Archive
The VC and council will have a meeting there. The archive is completed now and looks stunning. The auditorium part of the archives still needs to be closed off so that archive functions can continue while events there are taking place.
Decorators
Two decorators have been appointed to make the libraries look better.
So one of these days our libraries will be as modern as the two below:
Women's Day
The library will host a Women's day function again this year in August. The theme of this function will be "Beauty is skin deep". It will again be held at the Jhb country club. More info to follow.
HR
We are waiting for MEC approval for the position; Team Leader: ACQ
Interviews for the position of Director Client Services has taken place. In the meantime Charlotte Kunene will act in this position - she will be based at APK during her acting period.
Santha has been appointed as Campus Librarian APK. This leave a vacancy for campus librarian at APB.
Regarding KPA's please note the following:
- A score of three means that you are doing your job and doing it well, however at the end of the year staff who scored a three will not receive an additional bonus.
- The implication of this that for those who score above three, the bonus will be better.
- Line managers were reminded that in order for staff to score above three, solid motivation of excellent performance needs to be submitted.
We were also requested to remind staff that they must manage their leave well.
Course attendance: Any courses attended must be approved by the line manager. Courses to be attended must be in line of the current scope of work of the staff member. If not it must be well motivated and will be approved at the discretion of your line manager.
The process in our section is as follows:
- request approval from your line manager
- once your received approval, you yourself arrange for registration and cc your line manager with the correspondence.
Posting on social networking sites
Staff are reminded to be mindful of what they post on social networking sites. Discriminating remarks can be traced and may put you and the institution in an uncomfortable position.
Stocktaking and weeding
For the smaller campus libraries, this have been scheduled during the June-July recess, while for APK it will start towards the end of the year. Smaller libraries (APB, SWC & DFC) must finish stocktaking withing one year, while for APK it will be done over a two year period.
Move of information librarians
Information librarians will move to be closer to clients. In the case of APK there will be information librarians on each floor. This will be done in each library as soon as workstations are available.
Reading Corners
The reading corners are up and running on all campuses. ACPC provide campus librarians monthly with a list of titles from which they can order. Orders for magazines have been placed and we are waiting for delivery.
Designated spaces in libraries
All libraries have designated spaces for quiet and noisy areas as well as areas where students can use their cellphones. In most libraries, students can use the 24 hour study area should they want to eat and drink something.
Bualenna
This is to be used to share information relevant to the whole library. Info will be forwarded on a Friday. Should there be info that you would like to share with the rest of the library, please forward to me.
Open Day
This will take place from 10 - 11 May and is mostly applicable to client services staff. During this time client services staff will be easily identified and hand-outs on the library given to visitors.
Wellness day for library staff
This will take place on 20 June. There will be speakers and stalls available to assist staff if issues of health and personal finance. Staff are urgently requested to attend this event.
Newspapers
Apart from the e-newspapers, printed papers should also be available to staff and students. At APK the newspapers will be delivered every morning and taken to Dr Bawa. From there will be be available to staff in the tea room.
IT
Library IT is currently busy with the preparations for the implementation of the Sierra version of Innopac.
Preparations for WebBridge have started and some ACPC staff will be working with IT on this.
Investigations to integrate ECR with Blackboard has also started.
The university will be moving to a new anti-virus system.
An audit on log-ins and authorisations were done in April (thanks to the staff who assisted with this).
Space
Most campus libraries are busy sorting out and finalising space for the information and research commons.
All campus libraries currently have a 24 hour study area, except APB. This is being attended to.
Textbooks
The focus of the library is to supply information to students beyond the textbook. However, the textbook issue has been handed over to the library and in this regard we are doing our best to resolve this issue. Academic staff were requested to prescribed either and e-book or open source material. Thapelo is in process of following up with academic staff who did not comply.
We are also in discussions with Kalahari and TAKEALOT to publish the prescribed list on their websites for online buying.
Response to emails
At the e-strat meeting it was agreed that all emails will be responded to within 24 hours. Staff are requested to adhere to this. Should you still be attending to an issue, staff are to acknowledge receipt of the email and inform the client that the issue is being attended to and give a possible date of when it will be resolved.
IR
Staff in this department is currently working with two US partners in order to improve the UJ IR.
Bindery
This department is doing well with public binding, but is a bit behind schedule with internal binding. They will be moving to level 5 towards the middle of the year.
In closing........
