CE Managers Meeting Notes
July 24, 2015
Compiled by Yolanda Anguiano
Customer
Experience: (Michele Gorman) Edgar Fuentes and
My’Tesha Tates finished Tall Texans this week.
Marcos Martinez is leaving the system to take a position at Austin
Public Library. His last day is the 31st. We will be replacing his post with an
Administrative Supervisor. It pays the
same as a Librarian III but will offer an opportunity for other capable staff
that doesn’t hold an MLS degree. Those
with an MLS are also welcome to apply. Lauren
Battenfield has married and is now Lauren Wilcox. We were introduced to Leah Fraser, Michele’s
new Executive Assistant. She can be
reached at x31332, city cell 832-493-6742, or by email leah.fraser@houstontx.gov.
The Children’s Services and Youth
Services Coordinators have been selected. Sara Pope and Rebecca Denham will
transition to those posts respectively next month. The new Customer Service Supervisors that
will serve as Circulation Manager and Assistant Manager for Collier &
Stella Link have also been chosen.
Monica Siboldi will be Collier’s and Tim Siegel will be Stella’s. Michele hopes to add a CS Supervisor to
Alief’s staff soon. Be aware of the new
vacancies these promotions will create & encourage your staff to apply.
Clayton:
(Sue Kaufman) Sue shared that Clayton has been having issues with customers
accessing the genealogy database Ancestry.com.
When someone is doing a search, a blank white screen appears. This is being addressed by our IT department
& Ancestry’s people. A temporary
solution is to hit the refresh icon and the image should appear. If you find that your customers are
encountering other problems with Clayton’s databases, please go to their blog. They post news regarding their services on a
consistent basis: http://clahpl.blogspot.com/.
HEAR:
(Liz Sargent) All Customer Experience staff members will have a professional
development SMART Goal. Non-supervisory
staff will follow the SMART Goal criteria described in Liz’s handout. Depending on your position you will be
required to complete 15 to 20 hours of job related training to receive a
5/exceptional score. No one should use
Delivery or Kronos as a SMART goal. A
new baseline for the delivery metric will be developed once the new HOLDS
solution has been well established.
Every CE staff member should have customer focus and attendance and
punctuality in their behavioral factors.
Managers and supervisors can select the two other factors they want to
measure. Liz added if you are concerned
with using delivery as a metric because it’s a major part of the staff member’s
job, you can use “utilization of time” or “planning and organization” as
behavioral factors to evaluate use of time effectively.
Financial
Services: (Laurie Covington) Dimitri wants all
settlement credit card Telecheck receipts that come through to be included in
your deposit. Make a copy for your
records and send in the original.
Facility
Checklists: (Laurie Covington) Updated Facility
Checklists will be sent out soon. CE
Admin listened to your suggestions regarding the current form and revised it.
Holiday Party:
(Naomi Brandenburg & Celeste Diaz) The initial invite to the holiday party
was in your Staff Development Day giveaways.
At September’s CE Managers meeting, you will be getting a decorative box
that will hold an invitation and a mask to decorate and enter into a
contest. The decorated masks will need
to be turned in at October’s meeting. If
your staff is interested in joining the Holiday Committee, contact Celeste or
Naomi.
Years of
Service: (Naomi Brandenburg) Wednesday a
breakfast was held to celebrate those staff members who have completed 5, 10,
15, 20, and 25 years of service. Naomi
distributed the awards that went unclaimed to the recipient’s manager for
delivery.
Director of
Digital Strategies: (Rick Peralez) Rick has already
gone into the field to visit libraries and survey their conditions in relation
to digital strategies. He considers
customer service an important aspect of his job along with technology. He and his staff have already developed
action items, one of which is the cabling issue. He is working with John Middleton and Michele
on getting that under control. Rick is
also developing a communication plan, so IT notices and information get to
staff in a timely manner and in a way that makes sense to the customer. He is also tackling quality control in IT
interactions. Surveys will be used to
evaluate his team’s service, so Rick asks that you take time to complete them.
Managers asked if we were getting
Windows 10. Rick said his team is
evaluating the possibility, but doesn’t want to distribute it without any
preparation. Mary Wagoner asked if it
was possible to grant administrator rights to managers, so they could download
certain apps. She suggested having a
single computer at each location with those permissions. Public scanners and an alternative to the PC
reservation station were also requested.
Another manager asked if Coin Copiers could accept credit cards and dollar
bills. One last suggestion was replacing
Internet Explorer with Chrome. Rick asks
that you email him the rest of your suggestions. He welcomes challenges from staff beginning
with “Can we do this..?”
SPACES:
(John Middleton) John announced that 10 locations will be getting a Crayola
iPad station “Kids Kiosk” which will replace the early literacy stations: BLU
(District K), COL (District C), CEN
(District I), ALI (District F), KAS (District B), SCE (District B), PAR (District
I), SMI (District D), MOO ( District H), WAL (District J). Almost every Council District is
represented. Ten display kiosks will be
sent out to help get things off the desk and diminish the clutter.
