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Members' Corner

October 2005

Keep up on the achievements of your colleagues. Member's Corner will publish the first Friday of each month.

Hurricane Relief

Many of our member libraries are volunteering to adopt a library through ALA. Here are some other ideas our libraries have come up with. We commend all of our libraries for being so helpful and supportive during this difficult time for those struck by the hurricanes. To be included in next month's Member's Corner, contact Christina Johnson.

• Cook Memorial Public Library District served as a collection agency, hosting a Donate-A-Book drive. They collected boxes of new and like-new books for kids, teens, and adults. The books will be collected through October 12 and then distributed by Angel Flight Central to victims of the hurricanes. Their very own Elizabeth Ganz is a pilot for Angel Flight and will be able to bring the donations to affected areas. They hope the books will provide a source of comfort and diversion from the hurricane's chaos.
• Northbrook Public Library sent cases of audio visual materials to the Texas distribution center. They felt that many libraries would send books and wanted to make an effort to start filling in the AV gap. So far they have sent 35 cases of CDs, videos, and audiobooks culled from items donated to the library and materials that have been weeded but are still in good shape.
• Park Ridge Public Library held a Denim Day, similar to the Lee National Denim Day to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Staff could wear denim to work if they contributed at least $5; they collected over $600 for the Red Cross.
• Wauconda Area Library raised money for the Red Cross and Adopt-A-Library at their "Great Day @ Your Library" event. With over 1,450 visitors, they broke all previous records for attendance.
• The Zion-Benton Public Library board voted to contribute the proceeds of the in-the-lobby booksale for the month of October (up to $500) toward ALA's Adopt-A-Library program.   

Grant

Lake Villa District Library received a $2000 grant from Sam's Club. The grant will be used for a program on "library literacy" to be developed by LVDL and delivered to area schools. The goal is to hire someone who can go to the schools and introduce kids to what libraries contain.

Memorial Donation

Wauconda Area Library received a memorial donation for the specific purpose of extablishing an early childhood literacy collection. The Chilcaren's Services department will develop an early literacy collection which will be designed for both in-library use and outreach to local day care centers and preschools. The collection will consist of thematic units incorporating print and audiovisual resources that promote reading readiness skills, language enrichment, and literature exploration. Each unit will also contain consumable supplies (poems, action rhymes, book lists, etc.). This is the first of five annual $4,000 donations to be used for special purposes to be pre-approved by the donor.

Exhibit

The Lake County Discovery Museum is currently exhibiting Anime-zing: The World of Japanese Animation, which runs through February 2006. Set in a world of brightly painted walls and Japanese art prints, the exhibit hall is filled with the sounds of Speed Racer, Cowboy Bebop, and 28 other anime shows running on several TV's; display cases filled with collectable action figures; and a recording studio for visitors to act out as their favorite anime character. Part of this exhibit will include an appearance by voice actor, Crispin Freeman on October 15 at the museum. Freeman has voiced several popular characters from both anime TV shows and movies, including staring as Prince Turnip in Hayao Miyazaki's movie, Howl's Moving Castle.

New Collection

Wauconda Area Library has established a UMD (Universal Media Disc) movie collection comprised of 15 titles to meet the growing demand for this new 2.3-inch diameter disc format, playable only on Sony's PSP (PlayStation Portable) device. Why provide a format with such limited use? Wauconda sees this as an important library attraction for male teenagers—traditionally one of the most difficult groups to get into the library. 

In the News

Gail Borden Public Library and their dinosaur exhibit, Giants: African Dinosaurs Created by Project Exploration, were the subject for an entire pull out section in the Sunday, September 25 edition of Elgin's The Courier News (Copley publication).  There were 20 pages devoted to the library, the exhibit, and Dinos on Parade.  Many of the ads that were included in this section also used a dinosaur theme.

LINKin Collaboration

Skokie Public Library, Gail Borden Public Library and Arlington Heights Memorial Library are collaborating on a union catalog project. These Innovative automation libraries will be sharing their databases and allowing their library users to easily access materials from all three libraries. With a click of a button they can link-in to their LINKin database to request an item as if they were in their home library. The libraries can then process the loan almost as if it is a simple hold. The transaction is an intra-library loan rather than an inter-library loan, resulting in less staff work. When things are up and running, It would be very easy to add other Innovative libraries and possibly other libraries as well. Innovative is using this INNREACH product in a number of locations for regional multitype and even statewide databases. The libraries hope to be operational in December 2005. Below is the logo for the project:

Dance Tournament

Cary Area Public Library is hosting Dance, Dance Revolution. Packed with a smash-hit lineup of songs, they will have a tournament to find out who is the DDR champion. There will be a practice session where teens will have the chance to practice their dancing skills and improve their game play. The tournament will be held Friday, September 30 from 6-9 pm. Pizza will be served and prizes will be awarded at the tournament.

Committee

These members were chosen to serve on the College of Lake County Library Technical Assistance Program Advisory Committee to provide recommendations and suggestions for the development and improvement of career programs at CLC and to assist with program marketing and student recruitment:

• Tom Rich, Warren Newport Public Library
• Kathleen Lovelace, Ela Are Public Library
• Mary Pergander, Lake Bluff Public Library
• Randee Hudson, Millburn School

"Our Libraries" Daily Herald Column

The following libraries were mentioned in "Our Libraries" during the month of July:

• September 26, "Project promotes Jewish literature": Deerfield Public Library, Evanston Public Library, Glencoe Public Library, Indian Trails Public Library District, Lincolnwood Public Library District, Northbrook Public Library, Skokie Public Library and Vernon Area Public Library District.

What's New in Libraries?

The following libraries were featured in the September episode of What's New in Libraries?, A Giant Exhibit.

• Gail Borden Public Library District
• Wilmette Public Library District

Cartoon Corner

Start your day with a smile with this cartoon from Richard Lee, Waukegan Public Library.