Search Stories
Outreach Kits Enable Staff to Efficiently Share Library Resources
When Johnson County Library information specialists visit community groups and local gatherings, they now have a convenient tool for sharing Library resources.
New outreach kits hold Library cards and applications in English and Spanish; Library guides and bookmarks; office supplies, tech devices if needed and fun promotional giveaways for patrons. The materials go into a tub that’s carried in a fold-up cart. It all fits in a car for easy transport.
This was an outgrowth of events opening back up after the COVID-19 pandemic, as the Library began to receive invitations again in 2022 to visit service organizations, the Arts & Heritage museum, parks and other venues. The materials hadn’t been refreshed since 2019, so the Communications Department seized the opportunity to create a full-service kit.
“There was a need to create more updated materials,” said External Communications Manager Elissa Andre. “We were thinking about different ways to reach audiences. How do we take this back to the in-person event? Not only is it marketing, but it’s building that relationship with the Library.”
When Central Resource Library reopened in February 2022, staff set up a Library card station separate from the front desk. Then staff recognized the need for a mobile Library card signup kit, with a laptop and mobile hot spot, to visit remote locations.
Andre said Creative Services Coordinator Cindy Frazer was instrumental to this project. Frazer used her graphic design skills and also figured out materials to include. Banners proclaim the Library’s DISCOVER campaign. Frazer also gave kudos to the IT Help Desk for assistance with mobile hot spots that staff may request.
Sarah Askew, a Lenexa City Center information specialist, said the kits are wonderful. Prior to the pandemic, when she visited community groups, she would scramble to assemble her own materials in a box. Now she fills out a form a few weeks ahead of time and picks up the kit at Central Resource Library.
“This just makes it easier to have the kit ready to roll,” Askew said. “It has everything you need. It’s in a nice cart so I don’t have to carry a box. You check it out, and return it, and they restock it for the next person.”
Askew used the kit several times in 2022, including for a senior living center presentation in November. One woman mentioned that her husband was immunocompromised and not able to attend. She said her husband had received a Kindle as a gift but didn’t know how to retrieve the Library’s eBooks on it.
Askew visited the couple’s room and provided a personal demonstration of the Library’s Libby eBook collection.
She later received an email from the woman saying her husband was loving the eBooks. “This brings happiness to my heart to see him enjoying books once again,” the woman wrote.
At another event, Askew provided seniors with magnifier sheets (like magnifying glasses, but plastic sheets that increase print size on a page) printed with the Johnson County Library logo. They were very popular, so Askew recommended providing those sheets in the kit.
Andre said Library staff visited over 25 events in 2022, issuing more than 40 new Library cards. At one event, a lady confessed that she felt so guilty about losing a Library book 30 years earlier that she hadn’t had a Library card since. Librarians reassured her and signed her up with a new card.
“We’re just excited to grow this,” Andre said. “Our goal is to have a suite of products to customize these kits, to really bring the Library to the public and meet the specific need of the audience.”
Jocolibrary Uncovered Podcast
New Name. New Format. New Season!
Did you hear? We’re creating a whopping 16 episodes for our 2023 season! The “Jocolibrary Uncovered” podcast will release two episodes a month alternating between subject deep dives and collection deep dives. Johnson County Library’s podcast uncovers our collection and reveals the behind the scenes stories at the Library. The new season begins April 5 and runs through November.
Subscribe
How? Visit one of these popular podcatchers:
Or, wherever you regularly listen to podcasts, you can find us by entering "jocolibrary" into the search bar. You'll find "JOCOLIBRARY UNCOVERED" Then click subscribe.
Too complicated? No worries. You can find all of our 2023 season podcast episodes below. Click and listen. It's that easy!
2023 SEASON Begins April 5!
- The Arts Extravaganza
- Books About Book Lovers
- Library Kids on Library Books
- Fun, Weird, Wild and Wonderful Science
- Incarcerated Services
- Hopepunk
- Fun Drive
- Hobbies
- KC True Crime
- Thriller, True Crime and Horror
- Apples, Oranges and Bananas
- Post-apocalyptic
- “Libreria” vs “Biblioteca”
- Romance
- Unsung Heroes
- Momoirs
Episode Archive
With the exception of early episodes that were published to YouTube exclusively, all episode are available at our Podbean podcast hosting site. There you will find some gems like our seven part "Discover your Library" episodes, poetry, music, interviews and more.
