Info on Consulting a Hot Topic
I received the following message from Linda Halliburton in the Central Library Business Division yesterday in which she talks about some of the steps she and the rest of the Business staff have taken to fulfill and anticipate information requests from Kodak employees. Thanks Linda!
In a layoff situation (Kodak, Xerox, etc), we often see individuals, who are considering starting their own consulting businesses. We are adding additional books to the collection of the Business & Social Sciences Division to assist these individuals. We expect demand to increase with the latest news of the Kodak bankruptcy. In addition, the Rochester Professional Consultant’s Network is starting a five-session course on starting a consulting business this week. The link for the Rochester Professional Consultants Network is at: http://www.rochesterconsultants.org/ This is a good referral for your customers thinking of starting such a business.
If you wish to consider adding some books to your collection on this topic, below are a few more recent ones. There are others.
The Consulting bible/Alan Weiss. 2011.
Million dollar consulting proposals/Alan Weiss. 2012. This gives tips on writing a sales proposal—a major topic for aspiring consultants.
Flawless consulting/Peter Block. 2011.
Getting started in consulting/Alan Weiss. 2009.
We are also purchasing some Overdrive titles on this topic for county-wide access.
Directors Update – February 3, 2012
There are some interesting things going on in the City SE & SW quadrant branches that I thought I’d share with you this week.
Jen Lenio recently hosted a Monroe Village Task Force meeting where the topic of conversation was the potential loss of the YMCA next door to Monroe. This group is trying to meet with YMCA board members and mobilize the community to keep the Y where it is. Jen is also working with a woman from Flower Square Task Force, which helps house and educate immigrants from Bhutan. They are establishing an “intentional community” in the Pearl/Meigs area and Jen is looking into how the library can help.
A tree is growing at the Arnett Branch! Volunteers have been working on transforming a support column into a tree in the children’s center! This complements the wonderful mural added to the area last year. Volunteers at Arnett have been responsible for the children’s room upgrades, as well as the new paint in the meeting room, and the newly decorated foyer.
At Central, some moving has been going on this week. David Creek and his Branch Administration staff – Melanie Lewis and Alicia Klotzbach – have moved their office operations to the CLA space on the second floor of the Bausch & Lomb Building. David and his staff join Janice Burch and Jason Gogniat in that space.
Brie Harrison and the staff from the Finance Office – Linda Strassner, Renee Mooney, and Denise Enders – will be moving into the old Branch space on the 3rd floor of Rundel, and the Friends & Foundation will expand into the old Finance Office space.
Now that David is moved to the CLA space, he will oversee the operations of the Central Library that include the following departments: Maintenance; Info, Circ & Stacks; Arts & Literature/Media; Science, History & Technology; and Business & Social Science. Sally Snow will oversee the operations of System Services (Tech Services, Outreach, Shipping, ILL); Communications; Local History & Digitizing; and Children’s & Teen services. Ana Suro will oversee Security, and I will continue to oversee LAS, Personnel & Finance.
Staff Day News – Registration for Staff Day will be released either later today or tomorrow. We are asking all staff to register online, so supervisors must make provisions for registering staff who do not have computer access. The Planning Team is asking that you share some of your customer service questions via the registration template. Those questions will be used for the afternoon panel discussion. We want to hear questions or stories about difficult patron issues you have faced. We have a good mix of panelists from the branches and central, public service & non-public service, men & women, etc. and expect to have a lively, helpful discussion about the realities of working in a busy library environment. The registration form will have all the necessary information about the agenda for the day, times and locations.
If you haven’t seen the ‘Living the Dream, Paying it Forward” exhibit in the Lower Link at Central, make sure to stop and take a look. It is very impressive. Thanks to the Exhibits Team and Anita Wahl for making this exhibit possible.
Finally, thank you all very much for the wonderful, warm birthday wishes you showered me with yesterday. Each and every one of you made it a special day for me!
