Managers Meetings

Q : What is your suggestion?
 I suggest that we have Neighborhood Library Manager's meetings, every other month because most of the information given during these meetings could be e-mailed to the Managers. Having fewer meetings means less mileage use (especially for Managers with more than one location) and more staff at the libraries during open hours. These meeting could even be cut down to two hours from 10-12 which means Managers would not have to travel downtown to Central during early morning traffic hours and could return to cover lunch hours at their locations.
Response:  We discussed this at a manager's meeting a few months ago.  We can revisit the discussion.  We would probably have team meetings the alternate months so that may not decrease the mileage requests.

Thanks,

Laurie Covington

Bonuses

Q : What is your suggestion?
 Give staff annual bonuses for HEAR scores above 3.5.
Response:  That is a department director decision.  We will pass it on to Administration.

Thanks,

Laurie Covington

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