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#4 Reports A. Activities Report Hedberg Public Library Activity Report February 2010 Adult Services Two adult programs funded by the Nancy Parker Endowment were held in February. Duane Brewer, director of JATV Media Services, presented an overview, "How to Tell Your Story on Local Access TV." Many of the 18 attendees signed up to take volunteer training on using JATV equipment in order to produce local shows. On Feburary 28, Beloit author Anne Goodwin shared life lessons she learned from an elderly friend. Their friendship is the basis of Anne's book, "Stay for Lunch." 25 people enjoyed the personable author's talk. The author sold and signed about 20 copies of her book. More programs are planned for March, April and May. The computer classes in Spanish were well attended in February, as compared to January. Seventeen people attended the two classes taught by Ren é Bue. In addition to the computer classes, Ren é hosted the Cinco de mayo planning committee and the Rock County Human Services Service Coordination meetings in February. She also gave a library tour to 15 Even Start parents who came to the library. The Latino Community Fair planning committee, of which Ren é/HPL is a member, met twice in February. The Wisconsin Public Television screening of “A Digital Nation” was attended by a few people who were very interested in how digital devices, etc. have affected our lives. Several people in local and county government attended the meeting. WPT and HPL are developing a working relationship for future programs at the library. Planning is in the works for a book group for adults that will meet in April, May and June. The books to be discussed are: The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry, Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo, and Wettest County in the World by Matt Bondurant. Monies to support the project are being sought from the Friends. Kate Hull and Jean Yeomans will be the book group leaders. Building Operations The library’s sprinkler system was tested in February and some routine carpet cleaning was done of the Ground Floor, upper and lower rotunda areas and stairs. Janet met with Cullen Slapak and Wayne Cornwell of the City Parks Department to discuss the replacement of three trees that were damaged by the flood and two crabapple trees that were taken out last year. We hope to have those trees planted this spring. Central Services Overall circulation has decrease compared to February 2009. While the circulation numbers have decreased the percentages of circulation by department, format and area remain similar to February 2009 as shown below. February 2010 February 2009 Department Adult 67% 65% Youth 33% 35% Format Print 58% 56% Video 28% 29% Audio 14% 15% Area Janesville 75% 75% Other areas 25% 25% New registered borrowers for the month compared to last February are down 14 %. Youth Services program – Celebrate Chinese New Year held on Sunday, February 21 had a positive impact on circulation with 2,432 checkouts compared to the average February Sunday checkouts of 1,722. Linda Kerr, circulation assistant and display artist attended her first webinar – Creating Dynamic Displays. Leah Langby from Indianhead Federated Library System gave an hour and half presentation on display topics and construction of displays. Linda found the presentation interesting and said that she was “glad to see that displays are becoming a part of the library landscape at so many locations.” Collection Development The collection team assisted in identifying the subject categories for the new DIY neighborhood, to be unveiled in March. The collection will contain materials on all things related to home improvement, from carpentry to plumbing to home appliance repair. Members also reported on their progress in reviewing a missing/lost items list, in their subject and format selection areas, for the purpose of replacement of titles. The lists cover the items gone lost or missing during the time HPL has had its holdings on RockCat. Selectors reported they were on target to completing the project. In future, selectors will be reviewing lost and missing lists on a monthly basis. Collection manager Carol Kuntzelman reported that the library foundation approved all collection enhancement recommendations, including money for VHS/DVD /music CD replacements and Spanish language audio materials. Human Resources/Accounting January and February saw many “I Made a Difference Awards’. Laura Fitzsimons received one for her help in relabeling biographies, Sharon Alfano for the staff breakfast, Theresa Biele for resolving a difficult problem for a patron, Debbie Hessian-Kjornes for an efficient processing suggestion, Rebecca Haefner for her role in the Sowing the Seeds campaign, Janet Morehart for her role as intermediary between the staff and building problems, Deborah Klenz for taking on difficult cleaning duties completely outside of her job description, Melody Clair for her technical help at checkout and Jennifer Swales for an efficient suggestion for checkout notices. Two months of staff partnerships have been successfully completed, and are continuing. Hedberg Hedliners, a weekly staff member profile displayed in the staff area, has also been successfully overseen by Linda Hermans. Both Communication/Training Team programs have helped enhance working relationships and understanding of processes. In Accounting, the final Operating Statement for 2009 is included, with a positive final balance of $307. President Carlson has requested the inclusion of a partial Operating Statement showing the financial impact of the enclosed Expenditure Approval List. This has been labeled March 2010 Expenditure Approval List Added to Operating Statement – 25% year gone. Reference Services Total Patron Questions: ? Patron questions asked at Reference Desk – 2961 ? Patron questions asked at Service Desk – 2783 ? Asked at Youth Services 1925 ? Asked at Bilingual Desk (when staffed) 8 ? Asked at Teen Central (when staffed) 30 ? Asked via email 48 ? Total patron questions 7755 Reportable Reference Questions: ? Asked at the Reference Desk 1179 ? Asked at Service Desk 201 ? Asked at Youth Services 682 ? Asked at Bilingual Desk (when