Welcome to Summer 2008!

As usual, we think it's a slow time, but actually it's always busy. As usual, I will summarize a few things going on in IRT/LS to provide some context for what you will be hearing and seeing this summer. Round Rock is a go! And the Steering Committee is busy finalizing a space allocation. The full service campus will be built in three phases, IRT will have significant presence in Phase I and then completed in Phase II. At the conclusion of the buildout, it will be the largest ACC IRT/library space and it will have a complete curriculum and support services for Health Sciences - hopefully - at the end of Phase I. Although I sit on the Steering Committee, Margaret (Health Sciences) and Leigh (RRHEC) are both attending when appropriate and vetting all IRT/LS space planning with me. LS will have - as we did with South Austin - an Ad Hoc Collection Management Team to select resources. Paul Mason is the ACC Facilities project manager for RR and I think he is wonderful...so we are full steam ahead. I have put together a PPT of library/media/computer environments that we like/have discussed in the past year or so, received input from LLT and then moved this through Herb and Bruce and Marshall and together we all have a "look" for how the space might look. We'll see what happens. LS Work/Product Timelines LLT members have asked for accelerated timelines to make work product go more smoothly and a smaller group is working to produce those. These new dates/timelines should make all LS work in several areas (ex. selection, team goals' development) go more smoothly this year. We will evaluate these new timelines next year and strive to keep improving. In addition, I am asking for reformatting in Team Goals proposed and completed this year. All Teams should separate out those goals that are "ongoing" or maintenance from those that produce something separate and distinct. Literally, Team documents should have two headings for goals or outcomes that are "Ongoing/Maintenance" and "FY '09 Completed." LS Files/Documents Although I have said this in a variety of venues over the years, we need to make sure our documents and files are standardized across IRT/LS and that we have our working documents available. That being said: 1. Two years ago we embarked on a project to standardize all reference desk files, same subject headings, etc. This is good business practice and makes it much easier for adjuncts to be successful at individual campuses or as they move between or among campuses. We then moved to circ desks for standardizing files and then HL management documents. We are well on our way to be completed and my goal is by the end of this calendar year, all of these areas are standard. 2. The Wiki has brought great order and opportunity to us and it is probably the single greatest management and office productivity tool I have worked with EVER! Kudos to the LS wiki team (led by Margaret) to make our Wiki come alive and be one the of best anywhere. 3. Library staff have limited space to accomplish their work. We all know that. We must strive to weed our files, maintain our office space, and keep on top of issues relating to our work and productivity environments. I have said before in many venues, ACC work stays at ACC. Staff are not to create duplicate or keep original sets of their ACC work files at any other location than their ACC office. I don't know how many times I have outlined this for different groups and we review this when we hire new people, build new environments and renovate existing spaces. At times, I have sat next to people and reviewed files/archives and tossed items that people are unsure of - that is - do we keep or throw? Rosemary has assisted staff in this endeavor as well. Typically we have standard work environment furniture that includes and given space constraints - per librarian - one or two shelving units, one four drawer file cabinet and desk drawers. Often librarians also ask for a small cart to keep ongoing projects that they then take back and forth to the reference desk if their documents are print rather than available through VPN/their desktop. I am reminded of how much we do as I try to finalize the consolidate and distribution of Toma's files and Jeanette's files...both of whom..after being here for many years...had wonderful up-to-date work arranged neatly. It put me to shame! If you enter my office you will see stacks of papers, labeled for final perusal by me and some will be distributed, some refiled by Rose and me and some shredded. Thanks to hourly worker Kelly for assisting with this and all should be completed by August 1st (yes, of this year.) Group Discussions We had our full time librarian retreat this last month and had great presentations on our new resources along with excellent discussions. I have a Senior Library Assistant retreat scheduled for next week and - in our first - we will concentrate on the role and relationships of SLAs in LS. These R and R's will be explored in the context of LA's and HL's. Have a great summer. I will continue to update you as we move along.

