Chief of Central Services - Temporary Assignment

Greetings,

Beginning this Monday, I will be spending part of my time officed in the Marston building. I will be assisting the Deputy Director of Public Services with some important projects. I will continue to function as Chief of Central Services in addition to these duties. We have not worked out my schedule yet but I will be spending some portion of the week at Marston and the remaining portion at Central. Since I will not be able to devote as much time to Central duties as before, I will be handing off some duties, primarily those dealing with operations, to Paty Bustamante. We are in the process of establishing exactly which duties she will be responsible for and which I will retain. I will post that information once it is established. There will be a phone installed in my office at Marston; once I have that number I will share it here.

Thanks,
Mike VC

Great Job - July 09 Edition

Greetings,

I know I shared stats and the impressive increases seen during the fiscal year. However, there are even more impressive increases to be seen when we compare this July to last July, which--as you will remember--was one of the busiest on record. Here are some sample stats:

Library Visitors: 81,501 - This works out to roughly 280 people every hour that we were open in July.

Circulation:

• July 2008: 99,920
  
• July 2009: 116,447
  
• Increase of 17%

Reference Questions

• July 2008: 17,152
  
• July 2009: 19,748
  
• Increase of 15%

Directional Questions

• July 2008: 17,296
• July 2009: 22,744
• Increase of 31%

Computer Users

• July 2008: 22,877
  
• July 2009: 27,876
• Increase of 22%

These numbers reflect an impressive increase that is only possible as the result of everyone's hard work. Quite impressive!

Thank you all for the hard work you do every day. Look for some upcoming staff parties to celebrate your hard work.

Mike VC

Chief on Vacation

Greetings,

I will be out on vacation from August 19 through August 24. The following managers will be in charge of Central Services in my absence:

• Wednesday, August 19 - Mary Frances Townsend
• Thursday, August 20 - Beatrice Temp
• Friday, August 21 - Mary Frances Townsend
• Monday, August 24 - Patricia Bustamante

Thanks and have a wonderful day,

Mike VC

Great Job!! - FY 2009 Results of Goals and Objectives Reflect Your Hard Work

Greetings,

I wanted to share with everyone some of the final outcomes of our goals and objective for the recently expired fiscal year. As you will see, theses reflect a staff that has been incredibly busy and surpassed our expectations for our first year post-reopening.

• Circulation: Objective was set at 1,000,000 items circulated at Central; we actually circulated 1,115,196 items, which is over 3,000 items every day!
• Customer Visits: Objective was set at 410,000 customers for FY09; we actually had 676,161 which works out to an average of close to 2,000 people every day we were open.
• Programs: Objective set at offering programs that attract 15,000 customers; we nearly doubled this with an annual program attendance of 28,473.
• Computer Users: Objective was set at 205,000 computer uses in FY09; we hosted a total of 286,907 computer users.

These are a quick sample. I will share the annual results page as soon as it is finalised. In the meantime, I will share that we met and exceeded all of our objectives except a few that were unknowns given the newness of the building; coming in under the established objective had more to do with me overestimating setting these measures than anything else.

And, as an indication that we are only getting busier and helping more people, total circulation for July 2009 was 116,447, which represents a 17% increase over last July!

These are outstanding numbers and reflect a staff who is working incredibly hard to serve our customers. I owe you all a huge "thank you" for the amazing work you do every day.

Thanks!

Mike VC

A Few Updates

Greetings all,

Below are some updates on issues brought to my attention via the Issues blog or in person. Along those lines, I would suggest that if you have a question or issue that needs to be addressed by me, the fastest way to get a response is to come by my office, call me, or send an e-mail.

1. Study Rooms - Donna Joy has verified that keys are on their way. I have tapped Lisa and Allen to work on a plan for study room use. We are definitely limiting to two hours but are in the process of working out the details. You remember that I said it would be easy to develop a policy once we had keys. Well, I confess I spoke to soon. There are a few more challenges than I anticipated. Currently, we are going to look at the forthcoming program registration feature in III and see if that is an option. I will keep everyone posted on this.
2. 3rd Floor - The blue desk is being refinished and should be available soon. We have tested outlets for power and ensured LAN drops are present. Once the desk is complete, the blue desk (similar to what is in Teens) will be placed and the reservation station will be relocated to the side of the floor away from the reference desk. I do not have a firm date on when this will happen but am hoping it is done within the next three weeks.
3. Janitor Closets - PFD is working with the supervisors of the cleaning crews to see that they have keys to lock the closets. I will let you know once they have them.
4. Suspension List - Manny has worked hard to create a list of suspended customers. I have loaded the current version on the G drive in the "Central Security" folder. I am investigating other options on this as well.

