More Task Force News

I'm sure that it's no surprise to you that most of the task forces have now met for the first time. This has meant quite a few hours out of your time and we thank you for giving that to us. I will be scheduling second meetings hopefully before I leave for vacation next week. I will stagger days of the week and mornings/afternoons to give members of each group an opportunity to attend meetings.

I'm going to attempt to give you an overview of what was discussed in each:

Readers' Advisory - We are investigating how to implement "Express Reads". This initiative was passed by the Library Board for a launch in September.

Technology Task Force - This group is looking at the various functions in the library that require technology and beginning to formulate a plan for efficiently moving it from the Mall to the Library.

Study Rooms Task Force - We are investigating how to fairly regulate the time spent in the rooms on the second floor and the furnishing required in them. The group is also looking at the Ingram Activity Room in the Youth Library. We would like it to be available to the public for study, tutoring etc. when not in use for programming and other activities.

Adult Furnishings Task Force - Jennifer McBride from In2Space provided us with samples of furnishings and created a layout of where she thought they might go. We listed the various functions that need to be considered for our customers (i.e. studying in groups, studying alone, socializing, comfortably reading etc. We mapped out where these functions might take place on the plans then sent recommendations to Jennifer.

Customer Service Task Force - We began to think about what we would like the customer experience to be like in the Revitalized Library.

Collections and Move Task Force - This group looked at the collection codes for materials that we already provide, analyzed whether or not some collections could be combined and began to think about placement of collections in the Revitalized Library keeping in mind that we want to achieve a flow from one to another.

Local History and Marketplace Task Forces will be meeting today and tomorrow so I will have an update on them when I next post.

We are adding one more group and I would very much appreciate volunteers to sit on it. It is the "Signage Task Force". Please let me know if you are interested.

I'll be on vacation next week so posts will return when I return.

Until then....

Kids' Spot and Teen Zone Task Forces

Yes, the Task Forces are officially launched so I thought I'd report on the progress of the first two meetings. The Kids' Spot Task force was the first to convene. Discussion revolved around how to create a literacy rich environment for children and their accompanying adults in the Palmer Youth Library. We plan to accomplish this by items that we will purchase (like the matching game above) and those that we will make ourselves (such as the baking tray about different sizes). In a webinar that I attended, some libraries numbered their stairs so that children and adults could sing the alphabet song as they entered the library and added mirrors to their service desks with signs asking the children what mood they were in today. Members will be scouring the Internet for ideas in the next few weeks.

This afternoon the Teen Zone Task Force met. It is comprised of library staff members as well as teens from our Teen Advisory Board. About ten of the latter attended today! Our Interior Designer had sent a layout and suggestions for furnishings so we had a basis for our discussions. I'll be sending a report back to Jennifer so that she can revise her furnishings accordingly. In a nutshell, they want to be able to lounge on chairs and on the floor and "get comfortable". They'd also like chairs with places to put laptops and other devices.

It is so beneficial and exciting to have staff from different departments meeting to discuss such a wide variety of topics. Thank you for sharing your time, your knowledge and your creativity.

Making Progress

Yes indeed, another week has passed and progress has been made both at the Library and in the planning details surrounding the project. I apologize for not getting back to you to set up meetings for the various Task Forces. A few details had to be decided before doing so such as the deadline for the ordering of the furnishings. We have a little longer than expected, namely the end of August, but I would like to plug away on our discussions so that we aren't rushed as the deadline approaches. I met with a representative from Brodart today just to get a feeling for our options re shelving and other furnishings. The upshot is that the Task Forces that will be advising on furnishings and layouts etc. for particular spaces will be the first to have meetings and the others will follow.

We are very appreciative of the coverage that we have received on the new MyFM recently regarding our progress. Rudi recorded a segment before she left on our fundraising campaign and I was interviewed via telephone yesterday. I'll also be a guest on Roger's "Inside Elgin" tomorrow.

Ruth and I will be working on a "booth" that will provide information for our customers. More details will follow. In the meantime, we'd love to know the questions that are being asked from customers as you are serving them. Feel free to come and talk to Ruth or I about them anytime.

