WiLS

Mar 18

Webinar: Preparing Your WiLS Ideas to Action Fund Proposal

This webinar occurred on April 8th, 2022. Watch the recording here!

WiLS 2022 Ideas to Action Fund application period is open from April 11th through June 6th and we want to help you write the most compelling and fundable proposal possible! The Fund offers grants of up to $5000 for collaborative and innovative projects that move services forward in libraries and cultural organizations of all types and that can be shared and adapted to benefit others in the field as well.

Join Emily Pfotenhauer and Kim Kiesewetter on Friday, April 8th for tips and strategies for developing a competitive proposal.

Mar 16

Ideas to Action: A New Space for Mental Health at Racine Public Library

Ashley Cedeño, Racine Public Library

Before: Racine Public Library’s Sensory Room (view from far wall)

Who is your project reaching and how are you going about that?
This project was intended to reach anyone and everyone! We especially invite autistic people, disabled people, those with mental illness and parents and their young children to use the room. Essentially though, community members of all ages and abilities are able to use the room. The Racine Public Library’s sensory room is a private, quiet room full of calming toys and tools like bubble tanks, scent diffusers, tactile wall toys, sensory lights and more. It also includes a privacy screen and chair for nursing parents.

This project was proposed to create a space for individuals to meet sensory needs or have a mental health break, among other purposes. Providing this resource not only helps bridge gaps of a needed resource in the community, but it also helps break stigmas against mental health. Read more

Mar 15

Ideas to Action: D.R. Moon Memorial Library Connects Amish and Mennonite Students to Library Resources

Elizabeth Miniatt, D. R. Moon Memorial Library

Hello from Northern Wisconsin! My name is Elizabeth Miniatt and I am the director at the D.R. Moon Memorial Library, a small public library in Stanley, WI. We received a generous grant through the WiLS Ideas to Action fund in autumn of last year. Our project has the purpose of bringing curriculum and other educational resources to the rural Amish and Old Order Mennonite parochial and homeschools in our area. As these rural populations are rarely able to reach the library, we wanted to deliver resources and bring the library to them. We already have a program that has been going on for a few years now where we deliver library books to rural Amish and Old Order Mennonite schools. We wanted to expand that program to offer additional educational resources besides books.

Mar 8

WiLSWorld Shorts: Intellectual Freedom Refresher with the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom

This edition of WiLSWorld Shorts was held on Friday, March 25th at 1:00 pm. You can find the recording on our YouTube channel!

Feb 28

We Are Hiring a Curating Indigenous Digital Collections (CIDC) Fellow

WiLS is offering a post-graduate fellowship to work closely with the Cultural Affairs Department of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Bowler, Wisconsin. This one-year, full-time position will support the development of a collaborative curation plan to connect the Stockbridge-Munsee Community with state and federal repositories holding collections important to their community.

Feb 4

WiLS 2021 Annual Report

We are proud to serve our 654 member libraries and cultural organizations. It’s been our privilege this year to work in partnership with our member community to learn new things, teach one another, and get things done together we couldn’t have done alone.

People working in groups, sharing ideas and asking questions, do great things.

Our 2021 Annual Report features some of that work from each of our service teams: Cooperative Purchasing, Consulting, Collaboration Support, and Digital Projects. We welcomed new organizations under the WiLS umbrella, we continued to make improvements to the member experience, we connected members to one another and to expertise when they needed it, we provided research and data, we moved groups toward common goals, and we continued to do it all in line with our organizational values. We invested in our member community through WiLSWorld Shorts, the Ideas to Action Fund, and our own pro bono work. We also continued to expand our service outside the state of Wisconsin, growing into mentorship roles to support IMLS and ALA.

We also look ahead to the coming year, our own strategic planning process, and our upcoming 50th birthday!

We invite you to read more about our work from the last year and the year ahead in our 2021 Annual Report.

Jan 19

WiLS 2022 Membership Meeting

This meeting was held on February 25, 2022 and the recording can be watched online on our YouTube channel.

Jan 18

WiLS 2022 Ideas to Action Fund Application Period is Open

Take Our Strategic Planning Survey

WiLS Board Call for Nominations

WiLSWorld Shorts – Plan, Practice, Perform: Pulling Off Virtual Events and Making It Look Easy

WiLS Social Justice Spotlight: Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development

WiLS Supports Equity + Anti-Racism Work in Our Member Community

Webinar: Preparing Your WiLS Ideas to Action Fund Proposal

Ideas to Action: A New Space for Mental Health at Racine Public Library

Ideas to Action: D.R. Moon Memorial Library Connects Amish and Mennonite Students to Library Resources

WiLSWorld Shorts: Intellectual Freedom Refresher with the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom

We Are Hiring a Curating Indigenous Digital Collections (CIDC) Fellow

WiLS 2021 Annual Report

WiLS 2022 Membership Meeting

WiLS Cooperative Purchasing Top Ten Databases of 2021

Discounted Computers in Libraries 2022 Registration for WiLS Members

Taco Tuesday for January 2022

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