 This week's new Indiana library jobs
Youth Services Librarian
Jay County Public Library
Children’s Programmer (part-time)
Lawrenceburg Public Library District
Adult/Outreach Program Coordinator (part-time)
Mooresville Public Library
Director of Youth Services
Mooresville Public Library
Branch Manager
Tippecanoe County Public Library
If you would like your Indiana library job posting to be listed in the Wednesday Word, the position, and its description, must be submitted to the Indiana State Library. Click here for submission guidelines and to submit.
Local organizations awarded funds to host ‘The Year We Left Home’ community read
Batesville Memorial Public Library, Osgood Public Library and Tyson Library
IU Archives houses baseball scrapbooks, home videos and dance cards
Herman B Wells Library at Indiana University
Documentary tells tale of 1918 circus train tragedy on Indiana lakeshore
Hammond Public Library
Huntingburg Library hosting 'Eva Education Day'
Huntingburg Public Library
Dubois Library to screen holocaust survivor documentary
Jasper-Dubois County Public Library
LaGrange library to present special documentary
LaGrange County Public Library
MPL to celebrate suffrage centennial all year
Marion Public Library
City Limits Spotlight: MCPL Friends Of The Library Bookstore
Monroe County Public Library
Get free help preparing your tax forms at Morrisson-Reeves Library
Morrisson-Reeves Library
Library to show documentary about Holocaust survivor Eva Kor
Muncie Public Library
Pendleton library hosts film screening in honor of Kor
Pendleton Community Public Library
Walton Library to celebrate Eva Kor
Walton and Tipton Township Public Library
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 Follow the Indiana State Library's blog for weekly posts covering all aspects of the state library. Visit the blog here.
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 The Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library is pleased to announce upcoming renovations of the first and second floors of the library. Projects for the first floor will include updating existing restrooms, adding two new restrooms, relocating the circulation desk and replacing the self-check kiosks. Additionally, the North Reading Room will receive a new entrance and will be partitioned from the busier area of the library to provide a more traditional library experience. Finally, three new study rooms will be added.
On the second floor, the meeting rooms and art gallery will receive updates to include new electronic signage, projector screens, flooring, lighting, furniture and an art hanging system. Also, the second floor office spaces will be completely redone to optimally serve the public.
The renovation project is set to begin in February and will be finished in late spring. The library will remain open during the renovation; however, the second floor will be closed to the public in February, March and April.
Visit the library's website for the latest updates.
 At their meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 15, the Monroe County Public Library Board of Directors approved a policy to eliminate overdue fines, effective March 1. The policy waives all unpaid overdue fines and collection agency fees charged prior to implementation, and eliminates fines for all late returns moving forward.
Libraries have long charged overdue fines to promote responsible borrowing and as a modest source of revenue. Recent national trends have shifted to focus on the negative impacts of fines as a deterrent to library use, especially among disadvantaged individuals. Consequently, a growing number of public libraries have eliminated overdue fines in an effort to support all members of their communities, and the American Library Association earlier this year passed a resolution stating that fines constitute a barrier to service and urging their elimination nationwide.
“Discussions about eliminating fines have been taking place in libraries across the country for many years,” said Marilyn Wood, library director. “Some of our peer libraries, such as Tippecanoe County Public Library, as well as many larger libraries like Chicago Public Library, have eliminated late fines. Their experiences have been very positive - people came back, circulation rates increased and books once thought lost were returned. It’s a great way to celebrate the library’s bicentennial.”
While overdue fines and collection agency fees will be waived, patrons owing the replacement cost of a lost or damaged item will continue to be billed accordingly. Moving forward, items that are 21 days overdue will be assumed to be lost and patrons will be billed for them. However, if the items are returned in good condition, the charges will be removed and the account will resume good standing.
For more information, click here.
The Online Computer Learning Center's WebJunction will hold a free webinar on Feb.11, entitled "Civil Legal Justice: The Crucial Role of Libraries," where participants will learn about the status of civil legal justice in the system and the vital role public libraries can play in reducing the justice gap. It will lay the groundwork for those looking to continue on to a live, multi-week course to be offered in April, which takes a deeper look at supporting people to navigate the complexities of the legal system. Register here for the free webinar.
Presenters are Catherine McGuire, head of reference and outreach at Thurgood Marshall State Law Library in Maryland; Luis Interiano, adult services librarian at West Baton Rouge Library in Port Allen, Louisiana; and Betha Gutsche, WebJunction programs manager at OCLC.
