Looking back at 2010

2010 has been a busy and eventful year at APL. Looking back, here's a few of the things that jump out:

1. Changing of the guard: new leadership, or APL:TNG -- Colleen Rortvedt has been tapped as the next Library Director -- I probably list this first because looming retirement somehow seems like a big deal to me. But after I've been gone for six months, it'll either be "Terry who?" or "this is great -- why did we never do it before?" I appreciate the extensive hiring process our Board went through to find the next Director: they made a great choice. Colleen will bring some great new energy and innovative ideas; she is poised to make positive changes. 2010's accomplishments testify to her vision and effectiveness. In any case, fifteen years of me in this chair is enough.

   Last May, Brian Kopetsky succeeded Meg Shriver, our longstanding reference supervisor with whom I worked for 30 years. Meg was well loved for many reasons, nonetheless Brian has begun making some positive changes as well, showing leadership in social media, marketing, technology, and the Wisconsin public library community.
   

2. Friends Executive Director & board bring new activism and energy -- After our Friends and Foundation merged last year, they spent some months getting organized and hired their first Executive Director -- Janice Daniels Quinlan -- who then set up a great annual meeting, recruited new board members, and has greatly expanded fund-raising and advocacy. With Jan's leadership, the Friends are increasing their visibility and effectiveness while fostering increased connections with the community.


3. RFID sparks massive weeding, slated for complete implementation in 2011 -- There are four great things about the way RFID is going. First is the concept of tagging the collection mainly with volunteers, making the process shorter and cheaper to implement. Second is the tight teamwork of the group that planned the details of implementation, and went through the RFP and vendor selection process. Third is the totally massive weeding project that saw tens of thousands of marginal, worn, or outdated items pulled from the collection, buying us some needed space and making the tagging faster and more cost-effective. And finally, the bold plan to complete the project next year with sophisticated self-checks, security gates and automated materials handling. The Library Board, Mayor and City Council all approved the $400,000 capital project, which will transform many tasks when implemented in 2011.
   
   
4. Meeting room changes -- We had several responses to increasing meeting room use, with associated workload issues as well as supply and demand problems. We created a new small meeting room, permanently set up as a conference room and thus readily available with minimal effort. We implemented the Evanced meeting room booking and calendar software, allowing anyone to check on room availability and put in a request 24/7 without staff mediation. Lower level rooms are now available to community groups on Saturdays. We set up a new color-coded directional signage system on the lower level, clarifying room information and eliminating confusion.
   


5. New long range plan -- Beginning with a staff retreat in February, through meetings of a staff task force in the Spring and a Library Board/community committee in the summer, we revised our long range plan. While the new plan did not represent a radical departure (only prudent in the midst of management transition), it includes a redefined mission, a serious update and some useful new directions. Some of these were already underway with building recommendations, RFID, changes to the Friends and updated marketing efforts.
   


6. Marketing plan & social media -- After a long evolutionary process, we have a new marketing plan with some good mechanisms to maintain communications. An active team has made our Facebook page into a great information source and opportunity for community conversation. We are poised to integrate calendar feeds, improved email communication and other social media, along with a re-branded Friends organization, to possibly re-brand the library and finally bring home the oft-delayed website revamp.
   


7. Program attendance & meeting room use jumps -- Our annual program attendance is pushing 40,000, an increase of 16% over last year. This is related to marketing efforts and to hardworking and innovative program staff, putting together cultural and educational offerings for all ages. There's also been a huge increase in use of our meeting rooms. Both these changes reflect the increasing community center role of the library.
   


8. Monitors depart and “Maintenance” turns into “Operations” -- We significantly tweaked, rather than transmogrified, our former Maintenance Clerks to provide some increased security and oversight backup for public services staff. We had done this with part-time Monitors for after-school hours nine months a year, but had been unsuccessful for years in getting funds to expand the Monitor hours. Instead we eliminated a few part-time unbenefited jobs, folded those duties into the Maintenance job descriptions, and gave the full-time, renamed, Operations Clerks additional training on policies and Black Belt Librarian techniques. As city Facilities Management staff has taken on more of the maintenance duties here, our Operations Clerks have used the time to start some new routines, checking in with service desks while doing their regular rounds, and provide public assistance for the increased meeting room use.
   


9. Ebook platforms and discussions proliferate -- While a bunch of have been excited by the iPad this year, we continue to have supply, demand, format and DRM issues with eBooks. Through our system and a statewide consortium, we are able to offer downloadable eBooks in our catalog, and these can be read on Sony Readers and Nooks, as well as Androids, iPads, and iPhones. There are not yet enough titles or copies, and they're not perfectly easy to use, and they don't work on Kindles, but it's a good start. There's been a lot of conversation with much more to come.
   


