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#4 Reports A. Activities Report Hedberg Public Library Activity Report September 2009 Adult Services "Ham Radio Today" kicked off the 2009 fall Nancy B. Parker program series on September 15. Dave Wendt of Janesville talked about available social opportunities, such as contest and technical experiments, as well as the role amateur radio plays when other communications systems are overloaded or wiped out. On September 20, more than 60 people attended the First Ever HPL Refashion Fair, featuring a clothing swap, mini style show, and demonstrations of various ways to embellish or alter clothing. The fair tapped the considerable creative talents of a number of HPL staff members and the Teen Advisory Board. For the September 24 program titled "Inventor at Work," Madison entrepreneur Justin Beck outlined lessons he learned as he built a successful software development company from the ground up. Linda Belknap, Adult Services Associate, develops and hosts the Nancy B. Parker program series. René, HPL’s Bilingual Outreach Coordinator, participated in a variety of events in September. She attended the Service Providers Fair at the Job Center to promote library services, the grant writing workshop sponsored by the Voluntary Action Center in Beloit, and she was a panelist for a discussion, Race, Class and Community Work in Beloit, at Beloit College. At HPL, René planned and hosted the Hispanic Heritage Month celebration, taught her first two computer classes for Spanish speakers (24 students attended), and gave a tour to 13 students and 5 adults from Argentina. Patrons who had questions about getting a library card, renewing materials, paying overdue fees and replacing library cards were helped by René. Reference librarians Sue Braden and Kate Hull worked with René in finding a video in Spanish for a Spanish speaker who wanted to study for the commercial driver’s license exam. nd On September 2, Jean provided a tour and information for Institute for Library and Museum Studies auditor James Lonergan, Mike Cross and Terri Howe of the DPI, and Ruth Ann Montgomery. They visited HPL because of our successful 2008 LSTA grants for digitization of city directories and for the virtual job center class. The visitors viewed the Woodruff Training Room and the JRC, as well as the general adult and reference collections. Ruth Ann explained the ALS grant for computers and technology for the smaller libraries. All were impressed with the neighborhood idea, the classes, and the Job Seekers Open Lab. th HPL hosted the International Literacy Day, Sept. 8. Scrabble™ Game from 2 to 6 p.m for the second year in a row. The Literacy Connection volunteers who staffed the table in the library’s lobby reported great interactions with people. The high score was 48. Thirty-one people participated at our library. Other ALS libraries took part in celebrating the day by hosting Scrabble™ tournaments too. Jean attended the Leadership Development Academy of Rock County retreat at Williams Bay with Sharon Alfano September 9 and 10. The last HPL staff member who participated was Carrie Hermanson. Jean and Sharon will meet once a month with their class through May 2010, in addition to developing and implementing a small group project. th The library had a table at the Senior Center’s Hobby Mania event on Saturday, September 26. Jean provided library materials representing various hobbies, as well as brochures promoting computer classes and programs. The event was well attended and will likely be held again next year. HPL hosted a Rock County Vision 2020 discussion of “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich. Jean, Marc Perry of Community Action, and Ann Forbeck of the School District of Janeville led the discussion. Although the group was small, eight in attendance, it was agreed that the exchange between group members was great. Building Operations Both elevators passed their annual inspection by the State of Wisconsin in September. All of the automatic doors also received their annual inspections. Nice new carpet was installed in both elevators after nearly 14 years of wear and tear. We were very happy to see the installation of the fence near the southwest corner of the building. We will now be able to house our recycle bins outside and other items that are not sensitive to weather. This will give us much needed storage space inside the building. Central Services Circulation for the month was down slightly compared to last September. The number of holds filled this month was 7,000 of which 2,000 were DVDs. Last September the number of holds filled was 5,615. Circulation of materials from “neighborhoods” or new locations improved. Illustrated Fiction (Youth) 90 circulations Job Resource Center 152 Adult Playaways 107 HPL continues to borrow more than they lend. The trend of more ALS library resident visits to HPL for checkout compared to HPL visits to other libraries continues. Almost half of the total township circulation at HPL is from Janesville, Rock and Harmony townships. HPL card holders placed 177 holds for OverDrive titles. One hundred and twenty-nine patrons opted to have electronic photos in their accounts. Collection Development As the end of the fiscal year draws near and the big fall publishing season is in full swing, the collection team members are making final selections in their subject or format areas. So much to choose from, so little time. A look at the materials budget lines indicates that the selectors have performed admirably, with expenditures right where they should be at this time of year. The one question mark, as with every year, is the number of pre-publication titles and standing orders to arrive at the end of the year. Unfortunately, it is often necessary for acquisitions to stop shipments before the end of the year and have