In This Issue: 05.30.08

Why Certify Public Library Directors • Connecting with Local Officials • Red Cliff Tribal Library Project • LSTA Grant Information Sessions • 2007 Teens' Top Ten! • Communicate on the Web with Meebo • Useful URLs • Reflection

June 9 Directors Meeting, Presque Isle, 10:00 - 2:30
June 10 Directors Meeting, Hayward, 10:00 - 2:30
July 1 Eary Bird registration deadline for Northwest Wisconsin Children’s Book Conference
July 19 NWLS Board of Trustees Meeting, NWLS, 10:00
July 25 Merlin Consortium Meeting, NWLS, 10:00 - 1:00
August 20 Directors Meeting, NWLS, 10:00 – 2:30
UW-Madison SLIS Continuing Education Summer Camp by the Lake at the Heidel House Resort in Green Lake, WI:
      • July 21-25 Collection Development
      • August 4 - 8 Basic Reference

Why Certify Public Library Directors

From Linda Stobbe, NWLS - The first Wisconsin state public librarian certification law was passed in 1921. The Legislature intended that state laws ensure that public libraries be lead by qualified personnel to assure a high level of professional management and administration. Wisconsin’s library law requires a broad educational background, along with courses designed to focus on the issues and concerns relevant to today’s public libraries.

Library system membership also requires the library have a properly certified librarian. Some of the benefits of library system membership includes: Interlibrary loan and reference/referral service, delivery service, technology training, support and consultation, continuing education workshops, collection development grants, consulting services, assistance with the public library annual report, cooperative cataloging, completion of e-rate and TEACH forms for telecommunications discounts, and Merlin database maintenance.

Library directors must be eligible for certification upon employment. There are three certification grade levels. Grade 1 is required in communities with a population of 6,000 or more. The educational requirements for Grade 1 certification is a master’s degree in library science from an accredited library school. Grade 2 certification is required in communities of 3,000 to 5,999. Grade 2 certification requires a bachelor’s degree, plus four college courses: public library administration, selection of all types of library materials, organization of library materials and provision of reference and information services. Grade 3 certification is required in communities with a population under 3,000. The educational requirements are 54 semester credits, half of which are in the liberal arts and sciences plus the 4 courses required for grade 2 certification.

There are also three types of certification: regular, temporary and provisional. Regular certification is issued at the appropriate grade level for a five year period. Temporary certification may be granted at the appropriate grade level to enable the applicants to complete the library education courses, which must be completed in four years. Temporary certification must be renewed annually, up to 3 times. Provisional certification is granted at the appropriate grade level when the library administrator is no longer properly certified because of population growth or when the library becomes part of a joint library. Provisional certification is granted for a five year period and may be renewed every five years, provided they continue to work at the same library and comply with the continuing education requirements.

Wisconsin library law also recognizes the need for continuing education to increase librarian skills and knowledge. The requirements for certification renewal are 100 contact hours of continuing education in the five year period prior to recertification. Northern Waters Library Services offers enough continuing education opportunities locally for recertification. NWLS staff keeps track of system workshop attendance, but workshops outside of NWLS are the responsibility of the individual, who must complete a Continuing Education Activity Report form and submit it to the NWLS validator.

If you have any questions about librarian certification and recertification, please contact Linda Stobbe at Northern Waters Library Service.

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Connecting with Local Officials

From Paul Nelson, Middleton Public Library Director - When I first started at Middleton in 1986, I implemented a one-on-one "meet-and-greet" game plan. I wanted certain people in the community to know me by name, not just as the generic "new library director". All told, I met with more than 20 local and county officials as well as current library board members that June but felt it was well worth the time and effort. Since 1987, my April calendar has always included the following activities:

1. Meet individually with the newly elected members of the City Council at the library for a tour and a discussion of library and city issues. (In addition to sharing the library's story, I like to get a sense of what issues encouraged them to run for office.)

2. Meet individually with the newly elected members of the Dane County Board of Supervisors (those whose districts include Middleton's service area) at the library for a tour and a discussion of library and county issues. (County contacts are critical as Middleton receives more than one-third of its funding through the Dane County Library Service.)

3. Provide an individual orientation session for newly appointed library board members prior to their first meeting. I review the contents of an informational notebook that I've prepared for them.

In addition, we annually invite the Mayor, City Administrator, and members of the council to the December board meeting. (Had we not been doing this, I doubt if the finance committee and council would have approved the library's remodeling & expansion project in 2002.)

There are a variety of ingredients to a library's success, including staff with an unwavering service orientation and a community that is vocal in its support. Bringing decision-makers into the fold has been an equally important factor in Middleton's success. It is time well spent.

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Red Cliff Tribal Library Project

From Catherine Phan, UW-Madison SLIS Graduate Student - I am pleased to announce that a group of students from the University of Wisconsin—Madison’s School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) has been awarded a Kauffman Entrepreneurship Community Internship grant for Summer and Fall 2008-2009 for our project, A Community Needs Assessment for the Red Cliff Tribal Library. We three students, under faculty supervision and staff cooperation, will partner with the Red Cliff Tribe to complete a needs assessment for the Red Cliff Tribal Library on the Red Cliff Reservation in northern Bayfield County.

The purpose of the project is to determine possible roles the library can play within the community and to determine how it can best address the community’s needs, including how to maintain its viability and sustainability. The project will target both the short-term survival and the long-term sustainability of the Red Cliff Tribal Library by identifying funding opportunities and the creation of networks of support between Red Cliff and surrounding libraries and universities.

The Kauffman Committee recognized the project for its “commitment to expand the Wisconsin Idea and help build capacity for the larger community.” The research will be conducted primarily in Madison with monthly visits to the Red Cliff Reservation between June and November 2008 for community discussion and self-education.