Director’s Update, January 13 2012
Central Hours – At the board meeting next week, I will be asking for some changes to hours at Central to reflect feedback you have received from patrons regarding the Monday hours. I have heard countless times that being closed Monday morning adversely affects the people who rely on the library for job searching. Monday morning is their first time to apply for new jobs listed at the beginning of the week and not being able to apply online before Noon reduces their chances of getting an interview. The Division Heads asked me to consider changing the later-opening day to Thursday instead of Monday, and that is what I am doing next week at the board meeting. I will ask the Board to change the Central hours effective May 1 to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday 9:00-6:00, Thursday 11:00-7:00, Saturday 10:00-5:00, and Sunday 1:00-5:00. If the change is approved, it will not go into effect until May because several Divisions have already scheduled programs for Monday evenings through the end of April. The first hour, from 9-10, on M,T,W and F will still be limited to BLB first floor only.
Paper Mailers for Holds and Overdues Discontinued - Due to cost to member libraries, coupled with end-of-life equipment in LAS requiring expensive replacement, and the low numbers of patrons receiving print paper mailers, the MCLS Directors Council approved the following recommendations at their January 4th meeting:
- After February 3rd, MCLS will no longer print paper mailers for holds and overdue items.
- Paper mailers will continue to be printed for Lost notices.
- Paper notices for Lost items will be switched from two part datamailers to postcards as soon as they can be procured and set-up.
RPL Staff Day – The annual staff training day for RPL is scheduled for Monday February 20, Presidents Day. The theme this year is customer service. The morning will include presentations from the Director and both Assistant Directors. The afternoon will consist of two sessions focusing on customer service. The first session, done in two locations, will feature a panel discussion with RPL and MCLS staff who are noted for their customer service skills. They will address a series of real-life questions and customer service scenarios and participate in a Q&A session with staff. The second session will provide time for all departments, divisions and branches to meet separately for departmental staff meetings, where they will discuss what they learned from the panel discussions and identify a minimum of one customer service goal for their unit.
Nominations for RPL Staff Awards are due to me by January 23. Please consider nominating someone for their hard work!
Central Library Reorganization – The final report on the Central Reorganization activities will be presented to both MCLS and RPL Boards in February. I understand there has been some confusion and anxiety over the speed at which any changes will be implemented. As many of you know, some of the potential changes could include moving of whole divisions, which, as you can imagine, doesn’t happen overnight. This report will present a set of recommendations for changes to the board; it will be up to the boards and director to set priorities for changes to be implemented. Any change that involves significant moving will go through what I expect to be a lengthy analysis phase with architects and designers, followed by moving and any construction necessary. I expect that the most significant changes will take place over the next 18-24 months. Changes that will happen quickly are mostly those things that can be done without construction, extensive planning, staff resources, and money. The final report will be shared with all staff, and your questions on it will be addressed in future Central all-staff meetings on the first Monday of each month.
Lend Us Your Story – David Creek has been working with the City Communications Department on creating a promotional video for RPL. Preliminary plans call for promoting a contest on our website using the slogan: “Lend Us Your Story: Tell Us Why You Love Your Library.” Patrons will be asked to submit a short (1-2 minute) video clip telling their story. The entries will be divided into categories such as “Best video sent in by a Juvenile,” and “Best video profiling a library program” and “Best of Show.” Patrons will vote for the winners, and Kindles will be awarded as prizes.
Safe To Be Smart Changes at Arnett – In early December, we began a new Teen Visit System at Arnett. Working in conjunction with LAS and the City’s IT Department and EZrecpass software, youth wishing to access the Safe To Be Smart Program at Arnett register online and have their picture taken. The statistics gathered will help the Safe To Be Smart Program grant applications at United Way and other agencies requiring data driven outcomes. If successful, the program will be expanded to other Safe To Be Smart sites.
Administration Moves – David Creek’s office will pack up and move to CLA early in February. David will supervise Business, Science, Arts/Lit, Info/Circ, and Maintenance departments at Central in addition to the Branches. Sally Snow will continue to supervise all system service departments, plus the Children’s & Teen Centers, and Local History & Digitizing. Ana Suro will take on the supervision of the Security Department. The Finance Office will move in to the current Branch Admin office space, and the Friends & Foundation will expand into the space currently occupied by the Finance Office.
