Date:  May 13, 2009

To:       RCPL Board of Trustees

From:   G. Chapman, Director

Re:       Strategic plan update

Date:  May 6, 2009

To:       G. Chapman, Director

From:   T. Davis, Assistant Director

Re:       Strategic plan update – Safety and security committee

Implementation of the update Strategic Plan calls for library staff workgroups to review issues and bring forward recommendations for updates and training for the following areas:

• Customer relations
• Security
• Space use
• Marketing
• Archives
• ILS (Integrated library system)

To sustain adequate staff support and resources one to three groups can operated at the same time. Therefore, the implementation timeline has been adjusted; for workgroups to continue into 2010. This modification still accommodates completion of the Strategic Plan update by the end of 2010.

Work of the first Strategic Planning Workgroup for safety and security issues is being completed. In an initial survey conducted by the workgroup, only 54% of library staff members said they felt secure while on the job. A recent survey conducted near the end of the group’s work showed that between 80-100% of staff feel they have the skills, information access, and training needed to feel secure on the job.

The final portion of the group’s work involves coordinating with the police department to identify personal safety training; this is expected to be outlined by mid-summer, and will be added as part of the ongoing annual training calendar.

Other action completed by the workgroup include:

• Review and updating of the emergency contacts list
• Review and updating of the safety manual
• Initial survey of staff for identification of safety issues to be addressed
• Follow-up survey of staff to identify specific training, information updates, or procedure updates needed
• Identified updates to the library behavior procedure and library behavior policy for consistency of information

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER