Below are the headlines from the January 29, 2021 - 📢 Nic News Weekly:

• Take ALA's Survey For a Chance to Win National Library Week Swag
• TeachingBooks' New Book & Author Chrome Extension
• Beanstack: New 2021 Challenges
• LAWDS Training on Use of Labor Market Indicator Tools
• ALA's Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Training Calendar

The conference will take place on January 27-28, 2021. Fourteen sessions will be available in four different tracks, including Public Services (new!), Management, Marketing, and Small and Mighty.

Presenters include Dipesh Navsaria, Angela Hursh, Beck Tench, Helyn-Luisi Mills, Julie Biando Edwards, and more.

Planning has been underway since April to give those who work in public libraries an excellent conference experience, without having to leave their library or work space.

All 16 public library systems in Wisconsin, along with the Department of Public Instruction, are providing support for this conference. All of the sessions will be recorded and captioned in the event people are unable to attend the live session.
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Each session is worth 1 contact hour for public library certification.
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For more information on the conference, contact Jamie Matczak at jmatczak@wvls.org or 920-455-0668.

Below are the headlines from the November 20, 2020 - 📢 Nic News Weekly:

• ALA Midwinter Virtual: Registration Open
• SIJO: A Ready-to-Go, Virtual Library Program and Contest for People of All Ages
• WiLS Helps Small Libraries Develop Strategic Plans - Together!
• Apply for Compassion Resilience Facilitator Training
• Annual Grant: American Dream Literacy Initiative
• Promote Digital Resources Using OverDrive's Resource Center
• On-Line Music Programs for Your Library Community

Below are the headlines from the September 18, 2020 - 📢 Nic News Weekly:

• Gillett Public Library has a New Website
• Professional Development Scholarship: 2020 Local History and Historic Preservation Conference

As of September 15, 2020, Gillett Public Library's official website address has changed to www.gilpubliclibrary.org. The new web address also comes with a new look.

​We encourage you to check it out - and please let the library's staff know what you think.

Below are the headlines from the 7/24/2020 - 📢 Nic News Weekly:

• Be Ready to Help Patrons Prepare for the InfoSoup Update
• Closed Captioning Library YouTube Videos
• COVID-19 Recovery Resources Guide
• Upper Midwest Digital Collections Conference Call for Proposals
• Rural Libraries Invited to Apply for Digital Access Grants
• Register for September 23-24 Tech Days
• The Public Library's Role in Elections: Voter Education in a Post-Truth Era
• Lead the Way: Libraries at the Heart of Community Engagement
• PLA 2020 Virtual Conference: Available On-Demand

During the COVID-19 stay home orders, Whatcom County Library System kept staff whose library work couldn't be done from home busy by having them work from home to close caption the many videos on the WCLS YouTube channel. Getting this closed captioning done to make the videos accessible to more patrons had been on the system's to-do list for a long time, but they hadn't had the staffing to take up the project. It was a great way to keep staff busy from home during the closure, and they are proud of the fact that (almost) all of the videos they are creating about library services are now accessible to those who are hard of hearing. (They are still working through some of the backlog.)

If you still have library staff who can't return to their normal schedules 100%, this might be a good project for them to take up. 

Below are the headlines from the 7/17/2020 - 📢 Nic News Weekly:

• Register now for Trustee Training Week 2020
• Three Things You Can Do to Promote Anti-Racism Efforts In Your Library
• COVID-19-related Cybercrime: Microsoft Takes Legal Action
• Marketing Materials for the "New" InfoSoup Coming this August
• Transition Planned In-Person Adult Programs to a Virtual Environment
• Antiracist Collection Development & Programming for Middle School & High School Youth (InfoPeople Webinar)

Below are the headlines from the 7/10/2020 - 📢 Nic News Weekly:

