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#4 Reports A. Activities Report Hedberg Public Library Activity Report April 2011 Adult Services Bilingual Outreach René Bue met with Sharon Grover and Julie Kline, Outreach and Academic Program Coordinator from the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) at UW- Milwaukee. She will be working on a joint program that will bring Latino authors to HPL for workshops for educators and librarians and for family programs. Julie is also the coordinator for the Américas Book Award for children’s and young adult literature. René was invited to serve on that committee and she accepted. René gave a presentation to the Even Start program about HPL collections, programs and services. Janesville’s Even Start Program ends July 22, so they are looking for other resources for continuing to learn English. At the end of April, René co- hosted the Día de los niños celebration with Sharon Grover. Adult Programming and Outreach April brought four programs for adults to HPL. The first program featured Wisconsin’s Poet th Laureate, Bruce Dethlefsen, who enchanted his audience on April 7 with the reading of his poetry. Members of the audience were encouraged to read their own poetry also during the “open mic” part of the evening. The second program was the first ever “Incredible Edible Books” competition, organized by Rebecca Haefner (Graphic Designer at HPL) and her committee of five staff members. More than 25 entries were judged for their use of edible ingredients and creativity. Demonstrations were given for making edible centerpieces, decorating cookies, and making garnishes. Awards went to “Best in Show”, “Best Entry by a Family”, “Best Entry by an Individual”, “Best Entry by a Group”, “People’s Choice-Best Looking”, and “People’s Choice-Most Pun-derful”. Over 100 th people enjoyed this “first-ever” event on April 10. This event is another example of an idea that was first presented at the staff’s “Deep Dive” training event. th On April 14, the Friends of Judi Kneece presented “Trailblazers: Women in Janesville’s History”. The program, moderated by Judy Adler, consisted of a panel of Janesville women (Nancy Staab, Camilla Owen, and Doris Thom) who represented various aspects of women’s history such as, women in government, women in sports, and women’s rights in the workplace. The audience also learned more about the women’s history mural on the south wall of the Rock County Courthouse. st HPL hosted an author event on April 21. Jason Emerson, author of The Madness of Mary Lincoln and The Dark Days of Abraham Lincoln’s Widow, As Revealed by Her Own Letters, spoke to an audience of 90+ people about his discovery of hitherto unknown letters Mary Todd Lincoln wrote to an acquaintance while she was institutionalized. The event was co-sponsored by the Rock County Historical Society, HPL, and the Civil War Roundtable. Mr. Emerson, who is from New York State, is a well-known author on the topic of Mrs. Lincoln. Collection Development Oh, to be in Paris now that April’s there…several selectors didn’t make it to Paris, but we got as far as the Gail Borden Public Library and its Rakow Branch in Elgin, Illinois. Rakow is housed in a new building and has used modified Dewey and creative signage to develop collection neighborhoods. Selectors and public information staff were impressed with the signage and helpful staff at the branch library, but discovered HPL had progressed much further than Elgin’s main library in providing a welcome environment and neighborhoods for our patrons. Reference Services After we offered our first Facebook class in February City of Janesville Department Heads mentioned to Bryan several of their employees had wanted to attend, but they were not able to do so as the registration list was full. They were disappointed as there are plans to upgrade the City’s website adding several 2.0 features, including Facebook. Bryan McCormick, Mary Buelow and Suzanne Wellnitz (from the City) arranged a special Facebook class specifically for City employees in the month of April. All 16 seats were full. Rachael Sheets from Second Harvest attended the April Reference training session and presented information on Foodshare and Wisconsin’s ACCESS application process. All who attended found the information helpful as we have many library patrons using ACCESS on the library’s computers. Rachael provided information on the Foodshare program, demonstrated the entire application process, and answered questions. ACCESS is the State of Wisconsin’s online application and management system for government assistance programs including FoodShare (formerly “Food Stamps”), SeniorCare, BadgerCare, and the Home Energy Assistance Program. Currently applicants can either apply online or visit the County offices for application assistance from a County employee. One proposal on for the 2011-2013 Wisconsin State Budget would eliminate funding for those county employees, and have all eligible persons apply online. April 1 Mary Buelow gave three Head Start Family Resource Workers a tour of the library, featuring resources and services at the useful for parents of Head Start children. On May 3 the Family Resource Workers brought in two groups of parents and Jean Yeomans gave them