Employees – Page 4 – RPL Staff Intranet

RPL Intranet: Making Work Better

RPL employees recognize communications are always a challenge. How can we help over 35 employees keep current on what’s happening and maintain a positive learning curve across three floors, four service desks, and 60-64 hours per week? There is no single answer, but centralized content is one way to help capture and coalesce all this knowledge and experience!

We want to hear your feedback so we can keep improving this content. Please fill out this quick survey and let us know your thoughts (your answers will be anonymous).

Staff Activities

Please, mark your calendars for the following staff events for the remainder of 2023.

Date	Time	Activity
July 3	All Day	Summer Spirit Week – “Book Character Day” –dress like your favorite book character
July 5	All Day	Summer Spirit Week – “Hats and Sunnies” –try to look beach-ready, sunscreen-optional!
July 6	All Day	Summer Spirit Week – “BarbieWorld”–all things pink (or tropical if you are feeling Ken-ish)
July 7	All Day	Summer Spirit Week – “Sports Fans”–town, local, imaginary, whatever fan flag you wanna fly!
September 7	11:00-12:30	Staff Meeting: Safety
October 20	8:30-3:30	Staff Development Day
December 26	All Day	Winter Spirit Week
December 27	All Day	Winter Spirit Week
December 28	All Day	Winter Spirit Week
December 29	All Day	Winter Spirit Week

What do you need to know?

In our annual employee survey, YOU all asked for more “best practices” and how-to help. We already have a few suggestions, but what else would be helpful? Please make suggestions!

A best practice is a standard or set of guidelines to achieve the best outcomes in our work. These include:

Step-by-step guides: Detailed, sequential instructions for completing a specific task or operation
Checklists: A list of items to verify, inspect, or complete, ensuring consistency and thoroughness
Tutorials: Educational resources that guide users through a process, often including tips and best practices
Process maps, diagrams, or flowcharts: Visual representations of a process that display the sequence of steps, decision points, and possible outcomes
SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures): Formal, written instructions that outline how a specific task should be performed within an organization
Workflow documentation: Formal documentation that specifically focuses on operational aspects of a process, such as task sequences, interactions between roles or teams, and dependencies.

Staff Shout Outs

Are you ready for some shout-outs? If you’d like to submit a shout-out, fill out the form on the Forms page. Don’t be shy! Shout it out!

Shout out to Andrea H. for coming up with a new idea and solving a problem, Andrea is kickstarting a reclassification of the religion section to time and place, rather than religion. She has already begun with the lists of items. Kudos to Andrea for taking this initiative! From Michelle.

Shout out to Cate Z. for going above and beyond and exemplary customer service. Cate coordinated a book bike visit to Killam Elementary to meet and greet students who are part of RPS’ Multilingual Learners Department. Cate created several new library cards for students and biked over a mini library of English and Portuguese titles, many of which were requests from the kids. A message from one of the teachers: “The students loved meeting [Cate] and seeing her very cool book bike, and she helped them select good books and learn about the process.” Thanks, Cate, for bringing the joy of books all over Reading! From Ally.

Michelle has been a huge help with purchasing all the things we need to set up the Health Nook that has been months in the making. She quickly turned around several orders and really kept the process smooth and painless. From Ally.

Shout out to the Megan White for coming up with a new idea and leading by example. Megan led an inspired and inspiring group of tweens through the Roots and Shoots curriculum as part of her Citizen Kids series. As their final project, they all met in the Town Forest for a community clean-up with more than 30 friends! From Cate.

Shout out to Ally, Amy, and Kath GS for going above and beyond, helping a co-worker, and leading by example. Huge shout-out to Ally, Amy, and Kath for coming in on their days off to help with this Saturday’s Pride Storytime! It was a super-fun, low-key, safe, and happy event thanks to them! From Cate.

Shout out to Dina for keeping it positive. Thanks for making the second-floor staff bathroom so fun and fancy! I can always count on feel-good funnies and soapy aromatherapy! From Cate.

Shout out to Olivia for going above and beyond, leading by example and keeping it positive. Kudos to Olivia for this year’s super-fun summer reading program–the kids are going to love it! From Cate.

Staff Shout Outs

Are you ready for some shout-outs? If you’d like to submit a shout-out, fill out the form on the Forms page. Don’t be shy! Shout it out!

Shout out to everyone who has stepped up and jumped in to help over the last few weeks. With all the unexpected staff shortages you have shown what it means to help out a co-worker. Kudos!

Shout out to Cate for going above and beyond, exemplary customer service, and keeping it positive. Olivia covered Cate’s Toddler Storytime, and I don’t know how she does it! So much energy, and so much engagement, and she does it every week without a drop of sweat. So many families this week were excited for her to be back and complimented her on her engagement and friendly face. She’s a Toddler Time queen! From Olivia.

Shout out to Jamie for leading by example. Jamie has dealt with a couple of challenging Friday afternoon patrons recently which she acknowledges is part of her role as Head of Collection Services, but we still genuinely appreciate her willingness to step into those situations. Thank you! From Valerie, Suzy & Alissa

Shout out to Meaghan Clemente for coming up with a new idea, solving a problem, and keeping it positive. On a very busy afternoon, just before taxes were due, during vacation week, the 1st-floor printer was being cantankerous. Despite our efforts, we were not able to figure out the problem, until Meaghan came downstairs to take a look. She checked the manual, diagnosed, and solved the problem! Many many thanks, Meaghan!! From Suzy.

Shout out to Rebecca Bailey for going above and beyond, helping a co-worker, and keeping it positive. Over the past couple of months, Rebecca has eagerly helped cover the Ref Desk beyond her typical hours and has really been a huge support to the RR team. She’s also dived into new projects, supporting various team members with her careful attention to detail that makes us all feel more confident in what we’re working on. Thank you! From Ally.

