EPE Camp

Greetings,

For all supervisors working on EPEs, the folks in Technical Services have reserved the Computer Lab on the mornings of April 6, 8, and 9 from 9 to Noon in order to work on EPEs.  Syma has kindly extended an invitation to us to join them.  So, if you would like to use this time to work on EPEs, just let your supervisor know.  If we need additional dates for a Central Services EPE Camp, let me know and I will make arrangements.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Open Enrollment

Greetings,

A reminder that it is Open Enrollment time for benefits.  Everyone should have received Open Enrollment materials some time last week.  If you did not, please let me and your manager know.  

If anyone has any questions, I would encourage them to review the e-mail sent by Tameka Hardison-Santa Cruz to All Employees last Friday (3/27/09).  This e-mail addresses several issues and has information about scheduled Open Enrollment Informational meetings.  If you would like to attend these meetings, work with your supervisor and/or manager to arrange to attend the most convenient meeting.

Additional information is also available at the Open Enrollment 2009 web site.

Thanks,

mvc

I am including some key points from the message below:

No Medical/Dental Changes??  To keep current plans and elections – You do not have to do anything, just review the new rates.

Healthcare Flexible Spending Account:   You must re-enroll each year if you wish to continue this pretax benefit plan.

Adding Dependents:  If you are adding eligible dependents to any of your policies, please include a copy of supporting documentation listed on page 20 of the Open Enrollment Guide.

NOTE: All forms must be completed and returned to HPL - Human Resources Division no later than 5 PM on Wednesday, April 15, 2009. 

Smocks

Here is an image of what the smocks that will be ordered along with shirts.  The logo will be embroidered in the middle of the smock.  You can click on the image to get a larger picture of the smock.

As a reminder, we will have the option of selecting three items (polo shirt, short sleeve, long sleeve, or smock) in your sizes.  These will be paid for by HPL.  After we all get our three free items, the option will be available for us (and all of HPL) to purchase additional items.  Pricing will be based on actual cost of each item.  For the shirts, this should be between roughly $16 and $25 depending on size.  I am waiting for information on pricing of the smocks; I suspect it is cheaper.

The smocks come in two sizes: 20”x28” and 22”x31”.

If you have additional questions, please let me know and I will answer or investigate.

mvc

NextReads Milestone

Greetings,

In the spirit of sharing statistics indicating how hoard our staff are working, I would like to share one more piece of quite impressive information.  I think most people know that HPL has been quite successful with NextReads newsletters and has even been a model for other libraries.  This past week saw HPL reach the 5,000 subscriber mark for our NextReads newsletters--a truly impressive milestone.  This places us just 200 subscribers short of the extremely ambitious goal we set at the beginning of the year of reaching 5200 subscribers by the end of the Fiscal Year.

This is outstanding work.  Sarah Borders and her team of editors have worked hard to create attractive and useful newsletters and customers are responding.  Great job!!

I encourage staff to spread the word about these useful newsletters to customers and staff alike.  For subscription and other information, please direct folks to:

http://www.nextreads.com/join.aspx?SID=797a1db1-f3d7-44c8-bb75-5176f6987699

This page can also be reached by simply clicking the red "Join the Mailing List" button on HPL's home page.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Very Important Virus Information

Greetings,

Everyone should have receievd an e-mail from Ron Stauss entitled: "Emergency Virus Notification - Conficker virus".  It is extremely important that you follow the instructions Ron has detailed on your computer--and all computers.  This has already been posted on the Central Blog but it is improtant enough that it needs to be mentioned in as many places as possible.  Please check your e-mail of the Central Blog posting, for the complete instructions.

Thanks,

mvc

Great Job

Greetings,

I spent much of the afternoon updating stats, reports, goals, etc.  According to the numbers, we are doing an exceptional job and are busier than anticipated.  Here are some highlights (the first number represents February / the second represents Fiscal Year to date):

Visitors: 42,633 people / 368,846 people

-This is 90% of our FY09 objective of 410,000 visitors with 67% of the year completed.

Circulation: 93,938 items / 736,679 items 

-This is 74% of our FY09 objective of 1,000,000 items with 67% of the year completed.

Computer Users: 23,456 users / 200,407 users

-This is 98% of our FY09 objective of 205,000 users with 67% of the year completed.

Program Attendance: 1945 people / 15,430 people

-This is 103% of our FY09 objective of 15,000 people with 67% of the year completed.

Outreaches: 4  / 24

-This is 80% of our FY09 objective of 30 outreaches with 67% of the year completed.

As these numbers indicate, we are significantly ahead of where we should be on all of these objectives--and have already accomplished some of the objectives even though we are four months from the end of the fiscal year.  This is just the tip of the iceberg.  Delving deeper into stats indicates further confirms what we have all observed: we are extraordinarily busy and you all have worked extraordinarily hard.  

Thank you all for this hard work.  You all deserve a big round of applause for your continued hard work.  These numbers are quite impressive.  I would add that our customers are noticing your hard work as well as compliments on service from the Central staff continue to roll in.

This all points to a simply outstanding job by our staff. 

