Library Service Highlights--Part 2

Because December lends itself to looking back at the year ending, this space last week and again today includes a rewind—a look back at State Library accomplishments this past year, along with local library news.  It’s time for some unabashed horn-tooting from our place and from yours—this is our Library Service Highlight Reel for 2022—Part 2 

New Faces

In 2022, the State Library welcomed Brenda Hall and Janeé Jackson-Doering to our staff.  Brenda in the new Program Manager, having started in March.  And Janeé is the new Youth Services Consultant, having started in September.  Iowa towns also welcomed new library directors to their communities this year.  Thanks to my colleagues at the District Offices, my best count is … drumroll … 85 new Iowa public library directors hired in 2022.  A warm welcome, we hope you'll always feel comfortable when contacting us at the State Library with questions or concerns! 

Contact Us

Pets and Progress

Public library staff turned out great local projects this year. Among many:

Arnolds Park PL boasts a resident dog: Lilly is a loving and popular presence at the library many days each week.

Iowa City PL started bookmobile outreach, determining that a mobile branch would be a valued new city asset. 

Decorah PL set about un-museuming their library by finding new homes for museum pieces that the library had been storing. 

Spirit Lake PL now has a fireplace, just in time for the artic blasts this winter is already bringing. 

And Keota PL added a new theater room inside the library for all movie fans to enjoy.

New Features From WhoFi

In 2022, the State Library promoted new product features, resources, and websites, among them the Disaster Preparedness Toolkit and the People’s Law Library of Iowa (see last week’s Eye-Opener for those stories) Another product to tout comes from WhoFi, the company that provides many Iowa libraries with wireless statistics.  Staff at WhoFi developed the Community Calendar, a new feature that allows you to publish upcoming programs using their Community Calendar dashboard directly to your library’s public facing websites (PLOW sites and non-PLOW sites)  Programming data automatically transfers over to the Public Library Annual Survey.  Access the Community Calendar feature by logging into the same WhoFi account you use to retrieve your WiFi usage.

In addition to the Community Calendar, a new program registration option is also available. Patrons can register for events from the library website's integrated calendar. Patrons will receive an emailed confirmation email upon registering, as well as a reminder email before the event to help increase the likelihood of attendance. All events utilizing WhoFi’s registration tool can be viewed in one place, helping to alert library staff to the potential event attendance and prep for needed supplies.

Remember the State Library continues to pay for WhoFi service on behalf of Iowa libraries

Learn More About WhoFi

Continuing Education On-Site in 2022

In-person workshops came back in 2022 with gusto!  A PopYS Conference happened in Ames in April.  Director Roundtables took place at 15 locations statewide in May. Focusing on the theme “Make Room For Yes,” 2022 Director Roundtables saw 200 people in attendance.  The Learning Circuit in October took up the topic of disaster preparedness; keynote speakers presented via ZOOM with 213 people attending.  And two space planning workshops were offered in Council Bluffs and in Waterloo in November. 

In addition to these statewide workshops, District Consultants presented a combined 50 local library board education programs and attended 60 county meetings presenting c.e. programs for library staff and trustees.

Continuing Education Online in 2022

And in our spare time … State Library staff presented online educational programs, too, in 2022.  The Boardroom webinars, Big Ideas Book Discussions, youth services programming, digitization instruction, summer reading planning, disaster response experiences, and many more.  In addition, District Consultants developed and recorded 6 new trustee orientation videos. 

All told, the State Library produced 73 online classes this year, with over 4,000 people attending them live and over 2,000 viewing the recordings.   We now have 180 programs in our webinar archives and 29 Kernels, which are bite-sized video clips touting best practices in Iowa libraries.  One more noteworthy note: 127 people completed the Continuing Education Endorsement Program this year.

All of these stats will make a great “Making Numbers Count”
infographic (down the road!)  Until then, it’s safe to say we’re ready to
settle down for our long winter’s nap ? 

“Love the Check It Out series; it's super helpful and fun!”

“These courses build confidence in what we are doing”

“Love the online book discussions. It makes me look at books I never would have read otherwise.”

“Our board was very impressed by the disaster preparedness topic; it helped our board members to understand the process and necessity of creating a disaster plan.”

Accreditation and Standards Update

For all libraries in the upcoming accreditation / standards reporting cycle--February 2023--this update comes from Scott Dermont.  “Opening the online filing form is delayed because of Bibiostat’s outage from a few weeks ago; we’re hoping this will be resolved within the next few days.  At this point, we are not planning to extend the due date for filing accreditation / standards reports beyond February 28th.  Assuming the online form opens yet this month, that still allows two full months to complete the form.  We will certainly work with libraries on a case-by-case basis as needed.”

In other accreditation news, Toni Blair has developed a new process for uploading supporting documentation—a Seamless Doc form that will walk you through uploading all needed files. It will also take you to your signature page when done.  The goal is to simplify the process for the libraries in the Feb2023 reporting cycle so that this Seamless Docs approach becomes the main way to submit digital versions of your supporting docs this time. 

Please try this new upload feature, the link below takes you there.  It is best to send in all documentation at the same time. Once you’ve completed the upload form, it will direct you to the required signature page. Contact Toni Blair with questions or if you need an alternative way to send in your files.

Seamless Docs Accreditation Documentation

This Week ...

No webinars this week leading into the holiday, just this reminder about checking on your ... 

Endorsement Renewal

The end of the calendar year is a good time log into your IALearns account and check the end date of your endorsement.  Once logged in, click on PROFILE, then click on CERTIFICATIONS.  While we are working away from the everyone-renewing-on-New Years Eve scheme, many people currently endorsed will still have that 12/31/20XX end date on their profile.

So If you're looking at a December 2022 renewal deadline, it's time to get those last few credit hours earned and submit your renewal via the form on our website, including your IA Learns transcript showing the right number of hours for your renewal (45 for directors, 30 for youth services or general staff) Contact the CE Team with questions.

Endorsement Renewal Info

This is the last of 41 editions of Monday Morning Eye-Opener this year.

Given upcoming holiday Mondays, look for the next issue on January 9, 2023. 

Happy New Year And To All A Good Night !!