Doing more with less isn't a new concept to public libraries. MCFLS libraries have been working together and with the community for years to offer great educational and entertaining youth, teen and family programs.

Teen Volunteers at the Shorewood Public Library

The public libraries in Milwaukee County have two committees that work cooperatively on several projects. The Youth Services and Young Adult Services Committees comprise representative librarians from all of the public libraries in the county. These children and teen librarians share program and event ideas and collaborate on large scale projects like coupon solicitation for our summer reading programs. Several librarians form a subcommittee to ask local businesses, restaurants and organizations for coupons and tickets that are then utilized by all the libraries in the county. Collectively more than 30 organizations, ranging from Discovery World to Cousins Subs, donate coupons. This cooperation allows each library to offer a variety of program incentives while saving time and resources.

In addition to working together on summer reading programs, MCFLS libraries also have supportive relationships with various community members. Friends of the Library groups and volunteers are a huge asset for fundraising and helping the library in various ways. For example, here at the Shorewood Library we have a crew of teen volunteers who help at large programs like our Summer Celebration, tie dye and Halloween events. We also use volunteers to put together all those coupons for the kids and teens who complete the summer reading program. And despite a difficult economy, as I mentioned, dozens of local businesses and organizations graciously donate coupons, tickets, prize items, and more for summer reading programs.

If you're interested in becoming a Friend of the Library or volunteering, check with your local public library for more info!

Tiffany Wait

Teen Services Librarian

Shorewood Public Library

• Six out of ten state residents are registered library users. These library users made over 35 million visits to Wisconsin public libraries in 2010. Season attendance for Brewer home games in 2010 was 2.8 million.    
• The average number of user visits per week to Wisconsin public libraries is 676,000. Season attendance at Packer home games is about 566,000.    
• Over 65 million items were circulated by Wisconsin's public libraries in 2010. Wisconsin ranks 8th in per capita circulation nationally.          
• Over 98% of Wisconsin public libraries help people access and use employment resources, including help with job searches, creating resumes, and submitting employment applications.         
• On average, 1.25 million items are checked out of Wisconsin public libraries each week. More than one-third of these circulations are children's materials.          
• Programs provided by public libraries and directed toward children had attendance of over 1.6 million. Summer library program attendance for children and young adults was nearly 500,000.  

More payment options, more security highlight changes

Coming mid-September, the option to pay fines and fees on CountyCat will offer more payment options and security.  On September 21st MCFLS plans to move the payment feature to secure pages hosted by PayPal.  This means an even more secure user experience since the entire transaction takes place on the Paypal website. 

This move also means more payment options for patrons, including the option to use your personal PayPal account to pay off your library fees and fines.

Check out the news section at http://www.mcfls.org/news.asp to keep track of any updates regarding the changes to online fine payment.

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