In an attempt to understand how the digital environment has changed American attitudes toward the public library, the Pew Research Center offers this report, “From Distant Admirers to Library Lovers and Beyond: A Typology of Public Library Engagement in America.” This report, released last month, completes a three-stage research project which began with research into the growing role of ebooks and exploring library services and their value to the community. This typology “explores public libraries’ roles in people’s lives and in American culture writ large—how they are perceived, how they are valued, how people rely on them, and so forth.”
Since July, the WiLS staff have been working in a virtual office. This arrangement has been going so well that they are now beginning a bold experiment to virtualize themselves and to meet with one another in the dream world.
Meeting in dreams, also known as mutual dreaming, has been the stuff of romance novels and science fiction movies. Now, WiLS is planning to harness that power to hold staff meetings between 2 and 4 a.m. to increase productivity and free up daytime for other projects.
“Once I read that some people believe that it may theoretically be possible, I was sold!” says director Stef Morrill, “We believe in innovation and experimentation – so why not this?”
While their virtual office provides WILS staff with flexibility in dress code, there are higher expectations for attire at dream meetings. The group believes that wearing formal meeting attire to bed increases the chances that the experiment will work. “Sure, it took time to adjust to sleeping in a tie and dress shoes,” says staff member Jeff Brunner, “but it puts me in a meeting frame of mind….and I’ll look snazzy at our future dream meeting!”
While they have not yet had a successful meeting in their dreams, there is progress. Says Morrill, “At first, people were dreaming about cats playing baseball and cover art from the Wisconsin Digital Library. Now, we are all dreaming about meeting. We make steps forward every day, and I can’t wait to see where we go next……in our dreams!”
The Daimville Public Library has been given a new grant by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to expand its collection and services for deer and elk. The research is well-known; deer have been suffering from “chronic wasting disease” for years due to lack of opportunities for education and quality job training. Since 2003, the Daimville library has worked to offer workforce training to these large mammals, and now, thanks to a generous DNR grant, deer and elk will now have access to specialized materials designed specifically for hoofed animals to read. Professor Wandle Shamblebottoms, pictured here, earned his four year degree in art history before going on to get his PhD. He will offer quarterly seminars at the library with the funding from this new grant. “I’m very excited to reach out to my community,” he said in a recent interview. “But, please don’t wear camouflage to my presentations. It tends to make the others a bit nervous”
After months of discussions with our vendor partners and the pork banking industry, we are thrilled to announce we are now able to accept bacon as payment for services and databases.
For years members have been asking for a more convenient payment option, so what was a “logical next step”, according to Director Stef Morrill, WiLS started talking with Nueske State Bank. The idea, said Morrill, really came from her staff, in particular when WiLS Community Liaison Jeff Brunner asked “why do we play this game of exchanging money when in the end we all just convert it into bacon.” That “aha” moment started the ball rolling.
Though we know accepting bacon for payments will make things much simpler for many of our members, we also know that there are some who wonder if there will be an electronic payment option in the horizon. We are happy to also announce Nueske State Bank will be introducing the Bacon Bitcoin in 2015!
WiLS will start accepting bacon payments in the beginning of its fiscal year, July 1, 2014. Quotes for services and databases will list both a dollar amount and a bacon equivalent in pounds. WiLS is working with a local soy bank with the hope of being able to accept tofu in the near future to accommodate those member organizations that are vegetarian and vegan.
Please note, due to bacon currency exchange penalties, WiLS will NOT be accepting Canadian bacon.
After a brief hiatus, WiLS is happy to announce that it is again accepting submissions for its popular Gods of Wisconsin Libraries Collection. The Collection celebrates the gods who live with Wisconsin librarians and library workers.
“We’re really excited to re-launch this great community-building project,” said Stef Morrill while playing fetch with Enlil, the Sumerian god of the wind and divine ruler of the Earth and its human inhabitants.
“Isn’t Anubis, the ancient Egyptian god of embalming and tomb-caretaker who watches over the dead, just so cute?” gushed Melissa McLimans while trying to get his god to sit still for a photo. “He loves playing fetch, going for walks and weighing the hearts of the dead to determine their worthiness to enter the ancient Egyptian underworld.”
Clearly, WiLS staff are excited about the project and they’re lining up to submit their personal and household deities. But it’s not just WiLS staff. Some members of the Wisconsin library community have gotten wind of the project and have already submitted their favorite gods to the project.
“My god is Freyja, the ancient Norse goddess of love, sexuality, beauty, fertility, gold, war, and death. She’s super active, even though she’s getting older. I imagine she’ll be with us for three or four more centuries at least,” reported Angela Vanden Elzen, Web Services Librarian at Lawrence University.
Ted Mulvey, Information Literacy Librarian at UW-Oshkosh tells us that “Apollo, son of Zeus, Greek god of the sun, music, arts, knowledge, healing, plague and darkness, prophecy, poetry, purity, athletics, manly beauty, and enlightenment, is forever drinking from the toilet. I just can’t seem to train it out of him!”
So don’t delay! Submit a description and photo of YOUR god (as long as his or her divine likeness can be captured by the insignificant technology of mankind) to today!
We’re sorry. We didn’t realize that, when we moved, the thermostat in our virtual office actually controls the temperature for all of North America. We promise to be better co-tenants next winter. In our defense, you’d think there would be a better HVAC system for such a large area of land – maybe more controls than just the one thermostat? Of course, if we had been aware of it and raised the temperature, you know California would have just complained that it’s too hot! Haha!
WiLS – and WiLS members – totally want to know what you’re doing. Each month, we’ll be sending out short surveys asking you one (maybe two) very specific questions. Answers are public (as Google form responses) so we can all read about the amazing things you are doing and tell the world about them.
For April, WiLS wonders what unconventional ways you’re using your space, or about non-traditional services in development or in practice. Let us know! Or, click here if you’d just like to see the responses.
As you all know, February is Love Your Library month, as well as the month you stock up on orange conversation hearts so you can make it through the rest of the year.
What? Is that just me? Oh.
Regardless, we’ve have really had a great time stalking our members to find out what they are doing to celebrate this month. Here are some highlights:
And it’s a hard lesson to learn that love is a double edged sword that can sometimes cut your heart out and stomp on it with baseball cleats. So the Middleton Public Library is hosting the Heart Burns Anti-Valentine’s Day event for those who “prefer black & gothy to pink & lacy” to eat broken heart cookies and make anti-valentines.
Have a blind date with a book or get “kissed at the library” at the Calhoun Memorial Library in Chetek, and get Hershey Kisses when you check out a book. I’ll be checking mine out one at a time, thank you very much. I hope the Calhoun Memorial Library has a large Hershey Kiss budget.
On February 13th, Silver Lake College’s Zigmunt Library hosted a “Share the Love” event for patrons to gather and discuss their favorite books and films with one another over coffee.
The Seeley G. Mudd Library at Lawrence University in Appleton asked patrons what they love about the library. Responses ranged from temperature of the building and the yumminess of the water from the fountains (bubblers, for the Wisconsin natives), as well as some love for our collections and the workers. Take a look!
The BadgerNet broadband network is about to get a lot faster, thanks to a $4.2 million dollar federal grant to expand and upgrade its fiber optic network between April and November of this year. Read more about it from madison.com.
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