Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
It's flying ...
Well, here it is Monday morning and I am getting ready to start the work week. There will only be two of us at the library for the first three hours this morning, which should make it nice and hectic. Normally I work 11:45 to 8:15 on Mondays, but today I traded hours with Kris so she could do something or other. As a result, I work 8:30 to 5:00. Better hours -- even though the morning will be chaos.The rest of the week will be fairly busy, too. Tonight I will have to put together the treasurer's report for the district. That meeting will be in Baraboo after work Wednesday evening. Most months I just do a one-page summary, but this is the quarterly report, meaning in addition to the summary, it will include the detailed spreadsheet for the year-to-date. I have to do the work tonight because tomorrow is my long day -- work 8:30 to 7:00. Not that it is exactly high finance!
Somewhere in the next couple of days (I hope this afternoon after other people show up to work), I want to finish my draft of the monthly library newsletter. It is already roughed in, but there is a major empty space to fill and a couple of dates to verify. The director was out for a couple of days at the end of last week, and I could not check with her then. I'd like to fill the big empty slot with a report on the bookmobile going WiFi -- especially since we got an honorable mention in the State Journal from Madison over the weekend. It seems that the libraries there are watching us to see how this works out. Hey, we're a cutting edge kinda bookmobile!
Tom's daughter Lucy and her boyfriend are coming up for the July 4th weekend, and Tom has to attend a couple of parades as part of his volunteering for our local state assembly rep's re-election campaign. So although I will be getting a three-day weekend, it will have its own busy-ness.
Meanwhile, the bookmobile and everything else will go on.
And I do need to decide which shirt and tie to wear and get a move on.
Later!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
A bridge too far?
I see that 75% of the people in our local paper's poll favor a second bridge to relieve the congestion on the lone bridge leading into downtown. As someone who has to drive across the bridge to get to and from work every day as well as several times each week in fulfillment of my wonderful job, I am quite interested in this issue.I wonder, however, if the way the question is framed has affected the outcome. For example, what is the problem we are trying to solve? The question is framed in terms of a specific solution, not in terms of the problem, a common failure in polling techniques and therefore in the doubtful value of their results. The problem, it seems to me, is how to get more people into and out of downtown Dells efficiently and safely. To ask the question in terms of another bridge assumes that the problem is how to get more gasoline-fueled vehicles into and out of the Dells. Do we actually want to do that?
Do we want more cars circling endlessly looking for a place to park, adding to the congestion along Broadway? Do we want to build more parking lots, sacrificing our limited green space to do it? Do we want to add more exhaust fumes to the air? Do we want to build a full-time bridge to handle heavy traffic for three months of the year?
Perhaps we need to consider the problem in terms of moving people into and out of town. An inexpensive, attractive people-mover that ferried people from outlying lots and resorts into town along one of the existing traffic lanes could become a fun part of a trip to the Dells. Years ago when I was in San Antonio, the city ran free and frequent trolleys around much of the downtown area. It was a distinctive and enjoyable part of the visit and kept some cars off the crowded streets. If Texas, with its love affair with the oil companies and private vehicles can do this, why not the Dells? (I grew up in Texas and know whereof I speak.)
Surely there is a way to address our need that will not cost us millions of dollars in construction, disrupt traffic over and along the river while being completed and risk permanently damaging the environment and the natural beauty that have brought people to the area for a century and a half.
H.H. Bennett figured out how to take stop-action photographs here. The famous shot of his son leaping the gap at Stand Rock has become practically a logo for the Dells. Surely someone today can figure out how to deal with this problem. There has to be a way to make this leap of imagination.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
In the news ...
From The Wisconsin Dells Events ...Bookmobile adds WiFi
Contributed | Posted: Friday, June 25, 2010 2:29 pm | (0)
Bookmobile adds WiFi
Contributed | Posted: The staff and trustees of the Kilbourn Public Library announce the addition of new services and an expanded summer schedule for the Kilbourn Public Library Bookmobile.
The bookmobile now offers wireless Internet, make and take activities and the opportunity to participate in the summer reading programs to its patrons in the Wisconsin Dells and
With the help of a donation from the Lake Delton Lions Club, the Kilbourn Public Library Bookmobile is now a WiFi hotspot. Bookmobile patrons will be able to log onto the Internet with their own wireless enabled computers using the bookmobile's wireless signal. Up to five computers at a time will be able to use the WiFi and patrons must be within 50 feet of the bookmobile.
With the addition of several new summer stops in the
Another popular library service that the Kilbourn Public Library Bookmobile will be adding is make and take library activities for children. Children who visit the bookmobile will not only be able to find books but will also find a make and take craft, coloring sheets or a library activity.
On Wednesdays, children are encouraged to visit the bookmobile at the
The summer library program is under way at the library and bookmobile patrons can take part in the Summer Library Program reading programs on the Kilbourn Public Library Bookmobile also. Children, teens and adults can enroll in the special programs that reward readers for reading books of their own choosing over the summer. Sign up sheets, giveaways and prizes are available on the bookmobile.
Research shows that children who read over the summer enter school in the fall better prepared for their class work. Children who do not read over the summer have been found to lose ground with their reading skills.
"Our summer programs are designed to be fun for all the participants, including adults. At the same time, we have a special commitment to help our community's young people continue to improve the skills that will make them do better in school," said Dodd. "The Bookmobile visits
The new bookmobile schedule began on June 8 and includes new summer stops on Tuesdays at
The summer bookmobile schedule is as follows:
Tuesdays
Wednesdays
Thursdays
Fridays
2nd Saturdays
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