We'd like to introduce you to our 2025 Julie Klauber Award winner, Natalia Renfro, Kansas State Library Talking Books, and thought the best way to do so is by sharing the nomination we received for her. Maggie Witte, Kansas State Library Talking Books, described Natalia (Nataly) as "a hard, consistent worker who works well with the library team dedicated to making sure all of our patrons have access to the players and materials they need for a fulfilling informed and personalized reading experience."
Keystone Systems is honored to provide Nataly a trip to the 2025 KLAS Users' Conference, where she will be recognized during Monday's opening general session. An official press release will be published just before the award ceremony.
Nataly's Nomination for the 2025 Julie Klauber Award:
How do you know the nominee? Have you worked with them? If so, in what capacity?
Nataly started working for Kansas Talking Books in 2016 as one of our circulation clerks working closely with all of the staff and working as our machine for the last few years. I have worked with her in ensuring all of the books are found, creating No Due Date titles such as the Bible, helping patrons figure out issues with their DTBMs, and just as a team to ensure everyone has access to what they need.
What service(s) has the nominee done in the spirit of Julie Klauber?
Nataly ensures that patrons have access to our services by carefully managing the checking in and out, storage, and upkeep of the digital talking book players so patrons have as little disruption in their reading experience as possible. She is patient and supportive when patrons call with player issues, helping them check for errors if they can and/or getting replacement players in the mail as quickly as possible. When mail issues arise, she calmly works with patrons, other Kansas Talking Books (KTB) staff, and even the post office to see if the issue can be determined or to find a solution, if possible. She also helps patrons get access to audio-described movies, advocating for the addition of movies that meet their needs, circulating those movies when the patrons request, and making sure they are ready for the next patron. It is through her efforts that our patrons have access to informational and recreational materials and the playback equipment to access those items. She is also bilingual and assists our Spanish-only patrons to find and check out the books they like or adjust their accounts accordingly.
How do they affect your library/community and/or the KLAS Users’ Community?
She is always supportive of all the efforts of staff, assisting in any way she can. She is compassionate towards patrons, caring for their point of view. She helps the library circulation run smoothly with her efforts.
What are the nominees job responsibilities and how do they relate to KLAS?
Her job responsibilities are:
- maintaining the inventory of digital talking book players and check players in and out to patrons when they return them for maintenance or for other reasons using Equipment module;
adding No Due Date materials, such as the Bible and other religious texts, using KLAS, ensuring there are always the religious texts patrons are interested available using the Circulation module; - adding audio-described movie titles to the collection and maintaining that collection which she creates records for those titles in the collection and adds all the necessary metadata for them using the Catalog module;
- handles the readers advisory and circulation of audio-described movies to patrons who ask for them using the Patron module;
- assisting patrons with player issues or calling previous patrons or their family members to attempt to retrieve digital talking book players which she uses KLAS to look up accounts and make notes in the comments using the Patron and Equipment modules;
- assist Spanish-only patrons with their accounts by making changes to preferences or adding books to their service queues in the Patron module;
- assists in cataloging duties as available in the Catalog module.
