#4 Reports A. Activities Report
Hedberg Public Library
Activity Report
June 2011
Adult Services
The Wisconsin Library Association’s Literary Awards Committee (of which Jean Yeomans is a
member) met in June to finalize the list of winners for 2011. The committee determines the
winners of three awards, the 2011 Wisconsin Library Association Literary Award, given for the
highest literary achievement by a Wisconsin author for a book published in 2010, the Notable
Wisconsin Author award, for a Wisconsin author’s body of work, and the 2011 Outstanding
Achievement Award for ten Wisconsin authors for works published in 2010. In addition to those
awards, an Outstanding Achievement in Poetry award is presented to a Wisconsin poet for
his/her 2010 published works. The awards will be given out at the fall WLA conference. Jean
will serve on the committee until the end of 2012.
The topic for senior outreach programs this month was “royal families”. Jean shared family tree
charts of the British Royal Family which showed the connections between the royal families in
Europe over the centuries. Library books were used to show patrons pictures of the royals, their
homes, and their countries.
Jean attended a Library Journal webinar about craft books. Representatives from a variety of
publishing houses talked about what is new and exciting for the fall publishing season.
Circulation Services
Total circulation is down by 1% from last year but the number of library visits has increased by
3.3%. The number of reserves we filled increased by 1,133 items or 85% compared to June
2010. (We handled 8020 holds in 2011, 6,887 in 2010.) The busiest day for the number of items
th
checked-out (5,169) was Tuesday July 5 when the library reopened after a two day holiday. It is
th
about 430 items behind last year’s busiest day (5,597) which was also the day after the 4.
Staff has experienced shorter lines at the full service station since more patrons are using self-
check. We are averaging 78% of all checkouts begin done on the self check machines. June of
last year we were averaging about 65% self check.
Staff Meeting
The entire circulation staff met on Thursday June 17. We opened with a fun team building
initiative which led to a conversation about customer service. Staff members described times
when they experienced excellent customer service and we discussed how we could be ‘that
good.’ We agreed that we want to wow our clients with our service.
One big question from staff was how to balance speed of getting a task done, with serving our
customers. Of course we want both, but I encouraged staff to put the customer first. The next big
question is about when it is ok to make exceptions to policies and when they need permission. I
encouraged them to ask as many questions as they need, but to be assured that when they make
decisions I will support them; questions or additional training may follow, but they will not be
‘punished’ for making a judgment call.
As a team, morale is high, clients are smiling and our speed and efficiency are very good.
Projects
We are currently working on four big projects: revision of our School/ Teacher Cards: partnering
with U-Rock to create a browsing collection; working with Technical Services on shifting our
adult non-fiction collection, and; streamlining how we handle problem returns (items that come
back missing parts or damaged).
“School Cards”
In the past, were issued to the schools. Teachers could use these cards to
borrow materials or access our on-line databases, but they had to first get the card from a
gatekeeper – either the principal or librarian in their school. Unfortunately, this system
has been unwieldy and inefficient, and has been made worse by all the recent changes in
school staffing, In fact, the school card system has been a barrier both to teachers who
want to use the library, and to us in getting materials back.
After researching several options, Youth Services Department Head Sharon Grover, has
proposed discontinuing these “School Cards” and implementing a system of “Teacher
Cards.” In this system any person living or working in Rock County, with a card in good
standing, can get a Teacher Card. This card will be in a single user’s possession. It will
allow the teacher a longer circulation time and give us a single contact person for
recovering materials. We are still figuring out specifics about circulation periods for
different item types, but plan to have it done and under way by August 31.
partnership with UW-Rock County campus library
We are investigating a . Beth
Webb, Senior Assistant in the Circulation Department, who also works there, brought to
our attention some ways they can promote use of the Hedberg Public Library.
1) HPL materials can move to the U-Rock leisure reading collection when they come off
Jackpot status at HPL. At first they will be donated there rather than to the HPL Friends.
