100 Extraordinary Women Campaign Celebration tonight

Our 100 Extraordinary Women campaign surpassed its goal and landed 156 gifts of $1,000 each to kick off our "For Every Child" campaign that will fund the new Children's Library. Special thanks to Brandi who managed the bulk of the work tracking donations, designing campaign materials, and talking with donors. There's still time to participate. Even though the celebration is tonight, we'll keep taking donations for months to come. So if anyone asks, please encourage them to participate!

And if anyone calls the library asking about event details, we're at the Todd Weir Center at Carthage College. Doors open at 5pm. Only people who have RSVPd should plan to attend.

This week's Bright Spots come from Hilary P:

Megan was walking out of the YFS office when a small boy called to his mom for help with a word search puzzle. His mom had her hands full so Megan stopped and asked him what he needed help with, then proceeded to spend 10 full minutes helping him sound out the search words and find them in his puzzle. She was so encouraging to help him with his reading and the mom got a breather to finish what she was doing.


Amy Rae has been very generous with her time recently. She is constantly offering to change around her schedule whenever something comes up for a coworker.

News for the Week

In the news: 

Illinois Bans Book Bans from Governing Magazine.

Republican bill targets 'obscene' materials in Wisconsin school libraries | Wisconsin Public Radio

Here at KPL:

We've been talking about doing more data analysis for years to inform us on how the changes we make impact our library use, and how our services compare with libraries our size. Rob is very skilled at working with data, and he has generously agreed to dive into building us a data dashboard that answers a lot of our questions. To free up his time so he can focus on data, Facilities will come back under my wing with Dan Davis reporting directly to me. You'll see me out and about at various branches getting the lay of the land and building my understanding of our facilities challenges as we develop the 2024 budget. 

The Capital Campaign for the new library is going well. We received a $20,000 gift pledge from the Kloss Foundation and we've been contacted by several local businesses and foundations about additional gifts. If you know anyone in a position of leadership at local companies, we'd be grateful for an introduction. That's our best avenue to introducing the KL Kids @ Uptown project opportunity to potential community partners.

We have two new Board members! Victor Escobedo from Carthage College's Diversity Office and Sean McKim from KUSD will begin their terms at the July 13th meeting. We also have 3 applicants for Teen Board Liaison positions. These TBL's will not have voting rights, but will otherwise participate in Board meetings and on Board committees to hone their civic engagement skills.

We have preliminary sketches of the new children's library from the architect that we'll reveal at the 100 Extraordinary Women celebration event this coming Wednesday at Carthage College. Here's a picture of the bubble donor wall we've decided to use to list the names of everyone honored in that campaign. 

This week's Bright Spots go to:

Amy Rae, Luiza, and Alex S. for  their quick and compassionate response to a patron they found unresponsive at SW during closing. Excellent teamwork and a happy ending. You make us proud!

The entire YFS team for delivering an hour of intense happiness to hundreds of children and their caregivers at last Saturday's Bluey event. Particular praise goes to Hilary and Amy Rae who masterfully delighted their audience.