Graphics Department: During the month of July, content was edited, content was added, and navigation changes were made. The changes made include:

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1 Board Meeting of August 11, 2009 Departmental Reports Associate Director, Kathy Wicks July Events:/Meetings: Thursday, July 2 Graphics Department Meeting Saturday, July 4 Urbana Market at the Square Tuesday, July 7 Mortenson Center Presentation Saturday, July 11-Monday, July 13 American Library Association Conference Graphics Department: During the month of July, content was edited, content was added, and navigation changes were made. The changes made include: Content updates and additions to the Adult Services Ask a Librarian page. Label changes to the Adult Services navigation, including a change in the name of the staff blog. Jennie Grace is also working on an updated logo for the blog. The addition of a For Seniors page and related content for the Adult Services section of the website. Content updates to the Adult Services Notaries Public page to reflect recent state law changes and subsequent library procedures. We are receiving less and less comments about the redesigned website. There was one received during the month of July, and three in the past week. Illinois Public Library Annual Report 2009: The 2009 IPLAR was completed and submitted on July 22, 2009 (way ahead of the July 31 deadline). Many thanks to Deb, Becky, and all other staff who completed the compiling of fiscal year 2009 statistics which aided in making this feat possible Per Capita: As part of the requirements for the 2011 Per Capita Grant, the library must develop and attach to the grant form a plan for ongoing building maintenance, replacement and repairs. As per the Illinois State Library s Per Capita FAQ page, the building maintenance, replacement and repairs plan might address such things as torn/worn carpeting, aging furniture, loose banister/railings, drafty windows, chipped paint, aging roof, gutters, cracked/broken walkways, landscaping, air conditioner, or furnace. Other areas that could be addressed/added to the plan might include the elevator and porch. The State Library also indicates in the FAQs that it is ultimately up to the library director and library board to determine how the plan should be developed and what should be included. A proposed library building maintenance, replacement and repair plan will be drafted and included in the September 2009 board packet.

2 Library Promotion: The library s Facebook page is now at 485 fans as of August 3, As of June 2, the library s Twitter page had 149 followers. On Thursday, July 23, a News-Gazette intern from the University of Illinois Department of Journalism came to conduct an interview about the library s use of Twitter. They were interviewing staff at both The Urbana Free Library and the Champaign Library. During July, there were two promotional stories that featured The Urbana Free Library, which staff brought to my attention. The website, the217.com (described as the source for the most relevant, up-to-date information on everything going on in Champaign-Urbana) did a fantastic job on a story about the library s summer reading program. The piece provided an overview of the program - how it helps to get kids excited about reading and aids in continuing the development of reading skills during the summer months. The other promotional piece was a News-Gazette slideshow about the library s Read to the Dogs program. Becky Mabry, the new Features Editor of the News-Gazette, approached the library with the possibility of someone on the library staff providing content for a weekly or every other week column about new books. The News-Gazette is trying to re-energize their Sunday Books page. Anne Phillips of Adult Services was willing to take on the task and will be writing a 500 to 600-word piece every other week. American Library Association Conference: I was provided the opportunity to attend the 2009 ALA Conference in Chicago during the month of July. This year s conference had timely session topics, many related to technology and advocacy. Sessions attended: Life after Library 2.0 Diversity Outreach Fair Partnering with Service Organizations Wiki: The Ultimate Collaboration Tool Summer Reading Online! The Five Principles of Good Design: Promote and Present with Style Not-So-Silent Partners: Libraries and Local Economic Development The expo, as usual, was the most intriguing portion of the conference, as it provides the opportunity to speak with all vendors related to library services and view all of their products. I spent time speaking with Evanced Solutions (library calendar) to troubleshoot a problem with the library s Room Reserve module, Tutor.com (online learning database) to pick up some promotional ideas and view a list of upcoming staff webinars, and OverDrive (MyMediaMall) to check on pricing for a library download station. Staff Training: During August and September, library staff will have the ability to attend several free webinars for Gale products, OverDrive (MyMediaMall), and Tutor.com. Building and Grounds: Custodial staff have been spending time removing gum from the walkways and entries of the library. JPE, Inc. is currently working on cleaning the carpet in some of the high traffic areas of the library (the main floor area from the coffee shop to the west end of the circulation desk). A series of syrup spills in the coffee shop area have created some carpet cleaning issues that are time-consuming to resolve.

