Training

The new training system no longer automatically lets me know when you've signed up for training.

If you sign up for something, please make sure you also send me an email letting me know so I can approve it.

Apparently, this is why several people arrived at Defensive Driving and were not on the roll.

If your training is coming up, and you still haven't heard from me, please let me know again so we can be sure you get the credit you deserve.

Thanks,
Brandon

In coming Floats

Centralized Floating is going to be gradually ramping up in the next few weeks.

As part of this, we *may* be receiving items as floats without float labels on them.

These items have been floated out by our collection development team, and that we do not have the option to send them back.

Keep them, check them in, and shelve them like normal.

Thanks,
Brandon

Meeting Notes

Staff Meeting

April 3, 2015

Place: Tuttle

Attendance: Brandon, Tula, Jeremy, Rosa, Ashley, Nadine, Neshia, Brittany and Courtnie.

Absent: Wendy

General Information: Staff Development Day is May 1^st, remember that it is all day long and that part-timers will need to start talking to Brandon about arranging their schedule for that week. Also, no outside food or drink will be allowed in the GRB.

1)      Manager’s meeting information:

a)      Changes @ LMS – the department is being rearranged and in the future there will be no more Float Hubs; it will eventually become more centralized. Also, Fred Schumaucher is no longer the person to call for circulation admin, he is now the Administration Manager for LMS; you will need to contact Esther Reyes if you have any questions about circulation.

Hold labels will be changing sometime in the future. They are eventually going to be printed out on sticker labels that can be fixed onto the item and sent through delivery easier with the patron name already on the label. This will be eliminate the need for rubber bands and easier for labeling the items.

b)      SPACES – RFID tags/scanners are going into place at 5 more locations by the end of the year. The locations have not been named but eventually this is a process that will be put into all the locations over time.

Service Animals –Only miniature horses or dogs are allowed, according to the ADA, to serve as service animals. If someone comes into the library with either one, staff are only allowed to ask two (2) questions: Is this animal required because of a disability?  … and …. What work or task has this animal been trained to perform? Please read over the ADA information sheet about service animals, of course if you are unsure of anything, you may ask Brandon or Tula to help.

c)       Weeding-Pilot Program – the pilot program is to see if they can get a more organized system of weeding and discard box pickup established. Right now, select locations are given the go ahead to weed not only by condition but by last check out. Tuttle and Pleasantville have until April 3^rd to finish their discards and update the tally sheet on the G drive. The idea is that select NL locations will be given 2-3 weeks to weed their collection. Following that, Central will weed for 2-3 weeks and the cycle will continue back and forth. During special booksales (i.e. Children booksale) the weeding may be more specific the weeks leading up to that, where children books will be weeded.

i)        Weeding by condition – Apparently, there have been books found in the Friends boxes that are discarded but seem to have little damage to them. If you are weeding by condition and you feel like the item may be questionable (i.e. a stain, or torn page/ cover, reference copy), let Brandon or Tula see it first.

If the items are from another library and being returned to our location and it is damaged, then you are allowed to discard it. It does not have to be sent back to the home location to be discarded. The only ones that is excluded from this are items that come from the “Closed Stacks” location. When these are checked in there is a pop up that says “closed stacks”. These items were more likely damaged by age and condition, long before they were sent out for a hold. Closed stack items can tend to be the last copy in the system or just really old books, so if you think the item might need to be reviewed for discarding, attach a note to the book before sending back to central.

If the items are severely damaged then you send it to Discard. Friends items still need to be sellable condition. Also, remember that the boxes should not be filled completely; keep them half full or less, so that the delivery drivers aren’t lifting boxes that are too heavy.

d)      Changes in Positive Performance – changes are coming soon but it may not actually affect us too badly.   The change will actually occur to the wording and phrasing of the procedures and bring the library in line with other city departments.

