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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOctober 31, 1995TO: FROM: SUBJECT: DATE: M. Rebecca Loader Mary M. Kloss Operational Report, October 1995 October 31, 1995 FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY: On Monday, October 2, 1995, the Friends of the Library met with 9 members pre~;ent. The Friend~ were interested in doing a project for the library so I presented the idea of helping us conduct an attendance survey the week of October 16-21. Several members volunteered to help, and Rita said she'd call the other members to schedule them a time for the survey. Again this year, they will be sponsoring Project Bookshelf and donating the books to SACA for the holiday distribution. SENIOR CITIZEN PROGRAMMING: On Wednesday, October 11, 1995, Anthony Hall showed slides of his trip to Africa. Thirteen senior citizens attended this program and refreshments were served by the Friends of the Library. DISPLAYS: I arranged for the Artists of Minnesota traveling mini-show to be on display at the library during the month of October. It was well received by the patrons who viewed it. Aileen Sturdevant helped me dismantle the display and pack it for mailing to the next location. After the mini-painting display came down, I put up a book display of "Scary stories" for the Halloween season. HOMEBOUND SERVICE: During the month, two homebound patrons requested books. DELIVERY OF BOOKS TO PARKVlEW VILLA: On Friday, October 6, I delivered 30 books to Parkview Villa and returned with 28. The circulation on those returned was 42. NEWSLETTER: I gave copy to Kelly for the November newsletter on Tuesday, October 24. It will be duplicated the week of October 30. VALUES PROGRAM: I designed and produced a Values booklist for the Community Core Values Program. It was available to the public on Friday, October 27. VERTICAL FILE: The following subjects were added to the vertical file this month: CLUBS & ORGANIZATIONS-- COLUMBIA HEIGHTS; COUNCIL MEMBERS--COLUMBIA HEIGHTS; FERRETS; INDIA; INSURANCE, LIFE; MAYORS--COLUMBIA HEIGHTS; PRODUCT SAFETY; AND TOMATOES. With the help of Marie Marquart, all the travel pamphlets from the 50 states were labeled and dated. I put them into the vertical file the week of October 23. MISCELLANEOUS MAJOR PROJECTS COMPLETED: Paper order Telephone book order OTHER AREAS OF RESPONSlBILITYWORKED ON DURING THE MONTH: · Withdrawing of shelf list cards for items declared missing. · Filing of shelf list cards. · Recording of supplies used from supply sign-out sheets. · Ordering of library supplies as needed. · Selecting books for November's book display, "Books you may have missed" (newer non-fiction). · November's bulletin board, "Books for everyone. Everyone for books". MMK/jms TO: FROM: DATE: SUBJECT: M. Rebecca Loader, Library Director Marsha Tubbs, Children's Librarian October 31, 1995 October Operational Report STORYTIME: Fall Storytime is in its 5th week with three weeks remaining. We registered an additional 17 children after sessions opened. Total registrations 88. Hopefully I'm getting better at this, the response seems to be good. I have begun preparation for Holiday Storytimes and I hope to combine a number of holiday tales from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. This will take a good amount of time during November. Registration for Holiday Storytime begins November 6. PUPPET PLAYS: Kelly and I produced and performed two new puppet plays this month. "Gordon goes camping", and "Keep a knockin' but you can't come in". In the first play, Gordon packs to go camping but needs his friend Martin to help him carry everything. The second utilizes our two Sesame Street style puppets (a Tina Turner/Little Richard combo) as they tell knock knock jokes. We had a great time as did the children. DONATIONS: Our quest for additional funding for summer programs has been very productive. Thus far we have received $1,060.00 from various area businesses and patrons. Thank you all! The Children's Department also received a box ful__.~l of small prize items from Reverend and Mrs. Charles Berg, former owner's of Hobitot stores. These will be most helpful as reading club prizes. Thank you to them and Board Member/President Barb Miller for thinking of us. · CIRCULATION: We are continuing to monitor the circulation statistics. We have been counting circulation (date due) cards in the Children's Department throughout the month. We hope to compare these figures with the month-end statistics from Anoka County when they arrive November 2. Hopefully, this will give us some idea as to "WHY" the sudden and continuing decline. BOOKMEN: I made a trip to Bookmen on October 9. The purchase, a large quantity of J and YA paperbacks. My hope is that adding materials to the collection in a format preferred by children age 8 and up will boost the circulation. We are also developing a separate YA paperback collection. Titles in this section will be linked to the database and shelved separately. This is a controversial move - we will have to be able to retrieve these titles for requests, therefore, the collection will have to be labeled differently, shelved separately, and shelf read frequently. In other words, treated as if they are hard cover titles. I plan on monitoring this collection over the next year to evaluate whether or not the "extra" effort is worthwhile. I anticipate that the YA collection will circulate BIG TIME this coming summer and show a moderate increase until then. MEETINGS: I attended the Children's Librarian meeting at Anoka County on October 26. This meeting is held each year to evaluate the Summer Reading Club. I am attaching a report and agenda regarding the meetings proceedings. The director and I also had a luncheon meeting with Sister Clarinda, the principal at ICS. We discussed the curriculum changes at ICS and their efforts on library services. ICS has closed the school library. They are setting up small classroom libraries - literature based. Sister Clarinda stated that their curriculum support material now comes almost exclusively in laser disc format. Costs are rising - technology is here. We offered to produce a new book listing to help keep the teachers informed of our changing collection. She will see to it that we