You *might* be smarter than a 5th grader…

 

But then again, 5th graders  are pretty smart! 

 

Hmmmm, Mary who?

And so are the Fort Atkinson high school students who put together a fantastic fundraiser for our library’s expansion and renovation project.  Linda Straub’s class organized an event based on the theme from the television show Are you smarter than a fifth grader.  The administrators from a variety of schools in Fort Atkinson battled each other and a group of fifth graders during an evening filled with many laughs.  (There is nothing quite like watching an educated educator overanalyze a second grade question.)

The night was expertly emceed by high school principal, Jeff Zaspel, with witty remarks and obvious rapport.  All the contestants did a superb job of having fun, showing off their smarts, and helping our library raise money to make the building project a reality. I’ll admit to knowing some of the answers, but not all.  I do have to say I knew the answer to the Mary Mary Quite Contrary question.  I am, after all, a former children’s librarian.  It was all I could do not to shout out “pretty maids“ in my desire to help out the team that was brave enough to wear cheerleaders’  jackets.

Many thanks to Mrs. Straub’s students, Mrs. Straub, and all the principals and students who participated.  To everyone who had a hand in making this event such a success, I offer a very sincere thank you.

Library bid documents now available

The library’s expansion and renovation project has been released for public bidding.

You can see the plans at the Dwight Foster Public Library (102 E. Milwaukee Avenue, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin) or at city hall (101 N. Main Street, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin).  They are also available for viewing in local plan rooms and online at Mid-City Blue. (You do need to register for access but registration is free). Mid-City Blue’s phone number is 414.276.0950.

Sealed bids must received in the office of the city manager by 2 p.m. on Tuesday, February 9, 2010.  5% bid security is required.

The successful bidder for this proejct will be required to pay wage rates, determined in accordance with Wisconsin Statutes, Chapter 66.293 and 2.92.215 of the City of Fort Atkinson Code.

If you would like your own copy of the plans, a $50 deposit is required.  A separate, non-refundable check is also required if the bid documents must be mailed.

Please contact me if you have any questions.   The library’s phone number is 920.563.7790.

Thank you for your interest in helping foster growth in Fort Atkinson!

Give a gift that lasts

The following was written by Dr. James Fitzpatrick, chair of the library’s Foster Growth capital campaign.  It appeared in the Daily Jefferson County Union’s  “At the library” column on Monday, December 21, 2009.

A Lasting Christmas Gift to the Community by Dr. James Fitzpatrick, capital campaign chair

As the holiday season is upon us we are pleased to inform citizens that our Dwight Foster capital campaign has gone well.  The plan calls for an expansion of 12,000 square feet along with the renovation of our current space.  As we get closer to the construction phase it is critical that we have the donations needed to move forward.  Our library is one of our crown jewels in this community and we are excited to make it even more so.

In this the holiday season, we would like to ask citizens to consider a donation to our Foster Growth capital campaign.  Such a gift will have a long lasting impact that will benefit people of all ages for many years to come.    The holidays are a perfect time to think about giving.  Please consider a charitable contribution to a cause that will help ensure excellent library services for our community for now…and for those who follow. You may make your gift in memory or honor of someone special in your life.  We’ve even had a donation in honor of Fort Atkinson High School’s class of 1964.  What a great way to pay tribute! We cannot express adequately in words our thanks to so many who have already given generously to this most worthy cause.  And we’d love nothing more than to add you to the list of people who have given to help us improve our library.

There is still time to make your donation by making out a check to the FACF Library Fund and send it in care of Connie Meyer, Director, Dwight Foster Public Library, 102 E. Milwaukee Avenue, Fort Atkinson, WI, 53538.  If you prefer, you may drop off your gift at the library or donate online with your credit card.  Online donations are made through the Fort Atkinson Community Foundation’s website here.

Happiest of holidays to each of you and thank you for considering helping us foster growth in Fort Atkinson.

Yes, we’re bookin’ it!

At last night’s city council meeting, the library’s temporary relocation plans were approved.  The library will be moving to the former Digistar building on Janesville Avenue during the renovation and expansion project. Making this move allows the construction to happen in the shortest possible time and provides for the safety and security of patrons, staff, and equipment.

The library will be occupying the lower level of the building closest to Janesville Avenue.  There will be ample parking and enough space to operate the library for the 10-12 months of our project.  We will have a handicapped entrance around the back of the building and a book return installed in the parking lot.  We will not have meeting room availability during this time.

We will do our best to make our temporary home a place people will feel comfortable using so that we can operate with minimal disruption.  We appreciate your flexibility and understanding while we make this transition.

