It's the latest. It's the greatest. It's the library. We people still say that. They sure
do. The library. They sure do. It's brery. It's like it's not February. It's February.
There's an hour in there. Well, you forgot the hour is silent. No, in February. No,
in library. Library. Yeah, I love the library. I was going to the, you know, we have a
bit we run with Ellen DeGeneres. Oh, yeah. And she talks about people. I forget the origin
of the whole joke, but she says when people say library, I don't really judge people unless
they say library. Then I judge them. Shea King is here. Shea is the head of business development
for the received public library. Like to have you in here. It's a huge library. A lot of cities
don't have their own library. This big. Yeah, we're really fortunate. It is. You have a multi-story
building that's got everything and everything's going on. Let's talk about some of the things
here. You have a couple of new people at the library. We do. By the way, before I do that,
Ms. Wisconsin works at the library. Oh, my gosh. Willow is so cool. How about that? Right?
So I can have a book checked out from Ms. Wisconsin. That's right. You sure can. She works up at
the reference desk a lot of the time. I got to go there and ask her and I got a problem
here. Yeah. And she's so kind. Wow. Like I've seen like patrons can come and tell her just
about anything. And she will just have such a like she will make you feel seen. She'll
have such a kind answer for you. Willow. Willow. Does she give that, you know, the wave when
you leave that that Miss America wave? Only if you ask nicely. That's special wave
for you. Wow. That when I read that, I said, wow. Yeah. That's pretty neat. Ms. Wisconsin
works at the library. We're very proud of her. Okay. She got some new people at the library.
We do. So we just hired two new leadership team members. So we now have a deputy director.
Her name is Lizzie Jelly and a new business manager, Becky Crowley. So Lizzie comes to us
with an extensive background of working in libraries in and around this community, including
most recently more than a year as the librarian of the racing youthful offenders correctional
facility. And Becky comes to us with more than a decade of experience in finance and
management in the racing area. Most recently, including working as the operations manager
of Nami racing County and the finance assistant of the now closed LGBT center, Southeast
Wisconsin. Now I picture the library at the correctional center, just a library full
of law books. Ah, I, you know, Lizzie was telling me they have a lot of mystery, a lot of romance.
She actually thought hard to get more romance books in there.
Well, the Shawshank redemption. How to break out. Escape from Alcatraz. No, but I, I'm not
kidding. Some of those libraries in correctional facilities and jail, they have law books in
there. A lot of people want to read about the law that they can help their case. Like
some people really do a lot of learning during their time. There are people that graduate
high school and college during their years incarcerated. Yeah, because they're doing it.
They actually do that in the movie, the Shawshank redemption. Oh, really? You ever see the movie?
No, you got to see it. And one of the guys who's in there and he really didn't commit the crime,
but he's a very learned guy. He starts classes in there. And people are graduating high school.
His classes, he has some take tests for the state tests and they come in and they take the test
and they pass and they have now high school diploma. Today I learned. Yeah, get a watch that more
way. The Shawshank redemption. It sounds interesting. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.
I'm Morgan Freeman, huh? Yeah. Okay. So two new people. Two new people. And they started.
Yep, they started. They've been with us for just about a month now. Okay. It's been great.
They both come with a background in very social justice oriented, very human centered management.
And they are just jumping right in and doing a great job supporting all of the awesome work
that our team is doing. Okay. Let's talk about the postcard program. I saw this on your email.
This goes out. Yeah. So by the way, I do read those emails. Thank you. Oh, that's flattering.
Not everybody does. I read them. So the postcard project, we just wrapped up a big campaign
to invite our patrons to write postcards to the federal elected officials about what the library
means to them. So we received 118 postcards in, I think, just a few week period. And they were
full of just such touching messages. And I can't share anything directly, but I wanted to share
a little bit of what we, what themes we captured from the postcards because you all just,
you all got to hear this. Like this library means so much to people. So we heard a lot about the
themes of books, of course, but also fostering community, community resources and free information.
And these four themes were the most prominent out of everything mentioned in these postcards.
