Library In Progress...

The new Library at Burlington is coming along nicely with progress made every day toward an October move. The 9 million dollar building, which has a lovely view of the Mississippi River and the Highway 34 bridge to Illinois has not only the latest in technology and customer service, but also will continue to be a place for the history and genealogy buffs with a special room dedicated to just their research.

Governor Vilsack was part of a VIP, work-in-progress tour of the new facility, currently under construction. Kay Weiss reported that "he told us that he can't wait to go home to tell Christie that he'd been to a library that she has not". Thank you to the Vilsacks who have been strong library supporters during Governor Vilsack's time in office.

Kay was also nice enough to give us a little "so-far" tour last month...

Can't you just envision it now?!

From the desk of Kim...


This is your friendly weekly reminder to sign up for the free Libraries on the Prairie: Growing Rural Libraries workshop!

The two locations near our region are Davenport on July 24 and 25 (registration deadline is July 9) and Pella on July 27 and 28 (with a deadline of July 11). Deadlines are firm!

What’s in it for you?

-Travel expenses to the closest workshop are reimbursed to you. If you can’t make the session closest to you, you will still be reimbursed for the mileage you would have driven to the closest location. The reimbursement rate makes it certain that choosing a relatively close location will recoup your out of pocket expenses. Your room expense is also reimbursable.

-You will leave the workshop with a Technology Action plan!

-Up to 13 continuing education credits. If you’re done collecting credits for your next certification, you can save them for the next certification period. 11 credits will be awarded to everyone who attends (both days required) and an additional 2 credit for attending the evening session.

-The evening session includes two additional enticements…brownies, and a chance to win an expense paid trip to ALA in Washington D.C.

-Time to talk about where we’re going in our rural libraries…and how we’ll get there. Get the low-down from other libraries experiencing the same concerns, budget crunches and technology changes you are.

-Practical discussion on how, or if, a technology should be used in your library. Sessions on maintaining what you have and integrating what’s coming in a way that makes sense for your library.


For more information on the logistics of travel and reimbursement, and more information on what the workshop will offer you, visit

http://www.statelibraryofiowa.org/ld/gatesgrants/rural

(at the State Library web site)

I’m signed up for Davenport…will I see you there?

A New Service For Southeastern Libraries!


A few weeks ago feedback was requested about CD/DVD resurfacers and cleaners. Thanks goes out to all that took the time to contribute their two cents! The consensus, though, was that everyone with their own collections would find this useful to have, but just couldn’t afford their own machines, therefore, did not have machines of their own. In an attempt to cut down our own need to send out for repairs of disc media, we did some research and feel we’ve come up with the perfect solution, for not only us, but you!

Effective July 1st, we will be partnering with Scott County’s Library System to provide a cost-effective alternative to all of the libraries in Southeastern. Send us your tired, your scratched, your dirty disc media and we’ll take it out to Eldridge and clean and/or resurface them for you! The charge for this, for now, is $0.50 for a resurface and $0.25 for a clean/polish. This is a preliminary price for the next few weeks, until we are more familiar with demand and the cost of supplies needed to do all of this. The charge may need to be adjusted. We’ll then send it back to you that same week. We can either invoice you along with the service each time you send media, or we can do a monthly invoicing if this will be a regular need for your library. Long term, depending on demand, we might be able to work out a regular monthly billing for you.

We think this is great for all involved, and hope that you’ll take advantage of this. If someone else in your library is the “go-to” person for collection repair, please forward this information on!


Some things to consider:

-This has been thoroughly tested and does a wonderful job with both CDs (both music and audiobook) and DVDs. Even significantly scratched or scuffed media has been brought back to new life as a result of use.

-It is not recommended (by the manufacturer) to resurface a CD or DVD more than 3 to 4 times. After extensive resurfacing, your data can become unreadable, leaving the disc useless. You will receive a note on the level of resurfacing done to your discs so that you can track how many times a disc requires repair, and at what level. (If you are interested, small labels can be made available for you to stick on the inside of cases that indicate when your media was serviced, and what was done to keep track-just ask us about them!)

-When you get complaints like “this disc didn’t work”, or the ever popular “this disc doesn’t work on my machine”, you can send it to us for rehabilitation and keep your collection intact. Look at what you pay to replace a disc – or worse, the cost of simply not having that title or media in your collection. Every viewer/listener their DVD/CD, every DVD/CD its viewer/listener!

-Good machines for cleaning/resurfacing disc media are costly – it makes more sense for us to use one unit for everyone on an as-needed basis and charge only for what you use. It saves you time, money, and replacement woes!




Call Amanda at (800) 397-0029 or Email awright@sls.lib.ia.us with any questions or to start taking advantage of this!

