Today, October 9, is Wyoming Libraries Snapshot Day, where we celebrate the impact our libraries have on their communities every single day. We are collecting photos, stories and video that show how patrons are using and enjoying their libraries.

We’ll be sharing throughout the day. Follow all the action here:

• Flickr photostream
• Facebook page
• @WyoLibraries Twitter feed (hashtag #WyoSnapshotDay)
• Pinterest

Wyoming is holding its Snapshot Day in conjunction with Teen Read Week. Library Snapshot Day originated in New Jersey and is now celebrated nationally. Learn more about it on the American Library Association website.

Questions about Wyoming Libraries Snapshot Day? Contact Susan Mark at the Wyoming State Library, susan.mark@wyo.gov or 307-777-5915.

Libraries collect a lot of data — circulation, program attendance, user satisfaction, etc. — but often don’t know how to use the numbers.

On September 20-21, the Wyoming State Library conducted a data evaluation workshop in Riverton. Organized by WSL Research & Statistics Librarian Thomas Ivie, the workshop was an abbreviated local version of national Research Institute for Public Libraries (RIPL).

Linda Hofschire, Director of Colorado’s Library Research Service, presented the workshop where participants learned how to go beyond simply collecting and reporting on these numbers. Through a series of interactive exercises, they discovered how to conduct meaningful evaluations of their library’s services, programs, and resources, and how to use the results to have better informed planning and management, as well as to tell a compelling story about their library to stakeholders.

Participants, overall, were pleased with the workshop:

• “This was a wonderful experience! I never expected to learn so much in such a short period of time.”
• “Really learned some ideas I want to put into practice in our library!”
• “Seriously best class/conf I have been to in a long time.”

Twelve of the 23 county public library systems sent participants to the workshop. WSL participants were School Library Consultant, Paige Bredenkamp, and Library Development Manager, Brian Greene.

Free, online, continuing education events for this week of from the Wyoming State Library Training Calendar. Descriptions are below. You can subscribe and view the events in your calendar software, or you can find all the events at library.wyo.gov/services/training/calendar.

All times MDT

Tuesday, Sep 4 (10-11 am)
Building a Successful Grants Program 101 for Nonprofits (Elevate)
Join us for this FREE 60-minute webinar, where the grant writing experts from Elevate share some of the biggest lessons we’ve learned from building sustainable grants programs for our clients, including: How to tell whether grant writing is right for your organization; The pillars of a strong grants program; Which tasks and pieces to focus on first; and The systems we use to make sure our own grant writing processes run smoothly. There will also be time for Q&A.

Tuesday, Sep 4 (5-6 pm)
Exploring AASL Best Websites for Teaching & Learning 2018 (American Association of School Librarians)
Come and hear from the AASL Best Websites for Teaching & Learning Committee incoming and outgoing chairs as they highlight and explore the newly named 2018 Best Websites. These recognized sites all align with the new AASL Standards Shared Foundations. Make sure to attend this popular webinar event to learn more and explore the latest winning websites in the fields of librarianship, education, and instruction, so you can use them yourself, and share them with teachers and students.

Wednesday, Sep 5 (9-10 am)
NCompass Live: The Great American Read (Nebraska Library Commission)
The Great American Read is the new PBS eight-part television competition and nationwide campaign to discover America’s favorite novel. Everyone can vote for their favorite from a list of 100 novels chosen in a national survey. Martha Florence, from NET Television, and Katie Murtha, from Lincoln City Libraries, will join us to share resources and activities that you can use in your library to help your community participate in the program.

Wednesday, Sep 5 (10-11 am)
Podcast Playground – Part 1 – Discovery of Kids Podcasts (Association for Library Services to Children)
Come play in our Podcast Playground where we’ll listen, explore, and play with the evolving world of kids podcasting. In Part 1, we’ll play with various ways to discover and find great podcasts for kids; we’ll share ways to access, search, and play kids podcasts and we’ll also share where to find podcast recommendations/reviews for high-quality audio.

Wednesday, Sep 5 (11-12 pm)
10 Tips and Tricks for a Successful Grant Seeking Strategy (Charity How To)
In this live webinar, we will go through ten tips that all grant professionals can use to help implement a successful grant seeking strategy in their organization. We will look at specific examples of how these tips can and have been successfully used so you can consider how to best utilize the information within your own organization.

Wednesday, Sep 5 (11-12 pm)
How to Save a Life – Administering Naloxone 101 (National Network of Libraries of Medicine)
This webinar will provide a live demonstration of how to administer naloxone, and discuss where you can acquire this life-saving drug.

Wednesday, Sep 5 (12-1 pm)
Sparking Student Questions: Engaging All Students in Critical Thinking (Education Week)
Join this webinar to learn four questioning protocols guaranteed to boost student questioning. These protocols support students as they learn to develop high-quality questions that promote critical thinking and connect to students’ interests. They can be used at any grade level or in any content area.