We anticipate being closed approximately two weeks to move into the new location and one to two weeks to move back into the finished library.

Between now and then we will be culling through our inventory, making decisions on what goes and what gets sold.  Watch for unbelievable selection at our upcoming book sales along with really great deals.   The next book sale is Saturday, December 5th from 9:30 to Noon.  The one after that is slated for Saturday, January 16th.  Additionally, we will be selling items on a cart in the library during the hours the library is open.

Stay tuned for more information as we develop more concrete plans and dates.

Magical musical moment

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.  Instead of my usual thousand words, I thought I’d keep the words to a minimum and share this incredible photograph courtesy of professional photographer, Lori Compas.  Lori was at our music night at the museum fundraiser and captured some of the magic with her camera.  You can’t hear the beautiful music, but you can see the intensity on Bill Camplin’s face here.  Bill, Satchel, and Randy each demonstrated their unique talents.  Their outstanding performances, varied musical selections, and rapport with the audience made for a show I will never forget.  I had goosebumps.

Thank you to Bill, Satchel, and Randy for sharing their talents with our library.  The fundraiser was successful beyond anyone’s expectations.  We raised over $4,500 for the library’s Foster Growth building fund.

Thank you to the staff of the Cafe Carpe, Pat Belt, Maria Perez-Hametta, Kori Oberle, the museum staff…and all the other kind people who helped.   We are grateful to those who donated prizes for the raffle and everyone who bought tickets to the raffle and for the event.

Left to right: Randy Sabien, Bill Camplin, Satchel Paige

Let me be perfectly clear…

In September, I sent an email to library staff members with the following subject line:  Thank you but…no more donations.

It wasn’t more than a few minutes and someone said to me, “Wow, the fundraising is over?”

What?  “Where in the world did you get that idea?”

“From your email,” was the reply.  “I haven’t had a chance to read it yet but your subject line indicated we don’t need any more donations.”

Oh my!  That’s not what I meant to say at all!

Here we are in the middle of a capital campaign, trying to raise a large amount of money for our library expansion and renovation project and I was sending an email with the headline announcing we didn’t want any more donations.  What in the world was I thinking?

Well, I wasn’t thinking of course.

We DO want donations.  We need donations.  We can’t do this project without donations.

This was a glaring example of the need to write a better headline.  (It’s also an example of the need to read beyond the headlines if there ever was one.)  Staff needed to read the entire email.   In the body of the email  I was alerting them to the fact that we need to officially stop taking gifts of books and magazines.  People have always been very generous and regularly bring us bags and boxes full of books, DVDs, videos, music CDs, and magazines.   Occasionally we put items in our library’s collection; usually our Friends of the Library takes the items and sells them in our book sales.  Either way the library benefits.   We’ve always greatly appreciated the donations.

However, we are now in the position of cleaning house in preparation for our building project.  We cannot pay to move and store used books so we must make sure they are all out of the facility before Spring.  We will be having increasingly aggressively priced  book sales leading up to our move.  But we do need to call a moratorium on accepting additional materials at this time so we can cope with what we have.  At this time we need to say thank you, but no thank you, to donations of physical items.  So let me be clear.  The moratorium is on the donations of materials.  We don’t have a similar problem with monetary donations.  The Fort Atkinson Community Foundation has plenty of storage capacity for donations to our library fund!  (Did you ever notice how little space money actually requires?)

Anyway, that’s what I meant to say.

I guess it’s good that I had such a wildly inappropriate subject line for my staff email.  It taught me to pay more attention when writing future communications.  Notice the headline of this post has been more carefully crafted; it’s nice and vague.

In life, often times we aren’t lucky enough to get a do-over.   The pink pearl eraser simply doesn’t fix it.  In that case, what you can do is analyze just where you went wrong.   That way you can make a different mistake next time!

Music to our ears

Pat Belt, chair of special events for our Foster Growth capital campaign has done an incredible job planning a variety of activities that are helping us raise money for our expansion and renovation.  We’ve had a chili-fest, a brat-fest, T-shirt sales, and collection cans at local businesses.  She and her team of people have been selling Foster Growth T-shirts, candy bars, and our library cookbooks at the Farmer’s Market and beyond.

Our next special event on Friday, November 13th promises to be very special indeed.  A Musical night at the Museum will showcase jazz violionist Randy Sabien accompanying Bill Camplin and will also feature Satchel Paige Welch.  We are just thrilled to be able to offer such a fine group of musicians to Fort Atkinson’s music-loving crowd.  Hors d’oeuvres and wine will be included in the ticket price  of $35 and all proceeds will benefit our library project.

