Your BadgerLink Stories - A Celebration of Statewide Impact

Highlights

In the coming weeks impact stories will be posted on the BadgerLink Stories page. In the meantime, here are a few highlights we’ve received so far (it was hard to choose!). Thank you to everyone for your ongoing support of BadgerLink. We couldn’t do this without you!

Public Library Community

BadgerLink is an important resource at the Edgerton Public Library in so many ways. Our library is small and would be unable to afford to offer the myriad resources our patrons are able to access through BadgerLink. We have assisted students to research topics for homework projects, helped patrons to find Consumer Reports that assisted them in making important purchasing decisions, provided access to historical newspapers for genealogical research, and so much more all thanks to BadgerLink. - Beth Krebs-Smith, Edgerton Public Library

BadgerLink resources are an invaluable tool for our library patrons, especially when it comes to local history research. Historic issues of our little hometown newspaper are digitized and hosted on the Archive of Wisconsin Newspapers, and we use that database on a near-daily basis! - Erica Loeffelholtz, New Glarus Public Library

I am the Library Director of a small library with a modest budget. While our community has a population of 7,500, we also serve neighboring areas, welcoming over 80,000 in-person visits each year. Access to BadgerLink allows us to offer many of the same resources as larger nearby libraries, ensuring consistent and relevant services for our patrons. - Stephanie Lewin-Lane, Hales Corners Public Library

BadgerLink has some of the best resources. From searching newspapers and research articles to finding my next book, I've used this platform for so many different things. What I enjoy most is that I can access the information anywhere, anytime. NoveList has helped me find a book to read for myself and for my patrons at the library I work at. Performing readers advisory can sometimes be challenging when it's a collection I'm not familiar with. I manage the Young Adult collection, so when I get asked for readers advisory for our young children or adults, I often get flustered. Using NoveList or NoveList K-8 has helped me immensely. What's best is when I can teach our patrons how to use it, and they get the NoveList bug too! - Anna McCallum, Horicon Public Library

I have been running monthly scavenger hunts for the past eight months and rely on BadgerLink resources, like Britannica School and Explora, to create the content. Each picture kids find is accompanied with a few sentences about the topic, which enhances the game with opportunities for learning. It's reassuring to know the content on these sites is accurate! - Jennie Fidler, Oconomowoc Public Library

K-12 Community

BadgerLink has made it so our students in a tiny school district have access to current information. We rely on BadgerLink to help our students stay up to date with current resources.  Even though we are a small district, our students deserve the same opportunities as students in bigger cities. Having access to online databases has helped our students have access to current resources. Some of our students are taking AP and college classes. Even our auto shop classes are using the resources on BadgerLink. BadgerLink [staff] have proved training for me every step of the way. They are constantly providing training on the products available. Any time I call or ask for support they are quick to help. - Seymour Community Schools

BadgerLink has helped my students access research databases that our library could not afford to purchase on its own. The DPI Library Services Team has helped me troubleshoot authentication issues with patrons. I have used training materials with students and shared the resource guides with teachers. - Deana Collins, Two Rivers School District

My students are better researchers and have developed stronger critical thinking skills because of BadgerLink. I appreciate that BadgerLink staff regularly keep an eye on our library Google Chat so that, when librarians reach out and say they're having an issue with a tool, staff respond right away letting us know that they're on it. It's so helpful to have this level of customer support when we're busy working with students & staff! - Danielle Brannan, Greendale Middle & High Schools

From Britannica to EBSCO to NoveList and TeachingBooks, these resources are invaluable to our library programs at all grade levels and to staff and student research. There is absolutely no way that our school funding could cover all the resources that BadgerLink contains. I have shared materials on the Library Staff page with teachers and directed library assistants to these resources. So helpful! - East Troy Community School District

BadgerLink resources are a cornerstone of our digital offerings for our middle school students and staff. NoveList and TeachingBooks are essential tools for staff in vetting books, supporting literacy instruction, and extending student activities. Britannica and Explora are essential, age-appropriate databases that can be used across the curriculum. Having all of these resources at the state level allows us to focus our limited funding on specialized resources for specific content areas. This unique partnership between state and local resources ensures that all students' needs are met. The DPI Library Services Team has been instrumental in ensuring that the Badgerlink resources are accessible and relevant to our students and staff. Whether an email exchange to troubleshoot a specific problem or a WEMTA Conference presentation for more in-depth training on a resource, their knowledge is essential in making sure these resources are getting maximum visibility and use. I can't imagine not having access to their expertise! - Laura Shucha, DeForest Area Middle School

While obtaining my master's of education, I used many BadgerLink resources. Knowing that these journal and newspaper articles were vetted helped make researching more manageable.  Teachers and students in my school district also utilize BadgerLink frequently! Members of the DPI Library Services Team have helped me link databases to our school's website. I have used materials on the Library Staff page multiple times. - Lisa Grubisic, School District of Random Lake

Academic Community

BadgerLink provides our technical college students access to databases that we'd otherwise struggle to afford. Whether it's support for their classes or personal enrichment, BadgerLink is an invaluable resource. - Northwood Technical College

As a librarian I use the BadgerLink resources on a daily basis to assist students with their research for assignments as well as research for locating job possibilities, finding local resources to support them in their daily lives, resources to answer their health questions, genealogical research, resources to assist them in starting business endeavors, and recreational information. These are just a few of the ways I assist people daily. DPI has assisted me with my questions regarding BadgerLink and by providing educational opportunities to learn more about the resources provided by BadgerLink. - Sue Riehl, Carroll University

Community Members

In retirement I do a tremendous amount of research which I love. I use BadgerLink to assist me in knowing where to go and what is available. Without it, my attempts to find information would be severely limited. - Marc Storch, DeForest

Our family has introduced BadgerLink resources to our children to help them complete school assignments. It was wonderful to be able to start the kids off right in the library and then have them continue to work online in the databases when we went home. This was incredibly useful too during the COVID 19 pandemic when school was shut down and we were supplementing resources at home. There are BadgerLink databases custom to different age levels including youngsters but also youth working at the high school level. We value BadgerLink. We have worked with our City of Milwaukee public library to get information about how to locate BadgerLink and other library databases while present, on-site. However, staff have helped us navigate what to do when we leave the library and how to continue getting access. We thank them! - Anonymous, user of Milwaukee Public Library Tippecanoe Branch

I have used BadgerLink for our Historical Society in Fox Lake Wisconsin to help with researching individuals from the 1850's-1900's in our community. It has helped us with several presentations on historic citizens from the time period above and I’m currently engaged in finding out more information on our G.A.R. Post in Fox Lake through using BadgerLink. It has been a fantastic resource to help with research for our Historical Society. Erin at the Fox Lake Public Library has encouraged me to use Newspapers.com Library Edition World Collection to help get a broad range of research. Since I travel a lot for work, having access outside of normal library hours has been instrumental in our research. This source is key in our Historical Society finding out more about those that lived in our community many years ago. - Tom Klas, user of Fox Lake Public Library

DPI Library Services staff working on BadgerLink are here to help! Contact us if you have any questions. And if these stories inspired you to share your own, submit a story anytime!

BadgerLink is made possible through Wisconsin’s state biennial budget and Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Grants to States funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).