3 JPE, Inc. also cleaned the tile in the lower and upper lobby of the Green Street entrance, the stairs between the first and second floors, and the ground floor north hallway outside the auditorium restrooms. Currently, JPE, Inc. has been cleaning the high traffic areas of the carpet four times per year, rotating other areas as needed. Out of concern for cleanliness, appearance of the library, and extending the life of the carpet, I have asked James to draft a carpet-cleaning proposal. Specifically, based on his expertise, I have asked him to provide an overview of which areas of the library need to be cleaned more often, how many times per year, and the cost. David Burns, hourly custodian will be reducing his hours beginning with the UIUC fall semester. He will continue working the Sunday evening timeslot and substitute as needed. Greg Beard, shelver and hourly custodian, will pick up the remainder of David s timeslots. A mandatory custodial meeting is scheduled for Friday evening, September 11. Acquisitions, Keran Harrington Projects I worked with Susan Peters to create a new Exploration Kit for Healthy Habits for Life. The resources for the kit were provided by WILL. Lisa Wilson is working on a project for the Children s DVD collection. Barb Lintner is changing the call numbers on approximately 80 items. This necessitates not only a change in Horizon but physically handling the items, selection cards, and plastic sleeves in the public selection catalogs. Brian Robertson and I met with the DEMCO Corporation at the American Library Association Conference and then I worked with them to resolve our CD/DVD case quality problems. Volunteers 4.0 volunteer hours were recorded in July. Tanethia Leshoure, our Student Youth Employment worker will be with us through August 14. She has been a quick learner and has done a good job on her assigned tasks. We have had attendance problems with her due to her unreliable childcare arrangements. Training Brian Robertson visited the Champaign Public Library and met with clerks Betty Spiro and Laura Kenny. His goal was to observe the Horizon Acquisitions module is use. Miscellaneous Brian Robertson and I attended the exhibits at ALA-Chicago. I conducted an overview and acquisitions department tour for Adult Services practicum student, Hannah Lee. As part of the Administrative team, I presented an Acquisitions Department overview for The Mortenson Center visiting librarians.

4 I worked with Heather Sinclair to design a UMS/ UHS book drop flyer to be distributed at school registration during the first week of August. Information Technology, Pat Clifford The correct monitors to replace the incorrect monitors shipped from Dell arrived. They were installed on all the Adult Services staff desk and service desk workstations, except for the desk of John Dunkelberger, who already has an appropriate monitor. The additional monitor was placed in Archives on one of the public workstations. Seven of the eleven 17-inch monitors that were freed up by installing the new monitors in Adult Services were installed on computers in the Adult Public Computer Lab. These replaced the scattered 15-inch monitors that were currently in use in the lab. As a result, all of the computers in the lab, with the exception of the Express workstations, now have 17-inch monitors available on them. Configured and installed four brand new computers in the Adult Public Computer Lab. These were Internet workstations 19, 20, 21 and 22. Four of the eleven 17-inch monitors freed up from Adult Services were installed at these workstations. Additional memory has been ordered for the first batch of computers that were freed up because of the installation of new machines for the Adult Services staff. When the new memory is added, the replaced computers will replace even older computers that are in use by the staff elsewhere in the building. This "trickle down" will continue until the oldest machines are no longer in use. I expect the first wave of replacements to begin within the week. Installed a new large document scanner and configured a computer and scanner for use on one of the Archives public workstations I met with the Staff Technology Committee on July 2, I have added a number of media files to Local History Online as the Archives have been providing them. No programming changes were required this month to support anything new. During the month of July, there were a number of patron incidents that required investigation using the of the security camera videos. Along with Deb Lissak and Mary Towner, I tested the new PC Reservation master console setup that will allow the Adult Services Public Computer Lab to use library card numbers to validate users to reserve and use the workstations in the lab. The test went smoothly with only minor glitches that were easily corrected. The tentative plan is to implement the new setup on August 16 to give time to post notices to patrons that the switch is coming and to allow Adult Services and Circulation Services to iron out new procedures.

