← CHPL AI Resource Center Phased Rollout Plan · v0.1
Planning document For executive review

A phased rollout, not an all-staff training day.

900 staff and 42 branches is too much surface area for one workshop. This plan stages the rollout in four phases over roughly 12 months — starting with the 20 people who set policy, ending with branch-level pilots that pay for themselves.

The shape of the plan
Phase 1
Executive Foundations
20 people · ~30 days
Survey + 60-min workshop
Phase 2
Manager Activation
65 people · ~60 days
Survey by region + 2-hr workshop
Phase 3
Staff & Branch Rollout
~815 people · ~120 days
Mobile-first + branch lunch & learns
Phase 4
Pilots & Governance
Ongoing
Real workflows, real ROI
Why phased?One-shot training to 900 people doesn't change behavior. Layered cohorts let leadership set tone before staff are asked to act.
Why mobile-first for staff?~50% of CHPL staff don't work primarily at a desk. The survey and bite-sized learning must travel on a phone.
Why not survey everyone?Executive and manager input shapes policy. For 815 frontline staff, we sample by branch — enough signal, less survey fatigue.
Phase 1 Executive Foundations
Month 1 · 20 senior leaders
Cohort
20 senior leadership team members (executives + senior directors)
Survey
Yes — full survey, sent individually with name attribution. Used to baseline leadership comfort and surface unspoken governance concerns.
Format
One 60-minute in-person workshop, with optional 30-minute leadership debrief two weeks later.
Delivery
Live, in-room. Phones away. Notebook + handout.
Topics
What AI is and isn't. Patron-data implications. Energy & ethics. How to answer "what's our policy?" from staff. How to spot a bad pitch.
Outputs
(1) Shared vocabulary. (2) Draft governance principles. (3) Decision: which 1–2 tools we provision first. (4) Sign-off to begin Phase 2.
What this phase produces
  • Executive insights dashboard — your live results in the same format as the preview.
  • Draft governance one-pager — patron data, copyright, approved tools, escalation path.
  • Manager-track curriculum brief — built from what executives chose to prioritize.
Phase 2 Manager Activation
Months 2–3 · 65 middle managers
Cohort
65 middle managers — branch managers, department heads, regional coordinators.
Survey
Yes — same survey, segmented by region and function. Adds three questions about workflow pain points in their team.
Format
Two-hour workshop, delivered in three regional cohorts of ~22 (no manager travels more than 20 minutes). Optional 30-day office-hours follow-up.
Delivery
Mostly in person. Hybrid option for managers covering night/weekend shifts.
Topics
How to coach staff (not police them). How to evaluate a tool. How to scope a small pilot. Patron-facing scenarios. The "ethical no" — when to push back on a tool request.
Outputs
(1) Per-region readiness map. (2) Ranked list of candidate pilot workflows. (3) Manager toolkit (FAQ, escalation tree, prompt examples).
Why managers second, not last

Managers field the questions: "What does the library want us to do with AI?" If they get trained after staff, every conversation in between is a guess. Phase 2 gives them a script before the questions start.

Cohort split
  • · West (Cheviot, Westwood, Mt. Healthy, Price Hill) — ~22 managers
  • · Central (Main, Madisonville, Avondale, Forest Park) — ~22 managers
  • · East (Anderson, Blue Ash, Symmes, Sharonville) — ~21 managers
Phase 3 Staff & Branch Rollout
Months 4–7 · ~815 staff · mobile-first
Cohort
~815 general staff — reference, programming, circulation, shelvers, IT, admin, outreach, maker space.
Survey
Yes, but sampled — not census. Aim for ~300 responses (35–40%) sampled proportionally across branches and roles. Anonymous. Mobile-optimized. Branch managers nudge during shift huddles.
Format
Asynchronous short-form video (3–5 min episodes) + monthly "bring your problem from work" live sessions per branch cluster. Lunch & learns at flagship branches (Main, Forest Park, Anderson) open to anyone.
Delivery
Mobile-first. Survey on phone. Videos on phone. Live sessions optional and recorded. No staff is asked to log into a desktop to start.
Topics
Demystify ("what is it really?"). Personal use (vacation planning, recipes, language learning) — builds confidence. Patron scenarios. Hallucinations & how to spot them. Approved tools & what's off-limits.
Outputs
(1) Branch-level confidence index. (2) Staff prompt library (grown from real shift questions). (3) Champion identification — ~30 staff who become local AI helpers.
Mobile-first delivery

CHPL's frontline staff don't sit at desks. The survey is one screen scroll on a phone, 6 minutes max. Training videos auto-play on mute with captions so they work in a quiet workroom. Live sessions are 25 minutes, scheduled during shift overlap windows.

Why sample instead of census

A representative sample of ~300 gives the same statistical signal as 815 respondents — and avoids survey fatigue with staff who already get pulled in many directions. We can always re-survey a branch if its results look anomalous.

Phase 4 Pilots & Governance
Month 5 onward · Ongoing
Goal
Move from "we trained on AI" to "we use AI to do something real." One bounded workflow at a time, with measurable hours saved.
Pilot #1
Scheduling & substitute coverage — Paula and Kyla named this on the call. Painful monthly process across 42 branches. A scoped agent could cut hours of admin into minutes. Pilot at Forest Park first.
Governance
Quarterly review with the executive team. Updates to approved tools, principles, FAQ. Public-facing patron statement.
Resource Center
This site, fully populated: approved tools list, prompt library, training video library, patron FAQ, pilot tracker.
Cadence
Monthly office hours for managers. Quarterly executive briefing. Annual all-staff "state of AI at CHPL" recap.
Candidate pilots (ranked from Phase 3 data)
  1. Scheduling & substitute coverage
  2. Program description & flyer drafting
  3. Meeting note summarization
  4. Patron reference assist (with guardrails)
  5. Translating materials (Spanish, ASL captions)
  6. Grant-writing assistance

Phase comparison at a glance

Phase 1 · Execs Phase 2 · Managers Phase 3 · Staff Phase 4 · Pilots
People2065~815 (sampled)
SurveyFull, namedFull, by regionAnonymous, sampled
Format60-min workshop2-hr workshop ×3 regionsAsync video + monthly lunch & learnWorkflow build sprints
DeliveryIn personIn person + hybridMobile-firstIn branch
Duration~30 days~60 days~120 daysOngoing
OutputVocab + principlesRegion readiness mapBranch index + championsWorking pilots, ROI

Open questions for Paula and Kyla

1. Phase 1 timing

Can we land the Executive Foundations workshop before your October/November staff development days? That gives Phase 2 enough runway to ride that momentum.

2. Survey distribution

For Phase 1, who sends the link to executives — you two, or the CEO/Director? Attribution affects response rate.

3. Mobile reality check

Do all 815 staff have a CHPL-issued device, or do many use personal phones? That changes how we deliver Phase 3 content.

4. Pilot owner

Who would own the scheduling pilot internally? We'd build alongside that person — they become the local expert, not us.