January 2021
Wild Wisconsin Winter Web Conference
January 27-28, 2021
This year’s conference has 14 programs with tracks in Management, Small Libraries, Public Services and Marketing.
Participate from the comfort and safety of your own home or library workspace.
Register here: https://www.wildwiscwinterweb.com/
February 2021
SLP Idea Exchange and YS Online Meet-up
Let’s chat about what your summer library program might look like this year!
Save the date! Friday, Feb 5, 11:30 am-1 pm
February, March, and April 2021
Pat Wagner on Leadership
Leaders create compelling futures and inspire others to do their best. In this workshop series, we will learn a model for everyday leadership both in and outside of your library. Please save the dates for this WRLS-sponsored series of project-based sequential webinars.
Feb 18, 2021, 10:30 am-Noon
March 18, 2021, 10:30 am-Noon
April 15, 2021, 10:30 am-Noon
DETAILS AND REGISTRATION BELOW (Or register for all three workshops at once here.)
—–
What Leaders Do: The Organizational Map
Thursday, February 18, 2021, 10:30 am
Presentation Slides: WindingMapFeb2021BWv2
Assignment/Required Pre-Work: What are ten things you do on a regular basis–daily, weekly, or monthly–that you believe make the biggest contribution to the success of your library. Can you sort them in order of importance? Please send your responses to Cole (cole@wrlsweb.org) by February 8 so we can include them (anonymously) in the presentation.
Description: Any enterprise, including a library, needs employees with three skill sets and points-of-view to succeed: Professional and technical, commonly called Task-oriented; Supervisory- and Managerial-oriented; and Leadership-oriented. Some people are good at all three skill sets, but most of us have one that we excel at, which hopefully matches the position we hold in our library. Nonetheless, particularly in smaller libraries, we need to grow our abilities, regardless of our positions.
The Organizational Map is a century-old framework for discussing these skill sets and points-of-view, identifying our strengths and weaknesses, and, more importantly, knowing where we want to be. Topics include the importance of skill sets and points of view, how supervision, management, and leadership are different, the unique characteristics of leadership, and how leadership abilities can be applied regardless of a person’s job title, experience, or education.
Outcomes:
- Spend more time at the library leadership level, making decisions and taking action that impact the “Big Picture”.
- Apply the Map to strategic and operational planning.
- Identify which skills are needed when personnel are hired or promoted to supervisor and manager.
- Understand and prevent unproductive workplace behaviors such as perfectionism, micromanagement, and elitism.
- Apply leadership thinking to your current position.
—–
What Leaders Do: Creating Great Community Collaborations and Sharing Resources in Your Community
Thursday, March 18, 2021, 10:30 am
Presentation Slides: WindingCollaborationMar182021BWFINALv2
Assignment/Required Pre-Work:
- What are three organizations that you have recently worked with to deliver services to your community or institution? 1a. *Why did your library partner with them? Are you happy with the outcome? (*You may choose to answer either question 1a or 2a; no need to do both.)
- What are three organizations that you would like to work with but never have, so far? 2a.*Why do you want to work with them?
Please send your responses to Cole (cole@wrlsweb.org) by March 16 so we can include them (anonymously) in the presentation.
Description: What can community collaboration look like? After school library programs hosted at local schools. Nurses and social workers serving library customers onsite. Partnerships with social service agencies to create food pantries and distribute bagged meals. Onsite immigration and community policing offices. Music events and language classes. Writing contests. Cooking classes. Hunting and fishing licenses for sale. Patient family collections in conjunction with local health professionals. Adoption day partners with local animal rescue groups. Programs on starting a business, staffed by the Chamber of Commerce.
Library leaders can extend the library’s reach by creating partnerships, a must if the library serves a smaller community or has limited facilities, staff, and budget. Learn the benefits of working with other government agencies, charities, and businesses, sharing resources, co-hosting and co-sponsoring events and services, and teaming up to write grants and supporting each other’s goals.
What if you don’t have experience reaching out to your greater community and creating partnerships? What if past alliances have not worked out for the best? What do library leaders need to do to make successful collaborations happen? Topics include building on established relationships (you begin with community friends who like the library), creating a support team (you aren’t going to be alone), and starting with doable projects and taking small steps to success (learn by doing, so mistakes are easy to fix).
Outcomes:
- Identify potential partners.
- Start with small-scale projects to learn about each other’s style when it comes to managing people and projects.
- Create strategic alliances where you can share missions, visions, values, and goals with other organizations.
—–
What Leaders Do: Keeping People and Projects on Track
Thursday, April 15, 2021, 10:30 am
Presentation Slides: WindingProjectApr2021Final
Assignment/Required Pre-Work: Think about the times you have had the opportunity to work with a well-run team or on a successful project: People got along and were productive. What did the team and project leaders do to make that happen? Is there anything that you wish a leader would have done to make the workflow easier? Increase productivity? Please send your responses to Cole (cole@wrlsweb.org) by April 5 so we can include them (anonymously) in the presentation.
