610 Quincy St. Ÿ Rapid City, SD  57701

605-394-4171 Ÿ www.rapidcitylibrary.org

 

DIRECTOR’S REPORT:  APRIL  2006

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

 

ADMINISTRATION

 

Community, Governmental and Interlibrary Relations:  G. Chapman attended an SDLA Board Meeting with reports on membership status, annual conference planning for the Sept. 20-22, in Rapid City, request for proposals for a redesign of the SDLA website and completion of the audit report with new Quickbook reports, the City Department budget presentations to the Department Heads and Mayor began with the Library budget presented along with others on April 29. 

 

Building & Grounds: Facilities is looking into additional training classes, for HVAC, plumbing, and/or electrical. New electronic drives for the small air handler have arrived and are scheduled to be installed the 1st or 2nd week of April. With this new equip we will see an increase in energy savings and a dramatic reduction in wear and tear of parts and belts. An offer has been made and accepted by Mr. Mike Coonce to fill the part-time Custodial Maintenance Worker II position. Start date is April 3rd; we look forward to welcoming Mike.

 

Public Information and Programming: Travis Brink, a Library Associate in the Technical Services department, has been filling in with Publications while the position is vacant.  Travis has created “Read” posters of Board and Council members which were well received at the April 3rd Council meeting.  In addition, a number of promotional materials were created for National Library Week.

 

Training: Staff reviewed the new audiobook feature of netLibrary at a library in-service.  Lucy O’Grady led a session on dealing with stress for the circulation department. Toni Moore taught a class for staff on how to use several features of the online catalog, including My List and My Basket. This training will help staff throughout the building to train patrons in using these resources. Al Solano, from Behavior Management, presented a session to staff on “Managing Change.”  Members of the management team attended city sponsored training on “Reasonable Suspicion.”  Jim Soehle, Network Services staff member, presented a refresher class on Microsoft Outlook to city personnel. G. Chapman and T. Davis attended the Public Library Association Conference in Boston, a report will be forthcoming in next month’s report.

 

 

PUBLIC SERVICES/YOUTH

 

Programs: Teen Open Mic night was again quite popular with 20 teens in attendance.   We also hosted a Book Swap in which thirty 3rd to 6th graders shared stories and traded books. 

           

Services:  Roaming continues to be successful as the staff assisted over fifty patrons with their information needs. This speaks positively for the concept of service points identified in the space use plan.

 

PUBLIC SERVICES/ADULT SERVICES-REFERENCE – Renee Ponzio, Reference Supervisor, has tendered her resignation effective April 7.  Renee has been with the library since 1997; she hopes to obtain a position nearer to her family’s home in Wisconsin.  The management team and library staff wish Renee well in her future ventures.

 

With Renee’s resignation and the existing Librarian I vacancy, the supervisors reviewed the management structure and proposed a merge of the Reference and Youth Services departments to create a Public Services department.  This works well with the existing cross-scheduling of staff between the departments, and provides for continuity of service to the public.  Jeanie McCallister will become the supervisor of the Public Services department, and Jared Likness will be the Librarian I.

 

The remaining supervisor and Librarian I positions will be moved to a new department called Information Access.  This department will focus on the areas of collection development and public awareness.  Our existing staff positions of training, outreach/volunteers, and publications will be moved to this department.

 

Programs:

  • The Author! Author! series this month featured Bev Pechan a local author who has written several books about the history of the Black Hills area,13 people attended the session.
  • Lunch and Learn continues to be a perennial favorite with 23 attending to learn about family attractions in this area.
  • Jean Frankenfeld staffed the Library booth at the Diabetes Expo on Sunday the 26th. 30 people stopped at the booth, Jean signed up 3 people for a library card and checked out 2 of the books she had on display.

 

Services:  

  • Reference proctored 18 tests this month up 17% from last month.
  • Reference gave two tours in March for a total of 15 people.

 

SUPPORT SERVICES/CIRCULATION

  • Circulation statistics now appear to be counting correctly; we recently completed a statistics test with other local libraries to confirm this.
  • Tris Sachs created a list of practical applications of the department’s teamwork model which was the starting point for a department-wide discussion on teamwork.

 

OUTREACH:

Outreach

  • We delivered to 62 of 104 active patrons this month.
  • We are maintaining a ratio of 8 patrons per driver per week or less. We are maintaining a ratio of 4 patrons to 1 volunteer selector.
  • So far we have had a 7% increase towards our 20% goal of increase of homebound patrons.  We currently have 107 patrons and hope to reach 120.
  • The Homebound database has been posted to staff machines throughout the building for patron data input and reporting of deliveries made.

Volunteers

·                                 This month 36 volunteers reported 307 hours which is approximately 8.5 hours per volunteer. We can increase volunteer hours by maximizing volunteer time amongst departmental projects as they are scheduled.

  • 5 volunteers received performance evaluations in March.

 

SUPPORT SERVICES/NETWORK SERVICES

 

Services: 

  • To date this year, public computer use has been at 68% of capacity.
  • NS staff re-organized folders for the website to improve navigation and usability for both the patrons and staff
  • Internal blogging was made available to the supervisors and Management team as a communications tool
  • Anti-static tile was placed on the north side of the Network Services office
  • Executive summary was prepared for Network Services Planning session

 

SUPPORT SERVICES/TECHNICAL SERVICES

 

Services: 

  • Chris Getz has accepted a position as Technical Services Specialist at the Great River Regional Library in St. Cloud, MN. He will be supervising a department of 11 people in his new position. His last day at Rapid City Public Library was Friday, March 31
    • Because of the Librarian I vacancy, we have re-assigned tasks within the department
  • Continued testing of Baker & Taylor electronic ordering
  • Ed set up an area Aleph user group luncheon meeting
  • SDLA’s announcement of the western version of the Spring Forum was posted on regional lists and  the flyers for the event were sent to local librarians
  • TS staff installed newest display based on American Library Association’s National Library Week them of “Change Your World @ Your Library”. Display uses a play on the word “change”. We continued to include two mice that have become a tradition from one display to the next. Parents and children try to find the mice hidden in the display.

 

 

 

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