Weekly Digest: the best from our desks (don’t miss the important stuff)

Read the Weekly Digest to get the most timely information from IFLS! We aggregate and send the week’s important information for library workers in our system in a neat little package every Thursday. Weekly Digest is also a searchable blog, and you can find it on the home page of the IFLS website.

End of Library Elf talking points and resources

Lori and Reb put their heads together to come up with some ideas to communicate options after the end of Library Elf to your patrons and staff. This is a great opportunity to promote the app, since you can manage multiple accounts with it. Thanks to some excellent suggestions from Stacy (Bloomer), Reb updated the MORE App Quick Start Guide on the MORE App Toolkit marketing page to include instructions for that.

Here are the talking points from Lori:

MORE’s Library Elf custom notification service will be discontinued on December 31, 2024. To continue monitoring your library account, consider these alternatives:

Get the MORE Libraries app. Add one or more cards and quickly access an account summary.
Check your notice preference with library staff. You can get emails or phone calls from the library about coming due dates, overdue items, and holds ready for pickup. There’s a text message option coming soon!
Check your library account online at https://more.bibliocommons.com/user/login
Contact your local library.
Sign up for a Library Elf account on your own for a fee: https://www.libraryelf.com/.

Grant $ available

ALA’s Libraries Transforming Communities: Accessible Small and Rural Communities is once again offering more than $7 million in grants to small and rural libraries to increase the accessibility of facilities, services, and programs to better serve people with disabilities: https://bit.ly/3ZgFFM0

Did you miss out on the first two rounds? Now is your chance! Even if you were awarded previously, you are still eligible to apply. Don’t wait! Applications are open now until December 11 for grants of $10,000 or $20,000.

Cool Library Stuff from our Librarians

Chris Baker (DPI), Jamie Hein (Clintonville Public Library), and Jenna Gilles (Chippewa Falls Public Library) will be sharing resources, how-tos, and our own libraries’ stories about videogame collections during a free webinar on Wednesday, October 30 10am CST (please note the link says 11am EST). This will be a 2- or 3-part series.

If you have any questions specific to videogame collections/programs in advance of this webinar, please shoot me an email or give me a call within the next few days. We would love to make sure we are at least touching on topics/questions that people have, to the best of our ability and in the time allotted.

Feel free to forward to colleagues, coworkers, and other cool folks.

Don’t miss this

Register for Nonfiction Is Non-Negotiable: Why Nonfiction Books Are Important to Public Library Collections with Barbara Alvarez, September 13, 10-11 am.

All the details are on the calendar.

Get listed

The Wisconsin Out of School Time Alliance (WOSTA) is working to develop a directory and map of STEM resources in Wisconsin in an effort to strengthen STEM learning experiences for young people in our state. If your library provides STEM resources, they want to include you! This brief survey will help them identify libraries and other organizations that provide STEM activities and resources and then share them with educators. They are hoping for responses by the end of October. Please also feel free to forward this survey invitation to other relevant organizations in your area as well.

ICYMI: new BadgerLink info

In case you missed it, BadgerLink’s newsletter Bulletin highlights Hobbies & Crafts Source and Home Improvement Source this week, two new DIY resources. There is also a jampacked fall schedule of training webinars on all BadgerLink’s new resources! Watch for a promo toolkit coming soon from IFLS.

Tech Days!!!

See you there!

From Basics to Breakthroughs: AI Strategies for Library Leaders Tuesday, September 17, 2024, 10:00 -11:30am
Navigating Artificial Intelligence Through a Public Librarian’s Lense Tuesday, September 17, 2024, 1:00 – 2:20pm
Empowering Lifelong Learning: AI Guidance for Enhancing K12 & Library Education – an update from the DPI Tuesday, September 17, 2024, 3:00 – 4:00 pm
Virtual Reality for Career Readiness Wednesday, September 18, 2024, 10:00 -11:00am
Trends in Emerging Tech with Laura Solomon Wednesday, September 18, 2024, 1:00 – 2:30pm

Go to techdayswisc.org to find descriptions of the webinar sessions, read about our presenters, and register for the sessions you wish to attend. All webinars will be recorded, captioned, and available on the Resources page.

Accessibility requirement changes in the pipeline

Read all about how this will impact your library’s website at the Libraries Win website training page. There’s an online info session today at 2:00. The recording will be available on the Libraries Win website.

Deadlines

CSLP Survey: Friday, Sep 13

Complete the survey

The Collaborative Summer Library Program has created a survey so they can better assess the usefulness of the materials offered by the program on a national level to better serve you, the CSLP membership!
The audience for the survey is public library staff who played an active role in administering or running 2024 summer library programming. One person per library could fill it out, or multiple library staff from the same library could complete the sections of the survey most relevant to their work; e.g. children, teen, or adult programs. Even if you did not use “Adventure Begins at your Library” as your theme, we invite you to complete the survey!
The survey is open through tomorrow Friday September 13th, 2024

WLA conference scholarships deadline extended to 9/22

We extended the deadline to apply for a scholarship to the Wisconsin Library Association Conference, November 5-8 in Green Bay. Apply by Sunday, September 22 if you would like help with costs to attend the conference! Directors and library staff can apply for full or partial scholarships. We’ll give priority to people who have not received a scholarship in the past but will definitely consider applicants who have financial need who have received scholarships in the past. Here’s what the scholarship can cover:

Early bird registration
3 nights in the conference hotel – not including taxes
Mileage at $.67/mile from your library
Incidental parking/transportation costs

The scholarship does not cover the cost of any meals not provided with conference registration (breakfasts and lunches are covered).

If you have any questions, please contact Leah!

Passport tally sheets are due, entry forms no later than Saturday

I need every library to return their tally sheets! You can send them attn:Reb via courier or email the results.

Any entry forms need to be in the IFLS office by the end of the day Saturday. If you have some that you haven’t sent, you might want to scan them and email them.