Have a good weekend and try to stay safe and warm!
Common Courtesy Disappears in Libraries?
Take a look at this blog entry written by Marsha Jones over on the D&C herRochester website – http://blogs.democratandchronicle.com/moms/?p=1728
She writes about her recent experience at the library (she doesn’t say which one) which was anything but quiet. We’ve all experienced this. I have had countless conversations with patrons who are looking for a few brief moments of solitude in their busy lives and turn to the library, thinking they’ll certainly find it there. Typically, they are not going to find that solitude in most busy libraries. Is that fair?
It’s a tough balance to maintain. Libraries are busier than ever, and continue to provide the same level of service our customers expect, but with less funding and fewer staff. Yet, despite our constant bleating that libraries are not quiet places anymore, are we running the risk of alienating a group of users who really do want the quiet solitude of the libraries of their youth?
Several large urban libraries I’ve visited recently have made the decision to acknowledge the very real needs of those users who are looking for a quiet place to work, study and unwind. They have created quiet spaces within the library, where cell phones must be turned off, head phones kept in your bag and conversations kept to a few words at very low volume.
In our data gathering on patron behavior and wants at Central recently, the need for quiet space was a common thread through focus groups, interviews and surveys. As I finish the report from the Technology & Physical Space sub-team, the creation of a quiet space at Central is one of the team’s significant reocmmendations. I am curious, though. Are there other MCLS libraries out there contemplating the creation of quiet space?
Thinking About Customers
Looking to lose a few good customers? The quickest way to send them on their way to the nearest competitor is to not provide your employees with the training and information they need to handle customer inquiries. From 1to1 Media
RPL Staff Day (Monday February 20) this year will focus on customer service and will address many of the issues that surfaced during the data collection phase of the Central reorganization project. Overall, the Customer Service sub-team found a generally positive customer service experience being had by Central Library users, which contradicted the anecdotal evidence presented to me in my early interviews with staff. I’ve been thinking quite a bit about why there appears to be such a disconnect between staff and user perceptions. Do staff hold themselves to a higher standard than our customers? Maybe. Are our customer expectations low? Maybe. Are we satisfying most of the customers who come to the library? It appears so (big hurrah for the Central public service staff!).
Either way, in nearly every interview with staff, the issue of training came up, so that will be the first thing we address. What kinds of training topics would be most useful for us to present? Would you prefer having our staff experts run the training or should we look for outside presenters? What topics are most relevant to what *you* do every day?
I am meeting with the team next Thursday to discuss training topics and presenters, so please send me your suggestions!
If You Were Me
Years ago, I and a few other folks in MCLS used to fret and fume about decisions made at the highest levels of administration and say to one another “If only WE could make the decisions!” Of course, we would never make stupid or unjust decisions and would only ever make decisions that were the best for everyone involved — staff and public alike.
Here I am, 25 years later, in the position to make those decisions, and let me tell you, it’s a lot harder than I thought. I constantly remind myself of some advice given me by Annette von Dohlen when she retired as Director of the Ogden Library. She told me to always remember that the community owns the library. Not me. Not staff. The community. And every decision should be made with that in mind.
As the year winds down, I find myself in the position of having to make some really significant decisions about the future of the Central Library and the Monroe County Library System. Of course, much of this is tied to money and not having enough of it, but it’s also tied to adapting our traditional organizational structure to the present day and making us nimble enough to respond to the societal and cultural changes that will continue to bombard us at lightning speed in the years to come.
I cling to Annette’s advice about who and what is important, and I also try very hard to follow two other rules: treat people well, and what you do is far more important than what you say. I’ve slipped a bit this year and succumbed to impatience and, at times, downright snarkiness. If you’ve been on the receiving end of that this year, I apologize. I will try to do better in 2012.
As we approach the new year, I wonder what advice you have for me. What would you do if you were me? I want to know. Really!