And they appeared more than 25 times each. And then the library also just fulfills needs that folks
might not expect. So we had multiple people who named the library as a space that helps them with
their recovery. People describe the library as a place for justice and equality, a space that
gives them hope, a space that fosters creativity. Folks describe the library as a safe place,
a place that helps them save money, a place to get help with job searching and somewhere to spend
their leisure time. You know what the library means to me? You can't buy DVDs anymore, but I can get
them with a library. That's right. Tough, tough finding a DVD anywhere. You can't rent them anymore.
You can't, there is one store on Rapids Drive. You can rent them. Oh, that's great. But for the most
part, you can't rent them anymore. But I can get them free at my public library. That's right.
And if you guys don't have it, you search the earth. Yeah. And then bring it in for me.
We have a person who does all the interlibrary loans herself. Her name is Bri and we we send her out
personally. She will fly to Alaska for you. Well, I get that book from Alaska's library. I had one
from Manila in the Philippines. They said we found it. No way. There was a library in the
Philippines. Unfortunately, it's not in English. No, but you really do a good job. I mean,
I see from Bloit, the Bloit Library from all over and they find them and they bring them and that's
it. It's really cool. Because I love, I love movies. And that's how I watch them. I love
still watch DVDs. I have hundreds and hundreds at home, but there's some I don't have and you have them.
You know, we've talked about the idea of having a display case that just features all of the new
movies that have just come out. But the reality is we have, they go off the shelves so quickly.
Like people have so many holds on them that there would never be anything on the shelf. Sometimes
I rented the, it was called a Nora. It was the best picture of the year at the last Oscars.
Okay. And I rented it in March right when the Academy Awards happened. I just saw it two
weeks ago. Oh, wow. Yep. You had 50 people. 50 people in a way. Well, it was best picture of the
year and everybody wanted to do what it was about. Nobody ever heard of it before. And it was
pretty good. That's great. I don't think it was worth the best picture, but it was good. It was
very good. All right. Japanese cultural exchange program going on. This is interesting. Go ahead.
Yeah. So for 2025, the Racine Public Library is proud to receive an East Asia in Wisconsin
library program grant from the center of East Asian studies at the University of Wisconsin
Madison. So this has enabled us to host a whole variety of programs themed around Japanese culture
throughout the month of July. So obviously we're getting close to the end of July. But we do have two more
programs coming up this Saturday, July 26th, 1 to 2 pm. We have a Kodokan judo demonstration.
Say that again. Kodokan judo. Oh, you say that right. I like the way you say it. Kodokan judo.
I met a Japanese in college. Oh, yeah. Just enough to be able to pronounce a little bit. So
judo is a martial art and a form of combat and an Olympic sport. It was created in Japan at 1882
by Jigoto Kano and judo, which literally means gentle ways, the competitive art of subdoing
an opponent. So you won't see people doing karate kicks or slices for the most part. You'll see
people trying to figure out how to restrain each other and pin somebody to the ground.
I'd like to say that though. You really have the accent going on. Thank you.
So major, you did major, but you took Japanese and I did. Most people take Spanish.
I know. So, and that would have been arguably more people speak Spanish at our library than
Japanese. However, a couple of my co-workers speak Japanese. So I do get to practice sometimes.
So I took, I took four years to Spanish in high school, two years in college and all I can remember
is Albundigas is meatballs. So if I'm at a restaurant and we want more meatballs on the plate,
Albundigas. Better hope it's an Italian restaurant. That's it. Italian might be speaking Italian.
It's got to be a Spanish restaurant. It's not going to work. Yeah. So that's all I remember
to add to that. I don't know how people speak more. You get the like the Pope speaks 15 languages.
That's me. Well, the Pope Francis did. He spoke 15 languages. How do you keep that straight
in your head? I know. I don't know. I mean, I got Albundigas. I'm lucky I can remember that.
I feel like just the fact that Japanese is so different from English is really helpful because
I'm not mixing up words that sound very similar to each other. But I can't say the same for
every single language. If I was trying to learn Spanish, I feel like I'd be making a mess out of
the two. That's easy. Spanish was easy. That's what I do. Yeah. I understand actually spoken.
