Author: Eric Melton

It is time for Holiday music CDs to be available for checkout. So these are being pulled from “storage” and readied for checkout.

As Halloween is only a few weeks away, the Halloween CDs were pulled first and have been placed in a basket on a table just to the right of the SIBOR station at the circ desk. 

In the next couple of weeks, the Christmas music CDs will also be on this table ready for patrons to checkout. 

Just a reminder — Juvenile holiday music CDs are always shelved with all the Juvenile CDs.  They are not pulled out for storage during the year.

Art In the Barn is over. Next up is the first annual Craft In the Barn –another fundraising event held at the barn and organized by the Friends of the Library. The event will held on Saturday, November 22nd 10am-4pm. Craft In the Barn will be feature knitwear, jewellery, pottery, and a variety of other handmade crafts. Admission will be free. Vendors can register online.

http://foundation.johnstonlibrary.com/?page=craft-in-the-barn

We have new cafe-style tables and stools at the east end of the adult area. Check them out!

We have a staff meeting this Thursday at 8am. After our usual round of news and announcements Dreama will do a presentation on time management. Cheryl, Maurine, and Eric will be attending a continuing education event. 

I installed a slightly used PC to replace Station 7.  The advantage of the new PC is that it uses Windows 7 whereas the old Station 7 had Windows XP as its operating system.

Dreama

We have officially renamed the study rooms in the northeast corner of the library to Study Room 3 and Study Room 4.  Signs on the front of the rooms have been posted with their new names.

Study Room 3 is the one closest to the Large Print Collection.

Study Room 4 is the one closest to the emergency exit.

Ask Cheryl or Eric if you have questions.

Thanks!

Good morning!

Timesheets are due today, Wednesday September 17.

Thank you!

Missy

Sheesh–here is the specific web address, as promised in the previous post, that lists the reasons for the top 10 banned or challenged books from each year in the last decade. 

http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10

I have heard that there have been some questions from patrons regarding why a particular book has been banned. 

I have printed out the ALA list that provides reasons for the top 10 banned or challenged books for each year from 2001 forward. It is at the Circ Desk.

If there is a banned or challenged book that is not on the list, you can simply google the title of the book with the words banned book or challenged book. i.e. “WALDO BANNED BOOK” and a multitude of websites or blogs should come up that will go into detail about that particular book. (People love to get stirred up about banned books, so I have found that most of the time the info is “out there.”)

Additionally, here is the page within American Library Association website that has the list, with reasons, for banned and/or challenged books. 

Thanks! 

Art In the Barn is this Friday. A couple of artists cannot come early Friday to hang their work so they will be dropping it off at the library sometime this week. If I’m here when they come, I’ll handle the drop off. If I’m not here, set the art work in or near my office with some kind of note indicating who the art is from.

Eric

The main display table in front of the Circ Desk features banned or challenged books. Banned Books Week is next week, September 21-27, but I have put the display up a week early. One week is not enough time to be indignant!

The books have a red band around them that says Banned Books Week – Celebrate the freedom to read. Patrons make take this off whenever they want–the books do not need to be returned with the band. 

If anyone is curious to see the reason why a book has been banned or challenged, this information can be found at the American Library Association’s website. Just google banned or challenged books and it will come up. 

Specific web address is below:

http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks

Computer passes are now good for 7 days.  Each Wednesday morning, Public Services will print numerous new passes out.  We will try to remember to label the stack with  the valid dates and put them on the top counter behind the circ desk.  You are welcome to use the passes throughout those dates.  If you run out during that week, please let Public Services know and we will print more out.  There will also be computer passes available at the Reference Desk.

The passes are only good for 90 minutes.

If you have questions please ask Cheryl.  Thanks.

We’ve had several false burglar alarms recently, all triggered by the front door. I’m not sure exactly why this is happening but want to rule out the outermost door opening on its own.

After all patrons have left the building each evening, please switch the outermost front door to “Off” (not “1 Way Exit”).

Colored paper has been moved to where it lives – on the shelving in the staff lounge.  In order to rearrange homebound, we needed to free up some shelving space.  So, if you are in need of making colored copies of something, you will need to head on back to the staff lounge please.

If you need a acrylic sign holder, they are all nicely arranged by size, shape, etc. where the paper used to live.

If you have questions, ask Cheryl

A posting for a Library Associate position has been pinned to the bulletin by the mailboxes. Those interested need to sign and date the back page.

The staff list that Missy maintains is now available under Printables on the Intranet.  Missy will no longer print copies of the list when she updates it.  You may view or print a copy from the Intranet as needed.

Dreama

Feel free to wear your Iowa or Iowa State shirts or colors this Friday & Saturday.

Printing is now available from all 5 YS Internet PCs.

I updated the Roblox software on all YS PCs, including the 2 Games PCs.  It may be frustrating for children to play Roblox on the 2 Games PCs.  These two PCs are still running Windows XP and Internet Explorer 8.  There is a sidebar on the left side of the screen that blocks some of the content.  In Windows 7/Internet Explorer 10, this sidebar can be turned off by clicking on the lines above the sidebar.  The sidebar can’t be turned off in IE8.

I will be upgrading the Games PCs to Windows 7 in the next few months.

Dreama

We are doing away with the paper When to Work schedule that is posted in the Check-In Area.  All Department Heads now have authority in When to Work to update schedules for their staff members.  Missy will rely solely on the online schedule when reviewing timesheets each week.

Dreama