Task Forces are Underway

I just wanted to extend a sincere thank you to all of you for signing up for task forces that excite and interest you. If you haven't yet indicated that you are interested in being on one of them, please don't feel that you have run out of time. Just send me an email or see me in person...you know where I hang! Here is the list of Task Forces and people who are on them to date:

Customer Service Model

Effie Lattanzio

Ruth Crocker

Peter Atkinson

Jody Kenney

Terri Scott

Dana Vanzanten

Carol Kim

Paul Blower

Readers’ Advisory

Donna Hanson

Effie Lattanzio

Terri Brzuskniewicz

Cindy Cookson

Holly McNea

Susan Andrews

Dana Vanzanten

Carol Kim

Collections and Move

Effie Lattanzio

Terri Brzuskniewicz

Dana Vanzanten

Paul Blower

Technology

Paul Giza

Tyler Hanley

Effie Lattanzio

Ruth Crocker

Peter Atkinson

Cindy Cookson

Meagan Wilkinson

Dana Vanzanten

Janet DeAngelis

Paul Blower

Carol Kim

Local History

Donna Hansen

Dana Vanzanten

Barb Hoskins

Paul Blower

Adult Furnishings

Donna Hanson

Ruth Crocker

Paul Blower

Study Rooms

Chris Triska

Ruth Crocker

Holly McNea

Susan Andrews

Paula Kielstra

Paul Blower

Marketplace

Effie Lattanzio

Ruth Crocker

Susan Andrews

Paul Blower

Accessibility

Jody Kenney

Peter Atkinson

Paula Kielstra

Carol Kim

Kids’ Spot

Ruth Crocker

Holly McNea

Terri Scott

Meagan Wilkinson

Teen Zone

Cindy Cookson

Holly McNea

Meagan Wilkinson

Paula Kielstra

If I've missed you in a group, please let me know!

Rudi and I are busy working on Terms of Reference for each group. Once these are finished, I'll be setting up meetings as required.

In other news, I visited the In2Space offices today. Jennifer McBride and Cathy Jurjevich showed me a wealth of catalogues and samples of chairs and other furnishings. Jennifer will be sending floor plans indicating seating areas etc. shortly. Task Force members who will be looking at particular spaces will be consulted.

Rudi, Paul Giza and I will be off to our first Site Meeting on Thursday with architects and contractors present. I'll keep you posted.

Plugging Along

I'm going to be regular with the blog posts so you can expect them on Wednesdays. I'll still send a reminder email and a direct link to the post. If you are having trouble opening the blog, please be sure to let Paul Giza know.

As you can see by the photographs above, demolition is well underway at the library. In fact, you may have to spend some time looking at some of these photographs to determine where they are taken. I know I did! Paul Giza and I have scheduled mini site meetings once per week on Thursday mornings so that we can keep informed about how things are progressing and deal with any issues that have arisen.

Yesterday, a hastily assembled group of staff spent a great deal of time looking at all of the service and information desks to determine how to make them most functional and comfortable for customers and staff alike. We sent quite a few changes to Kyle at Chamberlain.

Rudi picked up samples of the finishes that have been chosen for the revitalized library this morning from In2Space so that they can be presented at the Board meeting this afternoon. We will then show them at the staff meeting on Friday morning and will have them available in the Administration area for a while. Please do take a moment to come and see them. We're quite excited by them all and I'd be happy to answer questions.

In an effort to try to be as on top of things as possible, we will be assembling a variety of staff task forces. Decisions are having to be made very quickly and we want to ensure that we are making them with as much information and research as possible. There will be sign up sheets to allow you to choose the task force(s) that most interest you. Please don't be shy....jump in and get involved in the planning process. We need you!!

Finishes

The air was abuzz with excitement in Administration late afternoon yesterday. The Colour Committee members as well as Board Chair, Greg Grondin, gathered. Jennifer and Christine from In2Space arrived with a wheeled cart full of samples of paint colours, carpeting, tiles etc. They carefully laid these out in groupings for us to ponder. We spent two hours swapping and changing our minds and rearranging and we finally came up with two sets of finishes, one for the two top floors and one for the bottom, that we adore. In fact, we'll have to keep Ruth away from some of the tiles as she is quite attached to them. We want to share our decisions with you and will do so at our next staff meeting on Friday, June 17th. Please don't worry if you aren't able to attend the meeting. They will be on display in Administration afterwards for a while and I would be happy to walk you through how we will be using them.

Demolition has begun at the Library. Paul Giza was able to take some photographs of the progress made and he was excited to report that the corkboard is being scraped off the walls with a shovel. The cedar slats on the ceilings have been removed and taken apart and some have even been used to make a sawhorse. The rest will be finished in some way and will become Internet workstations and sign boards outside of meeting rooms.

Let the Construction Begin

I had to pick up some files from the City Hall office this morning and noticed welcome activity at the Library. K and L Construction Limited staff are moving in as of today. The Site Manager is setting up his office and is ready to welcome the crews that will be arriving from another company to remove the asbestos tiles. We hope that this will be accomplished before the end of the week which means that construction itself will begin early next week. Whoo, hoo!!

