Unstaffed Libraries in the UK and other news

Well, our funding hasn't fallen this far yet... And I don't expect it will. Sympathy to our UK friends.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/21/backlash-grows-against-unstaffed-libraries


Budget season is in high gear and our noses are pressed to spreadsheets in the Administration office. 2020 is looking good for keeping excellence on track.
Our proposed budget includes restoring open hours at Uptown on Friday and expanding Youth, Adult and Outreach programming. Full details provided after we get the ok from city administration.

Busy week ahead:
Plumer Lovelace from WLA will be visiting our libraries on Monday.
We meet with the architects for the SW space plan again on Tuesday.
We meet with DPI officials about a project to measure the impact of summer reading programs on Wednesday.
I'm out to a systems meeting in Wausau Thursday and Friday.

Tall ships come into the Kenosha harbor Thursday evening. Thanks to library staff who have signed up as volunteers for weekend festivities. I'll be in the ticket booth Saturday and Sunday. Stop by and say hi!

This week's Bright Spot goes out to all staff at CCB, as they waited patiently for a final decision on the future home of our offices. Today we received official word that we will establish a permanent Library administration/ service center in the current Shalom Center Food Pantry building on south Sheridan Road. (across from McDonald's) Administration and Collection Services will move in by the end of 2019 and we'll be crafting plans for Outreach to join us in spring 2020.

Have a wonderful summer weekend, everyone!
Barb

Safety Improvements

In response to a few unfortunate incidents in our parking lots, we are adding pedestrian crosswalk signs to SW and NW. We are also adding a stop sign to the back exit of the NS parking lot. Hopefully this will cause people to slow down and watch for people.

In response to our trouble with teen visitors lately, I have met with Alderman Curt Wilson, the city attorney, and the KPD Deputy Chief to discuss tactics for more control. Currently there are no "NO Loitering" signs in the SW parking lot, which makes it difficult for KPD to remove unruly children from the SW parking lot after hours. The neighborhood is complaining that they are blaring music and bellowing curse words at all hours from our parking lot. We will be adding those signs shortly.

To support our staff, we will be offering a three part training we're calling "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."
Part 1, "The Good" will focus on a scenario where many teens show up unexpectedly. Although we are glad they have chosen the library, their sheer numbers call for some quick tried and true classroom management techniques to control and engage large numbers of young people in a positive way that provides a great experience for visitors and staff. We'll bring in a seasoned educator to help us understand how to do this.
Part 2, "The Bad" deals with the same scenario as "The Good" but adds a few troublemakers who consume your energy and sour everyone's experience. We'll ask a community professional who deals with  crowds of kids including at-risk kids to help us with that scenario.
Part 3 "The Ugly" deals with large scale gang like behavior like the destructive team of 11 who have swept through NS lately and wreaked havoc. We'll bring in the experts from Gang Prevention to coach us through repose measures for this segment.

We'll schedule training before the library opens so everyone can attend. If you are in direct contact with the public, this training will be mandatory, but I encourage all of you to attend, as these skills will be useful not only at work, but in your personal lives, as well. Our intent is that you feel more confident and more safe as these incidents continue. As a public institution, we cannot control who comes into our buildings. Dealing with the broad array of personalities and age groups is one of the things we have to become good at. Look for training opportunities soon!

KPL WELCOME!

It's been just over a month and I continue to be grateful to have the opportunity to be working with the KPL team! Thank you to Michelle and Barb for welcoming me on my first day and for getting me setup with payroll, benefits, introductions, tours, an email, a super cool office, and a lovely bouquet of flowers. Special thank you to Rob for sharing loads of info with me over time so that I'm not overwhelmed. To Shannon, Jill, Heather, and Marcia thank you for taking the time to meet with me on several occasions and to your teams for their patience with my questions. Kudos to Gina, Zander, Jan, Cathy J., Rosa, Donna, Amy, Traci, Martha, and Bennett for showing me the ropes at the service desks! For those who have, I especially appreciate you taking the time to impart the history of KPL. I've already had some adventures, including getting the opportunity to be in two parades so far (Thank you Jeff!) Some things about me: I am from Lake Mills, WI. Although, I'm second to youngest of eleven. My immediate family consists of a significant other, named Bryan and a half St. Bernard, 82 lb, puppy named Sunny. We have been enjoying the run/bike around Lake Andrea out near the RecPlex.