Welcome Back! Spring 2008

It's always hard to put that exclamation point on the "welcome back" because lots of people are happy to be off/on vacation, but - obviously - lots of people don't necessarily want to spend their time by going back to work…that being said…

General Announcements/Reminders

I always look at the winter holidays as the academic year's ½ way mark and looking at the Spring 2008 schedule, we have even more holidays coming up: Martin Luther King, Spring Break, etc. Although many of you are longtime employees, many of us are new. That being said here are some reminders or basic information all LS employees need to be aware of:

• Take a look at the spring and summer holidays and class and college schedule. If you are a part-time employee, you typically don't work between semesters. Also if you are a student, don't forget to schedule in your study and work time so that you are still available to work your complete schedule for us during your exams and finals time. We need you to work then as well! As you already know, we don't always let people make up their time missed. Head Librarians decide what time can be made up/worked at a later time and any scheduling issues that go along with that decision.
  
  
• Adjunct librarians should check their schedules ASAP to see if their spring and/or summer hours need to vary on a weekly or overall basis. Although this seems premature, managers begin to schedule in contract times and vacation times immediately after the new year. Please begin to work with your managers immediately. Obviously, fulltime employees (classified and Head Librarians) should also look at the spring and summer schedule to determine when time off will be requested and submit - as quickly as possible - paperwork for any time off.
  
  
• All employees who are part-time or who manage part-time people need to continue to watch the 900-hour cap closely in the second half of this academic year. As we all know, we cannot go over that number of hours worked by any one employee in an academic year. If an hourly employee reaches that number of hours, they must cease work until the new academic year begins.
  
  
• All managers/employees should keep in mind that in August we always have at least one week in August when we are IN the new school year/fall2008, but on our old budget dollars. So our fiscal year ends on August 31st, but school starts the third week of August.
  
  
• Reference librarians working their 10.5 and 1.5 should note when the semesters begin and end. Time between semesters varies greatly and sometimes you have a few days off and sometimes only a day or two off.
  
  
• Reference librarians who are working their 10.5 only should be finalizing (with their HL's) the six weeks that they will be off contract and away from the college as soon as possible so that managers can identify gaps in the schedules. In addition, librarians should work with their Head Librarians to ensure that all 2008 (academic year '09) activities are completed before they complete their 10.5 contract/leave the college. These activities include but are not limited to campus-specific location work and all-LS and ACC committee work as well as weeding, collection development (of course,) and updating web information. Librarians should begin now as we have many schedules to coordinate. Timelines to be taken in to account should include:
  
  
  
  • Team member schedules
    
  • Team goals to be completed
    
  • Schedules of those "receiving" work such as weeded material information going to Technical Services…if everyone waits until the summer to weed, Technical Services cannot process work in a timely fashion
    
  • Head Librarian schedules (HL's work 12 months but they take vacation as well.)
    
  • Schedules of other critical staff such as Administrative Assistants who assist with activities on campuses.
    

Spring 2008 Activities…Issues…Announcements

Time to Rethink?

Six or seven years ago (I've lost count…it's all a blur) I became Dean of Library Services. Almost a year later I brought the librarians together to discuss "how we did business" in order to focus in on ourselves, how we were organized, how we created work product, etc. but especially to create a document that answered some of our new supervisor's (Ron Brey) questions at how we saw ourselves and how we were looking ahead. We met and made some changes that included:

• Some renaming (Teams, not committees)
  
• Some downsizing (fewer groups working; fewer people working on groups formed)
  
• Continued but expanded communication (threaded discussions)
  
• Service delivery discussion (librarians reviewed their job responsibilities to review what everyone needed to continue doing, what they could give us/do less of, etc.)
  

To summarize this process we created a document that we called (forever and ever) the "confetti" document. We updated this a few years later and I have referred to it many times in my work. I also still use parts of it as foundation for other discussions. (If anyone new (or nostalgic) wants to see it, just let me know and I'll send it to you.)

MP Note: This can be found online at

Ron Brey Document Information on Decision Making.doc

Anyhow, my point with all of this "thinking" is, it's always good to rethink processes and this last fall the Texas library community decided it wanted to think and possibly rethink Texas libraries. We planned for unique speakers as well as a participant list that included 65% of attendees to have been in the field for less than five years. Our thoughts were (and still are) that it is THEIR future and we need to have our newest professionals thinking about their future.

Visit this page

http://www.txla.org/temp/Transform.html and get the basic idea, then link to the blog link in the upper left-hand corner. (Our very own Ellie Collier!) Linked from the blog is:

• A website "viewing" list of transforming websites we asked all attendees to review prior to attending
  
  
• A link to presenter PPT and a stream of presentations (VERY interesting)
  
• Individual participant notes/thoughts
  
• Group process content
  
• Large group recommendations
  

Post conference I asked the Visioning/Transforming Steering Committee members to come up with a list of their thoughts about the ideas we heard and create a list of changes we each thought we would make in our own institutions. A fair number of individuals began to post immediately talking about how they felt event content changed their views, thoughts, minds and a few even discussed "revelations" they had. I called mine "Made me think" moments...

