LME Library Open House September 11

Please join us at our Open House on Wednesday, September 11

We will be having a reception from 4:30-6:30 celebrating our recent remodeling projects.  Refreshments will be served!

Below is our press release:

LME Library Open House September 11

In celebration of our recent remodeling projects, the Lillie M. Evans Library District will be hosting an open house on Wednesday, September 11, with a reception from 4:30-6:30pm.  Please join us for refreshments and to view the completed capital improvements. 

The renovations included several projects.  In the first phase, we replaced the doors at our library entrances with tempered glass to improve safety and energy efficiency.  We also repainted the interior a warm color to make the library a more inviting place.  Finally, we addressed the library’s flooring.  The fraying, stained carpeting has been replaced with a wood look vinyl plank and new carpeting designed to resist and hide stains.  The goal of these capital improvements was to improve the overall condition and aesthetics of the library interior.

The LME Library offers a variety of resources to our users.  The library supports economic development by providing resources on business and entrepreneurial issues.  We offer technology training as well as free internet access.  We provide resources and assist in locating informational and recreational materials.  We are a public building that is open 50 hours per week.  In FY13, 35,002 visitors came to the library, and we circulated 47,803 items. 

In conjunction with the open house, we will be remembering the events of 9/11.   There may be nothing more antithetical to terrorism, hatred, and fanaticism than the American public library.   In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote, "our librarians serve the precious liberties of our nation: freedom of inquiry, freedom of the spoken and written word, freedom of exchange of ideas. Upon these principles, democracy depends for its very life, for [libraries] are the greatest sources of knowledge and enlightenment."  We believe there can be no more appropriate commemoration of September 11, 2001 than for libraries to continue to promote understanding, to guarantee freedom of access to information, and above all, on that particular day, to stand with doors wide open as a remarkable symbol of our freedom.

New Retirement Toolkit

The Department of Labor, the Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have partnered to publish a "Retirement Toolkit". This toolkit includes both links to publications and to interactive tools which can help you plan your retirement. It includes a timeline for retirement, information to help you decide what age you want to retire, and information about how to avoid paying a Medicare Part D late enrollment penalty. 

Some of the links from this toolkit include:

• Taking the Mystery Out Of Retirement Planning (for people who are within 10 years of retirement)
• Estimate your retirement benefits
• Medicare & You
• Extra Help with the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan

Many of these resources are also available in Spanish. You can read more about the Toolkit and other retirement resources available from the US Department of Labor at http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/publications/fitoolkit.html

The Lillie M. Evans Library receives Back to Books grant

The Lillie M. Evans Library District recently received a Back to Books grant for $4,500 from the Illinois State Library.  The Back to Books grant is a collection development grant offered to libraries for the acquisition of books and other materials. Grant funds have been used to purchase books, audios, and DVDs in the non-fiction areas of library & information science, education, languages, sciences, applied sciences, and geography & travel. Materials are appropriate for the adult and young adult age groups. 

To introduce these resources, we will have a series of 3 programs focusing on the materials purchased with this grant.  The first program will be an open house highlighting the collection.  Please visit the library on Wednesday, July 31 during our regular hours of 9am-8pm.  Materials selected for this grant will be displayed and available for checkout.

The second program on Wednesday, August 28th will target homeschoolers and resources available from the library through our newly created homeschool resource web page.  As part of the grant, we will be developing a section of our website for our homeschooling parents and students.  This will include links to online resources as well as tips on using the library catalog.  The page will also have information about any local groups that focus on homeschooling activities.

The final program will be a travel program at 6pm on Wednesday, September 25^th.  It will start with a showing of one of our new travel DVDs (we will choose one that meets our public performance license) and will include a book talk of some of our new materials in this area.  Visit our website at http://lmelibrary.org for more information about this grant and these programs.

The funds from this grant will make it possible for us to better meet the needs of our local community.  Materials were purchased through a Library Services and Technology Act grant administered by the Illinois State Library using funds provided by the U.S Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Affordable Care Act and Libraries

At the American Library Conference last week, it was announced that public libraries will be part of the effort to get information and crucial computer time to the millions of uninsured Americans who need to get coverage under law.  The Affordable Care Act requires certain employers with at least 50 full-time employees to offer health insurance coverage to its full-time employees (and their dependents) that meets certain minimum standards or to make Employer Shared Responsibility Payments.

The initiative starts on October 1st when people without health coverage will start shopping for insurance online.  Coverage can start as soon as January 1, 2014.

In the meantime, there are some articles that are available at: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/07/01/libraries-enlisted-to-publicize-health-insurance-options/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/01/obamacare-libraries_n_3529849.html

In addition, the federal website is already up at https://www.healthcare.gov/ and the key features of the Affordable Care Act are available at http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/timeline/timeline-text.html 


The Institute of Museum and Library Services is working with OCLC to develop an online toolkit and training webinars for librarians.  I'll post this information when available.