Managers’ Meeting
March 1, 2013
Laura-Ellen
 Said Steve was caught in traffic, so we’d go ahead and start.
 Said she’ll be reducing her hours leading up to her surgery. She’ll be here until
March 9th. The next week, she’s going to El Paso, and then she’ll have her
surgery on the 19th.
 Lisa will get regular updates on how Laura-Ellen is doing so she can share them
with the staff.
 Laura-Ellen will be set up with a laptop at home that can access her computer
here. Before she leaves, she’ll send out an email about who is covering which of
her duties.
 Said Karen’s last day was today and reminded everyone of the reception in her
honor at Westside at 11:00 a.m.
 Said Donna Mangham would be the Acting Manager for now. When Laura-Ellen
comes back after her surgery, they’ll start the hiring process to permanently fill
the Westside Manager position.
 Said there had been a recent change to the rule about posting flyers. This
procedure has been updated in the procedures manual on the staff site.
 Said there was also a new procedure about businesses holding informational
meetings or meetings where businesses partner with the Library to present a
program. This procedure is also in the updated procedures manual online.
 Reminded the staff of the rule regarding cell phone use by public services staff.
The handbook says the public should never see us using cell phones. We
should use them outside or in the break rooms.
 She turned the time over to Pam and Monique so they could do a presentation
on their “Got a Minute?” Tuesday Crafts.
Pam Martin
 Said the second Tuesday of every month at Gunter, they displayed a craft at
various stages of completion at a designated table. When customers came into
the Library on that day, they asked, “Have you got a minute to learn a quick
craft?” Then the staff member would quickly show the customer how to complete
the craft.
 During their first three months of trying this “quickie program,” they had forty
participants.
 Pam and Monique showed various crafts they had done, including a lollipop
arrangement, a Christmas wreath ornament, and a Hershey’s kiss gnome.
 Said they kept a stroke count chart at the table to keep track of their participants.
 Said they also had a community jigsaw puzzle three days each month. The staff
assembled the edge pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and customers could work on it
as they came in on those days.
 Laura-Ellen asked how they chose a craft. Pam said they picked it from the
internet and tried it first to make sure it was quick and easy to do.
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Said now customers come in and ask, “What craft are you teaching Tuesday?”
Customers have also been donating puzzles and craft supplies since they
started.
Said she rotates the staff so everyone gets a turn helping to teach the “Got a
Minute?” crafts.
Steve
 Apologized for being late and described the wreck on the Pineville Expressway.
 Said January’s transactions moving averages showed a 3.58% increase over
2012. He said for the last several months, the increase in transactions moving
averages had hovered near that number.
 Said January’s circulation moving average showed a 6.4% decrease when
compared to 2012. This number is also about the same as several previous
months. This follows the trend that online resources and computer usage help to
keep the transactions number positive.
 Asked branch managers to take pictures all year long. He asked for pictures of
customers using computers or browsing the stacks, pictures of the building inside
and out, etc., in addition to pictures of programs.
 Said the Board recently updated the Sex Offender Policy since someone pointed
out that Martin was within 1,000 yards of Pineville Elementary School. The policy
now states that reported sex offenders against minors can only visit the Main and
Westside locations.
 Said the staff and the Board would have to complete the Ethics Board training
every year. The online session will be updated during the first part of March, and
we’d send out an email to the staff at that point to remind them of the training and
give them instructions on how to log on, etc.
 Said the pictorial version of the 2012 Annual Report was finished and would go
out shortly. He said the narrative version would be available at the next Board
meeting.
 Said due to a change in the law, library staff would now be considered mandatory
reporters in the event of suspected child abuse. He said referred to the handouts
that included the forms and the change in the law. He explained that if the staff
“looked away” and didn’t report that they suspected child abuse, that could fall
back on the Library.
 Said we had removed some trees from the HDH grounds.
 Said we had recently reviewed the Code of Ethics and the Wireless Access
Policy, but they needed no changes, so the Board renewed them as they were.
 He said the administrative staff was trying to decide how to spend the $400,000
surplus, and that they were considering a variety of projects. He referred to the
handout that included the various projects they had considered thus far.
 Said we had begun talking about building a new King Branch using the existing
design used for the Hineston and McDonald Branches.
 Said there was some doubt as to the rules to follow on the number of times a
person could get on a computer for 30 minutes each day. He said we may need
to adjust the wording that posts on the computer screen when someone logs in to
one of our computers.
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Explained that we extend our customers’ computer time when no one else was
waiting to use a computer. However, when there’s a line for computers, the first
customer needs to get off and get back in line so the next person could have a
turn.
