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The Information Commoner: Keeping Library Staff on Common Ground, 2009 March
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| Creator | Utah Valley University Library |
| Contributors | Utah Valley University |
| Title | The Information Commoner: Keeping Library Staff on Common Ground, 2009 March |
| Description | The March 2009 issue of The Information Commoner, an online newsletter designed to keep all library staff members aware of services, developments, and staff professional activities and achievements. |
| Edition | ELectronic |
| Date Original | 2009-03 |
| Publisher Digital | Utah Valley University |
| Physical Description | Online newsletter |
| Owning Institution | Utah Valley University |
| Subject | Utah Valley University. Library |
| Local Subjects | Newsletters; Library newsletter; Staff newsletter; |
| Language | eng |
| Collection Name | Utah Valley University Library Collection |
| Rights | http://www.uvu.edu/library/irinfo.html |
| Copyright Status/Owner | Utah Valley University Library |
| Type | Text |
| Format | Text/PDF |
| Format Creation | PDF |
| Contributor Metadata | McIntyre, Catherine |
| Metadata Entry Date | 2009-04-113 |
| Metadta Entry Tool | CONTENTdm Acquisitions Station 4.3 |
| Full Text | Information Commoner March 2009 Volume 3, Issue 6 Keeping Library Staff on Common Ground In This Issue At Your Service 2 Announcements 3 Quiet Up Debuts 3 Department News 4 Brag Box 6 Forum on Children's Literature Conference Report 7 Employee Spotlight 8 Mike's Message What's Our Policy Every five years we are required to do a program ( Library) review for the State Board of Regents, and our anniversary year arrives this spring. The process is similar to the Northwest accreditation review in that libraries are asked to assess themselves in terms of their services, policies and procedures, collections, staffing, funding, capital facilities, and technical support. Librarians are currently writing sections of the report for their areas. The review is an opportunity for everyone to sit back and think about their procedures, and to examine ways that we can improve. Are there activities and services that we should be abandoning? Are there new services that we should be implementing? So often we get into our day to day routines and fail to ask if we could be doing our duties in a better and more efficient way. In addition, the Regents require outside reviewers to visit the Library, review the varied areas, and write a short report with their commendations and recommendations for improvement. We will have three reviewers: Kay Logan- Peters from the University of Nebraska- Lincoln will review Public Services, Betty Rozum from Utah State University will review Technical Services, and Ann Marie Breznay from the University of Utah will review Systems. Their visits are scheduled for April 9 and 10, and we will need to be available to visit with and answer their questions in any way that is needed. Mark your calendars. Community Patron Cards and Alumni By Lesli Baker We all know that we have community patron cards available for $ 20, which is quite a deal. However, did you know that former students with an alumni card have an even better deal? Former students may purchase a community patron card for $ 10 when they present their UVU Alumni card. Anyone interested in receiving an alumni card needs to register on the Alumni department's web site ( www. uvualumni. org). Patron card holders are eligible for all circulation privileges, except Interlibrary Loan, Reserves, and Distance Education videos. 2 INFORMATION COMMONER The Importance of Internal Customer Service By Christy Donaldson We talk a great deal about customer service, focusing on how we treat people who use the Library and our services. Equal attention needs to be paid to the way we work with other staff— the internal customer. Michael Baber ( 1986) describes 25 customer service mistakes organizations make 1 . While focused on external customers, it can be easily modified to apply to working relationships within the library. Using Baber's list as a model, consider the common mistakes we make when working with each other: 1. Being unappreciative. 2. Not being interested. 3. Not listening. 4. Unfriendliness. 5. Lack of empathy. 6. Ignoring a coworker's input. 7. Not asking questions. 8. Forgetting the benefits of good internal customer relations. 9. Jumping the gun. 10. Lack of sympathy. 11. Keeping coworkers waiting. 12. Being pushy. 13. Being discourteous. 14. Arguing with coworkers. 15. Not admitting you are wrong. 16. Allowing distractions. 17. Rushing the internal customer. 18. Being insensitive to behavioral styles. 19. Being undependable. 20. Being inconsistent. 21. Allowing your coworkers to be embarrassed. 22. Criticizing coworkers. 23. Becoming angry. 