2)      Nuts and Bolts:

a)      Reconsideration form vs. Comment form – If you have a patron that comes in complaining about a book or item in the collection or if they say they want the library to reconsider the item for the collection; please offer them the reconsideration form. Comment forms are for general comments, whether they are good or bad about the library staff, service, etc. The reconsideration form is more specific and will ask specific questions of the patron about the item. This form will then be forwarded to LMS where someone will review the item in detail. If a patron fills a comment form about a book being in the system, then it will take a lot longer for the process to begin. The forms will be printed up and kept up at the front desk at both locations. Keep in mind that unlike the comment form, the reconsideration form cannot be filled out online through the HPL website; we have to give them form directly.

b)      In-house flyers -  If you want to print up your own in-house flyers for an event, then you need to use the pre-approved template, but you must not use the clipart that comes with it. The flyers have to fall within the guidelines of HPL. Of course if you give enough notice, you can design the flyer you want on the template and send it to the print-shop who can print it up for you.   These need to be seen by Brandon before they are sent in.

c)       Scheduling – Please remember to follow the schedule exactly. If there is something that you need to do that day or during the coming week, let Brandon or Tula know so that the schedule can be updated accordingly. Also, everyone needs to be on rotation for operational duties. No person needs to be doing the same opening/closing procedures every day.

d)      New Notice to Users – the wording within the library rules have changed in a few of the lines and some of the rules have moved from being prohibited inside the building to prohibited on library premises altogether.  Key changes to remember is the line for  “No Smoking within 25 feet” is now “Smoking of any type”. Also, use of any tobacco products of any type is prohibited, yet this does not include e-cigarettes, those do not involve tobacco and the City of Houston has not officially banned those yet. If you have any questions about what other changes have occurred to the notice, do not hesitate to ask.

e)      Open Enrollment ENDS APRIL 15^TH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you have questions or need assistance ask Brandon.

*One last thing, please remember to refrain from counting the money until after the doors to the public are officially locked. This is for all of our safety, if you are concerned with the time you have to count the money, remember that you can print up the sheets and count the money in the morning when you have more time.

   The Pleasantville/Tuttle grouping finally completed the wall in time for Wild Rumpus Day! Thanks to everyone for the teamwork for making this possible. The teachers and kids have already been complimenting it.

Our next artwork will be for the summer with them based around "Back to the Future". Any ideas or suggestions will be welcomed.

Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment for benefits started on Monday March 16.

This is an active enrollment system.  Every full time employee must log on and make the decisions they would like.

 NOTHING IS CARRIED OVER FROM LAST YEAR!!!

Please check your email for this important matter.

Thanks,
Brandon

Next week

A reminder -

I will be unavailable from Saturday through Wednesday of next week.  I will be back at my regular time on Thursday.

If you can wait for an answer, please send me an email and I'll respond when I return.  If it is an emergency, either call Tula, Pedro, or if neither is available, call the Neighborhood Library Administration line.

Thanks!
Brandon

Friday, March 6 staff meeting Notes

 Staff Meeting

March 6, 2015

Place: Tuttle

Attendance: Brandon, Tula, Jeremy, Rosa, Nadine, Wendy, and Courtnie

Absent: Brittany

1)      Manager’s meeting information:

a)      Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO)- We cannot stop someone from using the restroom based upon their outward appearance of gender. Anyone can use the restroom of their choice to which they identify with. If another patron starts to become disruptive about someone using a restroom, then we need to call security or police on the one causing the disruption. If someone wants to question or bring up the fact that the ordinance is in the courts then staff are encouraged to use the Executive Order 1-50, this order is not in the courts and it also is about non-discriminatory restroom use.

b)      Staffing – Ashley is starting on the 16^th of March. We are also getting a full-time staff person from LMS on the 18^th of March. We are still going to be getting a part-time replacement for Lori’s position but that will be at a later date. When the new staff start, Ashley will go to PLE and the LMS person will be primarily at Tuttle along with Jeremy, to help jump start the Juvenile program.

c)       Shelving consistency – The CE wants all the NLs to shelve the books identically. Right now they are starting with the concept books (shapes, colors, ABCs, 123s); they will need to be interfiled with the regular picture books. As of right now, Holiday books and other special sections, can stay separated until further notice.

i)        Quick Note: Josh Norris has resigned from GSD security. If he does come into the library, please remember to treat him courteous and just like any other patron. He just is no longer a City Employee.