Long Ago at the Library
It’s another grand Throwback Thursday where we encourage you to time travel through Johnson County's history. JoCoHistory is a collaborative presentation of the history from the Johnson County Museum, Johnson County Library and many JoCoHistory partners. Explore historical photographs and documents about the people, places and organizations of Johnson County, Kansas, from the 19th century to the present.
Collection spotlight: Johnson County Library
About this collection: Over 100 images from the early years of Johnson County Library, mostly the mid-1950s. Photos depict patrons, staff, buildings and collections.
LearningExpress Library
Take practice tests and tutorials designed for students elementary through graduate levels and adult learners. Academic or licensing tests are available, with immediate scoring complete answer explanations and individualized results analysis. LearningExpress Library includes the following subjects:
- Business Writing Success Skills
- Citizenship
- College Entrance Exams
- Cosmetology
- Elementary School Skills Improvement
- EMS
- Firefighter
- GED
- Graduate School Entrance Exams
- High School Skills Improvement
- Law Enforcement
- and more!
This resource is made available through the State Library of Kansas.
5 Star Staff Pick: The Furrows
Our librarian Alice gives 5 stars to The Furrows by Namwali Serpell.
The line between everyday truth and emotionally generated, alternative truth thins with every page turned in this new literary novel about a twelve-year-old girl, Cassandra, who loses her younger brother to undertow while swimming alone with him on a Delaware beach. But even at the beginning of this book, all is not as it seems. A few chapters in, Cassandra loses her brother again: this time, to a careless driver in their home neighborhood of suburban Baltimore. Rich sensory details make both versions of events feel believable, and as the novel progresses and Cassandra grows older, many more stories emerge. Layered one upon the other, a reader soon begins to wonder which, if any, can be literally true. Is the original beach story, like others that follow, a product of Cassandra's imagination? Or, is it the real-life catalyst that sets her imagination in motion?
Since the body of her brother is never found, many of the scenarios emerging from these pages involve Cassandra meeting him again under a variety of circumstances. The author uses the possibility that he is not in fact dead but, instead, still alive somewhere as a vehicle for exploring social truths: what is likely to befall a boy who finds himself suddenly alone in the world, for example, without the support of his family. Cassandra and her brother Wayne are biracial and, as their parents' marriage ends shortly after his disappearance, navigate different trajectories with race, class, gender and, in Cassandra’s case, complicated family dynamics informing where they encounter opportunities. Paradoxically, they navigate these trajectories on their own, as well as together.
Slower to start but bristling with energy through its second half, this is literary fiction leaning hard into the domain of the psychological thriller. It is not a comforting read, and will most likely satisfy a reader who enjoys intensity in fiction. It will also satisfy a reader who appreciates some ambiguity at the end of a book, since this does not snap shut with a tidy click on its last page. As strange and complicated as everything that precedes it, this ending will require some processing time; it is not easy to digest.
Check out The Furrows by Namwali Serpell now!
This Week at the Library
Library OnDemand – Available anytime you like.
Your doorway into live and archived programs. Arts & Culture, Career & Finance, Community Matters, Writers and more!
READ to a Dog with Pets for Life – Tuesday, March 7 or Wednesday, Mar. 8, 3:30 – 5 p.m.
Join us at the Antioch Library on March 7 or Central Resource on March 8. The Reading Education Assistance Dogs (R.E.A.D.) program improves children’s reading and communication skills by employing a powerful method: reading to a registered therapy dog or cat! These animals volunteer with their owner/handlers as a team. Please note: space is limited for this program; kids will get a ticket at arrival and wait their turn to read to one of several dogs.
Tabletop Games – Tuesday, March 7, 6 – 7:45 p.m.
Join us for a fun-filled evening at the Gardner Library with family members and friends, old and new, and become a part of the Johnson County tabletop gaming community. Kids, teens and adults can enjoy a variety of games together, including collaborating to escape the Forbidden Island, getting creative with a round of Dixit, or strategizing their way to victory as King of Tokyo! Discover and learn new games from our collection or bring your personal favorite to share. Come and go as you please. Refreshments are provided. This month our featured game is Dixit.
National Genealogy Day Open House and Resource Fair – Saturday, March 11, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Join us at Central Resource Library to connect to your past for a day of discovery to begin your family research journey. Tour the genealogy area, learn about Library and Society resources, pick up a resource kit with forms and information and get one-on-one help from Society members. Attend sessions on internet genealogy, Find a Grave, Ancestry.com and more. Visit genealogy themed group exhibits in between these wonderful sessions! RSVPs help the Library estimate the number of expected attendees and allows us to contact guests when unexpected changes occur. Registration is not required to attend. Additionally, registration does not guarantee a reserved seat.