We can track circulation numbers for a school year (or so) and think about whether this is
a suitable location for a remote HPL collection. (There are lots more logistical, technical
and legal considerations involved if it is a remote collection than just a donation to U-
Rock so we want to test it before we make all those changes.) Beth will transport the
items to U-Rock when they are ready to relocate. They will post a sign or otherwise tell
people that the books are donated by HPL;
2) U-Rock would like to make HPL library card applications available at their library.
Beth has also offered to bring completed applications back to HPL, input the information
to our computer database and take the cards back to the campus for convenient student
pick up. We hope this extended service will encourage more visits to our library. (We
will also be investigating options for on-line card applications – which would serve more
than just the U-Rock students.);
3) In the future we want to consider a pick up point for item Holds requested by college
students.
Following the shifting work done by Laurel and the TS department as they moved the
travel books to a new neighborhood, we need to shift the rest of the adult collection to fill
the shelves. Since the Technical Services and Circulation departments share
responsibility for keeping our materials shelved and in good condition, we can share the
work of shifting these materials. We have assigned three staff members to spend one hour
each day shifting materials. One person can move somewhere between 5-7 stacks of six
shelves in an hour, or roughly 1350-1875 individual books (approx. 45 books/shelf).
Laurel estimates that working together we can complete the shift in four to six weeks.
damaged or missing parts
Library practices for handling items returned to us vary
widely, involve a wide range of possibilities, and need to be handled consistently. We
tried having all circulation department staff trained to deal with them but have not been
happy with the results. Instead, we have decided to appoint three small teams. Three
circulation staff members, Beth and I met last week to review our procedures and revise
some steps of our procedure in handling “Missing Parts”. Another staff person and I will
be responsible for dealing with “Damaged Items” and I will be working with the lead
security person to handle items that are lost or, presumably, stolen.
Staffing
We have had two staffing changes in the Circulation Department. Emily Spangler resigned and
moved to the Appleton area after three years. She will attend college there in the fall. On the
plus side we have hired three Student Shelvers. Each one works 10 hours a week, Their primary
assignment is to the children’s area putting away all the additional items being used by summer
readers. Jill Osmund Groell earned an “I Made a Difference” Award for her work training these
new shelvers.
.
Collection Development
Collection Manager Carol Kuntzelman has been working with OverDrive staff to set up the
Advantage program. This will allow HPL to purchase additional copies of best seller, high
demand e-book titles. A test of our first order went smoothly, and we will be ordering more
multiple copies during the coming months. This means HPL patrons will be able to get their
downloadable books in a more timely fashion. An HPL Library Foundation donation of $5000 is
responsible for HPL’s participation in the program.
Carol Kuntzelman held a second training session on downloadable e-books in June. Procedures
for reserving and downloading e-books to several devices were demonstrated. By the end of the
meeting, two patrons had reserved materials on their laptops and one teen downloaded a book to
read while she was at the library.
Human Resources/Accounting
Jill Osmond-Groell received an “I Made a Difference” award for her training and supervision of
the new student shelvers. Laurel Fant and Laura Fitzsimons received “I Made a Difference”
awards for their efficient shift of materials to the new travel neighborhood.
There are several large expenses included on the July expenditure approval list. Access Control
Solutions for $2,190 is for the purchase of a coin & bill unit with a one year support contract.
This unit replaces a troublesome model and will provide better service to our patrons using the
coin-op photocopier. BB Community leasing for $3,060 covers three months of photocopier
rental. Our regular payments in future will be $1,020 monthly, but we are currently catching up
on a less-than-elegant lease purchase transition. Ebsco Information Services for $11,228 is for
our main annual periodicals order. Infogroup for $8,905 is for a one year license agreement for
our Reference USA database. S.C.F., Inc.’s charge for $4,861 is for the installation of the first
stage compressor on the chiller that was burned out in a recent power outage. A surge protector
(billing to come) has been installed to prevent this happening in the future.
