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#4 Reports A. Activities Report Hedberg Public Library Activity Report November 2011 Circulation Services Total circulation for the month (92,169) is down from last year (96,213) by 4,044 items or 4.3%. Compared to last month, we are down by 2,717 items. The number of library visits, 62,461, was down by 7.3% compared to last year when 69,933 people walked through our door but up from last month by 7,472 visitors or 10.7%. The busiest day in November, based on the number of items checked-out, was Wednesday, Nov. 23, when we circulated 3,171 items. We filled less Holds (reserves) this year than last: 7,451 holds in 2011 and 7,739 in 2010. This month an average of 81.8% of all checkouts were done using our Self Checkout machines. In general we ranged from a high of 87% on both Saturday and Sunday the Nov 26 and 27, to a low of 76% on Friday, Nov 18. It is safe to say that more than three quarters of our clients use the self checkout option on a regular basis. Monthly averages have been at or above 80% since July 2011. Ongoing Projects “Teacher Loan Cards” The are available. As of Dec. 12 we have issued 21 of these cards. Most have gone to teachers in typical classrooms but we are also serving one home school family, the Rock County Juvenile Detention Center and a faculty member at U-Rock. The HPL Youth Services Department is involved in Resource Sharing relationships with Craig High School and Jackson Elementary Schools who have Teacher cards for the school library media specialists. UW-Rock A browsing collection of our former Jackpot items is now up and running at the County campus library . It started with 10 titles and has grown to 90. U-Rock reports that they are very happy with the use of the collection. They have recorded 29 circulations out of the library and 33 uses in house. Beth Webb, Senior Assistant in the HPL Circulation Department continues to facilitate our collaboration. On-line library card applications went live on Monday Sept 12. So far, we have issued 63 new cards, and updated contact information on several more. We have set up an email box called “Circulation Desk” that they are using to correspond with on-line library card applicants, rather than using personal email boxes. Renee Miller and Joei Jay are doing a great job entering the information and responding to new clients. Service and Reference Staff Cross Training – All library staff who work directly with library clients are empowered to and trained to update contact information and renew library materials. Jill Osmond-Groell has been exceptionally helpful in reviewing changes made by other staff for accuracy and answering staff questions. Circulation staff refresher training series began in October – On Nov. 17 we held our department training on Efficient Workroom Tasks and Flow. We focused on partnerships in the work areas, communication and efficient ways to do our various tasks. All Staff Training – “The Wakanheza Project” Nov. 11 – Was done as an in house retreat. Rene Bue and Michelle Dennis facilitated. The Wakanheza Project is a library-community-wide effort that provides tools and strategies for creating welcoming environments. It helps our staff more effectively respond to every day, stressful situations between people and better prevent uncomfortable situations from happening in the first place. Collection Development November statistics show that circulation figures for OverDrive e-book downloads continue to grow. With e-book readers expected to be one of the hottest gifts this Christmas season, Carol Kuntzelman, Arrowhead’s representative to the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium Selection Committee, reports that the Committee is expecting a big increase in e-book requests. The Committee has prepared a list of current titles by such popular authors as John Grisham, Nora Roberts, Christopher Paolini, and others. Multiple copies of the titles will be purchased prior to th December 24 in order to satisfy the expected demand. E-books are increasingly becoming the format of choice for many, and the Committee wants to the library OverDrive site to be the first place e-book readers go to find their favorite titles and authors. Selector Laura Gottlieb announced her retirement earlier this month. Over the past decade, Laura has been responsible for the development of several subject areas at Hedberg, including history, literature, and languages. She also selected travel materials, and her contribution to the creation of our new Great Escapes neighborhood was essential to its success. She has been a valued member of the collection team, and her fellow selectors will miss her. After a career of selecting books for others to read, we are happy she will now find time for personal reading selections. Human Resources/Accounting In Human Resources news Dave Peters, Laurel Fant, Steve Wenzel, Emrick Gunderson, Laura Fitzsimons, Elizabeth Hough, Rebecca Haefner and Barb Luster received “I Made a Difference” awards for their respective roles in the efficient reorganization of the adult new book and AV area. Nancy Murray received a “tip of the hat” from the Information Services staff for her extra helpfulness with newspapers. The hiring process has begun to replace retiring Reference Librarian Laura Gottlieb. The New World Systems accounting program the City of Janesville has been working on all year went live December 5, and a new method of processing and paying invoices has taken effect. The current Invoice by Vendor list included in this packet is a temporary, manually prepared list that will be replaced by a program-generated report in the near future. This is still a work in progress, so stay tuned. Information Services Information Desk staff met with Dave Godak from the City Clerk's office at two trainings in November for voter registration training and certification. For about half the staff it was their first training for this election cycle. The rest had been trained and certified this past spring, but needed to be re-trained due to changes under the new Voter ID law. Information Desk staff are now certified to register City of Janesville Residents to vote. The library will not hold a Job Seekers Open Lab in December 