Lillie M. Evans Library Practicum Blog

  The rural director meeting started with an introduction and what the directors thought were the biggest challenge to being a rural library. The top item was staffing. Issues expressed: trained people not available, hired and being ghosted, dependability of hires. Budget issues and funding were second. The per capita grant from the State library has not been increased in 5 years. Inflation has eroded the funds. Property tax percentages in the Illinois Statutes remain unchanged for more than 10 years. The Interlibrary loans were discussed. The Illinois Heartland Library System has installed an automated sorting system at one of the hubs in Southern Illinois. It is driven by bar codes. The system has Bar codes on the cover in the upper left corner next to the spine. This enables the system automation to sort to the proper library. The Rural Directors are in the RAILS Library system, and they do not have a definitive place for the bar codes. Many now have them inside the Front ...

It was a bittersweet day at the library. The staff has been so helpful to this novice. The Director Duttlinger has really been helpful to show the behind the scenes activities. We started the day discussing the time sheets and discussing the many different opportunities. She wanted to focus on three items today:   Reader advisory   Grants   Weeding We started looking at Reader Advisory and the tools that are available to the staff. Looking at the usual suspects like Good Reads, Reading Group Guides, and RA for all. Looked at Best Seller lists Publishers Weekly and New York Times. The LME Library has its own recommendations on the website. Was asked to add books to the website. Spotted a Health and wellness category that did not have any books. Asked about that category. So I went for that one and looked over the collection to see what books would fit the theme. Picked out a dozen titles that encompassed various healthy activities looked in the system for the check...

  Went in and had an option of three tasks. Circulation, Cataloging, and weeding. I took the Weeding as I know how much it would help the director. Also it would help me learn more of the back end of the Workflow. As you are using the MUSTIE principle for pulling books. Also use judgement based on the patrons. In my experience at the library, I have spoken to many patrons. Like Mr. Smith who like westerns. We have a lot of patrons that prefer wholesome books with a religious theme. In talking to the book club members they have some unique needs. No books over 400 pages. They do not mind a little spice for the selections. They also like ones that spur discussion. Working in the biography section today. Started in the B-EDW section. Working with a laptop and mobile workstation was going down the list of books in the computer. If they were not in order would clean up the order on the shelves while pulling. Using the laptop you can see how many times it was checked out. Date it w...

  The meeting was held at the Farmington Public Library. Director Duttlinger is the treasurer of the Board. The meeting was a hybrid with 2 members online and a quorum present in the meeting room to meet with Open Meeting Act requirements. RSA is the LLSAP that provides the system support for the circulation software. Also provides cataloging assistance and database support. The First item was the Audit Presentation. This was important as RSA is currently Reaching Across Illinois Library System employees. January 1, 2026, they will be RSA employees. Which will be a government entity. With that comes new accounting procedures. The Auditors explained the differences in the practices. Moving from Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB).   RAILS Financial team Discussed the difference in the two methods. FASB provides financial information to investors where GASB looks at accountability and transparency of the organizat...