Title
Library Department recommending the Board:
1) Receive and file a presentation on the October 23, 2023 in-service day; and
2) Provide direction for closures of County Libraries and Museum for annual in-service days.
FUNDING: General Fund.
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
On September 23, 2023, the Board approved closure of all County Libraries and Museum for a staff in-service day held on October 23, 2023. This allowed staff to learn, train and grow in a dedicated collaborative environment.
The focus of this year’s in-service day was providing excellent customer service to all patrons of the library, focusing on practical information related to visitors that are experiencing homelessness and how de-escalation, trauma and conflict can affect customer service.
The training was comprised of four hours of building staff confidence and skills related to patrons that are experiencing homelessness, three hours team building activities, and an hour with the El Dorado Sheriff’s Homeless Outreach Team.
The team building activities included exploring library marketing possibilities and developing a new logo for the library. Staff brought nearly 50 proposed logos and worked in group activities to select one logo that would be explored further. A new logo for the library would better tell our story to the community and strengthen our brand from a marketing perspective.
HOT provided an overview of what they do to help our community. Staff also heard challenges and opportunities that HOT encounters and how we can team up to provide safe and welcoming spaces at the library. Staff members also engaged in a question-and-answer session resulting in additional ways staff can make their surroundings safer.
HOT’s suggestions resulted in the Placerville Library pruning additional shrubs to creating more effective sightlines around the building, modifying the wireless internet schedule to the hours of 6AM to 8PM, installing additional outdoor lighting, and planning to install a fence around a library shed used by the Native Plant Society.
Through surveys, staff indicated that after the trainings they were better prepared to offer excellent customer service (100%), that they better understand some of our patrons (97%), and that they learned something that helps them in their job (97%). Furthermore, there was an increase in staff confidence when engaging in challenging customer service interactions, increasing from 6.2 as a group average to 7.8, on a scale of one to ten, with one being extremely uncomfortable during challenging customer service interactions, and ten being extremely comfortable.
Future topics during in-service day will be timely to what the environment is at the library and could include technical trainings related to our integrated library system, strategic planning, promotion and marketing, library programs, and more. All library and museum staff would benefit from annual training.
The Library would like to hold an annual in-service day on the third Friday in October to dedicate time to learn, train, and grow, in order to best serve our patrons as community needs evolve. If in-service day is approved the library will memorialize the Board's decision with an internal policy.
In-service day staff attendance is strongly encouraged, and actual trainings are mandatory. The few staff who were unable to attend the 2023 in person sessions will fulfill training requirements on-line.
All staff will complete at least one additional on-line training as identified in their personal performance evaluation goals by the end of FY 2023-24.
ALTERNATIVES
The Board could choose not to allow the closure of the Library and Museum for an annual in-service day.
PRIOR BOARD ACTION
September 26, 2023, Legistar 23-1705
OTHER DEPARTMENT / AGENCY INVOLVEMENT
N/A
CAO RECOMMENDATION / COMMENTS
Approve as recommended.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
FY 2023-24 costs were approximately $6500 in Salary and Benefits and approximately $300 in mileage, for a total of $6800 which were included in the departments FY 2023-24 budget resulting in no increase to the Net County Cost. The Friends of the Library purchased a one-year subscription ($1,349) of the online training course used. Future costs will be incorporated into the department’s annual budget.
CLERK OF THE BOARD FOLLOW UP ACTIONS
STRATEGIC PLAN COMPONENT
Workforce Excellence. Employee Development.
CONTACT
Bryce Lovell
Director of Library Services