610 Quincy St. Ÿ Rapid City, SD  57701

605-394-4171 Ÿ www.rapidcitylibrary.org

 

 

DIRECTOR’S REPORT:  FEBRUARY  2006

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

 

ADMINISTRATION

 

Community, Governmental and Interlibrary Relations: 

G. Chapman and H. Archie attended the IFAS (Integrated Financial Accounting Software) two day training sessions. The new software will support a paperless and scanned archival information for financial transactions between departments and finance. Implementation timeframe is for Oct. 2006. Contract negotiations continued with the area librarians and a number of formula options are being considered. An update will be given at the Board Meeting during Executive Session. The Annual State of the Library Address was Thursday, Feb. 2. The presentation is attached in the agenda. Liaison representatives spoke from the Board, Foundation, and Friends.

   

Building & Grounds: Phase two carpet replacement for Tech Services is in progress, project will be complete by Feb 13th.  Carpet for adult reading area will be forthcoming to coincide with the space use plan in March or April. Other projects include: non-static tile for the Network office sometime in March, in doing this we will eliminate the chance of minor and/or major problems. Several small lighting projects are to begin the end of Feb or beginning of March; projects include: Facilities basement (main air handler & maintenance room) - pit area where the new (outside) chiller sits (motion sensor light for this area) also, a new gate is being made for the stair entrance leading to this area – garage (East side) will get new fluorescent lighting, this project started the 8th Feb, in the beginning stages faulty wiring was discovered (due to age and type) which we believe was causing numerous electrical problems on the East end of the building (including a back feeding problem).

 

 

Public Information and Programming:

 

·         Signage and Displays – Jan:  Anime club meeting, Author Author, Discovery Days workshops, Open Mic signs and flyers, events restroom signs, walk in computer classes; 2006 Lunch and Learn, YMCA/RCPL scavenger hunt; change in design and replacement of front entrance vinyl lettering

·         Publications – Foundation fundraising brochure for Wine, Women and Shoes, Jan:  newsletter, calendar and computer courses; 25 information bags for Human Resources orientation; 2006 staff appreciation card

·         Web site – web pages for months programming

 

Training:

·         Reference and Youth Service staff members received training via a web conference on the new Ask-a-Librarian service.

·         Staff information meetings this month covered two topics:

1. Reference USA, a research and reference tool available to our patrons and

2. An update on filling out and submitting the library electronic time cards

 

PUBLIC SERVICES/YOUTH

 

Programs: Discovery Days, our no-school-day-programs continues to be a popular.  This month 38 youth attended workshops on writing and Illustrating. 

           

Services:  Staff provided tours to three schools and went to North Middle School  to share our resources with students and educators.  

 

 

PUBLIC SERVICES/ADULT SERVICES-REFERENCE

 

  • Reference has continued the monthly Author! Author! series in 2006. Luke Warm Water a poet was the first speaker for the New Year.
  • Lunch and learn continues to be our most successful adult program drawing participants for each session.
  • Our new live chat service from Tutor.com began in January. The response to the new look to our service has been positive. We are now offering 24/7 chat.
  • Audio downloads also started in January through NetLibrary.
  • The oral history pilot project has been moving along we have completed 6 interviews and have two ready for viewing.

 

 

SUPPORT SERVICES/CIRCULATION

  • Completed revision of Department Guidelines.
  • Developed a more efficient desk schedule to insure full coverage of patron services.

 

OUTREACH: 

·         34 volunteers contributed 355 hours. 5 new volunteers have been recruited and placed.

·         We have 99 active homebound patrons, 67 received deliveries this month.

 

SUPPORT SERVICES/NETWORK SERVICES

 

Services: 

  • Redesign the look of the library website
  • Starting initial steps to redesign the website folder layout
    • The are the folders that reside on the server that are transparent to the patron user
  • Working on the budget for 2007 thru 2009
  • Launching the oral history project on the streaming video server
  • Training on Metalib from SLDN

 

SUPPORT SERVICES/TECHNICAL SERVICES

 

Services: 

  • Improved search capabilities within the Kids’ Catalog
  • Travis completed a user-friendly spreadsheet for TS staff to use when they record their statistics
  • Continued testing electronic ordering with Baker and Taylor
  • Ed recruited several interesting speakers for SDLA’s April Spring Forum