Vote!

Yes, the political campaigning is over, however there's one more election left in November. You may have noticed our officer list has been updated over on the right side of your screen, and you may have noticed that some of the positions are vacant. That's where you, the OLA Support Staff Members come in: the ballot for open positions can be found here, so go vote!

Yo ho ho and a bottle of... water

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In response to my last post on ergonomics (for your eyes), I received an email from the folks at complianceandsafety.com with a nice little note saying we can use any information on their site because "We want it to help as many people as possible." They sent me a link for Office Safety Tips, which are not library specific, but I'm sure some of us in libraries work in offices, right?

The one thing that really jumped out at me that I haven't seen in any ergonomics presentations before was the command to "Stay hydrated".  Good advice!  Which got me thinking about the water bottle I always have close at hand at my job in a public library, which got me thinking about food and drink in libraries in general and situations where that is and isn't allowed.  I've had retail jobs where employees were not allowed to drink on the sales floor because of the image it presented, and I remember being thirsty for a good part of the time.  I would imagine that it is a no-no for people that work in archiving situations, but what about other libraries?  When I tell patrons they are welcome to bring food in to the library, I get looks of disbelief and a repeat of the question with a "really?" attached to it.  Was there a time when it was not ok to bring food and drink into a public library that has lingered in the mind of the collective? I would imagine it was when "shushing" was still really prevalent. Which may or may not show my age.

So what's the verdict: Does your library allow you to have food and drink in the building? How do you stay properly hydrated at work?

Quick Ergonomics tip for your eyes - 20/20/20

If you sit at a computer screen for any amount of time, this is a handy way to easily relax your eyes, and potentially save your eyesight.

Remember 20/20/20:  Look 20 feet away, every 20 minutes for 20 seconds.

Now you just need to figure out how to estimate what in your library is 20 feet away. :)

The National PAC for libraries - Help fund library campaigns in the US!

You may have received this message from Turner Masland through the libs-or mailing list, if not, here is a neat way to help out libraries around the country. And as of this post, Oregon has climbed to #4 in the fund-raising totals with $250!

"Hopefully by now you have all heard of EveryLibrary - a start up National PAC whose mission is to build financial and tactical support to ensure that local library initiatives pass at the ballot box.

EveryLibrary is attempting to raise $50,000 by November 7th. This money will be used to (A) Fundraise nationally to transfer "seed money" to local ballot committees and PACs; (B) Hire great campaign consultants to make sure we do voter outreach and education right; and (C) Fund full time staff to keep the PAC engine growing for future success.

In an attempt to hit this goal by election day, (founder)John Chrastka has put forth a challenge to every state to raise $1,000. Here are how the top six states are doing so far:

NY - $1185
NJ - $700
CA - $255
CO - $145
TX - $125
OR - $110

Oregon is still in it to win it! We are only $890 short. Which means, if 89 people each threw in $10, we could hit $1000 in no time
.
Donating can be done online here: http://tinyurl.com/OR4ELPAC
 
You can also follow our progress on Facebook and Twitter.

If you haven't already, be sure to read John's great article over at American Libraries."

Ouch! Ergonomics for (not just) library shelving

Hi, Rebecca here. I'm the person behind the blog for the SSD and will be occasionally blogging about library ergonomics, as it's something of a personal interest of mine.  I'm by no means an expert, so will be relying extensively on what I find on the web.

There is a really great guide of do's and don'ts for library shelving from the folks in Environmental Health & Radiation(!) Safety at the University of Pennsylvania.  It is a MS PowerPoint document.  If you don't have PowerPoint on your computer, you can look at it through Google Docs Viewer.

Did you know:
"Pinch grip strength is approximately 25% of the strength of using the whole hand, increasing the risk of wrist injury." After thinking about it, it makes sense that using your thumb and only 1/4 of your fingers would be 25% of your hand strength!

Remember to shift between using your right and left sides for shelving.  It can be difficult to get  used to using your non-dominant hand, but that has the added benefit of slowing you down (for a little while anyway) and decreasing your chance for injury even further.

There's a handy chart with the maximum weights for shelving tasks based on starting and ending points.  My only further question is how many items does that translate to?  Books are deceptively heavy.

When you don't lift with your knees, guess how much 10 pounds feels like in your back.  


So my questions to you, dear readers, are: what is your favorite alternative to the "pinch grip"?  What stretches do you use at work, if any?  Will you start stretching after reading this?  Do you know how much what you shelve weighs?

5 Tips for Providing Great Customer Service To Your Coworkers

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Jennifer Steward, Circulation Analyst for Multnomah County Libraries, is with us again to give us her expertise in customer service.  You may have seen her excellent presentation with Patti Vincent at our recent Gateways Conference.  We hope to make this a regular feature.  Welcome, Jennifer!

 

Five ways to give awesome internal customer service in your library by using your excellent public service skills:

• Set a pleasant and professional tone.

It is surprising how much one person's calm and helpful tone elevates the whole conversation. If you smile, you will probably get a smile back.

• Be as courteous. 

As with family, it can be easy to fall into comfortable shortcuts and forget please, thank you, etc. with coworkers. Why would you be less courteous to the people on your team than you would to a stranger?

• Use your good communication skills -- listen(!), ask questions and summarize to reach understanding.

Before you dismiss a coworker's suggestion, use your interview skills to figure out what is important to this person and how you might be able to meet her need or at least find an acceptable compromise.

• Keep an eye out for people who need help.

This works in both in public and staff areas. If a coworker is having a difficult interaction, stand by and let him know you are paying attention. If someone is struggling with a task, offer to help out. Always ask if you can help first -- or just ask if everything is OK -- in case he has it under control.

• Be a reliable source of information.

Library staff pride themselves on giving only quality information from a credible source to patrons. Why would you or your coworkers deserve less? Before you pass on the latest gossip, make sure your information is true -- and kind.

Look at your library. Now look at mine.

A brilliant video from the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young: You can easily get sucked down the YouTube path to more library videos - what are your favorites?