CONNECT Minutes - March 2014

Date:  March 10, 2013
Time:  2:00pm-4:00pm

Present: Buddy Johnson (DN, Chair), Clyde Herrod (CAT), Meghan Attalla (RE), Jennifer Jones (CH), Taryn Kingery (AL), Debbie Robertus (BI),   Megan Huggins (BI),  Edie Daniel (BE),  Carol Roberts (CT),  Sabrina Little Axe (DC), Sally McCurry (DC), Erin Bedford (NW), Ngoc Nguyen (VI), Kelly Dalrymple (WA)

Guests: Tim Spindle (PLA)

Meeting was called to order at 2:00pm.

Welcome

Buddy Johnson welcomed the attendees.  He reminded everyone about the mission and goals of the Connect Forum.

Summer Reading Lists

Virtual Librarian Tim Spindle (PLA) described a new feature of the combined summer reading program that will give adult readers the option of receiving a customized reading list. He asked librarians to consider volunteering for the project, here are the details:

When adults sign up for Summer Reading, we are giving them the option to receive customized reading lists that have been created for a specific topic and we need Metro staff to exercise their readers advisory muscles to help build these lists.

Here are the topics participants can choose from:

• Facebook Fan Reads (Tim will build this one)
• These are titles that our fans have mentioned to Facebook
• Hidden MLS Gems
• Titles in our collection which might not be too popular but are great reads, nonetheless
• info Magazine Reviewed (Tim will build this one)
• Titles that have been reviewed in past info Magazines
• Literary Elements:
• These are titles that tie into the theme of Summer Reading (see  http://j.mp/adultSRP)
• Sorta-Hot off the Press
• Titles from the last year or two
• Staff Picks

We'll send weekly emails of 5-7 titles for each topic so we're looking to create a pool of (at least) 25-35 titles for the entire summer.
 
Here is the email schedule:

• May 23rd - All registered customers (first batch of lists)
• May 30th - Customers who registered just that week (same list from the week before)
• June 6th - All registered customers (second batch of lists)
• June 13th - Customers who registered just that week (same list from the week before)
• June 20th - All registered customers (third batch of lists)
• June 27th - Customers who registered just that week (same list from the week before)
• July 3rd - All registered customers (forth batch of lists)
• July 10th - Customers who registered just that week (same list from the week before)
• July 18th - All registered customers (fifth batch of lists)
• July 25th - Customers who registered just that week (same list from the week before)

If you would like to help create these lists, please email [email protected] to let him know of your interest.

MLS News Jeopardy! Game

Clyde (CAT) took on the persona of Biff Bickley, the “original” host of Jeopardy! Pretending he was in the presence of a live studio audience, he presented questions such as: Which was the first president to use email for communications? If you consider the “e” in “email” stands for “electronic,” then the answer was Abraham Lincoln who received telegraph messages. During “commercial breaks” in his show he gave a history of staff communication at MLS including examples of typewritten newsletters on color legal paper and older AdLibs and annual reports. He remarked about how transformational the Intranet has been for the system.

Next Clyde opened a discussion about the intranet and asked attendees to share which types of information they had difficulty locating and what they liked about it. Responses ranged from “I can find everything I need” to concerns about the location of some information and difficulty using the search function.

You Can Read That on the Intranet

Jennifer Jones (CH) presented a hilariously accurate video from Xerox on information overload and then led a quiz on the most commonly used information on the Intranet (e.g. maintenance requests, forms, etc). Calling the game You Can Find That on the Intranet, she used as her theme the 1980s Nickelodeon show You Can’t Do That on Television in which cast members were doused with slime anytime they said, “I don’t know.” Jennifer called out an Intranet information source and participants wrote down the location or the path for finding that info on the site. Winners were awarded with either bubbles or a trophy.

After the game, Buddy thanked the attendees for coming.  He thanked RE staff for hosting the event and Meghan (RE) for providing refreshments and accommodations.