Tip Jar

When you borrow programming kits from Lend Items, please be sure to include time for transit to and from your library in your reservation.  Systems send out your item on the day the reservation starts, and expect the kits to be back so we can get it ready to send out again on the day the reservation ends.  If you are borrowing a kit that is coming from WVLS, please be sure to allow even more extra time—the kit has to go to Madison to come to us to be sent out again.  That can take a week or so.  If everyone follows these guidelines, hopefully no one is left in the lurch on program day!  Questions?  Contact Sarah or Leah.

Programmiong Kit Spotlight

Breakout EDU Kits.  Breakout EDU is an educational, game-based learning platform that harnesses the excitement of escape rooms and infuses them with learning. Both IFLS and WVLS have these kits that have what you need to set up a Breakout Room in your library, including a variety of locks and locking boxes, a UV flashlight and pen, a manual with some ideas for breakout rooms.  Do you need a Lend Items Account so you can borrow this or one of the other kits?  Fill out this form and we’ll get you started!

We can still save IMLS!

Here’s an excellent piece from Book Riot. Call again, email again, ask your board and staff to do that again. It’s a clear message: we support public libraries and funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services. “There are 17 members on the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, all listed here. Each and every one of them should be contacted over the next couple of weeks, whether or not they represent you. Email them and call them, articulating the essential value of the IMLS to public libraries and museums across the country.”

We Can Still Save the Institute for Museum and Library Services

Press release for the postcard campaign

New content each week on the Advocacy Toolkit.

Highlights: webinars

Sunset Strategies: Knowing How and When to Pull the Plug

A recorded webinar presented by Laura Solomon, sponsored by WVLS and NWLS

Deciding when to discontinue a service or abandon a project can be challenging for any organization.  This session will guide you through the critical decision-making process of ending services or projects strategically.  Learn to identify the signs that it’s time to move on, understand the steps to execute the transition, and manage the impact on your stakeholders.

Participating in this webinar counts toward 1 contact hour for public library certification. View “Sunset Strategies.”

Plain Connection:  Outreach to Amish and Mennonite Communities

August 26, 1-2 pm   Register heze

How do we bring resources and services to people in our community who may never step foot through our doors? Learn how you can reach the Plain communities in your area through the first-hand experience of a small, rural, public library in Wisconsin. In this session, D.R. Moon Memorial Library (Stanley) Director Elizabeth Miniatt and Wisconsin Area Health Education Center Program Manager Caitlyn Mowatt will share how they developed a collaborative outreach program—starting with relationship-building, securing grant funding, and partnering with other organizations. Practical and broadly applicable, this session will give you the tools you need, regardless of size or budget, to build relationships, find partners, and launch effective outreach to people in your own communities.

This session will be recorded and available with professional captions after the fact, and will provide one contact hour for public library director certification.

Just added: Building Powerful Support Networks for Libraries:  A Virtual Workshop Series

This three-part online interactive workshop is designed for library leaders (staff, directors, Friends, and trustees) who are looking for realistic and achievable ways to build networks of support for their libraries.  Workshop Sessions:

• Thursday, September 18, 1-2:30 pm Unveiling Social Capital and Mapping Your Network
• Thursday, October 16, 1-2:30 pm  Categorizing Support and Crafting the Ask
• Thursday, November 6, 1-2:30 pm  Debriefing, Planning for Action, and Peer Feedback

Our facilitator, Garret Zastoupil, is the Community and Leadership Development Educator for University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension in Chippewa, Dunn, and Eau Claire Counties.

This series, taken as a whole, will provide 9 contact hours for public library director certification.  The sessions will not be recorded.  Participants will need to have access to a microphone and plan to be available for active participation throughout the workshops.  There will be some homework between sessions.  Register here for all three sessions by September 12.

Coming Up

IFLS Staff on the Road

John is doing his annual library tour with his favorite consultant, his granddaughter Ella. Here she is in Durand.

Reb noticed the Job Center Mobile Career Lab in front of Chippewa Falls Public Library. The Career Lab also visits libraries in Cadott, Cornell, Boyceville, Colfax, and Bloomer.