Meeting Minutes, February 6, 2016

The meeting was held at the Tuttle neighborhood library Friday February 05, 2016 at 8:15 AM.

I.                    Brandon began by covering staffing changes old business at HPL

a.       Brandon reminded us that Cyber Security training would be due next week and asked if anyone had yet to complete it. Only one staff member had yet to complete it and so they were scheduled to finish it next Saturday.

b.      Brandon informed everyone about the new phone kept for the security guard at Pleasantville. Drew shared that the decision had been made to keep the phone locked in the safe and that it would be brought out Tuesday mornings and charged.

c.        Brandon reminded everyone that there is now a staff suggestion box available on the blog and that anonymous commenting had been implemented to keep all suggestion anonymous if they so desired.

d.      Lastly, Brandon asked for feedback on the new stats sheets. Staff responded that they liked having sheets available at each computer so Brandon decided to continue using them.

II.                  Brandon moved on to new branch business

a.       Brandon discussed the new schedule.

                                 i.            Schedules will mostly stay the same with the exception of Wednesdays when Tuttle regulars will work at Pleasantville and vice versa.

                               ii.            The exception to this will be Early Release Days when we will beef up the Pleasantville staff with one of the Pleasantville regulars.

                              iii.            This led to a brief discussion about the success of the After School Zones most recent Early Release day and the general improvement of the kids’ behavior in response to the hard work of the Pleasantville staff in finding more activities to engage the kids.

b.      Brandon handed out the new shelving assignments.

c.       We discussed the new Lynda Library webinar.

                                 i.            Staff will be notified when the webinar recording is posted to the training portal.

III.                Brandon moved on to sharing announcements from the manager’s meeting

a.       Brandon began by addressing “the elephant in the room”, the budget

                                 i.            Mayor Turner has called for all departments to participate in a “shared sacrifice”. Brandon put this in perspective by pointing out that this is not the first time the city has been under budget or even our greatest shortfall and that this sacrifice would be spread out among other city departments as well so there was no reason to believe the library would absorb an undue amount of cuts.

                               ii.            There would be a slowdown in hiring, but it is not a hiring freeze. This means that all city positions that become unfilled will remain so for longer than previous, if they are filled. All positions must be examined and justified before they fill them. Brandon reiterated that this did not mean we would NOT be filling Nadine’s position, just that we do not know one way or the other at the immediate moment.

                              iii.            The goal of the Mayor’s office, Michelle Gorman, and all the way down the line to Brandon is to be as transparent as possible during this process. That means sharing what they know, when they know it, and waiting for accurate information while decisions are still being made.

                             iv.            The library is not currently talking about layoffs and the hope is that by saving money with slowing down hiring and in other areas that the library will not even have to begin these discussions. HPL is dedicated to avoiding any layoffs if it is at all possible.

b.      Brandon shared the exciting news about ConectED.

                                 i.            The current March Madness race to the final four program with select third grade classes worked as a pilot program for this.

                               ii.            Dr. Lawson went to Washington DC to participate in the national discussion.

                              iii.            Details are still being worked out, but ultimately when the program is finalized cards will be issued to every HISD student at every grade level.

                             iv.            That means Esquire can finally get a library card!!!

c.       Brandon shared the new developments in Digital Strategies

                                 i.            We will be getting a new reservation system with more details as they are worked out.

                               ii.            This is one of many new projects Digital Strategies is working on and we will continue to share their progress.

d.      Brandon announced the new craft room at Central Library

                                 i.            We know have a central location for die cuts, cri cuts, rolls of colored paper and more at room 455 of the Central Library.

                               ii.            Requests for simple things can still be requested via email but the hope is to get as much hands on use of the room to continue and expand its use.

                              iii.            Time can be made when going to youth or manager’s meeting, but if this runs into traffic jams Brandon will schedule time during the week for people to head over.

                             iv.            Eventually there will be a photo directory to help prepare for visits!

e.      Brandon announced the introduction of “Outcome based programing to HPL.

                                 i.            Brandon covered the difference between output: “we had 18 parents attend story time” versus outcome: “of 18 parents surveyed, 90% say they feel more comfortable reading to their child at home after this story time”

                               ii.            Brandon announced that Very Ready Reading will be the first program to benefits from outcome based programing.

                              iii.            We reviewed the basics of the Very Ready Reading program and how adaptable it is to suit individual story telling styles while still maintaining the vitally important consistency of songs, rhymes, stories which include a participation element, and including the three literacy tips per story time.

IV. The meeting closed with Nadine wishing all the staff the best and thanking us for all we do here as she departs for her new career and the staff expressing their gratitude and best wishes in return.