We are grateful to Bill, Satchel, and Randy…and, of course, Pat who made the arrangements as well as her crew and the staff of the Hoard Historical Museum.  When Pat told us of the event, we couldn’t believe how lucky we were to be able to host such a quality show.   Randy, an incredible musician and performer, has been hailed by the Christian Science Monitor, the USA Today, and many other publications.  You can hear a sample of him at his website. Bill is a legend himself and his son, Satchel, an exciting young performer.  Tickets are available at the library and at the Cafe Carpe.  The Hoard Historical Museum is located at 401 Whitewater Avenue in Fort Atkinson.

We hope you join us.   It’ll be music to our ears…and yours!

A “salt of the earth” business proves it

Vince Kent of Abendroth Water Conditioning is the chair of the business division for our Foster Growth capital campaign.  He’s a “salt of the earth”  kind of guy (in more ways than one) and we were delighted when he agreed to step up to the plate and join our campaign.  He’s been instrumental in asking businesses throughout our community to support our fundraising effort.   He’s got great ideas, including one he’s using in his own business.  He’s donating a portion of all the water softener salt sales of his business throughout our building project.     We are so very grateful for his generosity with his time and expertise as well as his financial commitment to our library.

If you’d like to help our library, please consider buying your salt from Abendroth Water Conditioning.    If you’re a business, don’t hesitate to contact Vince to discuss innovative ways you too can help.  We’d sure appreciate your support.  All donations of $500 or more receive a place on our donor wall…which will provide long-lasting recognition for your business, your family, or yourself.

We have some great Foster Growth T-shirts and hoodies for sale at the library and the farmer’s market.  But maybe we should think about adding a few of these to our line!  (Not exactly the right type of salt, but definitely the right idea!)

Refining the library’s design so art *can* meet architecture

The view from South Third Street

At the last workshop we discussed window and sill heights and the importance of carrying the tile roofing element  around the south addition from a design perspective.  The practical reality is that we can’t drop the windows low enough to see a top arch on the windows in that area.  So we pared down from three on each end to one arched window on each side of the bowed area. Because there will be fewer arched windows, we can afford to provide more architectural detail on the ones that remain.  During the workshop, Del Wilson (of Uihlein-Wilson Architects) described the importance of art meeting architecture…and we found a way to do that. 

If you’d like to see the updated interior plans you can do that at our library’s website here.  We also have them on display at the library.  The changes continue to evolve as a result of important input from many.  Thank you to all who have had a hand in recommending, revising, refining…helping us write our library’s story.

Observations from a visit to the Houston Public Library

I was in Houston with my kids several weeks ago.  One of my children actually isn’t a child anymore as evidenced by the fact that he went to Houston to stay for a year and I was merely a sightseer.  But that’s another post, in another blog, I think.    (I just can’t think of a way to weave a discussion of a parent’s  complex set of emotions while emptying the nest into a library expansion blog.  Maybe if I wasn’t so tired from my “vacation” I could, but I’m coming up short at the moment.)

Back to the point.  On one of our days exploring Houston, we went to the public library.  (Doesn’t everybody drag their kids to the library while traveling?)

It was great timing to see the Houston Public Library because these days I’m in search of good ideas for our library building. 

With thanks to the Houston Public Library for a great experience and their warm hospitality!  Here is what I observed in Houston:

• Underground parking onsite…for a price.  It only took three trips around the building for me to realize I wasn’t going to find free parking anywhere.  If I wanted to see the library, I needed to open up my wallet.
• A large computer area with dozens and dozens of computers for people to use…and a waiting line for booking them.  They looked to be a precious commodity, very well-used.
• A coffee shop in the entry area, it was very brightly lit and in a great location.  I would have loved to sample a cup of java but my kids were more interested in exploring than sitting.
• A very friendly staff.   It always make such a difference in a library.  Kudos to the library for remembering how important it is to make people feel welcome…even visitors whose only contribution is a few bucks for the parking.
• A teen area that had a striking entry wall (as seen in the photo below) covered with the words (in a variety of languages) that meant this was a meeting place and displaying a sign that made it clear it was their meeting place…not a place for adults or younger kids.  (I did peek in, I must admit, and saw some very futuristic chairs that my daughter made sure I knew I wasn’t supposed to try.)

Houston Public Library teen entrance

Our staff and board members have visited quite a number of  libraries during our years of planning.  We’ve got a few more left to see.  We’re now far enough into our planning that we have specific things we’re looking to examine in action, including an operational RFID system.  We’re not going to far away places (there’s no budget for that) but it’ll be an adventure just the same!  I’m a firm believer in learning from others.