March 2016 Managers Meeting

CE Managers Meeting

03-18-16

Compiled by Yolanda Anguiano

CE Update: (Michele Gorman) New Assistant Manager for Melcher Library, Robert Lewis was introduced.  He was formerly at Smith/Young.

Smith and Park Place are pilot sites that have started offering an After School Food Program.  The food is provided by the Parks department.  Kitty Myers and Dena Melvin shared that it was slow in the beginning but popularity has grown, and they are distributing all of the food that they order each day.  During the summer last year, fourteen locations offered the food program, and this summer, sixteen library locations are scheduled to do the food program. 

Michele Gorman congratulated Tega Zoma and Tula Gorden from Mancuso for achieving great Open Job Lab attendance.  They served 162 customers last month.  She also praised Cylenthia Hoyrd and Kelly Patton from Carnegie for their great Seussathon event.  Fred Schumacher, Chris Patrick, Gary Lackey and Pat Ogea from LMS were also recognized for their leadership on the one year anniversary of the LMS reorganization.

The 2016 Volunteer Appreciation Celebration is taking place on April 27^th from 3PM-5PM in JIB.  Administration is accepting nominations; please recognize your volunteers’ hard work and nominate them. The deadline for nominations is April 1^st.

Michele reminded us that communication regarding the library with the Mayor, the Mayor’s office, City Council, or a Council Member’s office should go through Mary Hammond, our Council Liaison or Dr. Lawson’s office.

The Jungman Manager position will be reposted as a Librarian III.

If your location doesn’t have a projector or one that doesn’t work, please report it to Laurie Covington.  These should be used during your Very Ready Reading Program storytimes.

The three presenters for next month’s “Commitments to Solutions” segment are Nathan Stokes, Alexandra Drake, and Billy Glasco.  Mercedes Mayne was originally drawn, but she will be out next meeting, so she will present in May.

A handout listing GSD custodial duties was distributed.  Michele wants us to work with current cleaning services.  The possibility of diminished GSD resources in FY17 is real.  Custodial services do not include cleaning staff refrigerators, microwaves or desk areas.  All Managers and Assistant Managers should have access to the custodial closet.  If you do not, notify Laurie.  Staff should act quickly when an accident involving bodily fluids occurs.  Do not wait a day for custodians to clean it up.  Everyone should fight the “that’s not my job” mentality. CE is looking into getting bio-hazard kits to help in these cases.  If there are issues with custodial services, please notify Karrington.

Digital Strategies: (Rick Peralez, Robert Bliss & Denise Adams) The Coin Copier contract has expired, so HPL is currently on a month to month commitment with them.  Coin Copier is working to provide a new solution for HPL’s technology needs, such as public scanning at no charge and more versatile print options.  The machines will accept credit card and coin payments for printing and copying.  Managers asked to retain the dollar bill option.  Coin Copiers will also offer faxing capability and printing from a customer’s device. Managers requested color printing and a way to transfer the balance on a customer’s current copy card to the new system. Rick Peralez has promised to follow up.

Video Lync

·         Robert Bliss and Denise Adams demonstrated how to use the Microsoft Lync Video option.  This will be helpful when conducting virtual meetings.  Staff can email, instant message, call or video conference using this software.  Digital Strategies issued cameras to each location.  The cameras have a microphone so headphones may not be needed to use them; headphones with attached microphones were also distributed.  Digital Strategies and Customer Experience ask that the software and camera/headphone be installed on a computer that is easily accessible to staff.  It should not be kept in a private office.  Managers should work with their Senior Manager on determining which computer to use. 

·         Communicating using the Lync Video is restricted to city employees only.  Staff will not be able to use those features with outside customers.  Managers asked if Lync could record the video meetings and were told that the feature may be available with future versions of Outlook.  Since HPL has limited bandwidth, do not try to video conference more than 50 people at a time.  Please remember that as the group communicating gets larger, it affects the resolution. There is the option of turning off the video portion of the conversation and still hearing the audio. 

·         Robert added that Firefox and Chrome do not work with this software.  Please use Internet Explorer.  Managers can call the Helpdesk to schedule the set up at their location if necessary; the camera and headset are USB so Managers may be able to install them.  Attached to the minutes is the PowerPoint presentation that walks staff through signing in and some of the features of Lync.

Dr. Lawson: 

·         Dr. Lawson came to speak to the group.  She gave us the good news that in preliminary City budget discussions, the Library budget has tentatively not been cut.  Mayor Turner is sensitive and appreciative of the extraordinary work that HPL does.

·         HPL has been given two awards from TLA; one for branding and another for the library card campaign.  Dr. Lawson sent an email out on Friday about the awards.

·         Dr. Lawson also spoke about her recent trip to the White House to participate in the President’s ConnectED initiative. The program involves the city mayor, school superintendent and library director working together to get every school aged child a library card. Dr. Lawson said it was a natural extension of what we were already doing with the pilot library card campaign for 3^rd graders in HISD schools for the “Read to the Final Four” program.