• Annual Report Summer Programming Update
• Opportunity Out of Adversity: Digital Access in Rural and Small Libraries
• Professional Development: Digital Bytes in the Time of COVID-19
• Tips for Leading Productive Meetings with Microsoft Teams
• Resilient Communities: Libraries Respond to Climate Change
• Mini-grant Opportunity: Support Health Insurance Enrollment in Your Community
• IMLS Opens Library Grants for National Leadership, Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Programs
• Simple Animations in Canva for Social Media Posts

This newsletter contains the following headlines:

• Libraries and COVID-19: Town Hall Recap, Evolving Resources, New Research Project
• Community Engagement Award.  OCLC is accepting nominations through May 31 for the new OCLC Community Engagement Award, recognizing libraries who have created impact and extended the library's reach through a recent project. Read more in the recent Next blog post and nominate your library for one of three $5000 awards.
• More Buy-In = Better Marketing.  In a guest post by Kathy Dempsey, read about the 2020 PLA panel session, The Marketing Value Proposition: Why Buy-In Makes All the Difference. Panelists shared strategies for helping library staff to understand the value of marketing and to support that work, even when it's not part of their jobs.
• Library Storytimes during COVID-19 – a Different Kind of Connection.  In part one of a two-part series, Saroj Ghoting, early childhood literacy consultant, looks at ways to adjust storytimes for virtual engagement. While virtual interactions are not the same as meeting face-to-face, this is a time to explore what works well in an online environment, what we can capitalize on, and what we can learn for the future.
• Upcoming Webinars
  • ​MAY 27: Online Reference and the Open Web: Boosting Strategies and Sources
  • JUNE 11: Libraries Prepare to Answer Civil Legal Questions in Times of Crisis
  • JUNE 16: Getting Started with Virtual Storytimes
• Additional Online Learning​

Please see below the call for program proposals from the WLA Conference Program Committee:

The theme for National Library Week (NLW) 2020, “Find your place at the library,” was chosen before the COVID-19 pandemic forced most libraries to temporarily close their physical spaces. Most people can’t visit their libraries in person, but libraries are still very much open for business. To celebrate that, ALA flipped the script a bit on the theme. “Find the library at your place” highlights how libraries are offering virtual services and digital content their communities need now more than ever. You are free to use any of the NLW materials with either theme. If your library plans to participate in NLW, please use the hashtags #NationalLibraryWeek and #LibrariesStrong to bring attention to the valuable role libraries are continuing to play.
 
The new “Find the library at your place” digital graphics and media tools in English and Spanish are available for download on the National Library Week webpage. For libraries that don’t have plans yet for NLW, or are unsure about how they can get involved this year, check out ALA's 20 Easy Ways to Participate in NLW 2020 tip sheet. ALA also has new Because statements that are relevant in our time of social distancing that can be posted to websites and social media.

“InfoSoup digital services are open to you even while (libraries) are closed,” said Evan Bend, Library Services Manager with the Outagamie Waupaca Library System (OWLS). Individuals that don’t have a library card with InfoSoup can sign up for one online and library staff will contact them with a temporary card number and pin that will allow access to all the InfoSoup digital resources.

An InfoSoup library card grants patrons access to digital resources for all ages such as ebooks, audiobooks, digitized magazines, newspaper archives and genealogy research. All resources are absolutely free with a library card. Learn more at www.infosoup.info/digital.
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To register for a card, simply complete an online application at www.InfoSoup.org/selfreg. Library staff will follow up with each applicant with a library card number and PIN to access the library’s online resources.

The video is also broken into shorter segments. Click the "Read More" link below to see these shorter videos.

Go to the NEWI list of free webinars to find continuing education opportunities in which you can participate without leaving your library; most sessions are 60 minutes long, and are provided – at no charge to you – by associations, agencies, companies, and library systems.
 
Here’s a sample of webinars offered this month; click on a title to register:

• Body Odor: The Most Dreaded Conversation of All Time – March 5
• Marketing Crash Course for Librarians: The Beginner’s Guide to Promoting Your Collection and Events – March 10
• Services for Older Adults: Library Programs for Any Time and Any Place – March 11