Note from Reb: You’re awesome

I’m hearing so many great stories about the start of summer at many of our libraries. Love that! So while you’re socked-in busy with the start of summer, I thought I’d remind you that you are remarkable. Thanks for all you do. 

Act 150/420 Funding: Submit or lose it!

Only one month left to submit your country reimbursement requests (ACT 150/420) to home and adjacent counties. Don’t delay, submit yours today! For more information on how, view the county funding webpage by the DPI.

If the county clerk (find yours here!) does not receive your request by July 1, they are under no legal obligation to reimburse your library.

Adult Services check-ins are back

We are restarting Adult Services Virtual Check-Ins with IFLS colleagues. Each meeting will have a themed topic but feel free to share, receive feedback, or ask questions about anything adult services related.

Save the following dates to join us:

• August 13, 2-3 pm
• December 5, 12:30-1:30 pm

More information will be shared as the date gets closer but mark your calendars today and save us a spot on your computer screens.
Reach out to me with any questions and I hope to see you then!

2024 DEI Consultant Funding Opportunity – Hire a consultant to help support your organization’s DEI journey!

“Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work is challenging for many reasons, and getting outside help tailored to your community’s needs often requires money that might not be readily available in your library’s budget.

Wisconsin Libraries Talk About Race and the IDEA Team encourage you to apply for a unique funding opportunity that will support bringing a specialized DEI Consultant into your library to help your team accomplish its desired DEI goals (don’t worry, we can help connect you to the right consultant for your needs). “Consulting” work could mean many things: a presentation at your next Staff In-Service Day; helping reposition your organization to better serve a new segment of your population; conducting a diversity audit of your collection; crafting a diversity statement; just meeting with you or your team to discuss possible projects for your organization – and more!”

Apply for funding, up to $1,000, to support DEI consulting for your library. Applications will be accepted quarterly

• ·                  Q1: June 1-30, 2024;
• ·                  Q2: September 1-30, 2024;
• ·                  Q3: Dec 1-31, 2024;
• ·                  Q4: March 1-31, 2025

More info, and apply here: https://www.wislibidea.com/consulting-grant/ 

Have questions or need help? Contact IDEA Team members Emily Whitmore at ewhitmore@springgreenlibrary.org and Tracy Herold at herold@dcls.info.

Scholarships opportunities: sign up now before you forget

Some very cool summer and early fall scholarship opportunities are here!  Thanks to funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services funding through the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, IFLS is able to offer full and partial scholarships to some national conferences and some online summer classes. All public library workers in IFLS-land are invited to apply!  Please take a look at the  Information Sheet for all the details, and apply by June 24!  Here’s what you could apply for:

Three National Conferences:

• ·       Play, Make, Learn Conference in Madison, July 18-19
• ·       Association for Rural and Small Libraries Annual Conference, Springfield, MA, September 11-14
• ·       Association for Library Service to Children National Institute in Denver, September 19-21

Four Online Courses from UW Madison’s iSchool Continuing Education

• ·       Strategies for Supervising Part-time Employees, July 1-August 11
• ·       Tackling Tough Work Conversations, July 29-August 25
• ·       Roll with it…Gaming in Libraries, August 5-September 1
• ·       Library Advocacy and Storymaking, August 5-September 1

Please note that we will be offering additional scholarships for the later fall, winter, and spring.  We will award as many scholarships as our funds allow.  Please let me know if you have any questions!

IFLS Libraries: Toot Your Horns

(From the Dept. of Public Instruction)

The DPI is looking to highlight the inspiring work done by our Wisconsin librarians during the summer. If your library or any other library in your network has exciting and/or innovative summer programs, happening as part of your Summer Library Program or not, they’d love to learn more – so we can shout you out! Programs can be all ages, photos are welcomed. 🙂

Libraries should email Beth Tomev at elizabeth.tomev@dpi.wi.gov with information and photos. Please use the subject line Summer Events and Summer Library Program Highlights for DPI to make sure they capture them in their inbox. NOTE: Reb would really appreciate it if you’d cc: her on those emails! Pretty please with sprinkles on top!

Cool opportunity: youth services

Leah shared this information because it is a cool opportunity that just came up!  There may be some group purchase opportunities either coordinated by WiLS or by IFLS.  I will be very interested to learn if any of you are intrigued by this service.  I’ll be attending the webinar and will be sharing more information as it becomes available to me.

TALK (Text and Learn for Kindergarten) is a program that delivers early learning activities several times per week via text messages to caregivers of children under 6, in either English or Spanish.Based on Every Child Ready to Read, TALK activities build pre-literacy skills starting from birth, such as hearing letter sounds, building hand muscles and dexterity, and recognizing letters and numbers. Activities also build STEM and social emotional skills to help parents make sure their children are fully prepared for a successful school experience. Libraries can also use TALK to promote library events.

WiLS is partnering with MCLS to bring this innovative early learning program to Wisconsin libraries. Come join us for an informational webinar to learn all about this exciting, affordable program and how it can work for your patrons!

Webinar Details

• Date & Time: Jun 13, 2024 11:30 AM Central
• Registration Link
• *This webinar will be recorded and delivered to registrants after the session.

End of LearningExpress Library

(from Jen Champoux, BadgerLink Technical Support & Training, Division for Libraries & Technology, WI Department of Public Instruction)

Some of you may have seen recent marketing emails from EBSCO and Gale about LearningExpress Library in Wisconsin going away. This email is a friendly reminder that indeed the BadgerLink collection for Job Skills and Test Preparation is no longer procured, so current access to the eight LearningExpress Library centers available through BadgerLink will end effective July 1, 2024.

For additional updates on the current status of the BadgerLink procurement process, please subscribe to BadgerLink’s newsletter, Bulletin, and see our most recent post.

Reach out to badgerlink@dpi.wi.gov or contact us with any questions!

Passport, Marketing Tea, Facebook weirdness

If you didn’t get your stamp and ink pad for the passport program, submit a HelpDesk ticket please. Some of them went on a little walkabout.

This month’s Marketing Tea tip was how to add a simple animation in Canva. It’s about 7 minutes long. Past Marketing Tea recordings are on the Marketing and Advocacy page.

Britta (New Richmond) has had a couple of Passport Posts identified as spam and blocked. I dug into it, and FB’s usual unhelpfulness continues – I couldn’t find any documentation about that. Has your library experienced something similar? While digging I did find some complaints about FB crashing various servers this weekend.

On the IFLS Calendar