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.

A day at Main

The Main library is situated in Downtown Columbus, tomorrow we are going on a tour of the branch. We spent the day in admin getting to know everyone in a few of the departments. The CML staff offices are at the Operations Centre and Main Library.



We had a meet and greet in the morning with some of the staff who work in the offices at Main Library and met with our hosts.
First stop was a tour of Infoline (Information Line), this department is in charge of Rovers (staff rovers who go to branches when needed), Inter Library Loans and the call centre.

Rovers are full time staff who work at CML and are rostered on at the Main Library. If a branch has staff who are absent then the rovers are sent to the branch and rostered to help.

Inter Library Loans are done manually through the library. A form is filled out and then the staff there process the ILL from start to finish. Library members are able to place up to 4 holds a day.



InfoLine also has a Call Centre :) There is a central phone number and about 5 staff are rostered on to take calls for the library. The team is responsible for taking calls or transferring them to other branches.
Last months statistics

-21,319 calls in
-Average talk time is 1:58
-Average wait time is 17 seconds







There is also an E-mail reference service and IM (instant message) Service.

-Jan to July 3,835 emails

The IM service includes Yahoo messenger, msn, ICQ, Gtalk, AIM, text message service and a chat widget.

-7,421 IM sessions from Feb to July




Public Services Admin Department -We sat with the 4 managers and a Deputy Director who are responsible for various areas and branches. Their jobs are incredibly broad and in general terms each of them does the following-





Youth & Teens Public Services Administrator - Overseas the organisation of homework help centres, summer reads, Ready to read core program (new program)-workshops for parents, Teen Advisory board.

Main Library Public Services Administrator - In charge of managing the Circulations, Genealogy History & Travel, Science Business & News, Infoline & Rovers, Audio Visual, Humanities Fine arts & Recreation, Centre for Discovery.

Information and Collections Public Services Administrator -Overseeing the promotion of the collection, weeding guidelines, display, management and maintenance of the collection, floating collection.

Operations & Adult Learning Public Services Administrator - Job help Centres, General Programming guidelines, Homework help programs.

Next we went to the Finance Department.We met several staff who explained how the payroll is done for the 795 staff, how the accounts area works, budgeting and systems software maintenance. The Chief Fiscal manager spoke about their ecommerce solution and how to make workstations such as the self check, print release/pay and Library IT centres more efficient by providing a services such as paying, checking out and having library cards connected to these services.

Hilliard Branch

We spent some time at the Hilliard Branch, took a tour around the library and met some wonderful staff.

Before we walked into the branch we saw their drive by book drop, very handy :)





Hilliard is the busiest CML branch out of the 22. They have 10 storytimes a week including Baby Laptime, Pre school, Toddler and Family storytime with an average of 40-60 children and adults and sometimes up to 90 in a session.

The Summer Reading Club program is run for kids, teens and adults. The teens programs are run by 85 volunteers called VOLUNTEENS. We are attending a Teen Advisory meeting this week so we will find out some more information about how they run their programs and how the teens make these events so successful.













Here is some other information you might be interested in.

• The attendance for children's and teens programs this year at Hilliard was 12,625.
• 7,806 signed up to programs and 5,186 completed the program.
• 192 programs were run for children this year.
• 1,053 teens signed up to the programs with 561 completions.
  17 programs run throughout the year with 380 teens attending.

Hilliard Branch has 28 public pcs including kids computers which are only used for games.

Hilliard's main focus is on Youth although there is a Job Help Centre which is used to help people with basic computer skills, job searching, creating a resume and an email account.


Ok, here is some interesting information about their reservations. They can have around 30,000 reservations per month and about 5,000 of these are not picked up.

Shelves and shelves of holds waiting to be collected.

Columbus Ohio

Our first day started at the Operation Centre. This is where Helene Blowers (Director of Digital Strategy) and her team are situated. Here we met with Kelly who we have be liaising with for the past few months, we were also introduced some of their other team members. Kelly is the Digital Services Assistant at CML. She has put together an information pack to help us while we are here. Our first week will involve meeting staff and familiarising ourselves with the area.
Helene then took us out to the Northern Lights Branch to meet with our first host Kristin (Team Leader Northern Lights). We will be spending a day at this branch in the following week.