John has a new staff member, Mat Landry
who is primarily working on creating the location manuals that were discussed
in previous meetings. It’s a
considerable undertaking because each location is unique. In some cases, he will need to recreate plans
and other documents, so don’t be surprised if he comes to your library to
measure your building’s dimensions.
John’s team will also be posting the
Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment requests to their intranet department
page. It will be updated on a quarterly
basis. The requests highlighted in green
mean they’re completed or will be completed soon. Those in yellow are in the queue, a
carry-over from last fiscal year. The
items in blue are from other funding sources.
Those requests without color are identified as not an immediate
need. John asks that you look at the
list he passed out and see if all your requests made it. If there are some missing, email Jason
Stephens and cc John and Mary Wagoner.
John did say that those requests from Blue Ridge and Robinson-Westchase
may be excluded because they will be part of their upcoming renovations.
We
are in the process of changing companies that service our HVAC equipment, so
the responsiveness of our current contractor has slowed down considerably. The new contractor begins in September. In the meantime, John is working with GSD to
address our A/C problems, especially in places like Alief where Camp Stream
will be.
Hellena
from Gregory School asked if substitute security guards could be given building
access; the guards are normally the people responsible for opening and closing
the building. John said he’s working on
that issue with GSD Security. CE Admin
asked if all managers and assistant managers could gain access to the 6th
floor at CEN. Yolanda will send a list of those people to Karrington.
John
informed us that the Alief renovation may be pushed back some. He hopes work is done in time for SRP. The Blue Ridge renovation will have staff
sharing the breakroom with the Health Department staff and a new entrance door
will be added. The Jungman project is on
schedule for completion in October. The
new Young Library broke ground already and is targeted for completion next
June. The fifth floor renovation at CEN
is coming along. It will have a break room, conference room and small study
carrels for one-on-one meetings. All
passport offices will be renovated too.
CEN’s office will take over part of the ACCESS Center. Alief will have a
separate office, and Stella Link’s will have the entrance door moved. There will also be new graphics and signage.
Serving
Hispanics: (Michele Gorman) Michele emphasized
that this discussion is not the end but a beginning point for conversations on
how to serve our Hispanic population better.
She used some of Dr. Kleinberg’s presentation from Staff Development
Day. The link to the Pew Research
document discussed in the webinar is: http://www.pewhispanic.org/2015/03/17/public-libraries-and-hispanics/.
Houston is among the cities with the
highest group of immigrants in the US.
We are one of the most diverse with 90 consulates. Hispanics are now the largest minority group
in the US. The age of the Hispanic
population skews younger, and for Houston this group stands as an example of
how diverse the US will become in 2050.
We represent the future now. The
language spoken in Hispanic households depends on which generation they represent. First generation immigrants are more likely
to be Spanish dominant. Second generation
is more bilingual and third or fourth generation is English dominant. How do we best market our collection to this
population? Do we need more Spanish
language materials if English is spoken in more households? Michele wants you to share this information
with your staff, so they can understand it better and develop creative
solutions.
Laurie prepared documents on school
demographics for each library grouping or stand-alone location. They were passed out to each manager and
assistant manager. Please share them
with your staff. The documents will also
be posted to the NL blog. The webinar
stated that foreign-born Hispanics use libraries less than US-born Hispanics,
whites and blacks. Foreign-born Hispanics are less likely to visit a library,
but out of those who do, they are the most appreciative customers. They feel that library closures will affect
their family greatly even though they are the least likely group to have a
library card. Foreign-born Hispanics are not familiar with our library system
because in their home countries those facilities are a for-profit entity. They don’t know our services our free, which
is our biggest selling point. We
recommend promoting the Library’s free services that don’t require a library
card to entice more Hispanic library users, since that population would be less
likely to think getting a library card was easy. In many other countries you have to pay for a
library card.
Shammi
will be working on how we can serve our international population best. She is looking at the system as a whole and
developing partnerships. In this fiscal
year, we have a new way of collecting language statistics. There will be a language access report tab
added to your stats workbook. It has a
place for you to enter your reference/directional questions answered in other
languages by the language. If you
receive a call from someone who doesn’t speak English, your interaction is
counted as directional. If you refer them to another staff member, the staff
member who actually answers the question can count it as reference. You can enter your data in that report
instead of the separate spreadsheet that was used previously.
The Language Access Plan was an
executive order from the Mayor where all City services were going to be
provided in five languages for those who don’t speak English. The five languages are Spanish, Chinese,
Vietnamese, Urdu and Arabic. If a
customer comes to you and indicates that they speak one of those languages,
except Spanish, you can call 311 and ask for a translator. Those speaking Spanish can be referred to a
bilingual staff member in the system.
You can request library collateral in one of these five languages; just
send Print Shop your request. Shammi also
shared three drafts of a document that include common phrases used in a library
setting that were translated into Spanish.
She hopes to share the final draft soon.
She added that she has Macs with Rosetta Stone for staff to use in
learning a language.
