The Children’s Museum of Rock County (CMRC) may not have a physical space to call their own yet, but that hasn’t stopped them from educating and entertaining families around the county.

Hot off the heels of their successful “Where’s Rascal” event, based on Sterling North’s beloved raccoon, CMRC approached ALS to partner on their next big project–Rock the Solar System.

The solar system has been scaled down to the size of the county and all nine planets, plus the sun are hidden around the county. The CMRC developed activity packets for three different age groups for the libraries to distribute, and one they can distribute themselves at their monthly “Play Kit Stop” at the indoor farmers market in Janesville. Libraries were asked to provide complimentary programming to go along with the solar system scavenger hunt and activity packets.

ALS libraries showed up in a big way, planning StoryWalks™, Storytimes, NASA Displays, a whole series of Library Shorts videos on the topic, and more.

SHARE libraries were invited to participate in a story-collecting campaign running January through mid-February. The goal of the campaign is to use the stories at the 2021 WLA Library Legislative Day and for various marketing and promotion purposes throughout the year. A promotional toolkit was created for libraries to use as they like. So far, more than half the libraries have participated and have collected stories from 80+ patrons.

If you’d like more details, contact Tovah Anderson. anderson.tovah@als.lib.wi.us or 608-868-2872. 

START PLANNING

DPI and the Libraries Activating Workforce Development Skills (LAWDS) project are gearing up for a statewide professional marketing campaign promoting help, especially at public libraries, for job seekers.

Now is the time to help staff prepare to assist job seekers and to develop job seeker services at your library.

FREE WEBINAR

Learn how library staff can help patrons improve their job search strategies using the Job Center of Wisconsin Labor Market Indicator (LMI) tools.

Participants will see where they can view detailed information on jobs by title, including the number of job openings in each county, how many other candidates have the skills required, the wage by county, and the sources of training and education for each job title.

The LMI tools can help job seekers, business owners, and municipalities learn how to view data on the economic outlook and special issues for each of Wisconsin’s counties, lists of the fastest growing jobs in Wisconsin, and details on which jobs pay more than the state average wage and are projected to have the most openings. The LMI tools also provide broad-based data on employment and unemployment, including the short and long term projected job and industry growth statewide, maps of county unemployment, and a state graph of the unemployment rate over time.

Maura Kirkham of the Department of Workforce Development will be presenting two identical webinars.

• Session 1: February 10 from 2 – 3 p.m. Register
• Session 2: February 12 from 10 – 11 a.m. Register

After the sessions, the recordings and slide deck will be posted on the LAWDS website.
Public libraries or library systems, or LAWDS partners may choose to share them on their own websites.

Thanks to Jean Anderson and the South Central Library System for their help delivering these workforce development learning opportunities.

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. 

With the next Together We Read just around the corner, OverDrive wants to make sure you have everything you need to promote the program and the title – Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn.

We’ve put together a set of free marketing materials to help get the word out to your community. Be sure to check out the social media graphics, bookmarks, poster, press release and more.

WHAT IS TOGETHER WE READ?

Together We Read is a Digital Book Club for participating libraries in the United States.

During this two-week program, there will be no waitlists and no holds for the selected ebook. Download Libby to borrow the free ebook from your library using your phone or tablet.

The ninth annual Wild Wisconsin Winter Web Conference has concluded, but your can still find recordings of the sessions online. This year’s conference offered 14 programs with tracks in Management, Small Libraries, Public Services, and Marketing.

Kathy MacMillan leads a 90-minute workshop, Wednesday, March 3, 2021, 1:30pm Central.
Cost: $60 non-member or $54 member

With many libraries currently closed to the public, library staff are turning to online storytimes as a way to provide quality programming for young patrons.  

Join veteran storyteller Kathy MacMillan to explore the fundamental differences between online and in-person storytimes and best practices to bring early literacy programming into an online environment. Learn how to plan video-friendly programs, how to keep your programming interactive even when you don’t have live feedback from storytime attendees, and how to manage external stresses such as technological glitches and internal stresses such as camera fright.