Sharing the Good Stuff

Since I've come around to talk to you all about our Core Values, I have heard beautiful, heartwarming stories that illustrate our shared values in action. Here's a story I received from Donna Holmen yesterday in my email. Linda, it is our delight to work with you!

 

Linda Potter (in Youth Services)teaches a class called Mother/Father Read at a local high school.  The class is for high school teenagers who have become young parents.  Linda goes out once a week for six weeks or so.  She teaches the young parents how to interact with their infants, and she teaches them skills on how to read to their child.  In this particular session, the parents were all young women.

 

As the class for this year was ending, Linda made all of the young women graduation diplomas for attending her classes.  Then Linda had Jen Fait arrange for the KPL Bookmobile to come to the high school.  The wonderful Bookmobile team stocked the shelves with extra baby books, and developmental toys that Linda had sent from SW library.

 

Linda had checked ahead of time and found out that some of the women had fines of more than $5.00 on their cards from overdue items.  They would not be able to check any items out.  Linda then spoke with Alice, Lynnell and Gina who were able to have the fines removed from the cards, and the cards brought up to date.

 

We took up a little collection of board books from our homes in Youth Services so that Linda could give them to the parents to keep for their babies. We had a Daisy Scout group come last Monday night for a visit at SW library.  They brought in books to donate, and they said that we could pick from what they had brought in for the parents also.

 

While I covered Linda's story time on Tuesday, she met the young women at the Bookmobile at the high school early in the morning. Every single young parent did excitedly check out books and toys for their children, and they were proud of themselves!  When Linda got back to the office and told us about it, we were teary eyed.  Those young babies are off to the best start that we at KPL could give them.

 

I just wanted to share this great example of community, compassion and teamwork by your KPL staff with you.  I am very proud to work at Kenosha Public Library and to be a part of this team!

Donna Holmen

Join the UX Team!

What's UX?
User Experience.
It's the most important thing we do. And if we want to be great, we need to keep a sharp eye on just what kind of user experience we're offering to every person who walks through our doors.
That's why I'm calling for volunteers to join the KPL UX Team to advise me about signage, collections, displays, technology, policies, procedures, spaces, programs, website, anything and everything that touches our customers. I want this team to see the library through the eyes of every customer, as well as different types of customers. If you are 94, have problems with your vision and are using a walker, can you easily use the library? If you're in a hurry to get home and put supper on the table, can you find something really interesting in 5 minutes to take home with you? Can you learn what you need to know at the time of day that fits your schedule? Do working parents find our children's programs convenient? If I remember the book I want to place on hold just as I'm leaving, can the last staff person I see on the way to the door put that on hold for me? Can I pick up my own hold, check it out, and exit without talking to anyone if I feel grumpy? Can I pay my fine without having to confess to the person across the desk that I returned things late? Can I use my debit card?  Is it okay to have to get out of your car to return books to a drive-up book drop? (I think I know the answer to that one!)

Who should join the UX Team: Anyone passionate about delivering an incredible library experience.
Team Size: 10
Time commitment: 2 hours per month minimum, 6 month commitment. We'll change the group makeup every 6 months to keep the energy high and the ideas fresh.
Team Leader: Me (at first, to ensure quick response to suggestions. Later we may elect someone new to chair the group.)
Paid time: yes
Energy level: High! We'll be working fast and furious to make quick, noticeable changes that delight our users!
First meeting: Monday, April 7, 2014 10am at Civic Center

If you believe you can work together with your colleagues using our shared values of  Respect and Teamwork to create an Innovative, Compassionate experience for our Community, then I invite you to step forward. Talk with your supervisor and tell them how passionate you are about joining this team, then ask their permission to make this 6 month commitment. I'll choose the first team of ten.
Thanks! And thanks for all you do every day to provide the best library service possible.
Barb

Beautiful is Better Than Ugly

I can't help but share this post from one of my favorite librarians, Aaron Schmidt, on his blog Walking Paper. 23 Color Views of Mexican Libraries. Ahhh. What eye candy! What a library looks like really does matter. The gorgeous colors shown here are so inviting! Enjoy. Now if you prefer a white, clean look, check out these libraries in Brazil.
And while you're at Walking Paper, read "Beautiful is Better than Ugly." How would you rate our signs?

Library Outreach

As I meet you all in conversation about our shared values, I will relay fascinating stories about what other libraries are doing to improve lives in their community. Santa Ana California describes one of their major projects this way. I found it incredibly inspiring and wanted to share it with you.

Seeds to Tree Digital Media/Technology Academy - The Library is in the third year of an annually awarded Workforce Investment Grant for Youth. In partnership with the Rancho Santiago Community College District Corporate Training Institute, the Library has developed a free apprenticeship program comprised of training and paid work-experience internships for 20 at-risk youth ages 16-21 in the fields of digital media technology. Participants receive introductory and intermediate level training/ certifications in a number of digital skills, including web design, graphic design, digital music production, video production, script writing and marketing.

