Library Innovation Subcommittee Minutes

February 20, 2024, 9:00am

Zoom

 

Present: Laura Fuller (PLO), Caitlin Opatik (REE), Melissa Roelli (MTH), Amy Trumble (NGL), Leah Fritsche (DEE)

 

Excused: Leah Bauer (POY), Brenda Massei (MNT)

 

Recorder: Tamara Ramski

 

SCLS staff present: Jean Anderson, Rose Ziech, Tim Drexler, Tracie Miller, Mark Jochem, Shawn Brommer, Craig Ellefson

 

1.      Call to order time 9:04 am

a.      Introduction of guests/visitors

                                                              i.      Rose welcomed new committee member: Amy Trumble. Brenda Messei (MNT) and Leah Bauer (POY) have also joined the committee.

b.      Changes/Additions to the Agenda: None

c.       Requests to address the Committee:  None 

 

2.      Approval of previous meeting minutes: December 12, 2023

a.      Changes or corrections: None

b.      Approved by motion: Leah, Mark, all approved.

 

3.      Action items: None

 

4.      Reports

a.      Finalized Charge reviewed by Administrative Council & approved at their Dec 21 meeting

                                                              i.      It is available on the SCLS website.

b.      IDEA Team: New team members, upcoming programs

                                                              i.      Jean:

1.      Two webinars have been held.

2.      Feb. 29th webinar: Identity, Burnout, and Emotional awe. Over 200 people registered. Registration is still open.

3.      In-person workshops with Dr. Alonzo Kelly. April 25 at East Branch of Brown County Library (Green Bay) and May 9 Wintergreen (Wis. Dells). Mileage to attend can be paid.

                                                             ii.      Mark: Large project for this year will be a BIPOC centered conference.

1.      Beginning the planning process. It will not be a WLA Pre-conference. Date and location to be determined (possibly a Brown County branch).

 

5.      Discussion

a.      Continue discussion (from 10-10-2023 meeting):  Developing a Snowy Weather programming toolkit -with basic blue prints that librarians can use to plan programs for Wisconsin winters (Alicia Woodland, MCM)

                                                              i.      Tabled until next meeting.

b.      Recording maker kit demonstration videos (Mark)

                                                              i.      Reported statistics on kit usage. This could help determine which kits to do videos of. VR kits were used a lot, the cooking, scanning, and sewing kits were also used.

                                                             ii.      The kits do have printed manuals, so not all of them would necessarily need videos.

                                                           iii.      Leah-Recommends creating videos for kits that are harder to use and/or to promote less used kits?

                                                           iv.      The printing press kit already has a video.

                                                             v.      Leah-Routine reminders of what kits are available is very helpful.

                                                           vi.      Jean-As an internal project, SCLS staff will be: working on updating kits and programming equipment, looking into making them easier to find on the SCLS website, and doing more to promote the kits.

                                                         vii.      Jean-This can be a recurring topic for this year’s LIS meetings.

                                                       viii.      Melissa/Leah-“There’s a kit for that!” was suggested as slogan for marketing.

                                                           ix.      Brenda has told Rose she’d record a demo video.

c.       Tablet kiosk discussion-211 (Mark)

                                                              i.      Melissa had mentioned polling buttons at previous meetings.

                                                             ii.      Mark reached out to the Dane County 211 Director.

1.      Tablets feature the 211 app (locked down to that app only).

2.      They have 21 tablets in various agencies. (2 in Madison Public Library Branches).

3.      Costs about $450 for a stand and iPad, and the app is free.

                                                           iii.      Could also have polling app for patrons.

                                                           iv.      Libraries could use existing iPad (re-use).

                                                             v.      Can be used anonymously or with an account (with customized settings).

d.      PCPL STEM materials update (Laura/Shawn)

                                                              i.      Laura emailed Shawn a list of what they have and may be interested in sending to other libraries.

