Imagination Library Book Fees Reimbursement

Thanks to NFLS Nic News Weekly 2/28/25 for this infobit!

Book fees reimbursement for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library

The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) Division of Early Care and Education (DECE) is awarding funding to reimburse non-profit organizations for book fees for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL). 

Applications are open and will be accepted on a rolling basis, until funding runs out, or by March 28, 2025, whichever comes first. You will need the following to apply:

• Proof of affiliation with DPIL or willingness to become a local program partner
• Proof of non-profit status.

Learn more at: National Reading Program Grants - Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

Tips and Info from DPI's Feb 27, 2025 Youth Services Newsletter

Jeni Schomber's DPI Youth Services Weekly Reminders and Resources is chockfull of great resources. If you are a WI youth library staffer and you don't receive this weekly missive in your email inbox, please contact Jeni (jennifer.schomber@dpi.wi.gov) to be placed on the list! 

Here is the February 27, 2025 edition

CSLP Newsletter

• Check out this month's Collaborative Summer Library Program newsletter featuring information about the Summer Reading Kickoff, Brag Tags, Save the Date for Theme and Slogan sessions, and much more!

STARNet Webinar - Summer Fun for All Ages with GLOBE Citizen Science

• March 4^th from 12 to 1 p.m.
• Join STARnet and the NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative (NESEC) to round out planning for your 2025 summer library programs. Discover hands-on STEAM activities that can support the Collaborative Summer Library Program (Color Our World) theme. These can be used in active and passive library programs to inspire and prepare patrons of all ages – from kids to seniors – to participate in NASA GLOBE Observer citizen science.
• Register today!

Presentation Proposals Now Being Accepted for Upgrade Conference

• The University of Wisconsin-Madison iSchool is excited to announce Upgrade, a new conference dedicated to exploring the intersection of technology and library services. This two-day event in Madison, WI will bring together library staff from across the country to discuss innovative practices in library technology on October 6-7, 2025.
• We are looking for presenters to offer insights, strategies, and tools that will transform how we serve our communities through technology. Submit your proposal here by March 2, 2025, for full consideration. For more details on session proposals, please visit https://ischool.wisc.edu/continuing-education/upgrade/upgrade-call-for-proposals/.

govDelivery Subscription List

• DPI is transitioning our subscription lists to a new provider, govDelivery. This change will help us improve communication security, accessibility, and overall efficiency. No additional action is required on your part. You will continue to receive the Weekly Reminders and Resources email, just in a different format.
• What You Need to Know
• Uninterrupted Communication: You will continue to receive the DPI Youth Services Weekly Reminders and Resources email without disruption.
• New Email Address: You may notice a new sender address in your inbox: DPILibraryYouthServices@info.dpi.wi.gov. Please add this to your address book to ensure smooth delivery.
• Branding Changes: Future communications will feature the DPI’s official branding, including our logo and colors.

I appreciate your patience as we work to make this transition as seamless as possible. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me. 

Getting on an ALSC/YALSA Award Committee

A question that often comes up in conversation or meetings with people who have served on ALSC youth media awards committees is how one goes about serving in this capacity. We all share our own journey - the experience that helped us in being considered; whether we were appointed or elected, and so on.

A recent ALSC blog post by Kelly Depin, a member of the School Age Services committee as well as the 2025 Newbery committee does a great job breaking down some ways, besides ALA membership in ALSC, YALSA, and other roundtables, for you to start working on your bona fides. Kelly writes: "How do you get to be on a committee like this? While it’s possible, it is going to require some work on your part. "

To read her tips, please stop here. [How to Get on a Youth Media Award Committee. Depin, Kelly. ALSC blog. Februray 23, 2025]

And if you are an ALSC member and are interested in committee work, now is the perfect time to volunteer your time and talents! From the most recent ALSC newsletter published February 18, 2025, here is a call to volunteer!

Interested in Committee Work? Be Sure To Fill Out ALSC's Volunteer Form Now!   If you're interested in serving on an ALSC committee for the 2025-2026 term, now is the time to fill out our volunteer form!   Committee work is a fantastic way to make a difference at ALSC, as well as allowing you to make new connections and develop your leadership skills. Many of our process committees meet and work virtually, so you can be involved no matter where you are.   Learn more about the appointment process here, and see a full list of committees here.   And once you're ready, you can access the volunteer form here!

LEARN MORE

Let's Get Physical - in Kids Programming

Recently, Alison Loewen at Sheboygan's Mead Library shared a blog post with me from her collaborative partner Kris Fritz. Alison and Kris, a retired health and physical educator in the school district, partnered to bring physical activity and literacy together in storytimes. Alison wrote that "this collabation with PE teachers has been great and I think easy model to implement in any library." I agree.