Technical Services
We may be going into the dog days of summer, but that hasn’t slowed down technical services
staff. They have been engaged in a number of projects improving access to the collection and
saving the library money. Two TS staff members, Stacks Maintenance Assistant Laurel Fant and
Technical Services Clerk Laura Fitzsimons, shifted the entire adult print travel collection to its
new neighborhood in one morning. Both Laurel and Laura earned “I Made a Difference” awards
for their efforts in setting up the new neighborhood. The next step is to name the neighborhood.
For that, we are bringing library staff and the public into the process. Staff will vote on suggested
names for the new neighborhood. The public will be invited to select the new name from a list of
the top three. Once we have a name, TS staff will add stickers, integrate audiovisual materials
(DVDs and some language CDs) and magazines into the collection, and update the catalog with
the new location name. The collection will also contain “Travel Bags” for five major travel sites
in the United States, including Orlando, Florida, and Las Vegas, Nevada. The “Travel Bags” will
contain an assortment of formats and information, including travel guides, DVDs, maps, and
“Flat Mosi” will be tagging along.
TS Head of Department Carol Kuntzelman, TS Librarian and Periodicals Selector Rebecca
Diedrick, and Serials Assistant Debbie Hessian-Kjornes met to review statistics, both circulation
and in-house use, of magazines at Hedberg Public Library. They also considered anecdotal
information about usage provided by Reference Desk Staff and came up with cuts in magazine
subscriptions for FY 2010 amounting to over $4000. Two magazine subscriptions, Journal of the
American Medical Association at $700 annual subscription and the American Journal of Nursing
at $394, accounted for a quarter of the savings. Circulation statistics did not support continuing
the expensive subscriptions. The cancellations will not go into effect until January 2012.
When apprised by circulation staff of a proposal to have an off-site leisure reading location at
UW-Rock County Library, with holdings being retained on the Millennium database, TS
Department Head Carol Kuntzelman suggested that first there be a trial period to collect needed
data. Kuntzelman and ALS System Administrator Melody Clair met with Circulation Head
Michelle Dennis, Beth Webb, and the UW-Rock County Library Director, and proposed that
technical services staff continue to withdraw Jackpot books which would then be added to UW-
Rock County’s catalog. UW-Rock County would collect circulation statistics over a school year.
If the figures are sufficiently high, the libraries could then consider a more formal collaboration
of an off-site location, which would be brought before the ALS Board and HPL Board of
Trustees.
The semi-annual TS additions and deletions statistics continue to show that TS has been able to
maintain our ‘no growth’ materials collection. Over 11,700 items were added to the collection
during the first six months of 2011, and an equivalent 12,000 items were withdrawn. Special
projects such as setting up new neighborhoods has not resulted in any backlogs or had an effect
on workflow.
Youth Services
Children’s Services
June school visits encompassed eight schools and 3,111 children. Summer programming got
underway with the opening of One World, Many Stories. While our statistics may be lower than
last year, we are enjoying more personal interactions with children than is possible with high
attendance. The World Wide Wheel game has been especially fun, with children learning new
facts about countries and cultures from around the world.
Our new program, Tail Waggin’ Tuesdays, had very enthusiastic initial response, but we’ve
suffered from some no-shows in the past two weeks. Those children who have taken advantage
of reading to Maggie, an adorable Lhasa Apso, have really enjoyed the undivided, uncritical
attention they get from the dog and her owner.
Early Literacy Grant Update: Youth Services staff that are involved in presenting storytime
programs for children and care givers and who also present programs for adults on reading with
their children gathered for a two-hour debriefing on the early literacy workshop and to discuss
next steps. Some things that came out of this discussion are:
The easy benefits of asking parents to wear nametags:
Parents have a better understanding that they are part of the program
o
Children are more willing to wear nametags when their grown-up wears one, too
o
Children learn their parents’ names, which can be important in an emergency
o
The need to effectively communicate to our community at large that the library is the
only place where parents can learn not only the importance of reading to their babies,
toddlers, and preschoolers, but also how to do it in ways that are both fun and productive.
