At the end of every month, I have to submit a report of what I and my staff have done during the month. I think it does a great job of highlighting how eclectic Access Services is and I will be sharing mine from now on. I am often pulled in so many directions that it is hard for me to post as regularly as I like. I think this report demonstrates why that is.
Monthly Report
July 2012
Access Services Activities
I
started the month working some nights and the Lumbee Homecoming weekend while
Chris was on vacation. Circulation
finished up the remaining stacks projects as student assistants completed their
summer hours. Our students Dan’elle and
Victoria were extremely helpful to us this summer, especially on days we were
short of staff and they assisted at circulation. With flex time, leave time, and the
resignation of Julious there were days where their assistance was vital and much
appreciated. I finished all time sheet
approval and updated contract hours work spending calculations. Additionally, I began working on planning for
student assistants for the fall semester, discussing with Susan Whitt what the
budget would allow us to hire and posting the jobs to the Braves Opportunities
system. I will be reviewing applications
in the forthcoming weeks.
In
addition to circulation concerns, our Ares reserves system had two updates
completed in the month of July. I
coordinated the database update with Ares technical support and the updating of
staff machines with Rob Wolf. We are now
using Ares version 4.2. Our Microsoft
Access statistics database was also updated with the assistance of Jessica
Karpel and Rob Wolf. Chris Bowyer, who
is responsible for circulation statistics reporting, and I met and discussed
some of the categories of statistics we were keeping in Access that are more
easily and more accurately to be had from Millennium – eliminating the need for
duplicate reporting and ensuring more accurate statistics. These include laptops, iPads, DVD players, and
room keys (Mac Lab, study rooms, multimedia room.) The only remaining statistics to be recorded
in Access are questions at the desk (directional, reference, technical,
instructional), manual reserve items, and the “reason for no” report. Staff were reminded that this latter
statistic is important to record, as it allows us to review our services for
needed and possible changes.
Updates
were made internally as well to two forms I am responsible for
maintaining. The first is the
circulation daily checklist. The print
form that was submitted each day to report circulation desk activities was
replaced by a web form, located at http://www.uncp.edu/library/depts/access/circ_checklist.html. This form reports the same information as the
print form, but will submitted by each individual at the end of their shift,
rather than having to maintain a print page that is passed from shift to
shift. This makes each individual
responsible for reporting their own activities.
The daily cash count reconciliation and the daily equipment inventory
are emailed to me separately by the individual closing the circulation
desk. In addition to making reporting
more efficient, this web form allows me to more easily store and review
circulation desk reports. The second
form that I updated was the Library’s incident report form. Previously, this form was a Word Document
that the reporting librarian would fill out and then paper copies were made for
library administration and the Access Services/Reference Librarian. Then the reporting librarian had to make a
log note in an Excel spreadsheet. This
process was cumbersome and rarely carried out according to procedure. To make reporting easier to submit, thus
encouraging better reporting by library staff, and to make storage and review
of incident reports more efficient and less cumbersome, I updated the Word
document form into a web form located at http://www.uncp.edu/library/depts/access/Incident_Report.html. Immediately upon submission of this form,
email copies are sent to the Dean of Library Services, Associate Dean for
Collection Management, Assistant Dean for Research Services, and Access
Services/Reference Librarian. Once I
receive the report, I follow up with library administration and campus police
as appropriate, as well as being responsible for notifying library staff by
email of the incident so that all are aware.
I updated the problem patron page of the Library Policies and Procedures
Manual to reflect the change in format of the form. Other than the format change of the form, the
procedure remains unchanged. Library
staff were apprised of the change by email, but reminders to encourage
reporting would be helpful. Rob Wolf did the web form creation based on the field I told him each needed, and made them live online for me.
July
saw a rash of incidents involving smoking in the Library. I received numerous reports of such
incidents, but despite reviewing security camera footage have been unable to
determine who the culprit is. Library
staff have been made aware of the situation and increased monitoring of the
library stair wells will be taking place.
Campus police will also be notified of the situation.
Library Activities
I
participated in/attended the following Library events in the month of July:
July
9th – 11th – With Jessica Karpel, I provided library
instruction for Kids’ College. Jess and
I met several
times and prepared two units – Animals and
Spy Kids. The second unit was requested
by a teacher for us to do, yet unfortunately we were unable to carry it out
since the teacher did not show up as scheduled.
However, we have saved all the materials for use next summer. The animals unit we did get to use, as we
provided instruction for four classes, with a total of 38 students
attending. We read stories, created some
artwork – including the mural on display in the lobby, played Jeopardy based on
the stories read, and reviewed basic
library skills.
July
11th – Space Committee Meeting to discuss Library signage
July
26th – Met with Anne Coleman to review the Library Policies and
Procedures Manual to determine
which parts need to go forth for inclusion in
the new University policy template.
July
31st – Met with Jason Hutchinson, Mass Communications, Rob Wolf,
Anne Coleman, and Susan Whitt
to discuss the Mass Communications Millennium
instance. Jason was seeking to allow
students to use the system, which we have not allowed for reasons of privacy
and due to the shared nature of the database with the rest of the Coastal
Library Consortium. It was decided that
Rob would investigate the possibility of a limited log in with Dan Pfohl in
Wilmington, but chances are the policy will remain as in unless permissions for
a student log in can be sufficiently limited.
Additionally, issues regarding receipt of Mass Communications fines into
the correct account were brought up. I
have subsequently reviewed the fines paid file and determined that $300 of Mass
Communications fines were receipted under an incorrect account number – as
Library fines instead of Mass Communications fines. The Mass Communications Department needs to
provide us with the appropriate fine and replacement account numbers for
accurate receipting in the future.
July
31st – Met with Anne Coleman and Susan Whitt to review the Library
Policies and Procedures Manual
to determine which parts need to go forth for
inclusion in the new University policy template.
University Activities
Access
Services staff participated in/attended the following University events in the
month of July:
July
25th – Heritage Hump Day Social – Chris Bowyer, Tela Brooks
July
25th – Summer Theatre Workshop performance at GPAC – Chris Bowyer
Professional
Development
July
12th – I participated in the OCLC Virtual Resource Sharing User
Group Meeting.
On
July 25th, Chris Bowyer and Sam Jacobs attended AED/CPR training.
Respectfully
submitted,
June
L. Power
Access
Services/Reference Librarian
August
3, 2012
