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#4 Reports A. Activities Report Hedberg Public Library Activity Report September 2011 Adult Services September was a busy month for adult outreach and programming. Aside from the usual monthly visits to local senior retirement facilities, Jean represented HPL at the Senior Center’s annual Hobby Mania on the 10th and at the Rock County Job Fair with Mary Buelow on the 21st. Brochures about specific services and materials for both events were provided to attendees. Jean and Carol Kuntzelman attended the annual Bouchercon convention for mystery readers, fans, and authors in St. Louis from September 14 through the 18th. They attended multiple sessions and heard from many famous and “up and coming” authors. It was the best convention Jean had ever attended. The Night at The Library event, co-sponsored by the Friends and The Literacy Connection, was a great success. The event was held at HPL on the 24th and was very well attended. The murder mystery theme was a draw, as was the food and the company. Income from this year’s fundraiser was twice as much as last year’s. Everyone who attended and volunteered at the event had a great time. A meeting of the planning committee will be held in the next few weeks to review and plan for the 2012 event. Rene was interviewed by three different media organizations this month. The first was a phone interview with Becky Weber from WCLO, about the joint program with JPAC on October 8 to celebrate el Día de los muertos. The first half of the joint event is the Fiesta de las calacas, Hedberg’s program of free activities for the whole family. The second half of the event is the ticketed JPAC concert with the group Sones de Mexico. The second interview was with Beth Earnest from the Wisconsin magazine Great People, Great Stories. Beth will be writing an article about Rene and the work she does at HPL. The third interview was with Anna Marie Lux from the Janesville Gazette, again discussing the Fiesta de las calacas program at JPAC as well as other upcoming events. Rene also hosted the Latin American Independence Days celebration on September 15. Spanish Honor Society students from Parker HS assisted her with the program. On September 24 Rene cohosted a health literacy workshop for adults and a healthy eating program for children with The Literacy Connection. Circulation Services Total circulation for the month is down slightly from last year: by 610 items or 0.7% less than 2010. The number of library visits, 53,659 was down by 5.8% compared to last year when 56,936 people walked through our door. September tends to be a slower month in the library as people readjust to their school year schedules. The busiest day in September, based on the number of items checked-out was Tuesday, Sept.5, when we circulated 4,138 items. We filled 526 more Holds (reserves) this year than last, an increase of 6.9%. We handled 7,712 holds in 2011 and 7,186 in 2010. We continue to train and assist some clients, but most pick up their own with no problems and report they like the convenience of picking up their own holds. This month an average of 81.6% of all checkouts were done using our Self Checkout machines. On Sunday, Sept. 11 and Sunday Sept. 25, 88% of our items went out via shelf check! In general we ranged from the high of 88% to a low of 76% on Thursday, Sept 22. It is safe to say that more than three quarters of our clients use the self checkout option. Past Projects The “Teacher Loan Cards” are available. As of Oct. 7 we issued 12 of these cards. A browsing collection of our former Jackpot items is now up and running at the UW-Rock County campus library. Beth Webb, Senior Assistant in the HPL Circulation Department, will continue to facilitate our collaboration. She reports the U-Rock collection is already getting some use. On-line library card applications went live on Monday Sept 12. So far, we have issued 13 new cards, and updated contact information on 7 more – including someone in collections. Upcoming Projects Service and Reference Staff Cross Training – Service Desk training was Sept 22. Reference Desk training was Oct. 5. At the department head’s request we added training for the Youth Services Staff on Oct. 4. All library staff who work directly with library clients are empowered to and should be able to update contact information and renew library materials. Circulation staff training series will begin in October – Oct. 6: Professional Conduct, Work Partnerships and Accurate Shelving; Oct. 27: Check-Out Desk Responsibilities; Nov. 17: Efficient Workroom Tasks and Flow. All Staff Training – “The Wakanheza Project” Nov. 11 – Will be done as an in house retreat. Rene Bue and I will facilitate. The Wakanheza Project is a library-community-wide effort that provides tools and strategies for creating welcoming environments.  It helps individuals learn how to effectively respond to every day, stressful situations between people and how to prevent the situations from happening in the first place.  