Weekly Digest: scholarship, new kit, new on the website, park pass in the news, library tourism

Money money money

Applications are now being accepted for the 2023 Wisconsin Small Libraries (WISL) Continuing Education Scholarship. The purpose of this scholarship is to promote attendance at the Wisconsin Library Association Annual Conference, taking place October 24-27 at the Madison Marriott West in Middleton, WI.

Scholarship Amount: $250 to go towards lodging, registration, meals and mileage Note: the full cost of attending the WLA Fall Conference may be greater than the awarded scholarship. Scholarship will be applied to cost. Two $250 scholarships will be awarded to two WLA Members.

This annual scholarship is available to applicants meeting the following criteria:
* Employed by a Wisconsin library or information agency with 4 FTE or less or have a service population of under 6000 people (Grade II or Grade III Certification).
* Must be willing to communicate knowledge gained, especially how this knowledge can be applied to small libraries and to fellow WISL members.
* Must be a member of WLA and the Wisconsin Small Libraries Section at the time of application.

To learn more and apply, go to www.wisconsinlibraries.org/scholarships-grants.

If anyone has questions they can reach out to Katelyn, she’s on the WISL board. noack@ifls.lib.wi.us

New Kit!

If you have had an Accessibility Audit, you’ll know that one of the things that the folks from the Center for Independent Living measure is how much pressure it takes to open your doors. Interior doors (like bathrooms and meeting rooms) should take no more than 5 pounds of pressure to open. Exterior doors (entrances) should have a maximum opening force of 8.5 to 10 pounds. Anything heavier can limit access for people with disabilities. You can learn more about that here. Door pressure is usually pretty easy to adjust, which is good, because it often changes depending on the weather and things like that. You can borrow the gauge from IFLS to measure your own doors—it is recommended you do it once per season.

You can find the Door Pressure Gauge Kit along with all the other kits (most of them designed to support programming) on the Libraries WIN Lend-Items site. If you’ve never borrowed a kit before you can read all about them and find out how to get an account on our website.

New on the website

There are some new resources on the Resources for Public Library Trustees page, including a board orientation presentation created by John Thompson and updated this year. You can find a link to that page at the bottom of the IFLS home page. Feel free to share this link with your board and use any of the resources for board education and orientation.

Park Passes In the News

Reb gets an email from Up North News, and the last one had a blurb about the Check Out a Park Pass program with an updated list of participating libraries. Now might be a good time to promote this again! I posted on FB today.

Coming up on the calendar

Library Tourism

Sarah Szymanski and her family took a trip to Chicago. She said, “Keegan & I explored the Harold Washington (Chicago Public) Library while we were on vacation last week. It is just a few blocks from Michigan Ave. and a quick walk from our hotel. The building is beautiful and has awesome rooftop owls on the top corners and above the front door. We rode the escalators to the top (9^th!) floor and explored a huge, beautiful garden space and meeting area with glass ceiling, overlooking the neighborhood.”

Here are some of the pictures she shared.