·         Dr. Lawson thanked the managers for their great work and for their leadership, and she thanked all staff for serving our customers with such passion and dedication. 

SPACES: (John Middleton) The Central Plaza conditions have improved significantly since HPL started the no smoking policy, increased security and better managed resources.  HPL is beginning a renovation of the Central Plaza in two phases.  Phase one is on the Julia Ideson Building side and should start before summer.  Improvements will include a performance stage, fences that can close the Plaza off, and better lighting among other things.  Phase two will hopefully start next calendar year and includes a proposed children’s space, grassy area, LED screen for movie nights, and a café.   The space will also be used with some of the festivals and marathons that are held downtown.  The construction work should not interfere with library operations.

Current Capital Projects: The new Young Library facility is under construction.  There will be separate juvenile, teen and adult sections.  The floor will be raised to accommodate easy access to cable wires and other inner workings.  Mosaic artist Dixie Friend Gay will create an art piece to display.

Jungman Library is almost done.  Issues with the fire suppression system delayed project completion.  Mr. Middleton estimates construction is two to three months from completion.

Alief Library construction begins next week.  Improvements will be seen in the kids and teen area with a new conference room and reading lounge.  There will be a separate passport office and waiting room.  Work should be complete by fall.

SER Niño’s Library:  This is a library that serves the charter school SER Niños in the Gulfton community.  It will serve students from birth to 8^th grade and the public alike.  It will be open to the public after school and on the weekends, similar to the Parent Resource Library.

Café College is completed and open for business.  Try and visit Carnegie to see the space.

Walter Library will be getting a minor facelift and Central will be getting two water bottle refilling stations.

Fredrick Lee is no longer working for the City.  Please direct your security concerns to Karrington Burnett and cc John Middleton.

Purchases have slowed down for furniture, fixtures and equipment.  Several libraries are scheduled for upholstery cleaning.  SPACES bought more of the marketing kiosks which have been effective in reducing clutter.  More iPad Crayola kiosks with better chairs are coming. 

Announcements:  (Elizabeth Sargent and Laurie Covington) Digital Strategies is aware that there are issues with remote access for the databases.  Customers can enter 000000 (6 zeros) as a temporary number if their card number doesn’t work.

The QMS is almost complete. Most of the entries are written, so editors and testers are needed.  Ask your staff that have volunteered to be editors that they need to notify Laurie Covington once editing is complete.  Laurie has sent out some targeted emails for staff to review tasks.

RFID tagging has been going well.  Park Place and Heights have been completed and Moody is scheduled for March 24^th and 25^th.  Montrose will follow.

HPL Training’s Leilany Vazquez will be out April 20^th - June 1^st.  Please try to turn in training certificates and requests for staff training hours as soon as possible.

Calendar Event Module - Training sessions are still available 3/25, 4/8, and 4/29.  All events for April need to be entered into the new system.  Anything that has been entered since February 23^rd will need to be re-entered into the new system.  Each location has an editor who can enter information and then the publisher needs to go in and review (based on the style guide) and publish each entry.  If your location hasn’t been able to get trained, work with Saima Kadir to get your programs entered.

New materials - All new materials need to be checked in before putting them on the shelf.  There are 6,000 items that are still in a shipped status.  Some are known to be at locations and some are in the Floating Location still, so the system cannot determine where they are.  These items also do not appear on the paging list.  LMS will be running some reports for locations to look for their items, so they can be checked in.  For the items listed a Floating location, a list will be generated for all locations conduct shelf checks so the items can be checked in.

Open Enrollment began on 3/16.  Please remind staff that they need to make their selection in ESS.  If a person waives coverage, he or she needs to select a reason.  It is recommended that staff update beneficiaries for life insurance and death termination pay.  Staff will also need to re-register for the flex spending account.

Youth Services: (Kallie Benes)  Kallie Benes shared additions to the Youth Services blog: (http://hplyouthsvcs.blogspot.com/).  There is a link on the right hand side of the home page that leads to the new program titles and descriptions document.  It lists all the program descriptions for the names that will appear in the drop down menu in the new calendar module.  There is also a link that takes staff to the form used to request that a new youth program be added to the list.  Staff can also email Kallie to add a youth program or Jennifer Schwartz to add an adult program. 

Most of the YS staff stepped up to the plate and signed up for a YS Team.  There is a TEAMS tab on the blog where Managers can see the members, team goals and meeting notes.

HDR (Harriett Dickson Reynolds):  The HDR conference will take place on April 1^st.  All YS staff has been invited along with other YS professionals throughout the Houston area.  If anyone is unable to attend, please contact your Senior Manager or Kallie.  This is an opportunity to network and further staff education on youth services.  This year will focus on early childhood brain development to support early learning.  It will be a full day of training, ending at 3:30PM.  YS staff will stay at Central and work on their teams to finish out the work day.  The event will be held in JIB and training credit hours will be awarded.  Parking is still an issue.  You will receive notice concerning it soon.