10. Building project stalls with ongoing economic concerns -- The City Council referred the Library Board's building request to a special Capital Facilities Committee, which met for some months, and is currently on hiatus until late winter or early spring. Community Development Director Karen Harkness summed up the situation nicely, saying she:

    "believes the Committee would be in agreement that the most prudent way to proceed would be to build a new library. However, she also believes the Committee would be in agreement there are too many unknowns such as stimulus dollars, fundraising and the economy."

    Stay tuned!
    

Librarians discuss summer reading

The Post-Crescent website featured a streaming video interview with three of our librarians, covering adult, young adult, and children's summer library programs. They included a chat module for people to submit questions. Cool beans, and a great job by our three staff and PC reporter Kara Patterson!

[obsolete link removed]

Community space

Our library provides meeting spaces for community groups as one of our essential services. At Monday's meeting of the Capital Facilities Committee, examining the need for a new library building, one of our Alderpersons questioned plans to include expanded meeting spaces, asking:

"Why should the library incorporate everything for everyone? Why should the taxpayers pay for this when other structures exist? Why did the library provide space for a state legislator's listening session?"

Thankfully, another Alderperson, Michael Meyer, had a good answer, showing a strong understanding of the importance of public spaces in a public library. He said many of the same things I would say.

My answer is that of course we are not incorporating everything for everyone. We are doing specific things for specific reasons, in this case providing public gathering spaces to community groups, educational and cultural presentations, government, and library programs. I think we're doing it for some well considered reasons:

• It's our mission: "The Appleton Public Library is a center of community life, offering opportunities to learn, know, gather, and grow."
• Public libraries support democracy and democratic processes
• we're the new town square
• we're neutral ground, not on one side of issues
  
• we are freely accessible -- the ability to use the library is not dependent on ability to pay
• we promote free speech in collections and policies
  
• we promote access to information -- and public access to government, including legislators, congressional representatives, schools, and local, state and national committees and boards
• We're a well-known gathering place for all ages -- children, parents, seniors and families -- as well as all socioeconomic groups, all religions, all ethnic groups, all political viewpoints. The library is visibly for everyone
  
• We support community groups, through providing resources, information, a place to post public notices, as well as a place to gather
• Meeting spaces are integrated with library services:
• we provide library programs, and educational and cultural events, for all ages
• we provide a great many programs in collaboration with other organizations -- often the schools, but also colleges, the Multicultural Center, hospitals, social service agencies, and coalitions like the Project Promise Poverty group, and MoneySmart Week.
• we view collaborations and other meeting room use as an opportunity to help people become aware of books,reading, and other library materials and services -- once we've got them in the door, I love it if they walk out carrying a book!
• Our rooms are heavily used by a broad cross-section of the community: when I looked at several years of records, I found many uses by the local school district and various aspects of government (chiefly local), but also scouts, 4-H, religious groups, the League of Women Voters -- the list is LONG!
• Use is growing steadily over the long term, despite the fact that we have to turn groups away with no space available an impose limits both on the types of users and number of uses. We have a supply and demand issue and a staff cost to meet the demand.
• A new or updated building would allow for:
• Expanded meeting room hours -- available before and after library hours if designed for secure access
• Permanently set-up rooms (board rooms, lecture hall/auditorium) allowing for increased use with decreased set-up times & reduced staffing cost
• More use by business, perhaps on a fee basis, if there's enough space available that a sales meeting wouldn't mean there's no space for the soccer club
• The possibility that we could find donors to subsidize the cost of creating meeting spaces in exchange for naming rights.

The discussion continues...

Awesome teens

Today we had the wrap-up party for our teen summer program. Over 300 teens participated in the program (though fortunately for the pizza budget, not all attended the wrap-up), attending programs, writing book reviews, poetry and other creative reactions to YA literature.

Thanks to our Friends and Foundation, we had some great prizes to offer. Winners included:

• Barnes and Noble Gift card — Alex Reis
• RC Helicopter — Shuri Rajan
• Flip digital camcorder — Edreena Sampson
• Gift Card Variety Pack — Sami Barnett
• HP Mini Netbook — Alan Bohnert

And at the party teens consumed mass quantities of pizza and snacks, played games and just had fun hanging at the library. As they did all summer, a small herd of teen volunteers kept things together for us, following the leadership of our amazing YA staff. A splendid time was had by all ... and school starts soon.

