Whole Person Librarianship is Ready for Launch!

We are ready to launch the City Library Collective's Whole Person Librarianship (WPL) project. Every staff member is invited to participate, but only Pubic Service Staff (ADS, YFS, Circ, Outreach) are required to participate in this training.  
You've heard me talk about WPL for many months now, and most of you took a Community Assessment Survey that identified what social service needs we witness in our daily interactions in the library and sometimes on our lawns and in our parking lots. To quickly summarize, WPL is the overlap of librarian work and social work, where library staff go the extra mile not only to point patrons needing help in the right direction, but to more effectively interact with people affected by trauma and provide more holistic guidance than a simple phone number or website would provide. 

Our goals for this project are:

1. Provide training and support to our front line staff who face behavioral challenges and complex psychological conditions when working with the public. We want you to feel prepared and confident on the job and safer as a result.

2. Call the police less often. Not all issues can be resolved without the help of the police, but with some concentrated training in trauma and social service techniques, we may be able to create better outcomes for us and for the people we meet.

3. Determine whether future KPL staffing should include trained social workers. 

To help us understand the principles of Whole Person Librarianship, 11 libraries in Wisconsin known as the City Library Collective have contracted with Sara Zettervall, author of Whole Person Librarianship: A Social Work Approach to Patron Services.  Sara has recorded a kickoff introduction to WPL and will interact with us later in April to customize training just for KPL. Here's the launch page provided by Sara with all the links you'll need for her training portion.

Here's how our project will work:

1. You will receive a short 5 question survey to help our team understand staff's current understanding and opinions on incorporating social work methods into library work. The survey is anonymous- please answer honestly without shame.

2. Staff will watch Sara's kickoff webinar. The training is divided into 3 short segments, each less than 30 minutes. Staff will be asked to view the full webinar before April 5th.

3. Sara will conduct a live online question and answer segment for all staff at all 11 CLC libraries as a follow up to the information provided in the webinar on April 5th at 9am.

4. Sara will interview each library individually to understand our current local training needs or address our questions.

5. Sara will provide specific training to groups of 3 libraries whose local needs match. 

So what am I asking from you? 
If you are a member of the Public Services Team, please begin engaging right away with this training. I admit the timeline is very short, something our team could not avoid because of the grant requirements. So if you're working this weekend and find yourself in a spot where you have some time to watch the webinar, please do. It's recorded so you can stop and start it repeatedly. You won't receive the survey until next week, so it will be out of order, but I would rather you had a chance to watch the webinar in time for the April 5th session.

If you can participate in the April 5th session, I hope you do. If you cannot, please jot down your questions and send them to me or to Linda and we will ask them for you during Sara's Q&A.

If you are not part of the Public Service Team and feel you'd like to know more about WPL, please feel free to participate! All of us can benefit from this information. 

Thanks, Everyone!

Barb

Mask rules relaxed

This afternoon the Kenosha County Health Department provided Narcan training at SW. After the presentation, I asked whether County Health has changed any of its COVID-19 guidelines. Here's what I learned:

• The process map we are using for response to COVID-19 symptoms reflects the most current guidelines. So we will continue to use our current response map.
• Face masks for county health care workers are now optional while working with adults and required when working directly with children. That's a new rule, and I was surprised to learn it, but it gives me the confidence to announce changes to our own face mask policy going forward.

I have noticed fewer staff members wearing face masks in staff areas and more staff wearing their masks in the public areas improperly. I've also had staff requests to return to pre-pandemic occupancies in our meeting and program rooms to welcome families who are comfortable returning to in-person programming.

It's very clear that we will be living with some version of the COVID-19 virus for years to come. Now that so many of us are vaccinated, the virus is getting weaker. It is time for people to self-select about their own comfort with exposure to the virus. 

So effective immediately, the decision to wear a mask while working at KPL, whether in the staff or public areas of the building,  is the choice of each staff member, with these caveats:

• If you share office space with another staff member where the office door might be closed and/or social distancing is not possible, please respect the wishes of your office mates. If any of them are feeling very vulnerable, do the right thing and wear your mask while they are in the room.
• If you work with children, please respect the fact that very small ones cannot be vaccinated at this time and may be especially vulnerable. When working directly with children, please wear a mask. 
• If you are shelving the collection in the children's area, take a mask with you in case a child approaches so you can provide the child with some extra protection (wear your mask.)
• If you share a workspace like the circ desk or the ref desk, wipe down your keyboard at the end of your shift. This will give your coworkers extra peace of mind.
• If you have COVID-19 symptoms, go home immediately and follow the guidelines. The best way to keep the "herd" protected is to remove anyone who is sick until they test negative. Most of you are able to work from home at least a few hours a day. We'll do our best to protect your paycheck. Please do the right thing.

We will return to full occupancy in our meeting rooms and activities rooms as soon as we receive final numbers from the fire department on occupancy limits. Watch for that announcement shortly.

We will also continue the midday cleaning schedule to keep all viruses at bay.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that we don't see a new powerful COVID strain that forces us to reinstate so many restrictions.

I can't thank you all enough for the kindness you have shown each other and the public over the past few years. Your willingness to follow health guidelines every step of the way to protect others has been admirable. It's no wonder the public adores you!

__________________________________________

OTHER NEWS

We now officially have Notary Public service for the public! Thanks to Shannon and her team for completing training for this certification. Shannon is first out of the gate and available for appointments.

