Report to USD 500 School Board from KCK Public Library - June 2014

1. LAST MONTH AT THE LIBRARY
JUNE 2014

2. Life-Long Reading
• South hosted students from Rosedale Middle School
for a tour and presentation over library resources.
Every student that attended signed up for a library
card and checked out at least one book.
• Staff from all branches met to plan a system-wide author fair that will be held
in the coming months. The fair will feature local authors and encourage patrons
to check out their books.
• West held a weeklong Reading Camp for the Tender Hearts Daycare. Every day
for 3 hours campers learned about the alphabet, played games, and made crafts.
The partnership between KCKPL, KCPT, and Tender Hearts Daycare will
hopefully lead the way for more community collaboration in the future.

3. Life-Start Reference
• Main recently reconfigured their computer labs to allow for easier access for the
patrons. This has resulted in it being so popular that there are waitlists to use
the computers. They have also been steadily checking out laptops for patrons to
use for meetings and job interviews and hope to have more available soon.
• West recently had a great success story with their One-on-One Computer help.
A woman had purchased a laptop and had been afraid to use it. By the end of
her session with staff, she was confidently using email, Word, and searching the
internet.
• South is now offering Math Tutor sessions ran by retired Sumner Math teacher
Bill Taft. These classes primarily help the GED students, but have also been
attended by high school and college students in the area.

4. Community-Life Entertainment
• Main’s Summer Concert was held in Huron Park in conjunction with the
Downtown Shareholders. The concert included a live performance by the band
RoughTet and food trucks to provide lunch options for concert goers.
• South hosted the Clement McCrae puppet show with a turnout of 145 people.
The event was the subject of two articles in The Record.
• Schlagle hosted two science based events to engage kids outside of school. The
were able to learn about insects and dry ice and complete some experiments.
• Turner’s Mondays in the Garden program has had 53 people
attended to learn about the plants, bees, and guinea hens, and to
create some crafts.

5. ALA Annual Conference
Carol attended the ALA Annual Conference from June 26 – July 1. While there, she
met Congressman John Lewis, one of the key figures of the civil rights movement.
He recently coauthored March, a graphic novel about his participation in the fight for
civil rights.

6. ALA Speakers
Jane McGonigal author of Reality is Broken: Why Games Make
Us Better and How They Can Change the World, opened the general
session.
Lois Lowery and Jeff Bridges spoke about her classic novel The
Giver and the movie adaptation filmed in South Africa, in which he is
starring.

7. ALA Speakers
Jane Fonda spoke about her book, Being a Teen, and provided
informative options for patrons about adolescent reproductive health
and the empowerment of women and girls.
Stan Lee, the man whose super heroes propelled Marvel to its
permanent position in the comic book industry and whose co-
creations include Spider-Man, The Avengers, X-Men, Iron-Man, The
Incredible Hulk, The Fantastic Four and hundreds of other, spoke
about his upcoming novel Zodiac.