279829 WHITE - CITV CLERK COUIICII �
PINK - FINANCE GITY OF SAINT PAUL
CANARY - DEPARTMENT
BLUE - MAVOR � F]le NO. ����
Council Resolution
.
Presented By ��
Referred To Committee: Date
Out of Committee By Date
WI�tEAS, The Mayor pursuant to Section 10.07.1 of the Charter of the City of Saint Paul, does
certify that there are available for appropriation total revenues in excess of those estimated
in the 1983 budget; and
VJf�'.REAS, Council File 277510, adopted October l, 1981, did establish certain S�ecial Fti,uzd
Policies; and
WI�tEAS, The Mayor reoon�tiends that the follawing additions be made to the 1983 budget:
Current Amended
FrNANCING PLAN Budget Ch,a.nges Budget
351 Perrie Jones Special Revenue Fund
33421-6905 Contribution - Outside Parties 2,932 13,263 16,195
33421 F�ind Balance 78 204 282
NET CHANGE 3,010 13,467 16,477
SPENDNI G PLAN
351 Perrie Jones Special Revenue F'und
33421-121-000 Salaries - Part Time Certified 2,402 9,238 11,640
33421-439-000 Fringe Benefits 608 204 812
33421-219-000 Fees - Other -- 2,000 2,000
33421-297-000 Data Processing Servic�s -- 600 600
33421-251-000 Transportation -- 1,050 1,050
33421-252-000 Lodging, M�eals -- 375 375
NET CHANGE 3,010 13,467 16,477
Now, therefore, be it '
RESOLVED, that the City Council adopts the above additions to the 1982 budget.
APPROVED:
COUNCILME[V Requested by Department of:
Yeas Nays
letch r �4TlllTiity S2Y'V1CeS
vin Fletcher In Favor
s z
Ni sia Galles . � � . �
S ibel Masanz _ d_ Against y �'�����
T Nicosia
ilso
Scheibel
�— fE6 i 0 � Form Approved C y t rne
Adopted by Council: i-Uate
Wilson
�
Certified �ssed by ounci , cr ary � BY
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y �
lapp o e by Mavor• at 'J �� � ��Q� Appr y Mayor for Submis n t Council
B}T \ � � BY
� ` PU611SHEp FEB Y 9 i98�
� . ` MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ;�'����
1120 NORTHWESTERN NATIOVAL BANK BUILDING
ST.PAUL.MINNESOTA 5510'
(612)224-Sa6�
_=ONARD H.WILKENING
�res�oent and Secretarv
%�ULA VERRET
+�ce Presiaent
January 6 , 1983
Mr. Gerald W. Steenberg
90 West Fourth Street
ST. Paul, MN 55102 �
Dear Mr. Steenberg:
A grant to Saint Paul Public Library from the Perrie Jones
Library Fund of Minnesota Foundation , in the amount of
$13 , 263 , to complete a feasibility study for a centralized Ready
Reference Information Center for the Central Library , has been
approved.
This grant, No. 14-82, received approval from the Perrie Janes
Library Fund Advisory Committee on December 1 , 1982, and sub-
sequent ratification by Mr . Leonard Wilkening, acting for the
Board of Trustees of Minnesota Foundation. This grant wi11 be
paid to you within the next two weeks.
We look forward to hearing the results of this very interesting
study to be done by the library staff.
Yours sincerely,
� /�
�
l��G�
Nancy R. Harris,
Program Officer
NRH:j h
jh.1/6e
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A proposal for funding to study the feasibility of establishing within the
Central Library a center to provide ready reference, information service and
catalog information for all subject areas and to develop a design for such a
center.
The purpose: To improve the library's handling of ready reference requests by
making the process more efficient and less perplexing to users.