2011. Our attendance for the Job Labs has been low in 2011 compared to 2009 and 2010. In 2009, 97 attended twelve labs; in 2010, 84 attended twelve labs; in 2011, 54 attended eleven labs. As December attendance was poor in 2009 and 2010 we opted to skip the December lab for 2011, and the next Job Seekers Open Lab is scheduled for Monday January 9, 2012. After that we will assess whether we will hold Job Labs less often or whether we should discontinue the program altogether. The maroon and white overhead signs were updated in November to say “Information Desk” instead of “Service Desk” and “Reference Desk”. We are now updating smaller signs in the library as well as pages on our web site that still say Service Desk or Reference Desk to reflect the current nomenclature. Reference Librarian Laura Gottlieb will retire at the end of 2011. Laura began working for the library in September 1997, and in the years since has contributed much to Hedberg Public Library. She initiated a number of indexing projects over the years, including the Local History Database, the Obituary Index, the Yearbook Index and a partnership with The Gazette to index some of the Gazette’s clipping files. We will miss Laura’s dedication, efficiency, experience, and her incredible sense of humor. We will miss her! Question of the Month – How do I get one of those new “concealed carry” permits? The Wisconsin Department of Justice web site has the instructions, application, and additional information. http://www.doj.state.wi.us/dles/cib/ConcealedCarry/ConcealedCarry.asp Technical Services The new arrangement for the Adult New Books and Audiovisual collections was completed and then fine-tuned. Dave Peters built a wooden bookcase to house the new DVD titles and soon-to- be Blu-Ray DVD collection. The unit is located at the front of the DVD ranges, making it more easily accessible to both the public and to shelvers. Both patrons and staff have commented favorably on the wider aisles and reduced congestion. Youth Services Children’s Services First graders were visited at ten schools and two schools brought their first graders to HPL. A total of 717 students and teachers enjoyed a variety of new books (Press Here, by Hervé Tullet, was a big hit), toured the library virtually with the story “If You Take a Mouse to the Library,” and took home information about the library as well as a bag to put their books in when they come to visit with their families. Storytimes are going very well and the inclusion of the early literacy tips for parents and care givers are beginning to feel more natural to staff. In fact, many of us have been including early literacy tips into our brief Saturday Story Shorts as well. Young Adult Services A collaborative book club has been formed by Laurie Bartz and Sharon Grover with the librarian and an English teacher Craig High School in an effort to include student reactions to the books we will be reading for the 2013 Michael L. Printz Award. Students gather in the Library Media Center twice a month to discuss previous Michael L. Printz award-winning books and, in 2012, will begin reading books eligible for the “real” Printz Award. In January of 2013, the students will hold mock-award discussion and select their own award and honor books for the 2012 publishing year. Let the Rhythm Hit ‘Em, an after-hours hip hop dance competition at the library, drew a crowd of approximately 550 enthusiastic spectators and performers of all ages. In conjunction, an instructional break dance class was offered. Jason Regan, a Youth Officer at the Rock County (WI) Juvenile Detention Center and middle school ESL Aide, played a vital role in helping organize the event and getting the word out. Shelton Evans, Youth Advocate with the School District of Janesville made opening comments. Jason reports that dancers from other towns have asked him how to stage contests in their own communities, to which he responds, “Maybe you should talk to your library.” Since there was no regular TAB meeting in November, an officer’s meeting was held to discuss ideas for streamlining TAB meetings and ways to offer additional methods for teens to submit their ideas. One of the decisions was to add a short game at the end of each TAB meeting. Teen volunteers contributed 25 hours assisting with Children’s programs and Faces of the World. Other:  Julie Westby, Laurie Bartz, Shannon Murphy-Tollefsrud, and Phil Schomber attended the Wisconsin Library Association conference, bringing back excellent information on e- books, programming for kids ages 8-11, integrating technology into teen programs, and planning interactive learning spaces in the children’s room. Some of what this group learned at the conference is already being put into practice in new programs developed for our winter session.  Laurie Bartz attended a Communications Committee Meeting to discuss the key messages and target audiences for Janesville Mobilizing for Change. JM4C is a collaboration of proactive community members and groups committed to eliminating risk-taking behavior in all youth through advocacy, awareness and action (from their Mission Statement).  Sharon Grover and Julie Westby learned that the proposal to present two workshop sessions on our early literacy grant and training at the Association for Library Services to Children National Institute has been accepted. Sharon and Julie will be presenting HPL’s experiences along with Allison Kaplan (UW-Madison) and Betsy Diamant-Cohen and Saroj Ghoting, who did the training for us last May.  Laurie Bartz participated in a College Goal Wisconsin conference call meeting.  Sharon Grover attended a meeting of the Innovation Specialists (formerly Library Media Specialists) where she heard discussions on using smart boards in the classrooms, penguin projects and collaborative learning, project sharing between the school library and classroom teachers, and sharing Janesville’s learning standards on the website to showcase the exciting things going on in the district.  Sharon Grover interviewed young adult author John Green, winner of the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award for his book Looking for Alaska. The interview will be published in the April/May issue of AudioFile magazine.