Where the North Begins • Virtual Library Legislative Day • WISCAT Tips and FAQ • WISCAT Wisline Web Training • Tech Tips: IE 7 • Useful URLs • Reflection

January 12 WISCAT Workshop, 10:00 a.m., Superior PL

January 18 WISCAT User Administration WisLine Web Online Training, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. (See article below.)

January 20 NWLS Board of Trustees Meeting, 12:00 p.m., NWLS

January 23 Library Legislative Day, Madison.

February 7 Technology Update and Planning Meeting, 10:00 a.m., NWLS

March 13 Greener Pastures Rural Library Sustainability Workshop, Rice Lake Public Library (also April 18 in Mercer). For more information, go to http://www.dpi.wi.gov/pld/rural.html

March 17 NWLS Board of Trustees Meeting, 12:00 p.m., NWLS

April 18 Greener Pastures Rural Library Sustainability Workshop, Mercer, (also March 13 in Rice Lake). For more information, go to http://www.dpi.wi.gov/pld/rural.html

2007 UW-Madison's School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) Continuing Education Courses:

• January 22-March 18 YA (Young Adult) Services and Literature Online Course.
• January 22-March 31 Core Elements of Children’s Services (Online)
• January 22-April 7 Basic Public Library Management (Online)
• January 22-April 13 Basic Reference (Online)
• February 7-March 21 Creating Public Library Programming for Adults Online Course.
• February 19-March 18 Business Reference (Online)
• February 19-March 18 Topics in Library Management (Online)
• June 25-29 Public Library Administration (on-site), UW-Madison
• August 13-17 Cataloging (on-site), UW-Madison

For more information, contact Anna Palmer at 608.263.4452 or ahpalmer@wisc.edu.

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Where the North Begins
From Jim Trojanowski, NWLS Director

[This article originally appeared in the Winter, 2006, edition of Communique, the quarterly newsletter of the Wisconsin Association of Public Libraries.]

Last September, I attended 30th Star, Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua’s musical celebration of Wisconsin’s sesquicentennial. It was the final weekend of Chautauqua and Big Top cofounder Warren Nelson took time at the end of the show to reflect on the 2006 season and joke with the audience. The role of Portage in our state’s history is prominently featured in 30th Star and Nelson enjoyed telling us, “Portage claims to be ‘Where the North Begins.’ Well to us, anything south of Highway 2 is Confederate.”

While Nelson made his comment in jest, it underscores a commonly expressed frustration of those who live in the north. We accept long distance travel to professional activities as a part of life and we chafe when our colleagues complain about the drive on occasions they are asked to meet us halfway. Anyone who has lived north of Highway 8 has heard someone ask why people in Madison seem to believe their trip here is not only longer than our trip there, but that the entire trip north is uphill.

In 1982, the Wisconsin Library Association (WLA) held its annual conference at Telemark Lodge in Cable, scarcely 30 miles south of Warren Nelson’s Mason-Dixon line. While that was ten years before I came to Wisconsin, I have heard stories about the conference from librarians across the state. I am told chartered buses from Madison, Milwaukee, and Green Bay brought WLA members to the uncharted expanses of the north. While the buses were presumably meant to help librarians share travel expenses, my northern colleagues speculate that the real reason was to provide safety in numbers in case of bear attack. To the relief of all roads were paved the entire way, the buses arrived safely, and conference organizers were found to be truthful when they promised that Telemark offered both telephone service and indoor plumbing. While some remember the conference fondly, others are relieved that WLA has never again conducted such a foolish experiment.

I bring this up because I have heard comments that Wisconsin Rapids, site of the 2006 spring Wisconsin Association of Public Libraries (WAPL) conference, was too remote. Indeed, conference attendance is often highest at sites near Wisconsin’s population concentration in the southern and eastern areas of the state. This is important because WLA relies heavily on revenue generated at its annual conference in much the same way that our spring conference generates much-needed income for WAPL. Choosing a convenient conference location is critical to the success of the event and the financial health of our association.

The value of WLA conferences cannot be overstated. Many of us have no other chance to hear nationally known presenters speak on the critical issues of our day. Just as importantly, we hear librarians from across the state share innovative ideas at a variety of outstanding breakout sessions. Conferences provide an opportunity to develop new friendships with librarians throughout the state; these relationships increase the size of the network of people from whom we can seek advice and draw support.

Librarians in my region often tell me they do not belong to WLA because they derive limited benefit from membership relative to the expense to their library budgets. While I recognize that every library in the state derives benefit from WLA activities – from legislative leadership to the Campaign for Wisconsin Libraries, WLA effectively serves us all – I also know that many of my colleagues believe the most important service of the association is a conference with a full schedule of great speakers offering relevant programs at a conveniently located site.

