Departmental Reports - Traverse Area District Library

 Administrative Reports for the month of August (September 18, 2014 Board Meeting) Adult Services Adult Services is excited to welcome two new pages to our staff, Olivia and Bailey. We are happy to have them on board and sad to say goodbye to page Katheryn Orwig, who is off to the University of Michigan this fall. In August, we implemented the new classification tables designed by Jill Porter and librarian Amy Barritt. The new classification is designed to enhance the usability of our non­fiction collection. If you walk the stacks, you should see the items relatively in the same place, with the exception of biographies. Moving forward we will shelve all biographies together in 920 or 921. In August Adult Services welcomed musician Peter Bergin to a crowd of more than 50 people. Our ongoing programming Books to Movies series on Monday evenings and Tuesday Lunch hours saw solid attendance. Our book club Books and Brewskis was down with only 6 people, and the Tuesdays @ Two meeting was attended by 4 patrons. August is normally a down month for adult programming attendance, which is why we don’t schedule much outside of our regular ongoing events. Amy Barritt presented the Grand Traverse Journal at a Kiwanis luncheon early in the month. Katheryn Carrier presented a program on how to do genealogical research to three classes at NMC in late August. Adult services staff fielded a total of 2266 inquiries during the month at an average of 73 inquiries per day. Brice Bush Adult Services Coordinator Youth Services August was the Youth Services’ Staff’s chance to breathe after a very busy Summer Reading Club. All of the staff took some vacation time to refresh and we began shifting gears for the Fall Storytimes, Afterschool Adventures and other special programs coming up. Some of the Youth Services Staff had a chance to go out and help reach out to the community with the Commuting Library, and enjoyed the experience very much. The Youth Services Department saw the creation of a new section called “Kids’ Favorite Characters,” where picture books such as Curious George and Dora the Explorer have been placed at the start of the “JE” collection for families to find them easily. A big thank you to the Processing Department for smoothly processing these changes to the collection and to the Pages for helping to find and organize all the various titles and authors. You will find all our September­October programs in your Board Packet ­ hope to see you & your families at the programs! Cathy Lancaster Coordinator of Youth Services Teen Services In August Teen Services hosted 18 programs with 259 attendees. This year we participated in the National Library Lock In. The event was attended by 38 teens, three volunteer chaperones, Adult Services Librarian Amy Barritt, and myself. The National Library Lock In included libraries from all over the continent, including Canada. During the night there were virtual author visits, crafts, collaborative games, sing­alongs, and heart­felt discussions. The Teen Sages did a wonderful job planning the event, setting up, explaining the rules and the purpose of the event to attendees, and making sure rules were followed all evening. Between the Teen Sages and the volunteer chaperones, Amy and I were easily able to keep everything running smoothly. We plan to participate in the National Library Lock In again next year. Linda Smith Teen Services Coordinator Sight & Sound August is a transition month from Summer to back­to­school season. The end of the season is bitter sweet. It starts out quite busy and slows down as school gets closer. Then as soon as the September rains come we are busy again. The collection is growing and our yearly budget is shrinking as we get closer to the final quarter of 2014. We had a flood of renewed interest in the movies of Robin Williams after the loss of the talented comedian. This summer we’ve seen so many new faces. It’s been great to receive so much positive feedback from new visitors. Keith Schwartz received a great compliment from a patron experience. The patron took the time to place a very special thank you into the suggestion box. It was a glowing reflection of Keith’s special gift for sharing his vast knowledge of our collection. The patron went on to say. “Keith is awesome” “He encourages customers to take + try + enjoy. Talented” ”You can tell that you’re important to him”. I’ve known this for many years, it’s still so nice to hear it from patrons directly. Nice job Keith! We did create a new category in August ­ DVD Musicals. We also expanded Opera DVDs to include performance­like dance theater. August was a great month for donations; we had several large donations. Overall we do expect this trend to continue as physical media continues to become less necessary for people to collect and house. This also helps out the TADL Friends Book Sale as Keith continues to divert around 60% to the sale. We keep roughly 40% of these titles as TADL collection items. I prepared orders based upon the Emmy Awards for keeping up with the renaissance in great Television Programs. We do struggle to own the top TV titles. We own around 95% of all the nominated Emmy titles. I’ve been meeting with Jill Porter and sharing my ideas on how to enhance the process for Meeting Room Services. Tom continues to create great new signage for patrons to find our collection more easily. He also compiles the monthly statistics for our department. TADL Meeting Room August 2014 Total Room use:130 TADL meetings: 40 Personal/Outside Group Meetings: 90 Paid Meetings: 4 Unpaid Meetings: 136 Number of Meetings by Rm Use August 2014 McGuire Room: 21 Thirlby Room: 40 Study Room D: 69 Reference Stats for July 2014 Total Questions: 2077 Walk­in questions:1838 