Branch Visits:  East Central, St. Martin, Gautier and Pascagoula

JGRLS Meetings: in addition to any scheduled Regional Board meeting:

All Managers, regular update meetings with admin staff, Tech Team Meeting, Circ Committee, meeting with Stacie Zorn re. drug testing,

Community Meetings: CANDY board meeting and planning sessions for United Way budget hearing for CANDY, helped MP Rotary Club with bone marrow drive, and helped staff the JGRLS table at the Jackson County Fair.

Miscellaneous Other Activities

Attended phone conference on potential snack vendor for PG branch with Lori and Karen.

Attended Social Media in the Workplace workshop presented by Heidelberg, Steinberger, et al with Cindy and Stacey McElroy.

Other:

It’s been a while since I have done a narrative report to accompany all of the other parts that make up the monthly Director’s Report. There have been no complaints, so I know you all realize that the Director's Report is actually a report of the system's progress and activities over a month’s time to a large degree and represents the work of many folks.   JGRLS is blessed with staff that know how to "rock on" even during difficult times.

I want to take some space to thank the Regional Board for their support the last year as well. It's been a challenging year for me personally and we’ve had some very interesting challenges in our library operations as well. And yet, this year you all took up the banner and campaigned for increased library funding on your own initiative. I congratulate you for that and thank you for your efforts. We did see an increase in funding from Jackson County which covered our cost of living raise this year. Thankfully, that kept us from asking staff to go two years with no increase in salaries. I know we are fortunate in that and not all employers were able to provide this benefit to their employees. We have an exciting year ahead, as well:

- There is a new personnel policies and procedures manual coming soon in reaction to laws that change, board initiatives, and new policies and procedures enacted.

- Three staff members attended The Library Corporation conference and came back with new ideas on how to make better use of our integrated library system (ILS). We formed a Circulation Committee that will work in the year ahead to react to ILS changes, enhancements and features we aren't using now to make work flow better at our front desks. The eventual product of this committee will be the long awaited JGRLS Circulation Manual.

- We also formed a Customer Service Committee that will look at things that will make library visitors happier with our services. Recently they developed new policies on food and drink in the library. We expect other new ideas from them in the year ahead.

- We are planning our next Staff Development Day for spring, 2013 which will be led by our trainer, supported by others on JGRLS staff. Board members are welcome as well!

And that's just a little peak at the New Year ahead. I’ll write regularly and keep you posted on our progress.