On another note, the Colour Committee met with Jennifer McBride and Christine from In2Space on Friday to go over options for finishes. This includes carpeting, tiles, paint colours and flooring. An exciting time was had by all. We have another meeting scheduled for Monday to hopefully finalize finishes so that the Contractor can get busy ordering them for the project.

Photographs

I know that I mentioned at the staff meeting that a local photographer, Mike Wood, had attended one of the "Empty Library Tours" a few weeks ago. He spent an hour and a half taking photographs and fortunately enjoyed a rare bit of sunshine which provided visual interest. I just thought you'd like to see a few of his "shots". I have all of them if you are interested. They are very striking and evocative. The picture second from the bottom appeared in the Weekly News this week. Mike would like to have a chance to photograph the library again after it is renovated and before we move back.

Back on Track

Well, I just had a look at the date of my last post and I must hang my head in shame. It's about time to fill you on where we are situated with the revitalization project. As you may or may not know, we have hired K and L Construction as our Contractor and the documents have been signed. This means that construction on the library will begin within two weeks. Paul Giza and I will be attending our initial meeting with K and L and the architects next Wednesday morning at the library.

It is time to begin choosing finishes and furnishings. We decided that we needed some assistance with this so we have hired In2Space, the same interior design firm that assisted us with the administration move. Kyle has come up with a concept and look he'd like to create and Jennifer from In2Space will be assisting us to "tweak" it. We will be enlisting the assistance of the Colour Committee to help us make decisions on things like carpeting, colours etc. We need to have all furnishings ordered by the end of July so it's going to be a busy summer.

More updates soon....

Moving Organization

Well, after a brief absence, I'm back with new about ****surprise**** the BIG move. Just to make life interesting, an auction is being organized while we are packing. It will be held on Saturday, March 19th. What this means is that the main area of the basement and the Carnegie Room will have the general public milling around in them to view auction items. We need to ensure that none of our stuff gets mixed in with the auction stuff. You may have noticed some of your colleagues doing a little organization today and taking stuff into the offices. We are going to be using Rudi's office to hold boxes of stuff that will be used at the Mall and Glenda's/Nettie's office for boxes of stuff that will go into storage at the Mall. We also plan to block off the circulation work area with dividers so that the public isn't in this area. This means that packed stuff can go directly into one or the other. Please don't leave it in the cleared area just inside the Administration Area. We officially have an "Auction Committee" which includes the following people: Jody, Cindy, Carol, Meagan, Trish, Effie, Terri B., Donna H. These are people who will be working on March 19th during the auction. Don't worry, we'll call you when we need you! As always, ask questions if you have them.

Schedule is Posted

As we all know, time has a way of moving far too quickly when there is much to be done. And we DO have much to do before our moving dates. Thank you to everyone for all of their efforts on the dotting project. John Knox finally sent us floor plans for the Adult and Children's/Teens' areas so we have a much better idea of layout and amount of materials that can be accommodated.

The Relocation Task Force spent some time yesterday morning identifying areas that need to be cleaned out and packed by staff in the next couple of months. Terri and I used the list that was generated and have come up with a schedule that is now on the large white board inside the door of the Administration area. It clearly identifies the areas, who is assigned to them and the absolute deadline for completion. You will notice that the Support Team is responsible for some of these areas. I will be meeting with the members of that team early next week. Once you have completed assigned areas, please just cross them off the board. Ruthie holds the white board markers.

I just wanted to ask staff to:

1. Remove anything from the staff room that is yours by February 18th. Mary K. will be ruthlessly cleaning out and packing what is left after that date.

2. Clean out all lockers in the building by February 18th.

Please feel free to talk to Terri B. or I with concerns and questions. The countdown to moving day is on!!

Tags

As I'm sure you've noticed if you've been around the Library today, there are brightly coloured tags appearing on our furniture. And yes, we know that it is a dream to believe that they will actually remain on the furniture in the public spaces. However, just to make you aware of what it all means, here are the colour codes:

Yellow Tag means going to auction (which will take place on March 26th at the Library)
Orange Tag means going to the mall and coming back to live in the Revitalized Library
Blue Tag means going to the mall but not coming back to the Revitalized Library
Green Tag means going to the mall in storage
Purple Tag means giving it away for free!

We have tags available in each of the colours and will need your assistance. We are not tagging anything that will be moved to the Administration Area in the first move right now. We do however need to be able to show the potential movers on Friday morning what they will be moving. Please take a good look at your own spaces and tag anything that isn't already. We had particular trouble with filing cabinets. There is a deadline for this....Friday morning at 10:00 a.m.