While our styles may be different, if our philosophy regarding what is important to
convey in storytime is similar, we will be able to achieve the desired results: helping
parents and other adult care givers foster early literacy development.
The storytime groups (Baby Lapsit and Walkers, Tales for 2s and 3s, and Tales for 4s and
More) have all scheduled individual meetings to discuss implementation of new practices
we learned at the workshop.
Young Adult Services
Laurie Bartz and summer intern Travis Wood attended the College-to-Work Nonprofit Internship
Program Training Day at the Milwaukee County Zoo. An Introduction to the Nonprofit Sector
was followed by a panel discussion about perspectives and opportunities for the nonprofit in a
challenging economy. Goal-setting and teamwork exercises were woven throughout the training.
Over 700 students and teachers took part in middle school visits in May and June introducing the
Summer Library Program, Read Around the World in 50 Days. By the end of June, 456 middle
and high school students had registered for the program. The Paper Beads, Candy Sushi and
Henna Tattoos programs filled quickly and were fun for all!
Author Franny Billingsley spoke with teens and adults about the process she uses to write and
revise. Her latest novel for teens, Chime, has been awarded six starred reviews by various
library journals. This presentation was made possible through our Young Adult Library
Association/Dollar General Grant.
Teen volunteers contributed 135 hours in the Children’s Room in June. Interviews and training
sessions were conducted by Julie Westby, Sharon Grover and Laurie Bartz.
The desk in Teen Central has been open weekdays and one evening per week. Teens, including
groups, utilize the area to socialize, read, use the computer, and receive help finding books of
interest.
Other
Our newest book list for teens, Read Around the World: Historical Fiction From Across
the Globe, was released for the summer reading program.
Sharon Grover attended the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans where she was part
of a panel discussion on engaging reluctant readers through audiobooks. The session was
sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association (APA).
Two audiobook lists were created for summer listening: Read Around the World With
Your Ears for Kids and Read Around the World With Your Ears for Teens. These lists are
available in the Children’s Room and Teen Central and were distributed at the above-
mentioned panel discussion. The purpose behind these lists is to help listeners select
audio productions that will give culturally and regionally authentic experiences. The lists,
which have the HPL logos on them, are now posted to the Ethnic and Multicultural
Information Exchange Roundtable (EMIERT) website and will be posted to the APA
website.
Sharon Grover has been appointed to the Read On, Wisconsin! Advisory Board. This
program was started by former Wisconsin First Lady Jessica Doyle to promote reading
and literacy for Wisconsin students. Read On, Wisconsin! has now been taken over by the
Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) at UW-Madison.
Reference Services
Diana McDonald and Kate Hull prepared a training session to help staff answer Overdrive
questions. They presented the training to Reference staff at the June Reference training, and will
present it again at the Service Desk staff meeting in July.
On June 15 Bryan McCormick, Mary Buelow, Sharon Grover, Michelle Dennis, Jill Osmond-
Groll (Senior Service Desk/Security Assistant) and Beth Webb (Senior Circulation/Checkout
Assistant) met with Officer Chad Sullivan of the Janesville Police Department. We discussed
various library security issues and options for resolving them more effectively. As a result of
this meeting we have begun updating the library’s theft and vandalism policy.
Reference staff updated Janesville Room retention guidelines. The guidelines are designed to
balance the goals of the Janesville Room collection with the realities of limited space. They will
eventually be incorporated into the library’s collection policy.
Question of the Month –
A patron wanted to know one called the athlete who throws the caber in a Highland Games
“caber toss”. The librarian searched multiple sources and did not find a specific word for this
athlete. When she called the patron to report this, the patron said he was working on a
crossword puzzle, and “caber thrower” was the clue for a four letter word where the third letter
might be an “o”. The librarian searched Google for: crossword puzzle clue caber.
Crosswordtracker.com gave the answer SCOT