Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

Greetings all,

I cannot express how pleased I am with the outcome of this weekend. Every last person on our staff came through and did an outstanding job. 99% of the comments I heard and conversations I had with our customers were not only positive but extremely so. One of the things I heard the most was how helpful everyone was.

I owe you all a huge party and more to express my appreciation for what an amazing job you all did. I want everyone to know that I was extremely proud and inspired by your exceptional commitment to customer service this weekend. No matter how tired we got, everyone kept smiling and making customers feel welcome. You are all phenomenal!!

Thank you so much for making this historic event a huge success and a lot of fun.


Mike VC

Reference Staffing

Before we begin staffing the floors I would like to share with everyone a modified view of roving. Given what we experienced this weekend, I would like to ensure everyone that even if you are assigned to be a rover, you will have a home base where you can and will need to sit--so long as you are attentive to what is going on on the floor and rise to greet and help customers as they approach--as always. Here is how the schedule will read and where your home base is:

WD = Welcome Desk
R1 = World Languages Desk (check on Customer Service North occasionally)

R2 = Customer Service North
R2 = Customer Service South
NOTE: Work this out with your partner for the hour; you can switch midway through if you prefer. We will not have a person always at the CORE desk.

Reference and R3 will switch off roving the floor and sitting (yes) at the reference kiosk on the third floor.

At least initially, LST staff will only be staffing the CS North desk on the first floor where they will help with Laptops and Holds and basic CS needs.


Thanks for all the great work to make the past weekend and the future a huge success.

mvc

Schoolwork at Work

Greetings,

I have been asked to share a reminder based on an issue that has come up in another library division. While we do encourage staff to pursue degrees in Library Science, staff are not allowed to work on school work of any kind during work hours for which they are getting paid. All work done when staff are "on the clock" should be HPL work. You are--of course--free to work on school work (or whatever you want--provided it does not impact other staff) during lunch or breaks. Schoolwork, as with any personal activity, needs to be done on an individual's time.

Thanks,
Mike VC

Videos from 2.0 Training

Wikis in Plain English


Social Networks in Plain English


Social Bookmarking in Plain English


del.icio.us: the screencast

Customer Banned from JIB

Greetings,

Here is information from HMRC staff about a patron who has been banned from the building.

"We recently had a patron, Mr. Alex Zepeda, banned from the JIB entirely
for verbal assaults/sexual harassment to several staff members and
patrons. Yesterday one of our staff members who he had previously
harassed encountered him while outside the library on her lunch break.
He harassed her again and threatened to “wait outside” the library for
her. We filed another incident report with HPL security and also
notified the police, who took a report. The police officer instructed
that if he assaults/threatens/harasses again, we need to call the police
immediately."

In addition, Saima reports that he had followed her around JIB in the past. There have been four incident reports filed on this customer before.

I would ask that anyone who might be familiar with this customer provide a description of him in the comments so that others can be aware when/if they see him.

mvc

Programming Plannig Information

Please read the following from Jennifer and submit ideas for programs.

mvc

Now that we are all back together, I would like to get everyone’s input on planning for adult programming. I’ll need to have all summer programming submitted by April 4^th, so we have just a couple of months to work on it. I will need to have all of your ideas submitted by the second week in March (but the sooner the better. Now is good), as all approved programs will need to be thought out and entered into the calendar system before the deadline. One of the new Programs we are really excited about is the “Brown Bag Lunch Series,” which consists of a variety of programs that take place over the 12-1, and then the 1-2, lunch hours. We will be doing book clubs, DIY, Cooking, and anything else that we think might be of interest. We’re going to be very ambitious with this series, hosting programs every day, possibly at both lunch hours. This is an opportunity for you to host the program you have always wanted to host. Particularly interested in a certain genre? Host your own book club!

Other programs series that will be featured include a new senior series with an emphasis on technology, a combination book/movie club, a GLBT series, Web 2.0/Social networking, and a Young Professionals series. Most of the film programs will be held in the evenings, and we will host some of the DIY programs on Saturdays.

I think that we can figure out a way to turn your dream program into a reality, so please see me or any member of the Central Programming Committee (Darcy, Saima, Sarah B., or Marcia) to share your ideas. Sarah has created a book club sign-up sheet, and we will have that out to you shortly.

Also, I try to post all programming and Outreach information on my programming blog at http://hplcenprogout.blogspot.com/. Please put this address into your readers! Please note, in order to keep posting information on that blog, I need to receive comments and feedback so that I know I have readers. J

Thanks!

Jennifer Schwartz

Suspended Customer

Good New! I spoke with Roosevelt and Meller and we are all agreed that Mr. Kahn should be suspended for 90 days (as laid out in our policies and procedures) from using our remote reference services due to abusive language and vulgarities. If he calls Telephone Reference, please politely transfer the call to a manager (say: "Thank you for calling. I can connect you with a supervisor to help you." or something similar) or to me so that we may inform him of this suspension. I want to stress that we were only able to do this thanks to the Incident Reports and documentation from staff. Great job on documenting his behavior and keep doing this if we face any other abusive customers.

Thanks,
mvc