In Summary

We have both enjoyed our exchange at Columbus Metropolitan Libraries. This exchange was organised between YPRL and CML.

As you can see we have been very busy and have blogged about many things. This opportunity has allowed us to see how another library service operates and we have taken note of some great ideas.We will share this information with YPRL staff and hopefully implement some great things.

This job exchange was very rewarding and would be something other libraries could get involved in. It's a life long learning experience and one we are happy to have been a part of.

If you have any questions please email us:

Felicity- flissyprl@gmail.com

Natasha-natasha1079@gmail.com


Thank you :)

Center for Discovery

The Center for Discovery is located at the Main Library in Downtown Columbus. There is a Teen area(12-17yrs of age only) Over 75% of the teens that use the space are boys and the area is staffed after school.

The children's area is a lot bigger and includes picture books and non fiction. They run 30 minute storytimes for babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers, this can include books, Flannels(Felt) Story board, string stories or puppet theatre. They use these to tell stories to the children.



All youth services staff go through a 4 week training program at main where they are taught how to program and perform storytimes. Each staff member in training is video recorded and together with the Youth Services Leader they assess the session and look at ways of improving their program.

Wellness Fair, our presentation and OCLC

Wellness Fair

CML's Wellness Fair runs for a full day every year and is open to all staff. There a plenty of vendors with free giveaways, complimentary massages, health information and biometric testing (very popular with the staff).









Presenting to CML

We were given the opportunity to share little about our library service, Yarra Plenty Regional Library (YPRL)to CML staff. We shared our presentation with about 30 staff members. Our presentation went for a hour and there were plenty of questions from the staff.

OCLC

We attended a talk by Helene Blowers at OCLC. Helene spoke about the future of libraries. Her presentation was "Finding the Pheonix:Feathers, Flight and the Future of libraries". After the presentation we were shown around the OCLC building.

Worthington Libraries

The Worthington Libraries are their own library service with 3 branches. They have reciprocal borrowings with Columbus Metropolitan Library. In total they have 150 staff including administration. Recently they upgraded their library website and it was designed specifically for the library user. Customer feedback was collected through surveys and focus groups and it took about 14 months to plan and produce the new site. Their overall circulation statistics are 3 million items per year.

All branches use 'Power Walls' which are shelves around the library walls used for promoting new books and a great way to display popular and low circ items. Staff have found this to be very successful and have seen a rise in circulation statistics.

The Old Worthington Branch is the main library and their Head Offices. They have 45 public computers and their collection consists of 240,000 books, 26,000 cds and 14,000 DVDs. They have a children's room called the Bookingham Forest (7 storytime sessions a week) it is beautiful. This branch also has separate Tween and Teen rooms. It has a Worthington Room which contains the local history collection.

Their Northwest branch is a joint development between Columbus Library and Worthington Libraries. Their yearly circulation stats alone are 1.8 million.

The Teen area was designed by one of the youth staff members in the library and has lots of furniture and study spaces, computers and a huge garage door which is opened during the day for anyone to access the teen room and after school hours the door is closed for teens only.

Two of the branches have a drive up pick up service for their holds and an after hours locker(code needed) used to store holds that can be picked up anytime after hours.

Worthington Park Branch was opened a year and a half ago and is situated in a shop front. Because this branch is quite small they do not stock AV items but do reserve them in for customers. It has a huge children and junior area, 65% of this libraries collection is children and teen books.

Organisational Development and Managers Meeting

The Organisation Development (OD) team at CML is in charge of organising and training staff. There are 4 trainers and some branches have staff who can also run training classes. The training team is in charge of Learner Web which is the program used for course registrations. All CML positions have a position description and each staff member is given a learning track. Learning tracks are guides to what CML courses they need to complete to be able to do their job. Most of their training schedules are planned on a 3 month basis and core activities are planned 6- 12 months in advance. There are courses for managers who must attend the training which adds up to 55 hours a year. All staff register themselves for courses and managers can approve it afterwards.

New staff who are employed at CML go through a training process called On Boarding, they are automatically enrolled into the introduction courses. They fill out paperwork, staff benefits, intranet information and get their picture taken for the staff directory. Once they completed the introduction and start working in the branch they are then shown branch processes and how to use the ILS(Integrated Library System). OD's main focus is on Core training, management training and technology training. They run many training course and if there is not enough attendance for any of the training sessions they will not run them again. OD also have training cds or other training guides which can be borrowed for staff use. Their management training includes all managers as well as the ELT(Executive Management Team). They use a company called Business Of People and have provided this training to over 100 staff.

