Jefferson's Bubolz strives to preserve library budgets. (Jefferson County
Daily Union, 8/2/2011)
Excerpt: Editor's note: This is the first in a series on how local libraries are reacting to changes in the state budget which cut state assistance to certain programs and which allows municipalities to cut library budgets by any amount, as opposed to the limited cuts dictated by the now-eliminated Maintenance of Effort statute.)
Jocelyn Bubolz, director of the Jefferson Public Library, has taken a very active role in spreading the word about changes to the state budget that affect libraries.
As soon as she found out about the provisions in the proposed budget, she began speaking out and writing letters.
First, she made information available to local library patrons, to make sure they knew about some of the measures that were buried within the budget proposal. She also contacted legislators, both the local ones and those from her home district, and she even wrote to the governor.
The Jefferson librarian said she contacted all of the area legislators and those in key decision-making positions.
"I truly appreciate Andy Jorgensen's attention to this issue," Bubolz said of the local state representative, from Fort Atkinson. "He received about 4,000 calls from constituents and he still managed to get back to me more than once."
Until WiscNet was restored to the budget, she alerted patrons and decision-makers how the elimination of the library and school Internet service would impact local library budgets, and the services they would be able to provide.
With WiscNet restored, she focused her efforts on what she considered the most egregious of the remaining changes, the elimination of the "Maintenance of Effort" statute.
Library moving forward with new security. (Jackson County
Chronicle, 7/27/2011)
Excerpt: The Black River Falls Public Library will now move forward with strengthening the facility’s security.
The Library Board authorized the move following a 6-0 vote at its July 12 meeting. There currently is no timeline for installing the panic button-like system, but Library Board President Jon Warmke said the new measure will be a positive change for the facility’s employees and patrons.
“We’re open to the public, and there’s a lot of nooks and crannies,” Warmke said. “It was a way of calming some of the nerves of our staff and ensuring that they are safe in the building.
“I think we want to ensure the library is a safe place for patrons and our employees.”
Related post:
Staff security an issue at library. (6/15/2011)
Jordan’s Journal: Harry Potter taught me to love reading. (Hudson
Star-Observer, 7/22/2011)
Excerpt: Since the day I picked up “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” I have been reading as much as I can as often as I can. I have spent many a late night with my bed-side lamp burning bright to get through just a few more pages or stayed inside on a sunny Saturday afternoon reading instead of going outside to play.
When the series was made into movies, I couldn’t have been happier. The movies only added to my love of the books and projected the world I had seen only inside my own mind for so many years onto the big screen. I was seeing my favorite series in theaters and could relive the stories I had enjoyed so much in book form over and over again. It made me all the more anxious for the rest of the novels to come out.
I can remember the day that the last book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” that I had preordered months before, arrived at my door. After I had the book in my hands, I disappeared into my room for the next few days until I had read all there was to read all the way to the last word on the final page that brought a conclusion to one of my favorite series of all time.
At the time, I knew I still had the rest of the Harry Potter movies to look forward so it did not really feel like the end. But with the final film installment of the Harry Potter epic now out in theaters, there is no way to deny that it is all over, once and for all.
Last Friday, July 15, marked the end of an era for me and all the other young adults who grew up on the stories of a teenage wizard who defied remarkable odds and became a hero. It will be hard to say goodbye to the world of Harry Potter given how much joy it has supplied me with over the years. There will never be another book that will do for me what J.K. Rowling’s series has.
It is incredible to think that there was ever a time when I hated to read. Books have become a huge part of my life and have made me who I am today. I owe a lot to J.K. Rowling and the universe she created. It is hard to consider how different my life would be if Mrs. Wiora had never read Harry Potter to my fourth-grade class or if Rowling had never put pen to paper and written the masterpiece that is Harry Potter.
