Last Minute Holiday Gifts

Just a few days from now, many people will be celebrating Christmas. Stockings will be hung by the chimney with care, presents will be wrapped and under the tree.

Right now, you may be searching frantically for the perfect gift for a loved one who is as hard to buy for as it is hard to find a snowflake on a rainy day.

We have a few ideas to offer library lovers.

A Library Gift Certificate that can be used for paying for late fees, printing, DVD rentals, book sale items, or even to purchase a non-resident fee card. (You set the amount that you want to give, we provide the gift certificate.)

A Sycamore Public Library Mug 

$4.00

$7.00

We have a variety of Library Book Bags.

$4.00

You may want to buy one, two, three or four pewter ornaments.

$25 - $50 each

All of these items make for fun gifts and can be purchased at the Circulation desk during regular business hours.

If you have someone who is less about things and more about helping the community, you could make a donation to the library. You can donate money to purchase books, movies or music in honor of that special someone.

We are also accepting donations to help purchase new furniture for the library. We have received a $10,000 grant from the DeKalb County Community Foundation to help with the purchase of new browsing book shelves for the children's picture books. The shelving will cost $26,000. A donation for this or other furniture will be a lasting honor to your loved one and will benefit everyone one who uses the library. We will send a letter telling your special person about the donation.

Monetary donations can be made by check in person or by credit card from the library website. The following link provides the gift form so that we know who to thank and honor by your gift.
 We wish you the very best of all the holidays!

Merry Christmas!
Happy Hanukkah!
Joyous Kwanzaa!
Happy Solstice!
Pancha Ganapati Good Wishes Pouring In!
Festivus! For the Rest of Us.

Giving Thanks

It is often dark when we get up and dark when we head home after work. Our days are short and our evenings often feel so very long. This is a wonderful time to reflect and see the blessings that we have had all through the year.

I know as well as anyone that some days and even weeks don't feel like they are filled with blessings. There are many people out of work, others have incurable diseases, and on those grey and gloomy days, it can be hard to see the blessings that do come to us in a day.

Over the past several months, I have posted and watched others post on Facebook, the things they are thankful for and are happy about. Here are a few things that I am thankful and happy for right now.

I am thankful for the wonderful staff. They are hard working, caring, and full of wonderful energy and ideas.

I am thankful for the library patrons. They come to share their love of books, music, and reading and really keep us on our toes.

I am happy to have Swedberg and Associates as our Construction Manager for the upcoming building projects.

I am happy to have Lisa Sharp and the team at Sharp Architects designing our construction plans.

I am thankful for a library board that works with me to make the library a better and better place every day.

I am thankful to be a part of the Sycamore Community. I love the small town spirit and big wonderful dreams and ideas of this community.

I am thankful for Joyce Klein and Dennis Kimme, and the County Board for keeping the library in mind as they plan the jail expansion.

I am thankful for Toni and all of the years that she kept me going here at the library.

I am very happy to have Katherine as a new Assistant Director.

These are just the things that popped into my head I sat at my desk at the end of this day. I am sure that I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. I wish you happy moments in  each and every day.

Check out our Library Newsletter to learn about all of the wonderful things going on at the library this December.

Your Cover Letter can Unlock or Lock the Door to an Interview

Your cover letter is a wonderful opportunity to show how your life and work experiences will benefit the company to which you are applying for work.

This letter is part of the interview process. It is an opportunity for you to show the people who are hiring that you have the writing skills necessary to do the job. The letter should be formatted properly, spelling should be perfect, and correct sentence structure is very important.

What you should include in your letter:
How you will benefit the Company.
Give one or two real examples of how you can be an asset to the company.
Include skills that actually apply to the job you will have if you are hired.
Show that you understand the position for which you are applying.
When asked to send the resume to a certain person, address that person. (Good Afternoon, To Whom it Concerns, or Dear Sir/Madam will not get you an interview).

More ways to improve your application:
Your letter should fit on one page.
Don't copy a letter out of a cover letter book. Let your knowledge and experience shine.
A resume for a part time job or for a first job should fit on one page.