Sorter Maintenance – Scheduled for Oct. 13. Collection Development A trip to Bouchercon, the annual mystery writers’ convention, was the highlight of the month for Collection Manager Carol Kuntzelman. In addition to networking with other mystery book discussion leaders and listening to the authors discuss their latest mystery novels, Jean and Carol were able to pick up free books to add to the Hedberg collection or to raffle off at September’s Night at the Library event. The number of OverDrive e-book downloads has jumped dramatically the past few months, increasing by over 50% over the first of the year. I attribute some of the increase to HPL participating in the Advantage program, allowing Hedberg to offer additional copies of popular, high demand titles to Hedberg cardholders. Patrons are able to find more on-shelf copies of their favorite authors, available for immediate download. Human Resources/Accounting “A tip of the hat”, a form of appreciation and recognition in addition to the “I Made a Difference” awards, went to Steve Wenzel, David Wreford, Nancy Murray, Elizabeth Hough, and Helene Ramsdell for above and beyond service in September. In October’s bill list, Bookletters for $2,832 is an annual billing for our booklist service. The Early Literacy Grant has an expense of $1,500 for Allison Kaplan for early literacy support services. This will not show up in our Operating Statement. The October Expenditure Approval List Added to Operating Statement shows the credit of $2,583 made to Training, reimbursed now that LSTA funds have been received. Information Services The project “Janesville’s Past – Part III – Histories” is nearly complete. This purpose of this project is to digitize and post ten written histories of Janesville and of important institutions in the community. The ten books are: Century of Stories: A 100-Year Reflection of Janesville and Surrounding Communities City on the Rock River: Chapters in Janesville’s History History of Janesville, 1835-1935 (Hulick) History of Janesville (Fenrick) History of the Janesville Public Schools, 1839-1987 I Remember Janesville Janesville Public Library: A Centennial History, 1884-1984 Janesville’s Early History Medical History of Janesville 1833-1933 Reflections from a Warming House Window The Wisconsin Historical Society has digitized and posted all the items on the WHS web site at http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/WI/JanesvillesPast#histories. Reference Librarian Sue Braden and Public Information Officer Elizabeth Hough will be adding links to these titles on the Local History/Janesville’s Past section of www.hedbergpubliclibrary.org. Once all the links are complete Elizabeth will send out a press release. Sue is planning a program featuring these sources for the 2012 spring program schedule. September 21, Overdrive and Kindle announced they are now compatible. We have already received several questions about Overdrive use from Kindle owners. During the first few days only a few titles were available in the Kindle book format. That number has grown to 4952 by October 12. Question of the Month – Patron called to confirm the library had access to old issues of the Gazette for the week September 29 – October 3, 1982. When the librarian confirmed that yes, some Gazette issues are online through the Newspaper Archive database and all issues are available on microfilm, and asked if there was something particular the patron wanted. The patron said she was looking for headlines from when the Brewers advanced to the World Series in 1982. The librarian checked the history section from the Official Site of Major League Baseball, mlb.com, where she learned the Brewers won the Eastern Division Title on October 3. She checked Newspaper Archive and found an article on the pennant win from the Wisconsin State Journal dated October 4. As Newspaper Archive had no articles from the Gazette for that time period, the patron checked the microfilm. Technical Services A visit to the Madison offices of Demco Library Supplies and Grimm Book Bindery allowed TS staff a peek behind the scenes of two major library vendors. TS staff toured Demco’s beautiful office building, met staff who fill library orders, and discussed special audiovisual packaging needs with Customer Service Director Mike Wygocki. The visit to Grimm Bindery was quite a different experience, with the privately owned business employing a small number of employees who use some equipment that dates back to the 1930s and 1940s. The small staff took time to demonstrate various bindery operations and answered questions regarding shipping and ordering instructions. Savings from EBSCO periodical subscription cancellations allowed TS staff in September to order replacements for 36 missing and damaged Janesville Gazette microfilm reels. In future, staff will be replacing more of the years where vesicular