February 2014 Report Presented at the March 11, 2013 Library Board Meeting

1. STATISTICS

Circulation: Adult YA Juv. Total Year to Date 2014 33,608 3,395 20,882 57,885 121,714 2013 36,348 3,532 19,670 59,550 124,832 2012 38,420 3,822 22,019 64,261 129,608 (2013-2014 +/-) (-2.5%)

Self-Service checkouts: ITG ITG#2 ITG #3 Total % of total 2014 11,139 7,874 6,856 25,869 44.7% 2013 11,752 10,191 4,134 26,077 43.8% 2012 12,205 10,650 4,269 27,124 42.2%

Library cards issued: Adult Juv. Sr. Org. Total 2014 81 18 0 0 98 2013 70 13 1 0 84 2012 112 19 1 0 132

Interagency loans: To Other LINK libraries Borrow from other LINK libraries 2014 17,621 18,042 2013 20,919 17,789 2012 18,746 18,395 (2013-2014 +/-)

eBook Circulation: 2014 2013 2012 Overdrive use 2561 1508 267 Other: ILL Visits Study rooms use Walk-in WI-FI FAX 2014 53 24,469 554.25 Hours - 378 Bookings 719 sessions 50 users / 157 pgs 2013 53 27,704 568.75 Hours - 373 Bookings 512 sessions 75 users / 216 pgs 2012 109 32,161 609.5 hrs / 424 bookings 761 sessions 71 users / 168 pgs Public Computer Usage: Number of Computers Logged: 45 Number of Days Open: 28 Total Sessions 7,161 Total hours Used: 2,271 Total Printed Sides: 7,151

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2. LIBRARY PROGRAMS / TOURS / PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES

Date Program Attendance

2/1/2014 Krafty Kids - Valentines : Demonstrator, Kathy 75

2/2/2014 Library eBooks for your tablet : Demonstrator, Jim 25

2/3/2014

Pom Pom Pizazz : Demonstrator, Amanda, Jennifer Das

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2/4/2014 Getting to Know Medicare : Demonstrator, Jesse Grutz with the Retirement Classroom

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2/6/2014 Getting to Know Medicare : Demonstrator, Jesse Grutz 8

2/7/2014 American Family Children's Hospital : Demonstrator, Rebecca V. 3

2/7/2014 Bilingual Spanish-English Storytime : Demonstrator, Katy Shannon 25

2/8/2014 PAWS to Read : Demonstrator, PAWS to Read Teams 12

2/10/2014 Fusion Science Theater : Demonstrator, Fusion Science Theater (Madison College)

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2/10/2014

Fusion Science Theater : Demonstrator, Fusion Science Theater (Madison

College)

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2/11/2014 'Tween Crafternoon : Demonstrator, Amanda 19

2/12/2014 Books & Brownies: Book Thief : Demonstrator, Rebecca 0

2/12/2014 Pay Less For College : Demonstrator, Robert Decock 18

2/13/2014

Heart Burns: the Anti-Valentine's : Demonstrator, Rebecca V.

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2/13/2014 Teen Techno Minutes : Demonstrator, Sam Smith, RL - supervisor 2

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2/14/2014 Techno Minutes : Demonstrator, RL 2

2/14/2014 Bilingual Spanish-English Storytime : Demonstrator, Katy Shannon 21

2/16/2014 Chess Club : Demonstrator, Brad Phillips 12

2/17/2014 Bottlecaps and Buttons : Demonstrator, Amanda, Nick Esbeck 15

2/17/2014 Teen Advisory Committee : Demonstrator, Rebecca V. 4

2/17/2014

Read It and Eat Book Club : Demonstrator,

Amanda

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2/18/2014 Lunch Bunch: 7th grade : Demonstrator, Rebecca V. 7

2/18/2014 Parenting Class Early Literacy Presentation : Demonstrator, Amanda 12

2/18/2014 Parenting Class Presentation : Demonstrator, Amanda 13

2/18/2014 Lunch Bunch: 6th grade : Demonstrator, Rebecca V. 13

2/18/2014 'Tween Crafternoons : Demonstrator, Amanda 14

2/19/2014 Origami - Tomoko Fuse Box : Demonstrator, Ruthanne Bessman 30

2/19/2014 Adult Creative Writing Group : Demonstrator, Kathy Steffen 10

2/20/2014 Adult Book Discussion : Demonstrator, Jenny Carr 16

2/20/2014 Teen Techno Minutes : Demonstrator, Sam Smith & Giovanni Perez (volunteers), RL (supervisor)

