610 Quincy St. Ÿ Rapid City, SD  57701

605-394-4171 Ÿ www.rapidcitylibrary.org

 

 

DIRECTOR’S REPORT:  NOVEMBER  2005

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

 

ADMINISTRATION

 

Community, Governmental and Interlibrary Relations: 

G. Chapman continued with Union Negotiation meetings with a target date for completion November 30, attendance of Mayor and Department Director’s two day Planning session to review the budget process and e-government, attending a demonstration of the forthcoming Finance and Human Resource city-wide software upgrade, and follow up session for annual Technical Services Departmental Planning.

 

Building & Grounds: Procedures continue to be identified and written for the ongoing maintenance of equipment and seasonal grounds maintenance. The re-roofing project has begun; the first two weeks will involve removal of the old roof. We expect moderate to high noise levels at times for this portion of the project. Completion date is Nov 25th. Proposed end of the year projects include; remaining carpet replacement in the stack area, TS area and Ref supervisor’s office. Final end of the year projects include: Phase two painting project to include Hoyt meeting room and TS area. Also, new ceiling tiles and lights are planned for the Research room, Gates computer room and 3 offices in the Admin section. The trees along Quincy St. are scheduled for trimming this month. The HVAC upgrade of the old pneumatic system to digital control was a success! A major decrease in fluctuating temperatures has been achieved. This means consistent temperatures for staff and fewer complaints. Also, now the entire building can be evaluated for problem areas and areas needing adjustment. 

 

 

Public Information and Programming:

 

·         Children’s Book Week – promotional information created for poster, school flyer, web page

·         Signage and Displays – for all library programs, the library board vacancy, and the annual fall poets’ coffee house.  Arranged signage for the drive-through windows

·         Publications -  newsletter, calendar and computer courses; addition to media contact list with several new contacts;

·         PSAs – for all October events to TV, radio, Arts Anchor, CANmail, Rapid City News and Visitor’s Bureau

·         Web site – web pages for library programs

·         Ed was the lead on two adult programs: Remington Schuyler’s Art; and, the Veterans Writing Workshop

 

 

Training:  Greta and Terri both attended a two-day seminar on Crucial Conversations, which was sponsored by the school district.  The information gathered will help optimize discussions, decision-making, and one-on-one conversations in the library.  The information will be shared with the entire management team.

 

Greta, Terri, Jennifer Irwin, Chris Getz, Jared Likness, Kim Baumberger, and Maryanne Rohrer attended the SDLA conference in Pierre.  They attended a variety of sessions involving improved library services, and had the opportunity to meet and talk with peers about libraries and library services.  In addition, Renee, Ed, and Jeanie also attended SDLN user group sessions held in conjunction with the conference.

 

Staff received the third in a series of information and awareness sessions on the RCPL databases and services available to patrons; Roxann Silbaugh presented sessions on the ProQuest and EbscoHost magazine databases available on the library website.

 

South Dakota State Library offered training sessions to West River librarians on ProQuest’s Ancestry Library Edition and HeritageQuest online services and on ProQuest’s magazine database. The sessions were held at RCPL on Oct 28, and two RCPL reference staff members attended.

 

A fire drill was conducted in October as part of our ongoing safety training.

 

PUBLIC SERVICES/YOUTH

 

Programs: Youth Services celebrated a “Get Real”-themed Teen Read Week.  Programs included a Poetry Slam, Crime Scene Investigation with a RC Police Dept Detective, and a Friday night “Get Real Loud @ the Library,” featuring 4 local teen bands and attended by 275 teens.

           

Services:  Youth Services staff facilitated five outreach events including Parent Teacher Night and Parent Academy for Stevens and Central High Schools.  Plans are underway to visit St Thomas More and Rapid City Christian schools. 

 

PUBLIC SERVICES/ADULT SERVICES-REFERENCE

 

Programs: “Lunch & Learn” continues to be a popular offering. 18 people attended the Database information session on the 20th.  Our second “Author! Author!” presentation on the 15th featured mystery writer Lori Armstrong, and drew 16 participants.

 

Services:  We had 9 computer classes in October with 18 participants; in addition, staff proctored 13 tests.

 

Ask A Librarian promotion:  The goal is to have the Ask a Librarian icon placed on websites in the Rapid City area to promote visibility and use of the service.

 

SUPPORT SERVICES/CIRCULATION

  • Circulation is working with the City Finance Department to insure that our funds tracking for fines and non-county cards meets their requirements.
  • Jason Walker worked with Detective Geringer to get information out to area pawn shops so they will be better able to recognize library materials if they are pawned.
  • We have successfully implemented the policy change to block cards when materials are two weeks overdue. Patrons have mentioned they appreciate this service which alerts them that their account is past due.

 

OUTREACH: 

  • We are 8% away from achieving our annual goal of 6240 volunteer hours; 34 volunteers contributed 418 hours in October.
  • 61 homebound patrons received delivery in October. Homebound promotional posters are being created to distribute to residential institution bulletin boards, and a PSA has been released to the media promoting homebound for the winter.

 

SUPPORT SERVICES/NETWORK SERVICES

 

Services: 

  • Working on RSS feed for the library
  • Working on VPN issues with Golden West Technologies
  • Researching Online Credit Card Payments with a work group
  • Network Services Planning Session
  • Working on Group Policy in Microsoft
  • Working on procedures

 

SUPPORT SERVICES/TECHNICAL SERVICES

 

Services: 

·         We have established a cataloging quota of 135 items per week for each cataloger in the department. This is based on 7 months of looking at staff averages.

·         We are working on closing out the materials budgets for this year and planning for next year’s budget structure.

·         The Display Committee (Ailsa Snyder and Barb Morgan) created an autumnal display that has received very positive reviews. They will be adding a scene to that display for Children’s Book Week that features a bear reading a book.