WebJunction - Group: One Person Libraries

OPL Plus Blog

2009-03-16T16:29:53Z

Kudos to Judith A. Siess for her fine blogging at http://opls.blogspot.com/.

"OPL Plus (not just for OPLs anymore)...A blog for librarians in all smaller libraries, not just for one-person or solo librarians--all kinds of libraries, anywhere in the world. Management information, links, and marketing tips that you can use right now."

Welcome to the One Person Libraries group

2008-09-12T22:43:34Z

I’d like to welcome your group to WebJunction and point out some of the resources available in the Member Center.

Help and Support for FAQ, helpful discussions and ways to contact us.
Getting Started for a number of short intro videos on WJ tools.
A User Guide which includes details on groups.

Welcome again and please let us know if you have questions.

Re: One staff-person libraries?

2007-06-11T16:46:47Z

Hi-
Yes, the posting are a bit old but hopefully this will start to change as we make a push this summer to revitalize the "One-person Libraries" blog. So if you have a question, need some help with an issue at your library, please post and I will try to help with a timely reply.

I'm curious where in Texas is your library located, what is the size is the community you serve, and is your library part of a county-wide
system? Hope I haven't asked too many questions.
Michael

Re: One staff-person libraries?

2007-06-01T20:35:57Z

Hello, my name is Ms Loretta and I am the librarian in Noonday, Texas. I hope some of you are still out there, I sure could use a friend. Why are the postings so old?

Best Small Rural Library Award

2005-07-18T15:50:58Z

Hello all-

This was a post from the folks at Brooks Memorial Library about the "Best Small
and Rural Library Award." If you need additional information you can go to the "Library Journal"
web page at:

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA606273.html

Michael Roche
**********************************************************
Here is the Brooks Memorial email........

The deadline is swiftly approaching for the second annual Best Small Library in America Award, given by Library Journal and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (Haines Borough Public Library, Alaska, took the prize last

year.) You'll find the guidelines below. Please disseminate them to the libraries in your state as soon as possible, so they have time to submit. The deadline this year is November 1, 2005.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Regards,

Rebecca

Re: One staff-person libraries?

2007-01-16T12:52:14Z

Welcome, Jim.

I was rather surprised at the dates on this thread, but I suspect that many of us have limited time to spend at WJ or other extremely helpful sites as we try to dig our way through the cartons of donations, tally data, write reports, etc.
It is easy to feel overwhelmed at times. I am blessed with very understanding trustees. Since last summer I also have the occcassional "coerced volunteer", known in some circles as someone assigned community service hours through the justice system. When that happens, I specifically plan to work on cataloging & processing materials.
This summer I had a customer chide me for not clipping the rose bushes. Hadn't I ever watched the instructional videos we have on tending rose bushes? I finally handed him an old pair of scissors & suggested he trim them since they were bothering him. This month he wants to know why a clean desk wasn't at the top of my list of New Year's resolutions. I was tempted to introduce him to Vac-Man & Dirty Hairy (the vacuum cleaner & the duster), but I resisted. Gotta love 'em because if you don't, circulation falls.

Denise

Re: One staff-person libraries?

2007-01-04T01:52:10Z

Hi everyone -- I am in an interesting situation as, although there are between 15-20 librarians in the Bryant & Stratton College system, we are spread out in 1-2 person libraries over 15 campuses. The physical libraries in the Ohio market (3 campuses) are all about the size of a corporate library, but we share a virtual library and all have our own library portal connected to it. I find that I'm working with the Ohio librarians constantly and we do have group meetings once each year and teleconferences, so I don't feel that I am without peers at the college, yet I do have the experence of being the only librarian at the Cleveland Downtown campus. I do need to do a little bit of everything everyday, plus teach two information literacy classes each semester and share admissions testing responsibilities, so sometimes I do feel overwhelmed. For example, I have several cartons of books to catalog as they came in at the end of the semester when I was in a grading crunch. I'm finding that working in a one-person library is exciting though, as I also have a chance to interact daily with the faculty and students, and I am lucky that the faculty and administration at our campus are very supportive of the library.

Joe Dudley
Librarian, Bryant & Stratton College
Cleveland Downtown Campus

Re: hours and access

2006-08-10T11:25:19Z

A consistent schedule that people can remember is great. But closing the library at 5 pm every day except Monday and not being open on weekends means that people who work, pay taxes, and vote do not have many opportunities to use your library. Have you tried opening a little later in the day, say 10 am, and closing at 6 pm?
Marianne

Re: hours and access

2006-08-10T02:18:33Z

We are what I call smaller library - 3500 people. We have changed our hours to the following with GREAT success:
AM-9-8
T-F 9-5
We changed our hours after sitting on Saturdays with only two or three patrons.
We chose these hours in order to give students a chance to get to the library after extra-curricular practices--we found out that most teachers in our area give out assignments requiring library access on Mondays so it has worked well for us.
If we cut back on hours--the Monday nights would be the last to go.

