Congratulations to the following December 2022 Employee of the Quarter winners:
Hamilton:
Bernadette Miranda – 2 nominations
Bernadette’s smile and can-do attitude light up the room and she’s such a treasure, working tirelessly from the time she clocks in until she leaves for the day.
Bernadette picks up any project I give her and always has a good attitude about it. She is always smiling and it passes along to her coworkers!
Fairfield:
Abriljoanna Huerta
Abril, along with her colleague Odalis Jimenez, put together the hugely successful Hispanic Heritage Festival for the 2nd year in a row. The hours of effort are significant – from inviting community groups, to planning logistics, to locating and booking food vendors, to attending meetings to network and promote the library and its events, and so much more. Abril also created original artwork for the event again this year. In addition, Abriljoanna presented at the OLC annual conference, providing a template for how other organizations could also put together a heritage event of their own. Abril is also the driving force and primary point of contact for our LGBTeens club at our branch. This program has been well-received right from the start with lots of very positive feedback from participants and parents. For example, one participant stated that they haven’t felt comfortable enough to talk and socialize in public for a long time, but they felt safe at LGBTeens to really be themselves. These contributions are so meaningful, and I am very proud of her.
Oxford/Smith:
Naomi Cole – OXB – 2 nominations
Naomi is doing a great job in helping to promote our collection. This month she started a Staff Picks display. Many staff have offered suggestions and the patrons enjoy seeing what is recommended.
Naomi has been leading various projects at the branch, from retirement bash for a coworker to Staff Pick shelf for patrons in the front lobby. Most importantly, she is professional, fun, and a pleasure to work with. We are lucky to have her in our branch.
LAC/BKM/Tech Center:
Savannah Bryant – Tech Center – 2 nominations
Savannah has been working hard creating some fantastic new programming for the Glowforge. Her 3D Maps class was a huge success (with a long waiting list!), and she’s been able to come up with some fascinating new things to try in the machine. Thanks to her amazing design skills and her Glowforge expertise, our tech is getting more usage with our patrons, as well as across the system. Thanks for all you do, Savannah!
Savannah is always demonstrating the creativity and amazing projects that can be crafted with the Tech Center and Makerspace resources that are available. The classes she teaches result in beautiful projects and pieces of art that members of the community flock to. Her efforts establish just how useful our resources are and push the boundaries of just what can be done with them.
Congratulations to this quarter’s winners! Each winner will receive their choice of 4 hours of vacation or a $50 gift card.
Congratulations to the following nominees:
Hamilton
Michaela Perkins –4 nominations – won June 2022
Michaela took over a complete overhaul of our branch’s Mole Hole. The area is now clean and organized. This ongoing project has taken her several weeks and is now nearing completion. Michaela’s leadership and commitment to organizing the youth services storage space has made it much easier/efficient for all of her coworkers to find items for programming. Her effort is greatly appreciated.
Michaela has lost her mind and has cleaned out the entire Mole Hole. It’s amazing. Give her all the glory
Michaela has been working so incredibly hard organizing the work space down stairs. Its now been so easy to find exactly what we need within seconds! She has also been tackling other projects to better organize our work spaces and it is appreciated!
Michaela has worked TIRELESSLY to clean out our craft/storage room and organize it, as well as tidying up the children’s shelves AND taking care of craft kits. She’s in inavluable worker as well as being lovely to be around.
Wendy Pittman
Wendy has been very helpful with the Baker and Taylor returns. I don’t know what I would do without her!
Tess Catlin
I overheard Tess on the phone with a patron who was trying to find a copy of a book we did not have. This patron was not in our service area but said their system was unhelpful. Tess was able to find the book in her system and even called that library to double check they had it. She showed excellence customer service during the entire interaction.
Oxford/Smith
Keely Moloney – OXB – won September 2022
Keely comes in and immediately starts on whatever needs to be done, whether it be checking in bins, tagging books, or helping a patron at the Circulation Desk. She is always willing to do the “fun” things like moving heavy boxes of books. And she is diligently studying and taking classes for her MLIS.
Elizabeth Franz – OXB
Elizabeth always goes the extra mile to assist our patrons. She is professional, friendly helpful and very thorough in her research. Her customer service is outstanding.
Fairfield
Danielle White – 2 nominations
Danni is a joy to work with. She is always willing to help and jump in when needed. She is good with the patrons and employees too. She is also so creative and is always finding ways of using those skills with the Wellness Committee programs and the Fresh Committee. She spends an unbelievable amount of time crafting beautiful things to brighten our day. We really appreciate all she does.
Dani takes an active role in promoting the wellbeing of her coworkers. She’s taken on tasks for our staff-led Fairfield Fresh team, she helps with the system-wide Wellness Committee, and she even takes on community-spotlight activities such as coming up with and executing a theme for the Fairfield Lane’s holiday tree on display at the Community Arts Center. I appreciate her attention to the interpersonal relationships with colleagues as well as making sure to provide excellent service to our patrons.
Tammy Brooks
Tammy’s programming efforts are always noteworthy, but the fall season is a highlight with her Tiny Trick or Treat event. She organized the event again this year, making it more interactive than past years. Instead of just giving out candy, the participants could do an activity or make a craft at various stations throughout the library. At the end of the program, each child could pick up a goodie bag. This is an event that staff enjoy probably as much as the families! Tammy’s attention to detail and ongoing evaluation of efforts make her programs top notch.
Odalis Jimenez
Odalis, along with her colleague Abril Huerta, put together an even more impressive Hispanic Heritage Festival and Expo this September. Year 2 saw even more community involvement and support with well over 1,000 people attending. While the event itself was important and impressive, the amount of time and dedication to planning, creating, and executing the event is even more noteworthy. In addition to this huge annual event, Odalis serves on the Fairfield YMCA Board, participates in a variety of different organizations, and conducts ongoing programming such as Storytime en Español and Sensory Storytime. Odalis presented with Abril at the OLC Annual Conference this year, outlining how other organizations could put on their own heritage event. Odalis has also been invited as a guest speaker at a variety of events. Her vision for what is possible at the library in combination with her ability to make those visions take real form make her an exceptional asset to our team. She’s a shining star.
Emma Darby
Emma is a wonderful and integral part of our reference staff here at FFB! Her ability to float as needed between the ref desk, childrens, and circ is incredibly helpful and she does it so well! She is wonderful with the patrons and always has a smile on her face!
LAC/BKM/Tech Center
Lucy Hayes – LAC
As usual Lucy is on top of everything. She has taken on more responsibility with managing the returns of the BT leased material. And this is in addition to the increased receiving workload that this time of year brings. She cooly manages to keep all the balls in the air!
Matt Leffler – LAC
Matt always patiently answers questions he is frequently faced with because of his knowledge of technology. I am very appreciative of his quick action to provide assistance when needed. He is also very good at coming up with creative solutions to problems. For example, when tech services started to receive B&T leased books to be made permanent, it was discovered that the leased stickers were sometimes very difficult to remove. Matt came up with the idea to put the books in a “bed bug box” to warm up and loosen the adhesive on the stickers. In addition to making it easier to remove the stickers, it has prevented some of the damage being caused when the stickers were so affixed that they had to be scraped off.
John Taggart – LAC
John noticed a mix up with a hold item while on his delivery route. After he was all done with the deliveries, he made an extra trip here (FFB) to give us the item so that the patron wouldn’t have to wait an extra few days. Also, he’s one of the hardest working and nicest people on the planet.