patrons wait until the New Year for their reserved titles. Of course, if this can’t be avoided, the reserves are given priority and rushed through processing once shipments begin arriving in January. Human Resources/Accounting Sharon Alfano attended Leadership Development Academy orientation and the 2- day team- building ropes course along with Jean Yeomans. This is a fantastic program and continuing HPL staff involvement will benefit the library and the community. A communications workshop, “Bridging the Communications Gap” was also attended and information gathered was shared with the Communications/Training Team. The bill list includes a payment to David R. Warren, a newspaper distributor providing us with a number of publications for which we are requesting payment of $1,235.05. The operating statement reflects a 70.72% use of wages and benefits with 75% of the year gone. Although we’re doing very well in that line, we do have 27% of our payrolls left, not 25%, 25% of staff have upcoming performance evaluations, and end-of-year vacation accruals will be charged to this account. For this reason, we’re right on track, not underspent, in this budget line. Reference Services Total Patron Questions: ? Patron questions asked at Reference Desk – 2904 ? Patron questions asked at Service Desk – 2770 ? Asked at Youth Services 1960 ? Asked at Bilingual Desk (when staffed) 5 ? Asked at Teen Central (when staffed) 23 ? Total patron questions 7662 Reportable Reference Questions: ? Asked at the Reference Desk 1420 ? Asked at Service Desk 225 ? Asked at Youth Services 651 ? Asked at Bilingual Desk (when staffed) 0 ? Asked at Teen Central (when staffed) 11 ? Total for all service points 2307 Statistics from InterLibrary Loan: ? Items requested from other libraries for Hedberg patrons – 614 ? Items received from other libraries for Hedberg patrons – 575 ? Requests received from other libraries to borrow Hedberg materials – 771 ? Items lent to other libraries from the Hedberg collection – 623 On September 29, MB, DM and KH attended “Serving the Legal Information Needs of the Public”. The training was sponsored by the Wisconsin Court System and the South Central and Arrowhead Library Systems, as part of a project is to foster communication between local courts and public libraries in an effort to better meet the legal service needs of self-represented litigants. Mary Rajek, the Economic Development Specialist at the Rock County Development Alliance, came to talk to the Reference Department. She gave information about services and resources available in Southern Wisconsin for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Question of the month: Patron wanted the exact wording of a quote. He thought it was over the door of the CIA, and it might be from the Bible. The patron could not remember the words, but the spirit of the quote was something like “we make war not with men but with mighty nations or cosmic forces”. Librarians followed the CIA clue, and found the quote over the door at the CIA. It is from John 8:22, and the patron said it was not the quote he wanted. Librarians continued to search, trying a variety of synonyms for the key words, and finally found Ephesians 6:12. “For are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darknes, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” The patron said this was the quote he remembered. Technical Services Technical Services staff members Laura Fitzsimons and Brenda Pendergraft pitched in to relabel and update Millennium records for the new Children’s Biography neighborhood. Public Information produced the new blue labels in-house, saving us some money. The unveiling of the new neighborhood awaits the completion of a major shift of children’s non-fiction. Youth Services Children’s Services Children’s Room staff is back in the swing of regular storytime and school-year programming. Julie Westby’s Library Explorers program, based on the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, attracted 40 children in grades K-5. Kari Klebba, our good friend at Wildwood Theaters, provided a family pack of tickets to the new movie based on the book. The tickets were raffled off at the program and the winning family reported that they loved the movie and had a great time. We’ve also seen lots of children – 140 to be exact – in class groups. St. Paul’s Lutheran School first graders and Roosevelt kindergartners came for stories and library visits, happily hosted by Julie Westby and Jamie Swenson, while Sharon Grover enjoyed doing three sessions of stories at Hand-in-Hand P4J. Young Adult Services Fall is always a busy season as staff prepares for the various programs and tours offered throughout the semester. The 2009-2010 Teen Advisory Board held its first meeting in September. Following introductions, officer nominations were accepted. The group is already enthusiastic about making plans for SLP Summer 2010! Teen Central took part in the library’s Refashion Fair to showcase the no-sew Bandana Bags made during a program last summer. Teen volunteers helped demonstrate the process with assistance from Youth Services staff members Karin Timmermann and Laurie Bartz. School district teachers and adult students from the Chestnut House visited the library for a tour followed by an opportunity to obtain library cards, check out materials and meet staff in all departments. Items of interest included The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, sports books and audios by Mike Lupica, CD’s, DVD’s and a set of books from the Book Bag collection for classroom use. B-Force Middle School Book Club, named by one of our own teens, debuted with a humorous back-to-school selection called Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar. Teens in attendance were then able to vote for future book selections from a list prepared by staff.