Shout out to the Children’s Room Crew for helping a co-worker and keeping it positive. A HUGE thank you to my amazing coworkers who swooped in stepped up, smiled & carried on when I unexpectedly had to be out for a few days. (Including a Saturday with a full day of programming that I helped plan. Doh!) I felt supported and stress-free thanks to you all. From Ashley.

Staff Shout Outs

Are you ready for some shout-outs? If you’d like to submit a shout-out, fill out the form on the Forms page. Don’t be shy! Shout it out!

Shout out to Franny for going above and beyond, helping a co-worker, and keeping it positive. Franny is an amazing help to the Children’s Department, quickly stepping in to cover various nights, days and weekends for the department over the past few months, all while attending school. She quickly steps right in to help patrons and has provided the department with a lot of stability and peace. We are all very grateful to her for that. From Ally.

Shout out to Andrea H. for going above and beyond and helping a co-worker. Andrea went searching for a specific copy for a book I needed (a first edition from the 1970s) and after tireless emails and possible rejections, it finally came in! Thank you for becoming the Indiana Jones of ComCat requests so that me (and patrons) can get the books they desperately want/need. We appreciate you in Children’s! From Olivia.

Shout out to The Borrower Services Staff for going above and beyond and keeping it positive. Thank you to the Borrower Services staff for their patience and enthusiasm! Getting the lockers up and running has been a long, complicated journey, and the BoSer staff has been so patient and supportive. Now that we’re using them regularly (!), everyone has been so enthusiastic and so willing to learn everything they need to know to ensure that our patron’s experience of the lockers is great. You’re all truly fabulous! From Valerie.

Shout out to the RPL Staff for going above and beyond and keeping it positive. Thank you for such a warm welcome! I’ve had a fantastic first week because of all of you! From Dina.

Shout out to Dina for exemplary customer service and for keeping it positive. In her first two weeks, Dina has organized the CR desk, run programs, learned Evergreen, researched prizes for summer reading, embraced Canva, collected mentor texts, and so much more, all with an infectious laugh and a supportive heart! Shine on, Dina! From anonymous.

Shout out to Meaghan Clemente for keeping it positive. Meaghan has handled the paperwork for the Trustees’ meetings quickly and smoothly. We are very lucky to have her on our team. From Michelle.

Staff Meeting Slides

Thank you to those who were able to attend Thursday’s meeting. If you missed the meeting or would like to revisit some of the HUGE amount of info we squeezed into one hour, please download the slides.

Patron asking for something to be read over the phone… Don’t do it

A male patron is asking for library staff to read the Bill of Rights or other documents over the phone because their internet provider is “not working.” This patron has called here and other libraries in the past for the same reason. They are being inappropriate.

This patron is currently asking for Kathleen W. DO NOT forward this patron to her or say that she is available.

Do not give your name and do not read it for them. Forward to a supervisor if needed. Edited by Michelle to add: Hanging up IS an option.

Staff Shout Outs

Are you ready for some shout-outs? If you’d like to submit a shout-out, fill out the form on the Forms page. Don’t be shy! Shout it out!

Shout out to Carol for going above and beyond. Carol tidied up all the shelving for the Foundation event and was very helpful in making the library look wonderful for our donors. Thanks Carol! From Michelle

Shout out to Michelle for helping a co-worker/solving a problem. For fixing the heat in the Staff Lounge and making it toasty again! From anonymous.

Shout out to Cate, Ashley, Ally, Megan, Kath and Franny for helping a co-worker and keeping it positive. Thank you to everyone who covered for me the week of Valentine’s Day! I really appreciate the ability to not be worried about work with so much other stuff going on, and that’s a testament to having coworkers who have your back. Thank you all so much. A special shout out to Cate for covering my storytime and having the kids making hilariously large hats. From Olivia. p.s. Those hats were so amazing.

Staff Shout Outs

Are you ready for some shout-outs? If you’d like to submit a shout-out, fill out the form on the Forms page. Don’t be shy! Shout it out!

Shout out to Kathleen Wilcox for going above and beyond, solving a problem, and keeping it positive, Kathleen cheerfully dealt with alarms, locked doors,
Facilities voicemail, and other snafus first thing on a Saturday morning! From Cate

Shout out to Cate, Ally, Amy, Andrea, and Jamie for going above and beyond, helping a co-worker, leading by example, exemplary customer service, solving a problem and keeping it positive. Thank you to the Leadership team for being in the building during Saturday’s storytime. It was wonderful to have that support and to know that we had people who could jump in when needed. We really appreciate all the hard work and patience required to be that barrier for staff. Thank you! From anonymous.

Shout out to Lisa R., Meghan M., and Andrea H. for going above and beyond. This team put together an amazing, inviting, uber-cool plan for our new tween space! Can’t wait to see all of their amazing ideas IRL! From Cate.

Shout out to Kathleen Wilcox for leading by example and for exemplary customer service. We find Kathleen to be an irresistibly cheerful and upbeat problem solver: when we bring patrons to her with questions WE don’t know the answer to [“Why does this patron’s card not work?” “What are those squishy things near the Healing Kits?”], everyone ends up happy. Such a pleasure to work with her. From Kathy and Susanne.

Shout out to Olivia and Ashley for their work with the American Library Association Youth Media Awards. Olivia served on the Notable Children’s Books Committee, and Ashley served on the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award Committee. This work required them to evaluate and read over 3,500 books over a period of a year. We are so lucky to have them on our team. Check out the pdf of the award-winning titles here. So proud! From Michelle.