CTLS Board of Directors

Director and Librarian

Peggy Rudd

Announces Retirement

Peggy Gibson Chair Larry Ringer Vice Chair Lyle Thormann Secretary Eileen Altmiller Treasurer Barbara Crossno Lynne Holle Gretchen Pruett Larry Koeninger Jean Phipps

From the Executive Director By Pat Tuohy

CTLS Newsletter November 2012 No. 118

IN THIS ISSUE: Summer Reading Program

Materials Page 1

Peggy Rudd Retirement

Page 1-2

News You Can Use Page 3

Youth News

Page 4-6

What’s Happening Page 7

CTLS Calendar & Staff

Directory Page 8

Workshop Flyers

Page 9-10

After 13 years as Director and Librar-ian of the Texas State Library & Ar-chives Commission (TSLAC), Peggy D. Rudd announces her retirement early next year. She will continue to report to duty until December 31, 2012. Her retirement becomes effective early in 2013. Ms. Rudd assumed leadership of the state library and archives in October 1999. Her achievements since then have been numerous and representa-tive of the rich, complex challenges facing Texas libraries and archives to-day. Ms. Rudd’s accomplishments include: Supervising the successful renovation of the Lorenzo de Zavala State

Archives and Library Building, TSLAC’s 50-year-old headquarters in Austin

Summer Reading Program Materials Order Your FREE Materials Before November 15! The Texas State Library & Archives Commission (TSLAC) supports par-ticipating libraries by paying for a limited number of Cooperative Summer Library Program (CLSP) bookmarks, posters, certificates, & reading logs. Unlike past programs you can submit only ONE order. Click here to order your free materials online from TSLAC before November 15, 2012! Please order your children’s and teen materials in amounts similar to what you received free from TSLAC last year. This will help ensure that everyone who wishes to can take advantage of the new adult and early literacy program materials. Libraries may order additional materials and incentives (at their own ex-pense) directly from http://cslpreads.org. Order those materials by De-cember 1, 2012 for a guaranteed delivery before March 1, 2013.

Overseeing the Talking Book Program, which expanded its outreach and was recently recognized by the Library of Congress as Library of the Year

Leading the commission through a successful sunset review process

Working tirelessly to implement all laws and legislation enacted during her tenure, most recently House Bill 1559, which was designed to protect and preserve court records

Initiating annual conferences on the management of electronic records and planning the develop-ment of an electronic records storage plan for state agencies

Establishing productive partnerships with the Texas Library Association, the genealogy community, and other state agencies and state and national organizations

Collaborating with the Texas Education Agency to expand informational research database access for grades K-12 through the TexShare resource sharing program

Overseeing the elimination of funding for the ten public library systems in Texas Prior to her tenure at TSLAC, Ms. Rudd worked in libraries for over 20 years, including the Austin Public Library, CTLS, NETLS, the Library of Virginia, and the State Library of Florida. TSLAC’s board of commissioners will oversee a nationwide search for Ms. Rudd’s successor. Details on the search will be released on the agency’s website (www.tsl.state.tx.us) as they become available.

Madisonville Public Library

Bee Cave Public Library

Giddings Public Library

News You Can Use By Laurie Mahaffey

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Disasters at the Library The recent destructive storm in the Northeast has made us all aware of how much damage a natural disaster can do. Make sure you have a disaster plan, the telephone numbers of im-portant people (your city manager, county judge, board president, Friends president, and staff members), and back-ups for your systems in place. Disasters may not be weather related; many of our libraries are located close to railroad tracks, and if we knew what was in those cars going by, we might want to move the library! With winter weather approaching, be pre-pared with a flashlight for power outages and sand or rock salt for icy patches on sidewalks around the library. Routinely keep things up off the floor, such as books and computers. Have your HVAC system checked so that when you have it on heat in the morning and air conditioning in the afternoon, there are no bad surprises. If you have more than one staff member, consider planning a staff “telephone tree”. That way, you don’t have to make all the phone calls. Each person would only have to call 2 or 3 people to make sure everyone got the word of a library closing or other incident. Keep your disaster plan up to date. Keep it in a safe place off-site. While you are at it, check the library’s insurance policy and make sure that is current as well.