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2/20/2014 Tai Chi for Wellness : Demonstrator, Tina Dewey 14

2/21/2014 I love my library because... (DIY) : Demonstrator, Rebecca L. & Pamela 102

2/21/2014 Bilingual Spanish-English Storytime : Demonstrator, Katy Shannon 35

2/21/2014 Techno Minutes : Demonstrator, Rebecca L 1

2/21/2014 Paddington Bear Storytime : Demonstrator, Amanda 0

2/23/2014 Cooperative Board Games : Demonstrator, Amanda, 3 SLIS Students 11

2/24/2014 Introduction to Twitter : Demonstrator, Walker Evans 22

2/25/2014 'Tween Crafternoon: Knitting and Felties : Demonstrator, Amanda 11

2/26/2014 Special Edition Storytime : Demonstrator, Communication Innovations 54

2/26/2014 YMCA After-School Outreach Visit : Demonstrator, Amanda 21

2/26/2014 YMCA After-School Outreach Visit : Demonstrator, Amanda 26

2/26/2014 Kids Book Club : Demonstrator, Svetha 24

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2/27/2014 Parent & Child Yoga : Demonstrator, Jamie Gepner 20

2/27/2014 Homeschoolers' Book Share : Demonstrator, Amanda 3

2/27/2014 Teen Techno Minutes : Demonstrator, Sam & Giovanni, RL 3

2/27/2014 YMCA After-School Outreach : Demonstrator, Amanda 33

2/28/2014 DIY Corner - Friendship (DIY) : Demonstrator, Sally 37

2/28/2014 3K Special Needs Visit : Demonstrator, Svetha 8

2/28/2014

Bilingual Spanish-English Storytime : Demonstrator, Katy

Shannon

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Number of Programs / Total Attendance

Children's 26 / 578

Teens 8 / 55

Adults 15 / 261

Grand Total 49 / 894

DIY/Passive Program Total 2 / 139

3. LIBRARY EXHIBITS

Art Railing

Janet Gilkey, Oil paintings

Exhibit Case

Middleton Youth Resource Center

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4. STAFF DEVELOPMENT: MEETINGS AND CONTINUING EDUCATION

Date Staff Title

2/4/2014

Katie A, Sara S,

Peter, Meg, Katie

O, Jennifer D, Maria

Fines and Fees Webinar : Webinar presented by Heidi at South Central on the changes coming in the 4.18 Koha upgrade. Staff were shown the

improvements that will be coming to the fines screen, including partial

write offs, refunds, and ability to add description to payments.

2/6/2014 Amanda

Meeting with Fusion Science Theater : I met with staff from Fusion Science Theater to show them the meeting room space and talk about

room set-up.

2/6/2014 Rebecca V.

Project Girl : Kelly Parks Snider presented a workshop explaining Project

Girl. Kelly works with girls in grades 1-7, having them look critically at the advertising that is directed toward them in terms of who is portrayed

(who is left out), how are they portrayed (oversexualized) and how big corporations want you to feel incomplete or not cool if you don't use their

products. Girls are asked to describe themselves, make collages to portray

their own self-image, and empower them to see through media hype to define themselves through their own interests and artwork. Participants

encouraged to work as activists to make others aware of how media is out of line.

2/6/2014 Pamela Get Moving Middleton

2/8/2014 Amanda Meeting with SLIS Students

2/10/2014 Sarah H.

Other Item Statuses and Changes with 4.18 webinar : SCLS staff

showed some of the changes that will take place in Koha after the 4.18 upgrade.

2/11/2014 Pamela and Joan

Gillman

Library Legislative Day : Legislative Briefing, updates and speakers.

Met with legislators on both the House and Senate side. This was WLA's

highest turnout, despite the fact that it is not a bonding year.

2/12/2014 Pamela

WLA Leadership Development Taskforce : Developed a set of competencies (and their definitions and measurable outcomes) that will

drive the creation of a leadership institute in support of members serving in leadership roles for WLA.

2/12/2014 Amanda

Wellness Committee Meeting : This was the monthly meeting of the

city's wellness committee. We discussed the community garden,

newsletter content, and potential initiatives.

2/12/2014 Amanda SLIS Student Visit : I met with one of the students who is facilitating a program at MID later this month as part of a SLIS class. We talked about

promotion, registration, and a few last-minute logistics.