24. Expecting life to be fair. 25. Wasting a coworker's time. Fixing these customer service mistakes will enhance your ability to work better with your coworkers. While we all have the occasional " off" day, don't let any of these behaviors become habit. Internal customer service is about the values we bring to work everyday and improving how well your team, department or the whole Library works. By improving internal customer service we enhance customer service to our external customers as well. One of the number- one driving forces determined by participants in the pre- conference at ALA Midwinter was " creating an atmosphere of sharing and helping." Here are some tips for creating that atmosphere: 1. Begin with your own perspective: Regard fellow employees and other departments as your customers. Understand that helping your colleagues do their jobs more successfully helps your organization and you. Therefore, they are your customers. Treat them like VIPs. 2. View interruptions not as nuisances, but as opportunities to serve your internal customers. If you tend to view every interruption as a pothole in your road to success, reexamine those interruptions. If someone interrupts you to share gossip, that's a pothole. If someone interrupts you to ask for statistics she needs to analyze team performance, that's a necessary lane change that will get your organization closer to its destination. Learn to identify every real need from a colleague as a " necessary lane change" and think of every necessary lane change as an opportunity to move your organization closer to its goals. Take pride in At Your Service helping your colleagues; enjoy your role in sharing information and providing services that help others get their jobs done. In most cases, your willingness to help others get their jobs done will lead them to readily assist you when you need it. 3. Exceed your internal customers' expectations. When someone exceeds your expectations, how do you feel? Most people feel delighted, excited, upbeat, and very, very positive about that person and his or her organization. Think what you can accomplish in your organization by exceeding the expectations of fellow employees. If payroll asks for time sheets by 3 p. m., provide them by 1 p. m. so payroll can relax, knowing they have the time sheets in hand. 4. Say thank you. A simple, genuine " thank you" goes much farther to create an atmosphere of sharing and helping than two such small words would suggest. Even when it is a person's job to provide information or a product to you, tell them " thank you" when they have done it. Express your appreciation of their timeliness in providing it. Explain how it has made your job much easier. Show them your delight when they exceed your expectations. Superior internal customer service improves morale, productivity, employee retention, external customer service and ultimately, everyone's happiness. Remember, it's the SLDs ( subtle little differences) that make the big difference. ____ 1. Michael Baber, Integrated Business Leadership Through Cross Marketing. St. Louis: Warren Green, Inc., 1986. National Library Week Event We will celebrate National Library Week on Thursday, April 16 from 12- 2. Join us on the patio for games, prizes, and lots of fun! Our theme is the World's Greatest Heroes @ Your Library. By Lesli Baker Throughout this semester, noise complaints have been a major problem. To help educate our patrons and other visitors, we will begin a new quiet campaign called Quiet Up. Quiet Up signs will be posted on the third, fourth and fifth floors, as well as the digital signage, to remind everyone that the upper floors are our quiet areas. We also ask cell phone conversations be held in the elevator corridor or south stairwell and that groups should use the study rooms with the doors closed. Although the signs will be in visible locations, they may not be enough. We all need to help ensure our students have a quiet place to study. If you notice any disruptions on the third, fourth or fifth floors, please remind the person or group that they are on a quiet floor and need to move to a different . Signs will also be updated on the study rooms stating that groups have priority for using the room. If you have any other ideas on how we can best spread the word to Quiet Up, please let me know! INFORMATION COMMONER 3 Announcements: April Events Quiet Up Debuts Quiet Up signs will be posted around the Library 4 INFORMATION COMMONER News from Reference/ Instruction News from Access Services By Annie Smith As the semester winds down and the research questions get more difficult, I would like to share some tools and tricks that I use to answer reference questions. Rama and Trevor will share their own tips and tricks in upcoming editions. Google Site Search: Did you know that you can use one of Google's advanced search techniques to have the giant search engine do some evaluation work for you? By adding site:. gov ( or . edu, or . org) to your search, you can limit your search results to a particular domain. I used this just the other day to track down a USDA document listing the sugar content of popular sodas by adding site:. gov to my search and eliminating results from alternative health sites, diet sites, and other . com detritus. LexisNexis Academic Legal Search: I use LexisNexis Academic's legal search whenever I have a " there ought to be a law" question and a student wants to know if such and