 Instead of:
"detail oriented" share an example such as, "In my last position, I organized the office supplies and created a new efficient supply ordering system.

"asset to the organization," provide a true experience of how you have been an asset like, "My ability to write great thank you letters to donors, helped to increase future donations to the organization."

Remember: Do not lie or make up stories. It will come back to haunt you.

Library eBooks @ the Library

Yes, the library offers downloadable eBooks and eAudiobooks. We are part of a library consortium called OMNI.  Here is our cover page for help with getting started downloading books to your electronic devices. http://sycamorelibrary.org/general/OMNI.html All the links and software downloads you would need are right there on one page.

If you don't find the book that you want to read or listen to, please ask. If it is available and it fits within our budget and our material selection criteria, we will add it to the collection.

It is now possible for Kindle owners to borrow eBooks from the library too. Click below to see the four minute video on how the process works.
Four Minute Video for Amazon Kindle Users

Happy reading!

Having Fun at the Library

You may have noticed that on Fridays the staff are all similarly dressed. If you haven't maybe you haven't been in on a Friday or it was one of our less coordinated days. We have started Fun Shirt Friday. A way to build staff morale and have a little simple fun while on the job.

The first Friday was bright shirt day and blue jeans. Then we had blue shirt day and school shirt day. It was suggested by staff that for the Spartans vs. Barbs Cross Town Classic, we should wear the Sycamore colors. I was also asked if I thought that DeKalb Library staff might take up the challenge as well and wear DeKalb colors. I said there was one way to find out. So I emailed Dee Coover, the Director of the DeKalb Public Library, and the answer came back with a resounding yes.

Sycamore Library Staff say Go Spartans!

To add to the excitement, we proposed a little wager with DeKalb Library and took the bet DeKalb proposed a grilled lunch for the winning library. Spartans win, means DeKalb cooks for Sycamore and vice-versa. We accepted the wager. Game on.

Spartans 33  Barbs 21

This past Friday the DeKalb Library staff came over to make good on their debt. Grilling was done in the parking lot . . .

and lunch was served in the meeting room.

We want the Sycamore Public Library to be an enjoyable place for the all of the residents of Sycamore. We know that to make this happen the employees need to be friendly and and helpful. A little Friday fun helps to make everyone happy. How can you not be happy when you have good food, make friends, and create moments of laughter?

Watch for our Fun Shirt Fridays. You never know what we'll decide to wear.

Water, Water Everywhere, But Not Where it Belongs

Last year I attended the Illinois Library Association Conference (ILA). One of the programs I attended was "Understanding Life Cycle Cost, Capital Reserves and Implications of Sustainable Construction on Your Building Budget." Exciting,  you say. Well, no, it wasn't really exciting, but it was very applicable and very helpful.

I was hired ten years ago to run the Sycamore Public Library. My background includes a Bachelors Degree in Art, a Masters in Library Science, and three years experience running and owning a cell phone business with my husband. I have never taken a class on capitol planning or dealing with building problems. I am a home owner so understand the need to replace the roof and maintain household equipment, but doing that for a 27,000 square foot facility that is paid for by public property tax dollars is a different story.

We are at a juncture. The library addition is now 15 years old. You may realize from your own house that this is the time when things start to break and repair bills creep up to the point that the cost to replace the offending broken piece of equipment is about the same or just a little more than the cost of the repair. 

Over the next six years, the library will need to replace 6 air handling units; each costs about $10,000 to replace and carpeting on the second floor that will cost us over $80,000 because we have to move all of the shelving and furniture which is no easy feat. I knew when the time came to complete these projects that they would be big ticket items, but when I started were distant thoughts that could be dealt with later. I also knew that I did not want to have to cut the regular operating line items to pay for emergency repairs, so exciting program title aside, I attended the ILA program.