Large Print

Book Circuit The CTLS Large Print Book Circuit will rotate at the end of the calen-dar year. Please pack up the books and send them on to your partner library (the library for which you have mailing labels) during the first week of January 2013. If you need labels, please call Laurie at the system office. The Large Print Book Circuit is serving 44 member libraries! Please send your monthly circula-tion statistics to Laurie at laurie.mahaffey@ctls.net. We want to keep track of how well these books are circulating.

University Press Week November 11-17, 2012 The American Association of University Presses organized the first University Press Week in 1978 on the occasion of its centennial. University presses in Texas have a wide variety of books; some are schol-arly, but many are about Texas and are suitable for the general reader. Create a display of university press books to showcase them that week. Looking at the catalogs of Texas university presses is an easy way to improve your collection. University of Texas Press is at www.utexas.edu/utpress. Texas A&M Press at www.tamupress.com/ represents several other presses: Texas State Historical Association Press, TCU Press, University of North Texas Press, SMU Press, Stephen F. Austin State University Press, Texas Review Press, and State House/McWhiney Press. I think you will be impressed (no pun intended!).

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Youth News By Kim Lehman

About Amy Amy Koester is a recreational blogger and children's librarian at the St. Charles City-County Library District's Corporate Parkway Branch in Wentzville, Missouri. She is very active in the American Library Association. Currently Amy is on ALSC's Grant Administration Committee, and is a 2012-2013 Reader/Selector for the Mark Twain Readers Award. Amy is also on the Round I panelist for the 2012 Cybils in the Middle Grade Fiction category and has been an appointed member of the 2014 (John) Newbery Award Committee.

Wait, There’s More Other articles Amy has written in her blog, Show Me Librarian, about play and toys in the library. Early Literacy Play Kits: Adding more play to your library system Wednesday, November 7, 2012 How to Host a Lego Club Friday, November 2, 2012

Toys in the Library By Amy Koester, Used with Permission

Saturday morning I attended an ALSC-sponsored program entitled "You Want Me to Circ WHAT?! or How to Best Utilize Toys as a Literacy Tool in Pro-grams and as a Fun Part of Your Lending Collec-tion." Mr. Rogers is credited with the phrase "Play is the work of childhood." A grand statement, and one libraries can use to inform programs and collections--especially in light of the revised Every Child Ready to Read, which includes play as one of the five practices to promote early literacy. Toys are a great, child-approved way to integrate play into the library, and this session had quite a few ideas for making that happen: No space is too small for incorporating toys into the library. Whether you have a room, a playhouse, a closet, a table, or just a bit of room under some shelves, you can add toys successfully. Wall panels work, too.

A small selection of toys is just as beneficial

as a huge variety. A child engages with one toy at a time, so a box of puzzles is just as satisfying to a child as a roomful of different items.

Have programs that highlight play and give

plenty of opportunities for kids to play with the library's toys. Start off with a short book and a song, then spend the rest of the pro-gram letting kids and caregivers go to play stations. Ideas include play dough, blocks, letters, etc., all with brief instructions for in-teracting with the toys.

Adapt activities for older children, too; they also benefit cognitively from play, and mak-ing play a family affair does more to ensure play will continue outside of the library. Sup-porting play outside of the library is another great reason to have toys in the library, as families can take home new things they might not get to play with otherwise.

LEGO Club Tips and Suggestions Gleaned from PUBYAC

“I can tell you that our LEGO club is, by far, the most successful program we have done over the years.” Materials You can never have too many Legos. Most kids use about 50 pieces for our projects so you'd want to have at least 1000 for a 20 kid club. Most of our collection was donated. We started 2 LEGO Clubs with donations from the public. We displayed a sign in the Children's Room and put notices in the local newspaper for about 3-4 months before we started asking for donations. Fortunately, we got so many Legos donated that we never had to buy any. Volun-teers helped wash all the donations before we used them since many of the donations had been in garages and attics for years. Figures, wheels and bases are high demand pieces. They love wheels, cars pieces, and housing pieces. We steer clear of the themed sets. The kids seem to use their imagination more without them

