President highlights Library Legislative Day, state facilities grants and local programs including new AI station

During the president's report trustees heard about Library Legislative Day, the event's bipartisan outreach purpose, and how state shared-revenue and flexible facilities grants support library services and major facility projects.

The president told trustees that the Legislative Day packet is used to educate legislators about library services, system funding and statewide resources such as databases and services for visually impaired patrons. The president said the event is "one part of our visits with legislators" and described it as bipartisan and educational.

On the subject of facilities funding the president said flexible facilities grants are enabling large, multi-generation projects and cited a recent project in Appleton as an example of how state support can make a difference for community outcomes. "We had a project here in Appleton. It wasn't funded by flexible facilities. We did get some state funding from the non state grant... But the joy after this project has been done really has kind of wiped away those decades of challenge and friction," the president said.

Staff also updated the board on local programming: a history program that drew about 170 people, an upcoming March 4 author event, a teen beadwork workshop led by Wisconsin artist Shelby Sebers (a member of the Oneida Nation), and a rotating "AI vision station" developed by Maddie to help patrons learn about AI and image generation. The staff member described the AI station as a way for patrons to engage with prompts and later view generated images; the staff member said one patron imagined a "golden dragon with armored scales."

Trustees did not take action on the president's report; the report was delivered for information and to provide context for advocacy and programming priorities.