July 8, 2026
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Indiana library jobs
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In the news
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Upcoming workshops and important dates
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Indiana Early Literacy Firefly Award voting closes July 31
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NICCL roundtable scheduled for this Friday
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Featured Indiana State Library kit: 'Butterflies'
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'The First Bite: Tasty Recipes for Big Dandy Bread'
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Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library to host 'Shred Day'
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This week's new Indiana library jobs |
| Those who would like their Indiana library job posting to be listed in the Wednesday Word must submit the position and its description to the Indiana State Library. Click here for submission guidelines and to submit. |
| Is your library making news?
Email news links for inclusion in the Wednesday Word's "In the news" section.
To be featured in the Wednesday Word, please email a press release and a photo. |
| Follow the
Indiana State Library's blog for weekly posts covering all aspects of the State Library.
Indiana library employees who would like to contribute a guest blog, please send an email with an idea. |
Miss an issue of the Wednesday Word?
Back issues of the Wednesday Word are available here. |
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Free training for librarians and library employees on LinkedIn Learning |
The Indiana Library Passport, a creative digital experience that encourages everyone to visit libraries across the Hoosier state, is open to Indiana residents and outside visitors alike. The passport has more than 170 libraries and branches to explore.
Read more about the passport here. Libraries interested in joining the Indiana Library Passport – free of cost – should contact the communications director at the Indiana State Library. |
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Indiana Early Literacy Firefly Award voting closes July 31 |
Voting for the Indiana Early Literacy Firefly Award will close on Friday, July 31.
The Firefly Award, an initiative of the Indiana Center for the Book - a program of the Indiana State Library and an affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress - is administered by the Indiana Early Literacy Firefly Committee. The purpose of the award is to encourage parents, caregivers and very young children to interact together with exceptional picture books, as picture books serve an important role in the first years of the life of a child.
The 2026 award nominees are "Bear's Lost Glasses" by Leo Timmers, "Duck Goes Meow" by Juliette Maclver, "Every Monday Mabel" by Jashar Awan, "Let's Be Bees" by Shawn Harris and "Little Freddie Two Pants" by Drew Daywalt.
Voting is limited to children who live in Indiana and who are under the age of 6 as of Friday, July 31, 2026. It is expected that most Indiana children will require help with voting from a parent, caregiver or librarian. Children should circle their favorite Firefly nominee on their ballot and turn it in to their local voting location. Voting locations should tally the votes and send them in an email to the Indiana Center for the Book. Votes are also accepted online on the
Firefly website. The website includes information about book nominations, a program guide and social media material.
Late tallies cannot be accepted. The winner of the award will be announced on Tuesday, Aug. 4. |
NICCL roundtable scheduled for this Friday |
The next Networking and Innovation for Community-Centered Libraries (NICCL) IT roundtable is scheduled for this Friday, July 10. The roundtable will be hosted, in person, at the Crawfordsville District Public Library from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. There is also an option to attend virtually.
Formerly known as the Northern Indiana Computer Consortium for Libraries, NICCL is an organization composed of member libraries that meet quarterly for technology-based training and networking. Attendees are encouraged to share technology endeavors from their own libraries, as well as what they've seen in other libraries. The roundtable also offers an opportunity for attendees to ask technology-related questions to those in the group.
Attendees do not need to be members of NICCL, nor do they need to be on staff as a member of their library's IT department.
Please send an RSVP to Rich Weiland of the Adams Public Library System. The group will go to a local restaurant after the roundtable discussion. Those who would like to attend virtually via Teams should make note in their RSVP. A link to the online roundtable will be sent via email reply to those who send an RSVP.
Learn more about NICCL here.
The Crawfordsville District Public Library is located at 205 S. Washington St. in Crawfordsville. |
Featured Indiana State Library kit: 'Butterflies' |
The Indiana State Library’s Indiana Young Readers Center provides five types of kits for use by public library youth librarians and teachers across the state: Book Club kits, LEGO kits, DUPLO kits, Storytime kits and Indiana Escape Experience kits. Every other week, the Wednesday Word will feature one of these kits.
