WESP-DHH Statewide Resource Library at WSD
The Wisconsin Educational Service Professional (WESP) Outreach Team and the Wisconsin School for
the Deaf both provide services for deaf and hard of hearing children in the state of Wisconsin. Both
branches are under the Department of Public Instruction umbrella and are two sides of a coin. The
Library which is located in the 162 year old school in Delavan, WI serves both the residential and day
students preschool through age 21 and functions as a statewide resource center for all patrons in the
state of Wisconsin.
In the past the library served teachers of the deaf, deaf students, interpreters and parents through
direct mail but more recently, around ten years ago went to an interlibrary loan model. In cooperation
with the Aram Public Library in Delavan we now offer the van service through Lakeshores library
system for our statewide patrons which is free. This enables our patrons to return items without
paying postage and promotes the interlibrary loan service as well.
Our lending service functions in some ways just like other ILL services, when we get a request through
WISCAT we fill the request, whether it is for special deaf and hard of hearing resources or regular
resources. This is our obligation as an ILL provider. We also fill requests for our students and staff in
this manner. We also however, encourage patrons to contact their reference librarians and
interlibrary loan staff and request items directly from our library. Why do we do this and how does
that work?
We do this because we have unique items that are not as easily located from other libraries such as
DVD interpreter practice tapes and behavior programs taught in American Sign Language for parents,
signed stories from Gallaudet University and drivers education curriculum in ASL. We have deaf
history books and linguistics books found only at our library and some University libraries and while
we support patrons to obtain these items from others when it is more convenient we do encourage
our patrons to help us keep our own circulation numbers healthy. Our existence is only as good as the
needs that exist to fill and the knowledge that we are here.
Sometimes staff are confused about how to find our resources in WISCAT. Occasionally the check box
is not marked for Wisconsin School for the Deaf. Perhaps it doesn’t seem necessary but our items will
not show without that check box. Other times libraries that do not use WISCAT are unsure how to
obtain items from us. We ask that Worldcat users create a blank request for those items which we
will them fill. And rarely though occasionally we receive requests from libraries that do not use the
van service. In this case we are still happy to mail the items to your library for the patrons.
Whatever the need, whether it is a speech pathologist looking for an expensive test for evaluation, a
deaf student wants the latest deaf character novel, a teacher of the deaf is looking for deaf identity
information or the latest educational curriculum in ASL, or a beginning sign language student just
wants some ASL books and videos, we are here to serve. Although our school functions on a
bilingual/bicultural model, with a heavy emphasis on using sign language as a library we pride
ourselves in maintaining all philosophies and communication modes in our material selection. If we
do not have the materials a patron is looking for we appreciate and encourage suggestions for
collection development.
Last but not least we do also provide genealogical and historical research help for families with deaf
ancestors. Our student records are not all public but within the boundaries of the law we will give
information to people about their family members who attended WSD from 1879 to 1949. (1852 to
1878 was lost in a fire) And we are also available to scholars in deaf research by appointment. We
have many archives and museum items that can be viewed with advanced notice and preparation.
Within the year all of our Wisconsin Times newspapers will be available online for viewing through a
LSTA grant. Tours for groups are also available of our school and our museum.
We have something for everyone here at the WESP-DHH Statewide Resource Library. We look
forward to providing services for you and your patrons.