Author: Eric Melton

Due to Covid, the Lions Club didn’t hold their annual book sale last year and their storage space is now full of donated books. To get rid of some the boxes of donations in our East Meeting Room (which would typically go to the Lions storage unit) we’re going to start giving them away. The free books will be offered from the Book Bike which will be parked in front of the Archive Room.  We will still charge for books from the book sale in the Commons.

The July 4th holiday is approaching. I’ve included a summary of holiday pay for full- and part-time staff below.

• Part time staff not regularly scheduled more than twenty hours weekly will not receive holiday pay (even if you come to work on Christmas 🙂 )
• Part time staff who are regularly scheduled 20-30 hours per week and who are also scheduled to work on a paid holiday can take as paid the hours that they’re regularly scheduled to work. If Jim is scheduled to work 6 hours on Christmas, for example, he can take 6 hours of holiday pay.
• Full time staff may need to adjust their schedules (take days off some other day(s) that pay period- 7/4-7/17) to ensure that their paid holiday hours don’t push them into overtime.

Find more Holidays and Closings on the website or under the Staff Resources menu on the Intranet

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Our bi-monthly all-staff meeting will be held next Thursday at 8:30am IN PERSON in the West Meeting Room.

The following notice was just sent to patrons who have used curbside pick up in the last two months.

Johnston Public Library Patron,

Beginning Monday, June 14^th we will no longer require appointments for curbside pick-up of library holds. To pick-up your holds curbside, simply come to the library any time that we’re open and call 515-779-3315. You are also welcome to come into the library to pick-up and checkout your holds. We are currently open Monday-Thursday 10am-6pm, Friday and  Saturday 10am-5:30pm, and Sunday 1pm-5pm. Let me know if you have any questions.

In anticipation of Monday’s change to curbside service, the language of hold notices has been updated to the following:

The following items are being held for you at the Johnston Public Library. Please pick the items up before close on the “Held-Till” date indicated below. For curbside service, call ‪515-779-3315‬ when you arrive. Curbside service is available any time we’re open—no appointment needed.

We decided to remove the bouncer station a couple of days early to allow staff to focus on work elsewhere in the building. The table that took its place is now setup as a checkout station. Circulation staff can use this next week to checkout holds for curbside customers without the need to make another trip behind the circulation desk after retrieving patrons’ holds from the hold shelves.

We have a new wall-mounted webcam in the archive room for staff and public use. The device on the table is a speaker/microphone and also includes controls for the webcam. To use the webcam, the USB cable coming out of the table needs plugged into a laptop. Once it’s plugged in, the webcam will show up as a video/audio option on Zoom and other video conferencing apps. The speaker/microphone can also be used for non-video conference calls by connecting to a phone via bluetooth. See the instructions in the Archive Room for more details.

I’m going to place a name tag order this week. To those of you who have had yours for a while, if it’s looking rough and you’d like a replacement let me know by the end of the day Friday.

Department heads met yesterday to discuss reopening. We all know that the public’s perception of the threat of Covid-19 has changed rapidly since vaccines have become widely available. The CDC’s recent announcement that “Fully vaccinated people can…Resume activities without wearing masks or physically distancing”, has created additional pressure on institutions to relax Covid-related restrictions. The impetus for our discussion yesterday was the difficulty in continuing to justify many of the restrictions that we planned to lift in July or August including keeping play areas closed, limiting capacity, and restricting entry to those 14 and above. Beginning Monday we will take the following steps to make our services more in-line with where the community seems to be with Covid-precautions (measures that are new or that have been moved from July or August are highlighted):

• The Archive Room will reopen for public meetings
• Curbside holds will move to an on-demand, rather than an appointment-based, service available all open hours
• Book sale will reopen
• The capacity limit will end
• The bouncer station will be removed
• The Youth Computer Lounge will reopen
• Children under 14 will be admitted without an adult (per the Unattended Child Policy)

The complete reopening plan for 2021 can be found here and is always accessible via the link in the Covid-19 menu on the intranet. Let me know if you have any questions.

A couple of weeks ago, other city buildings instituted a policy that allows staff to work without masks if they prove they’ve been fully vaccinated. JPL will now follow suit.

WHO IS FULLY VACCINATED

People are considered fully vaccinated:

• 2 weeks after their second dose in a 2-dose series, such as Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or
• 2 weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnston’s Janssen vaccine.

If you do not meet these requirements, you are NOT fully vaccinated.  Keep taking all precautions (wearing masks and social distancing) until you are fully vaccinated, or the mask requirement is lifted by the CDC.

IF YOU’RE FULLY VACCINATED

If you’re fully vaccinated and would like to work without a mask, please provide me a copy of your vaccination card or some other proof of vaccination (a photo taken with your phone is fine–you can text it to me if that’s easiest at 515-250-5381). Once I receive proof of your vaccination, you may immediately start working without a mask.

If you have not been vaccinated or do not want to show proof of vaccination, you will continue to be required to wear a mask.

COMMUNICATING WITH THE PUBLIC 

You may get questions or comments from the public related to your wearing or not wearing a mask. If you get a question about not wearing a mask, it’s fine to say that the city’s current policy is that masks are not required for vaccinated employees. If you get a question or comment about wearing a mask, it’s fine to tell them that you’ve chosen to continue to wear one.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Daily Grab-n-Go breakfast and lunch meals will be provided at each location June 10 – August 6 (No meal service July 5^th) for anyone ages 0-18.

Meals will be provided to ALL CHILDREN without charge at the sites and times as follows:

Participants in the Terra Park Art Walk will be dropping off their paintings over the next couple of weeks. Please make sure the artists write their name on the back of their paintings. There’s a permanent marker at the bouncer station. The paintings can be placed in my office.

We are discontinuing the digital cards that we began offering in response to the pandemic. Links to the digital card application have been removed from the website.

Upcoming changes to our services are included below. I’ll post additional information as each date approaches.  You can view the full reopening plan here.

• June 14th
  • Archive Room reopens for public meetings
  • Curbside holds pickup no longer requires appointments; available all open hours (more details forthcoming)
• July 5^th
  • Youth Services play areas reopen
• August 23^rd
  • Large meeting room reopens for public meetings
  • Normal hours resume (M-Th: 9am-8pm; F & Sat: 9am-5:30pm; Sun: 1pm-5pm)
  • Children under 14 admitted without an adult (per unattended policy)
  • Small in-person programs like book clubs resume indoors

Let myself or your supervisor know if you have any questions.

West Bank will offer a Free Shred Day to the community at the 1601 22nd Street, West Des Moines parking lot on Saturday, May 22, 2021, 8 a.m. – Noon.

https://www.westbankstrong.com/about_us/news/article/free-shred-day-may-22#:~:text=West%20Bank%20will%20offer%20a,COVID%2D19%20regulations%20and%20guidelines.

Phones are back.

Following the recent guidance from the CDC on mask wearing by vaccinated individuals, the mayor rescinded the city’s mask mandate at last night’s city council meeting. Going forward, city buildings, including the library, will encourage but not require mask wearing. Staff will continue to wear masks and we will continue to make disposable masks available for patrons at the entryway but staff should not mention mask-wearing to those who enter without one.

The count on the counter that we’re using on the iPod at the bouncer station is now being displayed on the library’s homepage. Please be sure to set it to zero at close.

Each year as part of my annual evaluation, the library board sends all staff a survey. It’s anonymous and I never see any of the written responses. The board would like responses by Monday, May 17th. The survey is linked below.

https://forms.gle/Y7oND2BcQWhGnjV28