CDC Travel Warning

The CDC is begging everyone not to travel for Thanksgiving.  No one feels this sacrifice more than I do. My closest family members are a 9 hour drive from my house. I have yet to hold my new granddaughter born in September. I have missed a full half of the twins' 2 year lives. This is heart breaking for me. My children are my whole world. I spend a portion of every day talking myself into staying strong and focusing on the image of a happy, virus-free reunion. I have gone back and forth, checking on airline tickets, watching the CDC website, hoping for a sign that I can jump on a plane and bask in the warmth of my beautiful family after all the stress of a horrible year. But the signs I want to see just aren't there.  And I love them all enough not to take the chance that I'll be bringing an infection into their homes. To think that my poor judgment could leave Bryn or Ella with a chronic condition or be the cause of them losing a parent is unthinkable, more unthinkable than my feeling sad. I'm hoping you all exercise good sense this holiday season and do your very best to help mitigate this extraordinarily devastating pandemic. We are all in this together. Sacrificing for the common good does not come easy. I know. If you do travel, please watch your symptoms closely. If you have even the slightest reason to believe you've been exposed to someone with COVID-19, please isolate yourself and get tested before returning to work. Please take care of your KPL family the way you would your own.
Thank you!

We passed the second of three hurdles in the 2021 city budget process Wednesday evening when the council's finance committee approved our budget as submitted. Our 2021 budget is $6,839,275 which is about $2,000 more than last year. The city gave us exactly the same in our tax levy as last year, and we earned $107,501 more through our reimbursements for service to patrons outside the city limits, but the effect of reduced attendance (fines, fees, copying and printing) and lower interest rates spells status quo in the coming year. While this is disappointing, it's actually far better than Madison (2.5% cut) and Racine (4% cut). We'll continue to be cautious with spending until we see our revenues normalize. You will receive your step increase if you've met proficiency on your performance review this year but there will be no cost of living adjustment in 2021.

Reminder to get all your vacation taken before the end of the year. No requests for carryover will be granted.

This week's Bright Spot Award comes from Martha:

"I nominate Rob for coordinating the key fob installation for our doors.  Staff have been so pleased with their fobs! Small, easy to use and very happy about them."

I'm taking next week off. See you back at work November 30th.

Have a safe and peaceful holiday, everyone!

Barb

Transitioning to Customer Service Specialists

The staff shuffle resumes, with more of our long term staff deciding that it's high time they leave the workforce and enjoy every moment of their post work life. So we have upcoming openings in Circulation, Outreach and ADS. Good thing we just did a Choose Your Own Adventure survey! For those of you who indicated interest in different positions, here's your chance. 

One thing we learned when NS closed for several days is that ICS staff have limited work options in our organization. ICS staff focus on managing collections where we have AMH installed, and that leaves only SW and NS positions. When NS closed in response to the staff COVID infection, ICS staff could only be reassigned to SW.  We scrambled to find projects for our displaced ICSs. That's really inefficient.

When we crafted a staff reorganization several years ago, we consolidated the tasks in our circulation department from 3 positions into 2 so staffing could be more flexible and pages could move into a better paying position. The gold star reorganization would have been to consolidate all circ positions into one position at the CSS level that was trained to do everything. But the price tag for doing that was too high with the number of staff we had and there were some staff that were reluctant to make such a leap. So we moved ahead with the 3 positions to 2 positions transition, and gradually used the money we had to convert to Customer Service Specialists whenever we had the chance.

Now we see the opportunity to move forward again with our transition toward the one highly skilled position in circ that can do it all. With so many circulation staff opting for retirement and a couple finding full time work in their desired fields, we see an opportunity to move toward an even more nimble workforce where every member of the circ team is fully trained to do all circ functions and can fill in at any branch location. This next phase will require that CSS staff regularly pitch in during part of their workday to sort delivery, work the AMH, and shelve the collection. With so few patrons using the library these days, it will be an optimal time to do cross training. 

So, if you're an ICS and you've been toying with the idea of applying for an open CSS position, I encourage you to do so. Transitioning now will give you the space to learn your new tasks in a less busy environment. And who doesn't want to earn a bigger paycheck? 

A Video Congratulations