CURRENT PROBLEMS:
The current nomenc�ature and organization of subject departments in the Central
Library is confusing to our clientele, results in undesirable transferring of
calls or redirecting of users, may also result in some overlap of services and
the performance of some essentially clerical tasks by professional and para-
professional staff. Wi�at is currently called our Reference Room actually pro-
vides reference service in the humanities and some social sciences only. Our
Circulation Room handles the circulating (non-reference) materials for the same
subjects as well as support activities such as book holding information an�
reference services involving the materials housed in the department. The names
of these two departments are misleading since each Central agency provides its
own refere.nce service (Science & Industry, Art & Music, etc. ) and circulates
material . In fact, Reference Room owns the largest circulating periodical col-
lection and lends maps and pamphlets as well .
Users frequently approach the Reference Room with requests for information
handled by other departments or bypass Circulation Room because the name does
not reflect the services and functions offered there. Readers' Assistance Oesk,
a major service point in Circulation, also is a misnomer since assistance is
offered at desks in all the departments.
A further complication with the current organization is that we suspect that the
majority of phone requests would classify as either ready reference questions or re-
quests for directory or holdings information. This means that each subject
agency currently handles a iarge number of brief, phoned requests which detract
from staff ability to provide sufficient assistance to in-house users or to work
on more time consuming phone reference requests. Staff are pulled between the
need to answer the constantly ringing phones, the easier choice of answerirg
ready reference questions quickly, the demands of answering repetitive requests
at the reference desk and the desire to devote time and effort to in-house users
and the more time consuming requests. Undesirable effects result, such as putting
callers on hold while dealing with in-house clients; leaving in-house clients on their
own while handling phone calls, and frustration resulting from a heavy load of phone
calls.
It is hypothesized that a Ready Reference and Information Center designed, equipped
and staffed to handle the ready reference, holdings, and directory queries, both
phoned and in-person, could relieve the subject departments of some of their work-
load and allow them to conduct their other business more smoothly and thoroughly.
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Many problems are attendant upon such a reorganization of workload�, and a great
deal of study must ensue to discover what can or should actually be done. Major
questions include discovering the true scope, nature and volu��e of the library's
ready reference/information service; what portion of it can really be separated
from the subject collections; what type of center must be designed to handle tne
load; what the collection should consist of; and what sort of staff and task re-
alignment should accompany the change. �
If a decision to create such a center results from this study, the library admir-
istration can begin to plan for a Social Science and Humanities subject departmen±
that would be a parallel to the current Science & Industry and Art and Music Gepart-
ments.
PROJECT TASKS
Preliminaries --
The proposal will be presented to the Ferrie Jones Library Fund Advisory CorrIInittee
for �iscussion ana action at tneir November meeting. Following agreement by that
group to recommend funding of the project, tne proposal will be presented to the
library system's supervisors at a meeiing November 16, 1982. This group needs te
have a clear concept of tne purpose of the study, how they will be involved, and
how the results might irrpact on tneir agencies . Their ideas, knowledge, experiencE,
and cooperation will oe essentia� for a successful endeavor.
Preparation - December, 198�
Fifty (5Gi nours of SLS time would be rnade availa�le �a1 Tw Judi Uevine, Projec�
Manager, time to commence the following activities.
Conduct research to identify libraries with similar circumstances to Saint
Paul Public Library which have general reference departments or other types
of ceritraTi2ed information centers .(centralized telephone reference, central -
ized catalog informationj . Criteria to consider would include similarities
in population served, number of FTE`s, size of book and periodical collectior,
r�aterials budget, annual information and circulation statistics. The cri-
teria list would be cleared wit#� Kathy Stack before contacting any of the
libraries so identifie�. Weekly meetings with �is. Stack would commence in ;
Decerrber in order to keep tne Administration informed and involved in the !
process. �
Prepare a list of discussion items and contact libraries by phone and/or
mail to discover the nature af their reference center, how it functions,
is staffed, budgeted, arranged, etc, as well as problems it has solved
(probably 3) it would be profitable to visit to observe functioning.
