Below are the headlines from the January 31, 2020 📢 Nic News Weekly:

• Annual Reports: It's that time of year again!
• 2020 Collection Development Grants
• Homelessness 201: A Deeper Understanding of the Lives of People Experiencing Homelessness (Free Webinar)
• Disability, Diversity, and Inclusion: Lessons Learned from Industry Leaders
• Advisory Meeting: February 7th
• Voices of Women in America: Survey Due TODAY

The Great Lakes ADA Center in collaboration with the ADA National Network invites you to attend the February ADA Audio Conference Series session titled “Disability, Diversity, and Inclusion: Lessons Learned from Industry Leaders” featuring  Robert Gould , PhD, Instructor and Project Coordinator , Department of Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois Chicago (UIC); Sarah Parker Harris, PhD, associate professor and director of graduate and undergraduate studies, Department of Disability and Human Development, UIC; and Courtney Mullin, MPA, PhD Candidate in Disability Studies at UIC.

Session Description: Discussions about the meaningful inclusion of workers with disabilities are often missing from research and practice. Join us as the presenters discuss the findings from a research study that included interviewing industry leaders involved in the diversity and inclusion efforts of more than 40 businesses across the Great Lakes Region (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin).  The research team worked with the businesses to better understand the process of creating an inclusive workplace culture in relation to informal and formal policies, programs, initiatives, and practices that support the recruitment, hiring, and retention of workers with disabilities. The presenters provide a summary of some of the emerging best practices and challenges to implementing them. There will be time for participants to ask the presenters about their work.

This session is offered via the telephone and/or via the web based Blackboard Ultra webinar platform.   The session will be captioned via webinar platform. Registration is available at www.ada-audio.org  (you will need to set up an account on the website if you do not have one already).

Questions regarding the session should be directed to webinars@adaconferences.org or at 877-232-1990 (V/TTY).

Check out the headlines from the 01/24/2020 - 📢 Nic News Weekly.

• Free Programming Resources for Earth Day
• Join the WLA Mentorship Program!
• 2020 Collection Development Grants: Coming Soon
• Now Hiring: Youth Services Manager for Brown County Library (Central Library)
• An Introduction to Creating a Library Marketing Plan
• Voices of Women in America: Survey Due January 31

Brown County Library, a 9 branch county-wide library system, is currently taking applications for a Youth Services Manager for its Central Library. It is looking for an innovative and creative leader who has experience developing responsive programming and dynamic services for youth and families. Besides leading a team of 5 staff members, this manager helps lead system wide youth services programming and initiatives. The Youth Services Manager is a member of the larger management team at Brown County Library, ensuring that library services are deployed consistently throughout the county.

Brown County Library, Green Bay, Wisconsin
Youth Services Library Manager (Full Time, Exempt)
Salary: $48,900 (negotiable)
Application Deadline: 2/3/2020
Apply Online: https://tinyurl.com/ud4orxc

An Introduction to Creating a Library Marketing Plan
Thursday, Feb. 13, 1 pm
1 contact hour
Register
 
Except for the shelves of books, today’s libraries would be mostly unrecognizable to the patrons of 30 years ago. One of the challenges for libraries is finding effective ways to promote what they do, and developing a comprehensive marketing plan is an excellent starting point. A marketing plan provides focus to a library’s marketing efforts and ensures that limited resources are used effectively and efficiently. It helps keep you and your staff focused on the big picture of what you do—your vision and mission—and saves you time promoting individual events or projects. The marketing plan is the guide that provides order to your messaging and efforts. 

A state-wide public library system marketing cohort has drafted a marketing plan template that any library of any size can model and adapt.  Based on Kathy Dempsey's "Cycle of True Marketing," Jamie Matczak and Mark Ibach will walk through the marketing plan template that has been developed, answer questions, and seek feedback before the plan is officially presented to Wisconsin libraries. 
 
This webinar will share: 

•  A customizable marketing framework that can be adapted to suit a library’s unique needs and community
•  Sample marketing plan, budget, and calendar guides
• Links to resources that expand on the information presented

WLA has announced the launch of a new statewide mentorship program and is seeking applications for members interested in participating as a mentor or mentee in the WLA Mentorship Program’s pilot year.

The WLA Mentorship Program is designed to provide encouragement, support, and guidance to library staff seeking professional growth through connections with experienced colleagues within a structured mentoring program. Mentees gain experience from knowledgeable library colleagues while becoming further involved in the statewide professional association. Mentors gain opportunities to give back to the profession, model volunteerism, and help influence the future of librarianship.

For more information about the WLA Mentorship Program and to see the program outline application, visit the WLA website. 