Again, thank you all for this.

mvc

Shirts/Uniforms Questions Answered

Greetings,

I am happy to report that a solution to the ongoing shirt issues has been reached.  The Library has ordered a very large supply of shirts in all sizes and the three varieties we currently have.  In addition, a decision was made to add a smock to the list of available options.  I will share a picture or description of the smock once I have it.  

Here is how things will work.  The first people to get these new shirts will be CEN staff.  All CEN staff, whether new or existing, will receive three new shirts, paid for by the library.  Your managers will be gathering your preferences in terms of size and styles this coming week.   These will be the annual replacements promised when this project started last year for most of us.  Once this batch is distributed, the shirts will be available for purchase from financial services at cost. These will be available to all HPL staff--both CEN staff wanting additional shirts and other staff.  They will maintain a supply of shirts so that when staff want new ones they can simply purchase them in-house.  Details on where they will be stored, who to contact to purchase, etc. will be forthcoming.

If you have any questions on this, please let me know.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Good News: Promotions

Over the past couple of months, we have been working furiosly to fill vacancies.  This has resulted in serveral positions being filled.  Soon, I will share the names of seven people who will be joining the Central Services team--either from Neighborhood Libraries or from outside the System.  I am just waiting to verify starting daues for these folks.  In the meantime, there are some promotions and transfers of existing Central Staff to announce.

• Darcy Casavant received a promotion from her position as a Librarian II and is now a Librarian III working with CCOL
  
• Mary Skelton will be promoted from an LA to a Sr. LA in CLST effective tomorrow (3/21/09)
  
• Kendra Cook, who is from COL but has been assisting at Central, will become an official CLST staff member (LA) effective tomorrow (3/21/09)
  
• Debra Allen received a promotion from a p/t LA to a full-time LA (CLST) back in February
  
• Gregg Clement will be promoted from a p/t LA to a f/t LA  (CLST) effective April 4, 2009
  

A great big "congratulations" to all five of you.  When you see these folks during the course of the day, please take some time to congratulate them on their recent promtions.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Reference Reminders

Greetings Staff,

While staff has been doing an overall exceptional job serving customers, there are some issues that I have observed that need to be addressed and corrected.  

1. Welcome Desk - Staff at the Welcome Desk need to stand if possible when working this desk and greet customers as they enter the building.  They should not be sitting in a chair and staring at a computer screen.  The reference staff member at this desk needs to be aware of lines forming at the circ desk and offering regular assistance with the self-check machines.
2. Service Desks - I will send out a document entitled "Service Desk Guidelines" to all staff that lays out what is expected while staff is assigned to a desk.  Chief among these guidelines is not sitting at a desk and working on a computer, roving the floor, and completing certain tasks when not busy.  
3. Schedules - Staff need to adhere to the published schedule.  Trading assignments is not acceptable unless approved by a manager and changed on the online schedule.  All staff need to work all service points in order to remain familiar with that area and for the purposes of fairness.  Further,  the schedule reflects where in the building someone is in the event that they are needed.  Therefore, this must be accurate.
4. Breaks - Breaks are 15 minutes long.  If you opt to leave the building during a break, you still have 15 minutes.   All staff are entitled to one 15 minute break for each 4 hours worked; these are to be taken during each 4 hours.   Two breaks cannot be combined to create a 30 minute break over 8 hours and cannot be used to lengthen lunches or to leave early or arrive late.
5. Clearing Floors at Closing - Reference staff should clear their assigned floor before leaving.  Staff should not leave the floor until closing time.  When you sign out at the Welcome Desk, you are verifying that you have cleared the floor and that no one remains.

I am confident that we can work together to address these concerns.  However, I will be asking managers to ensure that these guidelines are followed by all staff.  If they observe variations from these expectations, they are instructed to address the issue and communicate the concern to me and to the appropriate supervisor.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Courtesy Phone

Greetings all,

The courtesy phone will be removed early Monday morning.  It will be relocated to a drawer in the Welcome Desk.  It should remain there. Moving forward, the sole purpose of this phone is to use it to communicate in the event that the normal phone and data lines go down.  If customers ask about using the phone, you can let them know that "This is not a service that we provide.  However, we would be more than willing to help you locate a pay phone in the areas?"  We are working on a list of area pay (or public) phones to provide staff.  We have discovered that many of the payphones that were nearby have been removed.  Please let me know (post a comment here) if you know where one is.

We should not allow customers to use the staff phones.  The one exception is in Kids and Teens where they will allow youth to call for rides home with permission and assistance of a staff member.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Telephone Reference

Greetings,

It has come to my attention that one of our regular customers in TR has been making staff uncomfortable by asking them out on dates and making other inapprorpiate advances.  If this occurs again with this--or any--customer, I encourage staff to immediately inform the customer that it is inappropriate and if it continues (or happens again) it will be considered harrassment and they will be suspended from using the TR service (as laid out in HPL Policy 2.3C3).  Once this has occurred, staff need to complete an incident report with as much information as possible.  If the same customer calls again and does the same thing with any staff member, we can then suspend him from calling TR since a warning has been issued.  Of course, we need an incident report at this point as well.  Then, all we need to do is make sure to inform the caller he is suspended, either on that call or the next time he calls in, and he will no longer be welcome to use TR.  

Thanks,

mvc