film was used, film that is more prone to deterioration. Youth Services Children’s Services School is back in session and with that comes our return to school-year programming. Storytimes are off to a good start, with staff implementing what we learned at our early literacy workshops in May into our new round of programs. It has been interesting to see the subtle, yet real, changes in adult responses and the ways in which the children are now interacting with our expanded early literacy skill-building practices. Library Explorers seems to have a fairly good following this fall and children are happy to show off their creations to staff at the desk after the program. Awesome Activities, however, still struggles with attendance and we are investigating ways to reinvigorate this program, including discussions with parents of children in grades 3-5, benchmarking successful ventures at other libraries, and attending a workshop on programming for this age group. The Children’s Room was happy to host first graders from St. Paul’s Lutheran School and kindergarten students from Roosevelt Elementary School for stories and tours. Young Adult Services Partners in Prevention held its annual Family Fun Fest at Riverside Park on September 8. Jamie Swenson and Laurie Bartz distributed library flyers, brochures and temporary tattoos to children and families. The Teen Advisory Board kicked off the year in September with officer nominations. Interviews were held for prospective teen volunteers. Other Sharon Grover and Laurie Bartz met with Allison Kaplan at the UW-Madison School of Library and Information Studies to discuss procedures for evaluating changes in storytime programs as part of the early literacy LSTA grant. These evaluations will result in a new survey instrument for staff and adults attending storytime. Laurie Bartz and Sharon Grover met with Allison Kaplan, supervising professor, and Laura Damon-Moore, prospective field study student to plan Laura’s second semester field study with HPL Youth Services. Laurie Bartz and Sharon Grover attended a book discussion session at the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, UW-Madison, to prepare for serving on the 2013 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. These book discussions provide valuable opportunities to learn and practice the skills that will be used in actual Printz Committee deliberations. Sharon and Laurie will also be teaching those evaluative discussion skills to Craig High School students who will participate in an HPL- and Craig H.S.-sponsored Printz Book Club. Laurie Bartz attended a meeting of Janesville Mobilizing 4 Change. Sharon Grover and Bryan McCormick met with Dr. Kim Earhardt, Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment for the School District of Janesville. Opportunities for collaboration were explored and Dr. Earhardt is very interested in seeing HPL and SDJ work more closely and share more resources. Sharon Grover met with Marge Loch-Wouters, Youth Services Manager at the LaCrosse Public Library, Shawn Brommer, Youth Services and Special Needs Consultant at South Central Library System, and Rhonda Puntney, Youth Services and Special Needs Consultant at Lakeshores Library System to discuss the state of youth services in Wisconsin and how we can affect some changes that would allow for better communication and networking among libraries in the state and how to explore ways to get more effective assistance for youth services from the state Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning. Sharon Grover met with members of the 2012 Lunar New Year planning committee (Xiaoyang Wang and Liming Khan, SDJ Chinese language teachers, and Yili Zhang, community member) to begin working on HPL’s celebration of the Year of the Dragon. The Lion Dancers will once again donate their services, but hope for contributions to the charity they will select for 2012. We are anticipating an even larger celebration with more activities for this special Dragon Year. Julie Westby designed a new electronic letter asking first grade teachers to invite HPL children’s staff to visit their classes to share stories, showcase the library, and get library card applications into the hands of as many first graders as possible. This program has previously been handled through the library media specialists, but changes in SDJ staffing and services required a new plan. So far, it seems to be working fairly well, with several teachers responding affirmatively to the request. Sharon Grover attended the Preschool for Janesville (P4J) Directors meeting, the result of which is an invitation to the October teachers meeting to discuss themes for the storytime kits that are part of the early literacy grant, and hosting the January teachers meeting to show P4J staff what HPL has to offer them and their students. The collaboration with P4J has been growing slowly for the past year and a half and seems to finally be bearing fruit.