such a practice is banned or if a particular law exists. LexisNexis is particularly useful in that it includes Shepard's Citations, which let you know if a law is still in force. WorldCat ( www. worldcat. org): This is the free version of OCLC's national catalog. Using WorldCat, you can find out what titles exist on which topic, including articles and multimedia, and who owns a copy ( in a ranked list based on distance from a zip code you provide). I've also used this catalog to verify citations and check titles. Caveat: Provo Public Library and Orem Public Library are not included in WorldCat. By Judy Robertson We were able to meet with the Library Aides in a staff meeting this month and cover several items, including our new Roving Aides Position. J describes this position as a service to patrons in the Library. The goal is to be visible on the second, third, and fourth floors aiding students in finding items, answering questions, and giving directions. It is an active role to approach patrons and offer help. Eventually they will have a vest to set them apart. The walk around is different. Library aides are to do clean- up around all floors, straighten books on shelves, straighten furniture, dust, and perform housekeeping tasks. In addition, the LA will report to the supervisors' special needs in areas. We also talked about the First Book Program and " Quiet Up." Half of the staff attended the meeting and we were able to update other agenda items as well as gear-up for spring. Thanks to Sam, MaryBeth, Linda, and Lasca for help covering the desks. Ben, roving on the fourth floor INFORMATION COMMONER 5 By Tim Rowley Mark Stevens' " Dashboard" which displays either in- use or logged out computers in the Info Commons and distinguishes between Windows and MAC OS log- ins on the MacPro computers, is now on line on a large monitor near the new book display area. Students will be able to tell at a glance which computers are available. The next phase is to try it in different locations. We anticipate that where we place the monitor is where the queue of people waiting for computers will form. Annie Smith assisted Mark with her adept web page design skills in taking Mark's data and forming it into a more aesthetically pleasing and useful display. Excellent work, Mark and Annie. On April 4th Azucena and Tim will be traveling to the annual CODI ( Customers of Dynix Incorporated) users' group conference being held in Dallas, Texas this year. They will attend a pre- conference called " Horizon to Symphony Migration." This year CODI will be merged with the Unicorn/ Symphony users group, UUGI ( Unicorn User's Group, Inc). Watch for a report on the conference in the next newsletter. By Keith Rowley We recently received a large donation of microfilm which should be of great interest. There are two different collections: 1) the London Times, and 2) the American Periodicals collection. The London Times covers the period of 1785 to 1985. The American Periodicals collections has hundreds of newspapers, magazines and journals for the years 1741- 1900. Until additional shelving is received for all these microfilms, only the London Times from 1785- 1829 is currently available on the 2nd floor. The rest of the microfilm are now in storage in archives. By Debbie Short The UVU Library recently added the ScienceDirect Social Sciences and Humanities database, which contains full text, high quality journals published by Elsevier. The Social Sciences and Humanities Collection adds 350 journal titles to our periodicals collection in the subjects of arts and humanities; business, management and accounting; decision sciences; economics; econometrics; and finance psychology and social sciences. This constantly growing database adds approximately 130,000 new articles, with more added every month. News from Systems News from Technical Services News from Serials Mark's prototype has already seen use by students searching for an open computer 6 INFORMATION COMMONER News from Media By Christy Donaldson The Media Viewing Rooms are up and ready to go! An official room policy is forthcoming. Christy will be traveling the first week in April to present at the Mountain Plains Library Association conference in Wichita, KS. She will also be presenting at the Utah Library Association conference in Sandy, UT at the end of April. Her presentation will be on managing media. Here is the presentation summary: Getting swamped by all the different types of media out there today? Stop by, take a seat, and relax while we check out ways to keep you head above water in the wild and crazy movie industry. From buying films to copyright issues, from Blu - ray to streaming, feature films and documentaries, take away all sorts of useful information on film. Even where to find the best deals and what you need to know about permissions, this session will try to answer all your media related questions. One of the Media Viewing Rooms BR A G BO X Amber Begins Graduate School Amber has been accepted into Utah State University's Graduate School, to pursue a Master's degree in History. Congratulations, Amber! Ross Recognized Ross was recently named