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2/21/2014 Pamela

Budget Webinar, 2015 - SCLS : Comprehensive look at the SCLS budget.

2/24/2014 Amanda

Wisconsin Book Festival Partnership Phone Meeting : I met with

Conor Moran, the director of the Wisconsin Book Festival, to discuss partnering on an author visit or other event.

2/28/2014 Rebecca V.,

Amanda S.

SCLS CE: Programming workshop : Programming ideas for tweens, teens & adults: robots made out of toothbrush motors, techie crafts, art-

based programming, partnerships, volunteer teams, etc.

5. DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Highlights of February 2014:

In February of 2014, Middleton’s physical items circulation total was 57,885, down by -2.5%

compared to last year’s February of 59,550. Circulation of the adult and teen collections was hit

hardest, with a drop of -7% and -6%, respectively. Children’s collections, on the other hand,

experienced a notable increase of 6%.

We had a total of 51 programs last month and 1,033 attendees. Compared to last year’s

February, we offered fewer programs (from 66 in 2013, to 51 in 2014) and our total number of

attendees dropped (from 1,583 in 2013, to 1,033 in 2014). The cold weather is likely the

influencing factor these shifts.

Facility:

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We has several facility related incidents, a discovery of a gap in the roof, a leak in the furnace

room, a leaky furnace boiler, and carpet squares on the lower level are rippling as the glue gives

way.

Digital Library:

Digital books activity continues on an upward climb, with Overdrive circulation February at 2,561

in 2014, a 69% increase compared to last year’s February at 1,508.

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6. LIBRARIANS’ REPORTS

Patrick Williams, Head of Information Technology

All three PCs on the South Central Library System network were updated with Windows 7; two

of the oldest PCs were replaced with new machines. These are the stations at the staff

Circulation Desk.

Research and development of the Windows 8.1 images and hardware for patron use is being

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finalized. This includes software/hardware compatibility, security lockdown features, remote

updating, and settings/configurations. We will be able to roll out circulating Windows tablets

(with pre-loaded Zinio magazine titles, eBooks, and Library-centric apps), Computer lab stations

with the latest version of Office 2013 & several other software choices, and touch-screen

stations in the Teen and Children’s areas.

Rebecca Van Dan, Head of Young Adult Services

February involved a lot of communication with our teen bands who will be playing at the library

in April. We enlisted the help of our Social Media group for filming and asked the bands to

come in for short interviews that we will post on social media to highlight the event. We also

collected all of the wonderful notes patrons have written to Smaug and put them in a scrapbook

and found a brave group of Dragonkeepers on staff to care for our new dragon. Dragonkeepers

will be trained in early March and we will have a naming contest for our new arrival. I put

together a feeding and cleaning schedule this month and an overview of essential

dragonkeeping information. Brendan also helped us create a weeding report for the teen music

CDs this month, and we completed an intensive weeding of this collection. In addition, I created

online registrations for teen summer programs and reworked our summer programming lineup

to reflect our addition of four extra weeks to the SRP calendar.

Outreach: This month I presented our book picks and list to the AFCH teachers, (a duty that

rotates between Svetha, Amanda, and I each month.) The teachers are always very excited to

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see our picks and it is rewarding to put our knowledge to good use. We also collected 18

dresses for the Junior League’s All Dressed Up event, and Pamela’s suggestion to display the

dresses on a rack at the Help Desk attracted a lot of attention and more donations. The

Kromrey Lunch Bunch continues to do well, with a few students who approached me at the end

to ask if they could join next month. I was also contacted by a UW professor this month to

oversee a group of SLIS students who would like to present a program in April and by Sennett

Middle School who requested we attend a Career Fair to allow students to communicate directly

with people in many different professions.

Programming: Our new retro gaming consoles were ordered this month and Rebecca L., Sarah

H., Patrick W. and I tested them to see what other equipment will be needed for the Adult and

Teen retro gaming programs. I also emailed a few more teen authors for an appearance in the

fall, with responses from two authors that a visit in spring 2015 might work better. I stepped in

to supervise Jim’s Tai Chi program this month, met with a few staff members to gather ideas for

a summer LibCon event, and communicated with the SLIS students who will be presenting a

program here in April. I also contacted a few new presenters, one an Italian exchange student,

to add to the SRP events in August.

