Goodbye to Judie Cooper, LIA, Access Services, Circulation. She accepted a LIS II position with Extension & Agriculture Information.
Goodbye to Judie Cooper, LIA, Access Services, Circulation. She accepted a LIS II position with Extension & Agriculture Information.
Reversing the Ratchet: Basic Technology Adoption Strategies for Library Workers
Date: November 7th, 2008
Time: 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
Place: Library Instruction Room 1 (4G41)
Presenter: Steven Bell
This Web page features the following description as well as additional material:
Are you feeling more pressure in your library to keep up with the latest technologies?Library workers must constantly learn the latest techno-tweaks to their familiar information systems, but they also face ongoing tension from the expectation that every new technology must be applied to enhance library services. In a technology landscape where gadgets, gizmos, software and Web 2.0 innovations hit us at an ever accelerating pace, how do we successfully manage technology adoption in our libraries?
This Soaring to Excellence presentation addresses the challenge of the technology ratchet and how to keep it from tightening its grip on library workers. Steven Bell will share ideas and techniques for regaining control over library technology with an exploration of better ways to identify, adopt and leverage the technologies that make sense for us and that create a better library user experience for our communities. With the right attitude and approach every library worker can develop a personal professional development strategy for keeping pace with the technology curve.
Release time is available for this program with supervisor approval.
— Staff Development Committee
Amy Arnott, dean of UMSL libraries, passed away Tuesday, October 28. Amy had worked at UMSL for three decades, beginning as a student employee in 1978.
The MU Campus is moving forward on improving the process for recording and reporting hours worked and paid leave. The goals include eliminating paper-intensive processes, expediting leave time reporting, and eliminating areas where double data entry occurs.
Several options are available to departments for electronically recording hours worked. The MU Libraries will utilize the electronic time sheet method. Will this change how staff record time? Not really. Non-exempt employees will continue to enter their hours online and exempt employees will access an online ‘Monthly Absence Summary’ form. The change will be the next step – instead of printing out the time sheet or Summary form for signatures, they will be reviewed online by supervisors, corrections made if needed, and then sent on to Payroll for processing. The campus will provide training to supervisors, managers, fiscal officers, and HR staff regarding their role in the process and I’ll pass along dates/times/locations when that information is made available.The current, targeted implementation date for the new time processing method is sometime in 2009. I’ll keep you posted on developments.
Leo Agnew
HR Manager
A reminder that nominations are being solicited for the fall 2008 Student Excellence Award. The purpose of the award is to recognize those student assistants who are dedicated, creative, and/or industrious. Any student assistant employed in Ellis Library or in any of the branches is eligible for consideration. The recipient will receive a $25 gift certificate to the MU Bookstore. The award will be announced in November and will be presented to the student in his/her own department.
The nomination deadline is Friday, Nov. 7. Please forward nominations to Leo Agnew, 104 Ellis Library. The nomination form can be found here. In the event of multiple nominations, the ‘extra’ forms will be retained for consideration for the spring 2009 student award.
* Library Information Assistant – 100% FTE; Circulation Desk, Night Supervisor, Ellis Library. Work hours include Sun. either 12:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. or 4:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m. and Mon. – Thurs. either 2:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. or 3:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m. (to be finalized upon hire); some shifts will qualify for differential pay of $0.50/hr. Base pay of $9.05/hr.
Duties: Night supervisor at the Ellis Library Circulation/Reserve Desks. Responsible for functionally supervising several student workers at the circulation desk during evening hours. Reports to and coordinates with the Night Supervisor of the Circulation/Reserve Desks while working at night. Serve as a resource to both patrons and staff regarding circulation policies. Search for books which patrons and other library staff have been unable to locate in the Ellis Library. The full position description is available online.
This position requires some physical stamina and involves moving materials and related physical actions part of the workday. Must be able to transport books weighing up to 10 pounds as well as move fully loaded book trucks (at least 100 lbs.). Must able to stand and move about several hours during each day. Must be able to read call numbers on books located on shelves at ground level and up to nine feet in height and where lighting is diminished; ladders and footstools are available.
Minimum Qualifications: A high school diploma or an equivalent combination of education and experience from which comparable knowledge and abilities can be acquired is necessary. Six months of responsible office experience is necessary. Directly related education or training may be substituted for experience.
The ability to type may be necessary depending upon the position available.
Preferred Qualifications: Requires excellent telephone skills. Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to work productively and cooperatively with patrons and co-workers from a variety of backgrounds in a high-volume public service area. Good listening skills. Ability to explain issues clearly. Prior library work experience required. Supervisor experience is desired.
In April, Wayne Sanders attended training at the Library of Congress on creating series authority records. Following the training, we were assigned a reviewer who has been reviewing our work. Thanks to Wayne’s good work, we are now off review and are independent NACO series members. Being a NACO series member means that we can add series authority records to the OCLC authority database and our work can be used by libraries worldwide. The authority records provide assistance to our users in MERLIN, too, as the cross reference in an authority record demonstrates here: Title search: Occasional paper (Devon Archaeological Society). Congratulations are due to the MU Libraries, and especially to Wayne Sanders, for this achievement.
The following comment was recently submitted to the Gateway Suggestion Form:
“I don’t have any problems or complaints. I’ve been working on a research project for class and have found the online resources amazingly helpful. There have been very few journals or articles that I have not been able to access via the MU Libraries databases. So, thanks for making my job as a student, a little bit easier.”
Do you want to send a snapshot of how your computer screen looks to someone else? By hitting the “print screen” button a copy of what’s on your screen will go to the clipboard. You can paste the image into a word document, or even an Outlook e-mail. In order to send it by e-mail, keep in mind that the image can only be pasted into an e-mail if HTML is selected in the format menu.