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#4 Reports A. Activities Report Hedberg Public Library Activity Report April 2010 Adult Services René spent the month of April either planning, hosting, co-hosting, or presenting at events at the library or at other locations. HPL was the site of two UW-Extension Well Being programs, the Bilingual Poetry Open Mic program, Census 2010 March to the Mailbox program, and Día de los niños. René presented a program entitled The Other Computer Language: Español at WAPL in Sheboygan. René also shared information about computer classes and services to Spanish speakers with the Beloit Public Library Board. She made contact with a Spanish teacher at Evansville High School, staffed a booth at their House for Cindy project, and as a result, has added more volunteers to help with HPL’s bilingual outreach programs. As part of HPL’s involvement in the Big Read 2010 this year, Jean and René hosted the kickoff event for the program which covered three counties, Rock, Jefferson and Walworth. Jean and René led a book discussion of the chosen title, Sun, Stone, and Shadows, a collection of short stories by well-known Mexican authors. Two Nancy Parker programs were held in April. A Bilingual Poetry Open Mic celebrated National Poetry Month. Madison poet Nydia Rojas, a native of Puerto Rico, served as keynote speaker. 22 local amateur poets shared their original poems. HPL Bilingual Outreach Coordinator René Bue read a poem in Spanish and then English. Although the event did not draw members of the Hispanic community, the audience seemed to enjoy the multicultural component. On April 20, Madison author Richard Quinney spoke about his newest book, "A Lifetime Burning," which was inspired by the process of emptying out his family's Walworth County farmhouse after his parents had passed on. 28 people attended. A special exhibit in April featured color photographs of wildflowers in Riverside Park taken by local photographer Lucy Vickerman. The spring Parker program series concluded May 4 with a talk on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his famous creation, detective Sherlock Holmes. 33 people attended the program by Sherlockian Gayle Lange Puhl of Evansville. The adult programming staff is in the process of building a database of past program information to serve as a resource for future planning. Jean completed her two-year term as president of The Literacy Council and promptly signed up for a one-year term as secretary of the local American Association of University Women chapter’s board of directors. The 2009-2010 Leadership Development Academy class visited HPL as part of their monthly training. Jean and Sharon Alfano, members of the class, provided a tour for the group. The Mondays are Murder book group met in April to discuss Robert B. Parker’s Hugger Mugger. Jean and Carol Kuntzelman, co-leaders of the monthly discussions, determined that as attendance has been low in the evening sessions, we would only offer the afternoon discussion time through the remainder of this year’s sessions. The fall session, beginning in September, will most likely follow the single time for discussions each month. The May discussion will center on Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger. Kate Hull and Jean co-hosted the first of three Reading on the Rock book discussions for adults. The Wettest County in the World by Matt Bondurant was the first title read. Although the attendance was small, the discussion was good. To supplement the book, maps and other related materials were shared. The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry is May’s selection. Reading on the Rock is sponsored by the Friends of HPL. Circulation Services Circulation decreased compared to April 2009. Youth circulation went from 35,796 (April 2009) to 28,546 followed by adult 66,046 to 59,046. Fewer print materials circulated than audiovisual. The number of patrons who registered dropped by 97. VHS circulation at HPL was only19 which came for VHS owned by other ALS libraries. A very small figured compared to DVD circulation which were 20,861. Circulation from the new DIY neighborhood was 426 with the children’s biography neighborhood at 145, an increase of 28 from last month. The popular YA game collection showed a circulation of 157. The number of reserves filled increased with 49% adult and youth print and 29% DVDs. The gate count was also down by 6,620compared to last April. For the record, the thermal gate counters were fully active since March 1, 2009. The major display on music was done in response to a request by a music teacher. The library has a large and varied music collection for all age groups and areas of interest. The display proved to be very popular with materials replenished daily. Collection Development In light of Linda Rogers’ comments regarding the drop in circulation figures, the primary topic on the April collection team’s meeting agenda was timely—promotion of the library collections. The team looked at three main primary components of promotion: 1) staff assistance through Readers’ Advisory, 2) commitment to marketing through book lists, an online presence, library displays and booktalks, and 3) arrangement of the collection. Several efforts are already underway with the establishment of neighborhoods and improved shelf signage. Collection team members also will be contributing to a column in Library Matters featuring annotated lists of new titles (including all formats), information on popular genres, and publishing and reading trends. Collection manager Carol Kuntzelman and selector Rebecca Diedrick wrote about two popular genres, romance and memoirs, for the upcoming issue of the newsletter. The team also discussed having a greater online presence, with Elizabeth Hough suggesting adding a blog for adult readers where staff could provide brief descriptions of favorite books or titles they are currently reading. Another suggestion was to set aside time at collection team meetings for selectors to discuss methods of selection and trends in their selection area. Linda Rogers led off with a look at one of her selection areas, adult fiction, where she noted one very popular trend is inspirational fiction. Human Resources/Accounting The annual Volunteer Recognition Reception themed on “Building a Better World” was attended by approximately 35 volunteers who enjoyed international snacks, geography games and travel and green-themed prizes. 