HomeMy WebLinkAbout1.2.21attachmentOshkosh Public Library Highlights
January 2021
1. Community Engagement Librarian Sandy Toland talked about Gale Courses and other library
services during lunch and learn session for City of Oshkosh employees. The wellness
committee has also been featuring links to the library’s streaming service Hoopla in its
regular email updates, offering easy access to fitness videos via the library website.
2. Oshkosh Public Library has several new services that make it easy for families to fit reading
and literacy into their lives whenever it’s convenient for them.
• Dial-A-Story offers a break from screen time to listen to a short story, selected and
recorded by a member of our children's staff. Dial-A-Story helps children with
vocabulary, listening skills and reading comprehension. Stories are changed weekly.
Callers can listen to a story as often as they like by dialing (920) 770-2760.
• Stories and Stretches is a new storytime experience sure to help beat winter boredom.
Kids get the wiggles out and expand their imaginations in fun, new ways. Each short
video combines creative movement and deep breathing with a picture book for a
unique, whole body reading experience. Full seasons will be posted on the
library's YouTube channel and will air on oshkoshmedia.org. Special thanks to Oshkosh
Media for producing and airing the videos.
• Storytime in a Bag brings storytime to home or classroom with a themed collection of
books and activities in a convenient to go bag. Sample themes include: Things that Go,
All about Wisconsin, Unicorns/Mermaids, Construction, Ninjas/Zombies and more.
Available for checkout with a library card: Search “storytime in a bag” in the online
catalog. Sponsored by a grant from the Mildred and Edward Baar Youth and Education
Fund through the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation.
3. Winter Reading for all ages is underway. Participants read and log minutes; complete
activities and unlock badges to earn prizes on the fun and easy Beanstack app. The program
runs through Feb. 27. To cap off the winter reading experience, OPL will host a visit with
award-winning children’s book author and educator Kate Messner on Sat., Feb. 27 at 10
a.m. via Zoom.
4. The library is now offering board games and puzzles for checkout and the response has been
enthusiastic! The idea was shared during a brainstorming session about community needs,
where social isolation was prioritized as one of the top community concerns that the library
could potentially address with services, collections or programs. These discussions will
become a regular part of OPL Management Team meetings as the library works to respond
to community needs.
1331 Algoma Boulevard, Oshkosh WI 54901 • 920.236.5799 • oshkoshmuseum.org
MEMO TO THE MUSEUM BOARD
January 29, 2021
To the Board,
Attached are the quarterly reports from the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation. These reports are
for the last quarter of 2020 and do not reflect the recent change in how we invest those funds.
It is always a good feeling when there are happy, satisfied visitors in the galleries. Our attendance has
improved since Star Wars opened and everyone loves the vintage toys. Of note, there are many first-
time visitors. Tammy Malewski and the front-line staff are working out a few kinks with the ticket
system, but overall it is working well. We had a few issues due to a weak Wi-Fi signal, but that is
being addressed.
In regard to Deep Roots, Growing City, Split Rock Studios confirmed this week that we will be working
with the same designer we had for People of the Waters, Travis Wood. We were all truly pleased to hear
that and, at least as it looks now, the project will kick-off the first week in April. Staff have much to do
to prepare for that, and of course Anna Cannizzo and the curators are also working on Sports &
Recreation.
Just as with an auto or a person’s home, weather extremes are usually when problems occur at the
Museum. The cold weather snap gave rise to thermostat issues in the Carriage House, and with the
workshop heater. That building still had older style mercury based thermostats and this week they
were replaced with digital. The heating unit in the workshop is malfunctioning and is being repaired.
It was a cold week and the constant opening and closing of doors made the workshop pretty chilly.
We also had water service installed in the workshop and where the grounds tractor is kept. This
enables Matt to keep the winter salt washed off, helping extend the life of the tractor.
In other news, as I have reported previously, Matt Reinke is an excellent Maintenance Technician and
will shortly tackle another project. The lower level by the kitchen and associated work areas were
impacted by constant water issues over the last few years, and also the actual work of foundation
repair. Consequently, they all took quite a beating. Matt will repair the floor and bricks, and then we
will have the floor professionally prepared and painted. Exhibit Technician Greg Witthun will
complete the refinishing of the Sawyer home grand stairs next week, as they were impacted by daily
cleaning. The newel post caps and bannister should be completed in a week. Perhaps by the time we
resume Board meetings everything will be done and ready for show and tell.
And finally, we will soon have agreements signed for the engineers/designers of our two capital
improvement projects, cement and masonry work and landscaping. Once that is done, I expect to get
those projects out for bid in February. The spring issue of The Muse is in the design phase and we are
all encouraged by the positive response we received from that publication.
That ends the week and I hope everyone has a pleasant weekend.
Brad Larson