Lillie M. Evans Library Practicum Blog

  24 September 2025 The Inspiration Celebration a discussion of the library successes and impact. Looking at issues that need to be addressed. The Inspiration Celebration is an event that is held yearly to look at the successes of the past year and the things that did not go as well as expected.   The staff and Board of trustees are in attendance for an open discussion. A review of the collection development was the first item   of the Celebrating our successes format. Going through the changes in all the book areas. Talked about the RSA mobile app and how that has changed the way patrons find items in the library by placing holds online for pickup. Enhancements in the Adult Fiction, Adult Non Fiction Large Print and Biographies were pointed out. Other accomplishments was the use of the Illinois State Library Database packages and how it has made more databases available to users. Completed the catalog cleanup. Weeding was done in Adult Fiction and Non Fiction and...

  23 September 2025 Working with the Consortia database to input new books and resources in the Catalog system. Identifying the Culture of the library Started the morning entering the new books in the Resource Sharing Alliance (RSA)   Catalog. We processed new titles from Baker and Taylor. New book requests are written up on index cards and forwarded to the director.   The director places the order and puts the information on the index cards and files them in the ordered file. When a new book is shipped in the information from the card is utilized for addition to the system. The library uses a combination of Dewey and bookstore shelving practices. The PLA force number 2 is the evolving role of the of the public library.  Bringing new resources and also patron requested books into the library shows the dynamic environment that is the library. Catalogue copying for most of the entries. We had a new book for the 250 anniversary of the U.S. The Book was about Georg...

  16 September 2025, Day at the library, Budgeting, OCLC, Shelving in a Dewey library Budgeting was the main focus of the day. We looked at the process of budgeting at the library. Went over the last several years of how the total assessed valuation for the district had changed and the effect on the tax rate. Also looked at the way different fund accounts change over the years. How eBooks and Database subscription costs have risen. Some of the new electronic content services like Hoopla; Charge monthly on the use of what items were used by the patrons. Hoopla has eBooks', movies, Magazines and other content. These have had a great effect on the budgeting process. The district has Four (4) Tax Increment finance areas in the district. How the monies are distributed when the districts end was interesting. The West Jersey Trucking district is renovating the Alcoa plant and turning it into warehousing is the newest one. This revenue will be available in 4 years. The district has a...

  9 September 2025, Day at the library, studying policy making and processes The policies of the public library involves systematic review and approval of the Board of Trustees. The Lillie M. Evans library has a plan on the systematic review, and we went over the details. In accordance with the serving our public 4.0 Standards for Illinois Libraries policies are to be reviewed every three years. The exception by statute (75 ILCS 5/4-7.2) The selection of materials and use of library materials and facilities policy must be reviewed and approved every two (2) years. During the session we reviewed and discussed the policies. This is a sample of some of the items we discussed. In the personnel policy we looked at staff development practices. The library has planned staff development days for the mandatory safety training and patron expectations. They do allow staff to do online training and also travel to training functions like Fast Forward sponsored by the Illinois Library As...

  8 September 2025, Sexual Harassment Prevention Training The State of Illinois   requires library staff to have sexual harassment prevention   training Section 2-109 of the Illinois Human Rights Act. The course was provided through the Illinois Department   of Human Rights Training Institute. Course dealt with the safe aspects of approaching patrons and the public. The Library is a safe haven area and all should be treated in a proper manner. Discovered other new types of interaction that would fall in this category.  I see issues almost daily that a patron will make a remark that is inappropriate to a patron or staff. The training taught us how to deal with making the right decision on how to handle the situation.  PLA Forces:  Force 3 Building Community. As Librarians we have to look at the changing demographic and show apathy for all the patrons. The Sexual Harassment prevention training allows for better engagement with the patrons. Enabling the...

  2 September 2025,   First Day of work in the Library Arrived at the Lillie M. Evans Library and was ready for a day of work in the library. It would be a busy day at the library as the library was starting a new kids program with the Forest Park Nature Center. It was a large turnout. With the Holiday there was a lot of returns, and a four (4) page pull list of books to go on Interlibrary loan.   For the first part of the morning I was working the front Circulation Desk. This was my first experience using the SirsiDynix WorkFlows system that RSA uses. The work was straight forward and had a few errors that were correctable. Processed the Holiday haul of returned books. There were many that were returned from neighboring libraries that would utilize the Interlibrary loan delivery to get them back to their library. We are taught in our library classes and through the American Library Association documents the confidentiality of the records. Kept that in mind when exa...

  21 August 2025,   Initial practicum Meeting with Director Duttlinger of the Lillie M. Evans Library in Princeville, IL Discussed the practicum and set up a schedule. The schedule included several events that were specific everyday functions of the library. Also included were some management type activities and outside educational opportunities. These included the Small and Rural Director meetings. Meetings related to the   Resource Sharing Alliance (RSA) is the Local Library System Automation Project (LLSAP) and Consortia for the library. They provide the interlibrary loan deliveries in the area and manage the servers that contain all the patron information and the Shared catalogs of the member libraries. The ILA Annual Conference at the Rosemont was also on the agenda for practicum. Networking with librarians and sessions on all phases of librarianship. PLA Forces: Force 2 In the meeting we were looking at forward thinking events that would aid in the practicum expe...

This is the Blog for my experiences in the Practicum through Chicago State University and the Lillie M. Evans Library in Princeville, IL. Welcome to the space to see the activities that are part of the learning process this semester.