Dress Code, Children's Library update, and a fun Bright Spot

DRESS CODE
Michelle reached out to me and let me know that she's fielding lots of questions about the dress code that is part of the 2023 Personnel Handbook. For those of you who have been on staff for a while, you'll notice it hasn't changed for the new year. It still prescribes the dress expectations by which department you work in and whether you're a manager. Jeans appear to be only acceptable on Friday.
Last year we decided to try a test period to see whether allowing everyone to wear jeans to work every day would work out. We wondered whether people would come to work looking neat and professional if jeans were part of our daily wardrobe.
My conclusion is that overall we look just fine in our jeans. There are exceptions and I encourage managers to continue to encourage a more professional level of dress when they think it's appropriate. For now, we'll continue to allow jeans for all on a daily basis, with occasional exceptions, as needed.
People do make snap judgments about our competence based on our dress. That may seem unfair, but it's true. Dress also communicates respect for your position. That's why you'll see us dress in business casual the day of the board meeting- because what we report when dressed in business casual vs. jeans and a t-shirt may be the same, but the people who attend that meeting are likely to respect our information as trustworthy and judge our ability to lead the organization as higher if we present ourselves in business attire. I want the board and the public to be sure we respect them and we are grateful for the work we do, and I want to reassure them that the tax dollars they pay for our salaries are well spent, so I convey that to them with a level-up appearance the day of the board meeting or when I attend a city meeting.
At the same time, a more casual dress conveys that we are approachable, relaxed, and can even be fun. But sloppy just says you are sloppy in your work. It says you don't care. So dress casually, but dress respectfully- respect the public and respect yourself.
You are all competent in your jobs and deserve respect. I hope you're proud of the work you do and proud of the library. So let's present ourselves to the community as casual, friendly, and really, really good at what we do.

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Look what Outreach Services created for Black History Month

Updates on the Children's Library:

We're almost ready to kick off our 100 Extraordinary Women Campaign. Here's how it works:  

• Mary Matthews, a former KPL Foundation board president, will lead our campaign.
• Six women in the community will volunteer to work with Mary to plan the campaign.
• The campaign will raise $100,000 by securing $1,000 donations from 100 women. Donations are made in their name or to honor a woman in their lives. The names of those honored will be memorialized on the wall of the new library.
• Twelve women volunteer to be "table captains" and recruit 7 more women to make a $1,000 donation to the campaign. Each group of eight is seated together at a table at a celebration dinner when all 100 donations have been secured. 
• We will have our own page on the 100 Extraordinary Women site. All donations must run through the site. 
• Donors don't need to give $1,000 all at once. You can give $18 per month for 5 years or $200 per year for 5 years, or however you want to do the math.
• Men are encouraged to give gifts to honor the women in their lives. For instance, George O'Malley, a former board member, has made the first donation- a $3,000 gift to honor his mother, his wife, and his daughter. 

If you would like to serve on the planning committee or as a table captain or know someone who would be a great fit for the job, please let me know. There is no limit to the number of tables we can have at the celebration so if there are 20 women in the community who will make their pledge and agree to recruit 7 more women each, that would be fabulous! Any woman who pledges will be invited to the celebration dinner.

Aaron took this photo recently of the building progress. Drive by and take a look for yourself. It's so exciting to see the progress!

Worth a read: "The Joy of Reading Slowly" from The Guardian.

I'm going to see the grandkids down south and will be out of the library Monday-Wednesday next week. Linda is your onsite go-to gal in an emergency and I'll be available by phone, as well.

This week's Bright Spot Award comes from D.J.:
"I’d like to nominate Zander & Ben for staff bright spots.
Zander for putting together a really fun and engaging training for us desk staffers (reference training). And to Ben for being a part of that training with me and making it a really enjoyable hour and a half as we learned ways to improve how we help patrons with their questions/requests. Through Zander’s direction I feel I learned a lot! Though, I think they would both agree that, could I only take away one thing from the training, make it be to never again ask someone: “Do you have any celebrity dads you look up to?” From Role Playing Blunder to Blistering Success (My memoir someday. Probably. Hopefully?) "


Do you work with someone who makes your day brighter? Nominate them for a Bright Spot Award! Just send me an email and I'll be sure to post it on the next staff blog edition.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Barb