TFML Staff Exchange

Okay, guess not.

Reference Statistics for October 2006

Adult Services Staff

Walk-Ins 452

Telephone 127

Instruction 48

Other help 312

Virtual reference 10
Instant message referenc 35
Email reference 27

Total adult reference 1011

Here is an area that is kind of fuzzy for many of us: What kinds of audio-visual equipment do we have, what is available to the public, where is it kept, and how does it work? Also, how do we coordinate its use so there are no conflicts (as there is this morning)? Maybe a list of equipment needs to be made up, and the Meeting Room Use Request Form needs to be revised so there is a line for marking whether equipment is needed. (I can make that change now.)

I think this is worth some time at a staff meeting.

This is a test.
Kris

Everyone, rejoice. We have a new teen librarian with lots of pizzazz. Jamie Kallio starts this week.

The latest Suburban Life tax assessment sections in the Reference file are from September 2005. Is this done annually, and if so, where are the 2006 pages?

Strategic Planning Workshop at Thomas Ford
November 16, 2006

Gina Hinrichs of Hinrichs Consulting led a group of Thomas Ford Library staff and citizens in a day of exercises to start strategic planning. After introductions and sharing of ideas about what would be accomplished, we discussed the nature of leadership as opposed to management and talked about the process for the day.

The model for our sessions and forthcoming session is Strength Based Whole System Strategic Planning, which asks that strengths of the organization be identified for the purpose of using them as the vehicles to being more effective overall in the future. The participants broke into small discussion groups to discuss “proudest moments” to identify these strengths. From this we drew up a mind map of opportunities for growth.

After lunch we discussed our aspirations, which was my favorite part of the day because we found how similar our aspirations were. As I remember, the personal statements all fell into four groups of 1) the library being the heart of the community, 2) the library being the place the community comes first for materials and information, 3) the library being a place for individuals and groups to come, and 4) the library being a asset to marketing the community. When we get the power point notes back from the facilitator, I will double-check these groups.

We also discussed the booklets Good to Great and the Social Sectors by Jim Collins, which states that nonprofits cannot blindly follow business models for planning and measuring success. We discussed different qualitative evidence that the library succeeds.

The day ended with planning for a summit to bring more staff and stakeholders into the conversation. The idea is to have a meeting of 50 to 75 people from the community in the next exercise, which will be a discussion of a vision document drawn up from yesterday’s conversation. Different members of the staff volunteered to oversee planning tasks to get prepared for this summit.