Library Toy Suggestions

Puzzles

Puppets

Blocks

Scarves

Toys w/ "roller coaster tracks" and beads that run along the tracks

Train table

Lego table

Dramatic play area (ie. pretend kitchen) Resources

Yard Sales and Thrift Stores

ABC School Specialty

Constructive Playthings

Lakeshore Learning

Melissa and Doug

People Friendly Places

Schulenburg Public Library

Some groups love the base plates, others do without. I have not invested in the bases, but instead give each builder a plastic tray (or when we run out of trays, a hard plastic plate) to work on. This al-lows them a platform to work on, a way to carry the finished piece to the display area, and also gives the builders a defined work space. We also had some of the larger duplos donated which the preschoolers like since our club is a family affair and all ages attend. Program Logistics LEGO Challenges - to get their creative juices flowing. one color build include certain pieces story based use what you've got incorporate non-lego material make something that uses water make an emergency vehicle make a house for lots of pets

Some kids do not want a structured program with a theme or instructions. Now we just throw all the LEGOs out and the kids go crazy. Seri-ously, it's like feeding time on one of those Shark nature shows.

Cleaning LEGOS We don't clean them very often, but when we do, we put this in mesh laundry sacks and run them through the dishwasher. My custodian had this suggestion, which works great: Buy some lingerie bags and fill them with LEGOS, then wash in the washing machine! I add a towel or two to lessen the thumping. Air dry. We soak ours in tubs of soapy water and then rinse. We put a strainer over the drain because so many parts are very, very small and go down drains. This takes forever, but we've done it with all our donated blocks. From then on, we lay the blocks out and use Lysol to kill germs periodically. We have Duplos out in the Children's Library all the time and they seem to be our most popular toy. They definitely get used a lot! Our procedure is to soak them once a week in a mixture of bleach and water, then rinse in water and air dry overnight.

Take photos of the creations to use for a display, a website, or to give to the participants. Have a time for show and tell. A couple of new dust pans really help with clean up. It makes it easy to scoop them up from the floor. We have divided the kids into two groups be-cause there are too many kids to accommodate at once - Lego Club Jr. (K-2) and LEGO Club (3-6) - maximum 16 per session. It is very popular with both girls and boys. Kids are great at sharing bricks, building together and creatively inventing any shape out of those squares. Display Case. Each week after the kids complete their LEGO creations, we place them in the dis-play case for 1 week. All week long, kids of all ages press their noses to the glass to look at the LEGO creations. We hung a sign next to the cre-ations that tells them this was created during our LEGO program and invites them to participate. About an hour before the weekly program, we send a volunteer to dismantle all the pieces for new creations to be built. It's been a pretty low hassle program that has returned a lot of suc-cess! I also have the kids either write something about their creation, or have them tell me about the cre-ation and I write what they say. This is one of the kids favorite parts of the program.

LEGO Resources: How to Host a Lego Club (Amy Koester’s Blog) Lego Tiny Tips for Library Fun blog: Cool Cars and Trucks by Sean Kenney Bionicles The Brick Artist, Nathan Sawaya takes Legos to

a whole different level. We’re talking art. You have to see it to believe it.

What’s Happening

Lake Whitney Public Library Want to Write a Novel? November is NaNoWriMo. For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Each November, over 300,000 people step up to the challenge of writing a 50,000-word novel in just one month! This monumental task is aided by the NaN-oWriMo Website. After you sign up for a free account, you’ll have access to a forum of people who are ready to write alongside you. You are able to input your daily word count and watch your progression on a graph though the month. You can have friends join and watch each oth-er’s progress as well! Even better, if you manage to conquer writing your novel, you’ll be added to the website’s win-ner page and receive a winner’s certificate as well as a web badge to proudly show off. This fantastic event will challenge your abilities (and trust us, it’s not as scary as it sounds). If you have questions, comments, or wish to participate, feel free to email the library staff at whitneylibraryevents@gmail.com or call us at 254-694-4639. If response is positive, the li-brary would love to host planning parties, tech demos, and Write-Ins at the library. Participants are encouraged to bring in their laptops (or use our own computers) to write, discuss, and aid one another. And remember, win or lose, you are amazing for trying! Starting Saturday November 3rd. 1:00 P.M. With instructor: Amanda Suiters NaNoWriMo Website NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program