Kris writes: "Although I have retired from my career as a health and physical educator, I continue to advocate about the importance of physical literacy and physical activity...Physical educators — retired or not — can collaborate with school librarians or public librarians to “bring books to life” by incorporating related physical activities into their storytime programming. These activities engage children, enhance their understanding of the material, and inspire them to read more."

Image - Kris Fritz

To read about Kris and Alison's collaboration and the descriptions of these storytimess and the results, please stop here. [Adding Physical Activity During Library Storytime Helps Kids. Fritz, Kris. Shape America Blog. February 13, 2025]

Thanks for sharing with us Alison

CCBC Choices 2025 is Now Available

CCBC Choices 2025, recommending 251 books published in 2024 for children and teens from birth through high school age, is now available!

CCBC Choices 2025 is a digital publication. Entries for each book include full bibliographic citation, annotation, age recommendation and cover image, and a link to the book’s entry in the CCBC-Recommended Book Search database, where custom lists can be created. The publication also includes an introductory essay and name/title index. A citation list (bibliographic information only) of CCBC Choices 2025 is also available on the CCBC website.

If you’re interested in hearing about some of these titles, the CCBC librarians will present two webinars hosted by South Central Library System this spring highlighting selections from CCBC Choices 2025. The first is Great New Books for Children (Birth – Grade 5) on March 19, 2025, from 9-10am and the second is Great New Books for Older Children and Teens (Grades 6-12) on April 16, 2025 from 9-10am. See the CCBC events calendar for details about these online opportunities, as well as other outreach events around the state.

Talk Story Grant Applications Open

The 2025 Talk Story Grant is now open for applications.

Talk Story: Sharing Stories, Sharing Culture is a family literacy initiative that connects Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander (AANHPI),and American Indigenous or Alaskan Native (AIAN) communities across generations.

The Talk Story micro-grant celebrates and explores AANHPI and AIAN stories through books, oral traditions, and cultural arts to provide interactive and enriching experiences for all ages.

Eligibility: Libraries and community organizations that serve AANHPI or AIAN children and their families are eligible to apply.

Grant Amount: $500

Due Date: March 15, 2025 11:59pm AoE

Apply: www.apalaweb.org/talkstorytogether/grant

For more info contact:

familyliteracy@apalaweb.org
talkstorygrant.aila@gmail.com

Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

Once or twice a month on weekends, YSS posts round-ups of ads that are sent to us or that we come across. If you have a position opening up and would like to see it on the YSS blog, please forward the job ad link/descriptions to the YSS blog at the email address listed in the header above the day's blog post.

Here are February listings:

L.E. Phillips Memorial (Eau Claire) Public Library
The L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, in beautiful Eau Claire, has two openings in our Youth Services Department.

Youth Services Coordinator (28-hour position): Are you passionate about serving the needs of youth and caregivers? Are you also creative, fun, energetic, innovative, and adaptable? As a Coordinator in youth services, you’ll provide top notch customer service through reference and reader's advisory, provide outreach services at schools and community events, plan and conduct children’s programs, create displays and publicity materials, and so much more. 

Deadline to apply: Tuesday, March 4th at 8:00 a.m.

Youth Services Assistant (19-hour position): The L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, seeks an enthusiastic, creative, organized team member who enjoys interacting with people of all ages, particularly children and their caregivers. This Assistant position provides reference and reader's advisory for the youth services division, assists with children’s programs, with direction, promotes library services through displays and bulletin boards, helps with division organization and communication through statistical tracking and so much more. 

Deadline to apply: Tuesday, March 4th at 8:00 a.m.

Barb Langreck
Administrative & Human Resource Coordinator
L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library
715-839-5053
barbl@eauclaire.lib.wi.us

Tips and Info from DPI's Feb 20, 2025 Youth Services Newsletter

Jeni Schomber's DPI Youth Services Weekly Reminders and Resources is chockfull of great resources. If you are a WI youth library staffer and you don't receive this weekly missive in your email inbox, please contact Jeni (jennifer.schomber@dpi.wi.gov) to be placed on the list! 

Here is the February 20, 2025 edition

Hello All,

National Reading Program Grants - Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

• The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) Division of Early Care and Education (DECE) is awarding funding to reimburse non-profit organizations for book fees for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL). 
• Applications are open and will be accepted on a rolling basis, until funding runs out, or by March 28, 2025, whichever comes first. 
• You will need the following to apply: Proof of affiliation with DPIL or willingness to become a local program partner; and proof of non-profit status.

Teen Inclusive Internship application - deadline to submit is Friday, February 21, at 4 p.m.

• The Department of Public Instruction has opened the competitive application process for $2,500 grants for up to seven Wisconsin Libraries to fund library internships for local high school juniors or seniors to be completed between June 1st, 2025, and August 31st, 2025.
• Each library will be awarded up to $2,500 to recruit and hire an intern, in compliance with applicable nondiscrimination laws and minor workers laws, and in collaboration with the library’s human resources and finance staff.
• The application period is open and will close at 4 p.m. on Friday, February 21st.The informational webinar presentation slides and scoring rubric are available for your review and can also be found on the DPI Youth Services webpage under the Teen Inclusive Internship Program dropdown menu.

