Raising Wisconsin’s Children Conference

Thanks to our friends at UW-Madison Department of Extension for putting together an excellent, free virtual conference–great to share with parents and caregivers, also great for library workers who serve youth and families.  Take a look!  Raising Wisconsin’s...

Resources for Games and Gaming!

The American Library Association’s Games and Gaming Round Table have been busy!  If you want to add some well-vetted board games to your circulating collection or to your programming toolkit, check out their recent Platinum Play winners, “evergreen titles...

Winter/Spring 2025 Scholarship Opportunities

Thanks to a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, IFLS is awarding scholarships to IFLS-area public library workers for a variety of online and in-person learning opportunities. ...

Guest Post: Supervising Part-Time Staff

Jamie Smith from Hudson took the UW-Madison iSchool’s Continuing Education course:  Strategies for Supervising Part-Time Staff thanks to a scholarship from IFLS.  Here are some of Jamie’s key highlights and takeaways from the course: Allow enough time for...

Introducing Learning Loop!

Welcome to Learning Loop, the new IFLS Continuing Education/Professional Development Blog.  This blog was first created as a way to facilitate sharing by library workers who receive scholarships from IFLS to allow them to pursue professional development...

Teen Program Success in Altoona

I talked with Regina Arndt, the long-time youth services librarian in Altoona recently and got inspired by some of her programs.  Teen programs can be tricky, and some of these ideas seem like they might work well for other libraries! Ping Pong and Pizza Nights Every...

IFLS Youth Services Check-In: Play!

Great questions were asked, great ideas were swapped!  Here are a few highlights (sorry if I’m forgetting something):   Karen Magnusson (formerly of Woodville, now of Baldwin) gave a report about her experience at the Play, Make, Learn Conference in...