Performance Evaluations with Andre Jones

Great topic and an excellent presenter.   

 Here is the to-do list that I walked away with:

1. Make sure the job description is up to date 
       (nope - last updated in 2009)

2. Develop a method for documenting employee performance 
     (Share good and bad feedback with the employee immediately, but also keep a folder for each employee with written notes/post-its/whatever of that verbal/written feedback.  Evaluations are much easier and less subjective when you have a documented year's worth of material to refer to.  Also very useful to have the employee share a monthly report of what they have accomplished to keep on file.)

3. Quarterly check-in on goals 
     (twice a year is good, but quarterly is better if you actually want to help the employee meet the goal!)

4. Tie job description to evaluation
     (makes sense - again, takes some of the subjectivity out of the process.  Keep in mind when the form asks about expectations, these are not the boss's expectations, they are the expectations of the job description.)



Marilyn Pontius articulated some of my other favorite bits very nicely.

 "I very much favor developing expectations in a dialog with the employees right away, paying particular attention to the “top three things you are responsible for”. Relating those top three things to job descriptions, performance, and to the bigger picture (the branch or department, and the library as a whole and its mission and goals) should make it easier to establish individual employee expectations and goals. I also really liked the idea of setting three major goals- one for the employee, one for the team (branch or department), and one for the library as a whole."

Reader's Advisory at the MLA Conference

The May 2013 MLA Conference featured a pre-conference on reader's advisory for genre readers, with some excellent ideas for helping people find books they'll like.  The focus in particular was on training library staff to do reader's advisory, which is often a bit intimidating for desk staff.

The presenters, Caroline Barlow and Leah Youse, of Cecil County, have created a wiki with lots of useful information: https://focusongenres.wiki.zoho.com/.   

One of the particularly useful parts of this session was a chance to brainstorm ideas for training activities - creative ways to get people thinking about a particular genre.  These are listed on the wiki at https://focusongenres.wiki.zoho.com/Participant-Ideas-for-Mystery-Training.html.

We also discussed several different genres and different types of audiences.  The discussion of African-American fiction was particularly useful for me, in pointing out a wide variety of popular genres besides urban or street lit.  For example, I was completely unfamiliar with the popularity of church-based romances focusing on members of the congregation and their relationships; some of these have a specifically religious focus and others are more typical romances.

I was particularly struck by the presenters' idea of creating an account for the library at goodreads.com, which would allow us to easily create (and link to) custom book lists for genres, read-alikes, and so on.

We discussed websites that are useful for genre RA, and particular strengths of each:

• likesbooks.com – reviews of romance – has good, specific details on degree of sexuality
• whichbook.net – good for tone, feeling, etc. rather than plot or genre; can specify characteristics with sliders
• allreaders.com – good for detailed search, very specific sub-genres; can search by characteristics of characters, plot
• whatshouldireadnext.com -  read-alikes generator - can be somewhat hit-or-miss
• cozymystery.com – good lists of thematic cozies
• stopyourekillingme.com – good indexing of mysteries

The presenters also assembled a very useful collection of links for further reading: https://focusongenres.wiki.zoho.com/HomePage.html  



-- Bill

Conducting Effective Performance Reviews

Presented by Andre Jones

5/20/13

This workshop was really interesting and informative -- the speaker held my attention the entire three hours!  The discussions were excellent.   The area where I felt I learned the most  was establishing performance expectations. Since I have worked with the same people for many years, we have developed an understanding over time of what is expected and now function smoothly. But this method wasn’t very efficient, and there were several bumps along the way. I very much favor developing expectations in a dialog with the employees right away, paying particular attention to the “top three things you are responsible for”. Relating those top three things to job descriptions, performance, and to the bigger picture (the branch or department, and the library as a whole and its mission and goals) should make it easier to establish individual employee expectations and goals. I also really liked the idea of setting three major goals- one for the employee, one for the team (branch or department), and one for the library as a whole. This will take some thought, but I'm sure it can be done for everyone and every job at WCFL. Touching base with employees on a more regular schedule regarding achieving those goals, and understanding what they need in order to be successful is very important.

