Good Library Policies are a very important part of an effective public library, but it is hard for a busy library staff to give them the continuous attention that they need. The participants in the the 2009 Learning 2 Action Package on Policies had no difficulty locating policies that needed their creative attention. They expressed their appreciation for the programs taught by Bonnie McKewon, Sharon Moreland and Cathy Newland. At the end of the year, they posted their projects to the Library Policies page on WebJunction Kansas Continuing Education and received 15 contact hours of re-certification credit in the Certification Program for Kansas Library Administrators.
Hollis Helmeci, director of the Bradford Memorial Library in El Dorado, is in the middle of a major project that will take substantial time in 2010. She is working with other agencies in Butler County to create a community-wide disaster plan. More community organizations are joining the museums and colleges that joined the public library to begin planning for the community disaster plan. Hollis has promised to keep us posted on this exciting project.
Julie Hildebrand, the director of the Independence Public Library, is working with her staff on a comprehensive review of the library’s Policy Manual and Emergency Manual. The staff will make recommendations to the board for needed changes in library policies. The project will last about four months.
Mildred Dearden, at the Scott County Library, undertook a complete re-working and expansion of the Scott County Library’s Computer/Internet Use Policy. This is a very good sample policy that shows how these issues are handled at a small public library.
Alice Jones, at the Frankfort City Library, also did some work with technology and Internet policy, clarifying some of the patron behavior that is not acceptable to the library.
Both Rochelle Westerhaus of the Pratt Public Library and Mary Luehrs of Norton did comprehensive updates of their personnel policies. Rochelle admitted that it was past time for a major consideration of personnel policies. Mary actually called her project “You’re so Vague” and lost no time in developing specific policies that will help her library staff members know their rights and responsibilities.
Jenifer Trimble and the staff at the Coffey County Library decided that they were losing far too many materials from their branches. They adressed this problem with more careful policies for checkout, renewal, registration, overdues and lost materials. If these new policies are approved by the board in February, the library staff looks forward to cutting Coffey County’s loss rate by 50%.
Karen Gillihan decided that Goodland’s Collection Development Policy needed expansion since it did not effectively address all the formats that have become available and are being requested by the patrons. She also reviewed the policies for gifts and challenged materials.
We really enjoyed working with these Kansas librarians on the Learning 2 Action Package on Library Policies.
Independence Public Library
We have just completed our policy manual review and will continue with our Emergency Manual review. When it is complete they will be posted in our library and on our website.
Thank you for the wonderful information from the workshop, it was very helpful in our review.