Best Wishes Emma Lee

Emma Lee Lahmeyer will be retiring from the Keokuk Public Library on June 30th. She's been there for 32 years, serving as director for the last 8. Her latest project at Keokuk has been the addition of an elevator and accompanying space to accommodate the Keokuk Art Center, a unique blending of art and library in one building. A plaque in memory of Shirley Dick, former Keokuk Library Director and a major donor to the project is hung in the Art Center foyer. The dedication of the Center was held June 4th along with the acquisition and hanging of a major piece of art by Stan Weiderspan called "Convergence".
Emma Lee also oversaw complete renovation of the entire library. Good luck Emma Lee!

Congratulations!

...Replacing Emma Lee at Keokuk as director is Emily Rohlfs, formerly director of Fort Madison Public Library. Emily has had an exciting year in Ft. Madison which included, among other things, planning for a new library and automating the collection.

On a more personal note, on May 20th, 2006, Emily welcomed new daughter Hadley Kathryn into the world. Hadley weighed in at 7lbs. and 21 inches. Both mother and baby are doing great!

Congratulations!

Staff Changes...


Resignations:
Ruth Peterson, Director, Wilton Public Library

(Wilton is hoping to have a replacement decision made by July 18th)

Cathy Geiger, Director, Hillsboro Public Library
Heidi Belzer, Director, Agency Public Library
Krista Kloster, Youth Services Librarian, Keokuk Public Library


(As of this posting, the director positions have not been filled)

New Hire:
Amy Peer accepted the Youth Services position at Keokuk Public Library

Other open Youth Services positions in the region include Fairfield, Ft. Madison and Kalona Public Libraries.


Welcome to Amy and good luck to those of you who are leaving!

Posted on behalf of the Library of Congress...

The Library of Congress Cataloging In Publication (CIP) Division is conducting a nationwide survey of libraries to determine the future of the CIP program. Please participate in shaping the future of CIP by completing the survey at

http://cip.loc.gov

(Follow online instructions to survey)

Kim's note: In case CIP is a new term for you, CIP are those spiffy blurbs on the back of the title page, very handy for cataloging.

In other news...


Our new administrator, Kim Kietzman, formerly of LeClaire Community Library has been replaced by Wanda Gardner. Wanda has previously served as director of the Decorah Public Library. Welcome Wanda!

'Where the Action the Action Is' Workshop


Forty-two Southeastern librarians turned out for the popular workshop, "Where the Action Is!" taught by Roy Kenagy, Central Iowa Library Service Area Administrator on May 3rd at the Mt. Pleasant Public Library. What library staff has the greatest influence on how our readers experience the library? How do we create an inviting library atmosphere? Who is Ranganathan anyway? What is meant by "the library is a growing organism?"







After a day spent discussing the many topics that influence library staff behavior, from library fines to handling cash, and pairing them with Ranganathan's five library priciples, the workshop participants were set to put their libraries in order and save the time of the reader.

Couldn't make it this year? Keep an eye out for future sessions! You'll be glad you came!

Meet Our New Administrator...



The Board of Trustees of the Southeastern Library Services is pleased to announce that Kim Kietzman will assume the responsibilities of Administrator of Southeast Library Services Area starting June 5, 2006. She will work jointly with Emily Navarre, retiring SLSA Administrator, until June 30th when she will assume total responsibility for Southeastern.

Kim, currently the director of the LeClaire Community Library, comes to SLSA with a variety and depth of library experiences that will be invaluable in her new job. She has been instrumental in the establishment of the LeClaire Community Library and in the supervision of the facility’s expansion, remodeling and construction. She has been an active participant in the Libraries Together project of the four public libraries in Scott County which strives to provide the citizens of Scott County with efficient library services. She helped to write the grants which funded this project and authored the library’s web page.

Kim has been active in statewide efforts to advocate library services with state legislators. Over the past nine years, she has also worked in youth services, reference services, and extension services at the Davenport (IA) Public Library, the Rock Island (IL) Public Library and at the Minneapolis (MN) Public Library. Kim has strong public library, technological, advocacy, and teaching skills.

For further information, please contact Jane Campagna, SLSA Board of Trustees President, at 563-441-4152 or jcampagna@eicc.edu.

Fairfield Library Names New Director

The Fairfield Public Library has recently named Rebecca Huggins as their new library director. Previously, Becky had served as Interim Director, and had volunteered her time at the library. Please join us in welcoming Becky to the Southeastern region!

Former director Judy Bar-Shimon submitted her resignation this winter, after being on an extended leave of absence for health-related concerns.

