HomeMy WebLinkAboutOperational Report from Dana
To: M. Rebecca Loader
From: Dana Weigman
Subject: April, 2007 Operational Report
Date: April 23, 2007
I. Programs
a. Friends of the Library met on April 2, 2007 at the Dragon House
Restaurant. Twelve members were in attendance to discuss new
fundraising ideas and to solidify plans for the book sale. We also
discussed to possibility of the Friends recruiting new members at library
programs.
b. At Home Service required two deliveries this month, circulating forty
items.
c. Two new adult volunteers have begun work at the library in April. One
volunteer, Jim Diehm, comes from California and has extensive theater
experience; we may be able to match his skills with the Neighborhood
Bridges project this summer. All of the volunteers have assisted with
weeding paperbacks, cutting Campbell’s labels, and preparing displays.
Some work on the outside of the building has been completed, with
pansies added to the pots outside and the flower bed weeded. All together,
volunteers have worked 19 hours in April.
II. Collection
a. Two new books on CD were added this month as a part of our standing
order plan.
b. A DVD order will be entered soon. Anoka County Library has revised
their processing procedures, which will require the use of duplicate
barcodes being placed on the inside of the DVD case. No new DVD’s
will be processed until we receive these barcodes from Minitex.
c. Stacey Hendren, one of our new pages is extremely knowledgeable about
music and has been assisting with identifying gaps on our collection. A
music CD order will be placed in May.
III. Projects
a. Fidelity cleaning service has been contacted several times lately regarding
declining quality in the cleaning of the building. Some specific concerns
have been raised, and the Fidelity account manager has been to the library
three times in April to help oversee the cleaning.
b. Displays in the library this month include “How does your garden grow?”
and new fiction and non-fiction. The bulletin board features an online
database called NoveList, which helps readers find and identify fiction
books.
c. The Arthur’s Book Challenge numbers are now available. Thirty-four
members of the community read a total of 15,620 minutes, exceeding our
goal of 24 patrons reading 15,000 minutes in three weeks. A goal of
reaching at least 12 new users was also exceeded, with 15 cards being
updated or issued. I believe a great deal of the success of the program can
be attributed to the distribution of publicity in both English and Spanish
which pulled in some of the Spanish-speaking members of the community.
Another success of this program is parents modeling reading to their
children. By involving the entire family, children can see that reading is
important for everyone. A final benefit from Arthur’s Book Challenge is
continued library use by participants.
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d. National Library Week was celebrated April 15-21. The theme “Come
Together at the Library” featured a guessing game for adults. Richard
Geisel came the closest out of 38 entries to guessing the correct number of
puzzle pieces in a container. He won a popcorn and candy bucket,
complete with two free DVD rentals from the library. A matching game
of music CDs was available for staff. This proved more difficult than I
intended, but Teri Olberding managed to get 11 of 20 questions correct to
be the winner of a Target gift card.
e. Local author, Vincent Wyckoff read some excerpts from his book Beware
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of Cat to 40 people on April 19. Mr. Wyckoff signed books and
answered questions for those in attendance.
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IV. I attended the ILS meeting at LSS on April 19. We discussed the possibility of
enabling a feature of the public catalog called My Bistro, which tracks a library
patron’s favorite authors, notifies the patron when a new book by that author is
available, and many other features. While some attendees present saw this as a
valuable feature, others raised concerns in regard to data privacy. A new
procedure was also agreed upon for sending floating collection DVDs back to
Northtown.