Description: Ensuring the library achieves its strategic planning goals. Steering a committee of community volunteers who are providing support for a big event. Coordinating a weeding initiative. Ensuring that an ILS migration is pulled off under budget and on time. Library leaders often are called upon to lead teams, maintain quality standards, and manage resources: deadlines, budgets, communications, and how team members treat each other.
Topics include building trust and respect, establishing timelines and benchmarks, making decisions in a timely fashion to eliminate bottlenecks, rewarding and acknowledging success, delegation, and providing the reality check when projects stall.
Outcomes:
- Provide oversight for projects, not micromanagement, meaning focus on achieving goals and allowing people to figure out how to get results.
- Help your teams to establish standards for quality.
- Make difficult decisions quickly, so the team can go back to work.
- Delegate authority and responsibility to extend the library’s ability to get the work done beyond your fingertips
April 2021
Streamline for Success: Library Programs and Services Reboot
April 6, 9am-noon OR April 6, 2 pm-5 pm
April 20, 9am-noon OR April 20, 2 pm-5 pm
Presenter office hours (one-on-one follow-up to Streamline): May 11 & 12
6 Contact Hours
We all want our library services to be strong and strategic, but how do you ensure that your library is producing meaningful, intentional services that support your mission, rather than simply falling into the traps of “more is more” or “we’ve always done it this way”? This workshop will lead participants through perspectives on creating and implementing mission-driven library services.
Presenters: Kelsey Johnson-Kaiser (St. Paul Public Library) and Amy Koester (Skokie Public Library)
Co-sponsored by Wisconsin Library Systems and the Department of Public Instruction, with funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services in the form of Library Services and Technology Act funding.
August 2021
Trustee Training Week 2021
August 23-27, Noon-1 pm (Online)
More information and registration: https://www.wistrusteetraining.com/
September 2021
Tech Days 2021
September 15 and 16, 10-2:30
Learn from experts without having to travel! Tech Days 2021 is a two-day series of webinars.
Registration is open now at https://techdayswisc.org/! Here’s the schedule at a glance:
| Time (CST) | Wednesday, September 15 | Thursday, September 16 |
| 10:00 – 11:30am | Digital First: All Library Planning Starts with Digital | Video Production: Tools, Tips and Tricks |
| 12:00 – 12:30pm | Canva Demo and Q&A | Canva Demo and Q&A |
| 1:00 – 2:30pm | Free Online Tools to Increase Your Workflow & Productivity | Emerging Tech Trends for 2021 and Beyond |
—–
Actively Anti-Racist Library Service to Leisure Readers: A Discussion
September 30, 1-2:30 pm (Online/Flipped Classroom Format)
Robin and Becky from RA for All (http://raforall.blogspot.com/) will each provide a “Foundations” version for this discussion which will be pre-recorded. These programs will focus on Collection Development [Robin] and Readers’ Advisory [Becky]. Please view them BEFORE the September Discussion. The presenters encourage participants to then submit questions that they want to discuss, no matter how uncomfortable, in this environment. This program runs 90 mins and will begin with some of our predetermined conversations starters and will include questions that come from the pre-recorded talks, before opening up this facilitated discussion to the entire group.
ABOUT
Increasing the collection and circulation of titles written by underrepresented authors is not a trend, rather, providing robust readers’ advisory service that values equity, diversity and inclusion principles is essential to all library service. But moving from being a neutral, well-meaning library where systemic racism is acknowledged to an actively anti-racist organization involves work, some of which is uncomfortable at first. In this program you will begin that work, learning tangible skills to help build enthusiasm for reading and discovering “diverse” books, to deepen RA service through thoughtful inclusion of EDI principles in all interactions with leisure readers, and to be a steward of the anti-racist mindset for your organization. Readers’ Advisory and Collection Development experts
Becky Spratford and Robin Bradford will move your team from merely discussing “why” putting EDI concerns at the forefront of all of your work with leisure readers is important to the “how,” including an honest look at action steps for all staff. While it may seem uncomfortable at first, Becky and Robin will help you shift your focus allowing your entire organization to craft an actionable plan to incorporate EDI values into your normal RA practices. All you need is a little nudge in the right direction and a commitment to begin the march forward.
In this program, Robin and Becky will have an open and honest conversation about how to provide actively anti-racist service to leisure readers by using our most commonly received questions. Including but not limited to:
● Not racist vs anti-racist
● How to identify more diverse titles to add to our collections.
● How to display, booktalk, and organize titles in an anti-racist way.
● How to promote diverse titles always.
● How to deal with actively racist request for “NO” black, gay etc books etc…
● Complaints from patrons that you highlight too much diversity.
● Issues about “censorship” re: not promoting popular problematic titles.
● Cancel culture and “classics”
● American Dirt was our top circulating Book of 2020. What do we do now?
BIOS
Becky Spratford [MLIS] is a Readers’ Advisor in Illinois specializing in serving patrons ages 13 and up. She trains library staff all over the world on how to match books with readers through the local public library. She runs the critically acclaimed RA training blog RA for All. She is under contract to provide content for EBSCO’s NoveList database and writes reviews for Booklist and a horror review column for Library Journal. Becky is a 20 year locally elected Library Trustee [still serving] and a Board member for the Reaching Across Illinois Library System. Known for her work with horror readers, Becky is the author of The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror, Second Edition [ALA Editions, 2012] and recently completed the 3rd Edition which is available for pre-order March 2021. She is a proud member of the Horror Writers Association and currently serves as the Association’s Secretary and organizer of their annual Librarians’ Day. You can follow Becky on Twitter @RAforAll.
