TFML Staff Exchange

We had 10 people for "Saddest Music in the World" and only 1 person didn't like it!! I was amazed.

Adult Services Staff Meeting
March 2, 2005

The meeting opened with the slicing of the coffee cake that Betty brought.

The Youth Services Summer Reading Program theme this year will be Library Luau. We didn’t think it would be a popular choice for the adults, and we will continue thinking of ideas. Beach books was one suggestion. A more popular suggestion was Summer Sleuths. The Youth Services program starts June 13.

The Magazines and Young Adult positions are being advertised. Two positions in Youth Services have been filled. Rick suggested that greater attempts should be made by the upstairs and downstairs staff to get to know each other. A bulletin board with staff photos is one idea, but more ideas are welcome.

A new copier has been ordered for the Adult Services area, a Minolta with easy-to-understand controls. The specific arrival date is unknown, but Anne thinks it will be soon.

The Big Read slide talk by Jane Clarke on March 19 has filled up. We have inquired as to whether another can be scheduled since there are many on the waiting list, and there is still unspent money from the LSTA grant. Julie suggested moving it to a larger venue, but we weren’t sure where that would be, and it would mean telephoning all the registrants as well as people on the waiting list. Although Rick and Kris are scheduled to work on March 19, Rick felt there needed to be an additional person to check off the registrants’ names at the door. Due to the unavailability of other Adult Services staff members, it was suggested that a Circulation person could be asked to do this.

The ALA meeting will be held in Chicago June 23-29. Early bird registration ends March 4, and Rick asked that all who are interested let him know right away.

Betty announced the upcoming ILA “Reaching Forward” conference April 15. Susan Fry and Susan Murawski will be attending.

Nancy reported that she has entered around 30 properties in the digitization project. She will try to find out whether the information should be uploaded now so that it is stored in more than one place. She will also try creating a printout of the information entered so far.

Aaron reported that he wasn’t able to resolve the issues with the Standard & Poor CD-ROM. After working on it with their tech support, he spoke with a salesperson and found out that for only a few hundred dollars more, we can get the online version that would be accessible from home by our patrons, besides offering some other bonuses. He hopes to make the switch soon.

Julie reported that the new One Book One Chicago selection has been announced, The Oxbow Incident. She also said that the Big Read publicity materials have been delivered by her daughter to the local Books-A-Million, and that sales of the Larson book are up.

People commented that there are more pictures on the library web site. Regarding the Staff Exchange, there was also a question on recipes, and comment on links that have been in the Staff Exchange. Aaron said that old recipes are still available. He has been finding tags from del.icio.us that he posts on the Staff Exchange, and suggested that we visit the site. He may give a demonstration at our next meeting.

Betty reported that some of the magazines that are more subject to theft have been put into lock-on covers that make it more difficult for people to conceal them. There was brief discussion on security measures taken at other libraries.

I have discovered that all prints from Standard and Poors are coming out in color, even when you set the properties to do black and white.

So, print to the local printer, not the Minolta. Minolta charges us 10 times as much for color as black and white.

Thanks.

With the exception of 2 missing magazines, the new locking magazine covers have been placed on selected magazines in the Reading Room. If you need to unlock the magazines, please use the tool in the plastic bag, second drawer on the right at the magazine desk.

Our supplies of tax forms are in fairly good shape. I have ordered more Federal 1040, schedule A&B, schedule D, and form 1040A schedule 1 from the IRS.

I have also ordered more Illinois-1040 booklets from the Department of Revenue. They should be here in 10 days.

If you haven't used it in a while, you'll notice that NewsBank has a new interface. I've played with it a bit and it is much better.

One useful thing is that papers can now be broswsed.

Tuesday night I attended the lecture on the new Chicago Encyclopedia. Rick told me to pay attention and pass on what I learned.
There are 1400 entries, 400 photographs, mostly ones you probably haven't seen before and it weighs 6.7 lbs. The emphasis is on places and groups. Use the 2000 entry biographical dictionary for people. Words printed in all caps send the reader to related articles. There are see also references and bibliographies at the end of entries. There is an entry for most communities. Someone in the audience pointed out a mistake in the article on Western Springs. The appendix contains census information by community, a list of mayors, the biographical dictionary, and a dictionary of leading Chicago businesses. The maps are fascinating, 45 were created especially for this book. The project took 14 years to complete and should go electronic April 28th on the Chicago Historical Society website. The lady sitting next to me declared the program, "fascinating!"
Paired with the Chicago Yellow Pages, this title would make a good booster seat for younger patrons.
Kris

I'm slightly amazed at this website: TechSoup.org/ It offers software and hardware to nonprofits (including PubLibs) at extremely discounted rates. Like wireless access points for $40 and Microsoft Office for $20!!

WOW~!

Carolyn is ill. Susan D filled in for her this weekend.

We have our big presentation for the Big Read this week. A rep from the Village Club said that we can use their hall and we can increase the size of the group. We'd better check that that is ok with the speaker before we do.

Aaron will be gone all week to the Computers in Libraries Conference in Washington, DC. He is a presenter in four programs. He will be busy on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.

I will be off Monday for working the weekend. I will be in 1-9 Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

I will be here 11-10 on Friday to cover virtual reference and stay for Friday at the Ford. Curtis and Loretta return this Friday. I raslly like them a lot and recommend the concert as a cheap (free) night out.

Our collection of Tower Topics (the Village's newsletter), located in the pamphlet file, is pretty spotty. A patron was reading them today and notice many issues were missing. Maybe a more concerted effort needs to be made to hold on to these and get them filed once they leave the "Local Interest" file behind the desk (assuming they're not being stolen). I have several at home, though I tossed a bunch last year; I can check to see whether I have any of the missing ones, and maybe other locals can do the same.

Maybe we should bind them in a notebook and keep them with the other Village materials?

Nancy

The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/freereports.htm

This web site tells all about the program and how to request the reports.

Another useful site:
https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

A notebook has been created and missing issues printed. It's with the WS materials along the north wall.

A library user wants to see the December 31, 2001 issue of Newsweek. Though we have taken out the 2001 issues, we do have this issue, which is a double issue with January 7, 2002. He said that he will be in this coming week. He did not want it held. It is on the shelf with the 2002 issues.

Our new employees are Sarah Schmidt and Jack Schultz. Both are in youth services.

Aaron and I forgot to mention that you do not have to be in the library to look at the staff exchange. You can read or post to the exchange from home. Why would you?

1. We could post emergency closings on the staff exchange. We would still try to call everyone, but that takes time and we sometimes do not reach everyone for one reason or another. If there is bad weather and you are uncertain whether to come to work, you could get your answer from the staff exchange. This is an idea that does not yet have procedures instituted.

2. You remember something you forgot to do at work and it is too late to call someone. Posting on to the staff exchange would give others a chance to help you out.

3. You just heard a great book review on the radio and you want to give us an alert.

These are just some ideas. Can you think of others?

There were 19 people.

I set up over 30 chairs, making two circles in preparation for Wednesday night's discussion of Devil in the White City. I even had Nancy come in extra to take a second group, so I was very surprised that we only had four people for our discussion group. We had had 137 for the slde show on Saturday.

A new magazine for the Youth Services department has just arrived -- Disney Princess Magazine is now on shelf in the Youth Services area.

The fact that is was Good Friday didn't keep the FDG from seeing a great movie. There were 21 of us.

Go to http://www.voterinfonet.com/ to find a tool to help people find their polling place in suburban Cook County. Sample ballots are also found in the search.