And, as always, if you have any questions, concerns, or issue, do not hesitate to contact me or drop by my office.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Meetings with the Chief

Greetings,

We will be holding meetings for staff with the Chief next week. Here are the details:

• Monday, Aug 17 - 2:30 - 4:00 PM - LSSs to LIs - Program Place
• Tuesday, Aug 18 - 2:30 - 4:00 PM - LIIs to LIIS - Program Place

As we resume these meetings, they will have a similar format to previous meetings. There will be a brief information sharing/announcement period at the beginning. The majority of the meeting will be an open discussion with topics to be determined by attendees. I am interested in examining what I can do to make work as enjoyable as possible in light of current budget and staffing realities. I want to make sure I am doing everything I can to create an environment where both customers and staff feel welcome and appreciated. Also, if you cannot make it to the meeting or would like to chat ouside of the meeting, please do not hesitate to come by my office or give me a call; if I am unavailable, I will get back to you.

Thanks for all your hard work,

Mike VC

FIling Cabinets

Greetings,

We have received a limited number of filing cabinets. Since there were not enough for all staff to receive one, we have decided to distribute them to all Librarian (LI to LIII) staff. Mary Frances will be working with Jason Stephens to ensure these are properly distributed.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Waste Baskets for Staff in 455

Greetings,

We now have waste baskets for all staff in 455. To claim your basket, please come to the Chief's office. Yolanda has a sheet available that everyone will need to sign to indicate they have picked up a waste basket. A few things PFD would like me to share about these baskets:

• They are for paper only
• No liquids or food trash
• No liners should be used

That should be all. Feel free to come by and pick up your trash can at any time.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Welcome to Arthur Joseph Burchard!

Greetings,

I wanted to share that Central Library alums Chuck and Martha are now the proud parents of a baby boy. Here are the limited details I have at the moment:

Name: Arthur Joseph (A.J.) Burchard
Weight: 6 pounds, 15 ounces

Exciting news, indeed.

Mike VC

Staff Meetings with Chief

Greetings,

I am working on setting up monthly staff meetings with the Chief again in August. Due to scheduling and room conflicts, we had to cancel these meetings in recent months. I am working on finding a location and setting up new monthly dates for these meetings. Before I confirm anything, I would like to get some input from staff.

Should we continue holding these meetings with attendees divided by classification? Or, would it be preferable to invite all staff and schedule half for one meeting and half for the other? Either way, I will be having Yolanda attend the meetings and keep notes that will be posted here. Please feel free to share your input in the comments section.

Thanks,
Mike VC

Text Messaging Reference Service

Greetings,

HPL is currently participating in a cooperative pilot for delivering text messaging reference service. It is called InfoQuest. Our efforts are being headed up by our very own Paty Bustamante, Saima Kadir, and the exceptional CELS team. They will be sharing more information on the project as we proceed and a large publicity push will be coming in September. For now, you can find information at:

http://www.myinfoquest.info/

Information and a link to the service will soon be added to the Ask a Librarian section of HPL's Web site. While we are viewing this as a soft launch until the larger publicity push in September, it is perfectly alright (even encouraged) to share information about the service with customers.

I am also curious if anyone has any experiences to share (good or bad) with using existing services that answer questions--both those that charge a fee (e.g., kgb.com, Johnny27 (now defunct, I believe)) or those that are free (e.g., Google SMS, ChaCha). Please feel free to share via comments.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Skateboards this Saturday (8/8/09)

Greetings,

In order to accomodate the participants and attendees at this Saturday's Red Bull Manny Mania event, the library rule forbidding skateboards will be temporarily suspended for Saturday (8/8/09) only. While we are allowing skateboards in the building on this day, we do need to watch to ensure that no one uses their skateboards while in the building.

Thanks,

Mike VC