Webinar
discussion: An international advisory board is
needed. Shammi will be working on
that. Janna thought the Nashville
example in the webinar was similar to what Southwest Express is doing with
forming partnerships with government services.
Managers thought we should offer more mobile use services. They also expressed the need for an app suite
instead of having to navigate different apps for our services. We hope to get a service within Sirsi to
allow customers to check out from the catalog via a mobile source. Managers thought it would be good to
incorporate print services with the mobile app.
In order to get Hispanics to overcome
the fear factor of libraries, we need to approach them and gain their
trust. We can’t assume that they don’t
speak English. More radio promotions on
Spanish language stations were suggested.
We could also align programs to when people are available. Our new Youth Services team will be working
on it because going to the library for Hispanics is a family affair. Many staff were unaware that we offer ESL or
ESOL classes. Shammi will send out
information on who offers them. Programming
should focus on Latinos beyond the heritage month. Paty reminded the group to use the proper
word for library in Spanish, biblioteca
because if you say libreria that
means book store.
Hispanics
& HPL: (Mikaela Selley) Mika is our Hispanic
Collection Archivist at HMRC. She
maintains the collection, promotes it, gets donations and works with oral
histories. We have 110 Hispanic
collections, mainly in English. They include photos, birth and death
certificates, civil rights material, and not just items on immigration. Mika hopes to gain more items in Spanish and
re-establish community ties with Latinos.
She has done a lot of outreach, establishing oral history and scanning
days, exhibits, and lectures. Special
attention has been paid so our events don’t conflict with other events in the
Latino community. Mika will have a major
exhibit in the fall of Latinos in World War II.
She also has DVDs of a PBS series on Latino Americans that she can share
with you to use as a programming event.
Outreach:
(Michele Gorman) A sample Outreach Kit was presented. It is a small red suitcase that you can take
with you to your outreaches. Every
location will be getting one stocked with library collateral. You will be responsible for restocking it
after every event. The kit also includes a HPL table cloth that can cover a 6
foot table. Brochure holders, library
cards, pens, clipboards, bookmarks, giveaways, magnets, post-it notes, and
pencils will also be provided. Don’t give
out all your giveaways at your first event.
We have a limited stock. You can
request more print materials from the Print Shop, and if you need more HPL
pens, pencils or other giveaways, you can contact Celeste.
We shared a draft of the Outreach
Toolkit Information Sheet and the “10 Hidden Gems” of HPL with you. The Toolkit sheet has HPL’s vision, mission,
tagline, elevator pitch and service priorities to be discussed at each event. The “Gems” document lists different library
services that are not as familiar as others.
If you have suggestions on what core documents should be placed in the
suitcase, email Laurie.
Outreach is a system goal for FY16. Michele doesn’t want you to focus on the
quantity but the quality of the interaction.
She urges you to engage the community, build relationships, and bring
HPL services to the community. We will
be building a baseline for outreach goals for the next fiscal year. Take this opportunity to build bridges and
reach underserved populations and non-traditional customers. Outreach responsibility should be shared
among all staff members and it’s not a competition. You shouldn’t reduce services in the library
to accommodate those services outside the library.
We are also working on Power Point
templates to use for your presentations and creating a document with a list of
the liaisons for HISD schools. A list of
schools including principals and librarians when available for each library can
be found on the G-drive under Schools by Location.
In attendance:
Billy Glasco, Edgar Fuentes, LeRoy Robinson, Melissa Gwinn, Richard Hurst, Tim
Siegel, Leonore Hu, Janna Hoglund, Melissa Hayes, Jennifer Myers, Tula Gorden,
Christy Chang, Rebecca Denham, Chris Arrowood, Shirley Singletary, Erika
Cardoso, Virginia Williams, Nhu Le, Brandon Pope, Sue Kaufman, Melissa Ryans,
Angela Barratt, Eduardo Champa, Marcos Martinez, Donnie Byrd, Alma Avina, Sandy
Farmer, Michelle King, Kathrine Myers, Kallie Benes, Will Mayer, Jayla Park,
Sara Pope, Karen Luik, Felicia Brisco, John Merullo, Derrick Spearman, Jose
Santoyo, Hellena Stokes, Dominick Spinelli, Pat Ogea, Esther Reyes, Mercedes
Mayne, Michelle Perry, Djuina Hammett, Laney McAdow, Jennifer Sessa, Kelly
Patton, Sylvia Espinosa, Maria Powers, Gary Lackey, Christopher Patrick, Maggie
Sepulveda, Diane Doyen, Craig Bertuglia, Paty Bustamante, Lauren Wilcox,
Vanessa Gempis, Fred Schumacher; Guest:
Rick Peralez, Naomi Brandenburg, John Middleton, Mikaela Selley; CE Admin: Michele Gorman, Liz Sargent, Laurie
Covington, Mary Wagoner, Shammi Gill, Theodora Muokebe, Patrick Atkins, Pedro
Fonseca, Celeste Diaz, and Yolanda Anguiano
Next CE Managers
meeting is on August 28th, 8:30AM-12PM at CEN Program Place.
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