Farm Market Stories & Songs

Miss Kathleen keeps 'em spellbound at the Appleton Downtown Farm Market:Our Children's staff is doing story hours at the market on three Saturday mornings this summer -- and even without the stories, the weekly market is a cure for the summertime blues (part 5).

Library receives family literacy grant

From today's Post Crescent:

$860,000 in grants from J.J. Keller Foundation and U.S. Oil golf event will go to poverty programs

Collaboration between a charity golf event and the J.J. Keller Foundation will mean more than $860,000 for organizations targeting poverty in northeastern Wisconsin...

Appleton Library Foundation: $31,402 for Prime Time Family Reading Program which uses reading out loud, storytelling, and reading strategies to promote higher-order thinking and help the children from low- income families better succeed in school. This is year one of a two-year grant totaling $36,902.

Our children's librarians have done great work to develop & implement the Prime Time Family Reading Time Program -- originally developed by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. It's gratifying to see this kind of community support and recognition that family literacy is a basic need when it comes to fighting poverty.

It was a real privilege that the Schmidt Oil Foundation, J.J. Keller Foundation, and the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region chose our library to announce these many grants to fight poverty. We're grateful for the grants and proud to be in distinguished company!

Cure for the Summertime Blues (part 2A)

Tom Pease performed for about 1,100 kids and parents today, with his message of reading, music, self-esteem, learning and fun. Here's the inimitable Tom, ably assisted by our Children's Librarian Ellen:

Cure for the Summertime Blues (part 2)

Great programs are underway for all ages. Today, songster Tom Pease is doing three shows, working his magic for children and parents.Staff and volunteers are working hard to organize things for the thousands who will participate in summer programs. Below, three staff people, one summer intern and two volunteers cover the information desk and prepare for the summer teen program.

more info at apl.org!

Book Festival wraps up

Elizabeth Berg, who was the last program of this year's Fox Cities Book Festival, is finishing up in our program area. She drew a crowd of 183 people and we had to scramble to set up additional chairs. A whole bunch of volunteers and Book Festival Board members quickly materialized to help get the chairs out.

That's just the way the whole thing has been -- all sorts of people, from all over the Fox Cities, pitching in together to promote authors, books and reading. It'll be awhile before all the heads are counted and all the evaluations are read, but I'd say it was a howling success. Our library had almost 1,100 people attending programs over the past four days. Michael Perry, our community read author, drew about 1,500 people speaking at every public library in the Fox Cities, plus the UW-Fox campus and in concert at the Performing Arts Center. Our National Library Week door count was 1,868 people a day coming to our building.

But numbers hardly tell the story. The real news was in all the conversations that sprang up, all the connections that developed, all the people exposed to authors and ideas they didn't know before. You get a lot of laughs hearing Sherman Alexie describe his appearance on the Colbert Report, or watching Nikola-Lisa wearing shades, playing the blues harp and doing a rap version of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" -- and then you can talk to people about it.

It took a lot of work, a lot of donations and a lot of hours of volunteer time by a lot of people. Every public library, and a lot of the school and university libraries, in the Fox Cities has been involved, along with many other community-minded folks who work for the joys of books, readers and writers. I'm betting we'll do it again!

photo: Michael Perry @ APL. Photo by Michael Kenney

Community Read: Michael Perry

We've kicked off this year's community read, with Wisconsin writer Michael Perry and we got a nice article in the Post Crescent:

Fox Cities Reads program hopes Michael Perry gets Valley laughing
Humorist's books chosen for community read

By Cheryl Anderson • Post-Crescent staff writer • January 23, 2009

APPLETON — Three of best-selling Wisconsin author and humorist Michael Perry's works will be featured in the 2009 Fox Cities Reads.

The public libraries of Appleton, Neenah, Menasha, Kaukauna, Kimberly and Little Chute and the library of the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley kicked off the third annual community read Thursday at the Copper Leaf Hotel. [entire article here]

We're pretty excited, and had not only the newspaper, but three television stations and three radio stations give us coverage. Rev. Will Bloedow, APL Board member -- and with his wife Ruth, co-chair of the Fox Cities Book Festival -- said:

Every library in the Fox Cities is here today, along with two mayors and a village administrator. This shows a sense of community which our leaders tells us we need badly to rebuild our nation and our world. It's an example of working together to build community and efficiency through collaboration.