Phone Questions:239 Quick Response:1205 Reference:548 Tech: questions:85 On Aaron’s desk: Programming, Meeting Room Service Improvements, Staff Training. Thanks for reading, Aaron Circulation Circulation was busy in August. Unfortunately, two of the Circulation staff were out on funeral leave this month. That, plus already approved vacation time, left us a little short handed at times. I want to thank my team for going the extra mile this month, which kept Circulation running smoothly during this time. We were also down a page in August and held interviews to fill the position. Pages from other departments, as well as Circulation Pages, stepped up to make sure things ran smoothly in the sorter room. A big “Thank You” to our Pages. I attended a MelCat Webinar­ Stop Saving Paging Slips! We sent out 824 items in MelCat and received a record high, 1010 items. Sue from Administration has started helping Circulation check­in and shelve items that come in from the courier on our heaviest courier days, which are Tuesdays and Thursdays. Anita Chouinard Circulation Coordinator HR & Finance After returning on August 4 from I two week vacation, it took quite awhile to catch up on my work. Thanks to the help from Administrative Office staff, everything got done exceptionally well and as quick as could be expected. We received our final penal fine check in August from Benzie County. That check was up from the prior year by about $2,500. The increase in penal fines, state aid and property taxes are good news for all TADL libraries. Unless there are unexpected, exceptionally large Board of Review or Tax Tribunal reimbursements that need to be made to the county, member libraries will be receiving larger allocations this year. I met again with Raquel Paulus from Peterson McGregor about our employee insurance renewals for 2015. The new plan year, which actually begins November 1, brings mostly very small increases and in two cases a decrease. Rates for our Priority HMO are increasing .17%, while the HSA rates are decreasing .14%. It has been a very long time since we have seen this happen. Delta Dental rates are also decreasing 4%. VSP, our vision insurance, is increasing 5%, but because of the low cost of this benefit, the effect is negligible. Life insurance rates are staying the same, but there will be some increase due to the higher wages upon which the premium is based. Long­Term Disability rates are increasing 6.9%. I am looking forward to the budget work that will show us how these changes will affect our next fiscal year’s expenses. Respectfully submitted, Gail Parsons, Assistant Director for HR & Finance/Interim Director Public Service Staff Training: 1) Worked with Mary Moran to create an Evergreen catalog training module for Kalkaska librarians. 2) Worked with Mary Moran to create a training module for Woodmere catalogers designed to improve our data in regard to series, subtitles, added entries, GMDs (general material designations) and standard numbers. 3) Attended Collection HQ’s webinar on the changes and improvements made in the most recent release and reviewed the impact these changes will have on our CHQ usage. I will be conveying these improvements and how they will impact our workflow at the next NOCL meeting. Administration: Presented the Talking Book Library request for support to the Antrim County Human Services Committee on the director’s behalf. They approved the $4,116 request. Professional: I was honored to be asked to serve as a jury member for the PLA’s Upstart Innovation Award. The award is presented annually at the ALA conference to a library that has created a unique and cutting­edge program that demonstrates: collaborative efforts of the staff and community in the planning and implementation process; measurements of success in the community based on usage, program attendance, or greater community awareness; sustainability of the program over time; replication possibilities by other public libraries; and quality and appropriateness in submitted materials. I will serve on the jury for two years. Jill Porter, Asst. Director for Public Services Marketing and Communications PR August 2, 2014 The Leader and Kalkaskian: Leader Archives Now Available Online at Library August 5, 2014 MyNorth.com: Northern MI Little Free Libraries in TC and Beyond August 29­September 30, 2014 Midwestern Broadcasting: September is National Library Card Sign Up Month. I’m running TADL PSA radio spots on all Midwestern Broadcasting stations: WTCM FM (Today’s Country); WTCM AM, NewsTalk 580; WCCW FM – Classic Hits; WJZQ FM – 92.9 Z93 Today’s Best Hits. Outreach The Commuting Library, TC’s first pedal powered library, hit the streets a couple times in August including Friday Night Live. This outreach effort proved successful in more ways than one with a focus on generating more awareness of TADL and its services. I’m pleased to share that Brice Bush and I have been selected to present “Wheels of Wonder: Sharing Resources to Connect Community” at this year’s Michigan Library Association (MLA) annual conference in October. We will be presenting a poster session on the Commuting Library project. Poster sessions highlight specific examples of how libraries and librarians are representing the mission of libraries; crafting connections, encouraging growth, with interaction among MLA attendees. We’re looking forward to representing TADL once again at MLA and I will be working on our presentation in the coming weeks. Summer Reading Club I created and distributed an email link to a SRC survey created by Cathy Lancaster, which was sent to all SRC participants districtwide. Friends of TADL In Metta’s absence I’ve been attending the monthly Friends of TADL meetings. I’ve also been working with their new publicity chair, Amy Shamroe, to cross