04-15-2014 Agenda and Packet Librarian's Report .
It was a short month and that should help us as we discuss the drug/alcohol policy again. It
feels like we are getting closer to understanding this long document.
As the weather warms, we will experience our level of business drop. Still, there are many nice
days when it seems as busy as ever. But, April is also a busy month of activity. The Spring Poetry
Series is at Martinelli s each Tuesday evening this month. Outreach is busy with their Little
Libraries and Lobby Stops, as well as storytimes at child care centers. Lori is finishing up the
Bracketology project, which has been interesting. The adult programming committee is doing
another Trivia Night this week. And, Youth Services is helping with Week of the Young Child at
the Mall. Lori's Salina Reads Committee has whittled titles down to 10 and we are busy reading
and discussing so we can reduce the list to 4 finalists. It's hard. All of the recommended books.
are good. Tech keeps up their steady schedule of classes and one on one sessions.
We also have National Library Week next week. Amy Adams has secured some discounts that
downtown Salina merchants will be giving to library card holders. And Youth Services will pilot
their new option for children and teens to Read Down Fines. We'll see how that goes. We know
it's not for everyone, but for those who care to save a few bucks by sitting and reading at the
library, it should be a winner. We'll track the use of this alternative.
Staff are also in the final planning stages for summer reading programs. They work well as a
team to make this happen for so many people. They are receiving the usual financial support
from the Friends of the Library. The Friends Scholarship Committee for teen volunteers is active
and Kristi has another full crew of 65-75 teens ready to help us this summer.
I've been taking a closer look at how we are staffed and how we schedule. There are so many
ways to look at this part of our operation. Department Heads have been helpful and I've looked
at a variety of data. As libraries continue to evolve, will we need the same positions, tasks and
skills in the near future as we did in the recent past? We don't have the budget to grow our
staff, so it is essential that we have the right people with the needed skills in the positions that
we do need and that can take time to develop. At the present moment, we ned to do our best
to schedule staff and assign them projects and tasks that make staffing efficient.
I've put the financial audit on the agenda for your review and our discussion. If we need more
time to study it, we can push it back to May. That's always a good prelude to looking ahead to
the following year's budget. In fact, it's always a starting point. I'll put a summary sheet in this
mailing so you can have something to read in advance. There were no issues found by the
auditors.
I know it seems like we just met—3 weeks ago. If you cannot be at the pril meeting, please let
us know. Thanks for all you do. Let me know if you have comments or questions and feel free to
stop in my office any time.
Joe