Statement on Rochester Public Library Funding
This is a statement I recently submitted on funding of the Rochester Public Library for a NYS Assembly Hearing on Library Funding, scheduled for November 29. My statement on MCLS funding is contained in my previous post.
Public libraries serve many roles in the Rochester community, from community gathering place, to a source of materials for education and recreation, to a place to connect to the digital world. Forty two percent of Rochester’s children live in poverty, with less than 45% graduating from high school. Seventy three percent of library users polled in 2011 list the library as their only source for computer and internet access.
Our libraries have become, out of necessity, the place for the jobless, the homeless, and the poor. As more and more government programs and job opportunities rely on computer access and knowledge, the library has become the source for providing both the access and the training to help people out of poverty.
Our librarians have become, out of necessity, social workers, teachers, and counselors. A young librarian recently asked for advice regarding what she should tell users who need help applying for PayDay loans. She was torn between keeping an objective distance and just showing the user how to apply, and following her conscience and informing the user about the exorbitant interest rates associated with these loans.
Our libraries have become, out of necessity, the first place new immigrants and refugees head when they are resettled into urban neighborhoods and need help learning the language and understanding such things as how to read a prescription bottle or a school report card. The books and other materials available with a library card are like gold to people coming to this country for a better life. A young refugee from Burma recently completed his GED and brought his certificate to show the librarian who helped him with his program. He then asked her for a book on calculus so he could teach himself the basics of the subject before he started college.
Our central library has become, out of necessity, a home for the homeless. Lines of people form every morning waiting to get into the library for reasons ranging from warmth, restrooms, newspapers, computer access, and books. A homeless man recently told one of our librarians that he doesn’t want, need or use social services, but he couldn’t live without the library.
Libraries of 2011 provide far more than just books. One hundred years ago, being disenfranchised meant you couldn’t vote. In 2001 in the City of Rochester, it could mean anything from not being able to read to not having a computer. Libraries have become, out of necessity and great purpose, the equalizer in an increasingly digital world, and we have done this in the face of steadily declining support from funders. Don’t force our libraries, out of necessity, to stop the services provided to the disenfranchised of 2011. Restore and stabilize funding for public libraries now.
Statement on Monroe County Library System Funding
This is the statement I recently submitted for a NYS Assembly Hearing on Library Funding, which takes place on Tuesday November 29:
New York library systems have provided essential, collaborative services to the residents of New York State for more than 50 years. The buzz words today in state government are consolidation and merger; library systems should be acknowledged as the model for the type of consolidated government being touted by our governor. Instead, our library systems are slowly eroding due to annual reductions in state aid, effectively slowing, halting or reversing the savings achieved by our collaborative model of governance.
In Monroe County, our 20 member libraries have been required to increase the amount they spend on system services such as computers, internet access, an integrated library system software, delivery, outreach to the elderly and disabled, and much more. Our members are drawing funds to pay for increased system costs from budget lines for materials, programs, staffing, and hours, resulting in fewer services provided directly to our residents.
Since 2007, the Monroe County Library System budget has been reduced by nearly $1 million, while services have continued to be in high demand. During the peak of the recession, our libraries helped hundreds, if not thousands, of people look for work and teach themselves new skills. Library staff has done what we always do: cooperate and share expertise and resources among our libraries in the forms of training and materials sharing. When one library can’t afford to buy a popular material, it is still available to the residents of that town through another library in Monroe County. When one library can’t offer computer training, its patrons can take advantage of training in any of the other MCLS libraries. That sharing, the backbone of our system, is in danger of being reduced or disappearing altogether as individual libraries come under increasing pressure to serve their own residents first.
Library systems provide the structure upon which all our members operate. The value provided by the system to its members in the area of technology is significant. The provision of an integrated library system network (including an online catalog and circulation software) plus internet access saves our local municipalities and their libraries hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. Reduced support from New York State aid has forced MCLS to increase member costs by as much as 15%; any further increases to member libraries would be devastating at this time and could result in some libraries choosing to withdraw from the system. If that happens, the existing model for consolidated public library service in Monroe County will start to collapse, certainly an ironic occurrence in light of the governor’s push for consolidation of services.
