Author birthday, and Bright Spots to warm your heart

 Happy birthday, Mo Willems!

I was delighted to be interviewed by Len Iaquinta on WGTD about the new children's library. Listen here. 

NYT ran a terrific article for Valentines Day,  "A Love Letter to Libraries, Long Overdue."

This week's Bright Spots are many:

From Amy Rae:

"Lisa might not remember to toot her own horn, so I'm going to tell you about her Monday (02.13.23) story time.  That evening, she had Family Storytime, and she was so engaging that she got one of our little regulars to stay the whole time.  He's a neurodiverse preschooler, and I've seen his parents try to get him interested in storytimes and activities repeatedly, to little success.  (I've tried to help, too!  But I haven't been convincing. )  

But Lisa's storytime held his attention, and she made it welcoming to him, making sure his family knew when loud music was going to play so they could put his headphones on.  She mentioned to me that after, she and the kiddo's parents talked for a bit about the value of social experiences like storytime, even when they might be difficult.  It was heartening to watch from afar, because I've seen how hard this family works to enrich their son's life, and their success on Monday really speaks to Lisa's compassion and skill in working with children of all abilities."

From Shannon:

I'd like to give Brightspot awards to everyone who's helped so much with the building renovation at Southwest. From the Southwest Branch Staff shifting all of the fiction and non-fiction before the carpeting began, to maintenance doing the heavy lifting, Collection Services creating new classifications for special collections, YFS collaborating on a permanent Parent/Teacher wall, and Communications for getting the word out (and sharing the word inside), we've covered a lot of ground (and touched a lot of books) in the last few weeks. I'd also like to thank the Blue Tape Brigade for helping measure and mark (and measure and measure again) our floor plan for the movers.
Lastly, I want to give an extra big thank you to Rob and Michelle. They've balanced their regular jobs with table moving, second opinions, moral support and finding my tape measure.
Thank you all! We still have a few weeks to go, but we can already see how special this new space is going to be.

UPCOMING

Informational videos to keep you up to speed on the Children's Library Project, plus a Q&A form to ask us anything and have your questions answered via video!

#MovingTheStacks

 

Watch the team from CH Coakley move the stacks! With them moved, Dickow Cyzak will begin the carpet replacement tomorrow. 

FOL Sale @ SW This Weekend and Bright Spots!

FOL Book Sale This Weekend in SW Lobby. Please pitch in if you can. FOL provides $20,000 in support to KPL programs and services annually. This year they are sponsoring the bookmobile consultant that is designing our new vehicle, a subscription that will give us lots of live author programs, and support for the Big Read kickoff program. If you can't squeeze time out of your desk schedule to help, please stop by to say thank you to the volunteers who do a lot of heavy lifting for the sale and to Brandi who is Staff Liaison Extraordinaire. 

Friday, February 9th, 2023

8:00  AM - 10:00 AM: SETUP

10:00 AM - 6:00 PM: OPEN TO PUBLIC

Saturday, February 10th, 2023

9:00 AM - 5:00 PM: OPEN TO PUBLIC

Sunday, February 11th, 2023

12:00 PM - 4:00 PM: OPEN TO PUBLIC

4-6pm CLEANUP

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• The recarpeting project begins Monday at SW. We'll be open to the public after 3pm M-F and hold normal hours on the weekends until this is done. We'll also hold normal hours M,T,W of election week.
• We have proposals from three different architecture firms for the new Uptown Children's Library. The Board's Buildings and Grounds Committee will meet to discuss and help select the winner.
• Linda, Rob and I met 5 legislators in Madison this week and told them about all the good work libraries are doing here. They were all very welcoming and thanked us for the good work we do! One of the things we asked for was a connection to Tammy Baldwin's office so that we might leverage federal funds for an all-electric bookmobile. Keep your fingers crossed!
• Congratulations go out to Megan who secured her first library grant! Megan applied for the ALSC "Light the Way" Grant, which honors author Kate DiCamilllo and the themes in her books. The $3,000 award assists a library "in conducting exemplary and replicable outreach to underserved populations through a new and innovative (emphasis theirs!) program or an expansion of work already being done." Megan's grant-funded project will be to work with employees and residents of Shalom Center's family shelter and Women & Children's Horizons to continue providing the already successful monthly KPL Family Night boxes, as well as a well-stocked library of non-circulating popular books and literacy-based toys & games for ages 0-14. This will include containers for the toys, as well as bookshelves for each location. The grant committee met with Megan and I via video chat this morning to deliver the news. They said they were thrilled to be able to support and share this important, impactful, innovative, and easily replicable program. I am so proud of Megan and the way that our services impact not only our immediate community, but libraries across the country! 

This week's Bright Spot Awards go to:

• Shawn Wolf who will be presenting "Totally Toddler: Planning Based on Patterns of Play" at UW-Whitewater’s Early Childhood Conference, and "Public Libraries As Partners in Continuing Education" at DPI’s Promoting Early Childhood Conference! Shawn will be presenting at these conferences with former KPL staff member Erin Mendoza. Wowsa, Shawn! We are so proud to work with you!
• Megan Nigh for her winning grant proposal, as well as her amazing empathy and fortitude while dealing with several trying behavior incidents. Another KPL Rockstar!

Library Legislative Day and 100 Extraordinary Women

Linda, Rob and I are heading to Madison Monday and Tuesday to talk to our legislators about libraries. Call us if you need us for anything!

Our  KPL Foundation's 100 Extraordinary Women campaign is heating up and we're almost ready to launch our website. Our campaign goal is $100,000. We're recruiting 12 table captains who will each recruit 7 more women. Each woman will donate $1,000 in honor of a woman that has made a big impact in their lives and that woman's name will be among all the other 99 honored women on a permanent plaque at the new children's library. Donations are one time or over a period of time for as little as $17 per month. Men can donate in honor of a woman. A campaign celebration luncheon will be held this summer with all women who donate invited. I have agreed to be a table captain, so if you'd like to sit at my table, please let me know! It would be wonderful to fill a table with library staff! Here's a sneak peek at the 100EW website. We'll tweak it a bit more and launch it next week.

In the coming weeks, we'll share our stories of the women we're honoring and why donating to the children's library is the perfect way to honor them.

Stay warm, everyone!

Barb