1. It's important to renew our commitment to assessment. Please see the "Commitment to assessment" attachment that assists us in answering questions about what we do/how we spend time and - of course - ultimately - why do we need the money we ask for.



2. As part of the overall move to assessment, I don't think we think enough about the customers and what they want. Yes, I'm in an academic library where we meet a variety of expectations, and 'yes' we have user and non-user surveys, BUT I'm interested in more assessment based on constituents...I don't know how this will take place (standardized 'commercial' surveys programs?, general surveys?) but I would like to know if we are meeting (at least!) a range of needs and expectations and maybe some extra/unanticipated needs. There are a number of commercial packages out there, LibQual, among them but it is primarily a customer service assessment. We have had that in the college annually for some time. I don't want to reinvent the wheel, but we'll take a look around and see how we might assess interests and needs realistically.



3. Our speakers wanted us to consider not using patron or customer as a term but instead using constituent. I love the 'constituent' term for customer/patron/user, etc. To me, it signals an obligation on our part...or better said...a responsibility to serve someone.



4. I would like to open the discussion with my librarians on front line reference and information seeking behaviors of our constituents... AND this discussion will have to include our other public service desks (circulation services staff) as well as a review of our administrative rule on our librarian/faculty obligations for student contact. SO...after all those "ifs, ands, and buts" and trying to work within the confines of our facilities, we can begin a dialog.



5. I am currently looking at the Transforming blog I referenced above to see how I might replicate at least the presentation of the content, in order to both educate and enthuse us/ACC Library Services staff. It's not enough to simply open a discussion on "a few of us heard about this and we think its a good idea," we will have to take the long/big picture view. And clearly I am NOT saying "we're going to make these changes this spring, so get on board!" I have this on the agenda of the first LLT meeting and we will discuss how this might work for LS. I will ask managers to speak with staff on their campus prior to this meeting and bring ideas to LLT. SO that being said - think about these things…





--What causes you to change your mind about how something is done? Specifically - at work? Data? Someone else says you should and you trust him or her? Opinion of many? Boredom? Review of a best practice?

--What do you need in order to think about the future? A few good ideas? Speakers to inspire you? Quiet moments away from work? Guided discussion with co-workers?

--How long do you think it should take to think and then - if appropriate - change? A few semesters/doesn't matter which ones? Spring and summer, then start something new in the fall of a new year?




6. We gathered data on our physical facilities several times within the last two years. In addition, we have extensive risk management spreadsheets that have incredible detail on "what we have where." I have long wanted to complete a physical space audit of our libraries to determine if there were additional/better ways to arrange our space to meet constituent needs. Although we don't have a great deal of money, I interested in seeing how we might assess in order to see if we might rearrange. We'll see what we can do.
   
   
7. AND...Along that same line.... last year I started the signage discussion. I really need to step that up and build in constituent survey questions to an assessment to determine the best signage for meeting needs at each campus location.
   
   
8. You'd think I never stop talking but even with my dean's blog last year (which I don't contribute to that much!) I have the tools to communicate...but I don't communicate as I need to. I have to find a way to move what I know/what the managers are doing - down to everyone in Library Services. I will share my PPT of "pictures of new library areas to inspire people" with everyone this spring - I'm collecting images for the new RR campus.
   
   
9. We need to capture firm results...that is...if - inspired and motivated - and if we then make major changes, where can we share this? How can we find out what others are doing? A blog...a Wiki? Our Visioning/Transforming steering committee talked about infusing this content into TLA conference programming and identification...but I am really interested in finding out what other libraries in Texas - and elsewhere - are doing differently or just doing ….I will talk to PR and Staff Development about how we might capture "new."
   

SO - HL's will be discussing these issues with campus staff and then bringing information to LLT in the early spring.

ACC Round Rock Campus

I will be working with other IRT/LS managers this spring to finalize basic specifications on IRT/Library Services plans for the ACC Round Rock Campus. Right now we don't know more than we know…

• We know it will be the largest acreage - around 60 acres - but we don't know if we will develop all of it in the first phase.