Websites to check:

• Fox Cities Reads
• Michael Perry
• Fox Cities Book Festival
  

King Corn - film discussion

You are what you eat, and we need to talk. Next Thursday, Dec 4 at 6:30PM, we'll have a screening of the documentary film King Corn, and discussion led by Dr. Dubear Kroening, Associate Professor of Biology at UW-Fox Valley.

From the PBS blurb:

Behind America’s dollar hamburgers and 72-ounce sodas is a key ingredient that quietly fuels our fast-food nation: corn. In KING CORN , recent college graduates Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis leave the east coast for rural Iowa, where they decide to grow an acre of the nation’s most powerful crop.

Alarmed by signs of America’s bulging waistlines, the filmmakers arrive in the Midwest enthusiastic about their new endeavor. ... Ian and Curt are increasingly troubled by how the abundance of corn is helping to make fast food cheap and consumers sick, driving animals into confinement and farmers off the land. Animal nutritionists confirm that corn feeding can make cows sick and beef fatty, but it also lets consumers have fast food at low prices. As feedlot operator Bob Bledsoe says in KING CORN, “America wants and demands cheap food.”

Here's the trailer for the film:

Greening the library

Library Journal had a provocative article in the Nov. 1 issue, "Global warming's library challenge", calling for immediate plans and actions. Our library has several times partnered with a local sustainability group to offer programs and discussions. But talk and programs are not enough. We've made substantial strides to recycle and conserve energy, but that's not enough.

We need to be intentional; at the very least, an awareness of sustainability concerns should inform our purchasing and planning. Writing in the September issue of Shambhala Sun, Thich Nhat Hanh noted:

If we continue to live as we have been living, consuming without a thought to the future, destroying our forests and emitting greenhouse gases, then devastating climate change is inevitable. ...

The Chinese, the Indians, and the Vietnamese are still dreaming the “American dream,” as if that dream were the ultimate goal of mankind—everyone has to have a car of their own, a bank account, a cell phone, a television set. In twenty-five years the population of China will be 1.5 billion people, and if each of them wants to drive their own private car, China will need 99 million barrels of oil every day. But world production today is only 84 million barrels per day, so the American dream is not possible for the Chinese, nor the Indians or the Vietnamese. The American dream is no longer possible for the Americans. We cannot continue to live like this. It is not a sustainable economy.

Potential areas for "green library" discussion, planning and action:

• energy use in current operations
• building & construction plans
• library supplies & products used
  
• service implications
• disaster planning
• cost savings
  
• program planning
• recycling
• collection development

All kinds of libraries need to step up and engage the issues; there are many resources listed in the LJ article. Maybe we're not going to put solar panels and wind turbines on our roof, but we still need to get staff at our library talking and working.

Candidates debate

We had over 100 people attend tonight's State Assembly debate.

The Post-Crescent streamed it live. Thanks to the League of Women Voters for cosponsoring and running the show -- and to our two candidates, Penny Bernard Schaber and Jo Egelhoff.

"Going to the candidates debate"

I know everyone is getting burned out on the election, but we are pleased to be co-sponsoring a debate for assembly candidates at our library. Quoth the Post-Crescent:

57th District candidates will debate Thursday
Appleton Post Crescent - WI, USA

APPLETON — The public is invited to a 57th Assembly District debate from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

Hosted by the Appleton League of Women Voters at the Appleton Public Library, the debate features candidates Jo Egelhoff, a Republican, and Penny Bernard Schaber, a Democrat.

Both are from Appleton and are seeking the seat vacated by state Rep. Steve Wieckert, R-Appleton, in Tuesday's election.

The library is located at 225 N. Oneida St.

The Post-Crescent will cover the debate live on www.postcrescent.com.

I'm glad we're doing it, hope we get a good turnout -- and I'm looking forward to seeing how the Post Crescent does live coverage.

"Democracy is coming to the U.S.A."

As the election season winds down, many of us are thinking about politics and the electoral process. As in so many things, public libraries have a role in helping people stay informed. This function may never be as popular as John Grisham novels, or the latest popular DVD, but it's one of the most important things we do.

