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

And Again: Great Work

I know I have said it before but I feel I need another post on this.  We have received more unsolicited compliments from the public about exceptional service from our staff.  Folks are really taking notice of all of your hard work.  In the past weeks, the compliments have nearly tripled the complaints.  And, the complaints mostly have nothing to do with customer service issues.

Oustanding!

mvc

Good Job - Again!!

I can't thank staff enough for what a great job they have been doing.   As noted earlier, I have been quite impressed with staff recently.  I have noticed staff taking steps to create a welcoming environment and regularly offering exeptional service.  As verification that I am not alone in noticing this, we have received several written compliments (and I have heard from customers and staff about others) this week.  

I was particularly impressed with the compliment Mary Frances already mentioned on the Central Blog.  This was impressive because the customer complimented everyone who helped her over a six hour period on the third floor.  She writes "every person...went beyond what was expected to be helpful" and that she "cannot compliment their knowledge and professionalism enough."  This is outstanding and extremely impressive. 

Great work!

mvc

Book Lift

Please start using the book lift to move materials from floor to floor.  All LST staff have been trained.  Any reference staff who are unsure how to use the life can contact Daniel, Sylvia, Mary Frances, or Cindy (among many others) in order to get a qucik tutorial on how to use use the lift.  

Sorry for the confusion on this. 

mvc