• I know IRT is asking for MUCH more space in this IRT/Library Services environment but don't know how many yet and - obviously - don't know how many square feet we will get.



• I'm not sure, but it is my understanding that the campus will be both a full general education campus and will also be a full health sciences campus. What "full" health sciences campus means is not clear…that is...I don't know how many programs will be offered there. I do know that we aren't moving programs from other campuses, RR campus programs will be in addition to the programs we have at other locations in terms of health sciences.

Weekend Colleges/Cypress Hours

Weekend Colleges begin for the South Austin Campus and for the Eastview Campus. IRT/Library Services staffing is complete for these additional hours and basically entail adding Friday evening hours, Saturday afternoon hours and a few hours on Sunday. Cypress Campus will continue to be the 4.5 days per week open they are now. Pinnacle will also remain at 4.5 days per week.

Employees - Replacement/New

We have a few positions open that we will be actively recruiting for this spring. They include:

• Pinnacle Head Librarian (replacement)
  
• South Austin Library Assistant (new, converted from the .5 position vacated by retirement)
  
• Eastview Library Assistant (replacement)
  
• Northridge Senior Library Assistant (replacement)
  

In addition, we have two reference librarians "coming" in our allotment. We should post those this spring, by March…and the Library Leadership Team will announce locations. The expectation is that they will begin in the fall of '08.

Hourly Employees

As with any new semester, we lose and gain hourly employees. If Head Librarians have hired hourly employees who will be staffing public service desks, please introduce them to LS_all and let people know who they are and what hours (in the ballpark) they will be working. I'll go first:

Wayne Decker is a new adjunct reference librarian who will be working daytime hours at Pinnacle reference. When we have finalized the hours, we will post them to the Pinnacle ICAL.

Trish Reichle LeBlanc is a returning adjunct who will be working at the Pinnacle and possibly more places. When we have finalized the hours, we will post them to the Pinnacle ICAL.

New and Exciting

RGC Environment

RGC LS is pleased to announce the continuation of its Library makeover project. Over break, they replaced our well-worn double-sided study carrels (25+ years old and located in the library's main work area) with new, more inviting furnishings. A combination of round and rectangular tables and chairs now occupy that area. Additionally, they opened up the Reference stacks a bit by replacing a tall stack with a half stack (that they already had). Much more daylight moves through these two areas now! This also improved traffic patterns because it allowed staff to improve aisles among collections and tables. Leigh Kilman states "my continued thanks to Julie and Dr. Smith for their support (as well as to RGC LS staff for all the hard work)!"

LS Wiki (acclswiki.austincc.edu)

Margaret Peloquin says:

'Re-Imagining Staff Collaboration and Communication through A Dedicated Wiki'

A simple idea for making the LS Reference Manual available to all campuses by using Wiki software has blossomed into a way for all LS staff to better communicate and collaborate. Although we began with the Reference Manual, the Wiki has now become an easier way to find and disseminate information about all LS operations. Certain projects are open to everyone for viewing and others are reserved for intra-team/group communications (exchanges). You can now find information for the following areas/functions:

ACC LS Wiki Basics Assessment and Effectiveness CDT CDT Exchange Circulation Manual Circulation Staff Exchange Collection Development - Bibliographer's Guide Community Outreach - PR Info - Tips Content Management Group Distance Learning, Extension Embedded Librarians Group Emergency Preparedness Plan HL Exchange ILS Committee Information Literacy Clearinghouse Journal Club

Library Leadership Team LLT Exchange LS Administrative Assistants LS Technology LS Web Pages Policies Procedures Help Reference Collection Reference Group Exchange Reference Manual Reserves Staff Development Staff Development Exchange Technical Services and Library Automation Technical Services - Reports TSLA - Exchange

Some projects are dynamic and fully operational, while others are just beginning to gather information and will be available soon. If you cannot get into a project that you need, please be sure to let the project administrator know. You can see a list of the projects and administrators at

http://acclswiki.austincc.edu/cm/wiki/?id=45504

LS Catalog (alicat.austincc.edu)

The ACC Library Catalog has undergone an upgrade and has a new look. Among the new features to look for

• Relevancy ranking of search results
  
• Ability to sort results easily by relevancy/date/title
  
• Book covers for individual items when available
  
• Tabbed search options
  
• New catalog searching help
  

Still to come are the updated Spanish language pages. Look for them soon.