Wednesday, Sep 5 (4-5 pm)
In Case You Missed It: What We Learned at the Future Ready Librarian Leadership Summit (Follett)
In case you were unable to attend the June Future Ready Librarians Summit in Chicago, it’s not too late to gain new skills and get inspired for the new school year. Join library leaders Shannon McClintock Miller, Elissa Malespina and Traci Chun—who all played key roles in the Summit—as they share lessons learned and new strategies and tools discovered during this action-packed, full-day event.

Thursday, Sep 6 (11-12 pm)
Five Things You Need to Know about Harassment Investigations (Charity Village)
What if your organization is faced with a workplace harassment complaint? Having a solid harassment investigation process is vital — or you and your organization run the risk of being sued. Our free webinar, Five Things You Need to Know About Harassment Investigations, outlines everything you need to know to ensure your harassment investigation process meets current requirements. Important Note: While registration is open to all, attendance is limited to the first 1,000 people to sign onto the live session. We suggest signing on five minutes early to have the best chance of getting on the live session. If for any reason you aren’t able to connect to the live session, rest assured you’ll get the full recording by email the following day.

Thursday, Sep 6 (12-1 pm)
Free Tools To Create High Performing Nonprofit Content In Minutes (Nonprofit Marketing Academy)
In our next leadership webinar, we will show you how to expose the content marketing strategies of successful nonprofits. Then we will demonstrate what free technology is available to help you manage and create high performing content.

Thursday, Sep 6 (12-1 pm)
Make Do Share: Sustainable STEM Programming for Youth (Indiana State Library)
Join us to learn about STEM and “making” in libraries featuring the Make Do Share curriculum that has been tried and tested in a rural library system in Washington State. Make Do Share was made by libraries for libraries and includes helpful tips to build your confidence while supporting 21st century learners. We will explore ways to incorporate STEM skills into existing programs and how to become a non-expert leader in your community’s STEM learning ecology.

Thursday, Sep 6 (1-2 pm)
Culture Matters: How to Create a Fulfilling Workplace and Empower Employees in your Fundraising Efforts (Donor Search)
Crouch and Associates will teach, whether in a profit-based or mission-based setting, the art of workplace bliss by a licensed developmental psychologist. Most organizations spend way too much time and resources focusing on the outcome — the money (either from donors or through revenue). But if you take care of the culture (and we’d argue authentic leaders do it best), the net result is more  money. Most orgs have it backwards!

Thursday, Sep 6 (2-3 pm)
Live Webinar With Fountas & Pinnell: Levels Are a Teacher’s Tool, NOT a Child’s Label (Education Week)
Join literacy leaders Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell as together we untangle common misconceptions around text levels and explore practical tips for nurturing student agency and communicating progress.

Friday, Sep 7 (10-10:45 am)
School Library Resources at the Wyoming State Library (Wyoming State Library)
Join Paige Bredenkamp, School Library Consultant at the Wyoming State Library, on an updated tour of the resources that are freely available to all K-12 librarians and staff in Wyoming. This is a chance to see what the state library has available in terms of professional learning communities, tools for program support, free money for you and your library, and more!

 

To register, visit: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3193319710239727874

 

 

Friday, Sep 7 (11-12 pm)

Nonprofit Radio Month, Episode 1: Foundations as a Tool for Collective Power (GrantSpace)

 

Gather new insights on how, in times of turbulence, foundations and nonprofits can leverage their work and their voices as a tool for collective power. Learn more about the types of results that are currently being achieved by organizations, and potential roles that philanthropy can take on going forward. (Part 1 of 4 webinars presented in September).

 

For more information and to register, visit: https://grantspace.org/training/search/format/live/location/online/

The Rocky Mountain U.S. Patent and Trademark Office invites you to join us for the fourth session in a series of programming on Understanding Intellectual Property (IP). This interactive event will be broadcast live at the Wyoming State Library, 2800 Central Ave. in Cheyenne, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. MDT on Friday, August 17.

Register now.

Part IV in the series will focus on filing your patent application using the Electronic Filing System-Web (EFS-Web) and managing your patent application online using Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. The presentation will consist of an interactive tutorial, description of various assistance resources such as the Inventor’s Assistance Center (IAC) and the Patent Electronics Business Center (EBC).

For questions, contact Vincent Gonzales at the  Rocky Mountain Regional USPTO at vincent.gonzales@USPTO.GOV or call 303-297-4600.

Free, online, continuing education events for this week of from the Wyoming State Library Training Calendar. Descriptions are below. You can subscribe and view the events in your calendar software, or you can find all the events at library.wyo.gov/services/training/calendar.