I urge you to restore and stabilize state funding to libraries and library systems. Do not allow the disintegration of a cost-efficient, collaborative model that works.
Director’s Update, November 10
I am pleased to announce that the staff of the Maplewood Community Library is being honored Saturday night with a “Thank You” dinner at the Lake Avenue Baptist Church. Jane Grant wrote to me to say “Our congregation is witness to the dedication of this staff to the diverse population and diverse needs of the people in the neighborhood. We are so impressed by their high sense of service that often goes above and beyond library hours.” Congratulations to the folks at Maplewood on a job well-done. You make us all look good!
David and I held our first Branch neighborhood Advisory Council meeting Monday night at Arnett and had a lively discussion about the past, current and future state of libraries in the City. This group consists of community members from all over the City who will meet every other month to discuss and share advice on how we manage our branch libraries. Our next meeting in January will feature a detailed presentation on the branch budget and performance metrics. The council participants have asked for a tour of the branches as well, so Dave and I will coordinate that in December and January. Thanks to Deb Leary for hosting.
Jeanne Slocombe at Winton has been working with a charter school that received a Friends-to-Friends grant that involves first graders walking to the library (encourages exercise and movement, thereby helping to fight obesity). As they walk, they talk about the neighborhood to increase awareness of their surroundings. They end their walk at the library, where they get stories and an introduction to the library This will encourage them to come back to the library as they get older, because they’ll remember that the library has resources that can help them with homework and entertainment. Also, it introduces the concept of ‘library as destination. Each class made 2 visits this fall, with 2 more to come in the spring.
At Central, Tim Horton’s is open and doing a brisk business. I’ve seen many staff members there getting coffee or having lunch. Thank you for supporting this new business!
I’d like to acknowledged Chris Costigan and Donna Widera for their development of the RPL 100 years of reading bookmarks that list best sellers by decade. A woman who attended the Branch Advisory Council meeting made a point of telling me how much she has enjoyed exploring all those “unknown” older titles. Great idea and great job, Chris & Donna! Also, kudos to Corinne Clar and the Graphics/Duplicating staff for designing and printing the bookmarks.
If you haven’t checked out the Vietnam Resource Center on BLB 3rd floor, you really should. The staff there have put together a nice collection of materials on the Vietnam War, and are using a wide screen TV donated by the Vietnam Veterans Chapter 20 organization to show video of the war. On display in Local history is a wonderful “Rochester in the Civil War” exhibit which was a featured stop on the First Friday art tour last week. The library was taken over by men in uniform, ladies in hoop skirts, and a fife & drum band. We are headed towards making the Central Library the place to be on Friday night downtown!
Greg Benoit of Webster has recently updated the Ebook guides on the libraryweb.org website, and has also worked with BOCES I to produce some training videos on how to use various e-readers and Overdrive. Both the updated guides and the videos are available on the website at http://www3.libraryweb.org/download.aspx?id=472119. Many thanks to Greg for providing excellent, current information to help our patrons use our resources.
Also new on the website is a Google Map that pinpoints locations, addresses and hours for each MCLS library. You can access the map under the “Libraries” and “Hours” tabs.
Car connectivity
I’m reading the Gartner Top Industry Predicts 2011 report and find this prediction very thought-provoking:
By 2014, automobiles will be among the top three fastest growing connected-device platforms for Internet-based content.
What implications does this have for libraries? What kinds of applications should we be building now to address this future state? How about a voice activated catalog search and download capability? Picture this – you’re driving along and hear about a new book on the radio and decide you want to read it tonight. Using your car’s voice activated internet connection, you hook up to the library catalog, search the title and choose to download the ebook wirelessly to your iPad. Bing. It’s there when you get home.
Or maybe you’re on a trip and decide you want to listen to an audio book. Through the same process, you connect to your library, select a recorded book and have it downloaded to your car and read over the radio.
How else could car connectivity be applied?
Patty
