The Budget (cue ominous background music)

Summer, a season filled with vacations, outdoor activity, fun, and sadly for me, budgeting.  However, for the first time in 2 years, I don't feel like we'll be cutting.  Instead, I think the benefit of the cuts and economizing we have made over the past 2 1/2 years are finally serving us well.  Currently, it looks like our mill levy will stay flat.  But for the first time in two budget cycles we won't be cutting.  Plus, the three critical issues facing us will be addressed; building maintenance, the library's collection, and staff compensation.

We have held steady and made do with what we had in a way that public libraries have perfected over the years.  While that honed sense of thrift might be worn like a badge of honor, it is no pleasant achievement.  With our building showing its age, some "must do" repairs can be put off no longer.  Rather than borrow money though, we have been socking away capital improvement funds and will do more of that in the 2011 budget.  This strategy saves us from having to borrow for, and pay interest on, big expenses.  We will tackle re-roofing the building and potentially replacing some older air conditioning units.  We hope to be able to restore some of the funding that was reduced for library materials.  And hopefully - hopefully - look at some better lighting in some of our stack areas.

The library's fiscal year is the calendar year, so we still have 6 months of scrimping to go, but when things look dark, stories like this always seem to pop up in my reading.  These two interesting articles have shown up in the news lately and I'd like to share them.  This first article is a rebuttal to a Fox Chicago news story about public libraries.  The Chicago Library Commissioner's response is the most polite dressing-down I've read in some time - bravo!  The second article poses an interesting question - could public libraries be poised to be the next big pop-culture wave?  Maybe.  Public libraries are as "local" as you can get and librarians do "know stuff" as the article says.  Who knows.  I like the idea of a TV show because that article writer is correct - there would be no lack of comical, head-scratching, "what the...?"-type material.

Storytimes and other stuff

I was just downstairs checking in on this morning's storytime and got this picture:

The room was filled!  Yesterday for craft day we had 134 children participating!  I didn't really know what to expect for storytime today, but it looks like another successful program from our wonderful Children's Department staff.  The summer programs this year have been really well-attended through the middle of July.  I think that we will find at the end that this was one of the best years of the decade.  I think that this is due in part to the effect of our outreach program to day care centers, but I also think that we get many return "customers" because of the fun programs our staff members create.  Bravo to all of our Children's Department staff members!

We have so many things going on right now, I feel a bit like a side-show act.  You know, the guy who is juggling a chainsaw, a bowling ball, a tennis ball, and an egg?  That's what I feel like!  I am NOT complaining, though.  It is good that we have the opportunity to try new things and to make some needed changes.

Besides putting together the budget for 2011, we have been working on the Prairie Book Festival, the new quiet reading room, our roving reference experiment, and getting ourselves organized for participation in the Kansas Library Express courier.

If you are a fan of HPL on Facebook, you may also have noticed a nifty little post from Wowbrary this week.  Wowbrary is an email newsletter service that sends out to subscribers a list of every new item HPL has added in the previous week.  Now, if you are a fan on Facebook, you'll see a FB post every Wednesday linking to that list of new stuff.  You can be the first to put new things on hold since Wowbrary provides convenient links directly to the items on our catalog system!

Craft Days Begin!

We have a fun little activity going on this month.  Every Wednesday our Children's Department does a come-and-go craft time.  We've spent the better part of a month collecting all sorts of paper towel tubes, shoe boxes and a variety of other stuff.  It's always a fun and chaotic time.  Here are a few pictures from this morning's event after the big rush of kids:

Hard at work making rain sticks and sand art

The colored sand isn't all muddled together yet!

Rain sticks

Waterless fish tanks

 Since we love to count things here in library world, this sort of activity is great because we will be able to count up how many of the craft kits were used and get an idea of how many children participated today ( apparently, we had 108 children who made rain sticks)!

In the coming weeks, we'll have lots of other programs and crafts to boast about.  However, the biggest boast we have right now is the enormous number of children signed up for the most important part of this whole undertaking - the summer reading program.  We are up to 1,134 children signed up to read 10 books or to read for 10 hours!  Once the totals are in from the day care centers that are signed up, I think we'll have close to a record year.  Why is that a big deal?  Early childhood literacy is key to further success in school as the child grows.

Share what you are reading

In this world of social networking, many people and organizations use all sorts of tools, like Facebook, twitter and many others to share information.  The world of reading has a number of similar "niche" sites where readers can create an account and share with one another their reading, opinions about books, reviews, etc.

One such site, goodreads, is featured in the HPL 2010 Project.  I like goodreads well enough, but the owner of the Bru Crue sent me an invite to Shelfari, which I have found to be easier to use, in my opinion.  While I have not had the time to add in all of my favorite books, much less add reviews to them, I have been using it to keep track of my current reading.  I like the slightly gimmick-y "bookshelf" display of the book covers in my Shelfari collection.  I also like the nice step-through process for adding reviews, comments and tags to books I have read or am currently reading.  Combined with Wowbrary weekly newsletters, a nice little service provided through the generosity of the Friends of the Hutchinson Public Library, I'm reading a lot more lately and actually having fun sharing my thoughts!

This reminds me - a colleague of mine and I were talking about forming a science fiction book club.  I am inclined to do so if we find enough interest.  I think a survey might be in order!

Happy Independence Day!  Please be safe and have fun this weekend!