Managers Meeting

The monthly managers meeting was held at the Main Library with over 70 managers present. It was a 3 hour meeting that started of with an introduction from Pat Lozinski (Director of CML) . The agenda included Strategic messages(Strategic Plan), IT updates, Customer Service Survey update, Benefits(health) and other business which they refer to as Announcements.

Security

The security system at CML is centralised and cameras/footage from any branch can be accessed at the Main library. There are about 35 security officers who work for CML and each branch has 1-2 officers some full time some part-time. There is a courtesy phone located at each branch for public use (no charge). All staff have swipe cards which gives them access to all the branches.
Any incidents that occur at the branches are reported online (form). This is sent directly to security and followed up. No signature is required but the form is detailed and information can be added to the report. Only security has full access to the form once it has been submitted.

Bookmobile
There are 2 bookmobiles that cater for children's services. It runs everyday and 40-50 storytimes are held throughout the week and an extra 50 storytimes that are run for special needs children. The bookmobile visits about 15 sites a week and each storytime runs for 30 minutes. There are 8 staff who run the programs and each mobile has a driver a storyteller and an officer to help. They attend various locations such as schools, parks and swimming pools.

ELT Meeting and Community Relations and Development

We started our day by presenting an overview about Yarra Plenty Regional Library at the ELT(Executive Leadership Team) meeting. Some of the agenda items included reviewing Policies and Procedures, update on IT projects such as rolling out Microsoft 2007 for staff and Customer Experience Interaction, Measurement and Reporting. It was interesting to sit in on the meeting and see how ELT work as a team and make decisions together with input from all members.

CR&D

We also met with Community Relations and Development (CR&D) who deal with Marketing and fund raising for CML. Friends of the Library(FOL) is managed by CR &D , FOL have over 900 members. The foundation was started in 1992 and their board consists of 18 members. All donations go directly to the foundation. "Columbus Metropolitan Library Foundation was founded with a mission to build resources to advance the library for generations to come. The foundation supports the library as it "promotes reading and guides learning in the pursuit of information, knowledge and wisdom" and relies on the contributions of individuals, businesses and foundations to help Columbus Metropolitan Library work towards its vision of a thriving community where wisdom prevails."

CML have over 400 volunteers plus 1000 volunteens. There is a general job description for volunteers and newly appointed members receive a welcome handbook and training. There is a volunteer recognition program and a yearly event for all volunteers, generally there will be an author talk, awards. They also receive a gift at the end of the year. Some of the adult volunteers work for an organisation called American Association of Retired People(AARP), they are paid by AARP to work at the library as a volunteer. CML accept donations and have a range of ways you can give to the library. Their last fundraising event raised over $200,000us and is a corporate event with sponsorships and over 350 attendances. Individual donations range from $100 up to $25,000.

Marketing

CML Staff

Library Cards with key cards

CML Branch External Signs

CML Primary Colours

CML Staff

6 Skills for "Ready to Read"

Brochures

Brochures

Recently CML went through an extensive change with their marketing. Their logo was changed. The library started using their staff on all their advertising. They noticed that their borrowers could relate to the brochures when they saw the staff member on it. The staff went to a professional company where they were made up and the professional photos taken. The Manager of Marketing Alison, writes a blog about successful marketing. An article Alison and Kerry(Director Relations and Development) at CML wrote in Library Journal talks about The House Brand and what CML did to change their brand.

Another great idea was their online marketing catalogue. All staff have access to the catlogue through the staff intranet where they can order any print material through CR&D via a shopping cart. They can specify which print item they need and how many, an email is sent to person in charge of printing (in-house) and then she sends the items to the branches.

Branches are encouraged to promote multiple copy items on their book displays and near self check stations. This is great for the browsing customer and a great way to increase circulation.

CML concentrate mostly of core activities. With their programs it is quality not quantity, they run an event twice and if it does not suceed they will not run it again.

Tech Services , IT Dept. and Tween gaming @ Livingston

Another big day for us. First stop was at Tech Services. CML have their own Tech Services (TS) Dept. and 27 staff in this area- 7 cataloguers. They have a budget of around $4 million and around 2.2 million items in the system.


All items that are purchased for the branches is done here , there is a group of staff who are in charge of ordering and each person is responsible for their section. Every fortnight the team go out to branches to weed the collection.


Branches send most items that need mending to Tech Services and any overstock. TS then decide which branch to send overflow to. Any discs that are scratched are fixed here, there is a $14,000 machine that can clean around 50 discs in under 5 hours and look brand new once done.