d)      Incident Reports – I, Tula, will start to pass out training guides for incident reports. I will send a scanned copy of what an incident report should look like. It is requested that anyone who witnesses an incident should make a report; do not just delegate it to the highest person. Since most of the staff isn't used to writing incident reports, I will come up with a weekly example and send it to everyone which then people will write up a mock report for me and Brandon to see only as practice. This way when something does happen, you will all know what to do and can simply send it in; especially if we both might be out of the office for a few days.

e)      Comment Forms – all the previous comment forms that are printed up and stored at the front desk(s) need to be recycled. The new and updated comment forms can be downloaded and printed from the reference guide on the intranet. When filling out the forms be sure the “Staff Comment” portion is filled out. Find out from the patron if they want to be contacted and if so how; this information is what you would put in the staff portion, yes, they want to be contacted; no, they do not want to be contacted. Forms need to be viewed by the manager first unless they are out on vacation will not return in a timely manner, then they can be sent on to admin. Comment forms can be scanned and emailed to Pedro, if you send it into CE then please send it to Yolanda and label it as Comment Form on the envelope; otherwise it will remain on the desk unopened for a while. Also remember that if the comment is about IT, then you can call IT immediately and just find out if something can be done or not; it does not have to wait for an admin. This would also go into the staff comment area, information about what you did to help remedy the situation. 

2)      Customer Service Minute:

a)      Attitude @ the Desk – Everyone is doing a good job, haven’t heard of a compliant about anyone being too mean or rude to customers.

b)      Eye Contact – Just remember that eye contact is important. Making eye contact with a patron means you are paying attention to them and hearing them. When it comes to answering the phones, where you cannot make eye contact, remember that the tone of your voice can be your eyes. If you sound pleasant and cheerful they will probably be too. If you sound harsh or speak with an uninteresting tone they will probably think you are not wanting to help them. So even if they can’t see you smile when you are talking, even on the phone, it can be heard!

3)      Nuts and Bolts:

a)      Timing of Future Staff Meetings – Managers meetings have switched to the 4^th Friday of the month. So the staff meeting will be held the Friday after. Be aware of this when scheduling doctor appointments. Also, the managers meetings have started to include assistant managers as well, so Tula will now also be attending so that two people will be able to hear the news and report back what is going on.

b)      Missing Item List –Not all NL has been doing this, but is requested that all NL should start to do this if you are not already doing so. You can retrieve the missing list each Friday from the Reference section of the Intranet.

c)       Reshelving Project @ Tuttle – (Follow the guide that was handed out at the meeting)

d)      Shelf reading assignments – Once the shifting is completed and new staff have become adjusted, then assignments may change.

e)      Sick/Vacation/Dr. Appts – Just send in the requests on Kronos. There is a section for a message where you can leave Brandon a message if you need to explain in detail what you want to do about your hours or what is going on. You do not have to send in an email first to get permission to send in kronos.

f)       Cleaning up workrooms – Thanks to Nadine for cleaning up the safe room at Tuttle. Next is to start on the work areas and get those organized. Just remember to put things back where they belong so everything isn’t cluttered.

g)      Training – You may take Gale courses but they will not count the full 24 hours. You will only get 6 hours of training towards your total hours. Also, the all-day Staff development day training is mandatory for both full-time and part-time employees. This will take place on May 1^st, so start  to let Brandon know about schedules so it can be worked out.

h)      Flip Kits – Only one coupon for the CMH can be given out per survey per kit. If someone checks out 20 kits and returns 20 DIFFERENT surveys then they can receive 20 coupons. If someone checks out 1 kit (ex: for a daycare) and the person returns with 20 surveys for that 1 kit then they cannot get but 1 coupon. Remember that when a Flip Kit returns from checkout, that they must all be returned back to CMH no matter what. If it happens to have a hold on it for another branch, please tape the receipt to the side of the label without the barcode and send it off to CMH. They will replenish it and then send it to the proper location.

i)        FYI -  If there is ever a shortage of $10 or more in the cash drawer, the police have to be notified. Do not lose the credit card receipts that the patron signs; and if someone wants to make a payment over the phone, we do not offer that service BUT WE CAN transfer them to CIRC ADMIN and they will take the payment.