HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Greetings all,

I regret that I was unable to make it to yesterday's Thanksgiving meal/party. I did want to post a quick message expressing my ongoing appreciation of all the hard work that staff at Central do everyday in an often challenging environment. You are all quite amazing and your dedication is to be commended. I sincerely hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and a restful few days off of work.

Thanks,
Mike VC

Food Issue at CEN

Greetings,

I want to share with staff that your concerns about food at CEN have been heard. I have been working with administration on the need to change current practices at CEN. They have agreed to support that decision. This is not a change to policy but to practices here at CEN. According to policy, food "may" be permitted in a library if there is a "designated area". Because Inversion and Teens sell food, we have to continue to allow food in some "designated areas". I am working with Paty and Beatrice to come up with new practices in this area. It may very well be that food is limited to Teens and Inversion, which would realistically mean no outside food. We are hoping to implement the changes fairly soon and will share exact details with all staff and security prior to any changes.

The one bit I would add to this is that we will continue to follow the policy on beverages, which does not permit the flexibility that the food portion of the policy does. As a reminder, it states "the consumption of non-alcoholic beverages in covered containers is permitted at all library locations except HMRC."

Look for more information and implementation details on this change in the coming weeks.

Thanks,
Mike VC

Sorting Room Access

Greetings,

We are trying to work on ensuring that all staff who need it have access to the sorting room. If you need access to the sorting room and currently do not have it with your card, please send your name and id number to Yolanda. She is working on a list to submit again to try to get access.

Thanks,

Mike VC

All Staff Meetings

Greetings,

We will be holding meetings for all Central Service next week. These will be informational meetings where we will discuss changes to the reporting structure at Central. An e-mail should be coming out before the meeting sharing the basic details. The meetings will primarily be open meetings to discuss the new arrangements and other questions. There will be two meetings held; all staff should work with their manager to attend one of the meetings if they wish. Here is the information for the meetings:

• Tuesday, October 27 - 2:30 pm to 4 pm - Concourse Meeting Room
• Thursday, October 29 - 2:30 to 4 pm - Concourse Meeting Room

I look forward to seeing folks at these meetings, sharing information, and answering questions.

Thanks,

Mike Van Campen

Apologies and Moving Forward

Greetings,

Just wanted to offer a quick apology for not updating this blog frequently. I have been extremely busy with duties related to the Transformation Team and other responsibilities. It is looking like these duties will continue to occupy most of my time. As such, I am working with the managers to develop a plan for Central moving forward. I will share this as it develops.

Thanks,

Mike VC

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