THANKS FOR COMING TODAY!

I know it wasn't easy to nudge your car toward work today, or arrange for child care, or find a ride. Thanks for coming to work today! Your community is very grateful!

Open Books Open Minds gets national attention

This from School Library Journal:
Good morning Heather,

I’m an editor at School Library Journal and we want to do a story on events for the Coretta Scott King Award anniversary and I wanted to highlight what you are doing in Kenosha. I was wondering if you had a few minutes to speak on the phone either tomorrow or sometime next week.

Thank you,

Kara Yorio

Our Open Books, Open Minds upcoming series is the genius of our stellar Youth and Family Services department. They have put a tremendous effort into identifying books that present perspectives from all walks of life. These will be displayed and highlighted in a year-long project. Congratulations to YFS and thanks for making us proud!

News from Seattle

Greetings from balmy Seattle where flowers still bloom and a sweater is sufficient. But enough rubbing it in...
The ALA Midwinter Conference is underway and I am here to bask in a series of programs called Symposium on the Future of Libraries. Melinda Gates wowed us last night with an impassioned speech on raising the status of women and girls throughout the world. Her new book talks about her experience through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with some especially poignant stories that will stun the reader. The story that stuck with me was her relating of meeting a woman in Africa who was so very devoted to her tiny baby boy. She loved the baby so much that she asked Melinda to take him home with her, because she knew that once she was done breastfeeding she would not be able to feed him and even if he survived he would never receive an education. The series of similar stories demonstrates that across the world we all want the very best for our children and that uniting factor should be the understanding that creates peace in the world.

Now I'm sitting in a program called Social Innovation where Seattle-based social innovators will tell us how they leverage programs to address social problems and improve the lives of their communities. This is my passion as a librarian. I believe in the power of the public library to improve lives because I believe that lifelong education is the foundation of social change. Every day I wonder how we can do better in reaching people who need us. I'll check in with you later today to share what I've learned.
Barb

News for the Week

• Wild Wisconsin Winter Web conference is a terrific series of webinars over the course of two days, January 23-24. You can join in for one hour or many hours. Lots of short and interesting presentations on a wide variety of library topics for all staff. KPL helps pay for this annual conference, so please participate if you can!
• For all you readers, help Kenosha win a cash prize for the most time spent reading. Sign up or sign in at  mykpl.beanstack.org and start logging the number of hours you read between January 1 and January 31. Audiobooks count!
• We'll be holding all-staff meetings on February 4 and 5 to discuss the major projects we have scheduled in 2019. This is a mandatory meeting for full time employees and strongly encouraged for part time employees and is a great chance to ask questions of the entire management team.  If you cannot make the meetings due to schedule conflicts, I will share our slides after the presentations. The print and electronic editions of the 2019 Business Plan will be available shortly. I highly encourage you all to read about about the exciting programs and services we will offer the community in the coming year. We are all in this together and we need YOU on board to help us achieve our goals and talk to the public about the value of the library. 
• The Friends of the Library are gearing up to create a bookstore in the concession area of SW. Opening day is targeted to June 2019.
• In an effort to save on supply costs and reduce our trash output, we'd like to install hand dryers in all our staff restrooms. Please take this short survey and let us know if you agree or disagree. Thanks!

This week's Bright Spot Award goes to all the circulation staff as they try on their new roles. Whether you are a Customer Service Specialist or an Inventory Control Specialist, we are so grateful for all you do! Thanks for being willing to learn new things and tackle the daily job of serving the public!