraries for Hedberg patrons – 483 ? Requests received from other libraries to borrow Hedberg materials – 890 ? Items lent to other libraries from the Hedberg collection – 633 InterLibrary Loan staff from Hedberg visited the Kenosha Public Library to observe the ILL process at Kenosha. This gave ILL staff from both libraries an opportunity to compare and discuss workflow issues and exchange ideas to improve service. May 12 four Reference (Theresa Biele, Sue Braden, Mary Buelow, Rebecca Diedrick) and Jill Osmond from Security attended the “Blackbelt Librarian” workshop on library security. Question of the month: A patron wanted a list of companies that manufacture working cannons for military reenactments. Staff referred patron to the subscription database Reference USA where the patron could search by the yellow page heading of “cannons”, and to the website Thomasnet.com under the term “cannon”. The patron found several listings. Technical Services Technical services head Carol Kuntzelman and audio-book selector Linda Rogers discussed purchasing pre-processed audio CDs with the Midwest Tape sales representative. Processing of audio-books is one of the most labor-intensive tasks for TS. In the past, the drawback to outsourcing their processing had always been the poor quality of the packaging, but Midwest’s appeared to be of much better quality. A number of titles are being ordered to test the durability of the CD cases. Linda and Carol also decided to do a cost analysis to determine if savings on staff-time and supplies would offset the lower discount offered by Midwest. Youth Services Children’s Services The normal round of programming – storytimes, Library Explorers, First Friday Family Fiesta, Family Fun Night – along with some special events. Julie Westby hosted a Spring Break Game th Day for elementary school children. On April 30 we held our third annual celebration of El día de los niños, el día de los libros. René Bue arranged for a wonderful storyteller who also provided a fun craft. High school students welcomed the 66 children and 43 adults, served food, and helped children with the craft. One of the best parts of the evening was the excitement children showed at being able to take home free books donated by Cricket and various children’s publishers. Jamie Swenson and Camille Rammer represented the library at the Celebration of Children on Saturday, April 18, where they introduced 85 children and 78 adults to what HPL can offer – especially fun ways to improve early literacy skills. Children’s Room staff also did three in- house preschool group programs for 57 children and 37 adults and teachers, and four out-of-the- library visits to preschools where they interacted with 75 children and 14 adults. Sharon Grover and Shannon Murphy-Tollefsrud participated in the CO-OPERATION READ event sponsored by the School District of Janesville. Young Adult Services Spring Break for local schools provided the opportunity for a special teen program and additional staff time in Teen Central. A Gaming Day for middle and high school students was held with Dance Dance Revolution the game of choice. RuneScape Club offers kids the chance to have exclusive use of the Woodruff Training Room for an hour of gaming with friends after school. TAB members met in April to make final decisions for the summer library program. Along with several HPL staff, Laurie Bartz participated in the school district CO-OPERATION READ event on April 17. Members of the community were invited to read a favorite book with students and talk about the core value of cooperation and the importance of giving back to the community. Laurie and Sharon Grover are members of the School District of Janesville Library Media and Instructional Technology Planning Committee that is forming goals and objectives for 2009-2012. Allison Moore, HPL’s summer intern, and Laurie Bartz attended the College-to-Work Internship Conference sponsored by the Wisconsin Foundation for Independent Colleges, Inc. (WFIC). Youth Services has utilized interns for several years through WFIC and the generosity of its local partner, the Batterman Foundation. This first-ever workshop held at Cardinal Stritch University had sessions for mentors such as Mentorship Best Practices and Making the Most of Your Intern with Wade Krogwold, Direct Supply. Handouts included an Orientation Checklist, Six Steps for Constructive Feedback and a Skills Matrix. Interns learned about the State of the Nonprofit Sector and the Role of Philanthropy, Stakeholders & Audiences.