Changes in Hours and Neighborhood Libraries

FYI,

Thuy
-----Original Message-----
From: VanCampen, Michael - HPL
To: HPL - NL & Express Managers; HPL - NL Managers
Cc: Benton, Suzy - HPL; Gill, Shammi - HPL; Melton, Edward - HPL; Wagoner, Mary - HPL; Anguiano, Yolanda - HPL
Sent: 4/1/2010 4:55 PM
Subject: Changes in Hours and Neighborhood Libraries

Greetings NL Managers,



As you learned from Dr. Lawson’s e-mail, public service hours at all HPL
locations will be reduced as of April 17, 2010. In light of these
impending changes, the Neighborhood Library administration team is
focusing their immediate efforts on working with you and your staff to
develop schedules and answer questions. Our hope is that the
information below will answer some of your questions and concern.
Please feel free to contact us with questions or issues or for
clarification of anything related to the change in hours.



First, we will address scheduling of staff. For most
locations (not including Regional locations and Stella Link), the
standard schedule for most staff will be as follows:

* Monday, Thursday – 10:15am-7:15pm
* Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday – 9:15am-6:15pm

Scheduling for the Regionals and Stella Link will require a bit more
thought and preparation. I will be working closely with the managers of
these locations on these schedules.



One good piece of news for Neighborhood Library staff is
that Central will be the only location open on Sundays as of the April
17th weekend. Central will not offer Sunday service as of the third
week of June. Until that point, the staffing rotation currently in
place at Central will remain. A revised Sunday work plan will be
developed before Sunday hours resume at the end of summer. This
schedule will most likely include staff from throughout Public Services.
If you or your staff has any suggestions for improving Sunday
scheduling, please submit them to me.



In addition, these changes in hours are allowing us to
redistribute security coverage. Since locations will be closed many of
the hours that they currently have security coverage, these hours will
be reallocated to different locations, which will allow for security
coverage to be available at more locations.



We also ask that you go through your meeting room
reservations and contact anyone whose reservation will be impacted by
these hour changes. As for programs that might be impacted by these
changes, please inform your assigned NL Interim Team Leader and we will
work on these issues.



If you or any of your staff are contacted by the media about
the reduction in service hours, remember to contact Sandra Fernandez
(31381) or Blanca Quezada (31382).



A significant portion of our Manager’s Meeting next Thursday
will be devoted to discussing these changes in service hours.
Neighborhood Library administration will be available to answer
questions and address concerns. If you would like to discuss this
subject sooner, you are more than welcome to call your NL Team Leader or
to join the managers currently scheduled to meet with me tomorrow at
Carnegie from 9:00 am to 10:30 am; I am more than happy to extend the
meeting as needed.



Thanks and have an outstanding day,



Mike VC





Mike Van Campen

Chief of Neighborhood Libraries

Houston Public Library

832.393.1371

Mobile: 713.303.1974

michael.vancampen@cityofhouston.net