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Scheduled:

National Humor Month

April is National Humor Month. It was conceived as a means to heighten public awareness of the therapeutic value of humor. Laughter and joy - the benchmarks of humor - lead to improved well-being, boosted morale, increased communication skills, and an enriched quality of life.

Since it's another beautiful Throwback Thursday, we thought it would be fun to find some of the funniest pictures JoCoHistory has to offer! It was just a happy accident that all the pictures that tickled our funny bones just happen to have dogs in them. Do you have a favorite?

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Meet the Author: Celebrating Earth Day with Kate Messner

Join us for Meet the Author: Celebrating Earth Day with Kate Messner, a virtual event on April 21 at 4:30 p.m. Register now »

Celebrating Earth Day with Over and Under Nature Writing - New York Times bestselling author Kate Messner will share the research and writing process behind her award-winning picture books Over and Under the Snow, Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt, Under the Rainforest and more. The virtual visit will wrap up with plenty of time for Q&A with readers.

The Open Book, our monthly newsletter, talks about this event and much more. Have you subscribed yet?

Scheduled:
Scheduled:

This Week at the Library

This week at the Library, you can join us at:

Library OnDemand Available anytime you like.

Your doorway into live and archived programs. Arts & Culture, Career & Finance, Community Matters, Writers and more!

Online Bilingual Storytime / Hora de cuentos bilingües en línea – Monday, Apr. 11, 10-10:30 a.m.

The whole family will enjoy this flexible Storytime. Hearing stories is a great way to spend time with your kids and help them foster a love of reading. Stories, songs, fingerplays and movement activities foster pre-reading skills. Fun for the whole family.

Toda la familia disfrutará de esta especial hora de cuentos bilingües. Escucha historias con tus hijos y ayúdales a cultivar el amor por la lectura. Al contar cuentos, interpretar canciones, hacer juegos con los dedos y realizar actividades de movimiento fomentamos las habilidades previas a la lectura. ¡Diversión para toda la familia!

One-on-One Genealogy Help via Zoom – Tuesday, Apr. 12, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

Basic Genealogy and DNA one-on-one help are now being held online via Zoom specific to your questions and research. Visit the Johnson County Genealogical Society at www.jcgsks.org to schedule an appointment. A volunteer will email a personal Zoom meeting link to you prior to the scheduled date.

Community Matters Book Club – Thursday, Apr. 14, 6-7 p.m.

Are you looking for spaces to explore identity and the world around us?  This intergenerational book club will provide kids and families a place to read about the unique experiences of diverse characters and historical events. Each session, we will provide a book for you to keep, along with an invitation to join us as a family for discussion, questioning, and community building. Copies of the book will be provided to participants who live in Johnson County. Best for parents or guardians, and their children ages 8-12.

  And much more happening this week »

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Conferences and Staff Development Ramp Up in 2022

With the National Library Week celebration April 3-9, Johnson County Library’s commitment to staff and patrons has never been more important. The Learning and Development Department is continuing that commitment for 2022, as in-person conference attendance resumes, and professional development programs enable staffers to re-energize. 

After two long pandemic years, the Library is focusing on having staff “get their brains excited again,” said Training Specialist Julie Timmins, an L&D team member. 

The Learning and Development Department’s mission is important. “We are the place where staff learns,” Timmins explained. “We are a support service. Our end goal is still the patrons. Our motivation is still the patrons, but our responsibility is to help the staff to serve the patrons better, to teach staff what they need to know to do their jobs excellently.” 

While conference travel was restricted, the L&D Department still had a big impact, offering 126 programs both live and virtually in 2021. Programs had a combined attendance of 842. Virtual conferences were attended by 101 staffers. Orientation events served 48 new or newly promoted employees. 

Timmins is excited that the Library granted permission to include traveling again in 2022. 

Johnson County Library plans to send 59 people to 26 different in-person conferences this year. That’s up from 40 people who attended 24 conferences in 2019. These conferences are great for expanding staffers’ skills and knowledge, but they also allow Librarians and others to share their expertise. 

For example, Timmins said, Johnson County Library assistant branch managers have developed a highly effective process for large-scale organizational restructuring.  

“They have become one of the most effective sub-teams within the Library because of all this work they put in building their own organizational structure,” Timmins said. 

A group of assistant branch managers put together a proposal to present at this year’s American Library Association conference in Washington D.C. and it was accepted. The proposal is focused on systemwide strategies that increase coordination, collaboration and optimized decision making and communication processes throughout the organization. Three people will present. Nine additional Library employees will also attend that ALA conference in June.   

Librarians will also gain new insights from conferences sponsored by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, the American Association of State and Local History, and the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services. 

Prior to 2020, all conference attendance was in person, but the pandemic showed how online conferences can also provide beneficial training. This year, Timmins said, the Library had 18 requests from staff to attend 14 digital conferences and was able to grant them all. They include the International Public Library Fundraising Conference and the Rocky Mountain Early Childhood conference. 