promote their upcoming Annual Book Sale September 19­21 with web promotion via www.tadl.org, enewsletter features, flyers, bookmarks, etc. Online Marketing August E­newsletter received a 21% open rate with the top 5 links: 1. Events at Woodmere 2. TADL Account 3. Events at Interlochen 4. Feature on Little Free Libraries in East Bay Township 5. Peter Bergin Pianist Concert at Woodmere Submitted by Kristen Talaga, Marketing & Communications Facilities As summer winds down, I am looking towards the coming winter. I am getting a quote on some heated gutters in certain problem areas along the front of the building. The long, extremely cold winter last year caused some icing issues that need to be addressed for safety reasons. Unfortunately, this winter is predicted to be just as bad. As the next step in a lighting project I am pursuing, I had two LED lamps installed in a couple of the saucer fixtures whose ballasts had burned out. The lamps were loaned to us as samples so there was only the minimal cost of rewiring them to see how they looked. The lumens and color were very similar to our existing fixtures while only using 60 watts instead of 400 watts. They also have a lifespan of 25 years. I am getting costs on the lamps and installation so I can calculate the savings and our return on investment. I expect to see some very impressive numbers. I met with Matt deBear from Library Design about some additional shelving. We talked with the different departments about their possible future needs, and Matt was very helpful in finding the most efficient means to meet them. I got some numbers for budgetary planning down the road. Finally, I had the usual repairs and upkeep that never seems to end. I changed bulbs, did some minor plumbing, fixed some furniture, and measured the leftover fabric for recovering some chairs. EPS replaced the domes on the outside cameras as they were getting scratched and faded and Trane did the summer preventive maintenance on the chillers. Bruce Bennett Facilities Manager Processing The Kalkaska Public Library was welcomed onto the Evergreen system TADL has been using for awhile now. To help the librarians there become comfortable with the system and also to make sure they are following the cataloging rules, Mary Moran led a training session with them. We will be more than happy to answer questions for them and to continue to support them during this transition. August is a big month for donations. The Friends start advertising their Almost Rare Book sale that happens every September and our patrons take this as an opportunity to clean out their basements and donate to this fundraiser. It is always a huge success for the Friends. Kelly Maxwell Processing Team Leader Technology Mobile App Update ­ The first major update to the district’s mobile application has been submitted for approval to the GooglePlay marketplace. We expect the Android version of the app to receive the upgrade sometime in the week, starting with the iOS app being released shortly thereafter. The new app maintains the existing functionality of our current application, but also includes a variety of performance and security enhancements, as well as an updated UI. The web version of the app, which is cross platform and likely receives the most utilization, went live on and can be found at: https://www.tadl.org/m/ New Public Computing Pilot ­ New public computers and monitors will be deployed to Interlochen Public Library by the end of the month. We consider this a pilot because we will be using Intel’s Next Unit of Computing (NUC) hardware for the first time and though we are confident in the solution, there is value in testing our assumptions before committing to the platform at all locations. Intel’s NUC platform allows for high quality performance at an extremely low price point (~$400 a unit), is ultra­compact, and can be easily serviced using low cost, widely available replacement components, allowing us to avoid costly maintenance agreements. Another benefit is the extraordinarily low power consumption (only 25 watts at full load compared to our current machines that average ~175 watts). If the pilot at IPL is positive, we will begin rolling out these new devices to other member libraries as well as the Kingsley branch library in October. Server Upgrades ­ As detailed in the 2014 Technology and Public Computing narrative, the existing servers in the Woodmere data center are in need of replacement (+5 years old and out of warranty). While the district has made a concentrated effort to move away from costly internal equipment in favor of hosted solutions, there are still a variety of services (MAS90, Active Directory, DNS, etc.) that are built around/benefit from having equipment on­site. Fortunately improvements in server virtualization technology will allow us to replace our five existing servers with a single device at price­point ~50% of our initial projections. While we are still vetting other solutions, we expect to bring a proposal to the finance committee in October and will request monies from the technology fund to launch the project. E­Rate Changes ­ The long rumored changes the in the E­Rate funding program were released last month. The benefits of the new rules are primarily poorer school districts and libraries who qualify for priority two services (we do not). In order to provide more funding to these poorer districts, all funding for telephone based services will be phased out over the next four years. In 2015, the funding will capped at 70%. Because our funding rate is only ~73%, the impact will be minimal. However in 2016 the discount will be cut to 50% and then decreased 20% each following year until the subsidy is no more. Our move to VOIP last year cut our base telecommunications cost considerably, so we