Go Big or Go Home - Fine Free Video!

At the end of January, the Platteville Public Library went fine free. That's big news for any library, but Platteville shared the news in a big way through a clever video.

Children's staffer Lydia Sigworth writes: "I'm lucky to have a musically talented friend who's willing to sing silly parody songs for a good cause! We re-wrote the lyrics of Taylor Swift's newest hit "No Body, No Crime" and she and her husband got everything recorded on a track and then we filmed with another friend on the weekend when the library was closed. Then I spent a week editing everything together. It was a chunk of work but we thought such a big announcement warranted a splash!"

Also watch June 1 for the publication of Lydia's picture book Dear Librarian published by Farrar, Strauss &Giroux!

WI YSSer's Local TedX Talk Goes National!

Great news about WLA YSS member Dawn Wacek and her TedX talk!
This past February UW-La Crosse hosted a show in town and invited some community people including their youth librarian at the La Crosse Public Library whose "idea worth spreading" was a fine-free library. Dawn's talk, recorded and loaded up on the TEDx platform, caught the attention of the curation team at the bigger international TED level and Dawn's talk is front and center as of November 15, 2019 on the TED homepage today (with 166K views after 10 hours). Check it out!