In addition to Red Cliff Tribal Operations Director Joe Bresette, we have been and will continue to collaborate with Jim Trojanowski, Director of the Northern Waters Library Service, Tim Kane, UW Extension Educator and Janice Rice, UW-Madison librarian and current president of the American Indian Library Association. With such enthusiasm from all parties involved, we look forward to learning about and working with such a diverse group of community members and hope to capitalize on the positive energy to transform the library into an important part of the Red Cliff community.

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LSTA Grant Information Sessions

From Channel Weekly, May 29, 2008 - Information sessions will be held in June for those interested in applying for a 2009 LSTA grant. There is no charge for attending the workshop. The information sessions will cover the grant program timetable, the application form and the individual grant category requirements. Basic information will be repeated in all three sessions. Information on the LSTA program and grant categories is available in the LSTA Information and Guidelines for Wisconsin for 2009 at http://dpi.wi.gov/pld/pdf/guide09.pdf. Individual public libraries, as well as systems, are eligible to apply for the grant categories below, and first time applicants are encouraged to apply.

* LSTA Digitization Category
Wednesday, June 4, 2008: 10:00 to 11:30 a.m.

* LSTA Technology Categories including Health Awareness & Access
Tuesday, June 10, 2008: 10:00 to 11:00 a.m.

* LSTA Special Needs Categories & Library Development Training & Planning
Thursday, June 12, 2008: 10:00 to 11:00 a.m.

REGISTRATION and instructions for attendees logging into the first LSTA session on digitization can be found at http://dpi.wi.gov/pld/pdf/wisweb.pdf. This will be a WisLine Web session during which time you will use your phone and computer.

REGISTRATION for LSTA sessions #2 and #3 is done by sending an email to Terrie Howe (teresa.howe@dpi.wi.gov) OR by calling 920/266-2413. These workshops will be held via OPAL, an online gathering place similar to WisLine Web, where members can communicate via text chatting, browsing on your computer, and, if available, using a microphone.

TO PARTICIPATE: The OPAL online "room" is located at the following web site: http://www.conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rsb5e4ce1de889. If this is your first use of OPAL, click on the link to download a small piece of software and then create a username. No password is needed. If you have already used OPAL, just type your username. Participants will "meet" in the room on June 10th at 10:00 a.m. You must have speakers built into your computer or external speakers to participate. Microphones are nice to have but are not necessary to participate in the session. You can type questions to presenters if you do not have a microphone, or just you can just listen.

There will be opportunities to view and listen to the June 10 & June 12 OPAL sessions at a later time to be determined if you are unable to participate on the workshop day. Use of the online service, OPAL, is made possible by the South Central Library System (SCLS).

More information on all three LSTA workshops visit http://dpi.wi.gov/pld/lstainfo.html.

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2007 Teens' Top Ten!

From the Young Adult Services Association - Teens' Top Ten is a list of favorite books nominated by teens:

1. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2006).
2. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen (Viking Children’s Books, 2006)
3. How to Ruin a Summer Vacation by Simone Elkeles (Flux, 2006).
4. Maximum Ride: School’s Out – Forever by James Patterson (Hachette Book Group USA/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2006).
5. Firegirl by Tony Abbott (Hachette Book Group USA/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2006).
6. All Hallows Eve (13 Stories)by Vivian Vande Velde (Harcourt, 2006).
7. Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (Harcourt, 2006).
8. River Secrets by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury, 2006).
9. Bad Kitty by Michele Jaffe (HarperCollins, 2006).
10. Road of the Dead by Kevin Brooks (Chicken House, 2006).

Final nominations for the 2008 Teens’ Top Ten vote are available at www.ala.org/teenstopten. YALSA Top Ten 2008 nominees (pdf)

Communicate on the Web with Meebo

From Tony Kriskovich, NWLS - Meebo is a web-based instant messenger which supports multiple common IM services, including MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber. The nice thing about this service is its totally free, you can use it from any computer that has Internet access, and you don’t have to install any software to use it.

Let’s say you use MSN Messenger to talk to your friends, and Yahoo Messenger to talk to your family members. Instead of using both messenger clients separately, you can sign up for a free Meebo account and combine all of your contacts under one messenger account.

Once your Meebo account is set up, select the first instant messaging service you want to use Meebo with, signing on with the screen name and password for that IM. To add more instant messaging accounts, click on accounts on the top left side of your Meebo and click on Add account below your list of IM accounts. You can use Meebo with these IM accounts, but more could be added later (i.e. MSN, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo!, Google Talk, Jabber, etc.) You can add and remove your instant messaging accounts in Meebo accounts as well.

Using Meebo on your public Internet computers should greatly reduce the number of requests for different messenger services to be installed on your computers. Just adding a shortcut to the desktop is the only change needed. Meebo also has many other tools in development, like Meebo from your iPhone or iPod touch. More info can be found here: http://www.meebo.com/products/

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The Internet Movie Database
Consult this site for answers to your questions about stars and films.
URL: http://www.imdb.com/

AskAnOwner.com
This site brings together owners of products with prospective buyers who wish to cut through the marketing speak of manufacturers to make an informed choice on what to buy.
URL: http://www.askanowner.com

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Six essential qualities that are the key to success: Sincerity, personal integrity, humility, courtesy, wisdom, charity.

- William Menninger

Contact NWLS for subscription services or to submit an article for publication: email Marsha at newsletter@nwls.lib.wi.us or call 715-682-2365.

NWLS: 3200 E. Lake Shore Dr. • Ashland, WI 54806 • Phone: (715)682-2365 • Web: http://nwls.wislib.org • Serving libraries in Ashland, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, Iron, Sawyer, Vilas and Washburn Counties.