Fond du Lac Public Library Bookmobile Gets Facelift

Ken Hall, director at Fond Du Lac Public Library (FDLPL), shares the story of a makeover for one of the library's two bookmobiles. One is a 1986 model of formerly questionable appearance FDLPL bought from Milwaukee over 20 years ago. As part of a summer Art in Action project, kids from the local Boys and Girls club designed and executed a mural on the side of the vehicle under the direction of VISTA volunteers. The Fond du Lac Volunteer Center collaborated in this effort as well. The kids, the Vistas, and everyone involved did an excellent job. If you would like to see the pictures click on http://www.flickr.com/photos/fdlpl/sets/72157624429329613/
This vehicle is our book-immobile normally parked in the Village of Rosendale and open 16 hours per week as an FDLPL Satellite. Ken invites you to stop and take a look.

RFP: Campaign for Wisconsin Libraries Seeks Web Site Redesign

The WLA Foundation is seeking a qualified Web designer to redesign its Campaign for Wisconsin Libraries Web site.

The Campaign is a state-level public relations and advertising campaign that seeks to promote a wider understanding of the value and importance of Wisconsin libraries. The WLA Foundation launched this ongoing, multi-media publicity campaign, including the Web site, in 2006.

If you are interested in assisting us in creating a fresh, new look for the Campaign by redesigning the Web site, please review the Request for Proposal. Submissions are requested by August 20. We plan to interview finalists in mid-September. Work on the project is scheduled to begin in late 2010 or early 2011.

Marathon County Public Library: Looking to the Future

A news report by WSAW-TV in Wausau, showcases how Marathon County Public Library is keeping current with technology trends, including electronic books. We need more stories like this throughout the summer, to keep the value of libraries at top-of-mind as state and local budgets are put together.

Plans for renovation of Madison Central Public Library

Plans for renovation of Madison Central Public Library are in the news:

This story speculates that the renovation may not include a fresh facade or a third floor as touted by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and others.

In response, Mayor Cieslewicz challenges that "There was no new information that justified the State Journal's breathless headline or lead paragraph."

WLA Finds New Partners for Intellectual Freedom Award

The WLA Intellectual Freedom Award formerly selected by the Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT) and funded in part by ProQuest (and before that, SIRS) has some new partners. Thanks to the work of Helen Adams, IFRT Chair, and Val Edwards, IFRT Past Chair, new award sponsors are TeachingBooks.net, the Center for Information Policy Research (CIPR) and the UW-Milwaukee School of Information Studies (SOIS). 

Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association (WEMTA) has agreed to co-present the award with WLA. Both WLA-IFRT and WEMTA representatives will sit on the WLA/WEMTA Intellectual Freedom Award Committee to select annual award winners. The new partnership agreement will enable both organizations to promote the award more widely amongst libraries of all types and to celebrate the achievements of library and school professionals who support intellectual freedom.For more information about the award (nominations are closed for this year) and to see a list of previous winners, see http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/ifrt/IFaward.html.

Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame Seeks 2010 Nominees

The Wisconsin Library Heritage Center Steering Committee is accepting nominations for individuals to be inducted into the Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame in 2010. Nominations must be submitted by August 9, 2010. Procedures and a nomination form are located HERE. Both the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center and the Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame are programs of the Wisconsin Library Association Foundation. Induction into the Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame is granted to individuals who have made an exceptional contribution to the statewide improvement of library service in Wisconsin over a sustained period of time. Individuals who have worked in and/or advocated for Wisconsin libraries will be considered. Both living and deceased individuals will be considered. Final selection of inductees into the Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame will be made by the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center Steering Committee. Nominations should be submitted to Larry T. Nix (Chair of the WLHC Steering Committee) as email attachments at nix@libraryhistorybuff.org by August 9. For additional information please feel free to contact Larry T. Nix.

More Than 1,600 Participate in National Library Advocacy Day

The American Library Associations reports that the Library Advocacy Day rally on Capitol Hill was a success thanks to the participation of over 1,600 ALA members and advocates of all ages who braved the 90-degree heat on June 29 to take part in the largest federal advocacy event in ALA history. (About 20 Wisconsin library advocates participated, led by Julie Schneider, WLA's Federal Legislative Advocate and ALA Councilor.)

As library advocates in your states, you represent Americans in every community across this country people who need their libraries, ALA President Camila Alire told the crowd as she opened the rally.

You have all read the headlines about the funding cuts in libraries across the country. You've lived those cuts, Alire said, adding the advocacy day was the ALA's chance to make sure Congress also knew about the needs of our nation's libraries of all kinds.

Alire emphasized the main themes of the advocacy day including increasing Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding to $300 million for FY2011 and including support for school librarians in the upcoming reauthorization of the Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Pumping up the crowd for their meetings on the Hill following the rally, she led the group with the rally cry, We're going to tell them!