Meetings: Project Girl (art based self-esteem/media literacy-based programming), SCLS CE

(programming ideas)

Teen volunteers continued relabeling the Spanish collection, shelving, and making posters for

upcoming events. Kathy, Sarah G., and Sally W. have been an enormous help with all the

weeding withdrawals we’ve had this month and Kathy has continued with collection

development of the Humor section and some great displays.

Displays: Red & Black Valentines, Books to get through Hibernation, Olympically Inspired

Svetha Hetzler, Head of Children’s Services

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I began the month with a vacation to India so my report is a little lighter this month! I did offer

my monthly Kids Book Club and have been very pleased with the consistent attendance and

positive response. Our Sunday Chess Club offering has also been successful. I began the

Sunday event in response to a suggestion at last year’s staff in-service. Typically, there are

less conflicts with the meeting room space on Sundays so that’s been an added benefit. Katy

Shannon wrapped up the winter session of Bilingual Spanish-English storytimes. We also

offered a Parent/Child Yoga class. I continued my outreach with a visit to the 3K Special Needs

classroom at the Middleton High School. They are doing a unit on pets so I shared some books

to introduce them to the theme and brought a selection of library books for their new unit.

My practicum student, Andrea Dictor has been doing a great job already with her various tasks.

Next month, she will begin presenting storytimes with me. We have been planning and

preparing for the upcoming spring storytime session. She is also well underway with her

collection development project of recataloging our thematic picture book collection. She is very

comfortable at the help desk, works well independently, and asks questions to clarify any

doubts.

I continued planning and preparing for our summer reading program. I contacted our summer

pages to see if they will be interested and available to join our team this summer. I also ordered

our promotional materials from Upstart.

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Sarah Goebel continues her work with displays, publicity (including social media postings), and

collection management. This month’s displays featured the Winter Olympics and Black History

Month. Sally updated our DIY station with friendship activities. I’m thankful for the support Sally

and Sarah provide each other and our department with their shared position.

I’m looking forward to March and spring!

Sarah Hartman, Head of Technical Services

This month was busy as we continued working with a high volume of new materials,

replacements from last year’s adult non-fiction weeding project, materials for the upcoming Jane

Austen display, replacements of worn classic books, Spanish Collection re-cataloging, and

picture book conversion to new call numbers based on topic. We were happy to welcome one

of our key Technical Services team members back from a 5-week vacation, and I would like to

extend my thanks to the staff members in all departments who pitched in during that time.

In social media news, Jason reported that we’re now past 1,100 likes on Facebook. Jason also

put together an excellent video compilation of the January All-Staff In-service. We look forward

to seeing more great videos produced by the Social Media Committee in the future!

Amanda Struckmeyer, Head of Youth Services

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Programming highlights this month included outreach visits to the YMCA after-school sites and

parenting classes at the high school, where I did presentations on early literacy. A three-part

Crafternoon program provided ‘tweens with several makerspace project options for knitting and

sewing. I also worked with a group from SLIS to host a cooperative gaming program on a

Sunday afternoon.

We finalized preparations for circulating three iPads. This involved training staff, creating

promotional materials for the public and information materials for staff, cataloging and

processing the iPads (thank you, Technical Services!), and more. The iPads are loaded with

literacy apps for preschoolers, school-age children, and ‘tweens. They will begin circulating in-

house on March 1.

With the help of the Technical Services department, I finished re-assigning call numbers to our

hardcover American Girl books. The new call numbers will make this popular collection easier

to navigate for our patrons and pages. I also made progress weeding nonfiction and

paperbacks.

I wrote and submitted my biweekly newspaper column, Booking It, for the Middleton Times-

Tribune, and continued to act as newspaper liaison. I continued my work as a member of the

Wisconsin Library Association Youth Services Section Board, and as a member of the ALSC

(Association for Library Services to Children) Services to Special Populations and their

Caregivers committee. In addition, I reviewed one book for School Library Journal.

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Jim Ramsey, Head of Adult Services

Our programming schedule during the month of February tended toward the informational and

instructional. In addition to technology instruction sessions on eBooks and Twitter, we also

offered programs on Medicare and financial planning for college. Also this month, Ruthanne

Bessman returned to offer the second in what we hope will be many origami workshops.

Ruthanne is a long-time collaborator with the library who designed and supervised the

construction of the “origami mural” above the circulation desk. We also offered our first-ever Tai

Chi program led by one of our patrons, a local instructor named Tina Dewey. The class, entitled

“Tai Chi for Health and Wellness,” was a great success, and we plan to invite Ms. Dewey back

in the future.