Wisconsin Science Festival - Virtual Kickoff Party

• Ready to start making plans for the fall? Just want to learn more? Join the kickoff party for networking and conversation about the 15^th annual Wisconsin Science Festival.
• Click here to register. 

CCBC Choices 2025 - Cooperative Children's Book Center

• CCBC Choices 2025, recommending 251 books published in 2024 for children and teens from birth through high school age, is now available!
• CCBC Choices 2025 is a digital publication. Entries for each book include full bibliographic citation, annotation, age recommendation and cover image, and a link to the book’s entry in the CCBC-Recommended Book Search database, where custom lists can be created. The publication also includes an introductory essay and name/title index. A citation list (bibliographic information only) of CCBC Choices 2025 is also available on the CCBC website.

WebJunction FREE Resources:

• Easy as ABCD: Using asset-based community development as a lens for authentic relationship-building
• This is a great resource when considering your Summer Library Programming! Many organizations and professions based in a social service model, including libraries and librarians, may find themselves unconsciously defaulting to a deficit mindset. This directly impacts how we approach partnerships, services, and programs for individuals and organizations from systematically excluded communities. (Excerpt from the article)

Have a great weekend!

Throw-It Thursday - Where Do the Books Go?

Image by GraphicMama-team
 from Pixabay

Ashley Borman, Technical Services Librarian at the Clintonville (WI) Public Library, is back with another weeding tips column. 

Some people wonder why libraries discard books. Why we can’t just keep everything we buy. Why we need to buy new things all the time. They also want to know what we do with books that we remove from the library. This wonderful post from everylibrary.org was forwarded to me by a friend. It puts into words (better than I could do) the reasons why we discard books and why not everything gets redistributed: “Where do the Books Go After the Library?”

Another great post I found on Medium.com goes into a bit more detail: “What Happens to Old Library Books?” . This article tells a bit more about how circulation can affect the library life of a book. He also talks a bit about how extreme weeding can sometimes cause unwanted media attention. Some good food for thought can be found in this article as well.

If you work in a library and have ever struggled to put into words how we discard items to a non-library person, these articles have some great points to help you out. If you are just a library or book lover and were curious about what we do with the books when they leave our shelves, now you know.

Play Learn Make Conference Proposals Deadline

 Hello again, everyone!

I just wanted to send a reminder that the Play Make Learn 2025 Conference Call for Proposals is STILL OPEN! You can visit our website here to learn more and to access the application. The deadline to submit is March 7th, 2025. Please share this information far and wide with your networks — and consider submitting a proposal yourself!! 

ALSO — Registration for Play Make Learn 2025 is open, too! Whether you're submitting a proposal or not, consider registering as soon as possible; note that we have hit our conference capacity each year for the past 3 years, and we expect to do so again. The sooner you are able to register and secure your attendance to the conference, the better! We are hoping to offer a waitlist option this year.

• REGISTER HERE. You can view the different registration rate options at that link; Early Bird Rates are currently being offered.

• Choose the rate that best fits your situation: for most librarians and educators we'd recommend the "Formal and Informal Educators" rate, but if you'd like to support the conference more, you could always choose "General Admission" or "Friend of the Conference". More supportive conference rates help fund travel and lodging assistance for those that need it. If you yourself require assistance, please contact conferences@education.wisc.edu. 

• Note that the only registration options currently available are for the conference itself; we are still coordinating exact details and pricing options for the pre-con workshops that will be offered on Wednesday, August 20th. If you register early, but are interested in also adding a pre-con workshop later, we will follow up with you with more information to complete that process.

More information about the conference and call for proposals is below!:

Play Make Learn Annual Conference

August 21st & 22nd, 2025

Memorial Union | 800 Langdon St. | Madison, WI

• The Play Make Learn Conference is a place for collaboration and discovery in the design, research and practice of playful learning, games for learning and positive social impact, making and makerspaces, STEAM education, and arts in education. PML creates an inspirational space for preK-12 educators, designers, developers, innovators, librarians, museum professionals, makers, and researchers to tinker together, share knowledge, and celebrate one another’s work. For the first time ever, Play Make Learn will have a conference theme to bring together the work of all of the communities that come together for the conference. The 2025 Play Make Learn Conference theme is: 

• Innovations in educational design and play-based learning often emerge from moments of critical reflection, experimentation, and creative risk-taking. By embracing the processes of breaking and mending, we can foster enhanced inclusivity, deeper relevance in teaching and learning practices, and greater belonging in educational spaces. This year’s conference theme invites educators, researchers, scholars, librarians, and practitioners to critically examine the acts of breaking and mending as pathways to systemic transformation, resilience, and creative growth. Whether through playful experimentation, critical deconstruction, or thoughtful rebuilding, we explore how “messiness” can lead to meaningful change and stronger, more human-centered learning environments. Possible Focus Areas for Submissions include but are not limited to:

• Critical Breaking: Exploring how deconstruction of traditional educational systems can disrupt inequities and create more inclusive spaces; investigating maker education as systems thinking: breaking down to understand and transform; examining how games in education challenge systemic power structures, & restructuring educational practices to be student-led.