staffed) 0 ? Asked at Teen Central (when staffed) 13 ? Asked via email 23 ? Total for all service points 2098 Statistics from InterLibrary Loan: ? Items requested from other libraries for Hedberg patrons – 523 ? Items received from other libraries for Hedberg patrons – 534 ? Requests received from other libraries to borrow Hedberg materials – 753 ? Items lent to other libraries from the Hedberg collection – 558 The City Clerk’s office has certified eight Reference and Service Desk staff members to register Janesville residents to vote in 2010. We are making arrangements to certify more staff members this coming month. Attendance at the Job Seeker’s Open Lab was poor in February due to bad weather. Question of the month: Patron is remodeling an old house near downtown Janesville. During deconstruction, he found an old theater flyer, pasted inside a wall, for Annie Pixley, starring in the play “Miss Blythe of Duluth”. The patron wanted to know more about the history of the flyer; in particular, who was Anne Pixley, and when was she in Janesville? Librarians searched Google and found a brief biography of Annie Pixley, but no mention of her coming to Wisconsin. Librarians checked the Local History Database, but there were no listings. Librarians then checked the “Access Newspaper Archive” database which is available through Badgerlink. The search returned multiple articles, including some about her mysterious death (Was she murdered?) and the subsequent trial (Did her husband kill her?) and a review of the new play “Miss Blythe of Duluth”, performed at the Myers Grand Theater in Janesville Saturday May 12, 1893, just a few months before Annie Pixley’s” ultimate demise. Technical Services Technical services processors were eager to begin the transfer of materials to the new DIY neighborhood. Work began in February, and Maureen Birchfield, Laura Fitzsimons and Brenda Pendergraft were able to get the bulk of the approximately 2000 items labeled, updated in the catalog, and ready to go on the shelves in March. Patrons and staff can identify DIY books and DVDs by the colorful stickers prepared by Elizabeth Hough and Rebecca Haefner. Technical services staff continued assisting circulation in the RFID tagging process, working primarily on children’s items and the new materials. Youth Services Children’s Services February was an excellent month for partnering with other community members and agencies to create some wonderful programming at HPL. For this month’s Library Explorers program, Linda Hermans arranged to have one of our blind patrons talk about his seeing-eye dog. Seventy-five children crowded around to learn how dogs are trained to work with the blind and to have their names typed out on a special Braille writer. Sharon Grover and René Bue teamed up with members of Janesville’s Chinese community as well as with Yiyi Gallant, Chinese teacher at the School District of Janesville, to put together a terrific celebration of the Lunar New Year. A professional Lion Dance troupe performed, bringing good luck to the library, followed by a talent show featuring traditional Chinese music, poetry reading, and performances by Mrs. Gallant’s students from Harrison and Roosevelt Elementary schools. February was also the month for Special Needs visits. Students from a variety of early childhood classes were bused to the library for stories, songs, and browsing. These visits serve to introduce children and families to what the library has to offer them. This year’s theme was “Birthdays” th and each child received an invitation to our mascot Mosi’s birthday party on March 19. As always, Julie Westby did a magnificent job putting together all the aspects of this month-long program, which brought 379 children and 136 adults into the library. Not content to just organize our Special Needs visits, Julie Westby also planned and supervised a rdth program for children in 3 through 5 grades. These students learned leather tooling by making rdth leather medallions. Feeling there was a gap in programming for 3 through 5 graders, Julie has assumed responsibility for reestablishing unique program opportunities for this age group. February in the Children’s Room also included the regular round of storytimes, another weekend th session of Learning Through Play and a special program for parents, now in its 6 year. It should be noted that Julie Westby also plans this program, arranging for the teacher and insuring that parents have the appropriate handouts. Young Adult Services B-Force Middle School Book Club members discussed The Ruins of Gorlan, first book in The Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan. Participants utilized maps of Araluen to chart the paths of Ranger Halt and his apprentice, Will, as they set out to protect their kingdom. TAB members held their monthly meeting followed by a Web Committee meeting. Teens volunteered for 6.5 hours in February helping with TAB and Children’s Department activities such as Learning Through Play. Another fabulous partnership initiated by Laurie Bartz, was College Goal Sunday: Weekend Edition, held in Janesville and at Hedberg Public Library for the first time. Thanks to the expertise of area financial aid advisors, including Kristin Fillhouer and Dave Carlson from UW- Rock County, at least 48 families were assisted with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form during the two hour event. In addition to the Woodruff Training Lab and Job Resource Center computers, we were able to use several laptops through collaboration with Arrowhead Library System and UW-Rock County. Emrick Gunderson did an outstanding job setting up the laptops for use at our facility and networking the computers to print to a dedicated printer. Diana McDonald and HPL’s UW field study student Liz Tubman were joined by photographer Rebecca Haefner and 15 other CGS volunteers to efficiently supervise the registration, FAFSA filing and scholarship drawing and to help make CGS a success! Elizabeth Hough, Rebecca Haefner and Carrie Hermanson from UW-Rock worked together to provide amazing handouts and posters. Area school counselors informed students through announcements and posters. We have enthusiastically agreed to host CGS 2011 at Hedberg Public Library!