Wisconsin Library Stories

To keep up with a growing trend among other academic libraries, Helen C. White Library is now offering students a variety of video games available for checkout in the Open Book Café.

Pamela O’Donnell, an academic librarian at College Library, said the staff wanted to make games for the latest systems available. The library conducted a poll through its website to ask students which systems they wanted games for.

According to O’Donnell, almost all of the 32 games are currently checked out.

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Libraries across the state, including those in north central Wisconsin, are reaching out to improve their service to the state's Hispanic communities. "This is a population that's growing, and they use the library like anyone else," said Jamie Matczak, who works with Hispanic Outreach Library Action, or HOLA! Project.

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Not long ago, David Schultz struggled to manage a growing janitorial business without the use of a personal computer.

Then he got a computer from one of the world's richest men.

Schultz now enjoys virtually unlimited access to technology in a place once thought to be rendered obsolete by computers -- a public library.

"Being that I don't have one at home, this is pretty nice," the 45-year-old business owner said as he sat down to update his client list on a desktop computer at the Waukesha Public Library.

The Waukesha library is among dozens in Wisconsin that have received grants for computer hardware and software from a charitable foundation funded by billionaire Bill Gates.

Since the grant program began about 10 years ago, libraries in Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha and elsewhere have received a combined $4 million, resulting in more than 800 new personal computers becoming available statewide.

Read more here.

"There has been very rapid growth, especially on the western edge, and with it, a great deal of new technology in the last 10 to 15 years," said John Thomson, director of the Indianhead system. Although some have predicted the demise of public libraries due to the Internet and popularity of mega-bookstores, video games and other attractions, people still want modern, local libraries to provide books, computers and much more, Thomson said. Read the full article.

In 1991, she arrived in Madison to study library and information services at UW-Madison, which was like grabbing a bat and joining the Yankees. Currently an associate professor at the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, Samek just received the first annual Library Journal Teaching Award, which recognizes excellence in educating the next generation of librarians. Read the full article.

The Boston Globe reports bookmobiles are going out of business all over Massachusetts and that those that remain in operation are struggling. Julie Chase, the director of the Dane County Library Service, says that's not the case here. In fact, she says the service has just finished one of its most successful summers and the bookmobile does a good business in the communities it visits each week. Read the full article.

Librarian stereotypes abound, and "The Hollywood Librarian," a revealing documentary by first-time Madison film director Ann Seidl, explores those stereotypes as well as the actual roles librarians play in today's society. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, 85 libraries across the U.S. and seven in Canada screened the film to coincide with Banned Books Week. Those included UW-Madison's School of Library and Information Studies and Racine Public Library.

As library media specialist at Menomonee Falls High School, Kathryn Kostelnik does everything from helping teachers integrate technology into classroom learning to helping students research major issues in required reading for a language arts class. She never expected to be recognized by DPI as one of four Teachers of the Year.

An anonymous donor has stepped forward and offered to donate $2 million toward the construction of a new downtown library. Officials have planned on building a new library for some time to replace the one that's been in City Hall since 1985 when the community gym was remodeled to make room for it. With the donation, fund raising for the building can now begin in earnest with the goal of raising at least $3 million. Read the full article...

Read the results of the Kenosha County Library User (& Non-User) countywide telephone survey.