• Playful Breaking: Leveraging arts integration as a tool for belonging through messiness and experimentation; designing for “productive failure” to foster resilience and creativity in learners; creating “maker” spaces that encourage learners to break, question, and rebuild.

• Rebuilding Through Reflection: Using the metaphor of Kintsugi (the "art of beautiful repair") to explore how educational practices can emerge stronger after breaking; reflecting on the disassembled components of a classroom to build more equitable, inclusive learning environments; developing frameworks for rebuilding educational spaces to support deeper learning and human connection.

• This theme invites participants to embrace the messy, complex, and transformative journey of breaking and mending for better learning futures.

While not all sessions will speak directly to the theme, you are encouraged to use it as inspiration while developing your proposals. Proposals which address the theme will receive special consideration during the review and selection process.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Call for Proposals

You are invited to submit a proposal to present at the 2025 Play Make Learn Conference (PML). PML aspires to foster a learning community that has a diversity of perspectives and practices. Are you a first-time presenter, young person, or practitioner considering submitting for Play Make Learn, and need additional support? Reach out to our planning team at: conferences@education.wisc.edu.

DEADLINE for Submissions: March 7, 2025 at 11:59PM Central

Notifications Sent:  April 2025

• Submit your proposal here!

• Session "Strands": Submissions are encouraged in and across the following themes, but new ideas are also welcome and encouraged. You will be asked to select all themes that apply to your work:

• Playful learning
• Games for learning and positive social impact
• Making and makerspaces
• STEAM education

• Arts in education

• Session Format: You will be asked to select the session format. Please note time and maximum presenters for each type.

• Hands-on Workshops (75 minutes, 1-6 presenters): Workshops should actively engage participants, showcasing your work, or methods you use inside or outside the classroom. They may include physical making, playing a game or something else. Session Organizers will be asked for 2-3 learning goals or takeaways they have for participants in the session.

• Panel Presentation (75 minutes, 2-4 presenters): Panel presentations should have two or more presenters from different projects or organizations. Panels should explore a “big question” relevant to the conference theme or of interest to the larger PML community. Session Organizers will be asked for 2-3 learning goals or takeaways they have for participants in the session.

• Individual Presentation (15 minutes, 1-2 presenters): Presentations will be 15 minutes in length to highlight noteworthy initiatives, ideas, or recent research. Session Organizers will be asked for 1 learning goal or takeaways they have for participants from their presentation. The planning committee will group individual presentations into themed 75 minute sessions with a moderator, who will reach out to coordinate the final format with presenters.

• Poster: Posters provide the opportunity to present innovative ideas, initiatives, and prototypes in both formal and informal learning contexts. Presenters will have space to hang their poster and engage with attendees during the interactive poster & playful demo session.

• Playful Demo: This interactive, open-ended session is a chance to show off or playtest a game, ed tech tool, or other innovation. Presenters will have a table for their activity or tool during the interactive poster & playful demo session.

• Break the Mold Session: Have an idea that doesn’t quite fit into the formats listed above? Samples include sessions lasting days or weeks asynchronously, sessions within games and so on. What if a session took place in Minecraft? What if participants met outside to explore? What if participants worked collaboratively over the conference to produce a play? Be as creative as you dare for these sessions. If you have questions about an idea before submitting, send an email to conferences@education.wisc.edu.

• Final Notes:

• In the interest of providing diverse perspectives any individual will be limited to participating in a maximum of two sessions. Posters and Arcade Demos do not count towards this maximum.

• Sessions should focus on new insights, learnings and innovations of broad interest to the PML community and should not be promotional in nature. If you are a for-profit company interested in showcasing your product to the PML audience, please reach out to conferences@education.wisc.edu for sponsorship opportunities.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for helping me spread the word. If you have any high-level questions about Play Make Learn 2025, please feel free to reach out and I'll help if I can. Alternatively, you can contact conferences@education.wisc.edu. I look forward to seeing you at the conference!

Best,

~Chris

Chris Baker (he/him/his) Public Library Consultant, Games & Learning Consultant Library Services Team, Division of Libraries and Technology Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction 201 West Washington Avenue | Madison WI 53703 608-264-6709 | chris.baker@dpi.wi.gov | dpi.wi.gov