5 Adult Services, John Dunkelberger In July staff had 6,465 patron interactions reference questions, placing holds, and dealing with the computer lab. The computers had 8,657 log-ins, for a total of 6,824 hours. We have had two excellent practicum students this summer: Angela Fortin and Hannah Lee. The Wii Wednesdays have averaged 10 teens at each session; Alt Flicks had 32 attend the 3 movies; a teen group, Peer Ambassadors, had 11 for a tour of the library and worked on a project; we gave a tour to a visiting librarian from Germany and I presented a Reference Department overview for the visiting Chinese librarians from the Mortenson Center, who were still asking questions as they walked out the door; UFL Reads! had 7 attend and UFLive! had 50. The teen summer reading program has 116 signed up with 59 already completing their first 6 books for the gift certificate; over 30 have turned in multiple cards, which is the best percent ever for those doing the program. Anne Phillips and Carol Inskeep attended ALA in Chicago; Mary Towner visited Prairie Winds library to help their volunteer librarian organize their new library and also did her monthly visit to Clark Lindsey Village to issue library cards and give catalog training; we had staff at La Prensa Expo, but they were in agreement it was not beneficial for the library to attend most attendees were not from Urbana-Champaign; Mary Towner took part in the Handheld Librarian Online Conference; Anne Phillips and Mary Towner were interviewed by students in the GSLIS LEEP Adult Public Services class; Carol Inskeep was interviewed by a Campus Middle School teacher. Anne Phillips will be writing a bi-weekly column for the News-Gazette s book page as they try to bring more local content to the newspaper. The computer lab will switch to using library cards or computer-use only cards on August 16; Adult Services staff have input over 18,700 patrons since we added PC Res!! We are ecstatic about the change, since Circulation Services will now issue the cards. Children s Services, Barb Lintner Statistics We continued to be extremely busy in July. Reference activity totaled 4,498 this year as compared to 3,775 in July Most notably even in the summer with no homework, direct reference questions increased from 823 to people attended 37 children s programs in July 2009 as compared to 1086 at 35 programs in July There was also an increase in the number of groups visiting the library this July for summer reading sign-up, tours, and programs; 14 groups as compared to 6 last year. Summer Reading Our numbers this year are the highest we have ever had. We presently have 943 children enrolled, 121 more than last year at this time. We have ordered many books to give out as prizes from funds supplied by The Friends of the Urbana Free Library. The Read to Me program is booming with the addition of a book for the preschooler and a Latte Da coupon for the reader, usually a parent.

6 Computer and Internet Use Computer game terminal use increased from 552 in 2008 to 814 in Internet use by children was steady at about 550 sessions. Our two parent internet terminals logged 441 sessions in July 2009 as compared to 439 in July 2007 when we started counting statistics. Although the numbers have not changed much, the current use has required more staff intervention as people are often applying for jobs or doing Parkland homework online instead of just checking . Volunteers We had 45 hours of volunteer work contributed to the department. Our two main volunteers this month worked exceptionally hard keeping all those summer reading logs in order, cutting up stickers, shelving board books, keeping magazines in order, and reorganizing the toy collection. Professional Activity and Outreach Elaine Bearden, Lynn Harmon, Barb Lintner, and Rachel Vellenga attended ALA and enjoyed excellent programs and speakers. Barb attended a meeting of CU Fit Families, a group of 60 local organizations interested in Childhood Obesity and Lynn went to La Prensa Expo. Champaign County Historical Archives, Anke Voss Archives Users: 357 Reference Questions: 857 (Other: 181) Volunteer Hours: 161 ½ NOTES ABOUT STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS On the 2 nd, Anke Voss met with Vanessa Rouillon, a PhD student in English at the University of Illinois, who is conducting a community history of Bethel Church and the Lyceum movement in the local African-American community. Vanessa will work with us to transfer products of her research, including oral histories to the Archives. On the 7 th, Anke Voss attended the monthly meeting of the Lincoln Exhibits Committee, of which she is a member. The permanent exhibit: Abraham Lincoln: A Large Presence in a Small Town, will open to the public on August 29, On the 9th, Anke Voss attended the monthly meeting of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, of which she is a member. The monthly meeting of the Champaign County Genealogical Society was held on the 14 th. 18 attended. The Archives monthly research night was held on the 15 th. Research nights are held on the second Wednesday of the month. 6 attended. On the 16 th, Anke Voss met with GSLIS Practicum student, Hannah Lee, for an introduction and tour of the Archives.

