Manager of Library Operations Meeting Minutes for September 2003

Date: September 24, 2003

Location: Edmond Library

Present: Ann Aliotta, Karen Bays, Barbara Beasley, Rosemary Czarski, Denyvetta Davis, Priscilla Doss, Jean Engebritson, Tim Fisher, Daphene Keys, Jack Kinzie, Mary Patton, Katrina Prince, Debbie Robertus, Debra Spindle, Judy Walden, Randy Wayland, Lisa Weissenbuehler, and Deborah Willis.
Guests: Scott Carter, Barbara Floyd, Anne Fischer, Traci Jinkens, Kim Rickey, Pauline Rodriguez, Linda Temple, Don Updegrove, Jim Welch, and Lisa Walker.

1. Opening/Introductions
• Linda Temple is an intern from OUSLIS -- she will be with us for several months, observing how things work in a Public Library system.
• Minutes approved as corrected -- the accurate version is posted on the Intranet.
2. Reality Check
• Kim Rickey, Lisa Walker, and Traci Jinkens, are this year's United Way committee chairs. Traci introduced Barbara Floyd, a representative from United Way. She discussed the 2003 fundraising campaign.
• Some things to remember to tell others, when talking about United Way: a) 1 out of 3 people in Oklahoma will be touched by United Way. b) United Way functions as a Community Safety Net -- fulfilling needs in the community that would go unmet without their support.
• Traci showed a brief video about some of the people United Way agencies have helped in Oklahoma.
3. Open Discussion
• False Alarms - Don passed around copies of an e-mail he sent out in May ‘03 to remind everyone about the problems related to false alarms. In addition he passed out a letter from the OKC Police Department about excessive false alarms and the possible penalties, and an article from the City of OKC website announcing the starting date for false alarm enforcement. Don asked everyone to be very careful about making sure that all alarms are activated and deactivated appropriately.
• Judy asked Don to discuss the issue of unauthorized entry before or after certain times -- Don explained that this is only for Downtown.
4. Sharing
• Kudos - Denyvetta gave training certificates to Debra Spindle and Deborah Willis, and she also gave certificates for attending training to Barbara Beasley and Daphene Keys. Barbara will be attending a workshop in Dallas next week on “Tools for Trainer Excellence.” Denyvetta showed a copy of the Edmond Sun that featured Karen Lehr of Edmond on the front page conducting a storytime.
• Downtown Update - Debra Spindle said there is an article in today’s Oklahoman about the New Downtown Library. She stated that she recently went through the building with the MAPS committee, and said it is looking really good! She stated that a lot of the millwork and woodwork is being installed, light fixtures are being connected, ceilings are being put in, one of the elevators has been turned on, and a lot of the walls are painted. It is beginning to look like a library. Priscilla asked if the system staff would get a tour of the building. Scott replied that part of the Grand Opening would include a private tour for staff before the reception.
• Choctaw Update - Rosemary stated that the expected opening date has been scratched -- at this point she is guessing that it they will be  opening in early February. The parking lot is ready, but they have just starting work on the interior.
• Luther Update - Judy reported that the City of Luther has purchased the building, and the library should be taking possession in November,  which would mean Luther could open before Downtown or Choctaw.
• Belle Isle 40th Anniversary. - Priscilla gave everyone an update on the festivities that are planned for this weekend. She also handed out a  program of activities for Saturday, September 27th through Tuesday, September 30th.
• CD Index & Co-sponsored programs -- Karen stated that Jacquie Taylor noticed that there are a number of musical artists that most people do  not recognize, making it difficult for Pages to shelve or for customers or staff to find these artists. Jacquie is compiling a list of musical artists  that are not very well known, along with the type of music they create so that customers or staff can look at the index and very quickly identify  the type of music each artist produces. This is not complete yet, but Jacquie would be happy to e-mail it to anyone who  is interested. Karen  reminded everyone about a series of science programs utilizing faculty from UCO, who are willing to do these for free, since they are required to  have community service hours. Karen mentioned another article in the Edmond Sun from this week about Edmond's Comedy Commandos, and a recent performance that they did at UCO's Jazz Lab.
• Team Training -- Lisa and Katrina shared recent experiences that Village and Del City have had with specific team training for circulation staff,  and how it has benefited the whole work unit.
• Staff Newsletter - Deborah Willis shared a recent in-house newsletter, and discussed some of the things she tries to include in each issue.
• Recycle Project - Barbara talked about a new recycle project that they have started at Bethany. A large bin has been placed at each location to  accept paper products. Bethany and Ralph Ellison are going to be pilot sites for about 6 months.
