Open Discussion Notes, 12/16/15

Staff Break Room, 11:15-11:45AM

Karen - Saturday, Dec. 26, will be a staff holiday.  The Library will be closed Dec. 24-Dec. 27 for Christmas and reopen Monday, Dec. 28.  Everyone will work a Mon-Friday schedule for the pay week Dec. 26-Jan 1.

Albert -- cleaning out the supply closet and cabinets at the lobby desk.  At the lobby desk, the right cabinet is for supplies (tags, tape, staples, etc.) and the left cabinet for cleaning materials (paper towels, etc.); please keep them in order.  Wipes are not a supply item--we must buy with our own money.  If you need a supply item, leave him a note.

Albert - all applications have been wonderful--everyone is doing a great job!  Info is correct and no duplicates.

Shanti - wet books in the book drop stick to the sorter belt.  We need towels to wipe them dry. Suggested keeping a role of paper towels or rags (from the janitor's  closet) in the sorter room.

Doug - one of the magazine display racks is missing a nut and the plex cover is coming off.  Karen suggested we can "borrow" another nut or cover from another magazine shelf (if you can't find the nut on the floor).

Leona - there is a plastic bag with dry erase markers and cleaner at the 3rd floor desk which groups using the 3rd floor conference room can check out to use during their meetings.  By providing the markers, we avoid having a problem with groups using permanent markers instead.  But we don't provide rugs or AV equipment for our meeting rooms: the rugs are dirty when we need them for a program: and the AV equipment needs a staff member present to set-up and monitor.  See the new Meeting Room Guidelines for details about what is provided/not provided.  The Guidelines are stapled in packets with the new meeting room reservation form and fee schedule.

Alisa - What are the holiday hours going to be?  In addition to above, HPL also closes at 6 PM on 12/31 for New Year's Eve.

Shanti - we need to use the empty paper boxes to store crafts supplies in the crafts storage room.

Doug - Is Santa going to be here tomorrow?  What are going to be the activities?  Photo ops?  Leona - Yes, Santa Lance here at 4 PM, not sure exact activities but Communications is bringing a newspaper reporter to take pictures, will have photo ops, need staff to help.  Alisa and Doug volunteered to help Leona and Temeka with the program.

Leona - program schedule during holiday period: next week -- 1 Holiday storytime at 10:30 on Tuesday for all ages; week after Christmas -- no storytimes, a movie on Tuesday at 2 and the New Year's celebration on Thursday at 11.

Staff Tranining Notes December 4 & 11

Basic Microsoft Word                                                                             

Presented by Pamela Officer

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Overview:  

Review basic task in a word,

Edit and format Text,

Work with tables and Pictures

Review short cuts

Handout

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Staff Meeting Notes 12-2-15

11:15 – 11:45 AM, Breakroom

1. Updates from 11/20 CE Managers Meeting (Lauren)
2. Training: Rules Revisited--Library Rules, Meeting Room Guidelines, ADA Guidelines, Open Carry FAQs (Karen)
1. Library Rules: Website, http://hpl.lib.tx.us/library-rules-policies; 1-page handout, https://hplnet.houstonlibrary.org/forms/15_Library_Rules_FINAL.pdf [updated link, also updated on Kendall blog.]
2. Meeting Room Guidelines: http://hpl.lib.tx.us/sites/default/files/neighborhood_libraries.pdf
3. Open Carry FAQs (from the Texas State Library & Archives Commission) & Notes from COH OPen Carry Forum 11/4/15: https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ld/pubs/ocpublic.html

Quick Notes (from SW Managers Team Meeting 12/1/15)

• Keep bookend on each shelf.  If no room, shift or float items to make space.
• Use standard HPL email signature format.  It should include the HPL logo, disclaimer and Citizensnet info (in your desktop email and Outlook Web Access).  See Karen or Lauren if you need help setting this up (or go to http://houstonlibrary.org/hpl-brand/internal-documents/email-signature):
• Email: also use plain pages, no “stationary” or decorated backgrounds.
• Emails sent to all staff emails must be approved first by Michele Gorman (for Customer Experience).
• If you are planning to retire or resign in the near future, please let Karen or Lauren know as soon as possible so we can notify CE Administration about filling your position.
• Badges must be worn and visible in public areas and workrooms when you’re on the clock.
• Building lights should be turned off at night.
• The private line number should always be answered using the standard greeting (and should always be answered).  
• Customers who want to check out a book they just returned are welcome to do so (if there are no holds for it).  There is no “24-hour rule”  that requires a book must be returned to the shelf first before it can be checked out again.
• If there’s no Clear Holds report in the morning, notify the IT Help Desk, then pull books that are dated 14 days or more.
• Axis360 training is required for all front-line staff by December 18.  Notify Karen or Lauren when you have completed the training.