All times MDT

Wednesday, Aug 1 (9-10 am)
NCompass Live: Engaging Your Community (Nebraska Library Commission)
Participants will hear how the Rochester Public Library District has engaged its community with patron-driven programs. Our outreach has included creating a donation center, summer recreation, farmers market and a seed library. Participants will learn best practices and how to replicate similar programs in their community. We will share our secret to success: you must leave your physical building to reach your entire community!

Wednesday, Aug 1 (10-11 am)
How to Handle that Dreaded Discipline Problem (Utah State Library)
In this session, we’ll discuss just what needs to be done when you know you have a discipline problem that needs to be dealt with. We’ll look at why some of us tend to actually avoid those problems and why some of us tackle them with both feet – and sometimes put our foot in our mouth in the process!

Wednesday, Aug 1 (11-12 pm)
Turning Volunteers and Board Members Into Donors (Network for Good)
During this webinar, Kay will provide participants with data about the correlation between volunteering and giving, and provide strategies for attaining full engagement.

Wednesday, Aug 1 (1-2 pm)
Science of Adolescent Learning: How Body and Brain Development Affect Student Learning (Alliance for Excellent Education)
In this webinar, the Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed) welcomes Dr. Jesse Washington, III, a practitioner, and Dr. Richard Clark, a researcher, to examine biological changes that occur during adolescence, both in the body and the brain, and to discuss how to ensure that learning opportunities support adolescents’ development during this critical time.

Wednesday, Aug 1 (1-2 pm)
Leading with Emotional Intelligence – Free Seminar Preview (American Management Association)
EI has evolved from an area of research to a recognized set of best practices and core competencies that are at the heart of successful leadership. Today we use EI as an integrated set of skills that underpin highly effective, fast-reacting and innovative organizations.If you want to become the consummate emotionally intelligent leader, this preview provides the perfect opportunity to hear how the AMA seminar can help you achieve your goals.

Thursday, Aug 2 (11-12 pm)
How to Design a No-Fail Capital Campaign, and 3 Truths You Need to Know (Bloomerang)
Amy Eisenstein & Andrea Kihlstedt will reveal three truths you need to know for a successful capital campaign, including how to design a no-fail capital campaign, as well as letting you in on closely held secrets of campaign consultants.

Thursday, Aug 2 (12-1 pm)
Controlled Digital Lending by Libraries (District Dispatch)
Controlled digital lending (CDL) is the term for any library project that digitizes print materials and makes them available in a manner consistent with traditional lending principles. CDL requires the use of digital rights management to ensure a consistent owned-to-loaned ratio, so that a library cannot circulate more than the number of copies it owns, and only authorized users have access to these digitized works. Libraries perceive copyright as a roadblock to this vision, and this session seeks to demonstrate why copyright can be a library’s ally instead.

Thursday, Aug 2 (12-1 pm)
Navigating Benefits.gov: Resources for Military Members and Veterans (Federal Depository Library Program)
This webinar will introduce Benefits.gov, the official benefits website of the U.S. Government, managed by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The latest Library Journal Design Institute, a one-day, hands-on, small group event on library design, will be held September 21 at Minneapolis Central Library and hosted by LJ and Hennepin County Library Director Lois Langer Thompson. There’s also an optional half-day tour of surrounding libraries on September 20, capped by a reception hosted by MSR Design at Open Book.

Those who register before August 10 will have the opportunity for their library’s design challenges — from one-room fixes to building-wide renovation to new construction — to be workshopped by participating architects, who’ll share their expertise in small breakout sessions.
Registration is open only to librarians, library board or foundation members, and the library’s city planners/officials. Wyoming attendees can register at a special rate of $114.(The full rate is $163 ) Use promotion code MN30 to unlock this rate when registering.

Register now.

Whether or not your library is selected for a workshop/breakout, you’ll be able to sign up for breakouts that spur imagination and ideas. Beyond the breakout sessions, the day also features a mix of panels — on designing for changing collections, staff roles, and new services — and speed sessions where you can can get answers to your own questions from architects and vendors. There’s plenty of time to network with colleagues as well.

Reposted with permission from Library Strategies

Public libraries often have a number of boards, including a Library Board, as well as a Foundation or Friends Board. As professional bodies that can affect the performance of your library, it is important that each member of the board regularly participates in professional development activities. In this way, the board members become informed leaders, such that their work improves the Library and advances the work of the expert, professional staff.

Here a few ways to help your board in their annual professional development:

Key 1: Board orientation – Hold a board orientation for all new members that covers their roles and responsibilities, as well as the basic services of the library. A board orientation is also valuable as a refresher for long-time board members, and requiring attendance once every three years can help members stay on track.