Robin Bradford is currently a collection development librarian in Washington State. During her 29 years of library life, she has been recognized for service to readers, genre readers especially, from institutions like Library Journal to RWA’s Cathie Linz Librarian of the Year in 2016. Robin is a book addict and has a long-time dedication to helping others discover a love of reading. She has earned a BA and MA in English, a MS in Library Science, and a JD, but has found a home in building reader-focused, popular collections in public libraries. She has worked with authors to help get their titles into these collections, worked with librarians to push for equal treatment of genre fiction, and worked with readers so that they can find their favorite authors on their library’s shelves.
EQUITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION STATEMENT
RA for All’s programs are crafted and delivered with the understanding that increasing the collection, discovery, and circulation of titles written by marginalized voices in all public libraries is not a trend. It is a requirement. By contracting with RA for All, library organizations must take the position that libraries are not neutral, and understand that the goal is to become an anti-racist library, an organization that does the work to begin actively breaking down the walls of the systemic oppression of marginalized view points, walls which have been built over centuries but cannot be allowed to stand any longer. This work is not easy and will be uncomfortable at times, but getting comfortable with being uncomfortable is part of this process. RA for All is committed to helping you craft an actionable plan to begin this important journey.
October 2021
WRLS Planning Day
October 21, 9 am-4 pm
Stoney Creek Hotel & Conference Center
This in-person session (off-site at the spacious Stoney Creek Conference Center) will help WRLS determine goals, services, and ways in which WRLS can best serve member libraries in upcoming years. Planning goals will be made with the help of a hired consultant. All WRLS library directors are invited to attend.
November 2021
StrengthsFinder Workshop
November 4, 2021 9 am-Noon or 1-3 pm
WRLS Office (In-Person Workshop)
| TRAINING TOPIC | HOURS OF TRAINING | # of People PER SESSION | Content Summary |
|
StrengthsFinder 2.0 Workshop for Library Directors (+1 Key Staff Member) |
3 hrs
November 4 2021 9-12pm |
Max of 40 ppl |
Learning Outcomes: • Individuals articulate and describe their top five strengths and recognize them in action in their every day • Individuals understand the varying strengths of others and value the power of different strengths • Individuals take away additional strategies for learning about strengths as individuals or with their team
Foundations of CliftonStrengths • Individual strengths • Dynamic pairs • Strength Domains Discover your Top 5 Strengths (using your report, must take assessment prior and bring your report)
Exploring – Strengths Stations Participants will rotate stations and do the activity at each station. I will mill around, listen, and assist with understanding. To do it this way, we will need a room set that is in pods and space for people to get up and mingle around with one another. 1. Understanding the strengths of others & Form in a dynamic partnerships (Scavenger hunt activity, involves milling around within breakout group) 2. Exploring the dynamics of your strengths (using theme insight cards, a handout, and discussing with groups of 2- 4) 3. Recognizing the balcony and basement of your strengths (using a handout and discussing with groups of 2- 4) 4. Wrap Up & Take Away Activities
* Note: StrengthsFinder book and access code required. Book available for free from WRLS.
|
|
|
——–
Wisconsin Library Association Conference
November 16-19
December 2021
Herald the Holidays with Less Stress– WRLS Webinar
Thursday, December 2, 10-11 am
ONLINE
With the holidays fast approaching, are you once again “down in the dumps,” feeling stressed out from rushing to get everything done, from spending money you don’t have, from trying to meet everyone else’s expectations, all during a pandemic? Take time out to ask yourself, “What do I want from the holidays this year?”
Most people respond with little thought: “To be happy.” Although people often respond quickly and simply, they often make the search for happiness lengthy and complicated, especially during the holiday season. It need not be. Being happy is a simple state that has nothing to do with what you give, what you get, where you’re going, or who’s coming. It is about centering one’s spirit by living in the present moment and being filled with thanks. If you want to put joy back into your life, give yourself a holiday gift by attending this webinar.
This webinar is divided into two segments: lecture and question-and-answer period. The topics covered include making happiness a daily priority, learning self-acceptance, developing non-judgmental and thanksgiving attitudes, achieving present-moment living, and using meditation as a tool to achieve holiday happiness while reducing and managing holiday stress, even during a pandemic.
Please click the link to join the webinar: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84085570815
ABOUT THE PRESENTER:
Motivational speaker Constance Hallinan Lagan lectures on personal development and life enrichment for corporations, government agencies, professional associations, labor unions, hospitals, health care agencies, support groups, women’s organizations, churches, colleges, universities and libraries nationwide.
Connie’s byline appears in more than sixty publications, including Woman’s Circle, Entrepreneur, In Business, Income Opportunities, Chamber of Commerce Pacesetter, Profitable Merchandising, Successful Meetings and Professional Speaker.
Connie brings information and insight, humor and hope, to her audiences every time she speaks.
Recent Comments