as a finalist for the 2009 Wolverine Achievement Awards. The winners will be announced April 8. The UVUSA Wolverine Achievement Awards are awards given to students, faculty, staff, alumni and, administrators in recognition of outstanding contributions to campus and community. Archives Receives Grant Catherine recently received an LSTA grant in the amount of $ 8,964. The grant will fund a cradle scanner for digitization of fragile materials. Welcome Back, Claudine! Claudine returns to work March 27. Librarians on the Campaign Trail Several members of the Library staff are running for ULA offices. Good luck, candidates! Debbie: ALA Representative Christy: Secretary, Business Round Table ( BURT) Jacques: Chair, Library Administration & Management Round Table ( LAMART) INFORMATION COMMONER 7 News from the George Sutherland Archive By Catherine McIntyre There are some exciting announcements in our department. Amber has been accepted into Utah State University's Graduate School, to pursue a Master's degree in History. Congratulations, Amber! Also, not quite as exciting, but worth mentioning, is that the LSTA mini grant that I applied for was awarded. This grant will enable us to purchase a cradle book scanner, so we can scan fragile books without damaging the spine, as could happen on a flatbed scanner. We have materials of our own, plus those of our partner institutions, for which we will be able to use this new scanner. We have started digitizing some of the meeting records for the Provo City Recorder's Office. Amber has been working very diligently, scanning and using Photoshop to clean up each page image. It is a huge job— six books of over 700 pages each. We will start working with the Provo City Library soon. They have around 500 images that they would like us to host in CONTENTdm for them. And I am meeting with Dan Perry, who is UVU faculty in Engineering and Design Technology but, more to the point, affiliated with the Utah Council of Land Surveyors ( UCLS) and is looking to have us digitize some of their historic images and documents. On March 18, 19, and 20, I participated in an online metadata class. For two hours each day, there were online PowerPoint lectures, discussions, and worksheets on using Dublin Core metadata, which is what we use to describe items in our digital collections. We will be hosting an exhibit of student sculpture through April in the Archives reception room. I'll have more details on that later, but it should be a great show. I've also heard from two artists who want to do an exhibit over the summer on alchemy and art. We're still working out the details, but if it works, it should be fascinating. Forum on Children's Literature Conference Report By Judy Robertson I attended the conference and enjoyed the keynote speakers' addresses by Shannon Hale and Michael O. Tunnell. The book panel was interesting to hear and covered the authors' favorite books and the illustrators' take on books they did not write. Because the subject was Juvenile and Children's literature, I shared the list with Rama. I also enjoyed the editor from Disney Hyperion, Abby Ranger, as she shared her experiences in editing and publishing. The author's take on how they worked on their manuscripts, rewrites, and worked with editors and under contracts was also interesting to me. I learned how characters were developed and how authors tend to relate to their characters long after the books are published. I enjoyed the passion the librarians had for this literature genre. 8 INFORMATION COMMONER Employee Spotlight: Judy Robertson Background information: I, fortunately, was born and lived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, God's beautiful country, where I skied, skated, hiked, went to school and found my one true love. I married Garth ( Toby) Robertson 46 years ago. We raised two children and have been blessed with seven grandchildren. Our daughter, Lennie, was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as a child and with the help of a lung transplant, is a living miracle. Her daughter Meirah is a junior in high school. Kerry, our son, works for UVU in the grounds department, supervising the mowing and snow removal efforts. He has two children attending UVU. Keri is his oldest daughter. She worked at the Library for about two years and is going on a mission to Argentina this month. The other grandchildren are Jake, UVU student; Megan, junior high; Taylor, junior high, wrestling; Parker, junior high; and Holly, 12. When did you start working at UVU? What changes have you seen? My first job at UVU was working as a desk clerk in the Administration Office. I learned a lot about politics, academic hierarchy, and administrative operations, from the President to vice presidents to administrators, Department Heads, secretaries, to faculty and professional and hourly employees. Changes I have seen include working with five different presidents at UVU. Each one contributed a special talent to expedite the growth and success of this school. The number of degrees offered has expanded. The number of faculty has increased. The services offered by the Library are totally