Library Department Report

october 2006

Staffing

· Interviews for the open Library Page position continued.

Facility

· No changes in the facility to report.

Professional Development & Meetings

· Meetings and workshops attended by professional staff included:

o Monthly Library Supervisors Meeting

o Monthly Staff Meeting for Librarians, Circulation Coordinators, Library Assistants & Materials Processors

o Monthly Staff Meeting for Library Pages – Mary Reed & Pamela Myers

o Lakeland Library Cooperative Continuing Education Committee Meeting – Pamela Myers & Mary Reed

o Lakeland Library Cooperative Circulation Forum – Pamela Myers

· Meetings and workshops attended by para-professional staff included:

o Lakeland Library Cooperative Circulation Forum – Leslie Garrison & Karen Jipping

Programming, Promotions, Publicity, Special Projects,

Departmental Activities, etc.

· October 02: 32º Club – Fall/Winter Adult Reading Program begins

o Registration as of October 31: 35 adults

o Registration continues until December 04

o Program runs until March 31, 2007

o Program sponsored by the Friends of the Library

· October 05: Genealogy Program for Adults

o Participants: 17 adults (registration was limited)

o Presenter: Shirley DeBoer

o Program sponsored by the Friends of the Library

· October 11: Book Discussion Group For Adults

o Book: Howards End by E. M. Forster

o Facilitators: Mary Reed and Candace Hulst

o Attendance: 15

· October 12: Genealogy Program for Adults – “Genealogy on the Internet”

o Attendance: 21 adults (registration was limited)

o Presenter: Pamela Lucas

o Program sponsored by the Friends of the Library

· October 24: “Capturing Ghosts” Program for Adults

o Presented by: West Michigan Ghost Hunters Society

o Attendance: 15

· Toddler (“Wee Ones”) and Preschool Fall Story Times

o A ten-week session of Story Time began the week of September 12.

o Detailed attendance statistics for Story Times held in October are provided below:

Date	Toddler Story Time	Toddler Story Time	Preschool Story Time	Preschool Story Time
	Children (Ages 1 ½ – 3)	Adults	Children (Ages 3 –5)	Adults
10/03	23	18	13	7
10/04	25	19	22	16
10/10	13	9	27	17
10/11	27	18	32	17
10/17	22	15	17	8
10/18	24	18	21	15
10/24	23	17	16	11
10/25	26	18	21	15
10/31	22	17	16	9
Totals	205	149	185	115
Average	23	17	21	13

· October 10 & October 11: Fire Prevention Week Programs

o Members from the Georgetown Township Fire Department visited the Library to promote fire safety. Firefighters visited a morning Story Time session each day and made a presentation. Firefighters offered participants the opportunity to explore one of the Township’s fire trucks and assorted firefighting equipment.

· October 14: “Bats Around the World” Program

o Presented by The Cranbrook Institute of Science

o The program featured live bats and a PowerPoint presentation

o Attendance: 34 children and 17 adults (registration was limited)

· Promotional materials (e.g., press releases) for fall programs and activities – Jill Reyers

· Youth Services displays (Fire Department’s visit October 10 & October 11 and featured author Eric Carle) – Jill Reyers & Sue Kirvan

· Lobby table display with books featuring a section of the Dewey Decimal System (“Do You Know Dewey?”) – Mary Reed

· Lobby table display of books for the Halloween and Thanksgiving holidays – Mary Reed

· Weeding of Adult Nonfiction 900’s continued – Susan Carlson

· Weeding of the Adult Nonfiction 100’s – Mary Reed

· Weeding of Romance Paperbacks – Pamela Myers

· Revision of categories in the Local History vertical file – Susan Carlson

· Patron database clean-up project – Pamela Myers

· Patron expiration date clean-up project – Pamela Myers

· Rework of collection codes, I-codes, I-types, cataloging and call number standards, etc. – Pamela Myers

Friends of the Library

· The Friends met on Monday, October 02.

Service & statistical information

Service and statistical information for the month of October 2006 is presented below.

	October	October	% Change	2006 YTD	2005 YTD	% Change YTD
	2006	2005	2005 - 2006 %			2005 - 2006
Circulation (Items)
Total Circulation	25,849	24,351	6.15%	288,051	278,717	3.35%
Check-Outs	22,851	22,067	3.55%	259,491	255,717	1.48%
Check-Ins	22,702	21,630	4.96%	250,109	247,577	1.02%

Interlibrary Loan (Items)
Loaned	2,998	2,284	31.26%	28,560	23,000	24.17%
Borrowed	3,494	2,851	22.55%	34,402	31,579	8.94%

Holds
Placed By Staff	1,035	830	24.70%	9,559	8,810	8.50%
Calls to Patrons (Min.)	1,805	1,563	15.48%	17,324	15,989	8.35%
# of E-mail Notices	1,331	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
# of E-mail Items	2,025	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
# of Telephone Notices	1,623	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
# of Telephone Items	2,117	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Traffic Count	11,312	11,494	-1.58%	126,915	125,621	1.03%

On a quarterly basis, statistics related to the number and types of reference transactions fielded by staff are compiled at the various service desks in the Library. Data collection for the current quarter was completed during the week of October 23 – October 28. In order to provide a basis for comparison, results from the previous year’s quarters are provided below as well.

	Completed	Directional	Reference	Total
Data Collection	Reference	Reference	Questions	Reference
Period	Questions	Questions	Not Completed	Transactions

2006
October 23 - 28	2,194	672	18	2,884
July 17 - 22	2,535	867	30	3,432
April 17 - 22	1,136	459	23	1,618
January 09 - 14	1,207	513	42	1,762

2005
October 17 - 22	1,127	561	35	1,723
July 25 - 30	1,416	537	14	1,967
July 18 - 23	1,121	400	25	1,546
April 11 - 16	1,481	915	12	2,408
January 10 - 15	1,182	708	30	1,920