Staff News and Strange Library Stories

Mark your calendars! The Wisconsin Library Association Annual Conference will be held November 1-4 in Lake Geneva this year. The conference schedule is due out in a few weeks. This is a great opportunity for many of our staff to attend training locally. 

Strange but true:
The Library of Congress hair collection (yes, hair) contains locks from Walt Whitman and George Washington, among other famous dignitaries. Take a look at fascinating pics at the LOC website.

Teens Rise to the Occasion:
How Teens are pushing back against school book bans

FOL's pallet book sale was a big success! Thanks to all of you who came out to help!

Our vending machines are just about ready for prime time at the YMCA and Boys and Girls Club. The book return units are in place and Aaron is finishing up signage. We need to replace a bad cable on one of the machines, then we'll schedule library card signup events at both locations in early September to celebrate National Library Week.

Lots of Bright Spot nominations came in last week from Jennifer @ Northside:

"I have many bright spots this week and I wanted to make sure I shared them with you.

A huge thanks to the maintenance team - They moved a shelf into large print for us, brought down around 25 chairs from the attic, and also brought over those 4 racks from Southwest for us this week. Very exciting for us at Northside and we appreciate their work (and heavy lifting!).

I also wanted to specifically thank Jeff - after our very successful "Make it or Break it" event last Friday, Jeff transported and disposed of a van full of broken tech, so I wouldn't have to worry about it. This thoughtfulness and willingness to help wherever he can is a definite hallmark of Jeff's work at KPL.

Yesterday, I got a call that meant I needed to run out into the pouring rain to get something over to my son's daycare unexpectedly. I had left my rain jacket in my car and Patty immediately loaned me her umbrella AND offered her rain jacket. I am always grateful for her unceasing kindness!

For Marcia and the OS team (+ Karen and Emily!) - They planned all kinds of fantastic activities for the Nights at Northside: NASA @ the Library event for July, and then rescheduled it for tonight when a storm came through. That is two weeks of being incredibly flexible with their time to make sure we have plenty of staffing for this event.

And finally, for Lisa who is always such a support for the Northside staff. Whenever someone is having a rough day, Lisa is always right there, offering moral support and understanding. She has a real gift of empathy that is so appreciated by the NS staff."

Have a great week, everyone!

Barb

Vending Machines Ready to Launch

 The Vending Machines have arrived at the YMCA and Boys and Girls Club and people are stopping by with grins on their faces while we load them up with children's books!

This was truly a team effort and there are a number of people to thank for making this happen!

• Amy Rae for the enticing collection choices that have kids asking when the machines will be ready!
• Rob for his awesome technical expertise that helped us get everything working just right.
• Marcia and the Outreach Team for agreeing to keep the machine fully stocked and bring back returns.
• Dan and the Maintenance Team for delivering the book drops that will sit beside each machine.
• Jeremy for doing the work necessary to code the grant budget and get the grant reimbursements.
• Brandi and Aaron for managing the messaging, current and future.
• Tara and the CS Team for setting up the collection rental agreement and processing all the new books.
• Aaron for designing the gorgeous machine wraps- we've heard lots of compliments already!

Here's what you need to know:

• You can use the machines now, but they aren't completely stocked. We're still waiting on picture books.
• This project was funded with federal pandemic relief dollars and is intended to give kids easy access to books so their reading skills will improve. Currently 27% of KUSD 3rd graders can read at a 3rd grade level.
• The collection covers reading levels from picture books to chapter books. 
• You can't pay fines or place holds on the machine. Think of the machine as a candy bar machine stocked with books. I scan my card and choose 204 to get the book in the front of that row.
• Patrons can return any item they have checked out from any branch or the machines to any book drop, including the ones by the vending machines.
• Patrons DO NOT have to use a PIN at the machines- just scan your library barcode and choose the item you'd like.
• At this time you cannot scan the patron barcode you have stored in your KPL app. Our vendor will replace the machines' scanners over the next few weeks to enable that feature.
• Remember there are no overdue fines on children's books and the machine holds nothing but children's books.
• People are already asking whether we'll also stock books for adults. This project's intention is to help kids catch up with their reading proficiency post-pandemic. So for the first year we'll only be stocking children's materials.
• The machine gives printed receipts.
• The checkout period for items in the machines is the same as any kids books in our collection.
• The collection will change over completely four times per year. We have a rental plan to make sure the books are always new and pretty. The first year of the rental plan is paid for through the grant. Future years will be paid through our library collection budget.
• The records for the books in the machines do not show in the SHARE catalog. So no holds.
• Some of the children's books for the machines are really skinny and we may have incidents where they drop unexpectedly. We'll figure out these small problems as we go. 
• If you get phone calls from the general public you can't answer, offer to call the patron back and talk to Linda, Rob, Marcia, or me for help. Please don't transfer patrons directly to us- we're on the go a lot. We don't want the patron to dead-end.
• If you get calls from the Y or the BGC staff, go ahead and transfer those to us.