Key 2: Define annual activities – All board members should engage in some aspect of professional development each year. The topics may be library-related, or how to run an effective board, or on broader trends, such as publishing or the digital world. Conferences, webinars, and state and national organizations today offer a wealth of opportunities for board training and advancement. Help your board by offering a smorgasbord of opportunities each year, with regular reminders to participate.

Key 3: Board evaluation – Have an annual board evaluation process, which can be as simple as the board president sending out an annual comment sheet to each member asking what is working well or not on the board, and what they would like to see changed. By annually evaluating the board, you can help discover board weaknesses that might effectively be addressed through training or support.

Some additional ideas for professional development activities for your boards include regular presentations by professional staff on library trends; using former board members as mentors to new board members; and thinking outside the library to explore issues in publishing, technology, finance, change management, fundraising, social media, governance, etc.

In board professional development, it is important that board members fundamentally understand and embrace their defined roles and responsibilities. But for an energized board, it is equally important that they participate in interesting, social, and other engaging activities that help them support the library and plan for its future.

—–

Also check out the Wyoming State Library’s Library Board Members’ Handbook.

From UW News

University of Wyoming students and faculty members will give three presentations, free and open to the public, during the fifth annual “What in the World?” summer program at the Albany County Public Library Centennial branch. All sessions, moderated by Jean Garrison, UW Center for Global Studies (CGS) director, highlight the work that recent UW graduates completed for their international research projects and the innovative research of UW-affiliated faculty.

The summer CGS schedule is:

• Wednesday June 14, at 5:30 p.m., Centennial Fellow presentations: Ashkia Campbell, zoology and physiology senior, from Casper, “Nest Predation in Ecuador”; and Jeremy Goldsmith, international studies, and environment and natural resources master’s degree candidate, from Louisville, Ky., “How and Why Gambians Migrate.”
• Wednesday, July 12, at 5:30 p.m., faculty research presentation: Mark Ritchie and Lena Hardy, both Department of Art and Art History professors, “Riding the Range in Mongolia and Australia: Art, Insights and Impressions.”
• Wednesday, Aug. 30, 5:30 p.m., faculty research presentation: Thomas Risse, Department of Political Science, Free University of Berlin, “Europe, the U.S. and the Transatlantic Relationship during Tumultuous Times.”

The series is made possible by the Ruth R. Ellbogen Foundation and the CGS’s UW partners. For more information about CGS, call Garrison at (307) 766-6119, email garrison@uwyo.edu, or visit www.uwyo.edu/globalcenter.

Wyoming Newspapers now includes 1944-45 issues of the Fort Warren Sentinel:  “A weekly newspaper published by and for the military personnel of Ft. Warren, Wyoming.” In the first issue on February 11, 1944, Hollywood stars such as Jimmy Durante, Mickey Rooney, Abbott and Costello, and Bing Crosby wished the fledgling paper well.

The Sentinel is one of several military newspapers the Wyoming State Library makes available online. We also expect to add German POW newsletters from Camp Douglas and Fort Francis E. Warren in the near future. (Watch this blog for the announcement!)

Currently, Wyoming Newspapers includes:

• Fort Warren Sentinel
• Fort D.A. Russell News
• Sky Dozer
• Slip Stream
• Warren Mustang

The Wyoming State Library added the Fort Warren Sentinel recently with the help of the Wyoming State Archives whose archivists found a set of old single issues in their stacks and digitized the paper copies so the images could be added.

So this Memorial Day, enjoy these glimpses into Wyoming’s military history in Wyoming Newspapers.

 

Libraries are vital to Wyoming residents — and we have the numbers to prove it. The Wyoming State Library has just released FY16 public library data on its Wyoming Library Statistics page for the period from July 1, 2015, through June 30, 2016. A summary report, county rankings, and 5-year trends are available.

Among the report highlights:

• There were 3.53 million visits to public libraries in FY16 – 6 visits for every Wyoming resident.
• Public libraries were open for a combined total of 142,508 hours annually (almost 1,000 more hours than in FY15)..
• Circulation dropped slightly to just over 4.54 million, 7.8 items per capita (from 4.93 million and 8.4 items per capita in FY15).
• Public libraries held 2.7 million books and audio-visual materials in their collections, a decrease from FY15.
• All Wyoming public libraries offer free Wi-Fi. The 14 libraries that were able to provide this data reported, collectively, 237,321 Wi-Fi sessions in FY16 (37.5% increase over FY15.
• Public libraries employed 648 people for a total of 385.2 full-time equivalent positions.

Although these statistics allow for comparisons among libraries, caution should be exercised when interpreting them. Local needs, economies, geography and library policies differ, and that can be reflected in the numbers.

Questions about library statistics? Contact Thomas Ivie, WSL Research & Statistics Librarian at thomas.ivie@wyo.gov or (307) 777-6330.