The discussion of the performance appraisal itself has given me a method for assigning ratings in a more rigorous way. The WCFL Performance Management Form seems very cryptic and difficult to use. I have been using a form I found more suitable to branch operations to appraise more specific tasks and behaviors. Now I am beginning to see how the two forms relate to each other, and I’d like to take the time to analyze each one and map them together. I think it will make the rating scheme much easier to implement impartially and make the performance appraisal exercise more meaningful.    

Marilyn Pontius

 

Conducting Effective Performance Reviews

Andre Jones gave me a lot to think about when it comes to evaluating staff at my branch.:

• Clarifying the expectations of goals set and monitoring the progress toward the goals
• Keeping a coaching log/calendar instead of just continuing education lists
•  Rating errors

All of this will be helpful to me in future evaluations. I did notice that Mr. Jones and I don't score the same: I score sort of high and he scores low.

Conducting Effective Performance Reviews 2013

I now have a whole new approach to the way Performance Reviews should be done. I'm not sure I agree with everything Andre' suggested, but the majority of it made a lot of sense. We learned some really good tips on how to keep track of what employees are doing throughout the year. It is also very important for the employee to be responsible in keeping their own records. Overall this was a really good workshop. I learned a lot that I will use in the future.

Digitization Basics - New Jersey Collections Care Network

Attended by Elizabeth Howe on Tuesday, April 23, 2013

This workshop was presented by Thomas F.R. Clareson who is the Senior Consultant for Digital and Preservation Services at LYRASIS and Linda Langschied who is the Digital Projects Librarian at the Scholarly Communication Center, Rutgers University Libraries.  It was provided by the New Jersey State Library and the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts (with generous funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services).

So, I drove to WheatonArts in Millville, New Jersey, early in the morning for another amazing conference venue!  WheatonArts is a fun place to visit, especially if you like glass (see below).

To give you an idea of what this conference was about, here is the outline:

Tools you can use for scanning and quality control.
Hardware, software, and metadata.
Making practical planning decisions:  in-house or outsourcing.
Collaborative digitization.
Practical planning decisions for staffing and budgeting.

This was an excellent, fast-paced conference.  I learned much and was given a "book" of useful information to consult.

WheatonArts is a national cultural treasure. Located on 65 wooded acres in southern New Jersey, WheatonArts is home to the Museum of American Glass, the Creative Glass Center of America International Fellowship Program, the largest folklife center in the Garden State, a hot glass studio, several traditional craft studios, five museum stores, a 13,000 sq. ft. Event Center and a beautiful pond-side picnic grove - a true Pineland Sanctuary!

Social Media on a Shoestring Budget

Attended by Elizabeth Howe on Monday, April 22, 2013

This presentation, at the Frederick County Museum of History, was free, and was delivered by Michelle Kershner, Marketing and Communication Manager for Visit Frederick.

Michelle talked about being deliberate about what you share (or not).  Ask questions such as "Is this piece of news worthy of sharing on a social network?"  And, if so, "How can we make it relevant?"  For example, if the boss thinks his or her dental practice should share the fact that the accountant won an award, you might put up a photo of the accountant with a big smile and say, "Ann, our accountant, flashing her pearly whites, won an award. . ." to help fit the message in with the promotion of the business.

Besides having lots of practical ideas for how to use social media to promote your business, non profit, repository, museum, etc., Michelle introduced us to some new ideas and resources.  I didn't know about Hootsuite (and other sites) that will shorten URL's.  She also mentioned using Animoto (embedded video) for putting free short video clips on your site.

Michelle demonstrated how she put a photo on Visit Frederick's Facebook page and discovered someone used it in another place that gave greater exposure, and it was eventually picked up and used by CNN for an even wider audience.  Also, the City of Frederick won a "Prettiest Painted Place" award, and she showed how she used social media to spread around the positive publicity that came from that.