Racist or Threatening Comments

Greetings,

A question has come up about how to handle racist comments made by customers.  Such comments fall under the "obscene, abusive, insulting, or threatening language" part of the library rules.  If this occurs, I encourage staff (or a guard or supervisor if you are uncomfortable or feel threatened) to warn the customer that such language is inappropriate, will not be tolerated, and--if it continues--the customer will be suspended from the library (or Telephone reference).  

If it persists, we should suspend the person for 90 days as laid ouot in HPL Policy 2.3C2.  Further, at this point, we are under no obligatioin to conitnue offering this person service.  This means that if, after a warning, on a phone call such language persists, you may terminate the call.   As usual, please share all of this in an incident report.  

Thanks,

mvc

EPE Camps

This is information for all supervisors who have to complete EPEs in April:

We will be having several sessions of "EPE Camp," an opportunity to work on your EPEs in a dedicated environment, where we can help each other out, share tricks of the trade, and hopefully alleviate some ESSD (EPE Season Stress Disorder). All sessions will be held in the Concourse Computer Training Lab.

There are 3 time slots. Choose the ones that are best for you and drop in as your schedule allows:

• Monday, April 13th, 9 am - 12 pm
• Wednesday, April 15th, 9 am - 1 pm
• Friday, April 17th, 12 pm - 4 pm

Mac Updates

Greetings,

At this time, the Macs on one and two are a part of the WLC and CORE and should follow the guidelines of the computers in that area. If this limits use of the Macs too severley, we can look at it again in a week or so.

The hour time limit is a suggestion that should apply when someone else is waiting. However, if no one is waiting and they are not being used, there is no reason whay someone cannot continute to use them. For this pilot test, we want the Macs to be used as much as possible. So, I would encourage staff to use their best judgment on this.

My assumption is that the Macs are filtered but I have not had this verified yet. I am waiting for a response on this.

I apologize for the late news/information on the Macs. They came sooner than expected and information is being shared as soon as received/discovered.

Thanks,
Mike VC

Apple Mac Computers

Greetings,

IT will be installing five Macs today in various parts of the library for a 30 day trial.  These will be as follows: 2 on World Languages Center, 1 in the C.O.R.E., and 2 in Teens.  Paty and Sandy are the contact for the install.  There will be information for staff on helping the public with this as we get it.  In addition, there will be four Mac laptops available for checkout at the Laptop Desk.  We will have training information on these as well as soon as we get it.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Food and Beverages - Update

Greetings,

I am reposting on this because there was some confusion--on my part.  According to policy, covered non-alcoholic beverages are allowed at "all library facilities" (HMRC is excepted) and throughout the building.  The second paragraph in my posting from January applies to food not beverages.  Food is what is not allowed in the computer areas.   I myself got a little muddled on this distinction.  So, I apologize for any confusion.

Thanks,

mvc

Food and Beverages

Greetings,

An update:

According to recently revised Policy 2.3 "The consumption of non-alcoholic beverages in covered containers is permitted at all Library locations except HMRC." This means that customers can bring in and consume the contents of bottles with lids and cups with covers so long as they do not contain alcohol; I do not consider a can a "covered container".

As for food, the policy allows food in designated areas. Rather than put up signs designating various areas as designated or non-designated or more signs indicatins "No...", food will be allowed in all locations of Central with the exception of the Computer Area on the first floor and the computer lab on concourse. However, in the areas that are a part of Inversion, only food from Inversion is allowed.

Thanks,

Mike VC

Monday Brings SIX New Employees to Central

Greetings,

The past few months of hard work on interviewing and expediting HR paperwork will pay off in a big way on Monday. On that day, we will see the largest influx of newly hired employees to Central in a single day (or week for that matter) since we re-opened. We will be welcoming six new employees. They are:

• Lisa Carrico - Librarian II (CPUB)
  
• Esmerelda Gil - Library Assistant (CLST) - Joins CEN from JUN
• Trisha Hollis - Sr. Library Assistant (CLST) - Joins CEN from STE
• Kathleen Korash - Library Assistant (CLST)
• Kelly Maloney - Library Assistant (CLST)
  
• Gordon Turner - Librarian I (CELS)
  

Sometime later in the week, we will have a small celebration welcoming our new employees. In the meantime, when you see a new face introduce yourself and welcome then to Central.

Thanks,
Mike VC

Counting People

Greetings,

As of April 1st, we will begin keeping count of daily visitors to the Central Library and reporting it in our monthly statistical report. We will be relying on the security gates to do this counting. Each gate keeps track of how many times someone walks through. What we will do is record that number every morning on all three gates (parking garage elevator, stairs, and lobby entrance). The numbers are then entered into a spreadsheet that subtracts the current days number from the previous day and divides by two to arrive at the number of visitors. Previously the statistics for number of visitors had been arrived at by using door count numbers and extrapolating out for the whole year. This should provide for more accurate numbers.

During the week, Adam will be responsible for recording the number on the gates. During the weekends, CLST supervisors will record the numbers and send them to Adam.

Thanks,
Mike VC