Liberty Hill Public Library The library will have its 10th Anniversary Celebration on Thursday, November 15 from 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Sandy Schultz Liberty Hill Library

Lake Whitney Summer Reading Program

Lake Travis Community Library Talk about a fun fundraiser! Lake Travis Community Library presented a Dancing With the Stars Fund-raiser. It was a huge success! They invite local celebrities and business people to participate. They raised over $50,000 on Sunday night and are still working to finish the silent auction and tie up loose ends.

Cedar Park Public Library Cedar Park Public Library held its 4th Annual Fable Fest on Saturday, October 27th at Elizabeth Milburn Park. All proceeds from this event go to benefit the Cedar Park Public Library. Costumes are encouraged (though not required). Festival events included: Cobblestone Market: Arts & Crafts Vendors King’s Carnival: Games, Rides and Arts & Crafts for Kids and Teens, including Pony Rides and Pet-

ting Zoo Troubadour’s Court: Live performances by LISD, Band of the Hills, and more, including Pied Piper

Costume Parade Jousting, Fencing and Archery Demonstrations Pig’s Pub: Food and Beverages

Register for CTLS workshops and events online at www.ctls.net!

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CTLS Calendar of EventsCTLS Calendar of EventsCTLS Calendar of Events November 15, 2012 Marketing Your Collection Edinburg – The Dustin M. Sekula Memorial Library November 16, 2012 Marketing Your Collection Floresville – American Legion December 7, 2012 Performers’ Showcase Georgetown - Georgetown Public Library February 1, 2013 Making Your Summer Reading Program a Success Temple Public Library (We will let you know when registration is open.) February 7, 2013 Making Your Summer Reading Program a Success New Braunfels Public Library (We will let you know when registration is open.)

CTLS, Inc.CTLS, Inc.CTLS, Inc.

Connecting Texas Libraries StatewideConnecting Texas Libraries StatewideConnecting Texas Libraries Statewide

CTLS Staff Directory Patricia Tuohy, Executive Director pat.tuohy@ctls.net Laurie Mahaffey, Deputy Director laurie.mahaffey@ctls.net Kim Lehman, Youth Services Specialist kim.lehman@ctls.net Katelyn Patterson, Office Coordinator katelyn.patterson@ctls.net

CTLS, Inc 5555 North Lamar Blvd, Suite L-115, Austin, TX 78751 Toll Free (800) 262 - 4431 Office (512) 583 - 0704 Fax (512) 583 - 0709

We look forward to hearing from you!

Learn how libraries in Texas and across the nation use spotlight marketing and image auditing to wow the pub-lic.

See your library with new eyes—from the parking lot to the stacks. Learn to use Image Audit checklists to im-prove the look of your library, get rid of clutter, increase user satisfaction, strengthen your library image, and bring in new customers. This fun, informative workshop is interactive and full of practical tools you can use right away. We will even conduct a real Image Audit walk-through at our brave host libraries! You will leave with a basic audit in hand, ready to use at your own li-brary. Don’t let the word “audit “ scare you. Be open and willing to see with a new approach.

Bring your staff, volunteers and board members. This is a fun, hands-on workshop. Presented by Jennifer Patterson and CTLS. We would love to help your li-brary increase circulation, look better, and be a more enjoyable place to visit.

Marketing

Your

Collection

Increase circulation through retail display, creative

shelving techniques, and staff involvement.

Transform your shelves from orderly . . .

to orderly AND attractive.

November 15, 2012

Edinburg The Dustin M. Sekula Memorial Library

1906 South Closner

November 16, 2012

Floresville The American Legion (across from the library)

1412 4th St.

Time: Registration: 8:30-9am Workshop: 9am -3 pm

Who should attend:

Public library directors, staff & volunteers

How much it will cost: $40 per member

$65 per non-member

5 hours CE credit

TO REGISTER CLICK ON THE LOCATION

Floresville

Edinburg

Workshop presented by: CTLS, Inc.