Staff
Meeting
June
5, 2015
Place: Tuttle
Attendance: Brandon, Tula, Jeremy, Neshia, Rosa, Ashley, Nadine, Wendy,
Brittany, Courtnie, Shinetra, and Pedro.
1) Julia Ideson Fund – the Julia Ideson
Fund was started by the very first director of the Houston Public Library. This
is Fund is for all employees, part-time or full-time, and is to help them if
they have experienced a financial hardship or unexpected expense that can be a
burden. Your job title does will not prevent you from qualifying for the fund.
There is a limited amount in the funds and only so much of it can actually be
used, so the funds are handed out based upon need and availability.
To apply, the
applicant must submit the completed form online via email and ONLY correspond
with the committee through email. If an applicant makes contact with a
committee member in person or by other means, it will be an instant
disqualification.
Only the
applicant and the committee will know they applied, no one else will need to
know nor will the information be shared.
It is completely confidential.
Because Food,
Utilities, and Housing (rent, mortgage) can get high there is cap off limit on
how much a person can receive. This does not mean those are the only things a
person can apply for money for; although, the following items will denied
assistance: telephone bills (luxury), car notes (luxury), bounced checks,
tuition and daycare.
The money that
is granted is a gift and not a loan. This does not have to be paid back.
The form and
the guidelines can be found on the intranet under Forms -> Human Resources
-> Julia Ideson Fund Form.
2) HOLDS – the new holds label printer
will be ready for distribution in July. The size of the machine itself will be
slightly bigger than the Star printer we use for check-out receipts already.
The new label will be a sticker and it will make send and receiving holds much
easier for all staff members. When the
printers are installed, there will be a training if you are not scheduled to
work that day, that is fine, the rest of the staff will pass the information
on. One thing to keep in mind though, is
deciding which computer to place the printer at. Wherever the printer is at the
holds MUST be done at that station, no exceptions.
3) Quality Management System – This is the
project that Michelle Gorman has been
mentioning a lot lately at meetings. You may have recalled previously, a few
months prior, Brandon going around asking for input on what we do on a daily
basis (basic procedures); get the holds, check the bookdrop, open the doors,
open the gates, etc.
The idea is
that eventually we are going to have a folder that is going to have all the
procedures that is done by HPL staff and the exact method to complete that
procedure. This way when you go to another location if someone asks you to do
something, you know exactly how to do it, because it is done the exact same way
at your location. This is not what is happening right now; what happens is that
you visit a location and you find out that their procedures and methods are
completely different from your procedures.
Michelle has
asked for a committee to come together and help input their knowledge of the
procedures into the QMS. This type of work is not possible from a top to bottom
mentality; she wants input from staff members in all areas. If you are
detail-oriented, have an eye for detail, or if you know that you are familiar with a
particular procedure (i.e. serials, applications, meeting room requests, etc.)
then please, do not hesitate to help out. You can email Brandon, Tula, Pedro,
Michelle or Laurie if you are interested in helping out. This process of the
QMS is not going to be done overnight, it will take time and the more people
that help out the better. Also, do not be afraid that you might be doing a
procedure wrong, you might have found an easier way and no one else knew about
it. With this collaboration, procedures might become simpler and more effective
because someone shared that secret shortcut.
The committee
does not meet in person, it is completely online and is amended in real-time,
so there is no worry about having to travel. Just think about it and let us
know!
4) Manager’s Meeting Information –
One quick
thing, there has been a change to the Correction Action Program. The biggest
change is that if you get a reminder 1, it will no longer be a formal written
reprimand, it will be a verbal action. It also changed some of the language. If
you get a chance, please look over it if you are interested, so you can
understand what’s going on.
a) Volunteer Program (Wendy) – One of the biggest goals for the 2016
Fiscal/Volunteer Year, is for all the branches to fully participate in the
volunteer program. Now, this doesn’t
mean volunteers can just come be walk-ins; they have still have to apply
through the website and talk with Andrea Lawrence. The background check still
must be completed and so on. In the past, libraries could have the option to
say yes or no if they needed a volunteer, but now, if the volunteer has passed
the screening and is requesting to work at the location, then the library must
obliged.