I spoke Hebrew for a while. That's cool. Yeah. I can still read it to read it, you know, write it,
but I can't understand, you know, I don't have a that's been a long time. But yeah, I don't know how
people keep multiple languages in their head. So we have exchange students. These high school
exchange students from Japan. Yes. So have you heard of the sister cities program? Yes.
Okay. Yes. So our sister city in Japan is Oyso. And we every other year will send. So
it's every other year. Oyso will send exchange students to us. And then on the contrasting
years, we'll send exchange students to them. So this is the year that students from Oyso come
and do a performance at the Racine Public Library. Well, they'll talk about what they learn. They'll
share a little bit about what it's like to live in Oyso this year. So we have three exchange
students, if I'm remembering correctly, maybe four. They're going to be at the library Tuesday,
July 29th, six to seven PM. It's an all ages program. No registration. Just come in and learn.
It's always a really cool experience. The students are really, really cool. And you'll have a blast.
Melissa Caprilyan, who's one of our county board supervisors, she had two exchange students
living with her one from Belgium. And I think where the other one was from, but the one from Belgium
just left went home. And one of the nicest people you ever want to meet this kid was wonderful.
He was in here. We interviewed him twice. And you know, I said, you must have had it really
easy because you spoke with a friend Jackson. You know, we, we, Lula, when he went to high school,
and he said, yeah, it works for you. Yeah. Well, you have to figure these exchange students
are technically like very young diplomats. Somebody said, anybody with an accent can speak one more
language than you can. Well, it's true. And he meant to sister city, the recene sister city used
to be in France for a while. I think what city it was. And when I, um, Montelamar, I don't know how
to pronounce it in French, but when I, um, a, uh, proposed to my wife, I was had to fill in
for Greg Berg at the, uh, recene sympathy orchestra thing at festival hall. And I was hosting it.
And that was the night I was going to propose to my wife. So I feel like doing on stage. So we
did it on stage with the entire sister city people out there in the audience and right on stage.
And that was it. That was, uh, what if she would have said, no,
that's a long walk off stage. A lot of people just saw that out. Okay. Um, let's talk about what's
going on in the second floor with the book displays. I see them all the time there. Oh, yeah.
So we do a different book display every month. Um, and this month, we have one that is themed
along the Japanese cultural programs. So some of the money from the grant we received,
we used it to purchase several new books on Japanese culture, both in English and in Spanish.
So stop by the second floor. Um, check out the display that's next to the reference desk.
This display will be present throughout the month of July. And it'll feature a rotating
selection of both new books that we've just purchased as well as some of our current books
that were already in existence in our collection. There's some really neat stuff there.
Or Japan. Every time a Godzilla movie comes out against destroyed. And there would, there's been,
I think over 30 Godzilla movies and only three build over and over again. Why just saw the latest
one, Godzilla minus one. And so the latest Godzilla to destroy. I mean, that poor city has to
read every time there's a Godzilla movie. I've got to rebuild. Um, I just got to notice I have to
renew my library card. Oh, yeah. I didn't know. Yeah, I know it's like a driver's license, you know,
you got to renew it. And if a cop stops me and I don't have an updated library card,
then you got a library jail. Remember Mr. Bookman from Seinfeld? No.
Jerry had an overdue book from high school. Uh oh. And the library detective was Mr. Bookman.
Mr. Bookman. And he went to Jerry's house to give him a warning. He's got to get that book back
from high school. Is they doing investigations? There were people you hear occasionally
had a book out for like 30 years, 40 years. I have a record in my house. I think I told you,
buy, buy, birdie, the original motion picture soundtrack. I took out in 1968 from the library.
Still in my house. I'm doing them now. I did, I did call them years ago and I said,
50 years. Well, I called them and I said, do you need it back? It's more than 50 years. 53 years?
