Small Town Librarian

I am pleased to announce that I am going to be the new director at the Menasha Public Library in Menasha, WI. So I will no longer be directing a small public library, but a rather larger though not huge public library. Maybe medium is the right word.

I start my new position in late June and am feeling a certain sorrow leaving my small town library and my time as a small town library director. I will miss being able to open my office windows and hear nothing but birdsong, walking down the early morning street to the post office, and visiting the local school for storytimes. It has been a lovely place to work.

I don't know yet what will happen to this blog. Perhaps the new director at Green Lake will enjoy doing it, or I will just change the title to simply Library Rantings. :) All I can say is that the dedication to patrons that I learned in a small town will continue. I will try to do my small-town heritage proud.

Posted by at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

OWLS, a public library system here in Wisconsin has a very handy website with Sample Library Policies for small libraries. We are going to be examining our library policies again this year. We do it on a regular basis, about every five years. We are checking for positive wording rather than negative wording and making sure that we have all of our bases covered. Sites like the one from OWLS give small libraries a very nice resource for comparison and making sure that your policies are not lacking in any areas.

Posted by at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am trying hard not to drop out of sight here, but I have gotten a seat as part of the Library 2.0 Bootcamp that ALA is doing. I have a blog there, and I will be doing reading and participating for the next six weeks. So if posts here are skimpy at best, just check out my Library 2.0 blog.

I must say that this Bootcamp would have been perfect for more small town librarians to be a part of. It is all online, so there is no travel expense and there is no fee attached! Plus, I have already learned more about Library 2.0 than I had before. But I will be sharing those thoughts on my Library 2.0 blog. Don't know what Library 2.0 is? Well check out the reading list for the bootcamp!

Skeptical? I was too. But this is definitely not a movement to scoff at. Learn about it, dig a little deeper, and you may find that they are talking about creating the exact same type of library you have been striving for.

Posted by at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)