Access Services Minutes - October 17, 2017

Outcomes:  To discuss topics related to the Access staff and so that staff and members have a consistent experience across the system. 

Welcome

Risa welcomed the group and reminded attendees to take back information from the meeting to both Access and Engagement staff.

Shelving Order

Janeal Walker, Workgroup Lead, asked for volunteers and described the goal of this workgroup.

They will establish a guide on how to shelve with the goal of consistency across the System, focusing on irregularities like shelving by numeral vs spelled out numbers in titles. The workgroup would be happy to review any previously created documents that can be used as a starting point.

Access Training

Meghan Atalla, Workgroup Lead, gave an update of the forthcoming training for all Access staff that will take place between January and June 2018.  The CARL.X manual is being revised to be used as a part of this training. Three courses will be offered and will cover Library Accounts, Circulation Basics, Item Maintenance and POS.  Meghan asked for volunteers to assist the trainers and will be sending an email out to Access staff requesting volunteers.

Access Hiring

Risa Sargent, Workgroup Lead, gave an update on the process to hire Access staff that the ASM III’s have been working on and stated it will now be sent to HUM for their input. The goal of this workgroup was to make this process as efficient and streamlined as possible.  Some of these recommendations included having the ASM III’s be a point person when multiple locations in a region are hiring, AS I announcements stay open longer, utilizing online assessments, no phone or video interviews for AS I’s, only phone (not video) interviews for AS II’s, and new interviewing questions.

Out of this discussion came the need for onboarding documents for new Access staff with the goal of developing a set of tasks and topics to be covered with new employees Geraldine Adams will lead this new Onboarding Workgroup.

Access Job Descriptions

Risa Sargent gave an update from the Library Manager workgroup assigned to make recommendations for all the Access job positions.  AS I’s and AS II’s each have primary duties and secondary duties. Locations can use this distinction to observe over time where their staffing may be off-balance and where they may need to hire in the event of a vacancy.

The ASM structure at each library is slightly different, which has resulted in numerous questions about job duties and responsibilities for the different ASMs. HUM will be consulted for more clarity.

Library Accounts for Transitional Housing and Homeless

The group broke into small groups for discussion and then returned to one large group.

After discussion in the large group about the issue of residence in relation to account eligibility, the following action was needed before anything could be decided.

Action Item:  The Directors of Member Services will contact Kay to inquire about the intent of the term ‘reside’ and the spirit of the policy.

Mentoring Groups

Geraldine Adams presented some ideas for mentoring and asked the group if this was something needed or wanted for Access Services Managers.  The group did indeed feel there was a need but also felt this should be offered for all new managers and not just Access managers.

Action Item: The Directors of Member Services will alert Organizational Development that there is interest in developing such a program.

Charge/Discharge Notes

CARL.X allows for adding a note to individual items that would pop up when the material is either checked out or checked in. Discussion followed about the pros and cons of this. The group is interested in pursuing the idea, but due to the large number of existing workgroups, the idea will be tabled until other outstanding projects have been completed.

Information Sharing-Open Topic Time

Kim Rickey, from Books By Mail, shared that BM customers may call their local library to place holds when BM staff is not available. Kim reminded everyone to use BM in CARL.X as a pick-up location when placing these holds. You can only select BM as a pick-up location when placing holds in CARL.X (it is not available in LS2PAC).