Said we try to work with our customers when we can, especially if they’re filling
out an application, writing a paper etc.—not just so they can play some game
they’re addicted to.
Said if anyone had issues with following the rule as he explained it, they could
speak with him after the meeting concluded.
Linda Green said when a new customer came to use the computers, her staff
usually explained the rules to that person. That way it wasn’t a surprise if they
had to get off the computer.
The group agreed that if we post the rules and ask the customers to follow those
rules, we shouldn’t have too many problems enforcing this rule.
Said yesterday was a nice online workshop that several attended. He heard
good things about it from Margie. He also mentioned the thirteen who went to
Baton Rouge for the State Library Staff Day Conference. He said he’d like to
hear what they learned and what ideas came from those training experiences.
He said only about 40% completed the first health quiz associated with his Ripple
article. He asked the managers to encourage their staff to complete the quiz if
they had not already done so.
Carolyn
 Said she would begin sending out policy reminders every two weeks. This will
help all of us to refresh our memories on RPL policies that we may not have
reviewed since we were hired.
 Said branch managers should call her to arrange substitutes while Laura-Ellen is
out.
 Said our next round of new employee training would be held May 13-17, in time
for the summer.
Tammy
 Said she loves Gunter’s “Got a Minute?” program. She suggested the Library
start their own Pinterest board with the crafts we teach our customers.
 The Summer Reading Program workshop was held earlier that week. It went fast
and seemed to go really well.
 Laura-Ellen said last year’s end-of-summer workshop is what helped this one to
go so well.
 Said everyone should have their baskets and entry cards for the Easter Basket
Read-off.
 Said Dr. Bill Robison would be at Westside this Sunday at 2 p.m. to present
“Anne Boleyn: 100 Years of Film and Television.”
 Said Best Buy was bringing electronic devices like e-readers, tablets, and laptops
to a Tech Petting Zoo at Westside. She said Chester would be there to teach
customers how to download Overdrive eBooks and audio books onto their
devices.
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She explained a new program they tried at Westside during Valentine’s Day
called “Blind Date with a Book.” She explained that they wrapped 20 adult and
20 teen books in red and white paper. They also included a three-question
survey in each book. Customers could pick up a book and unwrap it at the
circulation desk and take it home.
Other Libraries have done this. It helps customers try a book they perhaps
wouldn’t have picked on their own. They had great success with this program.
She said she, Karla, and Susan would go to LLA the following week to present a
workshop on programming.
She said Susan would be publishing a monthly newsletter for customers that
consolidated all the outreach programs in one place. The last page of this
newsletter would be a community bulletin board, where area current events were
listed.
Janie
 Said her staff would be replacing the kid’s PCs at Main, King, McDonald, Gunter,
and Johnson.
 She also said they’d be upgrading Office 2007 to Office 2010 this year. She said
there weren’t a lot of changes in this upgrade, so it shouldn’t be hard for us to get
used to it.
 She said Roland is making rounds to upgrade the computers. He has a checklist
with software updates to install on the staff and public computers.
Gail
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Said Staff Appreciation Day would be in April, and we’d serve hamburgers and
hot dogs as usual. Henry would deliver them to the outlying branches.
Laura-Ellen said she wanted a delivery, and Gail agreed we would make this
happen.
Said LASSAL needed more Library support staff to join their organization, so she
encouraged the group to join if they hadn’t already done so.
She said LASSAL had another good conference last year, and that one
workshop they had at LASSAL would be featured at LLA next week.
She said this year, Brenda Manning would be the LASSAL Conference Chair,
and she (Gail) would be the Co-Chair.
Jana
 Said January was a slow month for PR, but things picked up in February.
Several RPL programs or events were featured on the websites of various local
media outlets.
 McDonald Branch’s Teen Dance Central Competition was featured on KALB on
the Tuesday before the meeting.
 She said the Friends of the Library had recently approved their $11,385 budget,
and the 2012 officers would continue in their roles in 2013.
 She mentioned that the final election campaign reports were filed on February 1,
and the campaign committee was officially dissolved that day.
Steve
 Commended Wes for his 20 years of service at the February Board meeting, but
since he didn’t receive his plaque, Steve would present it to him at this meeting.
Steve praised Wes for his hard work in the diverse areas of his job. Wes
thanked him for the opportunity to work at RPL.
 Said that since Lisa didn’t want to be embarrassed by receiving her 20 Year
Service Award at the Board meeting, we would do it here. He thanked Lisa for a
job well done in all she did from supervising TS to planning receptions like the
one for Karen later that day. Lisa thanked him and sat down.