ILA/ACRL Spring Conference 2006

Information about this year's ILA/ACRL spring conference is available online at:

http://www.iren.net/acrl/conference/2006/index.html

The conference, which meets Friday, April 21st at the Memorial Union in Iowa City, is co-sponsored this year by the Iowa Association of School Librarians. The conference theme for 2006 is "High School to Higher Ed: Helping Learners Make the Leap." The Keynote Speaker will be Professor David T. Conley, Director of the Center for Educational Policy Research at the University of Oregon.

[Source: Mary McInroy, Member, ILA/ACRl Spring Conference Committee]

Iowa Customers of Sirsi/Dynix to Meet

The first meeting of the Iowa Customers of Sirsi/Dynix will meet at the State Library on May 9th, 2006 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. The day will include company- and user-led presentations on a variety of subjects of interest to all Sirsi/Dynix customers.

The registration fee for this event is only $15, which includes lunch and refreshments.

For more information, and to register, visit:

http://www.grinnell.lib.ia.us/SirsiDynix/sirsidynix.htm

[Source: Monique McLay Shore, Stewart Library, Grinnell]

Workshop DVD Available

Mary Cameron from the State Library reports that the Teen Summer Library Workshop is now available on DVD for checkout.

They do not have a VHS copy right now, but will let you know if we get one. Most of your computers with CD/DVD drives will be able to play this DVD.
(The Gates Computers do have this kind of drive.)

One comment - The sound is not good on the DVDs as there was some problem with the taping of the program.

You can request a DVD from Rinda Kramme rinda.kramme@lib.state.ia.us or 1-800-248-4483.

Order: DVD10 Creature Feature

Spring Conference Announced

You are invited to attend the first ever combined Spring Conference. The Iowa Small Library Association, Public Library and Support Personnel Subdivisions of ILA are sponsoring the first ever combined Spring Conference on May 12, 2006 in the Gerdin Conference Center of the North Liberty Community Center from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm.

John Langhorne of Langhorne and Associates will be speaking on staff morale in the morning and leading breakout sessions on the subject in the afternoon. This will be a very pro-active and invigorating conference. John has come highly recommended to speak on this subject.

For more information, and to register, visit: http://www.northlibertylibrary.org/indexfiles/pande/

[Source: Dee Crowner, North Liberty Community Library]

Tracy Anderson appointed to Southeastern LSA Board

Southeastern Library Services is pleased to welcome Tracy Anderson to the SLS Board of Trustees. Mr. Anderson represents "library patrons" on our board, but he is currently a Trustee on the Kalona Public Library Board. Tracy's term will expire on June 30, 2008.

Iowa Library Friends Association workshop

On Monday, May 1st, 2006, the Iowa Library Friends Association (ILFA) will be hosting a regional workshop for Library Friends groups. The workshop will be held at the Waverly Public Library from 10 am to 2 pm.

Topics will include:

• Where to look for funds/grants outside your Friends activities
• Sharing Ideas among Friends Groups
• What's Ahead for Public Libraries

The fee for this workshop is only $5.00

For more information, please contact Greer Fry, President of ILFA:
golfer319@mchsi.com

Summer Library Workshop recording now available

Mary Cameron from the State Library reports that the Children's Summer Library Workshop is now available on DVD for checkout. They do not have a VHS copy right now, but will let you know if they get one. Most of your computers with CD/DVD drives will be able to play this DVD.
(The Gates Computers have this kind of drive.)

You can request a DVD from Rinda Kramme rinda.kramme@lib.state.ia.us or 1-800-248-4483.

Order: DVD8 Paws, Claws, Scales and Tales

Columbus Junction sets Building Dedication Date



Director Ardee Ostrem has announced that Columbus Junction will hold a building dedication on Tuesday, May 16th, 2006. Details will be announced at a later time.

"Where the Action Is" workshop Returns--Join us Wednesday, May 3rd.

Who has the greatest influence on how readers experience the library? Front-line staff, of course!

Back by popular demand, this workshop will review policies and practices for library access, circulation, and stack management, with a focus on creating a rewarding and delightful customer experience and an inviting public environment. Participants will review effective approaches to fines, overdues, and damaged materials; creating and managing borrower records; placing and delivering holds; interlibrary loan policies and practices; mail and personal delivery programs; returns and pickups; copy and fax services; management and scheduling of Internet, computer, and equipment workstations; management and scheduling of meeting and study rooms; materials packaging, maintenance, and repair; and effective practices for shelving, stack management, and housekeeping.

The workshop will also cover broader accessibility topics such as promoting staff/customer interactions; maintaining confidentiality; physical accessibility; wayfinding and signage; hours of service; and personal convenience issues such as food, drink, cell phones, and noise in the library.

Administrative topics will include training for complex systems under conditions of high turnover; policies and practices for measuring performance, with an emphasis on recording in-house use; and ways to maintain and enhance frontline customer feedback.

For more information about this workshop, and to register, visit the State Library's CE Catalog.