Re: summer reading programs

2006-06-19T15:22:17Z

We are not a small library, but we have used the same incentive for our summer reading club for years and it is always a hit: Ice Cream! One of the locally owned ice cream shops donates coupons for a free cone when the kids turn in their reading logs. Something about free ice cream that seems to really work :-)

Re: summer reading programs

2006-06-19T14:49:57Z

busymom,
Thanks for sharing what you did last year. This year I'm adding a new touch, having a big poster with the outline of a castle (our theme is Medieval) and lots of stone blocks inside, the idea being that kids can color in a block for each book read. i thought they might like to see how it fills up, and it's easy. I'm also going to try keeping the reading logs at the library this year. At the end of the summer I'll let all kids who kept a log choose a trinket from my treasure box, whenever they do come in, even if it's not till fall...I don't yet have a steady stream of kid patrons.

Re: We use the Honor system for all of our media....

2006-05-04T19:11:47Z

Hi Genevieve-

There is one library in Vermont, the Davies Memorial Library that also works on the honor system. I think the major difference would be that it is only open
when the post office (which is attached to the building) is open. So although there is no one manning the desk there is still a feeling that there is someone near by that could help in the case of an emergency,

I agree that loss of materials will happen no matter what type of security system the library has in place and unless it become a serious problem just consider it part of the cost of running a library. My real concern, if I'm hearing you correctly, is that the library can be open to the public without any safeguards in place. I think you need to have some type of security system in to insure the safety not only of the building, materials and equipment, but also for the security of the public who use your library.

Michael

Re: We use the Honor system for all of our media....

2006-05-02T19:52:27Z

Thanks for the input. I had drawn up a letter to mail out to each household as a reminder. We are right along the lines of #1, 2 & 4. # 3 is idealistic and would probably work the best ....
As for taking the volunteer hours out of the grant, it is a major part of the grant and is required by the state. I personally like having it open outside of office hours... but I am not too fond of so many others with keys.

Thanks for your ideas, it all helps.

Genevieve

Re: We use the Honor system for all of our media....

2006-05-02T14:12:31Z

Genevieve,
In Oklahoma, we advise our librarians to not allow anyone into the library when it is officially closed. You really have no idea what people will do to the computers, to the books, to the building. I'm wondering how much of a loss you are showing and if settings on computers are getting changed or if viruses, etc. are getting put on your computers. If you have a board you might want to approach them with the idea of changing your grant to take away the volunteers getting into the library.
Linda Gens

Re: We use the Honor system for all of our media....

2006-05-02T12:53:36Z

Hmmmm... interesting

The concept of using the honor system is interesting. It relies on two items. 1. Trust in your community. Without this basic principle it absolutely doesn't work. 2. The understanding that there is a cost of doing business. You can't sweat the small stuff. Items go missing in monitored situations, I'd expect no differences in an honor system library.

What can you do??
1. Talk to your community and remind them that the system only works as long as EVERYONE agrees to abide by the rules.

2. Realize there is a cost of doing business and don't sweat it.

3. Hire a bunch more people. Change the locks. establish 'regular' hours that work for your community. In other words spend a bunch of money. [How does the cost of this option compare with just replacing the missing items??]

4. Post a list of materials that are missing. Realize that people may have inadvertently forgotten to check items out, or did not follow correct procedures. Remind them to bring the stuff back. This also lets your public know that their friends and neighbors have materials that they may want to read/use. Use peer pressure.

Those are the immediate options I see. Your particular situation will need to define your solution. I happen to believe in #2, myself with a healthy dose of #4.

Anyone else have ideas???

Good luck and keep us posted.

We use the Honor system for all of our media....