• "Oklahoma Reads Oklahoma" - Debra Spindle talked about this statewide project where people can vote on a title that everyone in the state can  read and discuss. Online voting is going on now. The logo for their site and a link for voting have been added to the library website.
5. New Edition of Dewey –
• Pauline stated that a new edition of Dewey has been published, and there are more areas that have been reclassified -- none of the areas are as  big as the 500s were, but there are more of them. Pauline handed out a list of the major areas that are being reclassed, in the general order that  they will be addressed. Pauline needs everyone to look at weeding the appropriate areas before the first of the year, since they will not start until after January 1st. One of the long-term goals for the 200s is to expand the numbers for the non-Christian religions, but it will happen fairly slowly.
6. New Brochure & Misc.
• Scott stated that they went to press last week with thousands of new bookmarks that will be routed to each library in bundles of 250. As  Marketing's part of customer service month for internal customers, they printed up new stickers for the staff to hand out to customers. Each  library can have up to 1000 stickers, but if anyone needs more, please email Scott. In the future, if anyone has ideas for bookmarks, let Scott  know because it is easy to switch out one of them.
• For the last two years Scott and his department have been working on revamping a lot of the small brochures, including the application forms for cards and Internet access, which can be printed in 4 colors. They will probably do an initial press run of about 50,000. This will combine 5 separate products into just one! Scott passed around the mock-up for the new brochure, and asked everyone to let him know if they have any suggestions or changes.
• Two Spotticus costumes are being hand-made, and there will be a "training camp" for the staff who will be portraying the new mascot. Spotticus can be booked through the speaker's bureau.
• “Food for Fines” will be Oct. 19-26, and the library will again be accepting donations the week before and the week after, though it will not be publicized. Scott asked everyone to keep track of the largest fine cleared and the largest donation made.
• Scott also bragged on Debra Spindle for her tact and skill in handling the tour of the new Downtown building.
7. New Telephone System –
• Jim and Anne told discussed the new phone system, which is a Voice over IP system provided by Cisco. Anne handed out copies of the information about the handsets, including the available options. Voice over IP means that the phone calls are carried over the Internet, along with the libraries high-speed Internet access. The main bulk of the hardware will be housed at Downtown, but that will not occur until the staff is in the new building. It requires only half the cabling. Mary asked if this means that if the computers go down that the phones will also go down. Anne responded that the library will never be completely without phone lines -- 911 access will always be available. As the technology has evolved it has become even more reliable. It will also allow staff to make internal calls within system, and it will not be considered an outside call!! The library should be able to retain their current phone numbers.
• Once the phone system is in place Downtown, the five libraries will be completely re-wired to have all of the wiring in one location (a data closet.)
• Those libraries are Capital Hill, Del City, Midwest City, Village, and Ralph Ellison. There will be cordless phones at each agency, though probably not as many as were requested. In addition, there will be online help available, as well as an online directory that will be maintained by the system.
• Cisco has an excellent online learning series to help customers learn about the phones and options.
• Barbara asked if the opening and closing greetings would still have to manually be switch, or if it would be automatic. Jim responded that those are some of the things that will be handled at the main hub Downtown and it will be controlled by a timer.
• Tim asked about the number of outside lines that will be available at any one time -- if he understood correctly that there would be only 72 available. Jim said that he is anticipating that there might be some traffic snarls with this, but it can be expanded if deemed necessary.
• Randy asked if the fax lines would be part of those available outside lines. Anne said yes and no -- The lines will connect directly into the router, but if the Cisco system goes down, the fax line will be one of our emergency lines.
8. Announcements
• Randy stated that Southern Oaks will be doing a block party/carnival from 3-7 on October 21st, with hotdogs, bands, and lots of fun.
• Linda Temple stated that there will be a workshop on the USA Patriot act, with practical advice, provided by OLA.
• There will be a tour of three British mystery writers Oct. 13-15th. More information will be coming from Marketing.
• Denyvetta reminded everyone that the Reference Survey starts Monday.
• Scott stated that the online survey about Summer Reading is still up, so remind staff and customers to fill this out if they have not already.

The Meeting was adjourned at 3:30 p.m.
Minutes submitted October 15, 2003