Upcoming Staff Events

• Friday, December 4: Last Day of Pay Period, Timecards approved at 5:30PM
• Friday, December 4 & 11: Staff Training--Basic Word  (Pam)
• Friday, December 11: Pay Day
• Wednesday, December 16:: Open Discussion Meeting
• Friday, December 18: Last Day of Pay Period, Timecards approved at 5:30PM
• Thursday, December 24: Christmas Eve - Library closed
• Friday, December 25: Christmas Day - Library closed
• Friday, January 1: New Year’s Day - Library closed

Staff Meeting Notes 10-28-15

11:15 – 11:45 AM, Breakroom

1. Updates from 10/23 CE Managers Meeting (Lauren & Karen)

2. Quality Management System (QMS)--what it is and how to participate (Karen, Lauren); handout: FAQs, File List.  Go to https://sites.google.com/site/dailyprocesses/home.

Quick Notes

• Health Assessment: The last day to complete the assessment is Saturday, October 31.
• CMC: The last day to make a CMC contribution also is Saturday, October 31.
• Learning Link Card (see Learning Link Card Update, 10/15/15).
• Clear Holds List: If there isn’t a list, call the IT Help Desk right away to report the problem; there should be a list for every day, including Saturday and Sunday.  Without a list, you will need to “guesstimate” a pull date--leave time for the item to travel here plus 7 days on the hold shelf--at least 10-11 days to be on the safe side.  When holds expire, they automatically move to the next customer on the list, even if we haven’t pulled them off the shelf, creating problems for customers wanting to pick up a hold still under the previous customer’s name.     
• Holiday Requests:  Early request have been approved.  If you are planning to take time off during the holidays, turn in your request as soon as possible, as dates are filling up.

Upcoming Staff Events

• Friday, October 30: Pay Day
• Tuesday, November 3: SW Managers Team Meeting (Karen)
• Wednesday, November 4: Program Planning Meeting & Management Team Meeting
• Friday, November 6 & 13: Staff Training
• Friday, November 6: Last Day of Pay Period
• Tuesday, November 10: SW Assistant Manager Team Meeting (Lauren)
• Wednesday, November 11: Veteran’s Day - Library Closed
• Friday, November 13: Youth Services Meeting (Leona, Shanti, Nina, Jasmine)
• Friday, November 13: Volunteer Services Meeting (Pam)
• Friday, November 13: Pay Day
• Wednesday, November 18: TLA A-Z Webinar: Working with Volunteers
• Wednesday, November 18: Open Discussion Meeting
• Friday, November 20: Last Day of Pay Period
• Thursday, November 26: Thanksgiving Day - Library Closed
• Friday, November 27: Day after Thanksgiving - Library Closed

Agenda for Staff Meeting Tomorrow

 Kendall Staff Meeting

October 28, 2015, 11:15 – 11:45 AM

Breakroom

1. Updates from 10/23 CE Managers Meeting (Lauren & Karen)
2. Quality Management System (QMS)--what it is and how to participate (Karen, Lauren); handout: FAQs, File List.  Go to https://sites.google.com/site/dailyprocesses/home.

Quick Notes

• What you need to know about Learning Link

Open Discussion Meeting Notes 10/21/2015

In Attendance: Lauren, Albert, Jose, Iffat, Alice, Janalyn, Doug, Alisa, Nina, Temeka, Kathrine, Shanti, Pam, Leona, Trish, Karen

Note Taker: Trish
Moderator: Lauren

- The sorter will be fixed.  The barcode scanner will be removed as well as the receipt printer.  The sorter will now read RFID tags and any items that are not tagged will go into the exceptions bin.  There will be no voice!

- Blinds must be open at night.  If the blinds are not functional, just leave them open as much as possible.

- Holds are still being put on our shelf that belong to other branches.  Please pay close attention when shelving holds.  Keep items going to other branches separate from KEN items both when you are paging and when you are doing delivery/exceptions.  Expired holds must be cleared first thing in the morning and we should be checking the holds shelf for old holds just to be sure they are being sent out as necessary.  There have been issues with the clear holds list, LMS is aware.

- A-Z webinar is asking for a $25 payment and we can't pay for it, so do not take the most recent A-Z webinar.

- Please make sure customers in the meeting rooms and study rooms are leaving 15 minutes prior to closing.  Make announcements at 30 minutes, 15 minutes, and at closing and make sure the people in rooms are aware of the closing time well in advance.

- Make sure to give customers the new room reservation guidelines when they reserve a room.  Customers may make up to 6 reservations in a 90-day period, but they must fill out a separate reservation form for each reservation.

