Tent for Outreaches

Q : What is your suggestion?
Buy a tent/tarp for outreaches for each of the four regions (or library locations) within Neighborhood Libraries. Due to spacing at some locations the tents could be stored at Central and made available by request.
Response:   Thanks for the suggestion.  Community Engagement does have tents that they will let people borrow for outreaches. 

Thanks,

Laurie Covington

Notary Services at the Library

 What is your suggestion?
Customers often request Notary services at the library. Has the library considered offering notary services?

Sara Pope and Norola Morgan

 Response:  That is a great idea.  I am going to do some research on City and State restrictions to make sure it is something that we could do.  Thanks for the question.

Laurie Covington

Unscheduled Review & HEAR AP 3-20

Here is what I found out from Noel Pinnock, HEAR Project Manager, regarding changes in a staff's job duties and affecting SMART goal(s) in a current work plan.

If a staff member's job duties change and results in needing to update the work plan with another SMART goal, an "unscheduled review" can be conducted to close out the current work plan in order to proceed with a new work plan. The review period would remain the same--non-supervisors 07/01/13 - 06/30/14.

This question was raised as a result of a staff member going from PT to FT status and changing job duties (ex. primarily shelving to programming/outreach).

Also, to be in compliance with AP 3-20, supervisor should not sign review until he/she has met with employee to discuss review. This leaves opportunity for rating to be adjusted if employee disagrees and provides appropriate documentation. NOTE: Before meeting with employee, a copy (printed/PDF) should be sent to reviewing authority to be aware of ratings that will be discussed with employee.

Thank you,

Marcos Martinez, Lib II, Manager
Houston Public Library - Collier Regional
marcos.martinez@houstontx.gov
832.393.1749

Workforce Development - Open Job Labs

Hi,
Due to the short turnaround time for several special reports, I am requesting that Open Job Lab statistics be entered into the blog on the day of the program from July forward. This will save you from recording and reporting the statistics twice. In addition, it will permit me to access statistics quickly to fulfill the special requests I receive.

If you have any questions or concerns, please discuss it with your Team Leader or Coordinator of Extended Hour Locations. Thanks!
Best regards,
Mary Wagoner

Ideas and Innovation

I attended a really interesting session at ALA on innovation in your library. The Orange County Library System in Florida has a really interesting blog that they use to share ideas called Orange Seed Ideas. It is similar to our suggestion blog here, but they have different pages for ideas in different stages. They also have an Innovation Champions team that helps ideas happen. Here's their blog http://blog.ocls.info/orangeseed/

And the powerpoint presentation for this session can downloaded here: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/304

I'd like to see our suggestion blog look more like Orange Seed Ideas. I like how you can see where the idea is in being implemented-there's even a section for ideas that maybe aren't right for right now, but there could be something there that could be revisited and implemented in the future or built upon.

If you have questions about the presentation, feel free to get in contact with me!

Sara Pope
Heights Neighborhood Library

List of "Home" Locations

Would it possible to have a list of where NL staff, or at least Managers and Assistant Managers, "live", that is where their office/desk is located and where they prefer to receive items through delivery.

For example, I work one day a week at Blue Ridge and one day a week at Bracewell, spending the rest of my time at Vinson, which is where I maintain my office. Occasionally I get items sent through delivery to one of the other locations. If something arrives for me at Bracewell on a Thursday, I probably won't see it till I'm next there, which is on the following Wednesday.

Thanks!
John Merullo, BLU/BRA/VIN (but please send my mail to VIN :))

Skateboard lockers

At Heights, it seems like we are having to turn away a lot of customers who come in with skateboards. I think it's unfortunate that we don't have a way to accomidate them like we do with patrons who come on bikes (there's a bike rack they can lock their bikes to, but that doesn't work for skateboards). Since many of the customers who come on skateboards are teens, it makes it seem like we are hostile to teens. There do exist skateboard lockers like this http://www.schoollockers.com/specialty-lockers/skateboard-lockers or this http://www.parkabike.com/locking-commercial-skateboard-racks.html
Lockers like this would make the library more friendly to teens and others who use skateboards as a form of transportation! Please consider a solution like this for Neighborhood Libraries!

Thanks,

Sara Pope
Heights