Kathy Stack would approve the discussion questions and site choices.
Ms. Devine would also inforYr� Ms. Stack of the information gleaned in
this exercise and how it reflects upon the general design and operations
of such centers. Some discussior with Saint Paul Public Library staff who
visited some of these or other libraries several years ago may also take
place. , �
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Arrange for visits with selected libraries in January and/or February.
Locate, gather and begin to read literature relevant. to the project and
review Saint Paul Public Library studies and reports that will have bear-
ing. This should include:
The Citizens Task Force for the Library Report to the Mayor
and City Council
HBW Associates' report: An Era of Anticipation
User Survey Reports, 1982
Saint Paul Public Library statistics for the last 5 years
Surveys done on reference activities by various central agencies
in recent years
Reorganization Committee documents from 1981
Central Collection Development Plans
Articles on general reference or telephone reference centers
Surveys of libraries with reference centers (Utah report)
Literature on data collection of reference functions and services
Some of this reading must be delayed until January and February. The Project
Librarian should meet with Kathy Stack at the end of December to report sig-
nificant findings or issues discovered in the readings.
Hiring a consultant for the Reference Data Survey. Rose Foreman, a student at
the University of Minneso�ta and an employee working in the Science & Industry
Room has expressed a desire to be involved in the project as part of her
assignment in her Research Methods in Librarianship course and her Plan B paper
for her Master's Degree. Ms. Foreman would handle the majority of the work in
designing and implementing the survey. Under the supervision of Ms. Devine and
the consultant, she would desi_gn the survey instrument, the manner of data col-
lection, assist in staff instruction, code the data, oversee the keypunching
operation, assist with data analysis and writing the final report.
A consultant with the necessary expertise and past experience with Saint Paul
Public Library, Dr. George D'Elia, Dean of the University of Minnesota Library
School , has expressed willingness to accept the assignment. Dr. D'Elia is an
instructor and will provide her with instruction and guidance, but not to the
extent required by the size and actual execution of the study and the timeline
we face. Dr. D' Elia would be most involved in assisting with the design of the
survey instrument and data analysis. He would advise us concerning data col-
lection, coding, key punching, analyses and the final report. The analysis and
final report must be presented to Ms.Devine by March 31 . He, Ms. Foreman and
Ms. Devine would work as a team in many instances to insure that the survey meets
the needs of all concerned and is reliable and valid for the purposes intended.
(See discussion under February for specifics on the nature of the survey.)
January 1983.
Ms. Devine begins full time work on the Reference Center Project.
AtA is January 7-14 in San Antonio, Texas. Ms. Devine will attend and will try
to arrange library site visits in connection with this trip if it proves to be
appropriate.
Reading and data study continues.
Contacting libraries continues. �
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Ms. Devine will supervise the preparation of the Reference Survey and plans
for staff education of the survey process. Kathy Stack will be kept informed
of these activities.
Request that Northwestern Bell do a study of the number of calls on our reference
lines that receive a busy response. This will reflect our current capacity to
respond to demand for service.
Ms. Devine and Ms. Foreman will conduct staff training for the Reference Survey.
The Reference Survey (see below) may commence this month if deemed necessary.
February 1983. �
Some library visits may occur during this month.
Reference Survey - This is the most cruical part of the project. During this
month the departments will conduct a survey of their reference activity in
order to obtain a descriptive profile of Central 's reference workload. From
this survey we will be able to determine the extent of our ready reference and
other reference burden and therefore gain insight into the respective workload
that would be borne by a ready-refere.nce center and would remain with the subject
departments.
The survey must determine for each agency -
The number and percentage of ready reference questions received
The numberand percentage of search reference received
The number and percentage of library holdings queries received: book
(author/title vs. subject) and periodical .
The work flow or number and type of question by hour of day.
The number of type of queries by phone. In person.
The number of directional queries and retrieval requests.