receive a list of recommended titles grade by grade. I will try to get my booktalk titles to Sister Ruth Margaret, the ICS literature advisor in advance of booktalks. All in all a very gratifying meeting. STAFF: This month proved to be a great challenge for me as a supervisor. One of the pages raised some complaints regarding my work direction, assignments, and methods of supervision. While the complaints come as a surprise to me, I believe that any individual has the right and obligation to make known problems they might encounter as an employee regarding their supervisor. In this particular situation, I believe communication, or better, the lack of communication played a large part. I am taking steps to improve any communication problems. During the last two weeks of October, I met with all pages and outlined the obligations of their positions. I pointed out complaints that I have received over the last 6 - 8 weeks and emphasized the importance of "getting the job done correctly". I am now keeping track of each page's progress, work performance, and work quality in the Children's Department. While I am still having some difficulty "getting the job done", I am hopeful things will improve over the next month. WORK IN PROGRESS: · Flyers for Holiday Storytime and Crafts · Preparation for National Children's Book Week · 1996 Program Calendar - planning · Planning for Holiday Storytime and Crafts · Caldecott and Newbery Booklist redesigned MAT/k jo TO: FROM: DATE: SUBJECT: M. Rebecca Loader, Library Director Marsha Tubbs, Children's Librarian October 31, 1995 Report on Children's Librarian Meeting - October 26, 1995 In review, the Librarians felt that the Summer Reading Club had shown a drop in registrations system- wide. Weather was sited as a contributing factor, June was very hot, competition for programs (including heavy use within the schools of reading clubs). Summer programming was discussed. The Northtown Library did not fill up its meetin9 room (125 capacity) for any of the June pro,Trams in 1995. The Librarians agreed to offer wave pool and Planetarium passes again in 1996, also to check out other incentive possibilities (Twins tickets). Anoka County will be offering a certificate (suitable for framing) to those Summer Reading Club participants who complete page one of the reading record (40 books). The Bunker Hills Activity Center programs will be offered again in 1996. Average attendance in 1995 was 700. MELSA will be increasing its reimbursement amount for 1996 programming to $130 - it is assumed that most of the performers will be increasing their fees as well. The group reviewed the donations letter being sent to community groups with an eye toward changes. Supervisor of Youth Services, Kathleen Baxter, was instructed to shorten the letter - use bullets and expand the mailing list to include major companies within the County. The Anoka County's Summer Reading Club Goals and Vision Statement were discussed at great length regarding the question of programming vs. incentive for Summer Reading Club. Does the programming meet the goals/vision statement requirement? Wouldn't the money be better spent promoting the Reading Club (offering incentives)? Why aren't we doing more to "grab" the older children 6 - 147 Kathleen Baxter will be looking into offering a workshop on servicing Young Adults (including reader advisor). She will also be contacting Target regarding a grant to be used for "give away" books as incentives with Summer Reading Club. Northtown Children's Librarian and Ms. Baxter will also be offering a program for Home School parents based on some information they received from Tulsa, OK. Anoka County Library has been contacted by Social Services for a possible collaborative grant proposal - $150,000 are available in blocks of $30,000. Grant writing expertise is not readily available and details are sketchy at this time. The meeting closed at 4:10. Informal discussion followed. MAT/kjo ANOKA iDENT 55432 707 HIGHWAY 10 NE · BLAINE MN 55434-2398 (612) 780-1463 · FAX (612) 784-3233 THis.su~nmer t-he Anoka County Library will again provide programs for children and their parents as part of our summer program to encourage children to keep reading while not in school. Last summer the.~9 popular programs attracted over 14,000 people to over 90 events at the ten county libraries. We are asking for your help again in sponsoring programs at any or all of the libraries. Your support promotes a feeling of community and is greatly appreciated by the library and the public. We will give you full credit as a program sponsor in the publicity we do for the program. Ideally, we would like to be able to offer'a program every week during the summer. Two of the libraries have large crowds but small meeting rooms, and, in an effort to meet the demand, we h~,ve scheduled two programs at those buildings so that more people may attend. At several libraries, the performances are outside. Should it rain, the crowd is forced to go inside, and we must schedule another show to accommodate the numbers. So a budget for rain shows is also necessary. We have enough money for about twelve programs provided by MELSA, the regional library organization. The average cost of a performance is now $90. Performers are selected through an area-wide audition process coordinated by MELSA. To provide the desired number of performances plus a budget allowing for five extra rain shows requires $9270, a large sum of money to us. We are totally dependent on your donations to sponsor these performances. Also, we must book performers in January for performances in June, July and August. Although we do not need money to pay the performers until May, we do need to know how much money is available as soon as possible. If you could give us a pi'edge for how much money you would be willing to donate, it would be greatly appreciated. I will be happy to fill out any necessary forms and to make an in-person appeal to any committee if that would be desirable. Thank you for your consideration and your support of the public library and its very popular children's programs. If you choose to sponsor the programs, please make the checks payable to the Anoka County Library. Sincerely, Supervisor of Youth Services AFFIRMATfVE ACTI©N I EO[)AL OPPORTIIh$1T¥ ~=~iDf