Volunteers don’t
just have to do shelving, they can do discards, SRP, crafting, etc. but the
things that they are restricted from doing (circulation, patrons records) is
the same.
b) Contact List for LMS – Since the reorganization of LMS has taken
place, people may not know who to contact about certain items or questions.
This list will help you with who is in charge of what area. This list will be
emailed out, posted on the blog and posted in the workroom.
c) Branding – One of the big things about
branding is NO TAPE. Recently, they sent out samples of tape alternatives. Try
using these to see if they work or not.
i)
Survey
– With those came a survey, complete it and turn it in by the end of the
day (Friday, June 5th).
ii) Email Signatures – This is the next
step. They want all our signatures to look the same; that way if someone sends
out an email to an outside liaison, the person will know it is from an HPL
employee. They have adapted a signature that will work in the Outlook Web
Access version as well, so everyone will be able to see the signature no matter
from what version of Outlook you are using.
5) Float Discussion and Weeding – Tuttle
says they are getting too full in the audiobooks area. Brandon can contact the person on the LMS
sheet in charge of floating to let them know about the audio books. As for
floating out stuff, we can float out up to 3 bins per week to LMS. Try to float
out duplicate copies before we float out anything else.
Weeding, this
month we can and next month we can only weed and discard Juvenile books. The
Friends of the Library are getting ready for the September Children’s booksale
and they will be able to pick them up in August. If you box up any adult books,
please keep them separate from the children’s boxes.
NOTES: Mr. Jim has brought a message
back from GSD requesting that we start being careful about the food in the
workroom and around the circulation desk. When the pest people come out to
spray, they see the food in the trash cans around the front area and simply say
it is because of all the food in the trash that is attracting the bugs. If you
eat at your desk or drink at the circulation area, please throw the trash away
in the kitchen, to limit the food trash to one area.
Also, you may
want to store your food in the fridge or in a Ziploc if you keep in a drawer,
because if they spray around the desk area, you don’t want the chemicals or
bugs to get on your food. The little bit we can do to help minimize the crumbs,
will minimize the bug problem.
Last thing,
service animals, there is a man that has been coming at Tuttle with a dog, he
says it’s a service animal and has offered to show the paperwork. The paperwork
is not necessary and it is meaningless. Remember that HPL goes by the ADA
policy and only dogs and miniature horses are allowed. This dog is well-behaved
and stays right by the man’s side, he is not a bother to anyone and is under
control. As long as the animal remains under control by a leash, harness, hand
signals or voice command, it is fine.
If people
complain about they have allergies or they are afraid of dogs, this is not
library, city, or state regulations; this is Federal ADA compliance. If they
are just complaining about the presence of the dog alone, we just say it is ADA
compliance, if is because “the dog peed on my bag” that is different, we can
confront the customer and say something, but this has yet to be the problem.
Questions: Wendy asked if she had a
right to tell the kids to go to summer school, if she knew they had to be in
summer school.
Answer: Pedro replied that since it was
the summer, it is up to the parents to make sure their children are attending summer
school. We are only concerned with truancy during the regular school year where
the school hours are between 9 and 2:30. Now, if you know the parents and you
know the kids, and if you have the parents number, then give them a call, if
you know the parents would be concerned about where their children are at. But,
you are not responsible for their schooling.
One final thing, remember we are not
the police, the incident at Tuttle with the man having his phone stolen. He
can’t just request to have the footage pulled, there is a process that has to
be done in order for the footage to be pulled. We do not even get to see the
footage either so if people ask we can honestly say we do not have access to
the camera feed. If something is stolen or if any trouble arises call the
police and if you are unsure, get Brandon or Tula to assist.