The number of queries that fall into certain categories which
we have identified as routine/repetitive in nature (telephone
and city directory questions/consumer information questions) .
The number of calls coming in from our branch libraries.
The survey must be designed to tell us about the nature of our reference and
information queries, the time required to execute them and other workload
factors to be executed at each work point. This will enable us to determine
the proper staffing level needed for each type of activity.
Ms. Devine wi11 plan the "Descriptive List" study wherein each agency will draw
up a list of the subject categories of their ready reference and non-�ready ref-
erence questions. The list should indicate what the agency staff considers to
be ready reference and what is not. It will also indicate what resources they
use for ready reference which must, therefore, be housed in general ready
reference center and what resources would remain with the subject department.
A sample of sucM a list for Reference Room would contain such items as these:
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uestion Source
Mileage between cities Household Goods Carrier Mileage Guide
County seat of any county Corr�nercial Atlas/Zip Code Directory/
National Tele. & Address Book
Day of the year for any date in World Atlas
history
Spelling/definition/hyphenation/ Desk and unabridged dictionaries,
pronunciation/plurals, etc. special dictionaries of new words,
foreign words, spelling & hyphenation
lists.
Gramnar Variety of grarr�nar and usage books
Etiquette Several current etiquette books, special
ones for wedding and governmental pro-
tocol
Author biography Literary biography encyclopedias,
dictionaries, annuals, directories,
handbooks and indexes.
Biography Indexes, sets, annuals, etc. as above.
These lists will be long, but it is necessary in order to get to the fine points
of what the new center will actually do and need in its collection. Book titles
or categories of reference resources must be listed in order to calculate collec-
tion size, budget, space and furniture needs. We will also ask staff to identify
which categories of questions could be handled at the strictly clerical level so we
can consider the type of ready reference that could be executed from a separate
center or service point (such as Directory Information) staffed by clerical staff.
In January and February Ms. Devine will begin to meet with each supervisor to
examine and discuss the lists in order to gain understanding of what is considered
ready reference, training required, etc. The role of handifiles, pamphlet material ,
equipment, furniture needs must all be considered so that a needs list and collection
list can be developed. Ms. Devine will consult with Kathy Stack regarding the con-
tent of the lists and instructions for the departments before the process begins
and will report the progress as meetings take place. i
March 1983.
Survey data analysis, interpretation, report writing will occur. The team of
D'Elia, Foreman and Devine will collaborate on this effort.
Ms. Devine will prepare for and conduct meetings with supervisors and groups of
department staff to discuss survey results, lists of reference categories, re-
actions to the reference center concept, possible physical arrangements, a table
of organization, staffing, etc. The purpose of these meetings will be to obtain
valuable staff ideas concerning the possible changes, how much and what type of
change should or could occur. Kathy Stack will approve the plans for these
sessions and will attend the meetings. .
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April 1983.
Ms. Devine will study and reflect on the inforration, data and suggestions
gathered. She will outline the various possibilities for center design and
function and meet with department heads as a group to discuss the virtues and
problems of each option. Ms. Devine will write her final conclusion and rec-
corr�nendations for administration. This document should be as specific as
possible and outline steps required to establish the center. A desirable time
line can be included.
May 1983.
The Administration will review recommendations and adopt a plan.
Judi Devine, Reference Room Supervisor, Saint Paul Public Library
Kathy Stack, Assistant Library Director, Saint Paul Public Library
October 8, 1982
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BUDGET
50 hours of SLS time in �December, 1982, for release cf �. Devine 34; .50
40 hours " " " " 1983 for release of Rose Foreman 293.60
17 weeks of Librarian I waqes from Jan. 3 - April 30, 198:, 7 ,795.92
Difference in wages of Librarian II & III for Pat Etnier wnc
will supervise the Reference Room in Devine's absence 806.65
4 consultant days, Dr. D' Elia - �500 per da�� 2,0OO.00
Keypunch time 500.0�
Machine time, U of M Computer Center 1u0.0�
s round trip flights, estimated at $350 ea. 1 ,050.0�
3 nights lodgin�, 9 meals and various cab fares - estimate�
at �125 per aa�� 3?:,.0�
TOTA'� 513,262.6-
Contributed Services bv SPP�
Kathy Stack's administrative time - -- ——— -
Clerk typist's time , at least one day per week (20�')
Tor 18 weeks or more. Typing may be heavier at various
points in the project. $56.64 per day = $1 ,019.5?
