Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Thank YOU!

Thanks for coming out today. I found the presentation to be not only eye-opening, but emotionally meaningful, and I hope you did, too.

Here's one more story I'd like to share with you. It's a story of your bravery and the impact you have had on the least fortunate in your community because you were willing to take a chance.
About a year ago, this library changed its behavior policy. We eliminated sleeping as a punishable offense. That decision was met with skepticism and resistance from many people on our staff. But it also sent a powerful, positive message to our community and in particular, our homeless community.

When First Step first learned its license would probably not be renewed, a First Step volunteer named Bob came to visit me to tell me he understood that their closure might have an effect on the library. During the discussion, Bob told me he knew we had changed our policy against sleeping in the library. He knew because the clients at First Step talked about it a lot. Those clients described the gesture as one of the few gestures of respect and nod to their humanity that they had ever experienced.
Sometimes doing the "right thing" isn't the easy thing to do. But easy things rarely change the world.

As always, but particularly today, I am proud to work alongside each one of you to provide everyone from every background, every creed, and orientation with the information they need to improve their lives, make them stronger, and live their dreams.
Thanks for taking a chance today and opening your minds and hearts to build a more diverse, equitable and inclusive KPL.
Barb

SHARE Catalog New Features for Patrons

At the last SHARE Director's Council, the group decided to implement the following features:

1) Patron Self Edits for Addresses, Phone Numbers and Email - Patrons can now edit their account information in Enterprise.  We have a custom report set up which will run nightly and add a patron note informing staff that "This patron has updated their address online.  Please verify their address change and update the user category 1 value with their new municipality." if a patron updates the street address, city/state or zip fields.  The system will not add notes if a patron only edits phone or email fields.

2) Patron Self Registration - This feature will allow patrons to self register for a temporary card which will allow up to 4 holds and digital access for SIP2-authenticated digital services. Temporary cards are automatically generated by the system and are typically 7 numbers long starting with a 1.  Holds will be active in the system immediately and libraries that have a patron facing hold shelf may need to find holds using the temporary card number on their hold wrappers before issuing a new card.  This feature is accessed through the "Don't have a library card? Click here to register!" link that now appears on the login prompt.

When self registered patrons come in for the first time, staff will need to perform the following steps to make their accounts permanent and give them checkout privileges:
    - Verify the address
    - Fill in the User Category 1
    - Fill in the SMS field if the patron wants to get text messages
    - Capture a digital signature or use any other registration forms that your library requires
    - Update the profile according to library policy
    - Update the user ID in the system and issue a physical card

Temporary cards that are not claimed will be deleted after 30 days. If your library uses Envisionware or CASSIE, you may want to consider blocking ONLINE profiled cards from your public computers. If your library wants an email alert for new self registration cards, please send in a ticket to our helpdesk.

3) New "Recommendations" tab - In addition to the Novelist Content tab we have for some titles in Enterprise, we now have a "Recommendations" tab in the item detailed display which contains the following:
     - Additional recommendations that are computer generated using bibliographic information such as subject headings and authors as well as circulation history
     - Other items in series that are computer generated using the series statement in the bib record, these are ordered by the 490 subfield v if present or the 260/264 publication date if there is no volume information in the series statement.  We also use uniform title fields that contain the phrase 'Television Series' to find additional items for television series, TV series are ordered by publication date.
     - Other Editions / Formats that are computer generated using the title and author information in a record.  It will group by Print, Large Print, Audiobook, DVD and BluRay and then display the publication date and edition statement for any matching items found.

If you have any questions about these new features please ask Anne or Sean.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy National Library Week!

Your peers have nominated you for 15 different awards, and the votes are tallied. Anne and I

will be coming around this week with goodies and framed awards to recognize your teamwork, skills, and general good nature.

Here's the national schedule of celebrations:

April 9-15 National Library Week
April 11 National Library Workers Day
April 12 National Bookmobile Day

Here's our list of local celebrations and activities:
https://www.mykpl.info/national-library-week-0

Congratulations to our Spelling Bee Champions!

Superheroes, indeed! Lynn, Jill, Donna and Sean, you were amazing!
Thanks for bring the trophy home to KPL!

News Update from April SHARE Council

Hello, Everyone
Here are upgrades coming soon to our SHARE catalog system:

• A self registration module so people can apply for library cards before coming in or at a library card signup station in the library. People can type in their own information and create a temporary user record that is held for address verification before they can check out materials. They may place up to 4 holds on items ahead of time with their temporary account.
• Signature pads will arrive at all locations shortly. Patrons can no electronically sign for their accounts, eliminating the need for paper applications.
• New display information in the library catalog will help guide people toward series information, much like recommended reading icons in Amazon. These icons will show book jackets of other titles in the series, labeled with #2,#3, etc. if the series is ordered.
• We will be eliminating our Chase Paymentech credit card machines and switch to Propay, the credit card service integrated into Sirsi. This will reduce the number of steps you will take to perform a payment transaction and the fees we pay will be less. Look for this switch sometime this spring.

Library Patron Leaves Foundation $25,000

Marion Podolay Tuohey passed away February 25th of this year and left behind a beautiful legacy. She willed our Library Foundation a generous gift of $25,000 as an endowment fund for projects. You might recognize Marion as a regular Bookmobile patron. We are honored to remember her in years to come through her gracious endowment.

New Staff Values Statement

Many thanks to Heather, Shawn, Brandi, Barbara F, and Adela for rewriting our Staff Values Statement. This statement will serve as the litmus test for all our future decisions as we serve our community. It will aslo serve as the bedrock of our next strategic plan. It articulates why we do the work we do and how we do it. If you are ever in doubt as to how to proceed when you are working with the public or each other, use these values as your test. And if you are ever discouraged by the day to day tasks that seem to cloud the purpose of your work, refer back to these values for inspiration. I know I will.

INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM

We uphold the public’s right to intellectual freedom by ensuring that each person has equitable access to the broad spectrum of resources held by the Kenosha Public Library. We meet each person’s information needs fairly, without judgment or censorship.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION

Through our commitment to ongoing staff education, we strive to implement creative, forward-thinking policies and services that promote inclusivity and maximize the library’s usefulness within the community. The Kenosha Public Library is committed to providing lifelong learning and outstanding service to all members of our diverse community. 

COMPASSIONATE PROFESSIONALISM

Our workplace culture is to support our patrons and each other by being helpful, respectful, compassionate, ethical, and kind in our daily interactions. The way we treat each member of our community is evidence of our service-minded professionalism.

COLLABORATION

As open-minded, flexible, and honest individuals, we are able to work as a team to reach our goals. Through collaboration with each other and our community partners, we provide our patrons with efficient, dependable services that build and maintain trust in the library as a valuable community institution.