TFML Staff Exchange

May was slower than April, but it was busier than the previous May. We are ahead of both 2004 and 2005 statistically.

Adult Services Staff

Walk-Ins 447

Telephone 225

Instruction 60

Other help 321

Virtual reference 30
Instant message reference 18
Email reference 27

Total adult reference 1128

Internet use in Reference area in May: 931

We covered a lot of topics in 75 minutes.

We are circulating the IPods and the IPod books. SWAN has not entered the records yet, so we are just keeping our own records for now. Seven titles went out on Wednesday.

Sandy continues to weed the videos. She ran a review file and withdrew what had not circulated in a year. We will replace many of the most popular titles with DVDs soon, using per capita money.

We will allocate the per capita at the July 6 meeting.

The Website Review Committee is meeting on June 8.

Non-resident library cards are now $280 for a family card.

The public suggestion boxes have been put around the library.

There have been many complaints about how slow SWAN has been lately. Innovative is going to be conducting an audit of the system soon.

We talked about consolidating loan rules to conserve rules codes with SWAN. We decided to increase the loan period for magazines to 2 weeks.

Aaron is studying touch screens for circulation. He will also be setting up a training session for loadin IPods and cleaning CDs.

Summer Reading starts Monday, June 5 in all departments.

Shannon is arranging CPR training. More news later.

We will soon have an intern - Joe Marcantoni from College of DuPage. He will be working in all departments. More details soon.

Does anyone know where the Reference key to the copier is?

About a dozen reference librarians were able to attend our meeting, which covered a great variety of topics.

Tatiana Weinstein reported that there is nothing to report on the MLS Reference Advisory Committee. The meeting the committee had started discussing a mission statement and objectives. This will continue at the next, as yet unscheduled meeting. David wants the committee to meet three times a year. I fear this committee will never actually do anything.

We discussed the library catalog demonstrations for SWAN. None of us are going and are uncertain whether there is real interest in replacing Innovative. There seems to be little support in the group to change, as most felt the situation of the consortium may be a bigger drag on development than the ability of the vendor.

We discussed digital audiobooks. Woodridge withdrew from Listen Illinois. Tatiana said that Lisle is still in but there seems to be no leadership. Lisle created its own user webpages to serve its public. Indian Prairie and Woodridge now have remote downloadable books from Recorded Books, but they complain that there is little best seller content. Downers Grove is doing Audible and Recorded Book.

We discussed teen programming. Some knew about Dance Dance Revolution, but no one knew about Guitar Hero. It sounds like we have the best attended teen programs.

We discussed the changing seen of virtual reference, with Ask Away Illinois coming up. We also discussed how people do instant message reference. Not all do yet, but most sound closer to making the leap.

Thomas Ford will host the next Zone 1-4 meeting on September 13 at 10:00 a.m.

Maybe we need to clarify what is to be done when someone comes in to collect a ticket for a book they've read.

Here's what I do: I put my initials in the box on their log form, next to the title. Then I give them the blue ticket with the lines on the back for them to fill out their name, phone #, etc., and I tell them to fill it out and put it in the slotted box for the drawing. The duplicate ticket that says Office Depot on the back, I throw in the trash.

A woman was just here with her second ticket request, and she said the person who handled her first request did it differently. They did not mark the box on the log, and she dropped in a blank ticket and kept the other one. I would like to point out that this method only works if the prize winner is present at the drawing, to compare the numbers. So the tickets need to be filled out with contact info before putting in the box. (I found the blank ticket and had the woman fill it out.) Also, we need to mark the boxes in some fashion to show that the ticket has been given out.

Any comments?

Nancy

I attended three hours of Ask Away Illinois training this morning. The training was a bit slow paced, but I did get a good look at the system. We ran out of time and did not actually log on for hands-on, but I have training passwords so we can practice. It will be a week or so before we get our account approval and passwords from OCLC via the Illinois State Library.

I think it will help that we have bee doing instant messaging because the Ask Away system seems to be just an enhanced IM system. It was moving a little slowly during the demonstration, but I think that might be due to the MLS computers and server.

We have a very reduced workload with this system. At our size we are only required one one-hour weekly slot in the schedule – 1-2 p.m. Wednesday. I would like us to do more just to develop proficiency. We are always welcome to sign on to the global cue and answer questions from all over the country. The Ask Away Illinois group needs some global searching to meet its contracts, so it would help the state, too.

When we get the account information, I will have to set up our profile and set up our librarians. We will also have to get a logo/link onto the webpage.

There is no restriction as to who can ask questions at this point as the grant for the program comes from the state. There is already a larger group than was in MyWebLibrarian. It might work out pretty well. Time will tell.

Okay, so this lady comes up to the desk, and she's finished her 6 books (already!!), and all the boxes are marked but she says she didn't get the 6 bonus tickets for finishing, which I don't know why she wouldn't have gotten her bonus tickets when she collected for her last book but apparently she didn't. So I didn't know whether or not we should keep the completed form, since we don't really need it for the drawing, so I gave her the 6 extra tickets for finishing, and just wrote on it that the 6 bonus tickets had been given. Now I'm thinking I should have kept the form so we would know how many people actually finished the program.

We're not using the log page for the Grand Prize drawing, are we? I mean, the Grand Prizes will be drawn from the same blue tickets as the other prizes, won't they?

Another question was whether she needed to put her phone # on all of them. I said yes but probably she didn't need to because we have her number on the sign-up sheet, and though there are probably many Jennifer Lewises in the database there is probably only one signed up for our program. Plus if I'd kept her completed form I'd have it again.

My conclusion: After we hand out the 6 bonus tickets, I think we should keep the page of the log where they fill out their name and phone number, for record-keeping purposes. (I have created one for Jennifer Lewis.) Also for phone number purposes. What do you think?

Also, when is the first drawing?

I am going to New Orleans tomorrow, Friday, June 23, to attend the ALA Conference. I will be back at the library next Thursday, June 29.

The second winner of this week's summer reading drawing picked up her prize today. Please remember to do another drawing Monday.

Aaron said that he would wind the clock and clear the community board.

I will watch my email while I am gone, as I will have my laptop and my hotel room has wireless.

I have promised to post pictures from New Orleans. Watch my Flickr site.