Chairs and Communication

Chairs
As of today, all of the chairs in room 2101 (Java City) have been reupholstered. As the budget permits I hope to be able to continue throughout the rest of the building. The new teleconferencing room and the renovated offices next to Sandy’s office will be using the new carpet pattern. Again, budget permitting, I hope to begin replacing carpeting little-by-little throughout the library over the next couple of years.

Communication
The Administration Team spent Friday, November 16 in a retreat to discuss strategic planning. One item that was discussed was communication within the library.
Over the last couple of years we’ve created these updates (and the blog version of the updates) and the “Breaks with Gary.” We distribute the minutes of the Administrative Team meetings and have six All Staff meetings a year. The new “evaluation of supervisors” procedures (which will be explained at the next All Staff meeting) are also a form of communication.
My sense is that we are doing as much as possible to promote “top-down” and “bottom-up” communication. (I may be wrong and am always open to suggestions on this.) However, I wonder if we have enough lateral or side-to-side communication between departments? As we move more toward the liaison librarian (or personal librarian in Phoenix) model, it will be important that the liaisons know what services are available in other library departments or what projects might be coming up. Likewise it will be important for others to know what the liaison/personal librarians are hearing in the Colleges. The same could be said for any two departments in the library. How can we improve this flow of information? Please post a comment on the blog with your thoughts, or send me an email. Thanks.