Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Staff Changes and Technology Tremors
The more things change, the more they stay the same. We had a few personnel changes this month, but with some fast on-the-spot training, our new people have shaken off the first terrors and are starting to recognize the patterns for service in the public library world. We spent a lot of time trying to reconfigure staff hours; we are still so desperately in need of people at all three sites that we are sending folks from branch to branch when our usual people can’t be there.
The continuing updates on our webpage are proving fun to see and generating a lot of comment from the public. Photos taken by the staff now show up regularly, featuring programs and new items at the library. Case in point: our Easter Bunny, who had story hour in front of the new mural at the West Chambers Branch. What a fun picture to show folks about our children’s programs! Staff members continue to work with our consultant on full redevelopment of our webpage.
Technology drives a lot of work we do these days, of course. We’ve added a couple of new statistics: Patron Remote logons and Teen Blog hits. As our patrons get used to using our new (wonderful!) software, they are beginning to make use of their own passwords to alter their accounts and to make the software work best for them. This statistic will be interesting to watch as the patrons doing this increases. Our Teen Blog, which shows as a link on our homepage, has been up for over a year, and is increasingly popular. And our recent cooperative agreement with the folks at Wii provided us not only with equipment, but with the opportunity to have a contest for some Wii software. Needless to say, our young winner was thrilled, and got his photo in the paper to boot!
And finally, on the technology front, Teen Tech Week (March 3-8) provided Anahuac teens the opportunity to read chapters from a book. The end result? A talking book on cd that students in the county will be able to check out.
Several staff members attended workshops on the upcoming summer reading program and on teen programming. Chambers County hosted one session, which allowed more attendance; and Assistant County Librarian Valerie Jensen was the trainer for that afternoon session and for 3 others in the greater Houston area. It’s awfully nice to have a statewide-recognized young adult guru in our library system!
I mentioned staff shortages earlier – a HUGE thanks go to all those who jumped the river or became quick-change artists to keep our children’s programs going this past few weeks. Cat in the Hat, Easter Bunny, and special guest story hour readers came to our rescue so the children would not be disappointed, and that willingness to go the extra mile is what makes the Chambers County Library System staff the best!
The continuing updates on our webpage are proving fun to see and generating a lot of comment from the public. Photos taken by the staff now show up regularly, featuring programs and new items at the library. Case in point: our Easter Bunny, who had story hour in front of the new mural at the West Chambers Branch. What a fun picture to show folks about our children’s programs! Staff members continue to work with our consultant on full redevelopment of our webpage.
Technology drives a lot of work we do these days, of course. We’ve added a couple of new statistics: Patron Remote logons and Teen Blog hits. As our patrons get used to using our new (wonderful!) software, they are beginning to make use of their own passwords to alter their accounts and to make the software work best for them. This statistic will be interesting to watch as the patrons doing this increases. Our Teen Blog, which shows as a link on our homepage, has been up for over a year, and is increasingly popular. And our recent cooperative agreement with the folks at Wii provided us not only with equipment, but with the opportunity to have a contest for some Wii software. Needless to say, our young winner was thrilled, and got his photo in the paper to boot!
And finally, on the technology front, Teen Tech Week (March 3-8) provided Anahuac teens the opportunity to read chapters from a book. The end result? A talking book on cd that students in the county will be able to check out.
Several staff members attended workshops on the upcoming summer reading program and on teen programming. Chambers County hosted one session, which allowed more attendance; and Assistant County Librarian Valerie Jensen was the trainer for that afternoon session and for 3 others in the greater Houston area. It’s awfully nice to have a statewide-recognized young adult guru in our library system!
I mentioned staff shortages earlier – a HUGE thanks go to all those who jumped the river or became quick-change artists to keep our children’s programs going this past few weeks. Cat in the Hat, Easter Bunny, and special guest story hour readers came to our rescue so the children would not be disappointed, and that willingness to go the extra mile is what makes the Chambers County Library System staff the best!
# posted by Valerie @ Tuesday, June 03, 2008 