2006-05-01T22:20:33Z

Hello all, I am wondering if anyone can help me in finding a better or more structured policy than our "honor system" without going technical. Our Library serves a very small community of 200 and has patrons accessing it without staff here to ensure they follow the procedures and policies. We are on a complete 100% trust system and I am feeling that it is being misused.
The absolute ideal way would be that no one came in after hours, but as part of our grant we allow "volunteers" to open after hours and on weekends and several other people have keys. So with that I am not sure how to regulate people checking in and out our media. There are several books and movies not on the shelf that aren't checked out by anyone. If anyone has suggestions or ideas please let me know.
Thanks,
Genevieve

Re: summer reading programs

2005-12-30T00:46:39Z

We had a great summer reading program this year. We revamped everything. In the past i focused everything on Thursday, having 2 reading groups back-to back, with activities & snacks. A number of years ago, I had groups of 25 in teh younger crowd, but we had dwibndled to just about nothing. It didn't make sense to prepare for groups when no one came. This summer we had drop-in make-it-take-it crafts on Mondays. Thursdays I offered one story program with another activity. We tried reading for time with every 100 minutes earning a "library buck" that was redeemed in August. We opened this to adults & youth, this year. I had yard sale type items & small toys on the Sale Day. This seemed to be a big hit with everyone.

I went to our children's librarians conference this spring & got the courage to ask for a tent from a commercial donor. Much to my surprise they said yes! So we held story time in the tent & we had a drawing for it at the end of summer. It was a huge draw -- it was a huge tent!

I've already been scouting out parrot puppets for this coming summer's pirate theme!

Re: One staff-person libraries?

2005-12-14T20:15:19Z

Hello to other one person libraries! Actually I am a 1.35 FTE person library, but I think I still count. I love this job, but it can be a real challenge sometimes. Most of my decisions are off-the-cuff since I have not been a librarian for long. WebJunction, TechSoup, and the local Oklahoma Department of Libraries have all been very helpful. I look forward to hearing from other small libraries.

Antlers Public Library
antlerslibrary@antlers.lib.ok.us

Re: One staff-person libraries?

2005-12-13T21:38:26Z

I just found this forum. It is great.
I hope you don't think this is too commercial, but I have some resources that might be of use to you all.
My company, Information Bridges International, Inc., exists to help librarians in small and one-person libraries with management issues. I have 16 years of one-person library experience and 9 years experience as a publisher/editor/teacher/author in the library management field. Here are my various products. For more information on any of them--or on me--see my website: http://www.ibi-opl.com
The One-Person Library: A Newsletter for Librarians and Management, published monthly in print or electronically, cost $100 (print) or $69 (electronic).
Books:
The OPL Sourcebook: A Guide for Solo and Small Libraries, Information Today, Inc., 2001, ISBN 1-57387-111-7 , $40
The New OPL Sourcebook: A Guide for Solo and Small Libraries, Information Today, Inc., 2006--available in February 2006, $TBA
Time Management, Planning and Prioritization for Librarians, Scarecrow Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8108-4438-9, $30
The Visible Librarian: Asserting Your Value With Marketing and Advocacy, ALA Editions, 2003, ISBN 0-8389-0848-9, $34
The Essential OPL, 1998-2004: The Best of Seven Years of The One-Person Library: A Newsletter for Librarians and Management, Scarecrow Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8108-5429-5, $30

I also have done three workshops for OPLs, corresponding to some of my books:
Management Strategies for Small and Solo Libraries
Time Management for Small and Solo Libraries
The Visible Librarian: Marketing and Advocacy

If you are interested in any of my services, or just have a problem and want to "talk" with someone, just email me at jsiess@ibi-opl.com. I will even call you back and we can talk by phone on my nickel. There is no charge for this kind of help--I just hope I can be of some service. After all, I've been there myself and understand.

I'll keep checking this forum for comments and I hope to hear from some of you.l

Best wishes for Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year.

Judith Siess
Cleveland, Ohio
crowned as "Ms.OPL" by the father of one-person librarianship, and my predecessor as editor of The One-Person Library, Guy St. Clair

Re: One staff-person libraries?

2005-10-13T12:21:34Z

> I also run a one person Library, and am overwhelmed
> by donations.
> My primary problem is space, as there is no workroom
> for processing in my
> Library which leaves me with piles and piles
> everywhere. Very unsightlly.
> Any suggestions are welcome.

No Suggestions from me! We are overwhelmed with donations and there is no office in our small library space. Many of our donations are tattered and some are new paperbacks written by popular authors. I wondered if anyone catalogs paperbacks? My policy is to not catalog paperback donations, but then I see a paperback by Stephen Gould and I set it aside. When we sort through books for book sales, volunteers offer suggestions, "We don't have Stendal's "The Red & the Black" or "Robert Parker--should we really sell this?"

So I break my own rule on adding paperbacks and volunteers can get huffy, though this passes quickly generally. Hope to hear from others on donations.

Micki Ledden
Montgomery VT