Día de los niños/Día de los libros – Children’s Day/Book Day: Día will be celebrated at Discovery Green.  There will be interactive storytimes from France, China, India and Mexico.  It will take place Tuesday, 4/12 from 9:30AM-1:00PM.

CBC (Children’s Book Celebration—Books Alive):  CBC will take place on 5/14 from 10:30AM-3:30PM at Central. The Adventures of Beekle author Dan Santat will be the speaker.  Fifty contest winners will have lunch with him.  There will also be a book signing opportunity and the festival with lots of fun activities.

SRP 2016:  Performers have been booked and incentives have been arranged.  Location calendars are due on Friday, 3/25 with performers and in-house programming.  This year’s theme is “Aim for the Stars”.  Each child will be awarded a book upon registering.  The top 2 readers from each location will get a bike and other prizes will be awarded to families that read together, with the adults participating in the Adult SRP as well as the kids in the juvenile one.

Teen Book Con will be on 4/2.  Books Alive will be in May.  Volunteers will be needed.

Three Manager Commitments: (Janna Hoglund, Virginia Williams & Melissa Gwinn) 

Janna Hoglund has offered food at the beginning of her staff meetings to build up morale. She is also discussing customer comments, positive and negative, with staff.  The food arrangements are assigned to different staff members, so the responsibility is shared and the team decides on the food for the meeting.  Janna also includes a team building exercise during her staff meetings.  They’ve done white elephant exchanges and participated in Zumba classes.

Virginia Williams tries to balance duties every quarter.  She sees that staff seem overwhelmed and has cross-trained them to know what others do.  She wants staff to share their duties.  She is also working on clutter in the staff workroom and staff desk areas.  Virginia has an open discussion portion to her meetings and has drawn staff out to contribute to the discussions.

Melissa Gwinn is working on morale, teamwork, and communication.  She has celebrated staff accomplishments with a catered breakfast.  For CMC, Looscan is having a pastry party and Montrose is having a pizza one.  Cross-training is being done to strengthen unified service at both locations.  Melissa wants staff to be able to rotate responsibilities.  Weeding is being done in preparation for RFID tagging.  Weekly LOO and MNT staff meetings are being conducted to improve communication.  All-staff meetings are taking place monthly.  During those meetings, staff gets to ask and answer questions. They share their experiences and expertise.

As a group exercise, attendees were divided into eighteen groups.  Each group was asked to discuss issues that they are currently facing as supervisors.  Then they were asked to rank their top three issues.  Each team reported their priorities, and Michele tasked them with creating a presentation on the topics for an upcoming CE Managers meeting.  The list will be compiled and resent to all managers, so they can prepare their 30 minute presentation.  Each month, two groups will do their presentation.

In attendance: Chris Arrowood, Erika Cardoso, Tula Gorden, Virginia Williams, Janna Hoglund, LeRoy Robinson, Jayla Parks, Shirley Singletary, Felicia Brisco, Marcia Cameron-Denton, Leonore Hu, Christy Chang, Drew Alvey, Derrick Spearman, Robert Lewis, Melinda Campbell, Iona Joseph, Tega Zoma, Richard Hurst, Melissa Gwinn, John Merullo, Beck Gorman, Alma Avina, Karen Luik, Alexandra Drake, Melissa Hayes, Donnie Byrd, Dominick Spinelli, Jose Santoyo, Craig Bertuglia, Hellena Stokes, Mercedes Mayne, Jenny Phengdara, Katherine Myers, Maggie Sepulveda, Maurina Powers, Diane Doyen, Laney McAdow, Vanessa Gempis, Edgar Fuentes, Tara Hornbeak, Jennifer Sessa, Michelle King, Fred Schumacher, Patricia Ogea, Dena Melvin, Tony Goodwyn, Lauren Wilcox, Kelly Patton, Christopher Patrick, Julia Bradley, Sylvia Espinosa, Paty Bustamante, Billy Glasco; Guest: Dr. Lawson, Rick Peralez, Robert Bliss, Denise Adams, John Middleton; CE Admin: Michele Gorman, Elizabeth Sargent, Laurie Covington, Mary Wagoner, Patrick Atkins, Pedro Fonseca,  Celeste Diaz, & Yolanda Anguiano

Next CE Managers Meeting is on April 29 at 8:30AM in Central’s Program Place.

Thanks,

Laurie Covington

Senior Manager of Customer Experience Administration

Houston Public Library | Customer Experience

500 McKinney, Houston, TX 77002

Office: 832-393-1367 | Email: Laurie.Covington@houstontx.gov 

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