CML do not cover books but some items are jacketed. Donations are excepted as long as the publication date is not over 5 years. Any other items are send to the Friends Of the Library and sold through booksale.



The serials department is run by 8 staff members who all contribute to the processing of magazines through a rotating roster. There is a 24 hour turn around and serials are distributed to all branches the following day after items have arrived from the supplier. Just under 3000 items are processed each month.


Tech Services has a great system there is a 24 hour turnaround for all new items that get sent to the branches.


The IT department consists of 16 staff and is divided into 2 groups. The systems administration group who are in charge of the pcs, servers, networks etc . The help desk group are the support team who are in charge of pc maintenance, help desk for staff and organsing software training. CML have their own library management system which is 25-30 years old, but the functions are very user friendly and do the job.

They have 50 MB connection to all branches and 200 MB for internet bandwidth, there are about 2000 pcs system wide , 700 staff computers and the rest for public use. Some amazing stats:

2.5million sessions last year on public pcs and
on the wireless 4000 users and 12,000 sessions.


Livingston Branch



We visited the Tween Gaming event at the Livingston branch. This branch is a little bigger than Yarra Plenty's Rosanna Branch. We were there after school and it was very busy, it reminded us of our Branch, Lalor. Tween gaming is between the ages 8-12, they average 15 tweens to this program and is run once a month.



The branch also had their homework help session running. There were children everywhere! This was inspiring and would be great to try at our Branch.

Martin Luther King Branch

Martin Luther King Branch will be turning 40 this weekend!!! They were formerly known as Eastside Branch. Martin Luther King Jr's father was a speaker at the dedication when the branch was moved to its present location and renamed in 1969.





Community speakers: Tom Dillard, community advocate and Friends of the Library Trustee, W.Carlton Weddington- education advocate and 27th District House Representative.


Musical Guests:The Saints Drumline and the Brandon Chapman Trio


Refreshments: Pastries and cookies provided by Panera Bread, Complimentary Smoothie Bar provided by Zanzibar Brews



MLK Branch is a neighbourhood branch.



At CML they have 3 types of branches:

Neighbourhood-Small Library



Community-Medium library



Regional-Large library



There are 14 staff at this branch, they have 23 pcs a Homework and Job Help centre , teens and children's area and quiet area. There is also an African Treasure Chest display with cultural items and the Reference desk has a mini digital photo frame which is on display with branch pictures.

In the afternoon we attended the Public Services Department Meeting. About 30-40 managers were present these include Branch Managers and other service managers in the branches. They discussed issues like staffing formula, Ready to Read Core program and Program Reviews for 2009.

Southeast and Northern Lights Teen Gaming

Southeast Branch is one of the larger CML branches, they have 45 pcs, a Homework Help Centre, Job Centre and Storytimes. They have a nice, large quiet study room. We sat in for a Baby Laptime (storytime). We learnt how the story tellers use Ready to Read skills and teach babies skills like colours, touch etc. This was great to watch and really taught the mothers how to interact with their child.

We sat in on an ELT/Board meeting. The board consists of 7 Members. All the Executive Leadership team attend the Board meetings.

Our last stop today was at Northern Lights branch where we attended the Teen Game session. It runs from 3.30-5.30pm every Wednesday. There were about 30 teens today and on average there are between 30- 50. There are 3 stations set up with consoles and one projector and screen that some of the teens use to bring in their own xbox console and equipment and use with others. The kids were having a great time. We got to chat to a few teens and asked them a few questions.

Gahanna, New Albany and Dublin Branches

Some general info about Gahanna, it is in the top 100 places to live.

Gahanna Branch has 33 staff including 5 managers. There is a Homework Help Centre(HHC) and Job Help Centre(JHC), the HHC runs from 4-7pm Monday through Thursday and run by a full time staff member with a volunteer assistant. On average there are about 15 students per day. They have 38 pcs in total which are spreadout through the library. Some of the PCs are in the Teen area, Children's area and Job/Homework Centre.



All pcs in the children's area have an adult pc and anyone in that area must be supervised while their children are there. This is a general rule for all branches with Kids pcs.

There are 6 storytimes run each week including one each Saturday for Family Storytime. These are shared between 3-4 different staff members and is about 30 mins each.

Very few adult programs are run at CML branches. This was an organisational decision. CML is focused on Young Minds and most of their events and programs are directed at Youth.

