The workshop, presented by Beverly Obert, will be held at the Chatham Area Public Library on Saturday, February 25, 2012 from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m CST. Register in L2 by February 24th for $5.00. On site registration will be $7 per person. Questions can be directed  to Amy Ihnen at Director@chathamlib.org or 217-483-2713.

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Updated training will be available on the Illinois Attorney General’s website after January 1. Current trustees who are in office on January 1 must successfully complete the training during 2012 in order to comply with the new law. Those who take office after January 1 have 90 days after assuming responsibilities as a trustee to complete the training. Questions can be addressed to the Attorney General’s hotline at 877-299-3642.

Join us for this webinar to learn about the process of leading and managing through organizational storytelling. Librarians can use personal stories within the organization for leadership (tell them who you are and why you are here), team building (sharing your vision effectively, rediscovering and honoring the mission of the organization), and moving through change (honoring the past as you move toward the future; listening to others, communicating your goals through story). Learn how to “retool” storytelling with new concepts of organizational storytelling gleaned from business and other sectors, with specific examples and powerful tools to improve library communication and advocacy. Also hear effective library stories and learn tactics shared by “story” expert Robert McKee who uses screenwriting methods to bring truth and tension to storytelling. In this webinar, co-sponsored by ALA TechSource and WebJunction, hear how libraries tell their story to strengthen organizations, build community and to amplify the value they bring to their communities.

Presenters: Kate Marek, professor at Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science, and author of Organizational Storytelling for Librarians (ALA, 2011); and Chris Rippel, head of continuing education, Central Kansas Library System.

Register for this Webinar >>

The most recent Library Law newsletter from Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins, Ltd. has been posted.  The issue discusses an Open Meetings Act Amendment which becomes effective on January 1, 2012.

The amendment to the Open Meetings Act requires an employer who participates in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (”IMRF”) to post on its website, or at its principal office if it does not have a website, for two different categories of employees: those employees with a total compensation package in excess of $75,000 and those employees with a total compensation package equal to or greater than $150,000. These changes were part of Public Act 97-609, the pension reform bill. The provisions concerning posting on the website become effective on January 1, 2012.

The Library Law Articles are located under Library Management > Organizational Management > Library Law Articles (IL). ]]> http://webjunctionworks.org/il/blog/index.php/2011/11/23/library-law-open-meetings-act-amendment-duty-to-post-information/feed/ 0 http://webjunctionworks.org/il/blog/index.php/2011/11/17/guest-blog-julie-biando-edwards-and-the-genesis-of-community-centered-23-reasons-why-your-library-is-the-most-important-place-in-town/ http://webjunctionworks.org/il/blog/index.php/2011/11/17/guest-blog-julie-biando-edwards-and-the-genesis-of-community-centered-23-reasons-why-your-library-is-the-most-important-place-in-town/#comments Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:35:05 +0000 WJIL Project Team http://webjunctionworks.org/il/blog/?p=3444 [In this guest blog post, Julie Biando Edwards shares the genesis of the article “Community Centered: 23 Reasons Why Your Library Is the Most Important Place in Town.” The article, written by Edwards, Melissa S. Rauseo, and Kelley Rae Unger, was recently published in Public Libraries and is currently being featured on PublicLibrariesOnline.org.]

The genesis of our article, “Community Centered,” still makes me chuckle a bit. For a piece of writing in which we chose determinately and deliberately to focus away from technology, it had a decidedly technological start.

In 2010, Melissa Rauseo, the Young Adult Librarian at the Peabody Institute Library (Peabody, MA) and a close personal friend, posted an article on her Facebook page. The headline screamed the question “Are Librarians Totally Obsolete?” The author, Will Sherman, answers this question with a strong “no” and goes on to outline in 33 points why librarians and libraries are not only not obsolete, but “irreplaceable”,  focusing on the ways in which librarians and our institutions must, and do, adapt in the digital age. After posting the article, though, Melissa added a comment along the lines of “I’d like to see an article listing the ways in which libraries and librarians are important community and cultural forces.” We had just finished writing a book chapter together, and I responded to her comment with one of my own – “and there we have the subject for our next project.” The idea was born. We enlisted our close friend and colleague Kelley Rae Unger, Adult Services Librarian in Peabody, and got to work.

