Manager of Library Operations Meeting Minutes for September 2004

Date: September 22, 2004

Location: Bethany Library

Attending: Jean Engebritson, Deb Willis, Randy Wayland, Jack Kinzie, Debbie Robertus, Priscilla Doss, Mary Patton, Barbara Beasley, Rosemary Czarski, Karen Bays, Anne Aliotta, Deb Spindle, Katrina Prince, Susie Beasley, Lisa Weissenbuehler, Denyvetta Davis, and Judy Walden.
Guest: Scott Carter, Heidi Daniel-Morgan, Mike Miller, and Stacy Schrank.

1. Call to Order
• The meeting was called to order at 1:00 p.m. The minutes were approved as submitted.
2. Open Discussion
• Copy Machines
• Denyvetta asked if there have been any problems with the copy machines. Everyone seems satisfied with them at this point -- with the main problems seeming to be "operator errors." Karen mentioned that while the library is supposed to have a 24-hour service contract, that doesn't actually mean evenings and weekends. So while the service isn't quite as prompt as hoped for, they rarely seem to have problems.
• New Telephone System
• Denyvetta asked for feedback on the new phone system. Katrina asked if anyone else has noticed problems with the new Paging system. She's been having problems with echoes and static. Rosemary has noticed an echo when calling outside the system (that seems to be a problem only for Choctaw.) Randy mentioned that it's a little cumbersome to do some of the functions (5 steps for one function.) He has spoken to Anne Fischer and she thinks there may be a way to reduce the number of steps. Stacy mentioned that he and Anne have been talking about putting together a phone workshop, but they would like to wait until everyone is up with the new system.
• Safety Committee Meetings
• Judy addressed two concerns of the committee. One is the need to set up some standards for new Circ or Ref desks in terms of ergonomic needs of staff. She passed around a rough draft of ergonomic guidelines for new circ or ref desks. Another of their concerns is repetitive injuries and why they seem to happen more frequently at certain locations. One of the committee's recommendations is to have a couple of Library Managers attend each of the six meetings per year. That should mean that every Manager would meet with the committee at least once each year. The next meeting will be Downtown on November 9. Meeting scheduled for 2005 are: January 11th, March 8th, May 10th, and July 12th. Locations of meeting will be determined later. Denyvetta will coordinate who is attending which meeting.
3. Sharing
• Kudos - Denyvetta
• Karen Bays and Rosemary Czarski received certificates for attending a recent workshop on Performance Appraisals. Also, Midwest City received 100% on the accuracy and appearance of the shelves during a recent site visit. Debbie Robertus has been accepted for OLA Gold, a leadership workshop, along with Jill Vessels, Melissa Weathers, and Rhondia Banks. Karen Bays was asked to be a mentor for this session, but exercised her ability to set limits by declining.  "Working at Your Library: For Love or Money" video
• After viewing the video Denyvetta asked if there were any comments. Judy said that she thought it would be a great recruitment video, if they didn't keep talking about how low salaries are.
• Other
• Barbara invited everyone to look at the pictures Daniel posted on the walls in honor of Shannon Lucid.
4. YA Programmer's Notebook - Heidi Daniel-Morgan
• The idea came up last year when the library hired a new YA librarian at Village, and Heidi realized that it would be really helpful to have a notebook that would include all the little details involved in the job. It begins with a list of other YA programmers in the system, brief info on who the people are in Outreach and who does what. She includes conferences they might want to attend, a programming overview, samples of all the forms needed for programs, checklists for setting up programs, evaluation forms, surveys to use with teens, and some readers' advisory stuff.
5. MAC Update -- Scott Carter
• Scott showed a video of Donna and Deb Spindle talking about the new DN library. He also showed a video that is a montage of images from the Book Passing. Let Scott know by e-mail if anyone would like copies of either video.
6. Summer Reading Survey -- Mike Miller
• The library had great success again with the Summer Reading program. Two years ago there were approx. 10,000 kids signed up, and the library did a survey and a Task Group was formed to see if there were things that the library could do to improve things. Last year's survey focused on how our marketing message was being received, as well as specifics about enrolling or not enrolling in the program. This year the survey was much more specific, only 20 questions, and it will be put up for customers at the end of this week on Zoomerang. Mike will also be asking essentially the same questions of staff that he is of the public, with just a few alterations. The survey will be available on the website and on CyberMARS. His goal is to have over 1,000 responses (1,300 would be 10%.) Mike will send the managers a copy of the staff questions to look over, and send back any comments to him.
• Mike mentioned that the library has an account with Zoomerang where the system pay a flat fee for 10,000 survey answers per year. So if any of the managers want to do a survey of agency staff, talk to Mike and he can help set it up.
7. Focus 2004, etc. -- Stacy Schrank
• Stacy has not gotten the menu finalized yet, but he will be meeting with the caterer on Monday. There will be a Continental breakfast available all morning. Lunch will be a buffet -- Southwestern Barbecue -- with 4 buffet lines. There will be a snack in the afternoon with soda. Badges will be required for everyone, since they will not be doing nametags this year. Remember that dress is Friday casual. Charlotte Lankard will be doing the morning and afternoon addresses. There are two sessions that everyone will attend, either in the morning or afternoon. The first one is "Don’t' Run with Scissors, and Other Essential Tips," which focuses on the essential role that each person plays in the organization. The other session is "Give "Em the Pickle" which is about customer service. There will be an ALL staff session held right after lunch, with Spoticus leading the staff through a discussion of the state of the system.
• The personal wellness fair will run from 7:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Participants include Red Cross, MidFirst Bank, MECU, Waddel & Reed,  Nationwide Insurance, Staff Association, United Way, Metro University, Bath & Body, and Praxis to do chair massages.
• Stacy expressed how proud he is of the four members of the staff who will be attending OLA Gold.
8. Announcements
• Food for Fines will be October 17th - 23rd. Scott has a corporate partner to give prizes for the customer who brings in the most food, and the library that generates the most food.

The Meeting was adjourned at 3:40pm.