Electronic Message Boards

Cary Sowell says "Over the Christmas break, the College installed electronic scrolling message boards, emergency public address systems and outdoor speakers district wide. Check out where they are installed in your library, so that you can become familiar with their location. The message boards will normally just display time and date. Only in an emergency will the public address system be used and a message explaining any emergency will be displayed on the message board at the same time."

Have a great spring semester!

A Few Announcements and Safe Holidays

We're trying something new this season! We are joining the ACC post-holiday registration RGC group to be available for a little time after the 25th to assist in clearing registration/library services issues. Jon Sprecher will be assisting with this and keeping careful data on how many use us for clearing fines and fees. This will be our usual "behind closed doors" but answering our doorbell and RGC phones to serve students with fines and fees. ALSO:

• We have message board marks (blue x's) throughout the campuses and these will be installed sometime in the next month or so. These will be used by ACC's Risk Management office for emergency notifications only for both text messages and public announcements.
• We are not having an LS-all meeting after the first of the year as we usually do. We have so many other things in the college going on and LS staff are planning to provide as well as attend all-college staff development activities in a number of venues.
• We are changing our "hours" phone number message which will necessitate a change in reference desk phone number messages. Eddie Sanchez is working with Rosemary on the new script for the general number and those changing reference desk messages (as they are the ones the college publishes) should include the hours of your campus if it doesn't already.

SO...ho, ho, ho and in the midst of my "emergency message board" and other dozen ACC email issues (don't ask) I wish each and every one of you a safe holiday. Take care of yourselves in this busy, stressful, relaxing, hot, cold, busy, calm week or so. Don't forget I am on email and cell phone this coming holiday time and am available for emergencies as needed.

Julie

Update....LS: Announcements for Spring '07

Cypress Update:

• New Building
  
  
  
  • --We are out of the old building and in the new one.
  
  
  • --We will be open the first week of the semester but we will post this to the LS_All list and link to the website when we finalize the date. In addition we will place flyers in Cypress mailboxes. We will link content from the LS website.
  
  
  • --New shelving is in and integrated with the old and the books are being placed back on the shelves this coming week.
  
  
  • --Office furniture is about 80% set up.
  
  
  • --No wood furniture is in and won't be in until early or mid Feb.
  
  
  • --Current circ desk service is set up on folding tables.
  
  
  • --Some new computer workstations are in...laptops and charging carts are in.
  
  
  
• Cypress hours will remain 4.5 days a week until fall of 2007. At that time the older building will be renovated and open and the number of Cypress students will greatly increase. At that time we will increase to at least 6 days a week and probably some Sunday hours as well.

New Staff

New staff are being trained at their home campuses and will have some training standardized such as customer service, information literacy, etc. I will post a schedule for general training later this week.

Expanded Hours for NRG RVS

This Spring we have expanded hours at NRG and at RVS for the Weekend College. The NRG campus will expand its Weekend College hours back up to original numbers, so NRG will again have Friday evening hours. RVS now has weekend hours comparable to NRG hours. We will post an information page on the LS website to announce these new hours.

LS Meeting Thurs 11 Jan

Don't forget our LS Meeting this week on Thursday, January 11th. The agenda will be out this week.

New IKON Copiers

We now have new IKON copiers - typically 2 - installed in all libraries. We have had some training and more will follow. As I stated before, we're pleased to offer new machines and the potential of new services in the coming years including swipe cards, etc. connected to our new I.D.'s. Although the machines offer new services, they are smaller, streamlined machines that will be simpler to maintain. We aren't sure who will empty change, possibly ACC duplication or the Business Office or the company. Cary Sowell is coordinating this project. More from her will be coming this week.

End of Fall 2006 Semester Update

.................................................
...New Cypress Library
1. We are moving in to the new Cypress library beginning on Dec. 18th. Will we be open for the first of the semester? Probably not. New shelving will be in and integrated with the old and the books will placed back on the shelves. Office furniture will be set up, but public service furniture will not be in and we will have folding tables with some chairs. BUT...there won't be a circ desk or any new "wood" or library furniture. In addition, I don't think new computers will be in and we may be using existing computers. I am hopeful that the new furniture will come in sometime the third or fourth week of January. Clearly we are disappointed all of our resources/items weren't ordered in time to open for the spring. We may be able to offer some services. We'll see what we can do and email all libraries so all LS staff will have the same information and it will be clear to all students who may travel among campuses. In addition, we will have a timeline posted to the "What's new?" section of the LS homepage.

