System Spotlight
by SWKLS Staff
Kearny County Library Lights Up Christmas Parade
From Director Tammy Dickey:
Tammy and Cesilia, from Kearny County library decorated our book carts with lights and walked in the Lakin Christmas parade on Dec. 3rd. and gave out candy. We had a really fun time and have gotten lots of compliments on our carts.
Kismet Public Library Hosts Gingerbread House Workshop
From Director Suzan Nelson: Decorating gingerbread houses has become a tradition in Kismet. The 9th annual Gingerbread Workshop hosted by the Kismet Public Library was a success! Saturday December 10th over 35 gingerbread houses were decorated by all ages. Parents and grandparents were on hand as well with over 80 in attendance.
Santa and the Grinch made a special stop for pictures.
Future Dates & Training Opportunities
January 10, 2023 – Train U.P. “Retention Schedule Pt 1/Registration Link
January 20, 2023 at 10:00 am – Online System Board Meeting/
Consulting
By Richard Brookman
January Train UP! – Record Retention Pt 1
The January Train UP! has been moved to January 10 to allow for the System staff and our members to get back into the swing of things. The Train UP! will be the first part of the Record Retention Schedule for Public Libraries in Kansas, created by former CKLS Consultant Chris Rippel. This retention schedule was approved on the State level and is an official retention schedule for public libriaies. The Zoom session will start at 2:00 pm as normal and the link will go out to our libraries the week before and day of. You can register for the January 10 Train UP! here.
Start of Template Policies
As mentioned in the last System Board Meeting, Chris has placed the three template policies I worked up on the System’s Wiki Page. The first three policies are: Collection Development and Management; Gifts/Donations/Memorials; and Photography and Video Policy. These policies are in Word so you can download them and edit them to fit your community. These templates give you a starting point.
The next few policies I will be working on after the New Year will be Circulation and Patron Privacy policies. Once those are complete Chris will add them to the Wiki.
To access the template policies you can follow this link.
End of Year Things To Do
With the coming end of year you can start getting ready for the New Year. When you do your final payroll for the 2022 calendar year you can begin by doing your end of year taxes and start preparing your Employees W-2’s. Employers have until the end of January to have their Employees W-2’s finished and supplied to them.
Also January brings about the State Annual Survey. You can start gathering statistics after the new year. Alice Smith, of the State Library, hasn’t sent out the links to the 2022 survey as of this writing, but it will be coming forthwith. Once I am back in the office, I will start looking at scheduling 3 – 4 work days around the region for our member directors to have quiet places to work on their survey.
Cataloging, Collection Development, and ILL
By Sara Wilson
Collection Development Inspiration
Adult Fiction:
Children’s & YA Fiction:
In literary news, this week . . .
Children’s Book Made Using Artificial Intelligence
Ammaar Reshi has caused a controversy with the release of his new children’s book, Alice and Sparkle. What’s the hubbub about? Reshi’s illustrator and co-creator is a robot! Authors and illustrators are up in arms about the release of the book which took Reshi a weekend to put together. Does it undermine the creative community, or is it an exciting experiment, showcasing the possibilities of AI for future projects? Click here to read more and tell us where you come down on the issue.
New Resources for You!
These items were recently added to our SWKLS STEAM Collection. For more information about the STEAM Collection or to request to borrow items from the STEAM collection, contact SWKLS Technology Supervisor Steve Andrews by calling the office or emailing him at sandrews@swkls.org. (The link below the image is clickable and will take you to this item in our Verso!)
Auto-Graphics offers a video series called Talks With Ted, led by their Product Manager Ted Koppel. Slideshow .pdfs are also available. These are monthly sessions where Ted addresses questions sent in by Verso users. To access Talks With Ted, go to your Staff Dashboard in Verso, then click on the Support tab and under that, click Verso. Talks with Ted will be in the second grey block down on the screen.
Holiday Vacation Reminders for ILLers!
If your library is going to be closed over the Christmas and/or New Year holiday, please remember to contact Caroline Handwork, chandwork@nekls.org so she can notify the courier of the days your library will be closed.
Also, please remember to set your vacation days in your Participant Record on SHAREit so that requests to your library don’t have to time out and can move on to the next available lender as soon as possible. To do this, go to Staff Dashboard > ILL Admin > Lender > Participant Record. Click the Holiday List button at the top of the page (third from the left). Fill out the start date and end date for when your library will be closed. Click Submit in the upper right corner. If you have any questions or trouble, call or email Sara at SWKLS.
In Case You Missed It . . .
From Alan Mask, Auto-Graphics Customer Service Manager:
Hello,
Auto-Graphics, Inc. will be closed on Dec 26 and Jan 2 in observance of the Christmas and New Year’s Day. For any emergencies, please use this email: emergencysupport@auto-graphics.com.
On behalf of Auto-Graphics, we wish you all the happiest of Holidays.
Technology
By: SWKLS Staff