are ahead of the curve in responding to this change, but will still need to be mindful of the increasing costs and explore solutions to help soften the blow as our discounts begin to shrink. ­ Scott Morey, Asst. Director for Technology TADL Talking Book Library Being able to present our program through a large “Beach Party” theme at the Bellaire Pavilions was the highlight of my August Outreach. Sponsored by the Bellaire COA (Commission on Aging), on a chilly August 14 morning and afternoon, many area residents stopped by our booth to get information and take applications with them as well. There were over 200 attendees. The venders present were supportive of our services, and several will be in future contact with me to meet with their staffs. I was able to connect with: Comfort Keepers, The Transportation Authority, Bellaire Library, Munson Home Health Care, Prime Time News Owner, Compassionate Care and another agency next to the COA. It was cold to the hands and feet on a picnic day, but warm and encouraging for our Talking Book Library as we continued to benefit from public exposure. I also made a courtesy stop on my return route to Meadowbrook Senior Living. We have patrons there who Regina, the Meadowbrook Activities Director, said are doing well on the program. On the 18th, I met with fellow Lions for our monthly meeting. We continue to help those in great need; most recently being part of a contributing effort (other organizations helped too) to assist a teen in getting an ipad. Tally: 10 Organizations Outreach, more than 200 members from the public. On the technology side, “Lue” Moran led 16 patrons through one­on­one training sessions with BARD and other related services. Three additional patrons signed up for BARD. With their activation, our BARD total is currently 98 active users and five active institutions. Lue and I also attended the quarterly Network Libraries Meeting in Lansing. Pam Davenport, our regional contact from the National Library Service was there to bring us up­to­date on NLS developments, including the distribution of currency readers to network libraries. We look forward to receiving ours by year’s end. Respectfully submitted, Mary Orth East Bay Branch Library August circulation at East Bay Branch was 3697. 86 patrons attended 9 programs in August. Tallied reference numbers totaled approximately 1700 for the month. Programs in August included monthly Book Club featuring the title Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Wigglers story times were held four days in the month, Grand Traverse Industries visited two Thursday afternoons. Knitting Club and Miniatures Club also held their regularly scheduled monthly meetings. The Miniatures Club was featured in an article in the Record Eagle which promoted the East Bay Branch Library and the upcoming Annual Ice Cream Social on September 13 from 1­3. A miniatures display will be available for viewing at the library throughout September and a permanent shadow box display will be mounted at East Bay featuring the tiny projects the group has created while meeting at the library. East Bay Branch was closed on August 5 for elections. There were no scheduled NOCL or Key Staff Meetings but a branch administrative meeting was held on August 21 at East Bay. All staff was in attendance. Thank you again, Bruce Bennett, Facilities Manager Extraordinaire, who worked hard to spruce up the landscaping at East Bay Branch for the upcoming Ice Cream Social event. It’s looking great around here! Julie Kelly Rosie Vreeland­Flickinger Branch Managers Kingsley Branch Library August circulation was a little lower than average with a total of 5,599 items. This allowed staff time to do some major weeding. The addition of Collection HQ simplified the weeding process and saved staff a lot of time. In addition, Karen Pack and Bonnie White did some shelving changes to make room for our large and very popular DVD collection. Our shelves are much more browser friendly now. Family Theater “Dog Daze of Summer” presented four family friendly movies that were enjoyed by 76 patrons. Patrons were entertained by “LEGO Movie”, “Ghostbusters”, “E.T.”, and “The Goonies”. Refreshments of popcorn, suckers, and ice water were also enjoyed. Monarch Butterfly Program was well attended with 27 participants. The weather was very rainy that day and delayed the release for a while. It was still a very good program with 24 very lively Monarchs tagged and ready to feed and fly. Thank you to Melanie Halpin­Dye for volunteering to take the butterflies and keep them in your hoop house until the rain stopped. All of our patrons are always so willing to help! We have the best patrons on the planet!! Kingsley Branch Library patrons hit the jackpot with Summer Reading Club prizes. Three KBL patrons were winners at the Woodmere Branch Grand Prize Drawing party. Please check our Facebook page to see all the lucky winners: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kingsley­Branch­Library/120366104642119 August displays included Monarch Butterflies, summer reads, Dog Daze of Summer movies, and historical photos. A beautiful water color poster “Watercolor Cherries” that was entered by our patron, Shaun Kitchen, for the 2014 National Cherry Festival Art Competition was proudly displayed on our fireplace mantel. Kingsley Branch Library will be serving dinner to the TADL Board before the September 18th meeting. Arrive early to enjoy a light dinner of Subway sandwiches, chips, water, lemonade, coffee, and dessert. We will make sure it’s ready by 4:45 pm to allow you plenty of time to eat. We look forward to having all of you here. Dinner compliments of the Kingsley Friends of the Library! I will end with these photos, they say it all! Respectfully submitted, Mary Fraquelli, Branch Manager