News for the Week

Hello, KPLers
Here are some updates to keep you in the know:

• Teen librarians and managers continue to work with InSite architects to design new spaces at SW. Included is a teen area that can be shared with a children's program space, including a demonstration kitchen. A new meeting room increases our capacity for larger events and will likely land where the current teen space sits. To compensate for the increased activity within the library, we're creating a quiet reading room at the back of the library under the skylight with a cozy fireplace. When we can do the work and create the spaces relies completely on finding the funding. I'll keep you posted every step of the way.
• Opening Uptown yesterday was a great decision. There was no line out the door, but we saw plenty of people glad for the shelter from the miserable heat. I hope you stayed cool!
• Thanks to our maintenance team who fixed the Northside air conditioning in time for the heat wave and replaced the hot water heater, as well, while still getting all the other maintenance duties done and cleaning three branches in the absence of cleaning staff. We are so lucky to have such great skills on our team! Jeff, Jason, Scott and Dan, we appreciate you so much!
• Luckily, we have found two great new staff members for our custodian team. Frankie D. and Frankie N. (seriously) start on Monday at Northside and Uptown.
• We had three great interviews for the Outreach Coordinator position left empty by Jill's retirement. Announcement Monday as to who will serve as our new OS leader.
• Plans for the new city hall are taking shape. The library's administration and collection services groups will have space on the second floor and the clinic will move from Transit to the new building downtown. The municipal court and the city council chambers will occupy one wing and there will be meeting rooms for the public, taking the pressure off our busy rooms. The building will be built on the land where the Civic Center stands now, so we plan to move to the Shalom Center food pantry on Sheridan Road during the two years of construction. As soon as the food pantry moves to their new facility on 39th Ave, we will focus on getting the building ready for us.
• Volunteers are still needed for the city's Tall Ships event August 2-4. If you can help, please contact Kris Kochman kkochman@kenosha.org

This week's Bright Spot Award goes to Brandi for suggesting we open at Uptown on Friday and serve the neighborhood as a cooling center. Special thanks to Bright Stars Jake, Sandy, Linda, and Shannon for helping keep that branch open, and for Sheri Zaionc for returning as a volunteer just in case we were overwhelmed. Your community thanks you!

Stay cool, everyone!

Barb

Tours of the New Fire Station

We received this staff invitation from Fire Chief Leipzig:


Charles E. Leipzig, Jr.
Fire Chief
City of Kenosha Fire Department
(262) 653-4100
firechief@kenosha.org


Greetings,
I am pleased to share that the construction of Kenosha Fire Station No. 1, located at
2210 52nd Street, is nearing completion. I anticipate the new Station will be staffed and
operational on August 6th, 2019.
This letter is to formally invite you to attend an open house at Kenosha Fire Station No.
1 on Saturday, July 27th, 2019. The open house will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00
p.m. I will conduct a brief commencement at 10:30 a.m., followed by guided tours for
those interested. We would be honored to have you join us for a tour.
Please be advised that parking is very limited near the Station. This event is open to the
public, and we anticipate that hundreds of people from the Kenosha community will be
coming to take a tour. A shuttle will run between 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. from the parking
lot of the Municipal Building (625 52nd Street) to transport additional visitors.
I sincerely thank you for your time and support.
With regards,

Charles E. Leipzig,

News for Week

Thanks to everyone who came out to the ballpark on Wednesday to enjoy the Kingfish game together!  Staff reserved 110 tickets and it looked like you all had fun. It was a great day for our Foundation who raised over $650 in the 50/50 raffle. Special thanks to those of you who bought tickets or helped sell them.

Feel good article from School Library Journal about how small libraries support their communities in unique ways. (You'll need to create a free account to read)

Library Board meeting coming up on Tuesday, 5:30pm at SW. Everyone is welcome.

Work continues with our architect to reconfigure spaces at SW. We'll meet again a week from today.

We'll be adding a stop sign to the back of the Northside parking lot where it meets the thru-way between the library and Aurora. We'll also be adding "yield to pedestrians in crosswalk" signs at SW and NS.

It's move-to-Madison month! Jill will be retiring mid-August to start a new life in Madison and Marissa will be relocating in two weeks to split her time between Madison and Stevens Point. We will miss them both and wish them every happiness!

Does someone at KPL do a terrific job without fanfare? Did a KPL staff member recently wow you with their customer service skills? Nominate them for the Bright Spot Award! Send me an email telling me why they deserve to be recognized and we'll put their name up in lights in the next edition of KPL Staff News.

Have a great holiday weekend, everyone!