If you have any "tag" disputes, please let Terri or I know. Many thanks...

Staffing During Move

I know that many of you are wondering about your hours of work during the move. The plan is to aim for comparable hours to what you are presently working over the long term. However, we can't guarantee the same hours or schedule for the two weeks of the move itself. We are exploring a variety of options for staff activity during the March 21st to 31st time frame. We may still be working on preparations for the move or we may take the time to offer some staff training. We'll let you know more details as we proceed.

Divide and Conquer

Can you believe it? Two blog posts in one day! I just have more and more to tell you so I'll do so as I think of it instead of waiting and forgetting. We'd like to get all staff actively involved in planning for our move and in thinking about the services we will provide while we are at the Mall. We've already established the Relocation Task Force. Now we'd like to add two other working groups, namely the Programming and Public Services Team and the Support Team. Here are the members of the two:

Programming and Public Services Team
Paul Blower
Susan
Rudi
Heather
Ruth
Peter
Effie
Janet
Trish
Crystal

Support Team
Cindy
Mary Meharg
Terri Scott
Mary Kinczyk
Glenda
Paula
Tyler
Barb
Dana
Jody
New Person

I'll be talking to department heads about scheduling a meeting with the Programming and Public Services Team early next week.

Relocation Task Force

The Relocation Task Force held its first meeting on Tuesday afternoon and a lively discussion ensued about plans for our upcoming move to the Mall. I thought I'd just let you know what we're working on right now. We have made a list of all materials and department heads will be making decisions on what goes with us and what needs to be stored. All staff will be working on marking the materials once these decisions have been made....stay tuned. We have assessed services that we think we'd like to offer in the spaces at the Mall (i.e. study tables, lounge spaces etc.) and will be sending the information to John Knox, along with the measurements of the spaces. He will determine how much space we will have left for collections and we will make decisions accordingly. Effie, Paul Giza and I will be skulking around the Library this morning checking out furniture etc. and recommending what will go with us, what will be stored and what will disappear never to be seen again in the revitalized Library(i.e. sold, auctioned, discarded). Also, the whole group will be heading to the Mall on Monday afternoon to have a good look at all of our spaces.

Animation of the Plans

Most of you have had an opportunity to view the architectural plans for the revitalized library and to make comments on them. However, it occurred to me that we haven't really had a chance to animate for you just what the changes will mean for both you as staff of the library and for our customers. We would like to ensure that you are comfortable and excited as you speak to our customers about the revitalization. We'd also like you to have a chance to ask those questions that customers have been asking you as you go about your daily activities around the library and those questions that you yourself may have. So, I have scheduled 4 sessions on two separate days to give us an opportunity to chat. Your department head will be scheduling each of you for one of these sessions. Just know that no question you have will be too silly to ask. The dates are Monday, January 24th from 10-11 a.m. and 2-3 p.m. and Tuesday, January 25th from 10-11 a.m. and 2-3 p.m.

Unveiling

It is time to unveil our plans to the public! This will be done at a wine and cheese event on Wednesday, January 26th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Invitations will be sent to city officials, library board members (both past and present), revitalization donors to date, the Press, the Friends Executive etc. After giving everyone a bit of time to mingle, munch and sip in the Carnegie Room, a brief program will kick off the unveiling which will include a welcome, an introduction of the architects and their firm, presentation of the plans as well as the official launch of the new logo. The remaining time will be spent answering questions that the attendees may have about our plans. The next day, January 27th, we will make the plans available to the general public in the library from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. and from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Again, we will be introducing our new logo as well as talking to the public about the architectural plans. Cake will be served to celebrate.

Where are we Going?

Happy new year to one and all. 2011 is destined to be a very exciting year for St. Thomas Public Library! I know that you are wondering what is happening re the library's relocation for the duration of the construction. You've no doubt heard rumours of possible locations. We are just finalizing leasing details with the owner of Elgin Mall so it looks at this point as though this will be our temporary home. Included in the lease agreement are a variety of spaces. The Administration functions will be located in the former real estate offices across from Zeller's. The Children's and Teens' Services department will be housed in the space beside Hallmark Cards. Adult Services will take the Trad's space. There is the possibility that we will be able to use the Community Room for some of our programming but details have yet to be worked out with Mall staff. Hopefully all of these plans will be finalized soon and an official announcement will be made to you and to the public. As far as timing goes, we are hoping to phase the moves with Administration leaving for the Mall first, then Children's and Teens' Services and finally Adult Services. A Relocation Task Force has been set up to assist with the planning and they will have their first meeting soon. Stay tuned and keep asking me questions as they occur to you.