Local library personnel toured six area libraries last Tuesday as part of the Southeast Kansas Library System Bus Trip to Libraries.
Roger Carswell, Kim Rutter, and Tammie Benham of SEKLS, and Leah Oswald and Lesa Cole of Iola Public Library participated. Forty-nine library staff members and trustees rode a bus chartered by SEKLS to tour the public libraries in Baldwin City, Lawrence, Topeka, Shawnee, Overbrook, Lyndon, New Strawn and Burlington.
Participants enjoyed seeing the wide variety of library buildings, space arrangements, automated book-sorting machines, and self-checkout machines. Highlights included amazing hand-painted murals, historic furnishings, and innovative ideas for meeting community needs.
IN OTHER library news, Virginia Shaffer of Allen County College Library attended the SEKLS academic library in-service at Flint Oak Lodge near Fall River on May 16. Alicia Lillich, outreach trainer, Midcontinent Region, National Network of Libraries of Medicine, presented the morning session on Wikipedia for academic use. She then led the group of 12 participants in editing Wikipedia articles. Information from the Independence Community College William Inge archive was provided by Sara Owen, ICC library director, to inform the lesson. The afternoon session was presented by Micaela Ayers and Ronald Rozzell, Butler Community College Library and Archives and Randy Roberts, Pittsburg State University Dean of Libraries. Butler and PSU archive collections were used to illustrate the range of materials being archived in academic libraries and how the quality of Wikipedia information can be enhanced by using that material, making archival information more accessible to the academic community and to the public.