amazing. The Library has the ability to provide students with materials and access to the needs they have. I don't miss typewriters, card catalogs, mimeograph machines, and other obsolete machines. Working at the Library in its formative stages provided me many opportunities for growth in organizational skills and management opportunities. I believe that I was selected for the jobs that I have had because of a desire to succeed at what I was asked to do and because of my diligence in trying to do all that was asked of me. Eventually, I earned the title of Head of Circulation. When I started here we had one director, Carol Reid; librarian Rama Chamberlin; an office assistant, Janel Mitchel; three Technicians; Janet Johnson; Claudine Boothe; Kay; and myself, who did orders and received shipments. We operated with a staff of about four to five part- time students. Now we have a Director, ten Librarians, one head of circulation, six full time circulation supervisors, plus two part- time, six people in cataloging and ordering/ receiving, and a part- time staff of 34 students. We now have a five floor Library of approximately 180,000 square feet. and 96 hours to staff. The LRC where the Library was located previously changed and went through several renovations. It housed Administration Offices for about two years, One addition of 21,000 square feet was added to expand the Library, the Atrium, but it did not accommodate the expanded growth of the student body. The funeral of Carol Reid was held in the Atrium. Art classes in the Library was an experience because the students would take art books from the Library to get ideas for their projects. However, they Judy on her first UV ID INFORMATION COMMONER 9 also cut out the pictures and destroyed some books. Others would draw clothes on the nude studies. The elevators in the LRC Library were terribly slow and small. You could hardly get a cart of Library books to fit and books would drop between the floor and door, disappearing into the black abyss. Favorite things about job/ UVU: The people I have worked with at UVU are absolutely the best thing about my job. I have great lifetime friends. Every year a new crop of diamonds in the rough come to work at UVU and it is fascinating to see how each develop their talents. These men and women seeking a career and dream of a great job and a new house; single mothers returning to school striving to make it as a sole support of their children; new freshmen trying their wings away from home; seasoned students mirroring frustration of change as they complete their degrees; all are learning the tough lessons of self preservation; all persevering toward their goals. The role I serve as their supervisor, as we interact daily, can be a stepping stone or a boulder on their trail to succeed. They succeed or not and move on. I have loved this experience and have a deep gratitude to the institution. Job duties: Looking at the current list of duties for supervisors, is like reading a past work experience. The ground work and guidelines for circulation were ones I helped to create. Azucena laughs when I tell her I was once " systems administrator." The training that is available and the support from the director to get training has improved and is a remarkable asset. The talent of our current staff is mind boggling and it is an incredible journey working with them. My main duties consist of hiring, training, supervising and scheduling Library Aides, to create productive employees for the Library. Many outstanding employees who continue to work at the University, started in the Library and have moved on to several different departments. It takes a lot more time to schedule and supervise 34 part- time staff for the 96 hours a week we are open than it did 20 years ago to schedule ten people for 50 hours. Education/ where did you go to school? I attended one semester at University of Wyoming doing generals and elementary education courses. I received my Associates at Utah Valley Community College ( now UVU). I worked 17 years in school districts in various positions in Wyoming and gained lots of experience from the school of hard knocks. Favorite things to do in your spare time or hobbies: I love camping with the family and friends in our trailer. I'm done with tents and sleeping on the ground. We have a small trolling boat, and maybe I'll learn to fish. I read, garden, and travel. I love playing sports, card and board games with grandkids. I enjoy my pets ( a horse, two cats, ten fish, and yard birds). ED I TO R I A L IN FORMA T I ON The Information Commoner is an internal communica-tion tool published once a month by and for the Utah Valley University Library staff. Input from all library staff is encouraged. The deadline for information submittal is the third Friday of each month. Send information to Lesli via email. Judy |
| Refresh | 2011-04-12 |
| Identifier | InfoCommonerMarch09 |
| File Size | 1.33 MB |
| Color Space | not available |
| Height | not available |
| Width | not available |
| Media Type | pdf |
| User Name | mcintyca |
| Genre | Newsletters |
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