Below are the headlines from the latest 📢 Nic News Weekly

• Youth Services Support Grants
• Collection Development Grants
• Supporting Child Care Providers & Maximizing Maker Efforts
• New Customer Service Online Training, via Ryan Dowd
• Continuing Education Funding
• Library Legislative Day: Registration Closes TODAY
• January 22-23: Wild Wisconsin Winter Web Conference

Tessa Michaelson Schmidt, from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, wrote a post for the Wisconsin Libraries for Everyone blog regarding two distinct national projects with resources to help us and our community:

• The Growing Providers Tool Kit includes lots of ideas and program models for how libraries can support child care. It also includes a Child Care Provider Resource Guide. 
• Opportunities and Vignettes for Library Makerspaces is a white paper informed by the participants of the National Forum on Research and Assessment in Library Makerspaces.

​Both projects have recently published the results, and Tessa feels the content is high-quality and valuable. Regardless of the size of your library or scope of service, she hopes you will consider these tools. ​

Because we want to provide the best possible service to all people – and some patron interactions require a thoughtful and deliberate approach – you now have anytime access to online training from Ryan Dowd that will give you practical tools you can use every day. Through this training, you will learn how to compassionately manage problems and prevent conflicts with all patrons who enter your library, including those who are experiencing trauma such as mental health issues, homelessness, and substance abuse issues.
 
The online training is 3½ hours long and is on-demand, so you can watch it little by little or in bigger chunks, whenever works for your schedule. The subscription runs from January - December 2020.
 
Supervisors & Department Heads: please share this info with your staff. If someone on your staff does not have a work email address, please contact Joy Schwartz with their alternate email address and she’ll send them a personalized invitation.

There's still time to register: you have two opportunities to attend our Youth Services and SLP 2020 workshop!

• Wednesday, February 12, 2020
  Brown County STEM Innovation Center, Green Bay
  Register at: https://newilibraries.org/ce/YouthServicesFeb2020-GreenBay


• Tuesday, February 18, 2020
  EAA Aviation Museum, Oshkosh
  Register at: https://newilibraries.org/ce/YouthServicesFeb2020-Oshkosh

Schedule for each day:

​WHERE: Door County Library - Sturgeon Bay Branch
Parking is in the city lot between Michigan St. and Nebraska St., across the street from the library.
Use the staff entrance on the alley behind the library.

WHEN: Thursday, January 16, 2020 from 9:00–11AM (8:45-9:00AM sign-in)
Snacks and coffee will be provided.

Compassionate Accountability: Dealing with Problem Behaviors in the Library
Presented by Emily Rogers, Deputy Director and Karla Giraldez, Branch Manager with the Brown County Library
​We all have those patrons who can make library work more challenging. Maybe they repeatedly violate a policy or they seek out the staff person who is willing to bend the rules for them when you have already told them no. In this session, we will explore ways we can hold patrons accountable for behaviors and still be compassionate.  Brown County Library Branch Manager, Karla Giraldez, and Deputy Director, Emily Rogers will discuss tips and tricks to use before, during, and after a behavior concern to help make the library safe for all.

Questions? Need an invite? Email Lori Baumgart

Below are the headlines from the latest 📣 Nic News Weekly newsletter.

• New Mileage Reimbursement Rate for 2020
• FREE Courses on Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• Free webinars on teen outreach, guiding staff through change, programs for babies & more this month (NEWI)
• Website Accessibility Checks Anyone Can Do
• Are You Using Images Legally? Get FREE Sources Below!
• Time to Register for Library Legislative Day

The Wild Wisconsin Winter Web Conference is a state-wide web conference developed by the Nicolet Federated Library System and supported by 15 other library systems in Wisconsin since 2013.

This year, we welcome two new session tracks in Adult Services and Library Management. ​

The sad reality is that most PDFs found online are not very accessible to screen reader users. For many PDFs, screen reader users can only access the words in the document and not the structure (like headings or lists). In an online survey of over 1000 screen reader users, over 75 percent of people said PDF documents are likely to pose significant accessibility issues. By contrast, just over 30 percent said the same thing about Microsoft Word documents. Considering the large number of PDFs on websites, this is very troubling.
​
The good news is that the process for creating accessible PDFs can be very straightforward. For example, it often only takes a couple minutes to turn a well-structured and accessible source file (like a Word document) into an equally accessible PDF.

Source: ​https://www.macfound.org/pages/get-started/pdf/

NFLS member library staff: if you need further assistance making your documents or media more accessible, please contact Lori Baumgart.

1/3/2020 update: Application deadline extended. Applications for both Coaches and Teams are now due Friday, January 17 at 5 PM.

The Public Library Development arm of Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction is proud to partner with the American Library Association for a new state-level community engagement training, Wisconsin Libraries Transforming Communities.

​Thriving Libraries, a team of consultants trained in community engagement and leadership development techniques, is providing the expertise for this 18-month hands on, cohort-based training. Up to 20 two-person Teams--consisting of one library staff member and one community member--will be trained in this inaugural effort. 

It takes a specialized skill set to conduct a complete web accessibility evaluation, but there are several things anyone can do to evaluate a website. Below are 6 things you can do without a knowledge of HTML.

Start by watching this 6-minute video demonstrating these evaluation steps. Then use the details below to try it yourself.