See the complete story with videos and photos of the event!

Sean Carroll's "Remarkable Creatures" Selected WLA Literary Award Winner

The Literary Awards Committee of the Readers’ Section of the Wisconsin Library Association has chosen Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species by Sean Carroll of Madison as the winner of the 2010 Wisconsin Library Association Literary Award, given for the highest literary achievement by a Wisconsin author for a book published in 2009. Remarkable creatures abound as Carroll opens a window into the lives and work of top evolutionary explorers as their adventures pave the way for our understanding of evolution. Remarkable Creatures distinguishes itself in a way very few nonfiction books are able to; it contains an astonishing amount of knowledge and insight into evolutionary sciences while still remaining fast-paced and accessible to the layman. Sean Carroll’s work stands as a wonderful homage to Darwin’s work while bringing us up to the present where we can see how much our understanding of the evolutionary process has changed since those first forays into evolutionary thought.

The Wisconsin Library Association Literary Award is made possible by a grant from the WLA Foundation.

Two authors were chosen for their body of work as Notable Wisconsin Authors. James Magnuson (grew up in a series of small towns in Wisconsin) is the author of multiple fiction titles, including The Hounds of Winter, Windfall, and Ghost Dancing. Kenneth Stampp (born and raised in Milwaukee) is the author of several scholarly titles including The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-bellum South and The Era of Reconstruction, 1856-1877.

2010 Outstanding Achievement awards for 2009 publications include the following ten titles by Wisconsin authors. They are:

Lauren Groff (formerly of Madison) - Delicate Edible Birds and Other Stories
Jim Knipfel (formerly of Green Bay) - Unplugging Philco
Greg Kot (formerly of Milwaukee) - Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music
Valerie Laken (Milwaukee) - Dream House: a Novel
Daniyal Mueenuddin (formerly of Elroy) - In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
Michael Perry (Fall Creek) - Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting
Jay Reed (Milwaukee) - Thor and More
Kristine Rusch (formerly of Superior) - Diving into the Wreck
Kathleen Kline Schmitt (Madison), Ronald Bruch (Oshkosh), and Frederick Binkowski (Milwaukee) - People of the Sturgeon: Wisconsin's Love Affair with an Ancient Fish
Patrick Somerville (formerly of Green Bay) - The Cradle: a Novel

2010 Outstanding Achievement in Poetry awards for 2009 titles include the following five titles:

Bruce Dethlefsen (Westfield) - Breather
Jesse Lee Kercheval (Madison) - Cinema Muto
John Koethe (Milwaukee) - Ninety-Fifth Street: Poems
Margaret Rozga (Waukesha) - 200 Nights and One Day
Angela Sorby (Milwaukee) - Bird Skin Coat

Thanks to the 2010 Literary Awards Committee members for meeting the rewarding but difficult challenge of selecting the best Wisconsin authors have to offer. The committee members (pictured above) are: Ellen Jepson (chair), Jean Anderson, Anne Callaghan, Pat Chevis, Caroline Haskin, Brian Kopetsky, Amy Lutzke, Andrew Scott, Deb Shapiro, and Cece Wiltzius.

Summer 2010 issue of Communique available

The Summer 2010 issue of Communique, the newsletter of WAPL (the Wisconsin Association of Public Libraries) is now available at http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/wapl/communique/77.pdf. Past issues are also available.

Some of the highlights of the Summer issue:

• News and Notes from PLA
• Nettop PC for Public Access
• Free Legal Assistance at Oshkosh and Menasha Libraries
• Milwaukee County Teen Book Award
• Gaming @ Fitchburg
• Milwaukee Public Library Celebrates New Milwaukee Poet Laureate
• Johnson Creek Aids Home Schoolers
• Serving “New Adults”

Enjoy!

Joint Finance Approves ARRA Funding for Broadband Expansion

The state legislature's Joint Committee on Finance today approved (16-0) using $22.9 million in federal economic stimulus funding for the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) that will expand fiber to 385 libraries and 82 schools. In addition to approving the use of federal dollars, the motion required the Department of Administration to provide additional information to Joint Finance by September 1, 2010: the sources of the state match of $5.7 million required by the fiber grant, the status of a contract extension between the state and BadgerNet providers, and an estimate of the cost to educational agencies and the state's universal service fund for Technology in Educational Achievement (TEACH) programs for the current and next biennia.

In recent weeks, WLA had asked members to contact state legislators to encourage the DOA to extend the BadgerNet contract through 2016. WLA also urged Joint Finance to approve the use of ARRA funding for the broadband expansion project. Thanks to the many members who responded to this call to action.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau Analysis of this issue can be found at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/lfb/Section1310/2010_06_23_JFC_Broadband.pdf