54 years. 54. I said, I called them and I said, do you need it back? Just, no, we don't have
records anymore. But that was years ago. They do now. They bought records back. I also have a couple
of magazines. I never returned to you there. I can do it on purpose. You know, magazines, we,
I think we only keep the most recent, you got in my microfilm though. Sure. Yeah. And I,
I think we only keep the most recent one or two issues of many of our magazines. So there's a good
chance that, you know, they took it out of the system really slide. Yeah, you know,
for you down roses, you don't send us the bookman out looking for the, you know,
so that's the only special. No, not me, but only for special occasions. We'll send, we'll send
Bri out our interlibrary loan person. She goes and gets books from libraries around the world
and she'll go to your house to get your overdue books. They was an episode on leave it to Beaver
when Beaver got a thing from the library about an overdue thing. And he was frightened. He bought his
friend, Larry Mandela with him. And the library was like Mr. Smith public library. And we like to see
Mr. Smith. Mr Smith is no longer alive, even though you know, his name was library. He died many
years ago. I was dedicated to him. This is wife here. No, she passed away too. And Larry Mandela says,
Is there anybody here who's not dead? That's funny. Okay, free online classes through your library card.
What's that about? So one of the library's partnerships is with LinkedIn Learning. And that
means that anybody who has a racing public library card can sign up for LinkedIn Learning for free.
All you need is your library card number and your pin. And LinkedIn Learning has tons of
interesting classes about technology, business, creative arts. Just really, you got to just get in
there. Search for whatever you're interested in and see what they have. And they have mountains,
of course, is so to get started, go to racinglibrary.info slash LinkedIn. Make sure you have your library
card number and pin handy. And then you can get started. That said, we know that sometimes folks
just want a little bit of extra help getting started with a new piece of technology. So we do
actually offer classes in how to use LinkedIn Learning. So well, I suppose they're technically
open labs, rather than classes. So you can drop in at any time on August 6th and 27th between 6th and 7th
30pm. And our technology assistance in the innovation lab will help you get started. So you don't
need to bring anything. All the computers will be provided. And that is a program for adults.
You do need to register in advance. So make sure you visit racinglibrary.info slash calendar
and search learning to find the registration link for the program that you would like to attend.
How many libraries are there in Wisconsin? Oh, you got it right here on your. 200. I'm guessing
it's 200. 467. Wow, not even close. Yeah, that was on your email. I told you I read your emails.
And one last thing here, this is a program for all ages color my world. Do you know what that is?
Yeah, so color our world. That is the theme of this year's summer reading program. So summer
reading program runs June 1st through August 31st every single year. And we this year have a
variety of just creative programs to go along with the theme arts and crafts. We have different
opportunities to make things like tea cups, like little garden tea cup landscapes. And I don't
have the dates all in front of me. But if you go to racinglibrary.info slash color our world,
that's one word. Then you can take a look at all the programs that we have. And also see the link
for how to sign up for our summer reading program for different age groups. And we decided
that Shay is not short for anything. Your name is just Shay. That's correct. It's not like
chambered or some people think it's short for shameless. Some people think it's short for shaving
cream. Well, sheamus, I can understand. It could be anything. And I told you that the name Wendy
was never around before Peter Pan, the book Peter Pan. That was the first time the name Wendy
was so wild to me. I would never have guessed from reading Peter Pan that this was the first
instance of the name Wendy. You thought it was the hamburger chain, right? That's how the
the Wendy's hamburger. That was the girl with the right hair and the big tails. That's what you
thought. I know. She's laughing, but she that's what you thought. I do love Wendy's french fries.
Yeah, they are good. I think Shae King, thank you very much for coming in. You're so welcome.
Shae is the head of business development for the Racine Public Library. And so much going on,
everything we talked about, you can probably get you online, right? That's right. And the website is
Racinelibrary.info. Racinelibrary.info. That's right. Oh, I like that info ending.
A lot of libraries have a dot info. We have a dot us. Oh, it's media dot us.
We have that. The only other website I've seen used that is the I recently found it a non-profit
and it's called the People Center. So our URL is the PeopleCenter.us. That's the only other
website I've seen used dot us before. Now you know two of them. No, not two. Thank you, Shae.
Thank you very much. And you were you were supposed to be here. Then you weren't supposed to be
here. Yeah. Melissa Donaldson was going to take my place. And then it turned out that I need
to take Melissa Donaldson's place. So you drove our guy who does our website crazy, but that's
all right. Yeah. It was after you already made the graphic and everything. I didn't make it.
Somebody else did. So thank you for your flexibility and for giving us some air time. It's always a joy.
Thank you for coming in. You're a nice smiley person too. Very positive.