- Make sure to make tallies on the stats sheets!  This week is door count week, so it is very important but we should always be diligent about making tallies and keeping track of our activity on every floor.

- Jose went above and beyond in customer service with a customer on Monday.  Go Jose!

- Iffat did 3-tier work on Monday night, taking care of delivery, exceptions, and the sorting room.  Go Iffat!

- Name That Book contest is very intense right now.  Leona has a list that will be on 3rd floor and in the sorting room to make locating these items easier.  You can also print out a list for customers by going to the HPL kids page.

- CMC team still needs help with the festival at Central on Friday, October 30th.  Let us know if you'd like to participate.

Staff Training Notes, October 2 & 9

The Art of the Reference Interview
Presented by Alice & Leona (Karen on 10/9)

Slides and Handout provided by the Idaho Commission for Libraries, 2010 at libraries.idaho.gov/page/able (under ABLE Courses, scroll down to Public Services Sequence, 1. The Reference Interview).  If you missed the training, you can complete the online version and submit the certificate of completion to Karen for credit.

NOTE: All ABLE courses which you take online are pre-approved by HPL Training for training credit.  Go to training.houstonlibrary.org/online-training for details. 

Staff Meeting Notes 9-30-15

11:15 – 11:45 AM, Breakroom

Attending: Karen, Lauren, Albert, Jasmine, Evin, Doug, Trish, Alice, Alisa, Katherine, Jose, Pam, Nina, Iffat, Leona, Janalyn.  Absent: Shanti (notes in mailbox).

1. Updates from 9/25 CE Managers Meeting (Lauren)

2. Office of Inspector General Policy (Karen)

3. CIRC Training: New Holds Process Updates (Lauren, Alisa, Temeka)

Quick Notes

• Work Progress Reports in October!  Get your SMART Goal stats to Karen so she can use them for your Work Progress Report at your next monthly meeting.  You can also view the progress notes that have been entered so far by viewing your plan at https://talent.houstontx.gov/Saba/Web/COH.
• Holiday Leave Requests.  Now is the time to start thinking about the time you want to take off during the upcoming holidays.  We have enough opportunities with Thanksgiving week, and the weeks before and after Christmas for everyone to get some time off during one of these periods.  Please submit your leave requests by Oct 21 (in 3 weeks) so we can review them and make sure we have enough staff on hand throug the holiday period.

Upcoming Staff Events

• Friday, Oct. 2: Pay Day
• Friday, October 2 & 9: Kendall Staff Training
• Wednesday, October 7: Management Team Meeting (Karen, Lauren, Alice, Nina, Alisa)
• Wednesday, October 7: September Statistics due (Alice)
• Friday, October 9: Youth Services Training--Very Ready Reader (Leona, Shanti, Nina)
• Friday, October 9: Last Day of Pay Period
• Saturday, October 10: September Monthly Report due (Karen)
• Saturday, October 10: September Facility Checklist due (Lauren)
• Monday, October 12-Friday, October 16: New Employee Onboarding (Janalyn)
• Wednesday, October 14: Program Planning Meeting (Karen, Alice, Shanti, Leona, Pam, Jasmine, Nina, Jose)
• Friday, October 16: Youth Service Meeting (Leona, Shanti, Jasmine)
• Friday, October 16; Pay Day
• Wednesday, October 21: Open Discussion Meeting
• Wednesday, October 21: TLA A-Z Webinar: Childrens and Youth Services
• Thursday, October 22: Outreach at Wolfe ES (Leona, Temeka)
• Friday, October 23: Last Day of Pay Period
• Friday, October 23: Customer Experience Managers Meeting
• Wednesday, October 28; Staff Meeting
• Friday, October 30: HPL CMC Fall Fest

Upcoming Holidays

• Wednesday, November 11: Veterans Day--Library Closed
• Thursday, November 26: Thanksgiving Day--Library Closed
• Friday, November 27: Day after Thanksgiving--Library Closed
• Thursday, December 24: Christmas Eve--Library Closed
• Friday, December 25: Christmas Day--Library Closed
• Friday, January 1, 2016: New Year’s Day--Library Closed

Agenda for 9/30 Staff Meeting

Kendall Staff Meeting

September 30, 2015, 11:15 – 11:45 AM

Breakroom

1. Updates from 9/25 CE Managers Meeting (Lauren)

2. Office of Inspector General Policy (Karen)

3. CIRC Training: New Holds Process Updates (Lauren, Alisa, Temeka)

Open Discussion Notes 9-23-15

Workroom, 11:15-11:50AM

Moderator: Lauren; Recorder: Karen

Attending: Lauren, Albert, Karen, Janalyn, Alice, Jose, Alisa, Doug, Trish, Jasmine, Pam, Temeka, Leona. Absent: Evin, Iffat, Nina, Shanti (notes in mailbox).