                                                             ii.      Laura and Shawn will be discussing it and will provide an update at the next meeting.

e.      Dashboards (Tim)

                                                              i.      Building a prototype for libraries to use their own data to create dashboards and visualizations for topics for which SCLS does not have data (example: visits/reference questions).

                                                             ii.      Working with Laura and Leah (and their data) to design and test the workflows and visualizations.

1.      Not clear how updates will work. Testing if a library can do all of the steps themselves to get the dashboard to update.  

2.      Laura-Already had all of the data in Google Sheets so it was easy to share it with Tim.

3.      Leah-Can library staff input data into Google Sheets for Tim?

a.      She is okay to do that extra step (if the original data doesn’t exist in Google Sheets).

b.      Tim-there are a couple of different options-could use a form (tied to a Google sheet) to get the data to Google Sheets. Leah would be happy to pilot that.

f.        Library visits

                                                              i.      Leah-Visited the St. Paul’s Hollywood Branch of the Charleston County Library System (in S. C.) in January.

1.      The branch opened at the beginning of COVID.

2.      The system budgets for buildings to be new or remodeled every 5 years.  Some of the branches are on islands.

3.      They have a lot of public use computers (they think they put in too many).

4.      Crafting space, media space, and teen space. Light blue ceilings (it is supposed to bring good luck). It is called “haint blue” according to Laura.

5.       A lot of green space around the outside of the building.  

6.      Even though libraries have different locations and situations, Leah finds it comforting to see the many universal things about libraries.

 

6.      Items from clusters:

a.      Laura-PCPL is looking for alternatives to Beanstack for 2025. Is there a committee at SCLS working on this?

                                                              i.      Shawn-Sara Gold (WiLS) is investigating alternatives.

                                                             ii.      Shawn is considering how to make it as easy as possible for SCLS member libraries to work with WiLS on this.

                                                           iii.      Shawn may look for testers for alternatives.

                                                           iv.      Shawn sent a survey to gather information about peoples’ needs for the app. 

                                                             v.      Shawn will keep communication open about this with libraries.

                                                           vi.      Jean-Talked to Sara at Library Legislative Day:

1.      If libraries want to stay with Beanstack, they may have to do it on their own (like Hoopla).

2.      There might not be a state-wide solution.

3.      It will be ideal for SCLS and libraries if it can be done through WiLS.

 

b.      Amy: Is there a kit for libraries to use that includes book repair equipment? Not necessarily a programming kit. They are spending a lot of money on repairs and some of the repair tools are not in their budget.

                                                              i.      Leah-Loves the idea. It is not worth it for them to purchase the equipment, but there are times when it would be nice if they had access to it.

                                                             ii.      Laura agrees, it’s a great idea.  

                                                           iii.      Recommended for the kit:

1.      Demco Cover One Book Repair Machine.

2.      Saddle stapler.

                                                           iv.      Jean-Many years ago Demco did a book repair hands on workshop for SCLS libraries.

 

7.      Plan for next meeting: April 9, 2024 (Zoom)

a.      Reports:

                                                              i.      IDEA Team

b.      Discussions:

                                                              i.      Kits:

1.      Demonstration videos

2.      Updating kit contents and promoting kits

3.      New kit requests (book repair kit)

                                                             ii.      PCPL STEM materials update (Laura/Shawn)

                                                           iii.      Dashboard (Tim)

                                                           iv.      Continue discussion (from 10-10-2023 meeting):  Developing a Snowy Weather programming toolkit -with basic blue prints that librarians can use to plan programs for Wisconsin winters (Alicia Woodland, MCM)

                                                             v.      Library visits

 

8.      Adjournment:  9:59 am. Melissa, all seconded, approved by consensus.

For more information about the Library Innovation Subcommittee, contact Rose Ziech.

 

SCLS staff are available to attend cluster meetings to share information and answer questions pertaining to this committee meeting and other departmental projects.

2024-02-20-lis-minutes