Why does this matter? Surely, if a library chooses not to send staff to conferences, whether due to cost, distance, or lack of understanding of the value of a good conference, it is the library that suffers. Similarly, if a library board fails to appreciate the value of WLA membership, it is also to the detriment of that library.

The problem with this argument is that it contradicts so much of what WLA is about. Our 2006 fall conference theme was “Making Connections,” a responsibility shared by all. If we insist that conferences and activities are held only where they are most convenient to the majority of our membership, we are not making connections. Worse, we deny ourselves talent -- those who do not belong to WLA will never serve on a committee or hold an office -- and we lose needed voices as we seek library legislation that benefits us all.

“Making Connections” strikes me as another phrase for “outreach.” Just as libraries provide outreach to meet the needs of the underserved, WLA must provide outreach to libraries. We can do this by ensuring that WLA services are as equally accessible as possible throughout the state and by improving communication so that all librarians and library advocates in Wisconsin recognize the value of WLA membership.

At the same time, WLA needs to impress upon northern librarians the value of WLA’s work in advocacy, legislation, and leadership development. We must assure them that WLA’s strength is the diversity of its membership -- this includes geographic diversity -- and we must remind them that WLA is able to speak to their concerns only if they join their voices with ours. Finally, we must persuade every library board and every county and municipality that funds a library to recognize the value and importance of WLA membership for their directors and library staff.

At the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we will all hang separately.” The choice is ours to make.

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Virtual Library Legislative Day
From Heather Eldred, Director, Wisconsin Valley Library Service

[This article originally appeared in the January 8, 2007 Wvlsmax mailing list.]

Good Morning and Happy New Year to all. I'll apologize right up front that this is rather long but it is REALLY important so I encourage you to read it all the way through.

I'm sure you've all been hearing about Library Legislative Day, which is scheduled in Madison on Tuesday, January 23. It would be wonderful if lots and lots of folks from the WVLS area could go and talk to our area's legislators. However, we know that probably won't happen. I know that some folks from our system area will go and I thank them for their concern and effort.

But, what about the rest of us? Isn't there something we can do to let our legislators know that we care how they vote on library-related issues?

Glad you asked. YES, there is something you can do and it's really easy. Just because you can't be physically present in Madison on January 23rd doesn't mean that you can't be a very important part of Library Legislative Day.

The Wisconsin Library Association is encouraging those who can't be in Madison on 1/23 to at least contact their legislators on that day - by phone, e-mail, fax (or a letter sent a day or so earlier). WLA is calling this 'Virtual Library Legislative Day.' The more that legislators hear from folks in the library community, the more they'll know we're paying attention to the actions they take (or don't).

I encourage you to flood the offices of your personal legislators - those legislators who represent parts of the WVLS area - with messages thanking them for their previous support for Wisconsin's libraries; perhaps congratulating them on holding on to their seat in the recent elections; or being elected for the first time. Of course one of the most useful things you could ask them for is to support any legislation that would benefit libraries - especially an increase in state financial support for library systems.

Would you like to have a couple of specific comments/requests to make when you contact your legislator?

1. One of the things that would, indeed, make this a terrific new year would be to have system funding (which comes from the state) increased to a level that would allow Wisconsin's 17 library systems to do the work they were set up by law to do. Did you know that the Wisconsin statutes specify the amount of money that the State Superintendent must request in the DPI budget for system operation (13% of the amount spent for public library support from local and county sources statewide in the previous year)...but...the legislators have been saying something like, "Well fine, the law says Libby Burmaster must ask for 13% funding for systems but the law doesn't say we, the legislators, have to budget for that amount." Consequently, system funding has been quite stagnant for quite a number of years...system funding has been hanging around the 8% level (rather than the 13%).

2. The Statutes say that once state aid to library systems reaches the 11.25% index level, the law that determines how much money goes to each library system will switch over to a fairer method of fund distribution. The formula that determines how the state aid dollars are divided among the 17 Wisconsin library systems is unfair. Even the system directors that benefit from this unfairness admit that the formula is unfair. Some years ago the law was changed to make the distribution formula more fair but words were added that, in effect, said that the new, fairer formula wouldn't go into effect until the state funded systems at least at the 11.25% level (of the 13% required by law). This was done so that those systems who were benefiting from the unjust distribution formula wouldn't get hurt financially when the fairer formula went into effect. It's called being 'held harmless.'

The fact that the law forces some systems (like WVLS) to have to carry the financial burden year after year just so that the ones who are currently benefiting from the unfair distribution formula don't get hurt really irritates me. I think it should be brought to our legislators' attention.