a tour and presented information about the library and library resources. Thursday April 28 reference librarian Sue Braden presented a tour of Reference area to librarians visiting from Estonia through the Open World program. Question of the month: A patron recalled reading a novel some years ago about Solomon and Sheba. It was a largish adult book, he said but there was nothing “objectionable” in the book that a child couldn’t read. One of the key things he recalled about the book was the number of tests that Solomon devised to see whether Sheba was actually a witch, as was rumored. Witches were either supposed to have cloven feet or hairy legs, and he devised one test in which he covered a floor with water so that Sheba would have to raise the hem of her dress high enough so that he could see her feet and ankles, and another test involving salt. The patron wanted to read the book again. The librarian read a number of reviews of novels published in the 1980s-1990s about Solomon and Sheba. None seemed likely, until she read a customer review on Amazon of a novel published in 1996 called Queen of Sheba written by a former missionary named Roberta Kells Dorr. The customer review reported “I especially liked the embellishment about the queen’s feet”, so the librarian thought this was possibly the correct title and ordered it for the patron through Inter Library Loan. Technical Services Stacks maintenance technician Laurel Fant completed inventorying adult feature film DVDS, the first of the HPL materials collections to be monitored using 3M software. Once several glitches with the software were ironed out, the inventory went smoothly. Results showed a small percentage of items missing from the shelves. But we were able to identify a number of misshelved, mislabeled, and untagged items Youth Services Children’s Services We had a good crowd (127) for El día de los niños, el día de los libros and René Bue reports that the evaluations are very favorable. This is great to know because the program has been revised (nationally as well as at HPL) to celebrate all cultures rather than just focusing on Latino culture. René recruited storytellers from a variety of cultural backgrounds, including Latino, Persian, Turkish, and Estonian. It was nice to be able to introduce our Open World visiting librarians from Estonia and have one of them share a traditional story with our audience. Children enjoyed creating a mural telling why “My Library Is Special,” which is currently displayed in the Children’s Room. Teen volunteers helped set up, welcome people at the door, serve food, take photos, and give away a free book – donated by children’s book publishers – to each child that came to the program. Storytime attendance was very high in April, especially at Tales for 2s and 3s where crowds have sometimes been around 80 per session. The baby programs also draw good-sized groups and Tales for 4s and More has enjoyed very respectable turnout, too. Children’s staff has also been busy doing storytime programs for kindergarten and preschool classes coming to HPL for spring field trips; 97 children and 34 adults have taken part in these class visits. Young Adult Services Twenty-three teens created cupcake masterpieces during the program Cupcake Wars. The Very st Hungry Caterpillar entry won 1 Place in the Based on a Book Category. Starry Night, an entry st based on a famous painting, won 1 place in that category. The winning entry for Theme of Choice was Blossom Tree. Photos of prize winning cupcakes are displayed in Teen Central. UW-Madison Field Study student Amanda Canovan assisted with Cupcake Wars and the meeting of the library’s Teen Advisory Board. Teen Volunteers assisted at several Library Explorers programs and at the Friends’ “Give a Reason, Take a Riesen” table on the Saturday of National Library Week. Other  Laurie Bartz attended a meeting of Janesville Mobilizing 4 Change, where she received large Parents Who Host Lose the Most poster to display during high school prom season.  Julie Westby, Sharon Grover, and Laurie Bartz joined other members of the Collection Team for tours at Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin, IL and its Rakow Branch to see how they have implemented neighborhoods.  Laurie Bartz represented HPL Youth Services on a panel discussion about summer events for children and teens for a Janesville Area Council PTA Family Network cable program.  Sharon Grover and René Bue met with Julie Kline, Outreach and Academic Program Coordinator from the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) at UW- Milwaukee. CLACS administers the Américas Award: “The Américas Award is given in recognition of U.S. works of fiction, poetry, folklore, or selected non-fiction (from picture books to works for young adults) published in the previous year in English or Spanish that authentically and engagingly portray Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinos in the United States.” We will be working together to create educational programs for local teachers as well programs for schools and families featuring Américas Award-winning authors and illustrators.  Laurie Bartz represented HPL at the Reality Check at Craig High School along with other business and education representatives.