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August 28, 2009

Macy’s Museum Adventure Pass

We are just days away from the launch of the Macy’s Museum Adventure Pass program. Cardholders at over 150 suburban Chicago libraries will have access to free passes to 17 area museums and other cultural institutions. We’re looking forward to the big launch event on September 1 at Brookfield Zoo. Thanks to Alan Minarik (left) and Rob Zschernitz for helping with the big banners!

posted by Judy H. at 3:42 pm | Comments (0)

August 13, 2009

Budget cuts announced.

In a conference call initiated by the Illinois State Library (ISL) with the nine multi-type regional Library Systems, we were notified that Library Systems will be receiving a 16% reduction in funding through the Area & Per Capita grant. For NSLS this means a reduction of $406,192 from our state grant of $2.4 million. Similarly public library per capita grants will also be reduced by 16%. School library per capita grants will be reduced by 3%. The FY2010 federal LSTA grant program will be suspended for the year, since those monies are being redirected into the public library per capita grants. Free First Search database access for all residents of Illinois will continue.

NSLS staff are working on a comprehensive approach to solve this budget crisis. We will cut line items in the budget such as raises, travel, public relations, supplies, etc. We are also looking at all programs. The ISL has said that van delivery is to be maintained at FY 2009 levels and that there will be no charges for van delivery. While it doesn’t apply in NSLS, the Local Library System Automation Programs (integrated automated computer systems) operated by the other regional library systems are similarly protected. These are the only programs identified as “sacred” and immune from cuts or fees. Fee increases on professional development are a definite possibility and in fact we are looking at everything we do with new eyes.

Read on…

 

posted by Christina at 6:35 am | Comments (0)

August 10, 2009

New wheels for NSLS delivery!

In last week’s newsletter, we told you about the new box truck that’s been added to our delivery fleet. We’re very excited about this new addition and thought we’d share some photos.

Here’s a nice shot of the outside of the truck.

And here’s a view of the inside.

For more photos of the truck, visit our photostream on Flickr.

posted by Christina at 2:41 pm | Comments (1)

August 4, 2009

Reporting to your colleagues about your conference experiences

I always wonder how different organizations and libraries require or ask staff to report back on what they learned after they’ve attended a conference.  Some institutions require a written report.  Another option is to do a presentation for staff.   Possibly, you might blog about your experiences.  Are you required to implement something you learned at a conference?  I guess I have more questions than I do answers.  Here at NSLS, it’s pretty flexible.  You need to report back to staff,  but how you do that can be done in different ways.  In some cases, a staff member has done a presentation during the lunch hour.  Recently several NSLS staff attended ALA, so we discussed  the best ways to share what we learned with staff.  We decided we would post summaries in snippets on the staff COP (community of practice).  If you are not familiar with our CoPs, feel free to check them out. It’s convenient, staff can read when they have some free time, and the information remains there so we can go back to it at anytime as a resource.  But, more importantly, staff discussion concerning what we’ve posted is all in one place.  The thought behind this is that hopefully we can take what we learned and implement some of it in our services.  I’d be curious to hear what other organizations do.  Feel free to comment and share your ideas.

posted by Debbie at 5:37 pm | Comments (0)