1. At Closing--Teamwork and Customer Service.  Don’t forget to:
1. Forward the phone, 2nd floor (this morning answered call from customer with fine problem because phone not forwarded).
2. Record the gate count, 1st floor (power went out overnight and we lost yesterday’s visitor count).
3. Don’t leave bins unplugged overnight, 1st floor (it creates more exceptions the next morning when items mis-sort).
4. Label outgoing holds so they can go out in Delivery in the morning, 1st floor (this morning labelled three bins of outgoing holds which missed Delivery and will sit until tomorrow to go out).
2. Sorter Problems:
1. Books sorting to wrong bins but looks okay to TechLogic when they check logs.
2. Copy Fred, Jeff, and Patrick on emails to Helpdesk or TechLogic about sorter problems to keep them in the loop.
3. Wait a few seconds after green light before sending next item through because books are stopping on the belt--given them enough time to clear.
3. Deposit:
1. When bagging money at the end of the day, don’t just throw it loose in the bag. Loose bills get stuck in the bag and make it more difficult for the person doing the deposit the next day.  
2. The coins should be in the correct bag and the bills wrapped around the coin bags with a rubber band.  
4. Sorting Room:  
1. Please don’t dump books on carts, especially when they’re mixed up.  Items are going on the wrong carts, which creates extra work for a colleague.  
2. If you don’t have time to put books on a cart in order, dump them in the correct bin for someone else to sort.
3. When full bins are stacking up (especially when there are 4 or more), take the initiative to unload them and put the material on a metal cart in order, so it is ready to be reshelved.  
4. Don’t leave ½ full carts in the sorting room--it wastes carts and takes up space.  Add the books to another cart already underway.
5. Send languages not at Kendall (we have Spanish, French, Japanese and Russian) in the float bins to LMS; they will send to locations with those languages.  
5. Blank (Unscheduled) Hours:
1. There’s plenty of shelving to do--use your unscheduled time to help us clear shelving every day.  
2. If shelving is done, then shelf read. Most staff have Shelf Reading as a SMART Goal; for a 3, you should be averaging 1 hour/week.  
3. When you’re on the clock, you should be using unscheduled time for work duties.  Limit personal activities to your lunch hour and 2 15-minute breaks.
6. Delivery/ Holds:
1. Don’t put tems on the holds shelve which are supposed to be at other locations  (this week removed 60+ items on hold shelves for customers at other locations).  This is careless when items are clearly marked and unfair to customers waiting for their holds.
2. When handling paging or Delivery, always separate items for KEN (staying) from items going to other locations (going).
3. When checking in holds/delivery, use the following Sirsi functions:
1. Labeled: use Receive Transit (doesn’t print label
2. Not Labeled: use Discharge (prints label)
3. Bookdrop: use Discharge or Bookdrop Backdate (prints label)
4. This will keep the Spool WIzard from filling up with unprinted labels.  Also, make sure to clear the Virtual to Print Wizard before you leave the computer.
4. The MaxStick Label paper is in demand.  Albert is ordering it regularly so we have enough on hand but don’t waste it (for example, don’t print labels for non-hold items going back CEN--just put them in the CEN bin).
7. Book Drop:
1. Empty both bins each time.  Don’t let material pile up in the second bin.  It’s not fair to customers who have returned items to not check them in promptly.
2. The door to the second book drop is not opening/closing easily.  This should be reported so it can be fixed.
8. Desk Supplies:
1. Leave tools such as staplers and tape dispensers at each public service desk (and the workroom).  If you borrow them to use somewhere else, return them when you’re finished.  (Apparently the 2nd floor stapler is missing because it was taken by a customer.)
2. If customer want to borrow scissors or a stapler, let them use it at the desk.
9. Laptops:
1. Don’t leave laptops at the public service desk overnight.  They need to be locked in the charging cabinet so they can recharge and vulnerable to theft.
2. The public laptops are charged in the right-side compartment of the charging cabinet--that’s were the chargers are.  (The left side is empty.)
10. Coin Copier
1. The Coin Copier technician says to flip the copier paper over if it is wrinkling during printing.  (Or fan it when reloading the paper tray.)
2. Use the bypass login to help customers with printing problems--charged but not printing, wrinkled paper.  Use the abandoned print cards for customers with change or money problems.  Refer customers with frequent printing problems to call Coin Copier for refunds.  Use your discretion to help customers with printing issues.
11. Above and Beyond:
1. When you provide extraordinary service to a customer, ask them to fill out a comment form.  We appreciate the acknowledgement
2. Thank you to Alice for preparing the schedule Monday morning.  We all pitched in to get things done!