Resources

WebJunction Sneak Peek Public Preview Archive

• Get a glimpse of the future of WebJunction Illinois with this archive of an online sneak preview that took place on July 1, 2008. Join Michael Porter of the WJ staff on this introductory tour.

Effective Governance for Rural Libraries

• Library governance is a team sport. The library director is the coach, the board president is the team captain, and the board members are the team players. The director-board team is charged with fulfilling the library’s social contract with taxpayers and other funders, that is, in return for taxpayer dollars, the library must offer benefits that make a difference in the community. Libraries, especially rural libraries need a Program for Effective Governance (PEG) that wraps concepts, rural values, outcomes, incremental steps and diverse training and implementation methodologies into one package. PEG proposes an “A to Z” set of actions that rural boards can take to empower their directors and front-line staff to improve their own libraries and/or their communities.

Courses and Learning

Notes on Setting up Wireless at Your Library

• Join Sharon Moreland from Tonganoxie Public Library (KS) and Liz Rea from the NE Kansas Library System (NEKLS) in this MaintainIT webinar to learn about how they set up wireless in their libraries. This archived session offers just the basics on how you can set up wireless without being a super-techie or super-human.

Notes from a PC Reservation System that Works

• Another in the series of MaintainIT webinars, you can Join Kieran Hixon and Jesse Walker from John C Fremont Library in Florence, CO as they share their trials and tribulations around their former PC reservation system, and jump for joy as they reveal what saved them (hint: it’s open source, free, and yours for the taking!). Take 30 minutes out of your day to learn from the experiences of others and get something started.

Recent additions to the Illinois Wimba Archives…

Per Capita Grant Workshop

• Join ISL staff Mary Downing and Jeanne Urbanek as they explain requirements for obtaining an Illinois State Library Public Library Per Capita and Equalization Aid grant. This workshop, originally delivered at the Alliance Library System, reviews the grant application and explain requirements that will be in place for the next three years to obtain a grant.  (Note the additional information and web sites you will want to explore prior to listening to the archive)

Fundraising 101: Planned Giving and Endowment in the Public Library

• Is your library regularly getting bequests from your patrons’ wills? Learn how to position a public library to be the recipient of gifts from its patrons’ estates, and how to create gifts that are as satisfying for the donor as for the library. This is the third workshop in a series sponsored by the Alliance Library System and presented by John Howard, ALS Special Projects Coordinator. (NOTE: Scroll down the page after clicking on the link above to see the archived information for this workshop)

Building Maintenance 2

• What are the regular maintenance projects a library needs to address? Discussion in this workshop  focused on grounds maintenance, HVAC, and other non-cleaning related projects. This is the second in a series of workshops sponsored by the Alliance Library System and presented by Rose Chenoweth, ALS Consultant. (Scroll down the Wimba Archives page to see the information on this workshop)

Community

Check out our most recent Illinois Library Standout 

• In 2004 when the Collinsville Memorial Library District decided to change its name to the Mississippi Valley Library District, it was with the idea that if the district  ever opened another library in its area, the new library satellite would have the name of the community for personality and ownership reasons for its constituents. Find out what happened when this Illinois Library Standout stepped out and tested the waters. 

WebJunction Illinois makes the news…letter

• Those of you who receive the Crossroads Newsletter from WebJunction may have noticed a familiar face in the Community of the Month feature – that’s right – WebJunction Illinois was chosen because as the newsletter said “There are a lot of things happening in libraryland in Illinois and WJ-IL helps library staff find what they’re looking for and learn new skills.”