We wrapped up our Adult Winter Reading Program at the end of this month. In all, 96 people

picked up reading logs and 48 turned them in and were entered in our drawing. Our prizes this

year include gift cards to Barnes & Noble, certificates for free pies (generously donated by the

Hubbard Avenue Diner), and gift cards to many local restaurants. Patrons often tell us how

much they appreciate the Adult Winter Reading Program; to my knowledge, no other library in

the area offers a similar program.

I continued this month with the ongoing collection maintenance task of replacing worn-out

copies of classic books. The first batch of replacements ordered in January began to arrive this

month, and the collection is already looking newer and fresher. In particular, the spinning rack

of classic mass market paperbacks has become much more attractive. This small collection,

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which languished in the lower level until last year, has benefited enormously from the increased

visibility and fresh materials.

Our practicum student, Trevor, has been working the reference desk for about a month now.

He does a great job of handling the numerous questions and issues that arise at the desk and

we are extremely lucky to have him helping us out for the spring semester. In addition to his

duties at the reference desk, Trevor is working on a collection development project involving the

Middleton Collection, our reference collection of documents and materials pertaining to the

history and development of our city. The collection is in need of some weeding and

reorganization and we feel that Trevor, with his experience working at Wisconsin Historical

Society Library, is the perfect person to tackle the project.

Looking to future, I finalized the adult programs for this summer, which include a musical

performance and two visits by local authors, and began looking ahead to programming for the

fall.

Brendan Faherty, Head of Circulation Services

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Some Self-Check usage statistics to start out this month:

Total Self-Check sessions in February: 6,420 (almost 230/day)

Total Circulation on all 3 Self-Check Machines in February:

Self-Check #1 (near the Open Holds shelves) - 11,139 items

Self-Check #2 (located on the main Circulation Desk) - 7,874 items

Self-Check #3 (closer to the Children’s Area) - 6,856 items

Total 25,869 items

Items checked out per session:

Self-Check #1 11,139 items / 3,058 sessions 3.64 items/session

Self-Check #2 7,874 items / 2,276 sessions 3.46 items/session

Self-Check #3 6,856 items / 1,086 sessions 6.31 items/session

So what do all these numbers really tell us? A couple of things stand out. First, our monthly

total of almost 26,000 items represents roughly 59% of our total circulation, which is a pretty

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significant number. Our self-check volume is up a little from last year at this time, despite the

terrible cold and wintry weather we continue to experience. Second, moving the third Self-

Check machine seems to have balanced the use among the three a little more evenly.

Whereas the third machine routinely was used far less than the other two, it now generates

nearly one third of all Self-Check circulations. In addition, patrons who use the third Self-Check

tend to check out more items by far (nearly twice as many per checkout as the other two

machines, as noted above). This is consistent with what I expected when we moved that Self-

Check closer to the Children’s Area.

The Circulation department is also eagerly awaiting the next upgrade for our Koha ILS. Version

4.18 will feature a complete overhaul of the fines/fees processing and will be the largest single

upgrade in terms of training and improved functionality since we went live in April 2011. It was

originally scheduled for early March, but has recently been pushed back to early April due to

some serious bugs in the software that still need to be addressed. Several Circulation staff

members have been testing the new software for a couple of months now, which will hopefully

lead to a smooth transition once it is installed.

As always, I continue to look at ways to streamline our procedures and make sure all Circulation

staff are aware of any changes. At the same time, I always like to make sure everyone knows

and understands our current procedures or at least knows who to ask for help.

Finally, I am excited to have the Circulation Staff involved in our new Contagious Marketing

Campaign, wherein we are promoting a specific library service/program/event/database/etc for a

two-week period at the Circulation Desk. We are currently focusing on the Community

Canvases Public Art project, and the canvases continue to sell frequently. This campaign

provides an additional opportunity for Circ staff to interact with our patrons and make them

aware of library offerings they may not be familiar with.

7. AGENDA ITEMS

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Building Feasibility Study Information Meeting presenters from FEH Associates and Bill

Wilson from Himmel & Wilson Question and answer time to follow.

Annual Review process – Director – Proposed update to the position description and summary

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Trustee Manual:

http://pld.dpi.wi.gov/pld_handbook Reminder that this resource is available to us