Time of Supervisors and Staff to meet with Ms. Devine,
collect data, make lists , etc.
Office space, equipment and supplies , copying and printinc
or" surve��
Telephone and mail costs
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`..�" Commu�ity Services DEPART�,IENT '
._
G. Steenberg �ONTACT . �982�
6211 PHONE ���� �� '
1/18/83 DATE
(Routing and Explanation Sheet)
Assign Number for Routing Order (Clip All Locations for Mayo�al Signature):
� Department Di rector
��/City Attorney
,�� Director of Management/Mayor o���� �
Finance and Management Services Director
5 City Clerk
��Budget Director
What Will be Achieved by Taking Action on the Attached Materials? (Purpose/Rationale):
Enable the Library Division to undertake a feasibility study of "Centralized
Ready Reference Center for the Central Library" . A grant has been received
from the Perrie Jones Library Fund for this study.
Financial , Budgetary and Personnel Impacts Anticipated:
Grant received for entire added expense of this study.
Funding Source and Fund Activity Nurr�er Charged or Credited:
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Perrie Jones Library Fund administered by the Minnesota Foundation, �l.
Attachments (List and Nurnber all Attachments) :
Council Resolution.
Copy of Grant.
DEPARTMENrt REVIEW CITY ATTORNEY REVIEVJ
X Yes No Gouncil Resolution Required? Resolution Required? Yes No
Yes X No Insurance Required? Insurance Sufficient? Yes No
Yes x No Insurance Attached?
Revision of October, 1982
(See Reverse Side for 'Instructions)
�,.�_.- , ��7�8��9
� � CITY'' OF SAINT PAUL
�
-...,.;.
OFFIC� OF THI� CITY COIINCZL
.- ,.i......,.�.
'"�:'�'� D d t e ; February 3, 1983
�, �'a,�+(-''.
-F�" :F�?.; �3�
TO = Saint Pau i City Counci!
F R O M = C o m m i t t e e O h Finance, Management $ Personne 1
C H A 1 R James Scheibel
1. Approval of minutes from meeting held January 27, 1983.
a'(p�o��t 2a( Resolution enabling the Library Division to undertake a feasibility study
s'� �� of "Centralized Ready Reference Center for the Central Library."
��'d+� 3. Resolution enabling the expenditure of grant money received for the
� � St. Paul Public Library.
A�°t��bQ 4. Resolution adopting additions to the 1983 budget from funds which have been
recieved.
��z�a
p 5. Resolution establishing the title of Bond Technician with class specification
and abolishing title of Bond Registrar and class specifica�ion.
� YOUb� A.S Q�"�..lc A
��^p ' 6. Resolution certifying funds received from contributions and grants as
appropriation revenues in excess of those estimated in the 1983 budget.
R�PL�p� 7. Resolution approving securities pledged by Summit National Bank.
��"� 8. Resolution authorizing acceptance of a $41,000 grant from the Northwest Area
L�� Foundaition (to be used to promote arts in the Lowertown area.)
�F���o� 9. Resolutions amending the voluntary leave without pay provisions in various
L-U bargaining contracts. ,
10. Discussion of the policy for City employee snow days.
� P�o�o� 11. Discussion of the financing plan for Civic Center Parking Ramp and Auditorium
�s a»�ewd.�. renovations.
s-J
CITY HALL SEVENTH FLOOR SAINT PAUL. MINNESOTA 55102
�.�.