News Update

Hello, Everyone
I hope you're enjoying our beautiful spring weather!
Here are some news items to keep you up to date on our Strategic Plan projects:

• I hope you have all had a chance to meet Shimon Croxton, our new Communications Assistant. Shimon has been busy writing press releases and creating publicity for our full summer schedule of activities. He'll be taking over publication of our weekly NewsNotes electronic newsletter next week. If you're a regular contributor to the newsletter, please begin to send your articles to him. Shimon is also taking a look at our signage. While at Stevens Point, he participated in a complete redesign of directional and informational signage for the university library. He's pledged to do the same for us, helping us make the user experience more friendly, one of the goals of our Strategic Plan. You'll see him in all our buildings replacing worn out signage with fresh information, combining multiple signs into shorter, easier bits of information, and strategically placing directional signage to help people find their way. If you haven't already met Shimon, please introduce yourself.
• Robin Potente is retiring to spend time with her two little grandchildren. We will miss her terribly, but she promises to bring the twins to story times! If you are considering applying for the Administrative Secretary position vacated by Robin, please do so quickly. We'll close applications on June 3rd. This is an internal search. I know we have the perfect talent on staff willing to carry on Robin's legacy of excellent service to the community.
• You've heard me talk about "Power Walls" and "Digital Power Walls" and maybe you're wondering what happened to that idea? We're moving forward. Reference staff at SW are planning the perfect relocation for the public copiers and Shimon is weeding the public information wall to make room for Chuck and his crew to add shelving along the curved wall which will house new books front and center to catch our visitors' eyes. We'll also be adding a touch screen computer to entice interaction with our Overdrive digital collections. These projects are meant to drive increased interest in our collections and therefore more use! Look for activity soon.
• Big news! KPL was selected as one of a handful of Wisconsin libraries to participate in the Library Edge Initiative. This is an assessment tool to gauge our support of community digital learning and achievement. The Edge assessment was created through a partnership between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Urban Libraries Council. The assessment takes the data we submit and compares it to benchmarks for libraries our size, then returns a report indicating where we are doing well and where we can do better. It also provides for staff training, skills assessments, and materials to help us promote our value to our local governments and influence support for improvements. Participation is quite an honor, costs us nothing but hard work, and it's just what we need to present our case to our Common Council for capital funds to support technology improvements. These tools will go a long way toward meeting the technology goals of our Strategic Plan.
• Looks like the roll-out date for debit and credit card payments has been postponed due to our Chase representative's time away from the office. Hopefully we'll see our equipment in another week. I know many of you are anxious to say "Yes!" when asked if patrons can pay with a credit card. At least we can say "soon." I'll let you know the minute all the paperwork is signed.
• I'm back in school, taking the LEAN Certification program through GTC. LEAN is the Toyota program introduced in the 1980s and still very active today in industry. In a nutshell, it's a model process with the aim of  reducing waste to improve efficiency. I liked what my instructor said the first day of class, and I want to be sure to share it with all of you, because it's common knowledge that every company and every library using the LEAN approach faces an initial hurdle when announcing adoption of LEAN principles. That common hurdle is staff fear. People hear LEAN and think "I'm going to lose my job. They're going to cut staff." Here's what my instructor said yesterday, and you are going to hear this over and over again from me:

LEAN IS NOT "LESS EMPLOYEES ARE NEEDED."

Take a look at KPL's strategic plan. Look at all the work we have to do. We are a service organization. We need people to do the work, and chances are good we aren't going to get a lot more money to do it, so if we can use the resources we have as efficiently as we can, we can shift some of our resources to new areas of service. Think public programs, outreach, classes, all those things that improve lives in our community. Circulation won't go away. We'll still need people to put books on the shelf, order materials, move them to and from buildings, fix the air conditioning and mow the grass. There is a place for the gregarious person and the shy person in this library now and in the future. So don't worry. Remember why you joined the library. We have an enormous impact on the lives of the people in our community.  That will never change.
Barb