Free Library of Philadelphia Remains Open!

I don't know if everyone has been following the saga in Philadelphia. To fill everyone in, Philadelphia, like many other cites, is facing serious budget issues. Their situation was so severe that they had begun plans for shutting down every single one of their libraries at the beginning of October. This closure would have impacted all locations, all employees, and all programs and services. Fortunately, over 2,000 customers of the library wrote to legislatures urging that they do whatever they had to in order to keep the libraries open. Last week, by a vote of 32 to 17, the Pennsylvania State senate passed a bill that will keep the Free Library of Philadelphia system open--sparing the jobs of 3,000 employees and preventing a complete closure.

This is fantastic news for the entire library community. I wanted to share this bit of good news amidst the daily--at times, it feels almost hourly--stories of libraries facing budget cuts, hour changes, lay-offs, furloughs, etc.

Great Work! CEN Shows Huge Gains in All Statistical Areas

Greetings,

Our stats from August, usually one of our slowest months, continue to show unprecendented gains with close to 20% (or higher) gains in nearly every category when compared to the same month last year.

Library Visitors: 77,423 - This works out to roughly 250 people every hour that we were open in August.

Circulation:

• August 2008: 92,581
  
• August 2009: 115,123
  
• Increase of 24%

Computer Users

• August 2008: 21,989
  
• August 2009: 26,131
• Increase of 19%

Program Attendance

• August 2008: 2,430
  
• August 2009: 3,597
• Increase of 48%

Reference Questions

• August 2008: 15,588
  
• August 2009: 20,314
  
• Increase of 30%

Directional Questions

• August 2008: 16,534
• July 2008: 23,641
• Increase of 43%

These amazing gains continue to reflect the hard work of an extremely dedicated staff. I cannot thank staff enough for the continuing hard work that you all do every day.

Sincerely,

Mike VC

TLA District 8 Fall Meeting

Greetings,

As many of you know, the TLA District 8 Fall Meeting is fast approaching. It will be held Saturday, October 17th at the University of Houston at Sugarland. Here is more information from Linda Stevens, the Chair of District 8:

Registration for the TLA District 8 Fall Meeting at the University of Houston Sugar Land is now available online through the link below.

http://www.txla.org/html/dist/distmtg.html

This year’s meeting, “Don’t Miss the Bus: 21^st Century Library Skills” will begin with registration from 7:30 – 8:30, followed by the general session, with YA and women’s fiction and mystery author Susan McBride. Morning presentations will be from 9:45 – 10:45 and 11:00 – 12:00, then lunch and the final group of presentations from 1:00 – 2:00. We have speakers from a wide variety of libraries presenting on a wide variety of topics.

If you are planning to attend or present at the event, please inform your manager and the Chief of Central Services by Wednesday, September 23.

Thank you,

Mike VC

Compliment for Telephone Reference! Great Job!

Greetings,

In recognition of outstanding work from our TR staff, I wanted to share this nice message that Alice Depot, manager of the Hillendahl Neighborhood Library, sent to me:

Hi, Just wanted to let you know what a good job your crew in telephone reference is doing. Yesterday, I went to Apria Healthcare. The lady who helped me came into the room saying, You’re a Librarian. I just love that telephone reference you all have. I know the number by heart I call it so much…713-236-1313. Any questions anyone has I just call 713-236-1313 and get my answer right away. It’s great! So of course I said thank you, I’m glad you like the service. So, kudos to your staff. Alice

Keep up the great work! It is truly appreciated!

Thanks,

Mike VC

Staff Appreciation and September Birthday Party

Greetings,

We will be hosting a monthly Staff Appreciation/Birthday in September. Here are the details:

Tuesday, September 29 from 2:00PM-4:00 PM in Program Place

Hiawatha and Yolanda are looking for volunteers to bring chips, dips or refreshments to our festivity. I will be providing cake, plates, etc. Please email Yolanda Anguiano if you would like to contribute.

There will be fun, food, gaming, and music. I'm looking forward to playing some Rock Band. Who wants to join me?

Thanks,

Mike VC

Meetings w/ Chief

Greetings,

It is extremely important to me that I continue to hold meetings with all staff. I learn a great deal from those meetings. Unfortunately, with my new role at Marston, I am going to have to work out a different day and time to hold these meetings. Under the old scheme, those meetings would have been held today and yesterday. I am unfortunately not available during those times. I will be working on rescheduling for a regular day and time while I am serving in my dual capacity.

In the meantime, I want to encourage staff to come by or send me any ideas or suggestions they have for better serving customers or functioning more efficiently. I also want to let everyone know that we will be launching some staff appreciation initiatives (low-cost, of course) in the coming weeks in order to show folks how much they are appreciated. Along those lines, any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated as well.

As always, thanks for all your commitment and hard work,

Mike VC

PLA Reminder

Greetings,

As related in e-mails from Paty Bustamante and Regina Stemmer while I was out last week, I just wanted to quickly remind anyone interested in attending PLA in Portland needs to have their Supplemental Questionaire submited to me before close of business today (open of business tomorrow also works). Tomorrow afternoon, the Chiefs will be working with the Deputy Director of Public Services to make decisions on these forms. If you have any questions, please call or e-mail me; I will be checking e-mail and have my Blackberry (713.303.1974) this evening.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Weekly Schedule

Greetings,

Although things may change as projects and issues arise, here is a rough draft of my schedule for the next several months:

• Monday-Tuesday - Marston
• Wednesday-Thursday - Central
• Friday - Marston

I do have a phone in my office at Marston. It is the same number as my office at Central (832.393.1371). I am able to pick it up no matter which office I am in.

Thanks,

Mike Van Campen