Their in-class instruction is balanced by paid work experience producing videos, web designs, etc., for the Library and other city agencies, nonprofits and businesses. In addition, they receive tutoring and mentoring, workshops in life and educational skills, and assistance from a social worker as needed. Their productions are often broadcast on the City’s government channel, which is operated and programmed by the Library. For the last two years, the students have written, produced and edited videos that won first place in California State Library state-wide contests. Many have found employment through referrals from the program and others moved on to higher education.

 

Board Meeting Summary

Several very important initiatives were approved at last night's board meeting:

• The library now has a credit card policy, outlining the rules for use. Everyone issued a library credit card needs to read the policy and sign the attached agreement. Sheri will be contacting you.
• A new 15 hour per week Guard/ Maintenance Helper position has been approved for Northside library. Dennis, our guard at Southwest, has resigned to take a full time job, so we'll be advertising for two guard positions. If you know someone who would be outstanding in this role, please encourage them to apply!
• Also approved is a new part time Communications Assistant position, 29 hours per week, to help us move forward on the goals of the strategic plan. This person will take the lead for social media, electronic newsletters, signage, displays, graphic design, and traditional media communication. This position frees up some of Michelle's time to focus on staff training, an important goal in our new strategic plan.
• The board approved a new fund, the Projects Fund, to support the implementation of the strategic plan. Seed money for this new fund comes from surplus funds in the Health Contingency Fund. This enables us to get started on the smaller things we didn't foresee in the 2014 budget.

Thanks to all staff who came to last night's meeting. There was good energy and conversation in the room, and I appreciate your smiling faces in the audience!

Most notably, I want to thank Barbara Fulton for an outstanding example of leadership. During a discussion about efficiency, our board president shared her experiences receiving multiple phone calls a day notifying her of holds. She has an email address and would gladly receive notification this way. Barbara approached our board president immediately after the meeting and collected her email address. Now Mrs. Michelin will receive her notifications her preferred way. That's an excellent example to us all of a quick and professional response from a KPL staff member who recognizes that we are all one staff and the customer's experience is all of our responsibility. (Mrs. Michelin is a regular Northside Library user.) Thanks, Barbara!

I suggest we take our response one step further. I suggest we develop a campaign to collect many more email addresses to not only improve our efficiency but to provide our users with a better customer experience. Details to follow...

PLA Roadshow

JeTaun, Jill, Tom, Joe, Jen, Pam and I are back from Indianapolis, overflowing with ideas! We're excited to share them with you! So, we'll each be choosing 10 of our top ideas to share, including 2 we're set on implementing right away. Don't miss the PLA Roadshow coming to you soon!

Values Conversations

Now that we have a collected all your responses to our shared values, I'll be visiting Southwest and Northside and hosting you at Civic Center to discuss what these main values mean to us

 

Community, Teamwork, Compassion, Innovation, Respect

 

We'll be talking about what these words look like when we put them into action with each other and the public we interact with. So bring your thoughts with you and join in conversation with me as we set the table for the organization we are and strive to become.

Thursday, March 20 - 4:00 PM - Northside

Friday, March 21 - 1:30 PM - Southwest

Monday, March 24 - 1:30 PM - CCB

Thursday, March 27 - 10:30 AM - Southwest

See you soon.

Not Creative? We Need You!

INNOVATION= CREATIVITY IMPLEMENTED

 

INNOVATION = WHIRLWIND OF IDEAS + STRUCTURE

One of the common misconceptions about innovation is that it's the same thing as creativity. In fact, if all the people on staff were engaged in creative brainstorming, nothing would get done. We dreamers need you analytical, detailed people to get things done. Because creativity doesn't matter if it isn't implemented and implementation requires details and plans and timelines and all that stuff that many artistic types don't enjoy.
So if you look at the strategic plan and wonder if there's a place for you, there is! We need everyone to create vibrant children's spaces like these from my last library. So be proud of your strengths, step forward,  and join the team. The future is very, very bright!

Library Impact Survey

One of the goals of the strategic plan is to find out more about our users' information habits so we can design services to meet their needs. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been working with the ISchool at the University of Washington to develop a free tool called the Library Impact Survey and Michelle, Lin, Barbara Fulton and I got together to take a look and see if it's something we'd like to use. The verdict is, we do.
So, soon you will see a link to the survey on our home page. The link will take users to a questionnaire that asks questions about how people use the library to find information. The whole thing should take less than 15 minutes. Please encourage people to respond. The more information we have, the better we can provide what our community is looking for in the right format with the right tools.
Thanks for your help!

Heading off to PLA

JeTaun, Joe, Tom, Jill, Jen, Pam and I are heading down to Indianapolis tomorrow for PLA 2014. I'll be blogging from the conference, so get ready for lists of ideas that go on for miles! Feel free to comment if you like or don't like any of the ideas I post or want more information. Let's keep the conversation going!
Happy Spring!
Barb

Our Core Values: Community, Teamwork, Compassion, Innovation, Respect