7 On the 22 nd, Anke Voss and Deb Lissak met with the Champaign County Administrator, Deb Busey, to present our annual funding request for the Archives. On the 24 th, Anke Voss met with Darrell Hoemann, photo editor of The News-Gazette, to discuss transfer of ownership of the photographic content (print and negatives) currently held by us, to the Champaign County Historical Archives. (As August 5, with the consent of John Foreman, editor and publisher, The News-Gazette has agreed to take steps to formally transfer ownership of the records to TUFL, transfer to us storage copies of future digital content, and grant us permission to mount images in digital collections intended for research and personal use. I am currently working with the NG and their legal counsel to draw up the deed-of-gift). On the 30 th, Anke Voss met with Ellen Swain, Archivist/Director of the Student Life and Culture Program, at the University of Illinois, to finalize a survey tool which we intend to distribute on behalf of the Champaign County Oral History Board, which we recently organized. NEWS ABOUT COLLECTIONS & PROJECTS LSTA Digital Grant Grant activity has formally concluded and all grant funds ($19,934) have been spent. Because of delay in the delivery of the final products (digital files) from the vendor, Northern Micrographics, Archives staff and Graduate Assistants, Steve McCauley and Paul Butler will be working on some fine-tuning of the collection over the next months. Our developing collection can be seen at: LOCAL HISTORY ONLINE The overall size of Local History Online is 634,751 documents, and 3,695,578 indexing attributes. Genealogical and Historical database 2,183 document numbers and 12,218 indexing attributes were added in June. Total documents indexed stands at 570,951 while total indexing attributes assigned is 3,206,361. No new series was added this month. There are 264 completed series, 30 on-going projects, 28 series being completed, 9 suspended series, 1 test series, and 1 halted series for a total 328 series in the database. The current size of all files comprising the Local History database is 469 megabytes. Urbana Municipal Documents database The Urbana Municipal Documents index totals remain at 63,800 documents indexed and 489,217 indexing attributes assigned.

8 Circulation Services, Dawn Cassady July Activities 1. The new hourly Circulation clerks I mentioned in last month s report Beth Yendrek and Emily Swann started in July and are now trained and taking regular hours at the desk. In last month s report I also mentioned that shelver supervisor Eleanore Brown would be hiring some additional shelvers in July. Devin Fredrickson and Barb Henigman were hired and are now on staff. A couple more shelvers most likely will be added during August to fill in some scheduling gaps. 2. We implemented the thermal receipt printers at each Circ workstation and are very happy with the results. The Hold Shelf is easier to read, and the speed with which we can check in bags from Lincoln Trail is quite a bit faster. Definitely was worth the investment! 3. We began to send pre-overdue or courtesy notices every morning as part of our opening routine. With the Horizon upgrade in April, patron records containing addresses default to receiving preoverdue notices 48 hours before their materials are due. If patrons don t wish to receive pre-overdue notices, they simply have to mention it and we can easily deselect that option in their records. So far, patron response has been positive with few opt-outs. An added benefit is that we are catching more invalid addresses than we did previously. We are averaging pre-overdue notices sent per day. 4. Circ is preparing to take over the issuing of computer-use-only/non-circulating cards from Adult Reference in August. Circ has a finalized procedure in place and are just waiting for the cards themselves to be printed before proceeding. I attended the Adult Reference staff meeting on 7/31 to present our procedure and get their feedback, and have given feedback on Adult Reference s draft procedure for their department. 5. We began to implement follow-up training sessions for recent clerks. Because there is so much information and procedures for clerks to remember, I have followed up on a staff suggestion to sit down with newish circ clerks and go over the items on their initial training checklist again to see whether or not they know various procedures/policies/what-do-you-do-if situations. The first such follow-up session was held in July, and was quite successful both in terms of clarifying things she was confused about and reiterating policies. I think these sessions will be helpful in solidifying clerks knowledge and cutting down on their error rates. 6. Until July, the mammoth Circ procedures manual was only in paper and in a three-ring binder. Similarly, the net taxing values and fee tables for the non-resident cards only were available in print. This month I created PDFs of all relevant procedures and non-resident card information and linked them on our Circ Resources page a webpage available at each Circ workstation. Clerks are now able to access the information quickly and without having to leave the desk to retrieve the binder. I also have included a link to a list of all LTLS libraries that includes their phone numbers and hours, and a direct link to the UFL online calendar. Clerks will be able to use these resources to answer questions for patrons more efficiently and effectively. 7. There were seven outreach opportunities in July 2009: a. Market at the Square (July 4) b. Neighborhood Nights (July 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29)

9 c. La Prensa Expo (July 26) 8. Door count for July 2009 = 43, Library card statistics for July 2009 a. 318 new cards issued b. 313 renewals c. Total = 631