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Southwest Iowa Library Service Area 1. Gates Grants. Eligibility for the Gates Grants for computers (due to come to Iowa in 2003, administered through the State library) is based on poverty levels--according to the Gates Foundation guidelines for poverty. In SW, 62 of our 68 members qualify. Those who do not (Harlan, Elk Horn, Kimballton, Stanton, Red Oak, and Silver City) qualify for partial grants. With partial grants, libraries are able to purchase a certain number of computers at the discounted price that the Gates Foundation pays. More on the grants in coming months. 2. Thinkertank. In July we will be sponsoring a "Thinkertank" for about a dozen of our librarians. We will be using Michael Michalko's "Thinkertoys" techniques for creative problem-solving. (I have used Thinkertoys on a number of occasions, and found it very helpful.) With Thinkertank I hope to not only give librarians some tools for creative thinking, but also to build some leadership--and break everyone out of the doldrums. 3. State of the Area. I have prepared a preliminary outline of a "State of the Area" report that I will make to the Board in the fall. If there is additional information you would like to see in the report, please let me know. 4. SWILSA Office Planning. Marcia, Sue, and I spent a morning reviewing and planning for how we operate in the office. We looked at what excites us about our jobs, what we hate, what gives us the greatest satisfaction, what questions do we get the most, and what questions *should* we be getting that we aren't? We identified four questions/concerns that we think are the most important to address: How we can get librarians to contact us more often, how to keep better in touch with member library trustees, how to improve our website and offerings on the site, and how to help librarians be more comfortable with technology. At this meeting, we tackled how to get librarians to contact us more often. Using one of Michalko's Thinkertoy techniques we developed some good ideas. We will look at the other three questions at future meetings. 5. SWILSA T-1 as hub for other libraries. At the March meeting you approved offering (on a case-by-case basis) SWILSA's T-1 as a hub for libraries outside SWILSA, if it represented a cost-savings to the libraries. ICN has since indicated that it would not be a savings for libraries because they would be outside our LATA. |
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Southwest Iowa
Library Services
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