This webinar is part of Improving Access to Civil Legal Justice through Public Libraries, a national training initiative for public library staff offered by WebJunction and the nonprofit organization Legal Services Corporation to help strengthen access to civil legal justice.
Barriers to civil legal justice disproportionately affect low-income people in the U.S., creating the justice gap—the divide between the civil legal needs of low-income people and the resources to meet those needs. Though legal issues can be intimidating for library staff, public libraries are well positioned to help reduce this justice gap by providing more access points to legal information and services.
Registration for the April 2020 live course "Creating Pathways to Civil Legal Justice" will also open at the time of the February webinar. The course will include training topics on conducting the legal reference interview, the most commonly addressed civil legal topics and forming successful partnerships to improve access to civil legal justice for your patrons, among others.
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CSLP 2020: Imagine Your Story
When: Jan. 23, 10-11 a.m.
Where: Webinar
What's Up Wednesday? - Quick Play Gaming for Teen Outreach
When: Jan. 29, 10-11 a.m.
Where: Webinar
Researching Judicial Branch Documents
When: Feb. 6, 10-11 a.m.
Where: Webinar
Outreach to Daycares and Preschools with the Indiana Early Literacy Firefly Award
When: Feb. 11, 2-3 p.m.
Where: Webinar
Researching Judicial Branch Documents - Part 2
When: Feb. 13, 10-11 a.m.
Where: Webinar
Champions: We Are in This Together - Advocating for Libraries on the Local, State and National Level
When: Feb. 17, 9-10 a.m.
Where: Webinar
My Favorite Tech Tools and Shortcuts for Busy Library Staff
When: Feb. 17, 10:30-11:30 a.m.
Where: Webinar
It's True: The Smartest Person in the Room is the Room
When: Feb. 17, 12-1 p.m.
Where: Webinar
Welcome
to the Government Information Minute. Every week, government information
librarians at the Indiana State Library cover current resources on governmental
data at the state, national and international levels; all to keep the public
well-informed. Follow the Indiana State Data Center on Facebook and Twitter and feel free to leave comments
and suggestions.
 January is National Radon Action Month. A Jan. 8 press release from the Indiana State Department of Health encourages homeowners to test their homes for radon. Radon enters homes and other buildings through small cracks and holes in the foundation, where it becomes trapped and accumulates in the air. Because radon has no taste, smell or color, a home must be tested to find out how much radon is in the air. To find out what levels of radon have been found in a community, see ISDH’s map here.
According to ISDH, Indiana residents can purchase a short-term test kit for as little as $15 from the American Lung Association through its website. Test kits also can be purchased at most home improvement and hardware stores and through some online retailers. To learn more about radon testing and mitigation in Indiana, visit the ISDH’s radon page. Read the EPA’s “A Citizen’s Guide to Radon,” and access additional information from the Centers for Disease Control's “Radon in the Home" web page.
The American Lung Association partners with the ISDH each year to sponsor the Indiana Radon Poster Contest, an opportunity for students ages 9-14 to design a poster for the radon awareness campaign. The entry deadline is March 6. View the 2020 contest rules and entry form here.
 During April, the STAR Library Network is celebrating the important role that Earth plays in our lives with a special month-long campaign called "Our Planet: EARTH." This national campaign is an outgrowth of three converging events during April: Citizen Science Month, the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day and the recent adoption by the American Library Association of “sustainability” as a new core value of librarianship.
Citizen science engages volunteers in the collection and analysis of data relating to the natural world, typically as part of a collaborative project with professional scientists. Citizen scientists of all ages can make amazing discoveries, inspire new projects and help learners of all ages do real scientific research.
As described by ALA, to be truly sustainable, libraries and their communities need to embody practices that are environmentally sensible, economically viable and socially equitable. Partners include ALA, SciStarter, Globe Observer and many others. Libraries across the country can register to join the campaign and access a number of resources including earth science activities, a media toolkit, videos, images, posters, citizen science programs and connections to ALA’s SustainRT.
The campaign is sponsored by NASA through STAR Net’s NASA@ My Library program, managed by the Space Science Institute. Campaign goals include providing libraries with rich and effective resources that they can use to develop engaging environmental programs; promoting citizen science opportunities; and building lasting collaborations around environmental sustainability both within the library community and beyond. It will focus on positive, climate-friendly actions that local communities can make such as planting trees, recycling efforts, protecting species and their habitats, safeguarding clean air and water and engaging in a variety of citizen science projects.
Click here for more information.
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