New Albany is one of the branches that do not have a Homework Help Centre at the moment but do have 2 computers that are used for Job Help. The building of this branch was primarily funded by donations. There are many people who donate to the library and this is one of the reasons why the branch was able to be built. We attended an Information Staff Meeting and listened to some book reviews from each of the staff members, they do this as part of the Readers advisory and learning how to give recommendations to borrowers when they are asked
"what's a good book to read".































Our last stop was at the Dublin branch , this wasn't on our schedule but we went in to have a look since it was close to where we are staying. We got a tour of the library and really enjoyed the view from the seats overlooking the garden :)

Reynoldsburg Branch

Spent a full day and Reynoldsburg Branch starting off with a tour of the the library. Some interesting information about this branch, they have about 40 staff members and 5 managers. The branch has about 40 computers and their holds list is about 85 pages long and the pick up holds shelf has as many items waiting to be picked up. The holds here is very different to ours because their limit is 30 holds per card plus 5 AV holds.



There is a Homework help centre (Monday through Thursday from 4.30pm-7.30pm) and Job help centre which average about 25 people per session. The Job help centre is open from 10-3pm 5 days a week (10-12 on Saturdays) and staffed by a Volunteer student and Team Leader. There are 10 pcs which can be used to search for jobs, write resumes and other employment type work. Users are able to print 10 pages for free each day. New users get an information sheet with sites and other information to help them get started.

We watched a Toddler storytime this morning with about 15 people attending. CML storytimes incorporate Ready to Read. We also went to an Elementry school (Prep) to watch one of the staff at CML do a storytime. The storytimes were fun :).
In the afternoon we attended a Teen game session. They have 2 ps2 units set up and a Nintendo wii. There is also MAC pc to be used.

Operations Center

The Operations Center is Located in Gahanna and was built over 6 years ago. The building was designed to be energy efficient and use Solar heating. There is no library at Ops Center, it is used as office space. We were given a tour around the Ops Centre and it is huge. The Technical Services Department are located there and they take up most of the Ground floor. It is a very big department with a conveyor belt that takes the new items to the different processors. It is also where the main sorting for the branches is done. IT are on the 2nd floor. Property Management CML have 23 vans- outreach, IT, bookmobile etc. They use a courier service to deliver items to home-bound library members. This team is in charge of the property budget, security, construction, remodeling, signage, cleaning, maintenance and lots more. They are a very busy team at CML. There is a central security system with 506 cameras operating. Security is managed from Ops Centre and Main library, they also have 1 to 2 security guards, some part time, at each branch (employed by CML). There is also a central ac/heating system, all heating and a/c to all CML libraries can be managed from the central system. The computer can determine the temperature of each building and sections within the building :) very fancy.

Digital Service DS team have many new projects going, one is to update the website and they have great ideas. The update will include changes to the catalogue screen in branches, My Account online, staff blogs, and updating the EnvisionWare software on the self checks. I can say the team spend a long time planning and working out their designs. One great thing was the 5 second test where a sheet of the web design is held up for 5 seconds and they ask what you remembered about the site from looking at it for a short period of time. When you have sites that are cluttered with heaps of information you don't remember as much. The team has designed great sites for the staff blogs and catalogue which are simple and easy to follow and they look great too :). As they explained it is a long planning process and they do several tests to public and staff before it is rolled out.

Tour of Main Library

CML Main Library is 102 years old and was refurbished in 1991. They hold regular art exhibitions. There is also a bookshop which is run by the Friends of the Library.

Proactive work stations are located throughout the branch. They are mini info desks with a pc on it that can be wheeled around to any area.

The auditorium is available for public and staff use. This space along with all meeting rooms are free for all. There are some conditions when booking the rooms. There are 100 public pcs and express pcs for quick access.

The Basement at Main is used as the sorting room. Staff shelve 120 items per hour with a 24 hour turnaround. Branch run boxes contain on average 32 items.There are 23 part time staff working per day and 2 full time staff in the sorting room. The holds list contains around 85 pages, 9 items per page and takes 9 hours per day to complete plus about 4.5 hours to process the requests.

CML use library staff for their publicity so the lovely people you see on their website and brochures etc are staff you may see at your local branch.

"Wellness fair" is for staff and is on the October 7^th between 10-4. They will have BMI level tests, budgeting, healthy snacks, dealing with stress etc. This program is run yearly for staff and part of the staff Wellness program.

Learning track is a program used for staff training. Each position has a learning track and the staff member must do all the training in their learning track. They register online with their managers approval. They have Monthly training for managers with 5 contact hours a month over an 11 month period, subjects include conflict management, communication etc.