This week's featured kit is the “Butterflies" Storytime kit. The kit features seven story books and a professional development book, “Sing! Play! Create!” Also included is a music CD titled “Songs about Insects, Bugs and Squiggly Things” and a flip chart book titled “Butterfly Life Cycle.” The kit also comes with 10 butterfly finger puppets, and an Eric Carle “Very Hungry Caterpillar” caterpillar and butterfly puppet set. Every kit includes a teacher’s or librarian’s guide full of ideas for use with groups of children
“Caterpillars and butterflies are a fantastic way to teach about lifecycles. You can even raise some yourself! Don’t forget that August is the beginning of the time to watch for monarch butterflies migrating from Canada to Mexico for the winter,” said Tammie Buchanan, Indiana Young Readers Center librarian at the Indiana State Library.
Read more about the kits here.
Kits can be ordered and delivered via InfoExpress. Please contact Tammie Buchanan with any questions about reserving the kits. | |
Upcoming workshops and important dates |
Summer Lecture Series: A Famine of Cadavers: Inside Indy's 1902 Graverobbing Syndicate
When: July 11, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Where: Indiana State Library and online
Professional Development Roundtable
When: July 16, 2-3 p.m.
Where: Online
What's Up Wednesday: Get To Know EBSCO
When: July 29, 10-11 a.m.
Where: Online
Roundtable Informational Interest Meeting
When: Aug. 6, 11-11:45 a.m.
Where: Online
Summer Lecture Series: Combining Land and Probate Records to Get the Full Story
When: Aug. 8, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Where: Indiana State Library and online
How to get the Most out of Your TeachingBooks for Schools Account
When: Aug. 11, 3:30-4:15 p.m.
Where: Online
Webmaster Roundtable
When: Aug. 18, 2-3 p.m.
Where: Online
What's Up Wednesday - Community Compass Information Session
When: Aug. 26, 10-11 a.m.
Where: Online
Every Child Ready to Read In-Person Workshop
When: Aug. 28, 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Where: Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library
Indiana State Library Lunch and Learn Series: Hosted Digital Collections and Indiana Memory
When: Sept. 8, 12-1 p.m.
Where: Indiana State Library and online
What's Up Wednesday - Youth-Focused Tabletop Role-Playing Game Programs in Public Libraries
When: Sept. 9, 10-11 a.m.
Where: Online |
| Welcome to Digital Collection Highlights. Every other week, librarians at the Indiana State Library share images from the library'sever-growing digital collections. Visit the Digital Collections
page to view the latest additions. |
'The First Bite: Tasty Recipes for Big Dandy Bread' |
The Indiana State Library’s digital collection holds a richly illustrated, full-color advertising cookbook titled “The First Bite: Tasty Recipes for Big Dandy Bread
,” produced by the Jeffersonville Baking Company. The company was established in 1910 in Jeffersonville and, according to the Jan. 10, 1944 edition of the Jeffersonville Evening News, was the first in southern Indiana to mass produce, wrap and slice bread.
Those familiar with dishes using Campbell’s soup, Jell-O or mayonnaise in unconventional ways have likely been exposed to recipes from other advertising cookbooks. These books could be mass produced cheaply and were a popular way to build brand loyalty and consumer demand for a product.
Published in the Great Depression era, “The First Bite” contains recipes with simple, inexpensive ingredients, like the company’s Big Dandy Bread, which is the main component of all the recipes. Included is a molded rice and tuna dish named “Celestial Hash,” and “Lady Lou,” a bacon and cheese sauce served with toast. The book opens with a wish for the readers: “May the recipes in this little booklet suggest many delightful new ways of combining healthful, nourishing foods into tempting, appetizing dishes.” View this and other advertising cookbooks
in the Trade Catalogs section of the library’s digital collection. |
| Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library to host 'Shred Day' |
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On Saturday, Aug. 22, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m., the Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library will host “Community Shred Day." The free event - in partnership with Eco Shred - will allow patrons to securely and sustainably shred their outdated documents.
“'Community Shred Day' is an opportunity for us to provide a valuable service that helps residents protect their personal information,” said Laura Sutton, the library's technology and training manager.
Eco Shred provides AAA NAID-certified document destruction, the highest standard in the industry. The event is open to anyone and there is no limit on amount of materials to be shredded. No appointment is necessary.
The Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library is located at 1120 Stafford Road in Plainfield. |
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