This week's news

What's the future of the cafe space at SW? We're working with WWBIC (Wisconsin Women's Business Initiative) to create a Business Incubator Space. Local entrepreneurs will rent the space for 6 month periods to test their mettle before opening their own restaurant or catering businesses. Our first client hopes to move in by July 1.

Our new delivery service officially begins Monday, with a free trial run tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the last Saturday service under the new arrangement. As anyone starting a new job knows, there will be small things to learn every day until service is perfectly aligned with our needs. You can help by cheerfully welcoming our new drivers and sending feedback to Scott Smith if you think anything needs adjusted.

The next Friends Book Sale is scheduled for June 2-4  @SW.

KPL has been spearheading the City of Kenosha Parks Alliance for the past year. The program brings day camps for kids 5 to 15 to 3 city parks this year. The Boys and Girls Club will run the program in Lincoln Park. The YMCA will run programs in Hobbs Park (Wilson School Neighborhood) and Roosevelt Park. Music concerts and films are planned at Lincoln Park. A team of our Outreach and YS staff are planning extra events like Chess Nights, Tech Nights, Shakespeare performances, and Family Fun events, and the Bookmobile will make regular stops at all 3 parks. The program is paid by the city through funds generated by cell tower leases. The summer programs will kick off with a Peace in the Streets event in Lincoln Park on Saturday, June 10, 11-4.
Look for an app developed by Parkside's App Factory to be released soon. We'll be promoting the programs all summer long via our KPL web site and Facebook pages. We'll also be hiring a summer intern to keep order to it all.

We have some excellent candidates for Teen Librarian and we'll be finishing our interviews this coming week. We should have the position filled just in time for Summer Reading kickoff.
Speaking of Summer Reading, I encourage you all to attend the orientation sessions offered by YS this coming week. If you can't attend, please follow up and get the information you need to easily answer patron questions. The community looks forward to this powerful program every year, and we all need to be ready to answer their questions and get them signed up for summer learning! This year we will have programs for children, teens, and adults.

This week we celebrated two library staff members honored as Kenosha leaders. On Wednesday night, Anne Rasmussen graduated from Leadership Kenosha, an 8 month program sponsored by UW Extension and the Chamber of Commerce to recognize local talent and immerse them into the workings of our community. Last night, Brandi Cummings was celebrated as a KABA Future 5 leader, one of just 5 young leaders identified as destined for greatness. I was proud to attend both ceremonies and hear about their accomplishments and dreams for the future. Please join me in congratulating both Anne and Brandi!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Barb

Changes in Delivery

Hello, Everyone
Bookmobile and Delivery have been challenged over the past few years with staff injuries. The success of our SHARE migration added to the stress by increasing the number of items needing to move from one location to another. Recently, Tim Berquist announced his retirement as a Bookmobile Driver. This morning, Dan Cesario gave his one month notice of retirement.
Jill, Scott, Anne, Sean and I have studied our options for maintaining consistent delivery service and having enough trained Bookmobile drivers to keep that beloved service strong. We have all agreed that shifting our drivers' hours to Bookmobile service is the right way to go. Driving the Bookmobile is definitely an advanced skill, but it's not ergonomically taxing and ripe for injury the way our delivery service can be. So, in order to keep our staff safe and be sure our delivery schedule never suffers from a shortage of drivers, we are hiring Action Logistics to move our items among our branches, to Community Library, and to Racine. Dale and Paul will bring their CDL skills to the Bookmobile. These changes will be in effect May 15th.
I would like to thank all our drivers for pitching in wherever they were needed to manage the increased workload this past year. Special thanks are due to Dale, who has taken shifts we desperately needed to fill. Thanks also to Sandy, Anne, Brandi, and anyone else who stepped into a delivery role to fill the gaps. Your leadership is very much valued and appreciated.