In addition to capital planning, the presenters talked about building issues stemming from poor construction. I suspected, but really didn't want to know, that when the addition was built some of the work was not up to par. Sadly, even a poorly built building doesn't show its problems until several years have passed. Sometimes just enough years that the work is no longer under warranty. You may recall that just over a year ago, we had a window replaced on the second floor. This window had leaked for about 4 years. We had the window re-caulked twice, we had window panes replaced, seals replaced, and each time we would get a big rain, water came in through the window. With the help of an architect, we came up with a modification and replaced the window. While Swedberg and Associates was taking out the old window, they discovered that it had not been installed properly. We asked for some compensation from the general contractor who worked on the project, but they denied culpability. We could have started a legal fight, but time and money were not on our side. So we let it go.
The Board agreed that we needed to check the whole building for problems and to create a long range capital plan for replacement of air handling units, carpet, and roofing. Last December, we hired Sharp Architects to help us through this project. Lisa Sharp brought in roofing specialists, window people, and EFIS specialists. (EFIS -- Exterior Insulation Finishing Systems)  It was not pretty, but boy was it thorough. You can read the report on our website. The roof report was a little less scary, at least for the short term. The roof report is also available.

After the water stopped coming in through the bay window that was replaced, we started getting water in through the clerestory windows above the reference desk. This year's spring and summer rains have really highlighted the problem. Thankfully we kept all of the old towels and plastic drop cloths. We have moved furniture to keep it safe and Sharp Architects is completing architectural drawings for the window repairs.

At the August board meeting, the board selected Swedberg and Associates to act as construction manager for our window remediation project and our upcoming remodeling project. (Watch for a post about that.) The architectural drawings for the window repair project should be completed by September 1st and we hope to have new windows and the associated repairs complete by late fall.

The estimated costs for repairing the clerestory windows and the window bays on the south side of the building is $90,000. How are we going to pay for this? First, we will use funds received from DeKalb County as part of our agreement to house the County Law Collection for 10 years and the rest will come from our capital reserve account.

Over the next six years, we will use our reserves to make repairs and replace AC units and roofing. Then we should be settled for a little while so that we can build up the capital reserve fund for the next major building projects.

This has been my year for learning about building structure and repair. It is daunting, sometimes scary, and really quite exciting to know that we have a holistic picture of what needs to be done and how we are going to make it happen.

Clear skies ahead. And if not clear we have a plan to deal with problems that may arise.

How to Improve Your Chances of Getting an Interview

The recent experience of taking resumes for two new positions at the library has given me the opportunity to realize what is really important to an employer when looking at a long line of applicants. I thought I would take this opportunity to let job hunters know about some pitfalls they can avoid when applying for a job at the library or anywhere.

• If you are changing careers, make sure that you make it very clear that you really want to change careers and point out the skills that you have that will translate to that new career in your cover letter.
• If you don't really want that job, you just want a job, don't waste your time or the potential employers energy with applying; it is obvious.
• Don't mention praying unless you are looking for work at a church.
• Check your email address. If it is shortandsassy@gmail.com or hotandsexy@yahoo.com, take the time to get a new email address for business; they are free.
• When asked to apply by email, apply by email. It is probably part of the pre-interview process. Translated question, Are you technically proficient with email, attaching emails, and can you use the office product listed as a required skill.
• When provided with the information about who to send the resume to, write the cover letter to that person, not to "To Whom it Concerns" or "Dear Sir or Madam".
• If the job has certain nomenclature specific to the field, get it right when mentioning it. The library uses the Dewey Decimal System, not the DUI Decibel System.
• Rather than saying you will bring many great qualities to the job, tell specific stories about those qualities and how they will benefit your new potential employer.
• While you have done many great things in your last place of employment, tell the new potential employer about how those skills will benefit the new place of employment.
• Use spell check and then have someone proof read your cover letter and resume. While the Mispeling Vyrus might be loose in Jasper Fforde's novels, you have the antidote, be sure to use it.

Finally, In case you couldn't tell from all the previous points, it is all about the employer and how you working for that person will improve the business or organization.