If you don't know who your 'personal' legislators are, just click on http://www.legis.state.wi.us/ for all the information you need.

Please help support Wisconsin's libraries by contacting your state Senator and Representative and telling them that libraries and their services are important to you. Thanks.

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Requests at NWLS in Will Supply status: When a request comes from a library to NWLS for referral, we will change the request to "Will Supply/In Process" and add a note on where the request was referred to in the "History Information."

If you see a request in Will Supply status and would like to find out what is happening with the request: check the "History Information" for a note from NWLS about referral. Then also take note of any messages in the "Special Instructions" field. Since we cannot add a message to a request from our end without changing the status, we will add a note in the Special Instructions field if necessary for NWLS libraries from your WISCAT account.

Serial requests in WISCAT: NWLS libraries: To request a copy of an article in WISCAT, please use the blank form. Choose "Non-returnable (copy)" as the Request Type and choose "Serial" as the Material Type. Please do not add an ISSN number to the request. NWLS will edit the request and add locations to send your request on.

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WISCAT User Administration WisLine Training
From Linda Bailen, NWLS

On January 18, DPI will be sponsoring a WisLine web training that will cover how to create individual user records for library staff and/or patrons. Creating staff user records can be of benefit to all WISCAT libraries not just to those participating in patron-initiated requesting. For example, a user record for a staff person responsible for cataloging in WISCAT allows preferences to be selected to improve that workflow. User records for selected patrons can also save staff time when creating interlibrary loan requests on behalf of those patrons.

To register, go to http://www.uwex.edu/ics/wlwreg/wlwwelcome.cfm. From the welcome page, select the sponsoring organization WI DPI, and then scroll down to click on the date of the WISCAT User Administration session.

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The New Internet Explorer 7
From Tony Kriskovich, NWLS

Some of you may have heard about the new Internet Explorer 7 (IE7). The reason for this article is that Microsoft decided to include the new updated browser in Windows Update (WU) starting at the end of November 2006. You must have XP Service Pack 2 installed first for Windows to install IE7. When you run WU it will prompt you to install it, with options to Install, Cancel, or Ask Later. Microsoft has added new features to the new version to compete with other browsers such as FireFox and Opera.

The new features include:
- re-designed interface (no menu bar by default)
- tabbed browsing (open many webpages in one window)
- improved printing (shrink text to fit on a page)
- RSS feeds (instant news)
- instant search box (use your favorite search engine)
- easy add-on functionality (spell checker, etc.)
- Microsoft phishing filter (block bad websites)

My biggest concern with the new IE7 update is the way they changed the look of it. I think this might be confusing to some. If you are interested in IE7, you should download it onto a staff PC to test it out before you install it on any public PCs.

The biggest improvement in IE7 would be the addition of tabbed browsing. This enables you to open many different websites within one browser window, keeping your taskbar at the bottom less occupied. Another improvement is multiple homepages. For example, if you like to have the Merlin, NWLS, and Google website open at all times, you can set IE 7 to automatically open all three as homepages when you start IE7, each using their own tab. This feature is nice if you use the same websites daily.

If you have any questions about IE7 or want more information, please call NWLS-IT or visit the Internet Explorer 7 Homepage at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx

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Wisconsin Children’s Performers Directory

The Performers Directory was created by the Division for Libraries, Technology and Community Learning at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction as a service to public libraries and other organizations that want to hire quality performers for their children's programs. The listing is intended to help identify potential performers and to assist libraries and organizations in contacting these groups and individuals.

The directory can be searched alphabetically by presenter’s name or by category. Includes contact information, a description of the presenter’s program(s), fee, space requirements, travel range, and references.

CCBC Directory of Wisconsin Children’s Book Creators

The Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) is a research library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, offerring a searchable online directory with entries for authors and illustrators of books for young people. The directory includes information about published works, the types of appearances authors are willing to make, and practical suggestions about all phases of arranging such programs.

Online Training Through WebJunction

WebJunction offers a variety of online training for librarians. At $20 - $50 for most classes, they are relatively affordable; indeed, a few - “Designing a Library Website,” “Media Relations,” and “Spanish Language Outreach” - are free. The low cost and the convenience of taking the courses from your desk make these classes a bargain. To learn more, visit WebJunction’s Course Catalog.

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There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow. It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig, is clad with radiance.
-William Sharp

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Contact NWLS for subscription services to the Streams news: newsletter@nwls.lib.wi.us

NWLS · 3200 E. Lake Shore Dr. · Ashland, Wisconsin 54806 · Telephone: 715.682.2365

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