6,803 hours were recognized, with 6 volunteers earning special recognition for contributing over 200 hours each. Building Technician David Peters earned an “I Made a Difference” award for graciously taking time away from his building duties to help a patron who had interrupted him hard at work, to look for library materials. In Accounting, April wages and benefits are higher than in previous months because three payrolls are included. Timing also affected the telephone expense in April, which included payment of the annual maintenance contract and two months of telephone service. Reference Services Total Patron Questions: ? Patron questions asked at Reference Desk – 2718 ? Patron questions asked at Service Desk – 2780 ? Asked at Youth Services 2021 ? Asked at Bilingual Desk (when staffed) 4 ? Asked at Teen Central (when staffed) 16 ? Asked via email 44 ? Total patron questions 7583 Reportable Reference Questions: ? Asked at the Reference Desk 1176 ? Asked at Service Desk 360 ? Asked at Youth Services 859 ? Asked at Bilingual Desk (when staffed) 0 ? Asked at Teen Central (when staffed) 6 ? Asked via email 17 ? Total for all service points 2418 Statistics from InterLibrary Loan: ? Items requested from other libraries for Hedberg patrons – 488 ? Items received from other libraries for Hedberg patrons – 495 ? Requests received from other libraries to borrow Hedberg materials – 890 ? Items lent to other libraries from the Hedberg collection – 633 A representative from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue was at the library for eight sessions in February, March and April. DOR answered tax questions from the public on both State and Federal Individual tax returns. They spoke with an average of twenty people a day. Theresa Biele and Anita Day attended the Midwest ILL Conference in Dubuque. This conference is held every two years. Theresa Biele and Anita Day also attended a meeting of InterLibrary Loan staff from all the Arrowhead Libraries. Here they learned more information about upcoming changes to WISCAT, the statewide library catalog, and the impact those changes will have on InterLibrary Loan. Seven Reference/Service Desk employees attended the Emotional Intelligence workshop sponsored by Arrowhead on April 19. All reported it was an excellent workshop. Question of the month: A patron found a metal token with his metal-detector in the ground near Rockport Park with the words: 'Johnny Cullen Tavern Janesville' on one side and ‘good for 5c in trade’ on the other. He wanted to know what it was. Some quick checks found no information. The librarian explained by phone how to access our City Directories online. While the patron checked our online resources, the librarian looked for information about “trade tokens”. She found title information for a few books about collecting trade tokens, but HPL owns none of them. When she called the patron back to see if he wanted to request these materials through InterLibrary Loan, the patron told her his wife found information about the token on the Internet. His wife had tried a Google search, which lead her right back to the “GM and UAW Interviews” Oral History collection on the HPL web site! The information is in the Gerald Litney interview. Gerald is answering a question about being one of the younger workers at Janesville Shirt & Overall and he casually mentions how he helped a school classmate - Johnny Cullen - get a job there. He added that Johnny later opened a tavern on Racine Street. The patron emailed the library later, and wrote “I’d like to thank the Hedberg Public Library for making available these invaluable research tools to the public, particularly the Gerald H Litney interview that was the key into pushing us in the correct direction. This is an invaluable tool for the public and well worth the grant moneys used in making it available.” Technical Services Technical service staff prepared for a May project attaching X-range RFID tags to the YA video games and to many of the adult feature film DVDs. TS used some of its supply budget to purchase the more secure tags and plans to complete the project in time for the installation of the RFID equipment in early June. Once the equipment is in place, the remainder of the audiovisual items will be tagged. Youth Services Children’s Services Attendance continues to be strong for our homegrown storytimes and Library Explorers programs. Circulation, as noted by Linda Rogers, has not enjoyed a resurgence and Youth Services staff will be looking into new ways to promote books and other library materials at our programs. This month, the school age crowd focused on flying things with Library Explorers’ team Camille Rammer and Karin Timmermann teaching children in grades K-5 how to make and fly kites. Children’s Librarian Julie Westby contracted with the Discovery Center Museum in Rockford for a program for grades 3-5 on flight, including the making of some “simple, yet incredible flying contraptions.” Youth Services (Sharon Grover) partnered with Bilingual Outreach Services (René Bue) to plan and present our fourth successful program for “El día de los niños, el día de los libros” on Friday, April 30. This program was developed 14 years ago by Mexican-American children’s author Pat Mora to honor her parents who were influential promoters of literacy for children. Held on the traditional Mexican Children’s Day holiday, libraries all over the country celebrate children and books with special programs that feature stories, food, fun, and the giving away of a free book to each child in attendance. This year, the funding for the books was generously provided by the Hedberg Public Library Foundation. Sandie Gilbert in Technical Services insured that the books were ordered and received in plenty of time to give them away on April 30. Young Adult Services TAB met for its regular April meeting and for an End-of-Year Lock-In at the library. Thirty- eight teens were part of TAB during the 2009-2010 school year and were invited to be part of the Lock-In. All TAB members received a certificate of appreciation and coupon for Culver’s custard. Three of our current TAB officers will graduate this year and received 2010 key rings and small photo albums. Other graduating seniors received key rings. The Lock-In consisted of group games, an after-hours Survivor Scavenger Hunt in the stacks, a movie and, of course, pizza. Teens who attended expressed appreciation for a really fun event that featured lots of laughter as teens attempted to work their way through the scavenger hunt. Chaperones for the after-hours Lock-In were Youth Services staff members Laurie Bartz, Julie Westby, Karin Timmermann, and Sharon Grover. Director Bryan McCormick and UW- Whitewater student Naomi Timmermann also participated. Teens took advantage of spring break at a program called Take Flight, presented by staff from Rockford’s Discovery Center Museum. Participants made several projects, including a paper airplane using an award-winning design. Laurie Bartz and WFIC summer intern Angela Meadows attended a College-to-Work Non Profit Internship Training Meeting at Milwaukee County Zoo. Mentors and students learned about the state of the non-profit sector, contributed to round table discussions, and participated in teamwork exercises. B-Force Middle School Reading Club met for the last session of this school year. The group discussed Flush, by Carl Hiaasen, and drew pictures reflecting their experiences with the book. Young Adult Librarian Laurie Bartz went to technology training on Movie Maker and Garage Band sponsored by the School District of Janesville, and to OverDrive training with ALS Resource Sharing Coordinator Melody Clair. Laurie Bartz also produced, with the HPL PR department, a book list and display called “If You Liked Twilight” featuring vampire books for teens.