2. Cypress hours will remain 4.5 days a week until fall of 2007. At that time the older building will be renovated and open and the number of Cypress students will greatly increase. At that time we will increase to at least 6 days a week and probably some Sunday hours as well.

3. Our new staff for Cypress include:

Head Librarian - I am very pleased to announce that Pam Spooner has joined us as HL out at Cypress. She has excellent knowledge of community colleges (and is a graduate of one,) has extensive reference experience and excellent experience and continuing education in information literacy. She has managed a number of library functionsand staff in an academic setting, has experience in renovation of a library and has jumped right in to move our Cypress library.

Reference Librarian - Ellie Collier - a current adjunct of LS at South Austin this last summer- is the new reference librarian for Cypress as of this afternoon. She is a great teacher and is very tech-skilled...a new word, I think! Ellie will start 1/8.

Reference Librarian - Linda Clement has chosen to step back into the Cypress library faculty as of now and we thank her very much for managing Cypress for these last years! She has really connected with the Cypress college community and the community surrounding the Cypress campus.

Senior Library Assistant - Nancy Garrett - a long time ACC LS employee, will continue as our Senior Library Assistant. Nancy has worked in a small space with great humor and grace for many years and we thank her for her talents and her leadership of the Cypress circ desk functions and positive attitude!

Library Assistant - Tara Fleming - one of our hourly circ desk workers at South Austin since its opening last summer - has been hired as our new full time LA for Cypress. Welcome Tara! She has many years of extensive customer service experience (around books and people) from years of being an Assistant Manager at Barnes and Noble.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our hourly circ desk workers and our hourly adjunct librarians for Cypress library services. We've had a great group of hourly staff this past ten years, who have provided great service to the Cypress community. Since we now have new fulltime staff, our hourly support will greatly decrease for the spring and summer of '07. When our new hours begin this next fall, we will add some hourly support back in. We literally can't open our sites without our hourly and we appreciate the expertise and loyalty these past years.

..................................
...EVC
4. Reference Librarian - As you may remember from earlier emails from me, based on extensive data, we also got the opportunity to hire a new librarian for an existing site. For this year, therefore, besides our two Cypress staff, our third position - based on a LLT staffing plan was for Eastview. SO....also as of today, Lola Cowling - an adjunct for LS and a local law librarian - has accepted the position of Eastview reference librarian. We are very pleased to be able to build out the EVC staff and with someone who has been a great adjunct for us these past years.

........................................
... Weekend College
5. Weekend College - The NRG campus will expand its Weekend College hours back up to original numbers beginning this spring - so NRG will again have Friday evening hours. In addition, RVS will now also have weekend college curriculum and will have comparable weekend hours to NRG hours. We will post an information page on the LS website to announce these new hours.


6. ACC Strategic Planning - The college employed facilities consultants to assess the community at large/conduct environment scans to determine future directions. The link below provides the consultant final report which recommends next steps for ACC facilities. Interesting stuff. Go look at Sasaki content. http://www.austincc.edu/faoadmin/project_mgmt/ProjectStatus_mainpage.htm


7. LS Teams - In the early Fall/email/Blog posting, I announced our usual Teams and our '07 teams. We have added an Assessment group, a group to look at Distance Learning models/our ACC approach to supporting DL, and a content management group. In our last LLT meeting we reviewed team goals and we had a few revisions. When the goals have been finalized we will send out a link to this year's goals for general staff information.

8. All LS Meeting - We will have our all LS meeting on January 11th. You will be getting an agenda shortly. We will spend some time introducing our new South Austin, Cypress and EVC staff. These are exciting times and I know you will enjoy meeting our new team members.

9. Duplication - The college has signed a new copier contract. Thanks to Cary Sowell and Jon Sprecher who were members of the College committee that assisted with the creation of the RFP and the vendor responses. After much careful deliberation, the college with with IKON. You will return to libraries in the Spring and see new copies. Training will soon follow. We're pleased to offer new machines and the potential of new services in the coming years including swipe cards, etc. connected to our new I.D.'s. More later.

10. New IRT staff - New IRT staff were hired for our expanded locations. Watch for an email from Herb Coleman outlining new staff.

Have a good holiday...and gear up for the spring. I'll be at Cypress during the break as Santa comes down the chimney to deliver shelving and furniture. Like I said...Ho, Ho, Ho. Be safe.