For a quick statistical look at how the pandemic has affected Kenosha County students and the general population, Building Our Future just released this dashboard. We have lots of work to do!

Announcement from Heather:
The Kenosha County Youth as Resources (YAR) Board's spring service project is to conduct a children's book drive, sort the books, and distribute them to children through schools and/or afterschool programs. The hope is that they will be helping to combat the "summer slide" by providing children with books to have in their homes.
All KPL buildings are donation sites for this book drive. Each building has a cardboard box with a "Children's Book Drive" sign on it. If patrons bring in donations of children's books specifically for this book drive (as opposed to them wanting to donate children's books to the library), please direct them to place their directions in the designated box.
This drive will begin on Saturday, March 19 and run through Saturday, April 2. If you notice that the collection box at your location is getting full, please email me as soon as possible and I will take care of it.

Staff Office Moves and Utility Savings

Tomorrow we have the honor of hosting the Council on Library and Network Development (COLAND). This group is appointed by the Governor to advise state government about libraries. They'll be in the SW Activities Room from 9am to 12:30pm. If you are interested in experiencing one of their meetings, they are open to the public.

Jennifer found this NPR article about how Ukraine libraries are stepping up to support the public in a myriad of ways.

We're doing another shift in offices at SW. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be moving into Linda's office in the circ workroom, freeing up my large office for a mini ADS workroom. Zander, Shannon,  and Madelynn will have workspace there and we'll try to create a pop up workspace in that room for one more ADS staff member with off desk time. The cubicles at the end of "Main Street" will fit into the beginning of fiction where the wall zigzags. Our 3-person marketing staff will fit into those cubicles, freeing up the purple room for video/audio editing by the public.  Linda will remain in the first floor office at Simmons. We'll carve out an office space for the new branch manager at Simmons, as well. Hopefully this plan creates a much more comfortable workspace for everyone.

As the price of  petroleum products soars, I encourage us all to consider ways we can reduce the library's consumption. Our We Energies bills have skyrocketed this year as the company converts from coal to natural gas, and the hike in oil prices will no doubt be felt in future bills. Even though KPL pays for 100% wind energy, WE Energies still charges us the natural gas/ coal rates. So please turn out lights when rooms are empty, dress warmer or cooler depending on the season and your job responsibilities, and do your part to help us keep our bills under control. Thanks!

This weekend we're back to Daylight Savings time, so we'll "spring" forward an hour. Daylight saving time 2022 officially begins Sunday, March 13 at 2 a.m.

Bright Spot Nominations:

From Heather
I would like to nominate Hilary and Amy Rae for a Bright Spot this week. Approximately 25 people showed up at Southwest for Toddler Storytime this morning, not realizing it is at Northside on Tuesdays. Rather than disappoint them or let them go storytime-less, Hilary put on an impromptu storytime while Amy Rae covered the desk! Hilary also made sure everybody got a paper copy of the storytime schedule which notes dates, times, and locations. I’m sure the caregivers were super grateful, and so am I. Thank you for the fabulous service and teamwork, Hilary and Amy Rae!

Stress Relief and Stress-Free News for the week

The pandemic lingers, the cost of living is increasing, and now we have war in Europe. Feeling stressed? Here is a simple list of ways you can manage the compounding anxiety you might be feeling. And please don't hesitate to use your free Employee Assistance Program benefit. Talking to someone trained to help who doesn't know you personally can be really comforting. Your identity is completely protected. All we get are the numbers of staff members using the service, never names. Help is a phone call away. 800-236-3231

We're returning to pre-pandemic meeting room occupancy starting today. Groups are already self-selecting their own meeting capacities and we're getting more and more groups needing more capacity. Linda will restore the original occupancies in the meeting room software. 

The City of Kenosha will offer an opportunity for residents to shred documents free of charge at three city locations from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 26, 2022. Shredding will be offered outside in the parking lots at the Northside Library, 1500 27th Ave.; at Southwest Library, 7979 38th Ave., and at the Kenosha Water Utility, 4401 Green Bay Road. Kenosha residents are welcome to bring up to five bags or boxes of items to be shredded by Shred-It representatives. Future shredding dates are: Saturday, June 25 (which also includes hard drive destruction at the Kenosha Water Utility location) and Saturday, October 22.

In the mood for a story? Watch Marcia and Heather tag team a virtual storytime for Read Across Kenosha week.

KPL is once again co-leading the Kenosha Parks Alliance with Katherine Marks in the Mayor's office. We'll take over the Facebook page for KPA this summer. Our 6 week camps will be in Brass Community School, EBSOLA, and Lincoln Middle School. 

We have a couple of library board openings coming up. We're looking for people who will represent our more diverse neighborhoods and people with young children who can help us more fully understand the needs of young families. If you know of good people who fit those descriptions and might be willing to serve on our library board, please let me know.

As we plan our new children's library in Uptown, we'll also be looking for more membership on the KPL Foundation, especially people who are well connected with local industry, or have experience grant writing and fundraising. In other words, people who are good at raising money and not afraid to ask. If anyone comes to mind, I'd love to hear about them. Right now we have plenty of room for new members.

I'm going to see the grandkids Thursday - Monday, back Tuesday. Rob is on vacation starting Friday through all next week. I'll have phone access but Rob might not. Linda is in charge while we're gone. 

Have a great rest of the week, everyone!