In May 2021, the L&D Department also got a new manager, Laura Blair, who has decades of corporate training, learning and development expertise. 

“Her insight and foresight and her experience are really very cool,” Timmins said. 

The department is creating online training classes that staffers can take at their convenience, at their own speed. Soft skills training is also expanding, with the CliftonStrengths talent assessments being offered beyond managers to other staffers.  

“It’s another rejuvenation or joyful thing to give people at work,” Timmins said.   

While the pandemic has been stressful, it also compelled the L&D Department to adapt and grow.  

“There’s definitely some stuff that we learned and experienced in the pandemic that we’re going to carry on, like the e-learning,” Timmins said. “There are some classes where you need the interaction between people to build the skills, but there is so much where that interaction is not essential. We’re going to try and take what we learned during the pandemic and some of the new ways of working that we have built.”  

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Changes Coming to eBooks and eAudiobooks

Beginning May 23, we will be moving to a new eBook and eAudiobook platform: Libby! Here's what to expect:

Moving Week: May 23 - 27

  • Download Libby and get ready for our full collection to arrive. All you need is your current Library card!
  • During moving week, our eBook and eAudiobook collection will be unavailable for browsing or borrowing in Axis 360, Libby or the Web Catalog.
  • Existing checkouts will still be available through their due date, only via the Axis 360 app. If you log out of Axis 360, you will no longer be able to able to log back in.

By Friday, May 27

Read Frequently Asked Questions about our move to Libby, and stay up to date at jocolibrary.org and @jocolibrary on social media.

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Connect with National Library Week

National Library week is happening now! It began Sunday, April 3 and the celebration continues until Saturday, April 9. How can you join this jubilee? The Friends of Johnson County Library are taking over JoCoLibrary on Facebook on Friday, April 8! 

Also, what better way to acknowledge National Library Week than to make a major announcement?

Senia and Will Shields invite you to the newly-renovated Central Resource Library for 2022 Library Lets Loose, on Saturday, September 17! It’s Johnson County Library Foundation’s signature fundraising event and the Shields are this year’s honorary hosts. It will be an evening filled with music, food and libations, all benefiting lifelong learning programs at Johnson County Libraries.

Senia and Will Shields

Will played fourteen years for the Kansas City Chiefs and received many accolades, including the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award and induction into the NFL Hall of Fame. “Once you become a lover of reading and a lover of books you understand the important role libraries play in our lives,” Shields stated. “Our libraries are constantly creating new opportunities for patrons.”

The Shields' have made countless contributions throughout the Kansas City community for more than 25 years, including formation of the Will to Succeed Foundation in 1993. Senia says, “Literacy has been an important part of our work and we love the library resources. They open up new opportunities and are paramount for operating successfully in our world.”

After two years of celebrating virtually, the Shields are excited to invite the community back for this special event! For more information and to register for Library Lets Loose visit libraryletsloose.org.

Scheduled:
Scheduled:
Scheduled:

This Week at the Library

This week at the Library, you can join us at:

Library OnDemand Available anytime you like.

Your doorway into live and archived programs. Arts & Culture, Career & Finance, Community Matters, Writers and more!

Caregiver Workshop: Power of Play in STEM Exploration with Museum at Prairiefire – Tuesday, Apr. 5, 7-8 p.m.

Whether it's finding activities to keep them busy or understanding what's going on inside their heads, being a caregiver of young children can be challenging. Each month's caregiver workshop explores a different topic to support and enrich relationships between kids age birth to 6 and their caregivers.

Facebook Live Book Party – Wednesday, Apr. 6, noon -12:30 p.m.

Facebook Live Book Parties are live events where a library staff members will booktalk a short list of titles around a certain genre or theme and staff will interact with patrons in real time. This Book Party will be held on Facebook live. Visit JoCoLibrary on Facebook and be sure to ‘follow’ us to get notifications when we go Live if you have a Facebook account. You do not need a Facebook account to watch our Book Party.

Which Senior Housing Option is Right for You? – Saturday, Apr. 9, 10 a.m.- noon

While many of us would like to "age-in-place" in our own homes, for most of us, this isn’t a realistic option. We need to develop a "Plan B." As you explore various retirement communities, it's easy to become overwhelmed with the many options and providers available. Navigate through this maze of options in a unique, two-part program developed by The Education Group, an organization of retired seniors who have lived the experience, studied the industry, and want to share what they have learned. You will learn the lingo, the pros and cons of various options, what to look for in a community, and questions you need to ask. The presenters will share information that you won't hear at a community's sales presentation. They'll explain why delaying a move may not be in your best interest, how some facilities enable you to extend the time you're able to safely live independently, and the costs of the various options.

  And much more happening this week »