Lillie M. Evans Library Practicum Blog

  Payroll, Inter Library Loans, Spice Club, and weeding We started the day looking at the forms and excel spreadsheets that tracked vacation time, personal time, biweekly payroll and other payroll functions. Also talked abut the IMRF and the optional retirement funds. Working at the front desk,  receipt of the inter library loan delivery. 15 items that were returns. 3 items that were for our holds. The hold items were processed and phone calls to the patrons that they were available. Spice club will be on display this coming Monday. Prepared the spice kits from bulk packaging into 42 kits for patrons. The kits have the spice packet this month it is Cinnamon the mix from Pencey’s had 4 different types of Cinnamon. It was very aromatic. When the kits are fully assembled they have an information sheet that talks about the spice. Then there are two recipes from books in the library. They are printed on the back of the sheet. The spices change every other month, The last part...

  The Rural Director meeting was held at the Brimfield Public Library in Brimfield IL. The meeting had 18 in person directors and 2 online. The meeting is held monthly at different library locations. The first item on the agenda was the ILA Conference attendance and what programs those that attended enjoyed. The Chat GPT program was brought up. The attendees thought it was a great opportunity to look at some of the features. With the slides available for attendees through the conference website. The group talked about the ability to turn an activity into separate steps was a real hit with the group. One librarian talked about using it for different book discussions. Another uses it for inspiration when they have writers block. Another uses it to fine tune their grant process. One of the programs discussed was the Graphic novel popularity. Many were not aware of all the hype of the media. The presenters at the conference talked about engaging graphic novels to span the age gaps in...

  The day started learning all about the upcoming book club selection. Went into RSA workflow and ordered several large print and a total of 14 copies of the Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. This is a common practice in RSA to support the book clubs. It is cost effective to share books. In the workflow system you can see the books that were in transit to the different libraries in the area. Looking at the volume of books in the Inter Library Loan program was eye opening. It was great to see this service used. As it does save money for the libraries to borrow from other institutions. Director Duttlinger has been tracking the book club choices of the small and rural libraries in Central Illinois in blogger for the past 15 years. Other libraries post their upcoming selections to assist with selections to guarantee available copies of books. After finishing the ordering. Worked on the Book Club November 24 th selection promotion sheet. It includes a picture of the cover of the bo...

  The staff meeting started with an introduction of Michelle and a new hire in her second week. We then looked at the Inspiration Celebration follow up. Looking at the workplace culture. Most of the staff is new to libraries and this was a good refresher for everyone to understand the culture of the community and the library.  Discussed the issue of the library not getting the upper grades to visit the library. Anita had talked with the school librarian and found out that students were checking out from the school library. That library does not have the current holdings that are available at the Lillie M. Evans location. They noted that they had seen a decrease in the number of students using the library for special projects. Probably utilizing online searches versus talking to the information   professionals at the library. The dream big items were brought up. These are items that the library may add in the coming years. Items included with the Books that talk and more...

  The last day of the conference is known as trustee day. As an Intern for ILA was setting up the room for breakfast. Getting the handouts, table tents in place. There was also a backpack filled with Library merchandise for trustees. The breakfast started with the president elect of the Library Trustee Forum saying a few words about the forum and introducing this years library Trustee of the Year. A brief presentation on the new iLead trustee training portal   and a lot of networking for forum members. Spicing up your Passive Programming was the next session. Since the pandemic passive programming has exploded. This was beyond just the spice programs. It was about all kinds of programming that could be for patrons in a passive way. Could be done in the library or taken home. The upswing was started with the spice when folks were making their own meals during the pandemic. Some libraries started to send little spice packets and recipes out with the books that were picked up...

  The day started with a panel discussion entitled We Do Belong: Candid Conversation on the Future of Libraries. The panel included the director of the two library systems, Past President, President elect and the Current President of ILA. An Academic Librarian and a School Librarian. The discussion was very interesting about what everyone sees in the crystal ball. The funding aspect was a big concern at both the State and National level. The eBook pricing for the licensing of books needs to be resolved.   As the prices of eBooks and Journals rise at a rate that is not sustainable for most libraries. Discussing educational opportunities for library staff there was concern as directors are spending more time with the issues of HVAC, Building maintenance and escalating energy costs. The curriculum in most of the MLIS programs do not include Accounting, Finance and other items that the public library runs into every day. The next session was ChatGPT: A Libr-Al-rian’s Sidekic...

  The Opening General Session was Dr. Terrell Strayhorn. He is a researcher in the field of education, psychology and the study of HBCUs. He gave a very emotional personal tale of his climb through the education process and all the issues he encountered in diversity and belonging in his career. Speaking about the pressures in higher education from his study of diversity, equity and inclusion. The final part of his presentation was about his reliance of libraries as a safe space. How the library workers treated him in the library and included him. He related how his grandmother was always giving to him to finish school and the importance of the library in his advancement to become a PHD in psychology. It was a very moving presentation to get the audience stirred up for the conference. Had a meeting with the Illinois State Librarian Greg McCormick. I was asked to consider being a member of the Illinois State Library Advisory Council (ISLAC). Awaiting some information from Greg b...

The Lillie M. Evans Library District has there Monthly Board meeting on the second Thursday of the month. The meeting is set up similar to all library board of trustee meetings. The President   Gayle Johnson Brackett called the meeting to order. This is not intended to be minutes of the meeting will touch on the highlights. The discussion of the Inspiration Celebration that was held September 24, 2025, emphasized the staff interaction with the Board. It was noted how positive the outlook if the staff was of   the meeting and how supportive they were of the direction of the library. Treasurer Diane Smith was very enthusiastic about the amount of interaction with the staff. There was a new hire Michelle Beck that recently started. She is retired and a member of the community. She will work several nights and Saturday. Met her prior to the board meeting. She will be a good fit for this type of library as She has customer service experience. The Directors Report is always ...

  Monday there was news that the Baker and Taylor Book company was closing its distribution Center in Momence, IL. This has been the preferred vendor for the library. The ordering system is a card system. The staff puts patron requests on index cards with all the appropriate information for the Director to evaluate the resource. If the resource is worthy of shelf space an order is created with the vendor. The card is placed in the ordered file and is pulled when the book has been received.   A report of the open orders ran, and the Director looked at cancelling some of the older orders that were over two months old without being completed. Pulled the cards from the file that were going to be cancelled.   Went in the vendors program and cancelled the open orders. The orders that were cancelled were then looked at on a different vendors ordering website. The Director evaluated each book as we looked it up in their system. This was really a good learning experience seein...

  30 September 2025 Filling in at the main desk, discussing the Directors yearly evaluation process, Discussion of next few weeks assignments. The end of the month, the library was shorthanded due to an illness. Assisting in the circulation area got to work on my skills at checking out books, Clearing out the book drop and processing the turned in books, Playaway’s, and Vox books. Several of the returns were from other libraries. Preparing them for return to the correct library. Tagged the books and put them in the bins for pickup to go through the Interlibrary loan system. In reviewing the returned books you check for any damage or defects. One of the books had the spine markings that were faded. Filled out the form to update the markings and put it in the repair area. One book that came back in had some water damage. The Director decided to recycle that volume.   Filled the cart for reshelving the books. The end of the month also denotes a change in the signage for new...