We wanted to write an article that looked at the social roles that libraries play. While Sherman briefly hints at this in his post, we felt that the subject needed a fuller exploration. As current and former public librarians, we know that what our library does in our community goes way beyond helping people navigate through the digital age. In fact, often what we do is provide balance between the perils and promise of the digital age and the social and community needs that our patrons present us with every day. Arguably, as the digital age progresses, with no abatement and no way to turn back, we see people craving a sense of community and connectedness more and more. Patrons are looking for information, yes, but they are also looking to build bonds with their librarians, with other patrons, and with the community in general. They are looking to learn, but they are also looking to talk, to create, and to experience art and culture together. They have practical needs – a book they want, a form they need – but they also want to explore opportunities. I’ve argued in other writing that the library can be the place where patrons explore and experiment with the people they want to become. I also believe that the public library is there for the public, not just the individual. The library is the place where people can start finding – start building – the community that so many seem to crave.

As we compared notes on the types of services we wanted to highlight in our article, we decided to concretely place our ideas into the real world of libraries. Some of the great fun of writing this article was taking a look at what other libraries, around the country and around the world, are doing to build community. It is amazing to see what librarians are up to out there! The volume of innovative and creative programs and services is astounding – we only used a fraction of the examples we came across. It was gratifying to look around and see that librarians are responding to community needs in unique and progressive ways. Some of the endeavors to build community involved big, time consuming, expensive projects. Others focused on locally produced programming and collection building. Still others simply involved rethinking the best ways to use space, talents, and resources and making adjustments accordingly.

After compiling our list and our examples we realized that many librarians are already doing important work in their communities. Our hope is that librarians can take the list as inspiration and then build their own lists. Take a look at what your library is doing to build community and create culture, then write it down. Bring our list, and your list, to your mayors, city councils, library boards, and Friends. Launch a local campaign highlighting how your library builds community. Ask your patrons what they think, then build on their feedback and ideas.

There has been a lot of angst about whether or not libraries will survive the digital age and, if so, how. We agree that libraries need to change and adapt, but we also think that there are some things that we simply already do really well, really creatively, and that really make a difference. I’ve long thought that we need to focus on those areas in which we can make real change, rather than expend energies in places where we can’t successfully compete (note to libraries: we’re never going to be Google. Let it go). Rethink your library. Rethink its social role. Rethink your programming, collection building, and services. Think about the places in your town where you see people longing for community, for cultural expression and understanding, for civil discourse. Then take a look at how you can offer these things. Trust me, you’ll be filling a niche and you really will be on the road to being the most important place in town.

[To read the article, go to PublicLibrariesOnline.org.]

Join us for this webinar to learn about the process of leading and managing through organizational storytelling. Librarians can use personal stories within the organization for leadership (tell them who you are and why you are here), team building (sharing your vision effectively, rediscovering and honoring the mission of the organization), and moving through change (honoring the past as you move toward the future; listening to others, communicating your goals through story). Learn how to “retool” storytelling with new concepts of organizational storytelling gleaned from business and other sectors, with specific examples and powerful tools to improve library communication and advocacy. Also hear effective library stories and learn tactics shared by “story” expert Robert McKee who uses screenwriting methods to bring truth and tension to storytelling. In this webinar, co-sponsored by ALA TechSource and WebJunction, hear how libraries tell their story to strengthen organizations, build community and to amplify the value they bring to their communities.

Presenters: Kate Marek, professor at Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science, and author of Organizational Storytelling for Librarians (ALA, 2011); and Chris Rippel, head of continuing education, Central Kansas Library System.

Go to Early Registration>>

The Leadership Essentials Course Series can give you a great start, or help fill in your gaps and give you new ideas to motivate, communicate, and lead!

Leadership Essentials 1: Motivating Employees
Leadership Essentials 2: Communicating Vision
Leadership Essentials 3: Building Your Influence as a Leader
Leadership Essentials 4: Leading with Emotional Intelligence

As of July 1, 2011,  you must be signed in to your WebJunction Illinois in order to enroll and launch courses.

The newsletter discusses Public Act 97-597, which was signed into law by Governor Pat Quinn on August 29, 2011. The new law amends the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), alleviating demands placed on public bodies.

If you have additional questions about the Per Capita Grant Application, please contact either Mary Downing at 217-782-5506, mdowning@ilsos.net or Jeanne Urbanek at 217-524-0050, jurbanek@ilsos.net.

The Library Law Articles  are located under Library Management > Organizational Management > Library Law Articles (IL).