Title
Library Director's Report
Body
RECOMMENDED ACTION (Motion):
Discussion purposes only
BACKGROUND:
Mid-winter American Library Association Conference in Chicago: I attended an all-day pre-conference hosted by the Public Library Association. Valerie Gross of Howard County Library, Maryland, was the Institute leader. She is the director of a county wide system. Her contention, which she has written widely about, is that libraries need to use educational language to describe their activities. Not only does this describe library events better, but typically people have a good understanding of this language. Also, it aligns library activities with education, which typically, but not always, people place a value on, often one of the things they value the most. She is a proponent, for instance, of always calling Story Times 'Children's Classes'. She even uses the word 'curriculum' when describing resources. I thought that she had many good ideas which could inform how we frame events and activities. It is a good time to consider this, prior to designing signage for the building. It is also a way for staff to place more value on what they do.
This was followed by the conference itself. I attended a discussion about raising expectations for what we do in the library and a session about the Edge Initiative, which is a diagnostic tool for library technology. I also talked to several vendors about RFID equipment and software and visited a portion of the University of Chicago Library.
I beleive it was a really worthwhile trip.
At the Library, we have started reviewing our Behavior Policy (attached). We want to be sure that it correctly states the behavior which disrupts library business and encourages behavior which creates a respectful and enjoyable environment for all. I will bring some suggested changes to you for your feedback. I'd like to hear, from a library user, non-librarian point of view, how to state and enforce guidelines applicable to all library customers using the existing Behavior Policy as our starting point. This will be an on-going conversation.
We will be interviewing candidates for on-call Library Assistant 1 (hiring several people), a part-time Library Assistant 1 to specialize in Story Times (or Children's Classes), and a Library Assistant 3 in Reference. HR has not completed review of the applications yet. We are placing a huge emphasis on how these hires will contribute to the existing staff team and the Library, both now and in the future. We are small and fit is extremely important.
BUDGET IMPACT: NA
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