Legislative Coffee – Saturday, March 11, 10:30 – 11:30 a.m.
Discover what’s percolating in the Kansas Legislature at the Gardner Library. Representatives and Senators with constituents in Johnson County will discuss the new legislative session, followed by Q&A. You bring the questions; we provide the coffee and doughnuts. Registration is not required to attend in-person.
Can't join us in-person? This event will be streamed live on YouTube. Register for this event and a Johnson County Library staff member will contact registrants via email the day before the meeting with instructions on how to attend virtually. You do not need to download any software or create an account.
Attendees will include:
- Representative Allison Hougland, District 15
- Representative Bill Sutton, District 43
- Representative John Resman, District 121
Read to a Dog
Dog + kid + book = fun!
Give your kids a fun, laid back chance to practice by reading to a dog or cat. These friendly, certified therapy pooches and kitties are ready to listen (along with their human teammate). A child's reading improves with practice – and the dog or cat's vocabulary will benefit, too!
Pencil in a pup appointment at a nearby Library »
Genealogy Day returns March 11 to Central Resource Library
Genealogy, the study of one’s ancestors and family history, has become an all-consuming passion for many people, especially with the advent of online records and DNA tests.
In Johnson County, people have access to an incredible resource, thanks to a partnership between the Library system and the Johnson County Genealogical Society. Central Resource Library houses the materials and the Society provides knowledgeable volunteers, creating a tremendous information destination, free of charge. More information is on the Library's genealogy research page.
The partnership will be on full display when Central brings back Genealogy Day in person March 11, after a hiatus due to COVID-19. The event will be free and open to the public 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Genealogy Day attracted 300 people on March 7, 2020, just before the pandemic disrupted normal activities. The Genealogical Society, based at Central, went online for nearly two years. It resumed in-person services after Central underwent a major renovation and reopened in February 2022.
Genealogy Day is just one example of a relationship that has benefited the Library and the Society since 1973.
Marsha Bennett, Society vice president of education and outreach, describes Central’s Genealogy area as “like a library within a library.” The Society collection totals about 8,000 items, made available to the public through the Library, including books, newspapers on microfilm, maps, Native American records, obituaries, directories, yearbooks and other archival materials to help people research their past. Databases also connect patrons to military, Census and other vital records.
The Genealogical Society provides volunteers every day except Sundays to work one-on-one with patrons, often serving as detectives to help unlock family mysteries going back generations.
“Having the genealogy volunteers here is invaluable to the Library,” said Local History Librarian Amanda Wahlmeier. “We do not have the staff capacity to offer these services. They have the expertise that staff does not.”
Many people only know family trees to their grandparents, and have no idea how to start looking further back to learn their origin story. “It’s a matter of helping people find their ancestors,” said Darlene Jerome, the Society’s immediate past president. “I tend to think of it as finding their roots.”
Genealogy Day will include presentations about Ancestry.com, exhibits about DNA testing and activities for kids. It will also showcase new and exciting features, including the recently-released 1950 Census records and the Memory Lab.
Society members are particularly excited about new Memory Lab equipment, purchased with a JCL Foundation grant. Scanners and other devices will allow people to convert old photos, slides, 8MM movies and other documents to digital formats such as a flash drive. Beginning April 3, patrons can use the equipment for free, by appointment.
“You can take [that digital information] home,” Bennett explained. “You can put it on your computer. You can put it on your phone. The nice thing now is you can then share information easily with family members.”
This is the Society’s 50th anniversary project. Such cutting-edge technology is available in about 15 Library systems nationwide but is unique to this region.
“There’s nowhere in the whole Midwest that is doing this,” Bennett said. “No other libraries.”
The Genealogical Society receives queries from places like California and England and can now help people virtually over Zoom. More than 800 people attended the society’s monthly meetings in 2022 and interest is spreading among young people.
Jerome says the Library/Genealogical Society partnership has blossomed in the past five years, sparking questions from other Library systems.
“I’ve been contacted twice in the last six months from other societies that know of our relationship and want information,” she said. “They are envious.”
It can only grow and keep getting better, Bennett agreed. “It’s just a win-win for everybody.”