A Collection of Collections:

Big and Small We Love Them All!By

Tamara Blomberg

OGEMA BAPTIST CHURCHOGEMA, WI

Collection – 2497 Books + a few hundred videosBudget – $600 + donations (annual)Governing Body – The Library Subcommittee

Susan Freiboth Bob Marschke Alise Swan Krista Blomberg Dan Swan Tammie Blomberg

Staff - Volunteers

Ogema Baptist Church Library

Working with an annual budget of only $600, the OBC library relies on donations from members of the community for much of its collection development.Serving up to 400 people, the church library has no paid staff, but library volunteers do whatever they can to help out.Last year the library moved to this larger, more comfortable room and put its entire book collection online and in a computer database. While the patrons still check things in or out the old fashioned, card & stamp way, they can now search the computer catalog to see what’s available.

The OBC library has Non-fiction on the left. One interesting fact – The entire NF section has Dewey classification call numbers in the

200’s.

The back wall is the fiction collection. It contains a variety of Inspirational

Fiction.

Located along the right wall are the children’s, young adult & video sections.

RIB LAKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLRIB LAKE, WI

The Rib Lake Elementary School library serves about 200 students & teachers from the school district. The children have a scheduled library time each week to explore and learn their way around the library.

Collection – 9,346Budget – Approximately $5133Governing Body - Principal, Administrator and ultimately the District School Board.

Rib Lake Elementary School Library

Budget Breakdown:

$15000 – Common School Fund$ 400 - All other-----------$15400 – Total for all 3 schools$ 5133 – Total for Elementary

$2500 – Books$ 824 – Magazine Subscriptions$ 250 – Circ/Cat Plus Support$ 265 – Accelerated Reader Tests$ 93 – AR Tech Support$ 133 - Office supplies----------$ 4065 – Year to Date

Staffing Information:District Librarian: Annual Salary of $43,000 – This is a Full-time job, split between 3 schools and includes her position as the Elementary Art Teacher. Library Aide: Paid Position 2 hours per day M-F (no income information available)HS Student: 1.5 hours per day on M,W, F (unpaid, but receives High School credits)Volunteers: 2 hours per day M-F with an additional hour on Tue. & Wed.

Left – Fiction is divided by AR level and Author.

Bottom Left – Color Coded AR Levels

Bottom Right – 4 of 5 AR computers for students taking tests.

RIB LAKE PUBLIC LIBRARYRIB LAKE, WI

The Rib Lake Public Library is a small community library. The village of Rib Lake has a population of around 900 people, but the library also serves the surrounding rural area.

Circulation : 35,000Budget: $78,000Governing Body: 5 Member Board of DirectorsDavid Judell – Director (MLIS Librarian -Part-time position)

Rib Lake Public Library Board of TrusteesNed Orthmann

Karen Rusch Tammy Everson

Sara Robisch Joan Anderson

I’ve worked at the Rib Lake Library as the Circulation Specialist for almost 5 years. This actually made the library

visit harder to do, since I already knew the answers to most of the questions.

The picture on the left shows the Wisconsin and local history section of the library. It contains old newspapers dating back to the late 1800’s as well as local high school yearbooks and county plat books. The picture on the right is the whole non-fiction

section.

Children’s Section & Play Area

My favorite feature of the children’s section is the mobile hanging from the ceiling. A few years ago, the summer library theme was “Be Creative”. We told the kids that we were going to make a one-of-a-kind work of art for the library. Each child got one foam hand to decorate any way they wanted. Then we took all the hands and created this mobile. It was only supposed to stay up for a few months, but everyone liked it so much that we never took it down.

On the left is the adult fiction and DVD collections. To the back of the this picture is the Young Adult area with 3 public access computers, but you can’t see it from this

view.The right picture shows our OPAC which is located on the top of our old card catalog. We’ll often have people open the drawers and starts searching while the computer

sits idle.

FRANCES L. SIMEK MEMORIAL LIBRARY400 NORTH MAIN ST.MEDFORD, WI 54451

The Frances L. Simek Memorial Library is a small community library serving a city of about 4,800 people and the surrounding area.

Circulation – 125,649 (2008)Collection – 44,338 (2008)Governing Body – 8 Member - Board of DirectorsAnn Harris - Director

• Staff:Ann Harris- DirectorMarlene Klemm - Youth ServicesJenny Rundquist - Technical ServicesDonna Klinner - Public Services Cathy Shaw - Public Services Marla Hemke - Public Services Yvonne Dassow - Public Services

• Board of Directors:Officers:Dan Miller - PresidentJoanne Wolf - Vice PresidentFrank Kleczewski - SecretaryMembers:Joann SimekBruce JochimsenJoanne WolfDeb BerendsCathy Miller-Temme

The Frances L. Simek Memorial Library offers two different story hours each week and a summer reading program during the summer months. They are located either in this children’s area or in one of the public meeting rooms depending on the attendance.

The Medford, WI library has an active Friends of the Library group that sponsors adult programming periodically throughout the year.

Periodicals Reference

The library was built due in a large part to a donation from Pep & Fran Simek (the founders of Tombstone Pizza). The library was renamed the Frances L. Simek Memorial Library after the death of Fran in 2010.

MARATHON COUNTY P. L.300 NORTH FIRST ST.WAUSAU, WI 54403

Large Main Library – Branches – 9 TotalCirculation- Main Library: 638,572 Total: 1,127,055 (2010)Collection – Main Library: 189,844 Total: 353,911Budget – $4,365,45Governing Body – 7 Member Board of DirectorsStaff – 6 FT Librarians, 5 FT Paraprofessionals, 5 PT staff

• The Marathon County Public Library Board of Trustees is comprised of seven members appointed by the Marathon County Board of Supervisors: two members of Marathon County Board of Supervisors, a Superintendent of a Marathon County school district, and general public representatives.

• Current Members: Tim Gierl (President) Audrey Ascher (Vice President) Gary Beastron Ken Day Alison Morrow Katie Rosenburg Scott Winch

The Marathon County Public Library is also the home of the Wisconsin Valley Library Service offices. WVLS is the consortium that MCPL and about 30 other Central Wisconsin libraries belong to, including the Rib Lake Public

Library and the Frances L. Simek Memorial Library. The WVLS offices are located on the lowest level of the building.

The first floor of the Marathon County Public Library was fairly busy the day we visited. The staff was friendly and patient with the patrons at the desk.The children’s section was big and colorful. I was disappointed by the lack of “print” information on programming. When I asked about it, I was directed to the website.

MCPL – 2nd Floor: The second floor of the library had a much quieter “studious” atmosphere, yet was still

fairly busy. This is where the Reference Desk, Periodicals &

Non-Fiction sections are found.

There are public meeting rooms used by MCPL and

WVLS to hold meetings and workshops on the 3rd floor of

the building.

I visited the library with my teenage daughter. We were both disappointed by the “TeenZone”. It’s a small area located next to the foreign language collection and among the non-fiction & reference books. It’s decorated nicely, but not in a very inviting location.