As James Madison said:

A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

Most of this happens indirectly: people read what they want, and it's our business to have books and periodicals that cover all sides of the issues. But here's a bit of what we're doing directly this year:

• Registering voters: library staff is deputized to do voter registrations, and we've hosted several visits from League of Women Voters registration teams
• An updated set of Quickref page of useful Internet links to election and political information -- our Reference staff has found some of the good stuff out there
  
• A bibliography on the Electoral College
  
• Library programs and community meetings, including
• Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson (pictured), discussing "Impartial Judiciary" and concerns about judicial election campaigns [co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters & the library]
• A candidate forum for Assembly candidates [co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans]
  
• A debate between Wisconsin 57th Assembly district candidates [co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters & the library]
• A presentation and podcast on the Electoral College by Lawrence University Professor Arnold Shober [sponsored by the library]

As Chief Justice Abrahamson noted in her presentation, it's up to us as voters to pay attention and check facts. That's one of the things impartial libraries are good for. We also have good stories, and Justice Abrahamson recommends John Grisham's The Appeal as a good illustration of the problems when politics intrude too far into judicial elections.

"Connecting writers and readers" -- Book Festival to return

The book festival is coming back. Today's Post Crescent has the story:

Second Fox Cities Book Festival set for six-day run in April 2009
The sequel to Fox Cities Book Festival 2008 is due out this spring. [read full story]

The will be many needs and opportunities to donate or volunteer time. Our library is proud to participate, with other libraries, schools, organizations and individuals. Featured authors next year will include:

• Samantha Chang
• Sherman Alexie
• Michael Perry
• Sandra Kring
• David Giffels
• A. Manette Ansay
• Elizabeth Berg
• Philip Gulley
• Simon Armitage
• ...more to come...

Watch the Book Festival website for more information.

Literary music

We were fortunate to have singer-songwriter Anne Hills perform at our library yesterday. The Allmusic Guide says of Anne:

A stunning soprano tone has made Anne Hills one of contemporary folk music's premier vocalists. But her affinity for choosing unforgettable material and her knack for writing heartfelt original songs have brought her to the upper echelon of her craft.

Anne gave a terrific performance for an appreciative crowd -- and took the time to express her admiration of librarians' support for intellectual freedom. Her beautifully expressive voice brought tears to many eyes with her best-known song, "Follow That Road."

But the centerpiece of her concert was songs from her two latest CDs, both of them adaptations from Victorian literature. The earlier, Beauty Attends: The Heartsongs of Opal Whiteley (2006), excerpts the childhood diaries of gifted naturalist and educator Opal Whitely, first published in 1920. The University of Oregon describes this as "a world as a child of 6 and 7 sees it, alive with creatures, fairies, talking trees, and singing creeks." Anne's songs, with music by Michael Smith, bring this 19th century child's view of nature to life.

Her most recent effort is Ef You Don‘t Watch Out!: Anne Hills Sings the Poems of James Whitcomb Riley (2007), reviving the work of the beloved Hoosier poet. I admit to a great personal fondness for Riley's work. My grandfather, who had a university education and whose own father taught high school, spent his life as a family farmer. Riley's writings combine another Victorian perspective on nature and the importance of the family farm with his well-known humorous and cautionary poems for children, and Anne's songs bring both these worlds beautifully into the 21st century.

Anne was a joy to work with. This was her second visit to our library, following a 1981 appearance in the Voices of Winter trio -- but I hope not her last.

Sustainability

Over 100 people attended a June 18 library presentation on "Moving Toward Sustainable Communities", presented by Sara James and Torbjorn Lahti, authors of The Natural Step for Communities. Among other things, the book discusses how some municipalities operate their government without fossil fuels. The publisher has a good web page that provides background on the book and authors.

The program was co-sponsored by:

• Appleton Library Foundation
  
• ECOS Fox Valley a local coalition promoting sustainability
  
• Foth (consulting & engineering firm)
  

Since Torbjorn was here from Sweden, and the the two authors would lead a "Conference on Sustainability: Balancing People, Planet and Profit" for 130 public officials and business leaders the next day, it was a real joy to be able to provide a free public program of this this caliber and relevance. If people weren't thinking about sustainability issues before, $4 a gallon for gas may have gotten some thinking started.

It was great to partner with a local issue-oriented coalition and a business to make this happen. Public libraries should foster more such partnerships and more such discussions.

Summer is for kids

Today, we 'll have hundreds and hundreds of little ones crowding our meeting room to enjoy the music of Tom Pease (who is surely one of Wisconsin's treasures), doing three shows to kick off the summer.
We'll also have lots of older ones using our young adult collections. YA Librarian Paula Wright is kicking up the dust a little, posting some new review videos on our website. Can we get some teens debating Stephenie Meyer vs. J. K. Rowling?
Thanks to the hard-working library staff, keeping the magic and possibilities alive for our children.

One evening... five meetings downstairs

Yes, it's happening at the library. Yes, we're a community center. Yes, we need more space and better accessible meeting rooms.