Author: Eric Melton

We typically do food for fines, where patrons can pay overdue fees with non-perishable food items or personal care items, during National Library Week which is next week. This year, we will delay Food for Fines until September which is Library Card Sign-up Month.

[UPDATE] City HR is still trying to get this setup. Cyndee announced this morning that if you can get a vaccine elsewhere to go ahead and do that.

City HR is coordinating onsite vaccinations for city employees via Unity Point. I don’t know when that will happen yet but they need a count of how many employees would like to be vaccinated this way. If you’re interested, please include your name on the spreadsheet linked below.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1chl-0WA-dyMn0CjMqmn34kct5q9VLYze7PLJ9pcv9tk/edit?usp=sharing

We all know that public perception in regards to Covid-19 protocols is changing rapidly. Businesses are re-establishing regular hours, restaurants and malls are getting busier, youth sports are starting up, even live music is happening again. The public’s expectations about what libraries should be offering now, how “open” they should be, is inevitably shaped by their day-to-day experiences at these other places that are reopening. As a place paid for by the public, it’s my view that public libraries’ Covid-19 protocols need to keep pace, broadly speaking, with the expectations of the public that pays for our services.

Beginning Monday, May 10th, we will switch from our current appointment-based method of limiting traffic to a capacity-based method of limiting traffic. To start, 35 patrons will be allowed in the building at a time. Patrons will no longer be asked to make appointments to use a computer or to browse. Study rooms will reopen for two-hour visits by reservation or, if a room is available, on-demand. Most seating and study tables will be made available but play areas will stay closed. While browsers and readers will be encouraged to limit their time in the building, that’s not something we will monitor or police. We will reopen on Sundays 1pm-5pm. Masks will still be required.

I realize that we’re making a big leap here. The relatively low capacity limit that we’ll start with, however, should allow for plenty of social distancing (see the map I’ve included below for an example of what 35 patrons in the building might look like) and I expect most browsers to respect our encouragement of quick visits which will allow for a steady rotation of browsers.

We’re going to be operating between two worlds for a little while: one where we have to accommodate those that have been vaccinated or are simply tired of Covid-19 restrictions and expect a return to normalcy and one where we have to accommodate those with a more cautious approach. I expect this plan to take us through most of this “in-between” period which I assume will last the spring and most of the summer. Details on how we talk to patrons about this change are forthcoming. Let me know if you have any questions.

I’ve added a new menu on the left side of the intranet for our Covid-19 services and information including a link to the Polk County Health Department’s vaccine information and our reopening plan.

The left door (left when you’re standing inside) of the right-most pair of Commons can no longer be set to unlocked with the alan key we usually use.   If you need to unlock a Commons door, unlock one in the middle pair.

Do you have a go-to strategy for helping readers with gentle reads? Whether your readers are fans of likeable ensemble casts or heartwarming stories about characters coming home again — let NoveList and LibraryReads break down the best gentle fiction has to offer your readers — from tests of faith to life in small towns.

Register via the link included below.

https://more.ebsco.com/crash-course-in-gentle-reads.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=all_cp_ww_novelist&utm_campaign=novelist_webinar-crash-course-gentle-reads_NOVLRE_20210421

Holds pick up appointment slots have been reduced from 3 every 10 minutes to 2 every 10 minutes. This can easily be changed back if curbside gets busier but I don’t anticipate this will cause much of a delay in when patrons can pick up their items. Tomorrow, for example, still has a number of open slots.

The shifting of adult materials to make room the music CD bins is complete. I’ll install the bins this week or next then a volunteer will move the CDs into the bins.

When replying to print requests, please use the following language which includes the option of the patron picking up their document(s) anytime we’re open.

We have received your email with your attached document(s) for printing. Your document(s) can be picked up in the library any time we’re open (Monday-Thursday: 10am-6pm, Friday & Saturday: 10am–5:30pm, Sunday: Closed) or follow the link below to schedule a curbside pick-up appointment.

https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/print-job-pickup/.

Department heads met yesterday morning to discuss further stages of reopening as we look forward to a tapering off of the Covid-19 threat over the next several months.

Patrons

Before I get into that, I’d like to address the likelihood that more of our callers and visitors will push back on or ignore our Covid-19 rules as more of them get vaccinated or just get fed up with so many months of restrictions. We’ve gotten a handful of phone calls recently, for example, from patrons questioning why our study rooms, play areas, and other parts of the library are still closed. Ultimately, the decision on when to reopen these things will be made by myself and the library board. I don’t expect staff to debate patrons on whether what we’re doing is beneficial or logical. Please know that you can always refer hard patrons to myself or Molly. With certain patrons, trying to argue that our restrictions are based on continued advice from the CDC and other institutions to, for example, maintain social distancing and continue mask wearing creates an opportunity for them to express their contrary views and to start a debate. I took a call from a dad yesterday morning who was upset that his daughter couldn’t meet with her tutor in a study room. I explained what services we were offering right now, that we have a plan in place to reopen study rooms when we feel it’s safe, and that we are just as excited to get back to some normalcy as everyone else is. When he persisted and began repeating his arguments against our rules, I told him that I had heard what he had to say and will take it into account but that I wasn’t going to debate him. That may not always work but it seemed to shut down his persistence and the conversation ended amicably.

As always, we should also be prepared for library visitors to ignore our rules—rules about hanging out and reading, for example, or keeping a mask on. Given the limited number of patrons in the building right now, these are not rules I expect staff to rigidly enforce. We’ll do what we can to communicate our expectations but no one should feel compelled to engage in a verbal tussle with a patron over a relatively minor infraction, particularly if it’s clear that the patron is knowingly violating our rules and is unlikely to comply. I’ve put one lounge chair near the magazines and newspapers to give patrons a spot to sit during their 30-minute visit. If you have other ideas that could help us accommodate patrons that our rules aren’t working for, please let me know.

Reopening

Those of you around JPL last spring know that, given a lack of guidance and the unpredictable nature of the pandemic, decisions on when to close, when to reopen, and what services to offer often came with only a few weeks’ notice. My hope is that the next phases of our reopening, where we start getting back to normal operating hours and services, will be a little more predictable but I don’t think that’s something we can count on.

Starting Monday, hold notices will invite patrons to come into the library to pick up their holds. The notice text will read:

The following items are being held for you at the Johnston Public Library. Your holds can be picked up in the library any time we’re open (Mon-Thu: 10am-6pm, Fri-Sat: 10am – 5:30pm, Sun: Closed) or you can follow the link below to make an appointment to pick them up via the library’s curbside service. If you’ve already made an appointment for a future date, don’t make a new appointment. We’ll bundle your new holds with the others.

In discussions, at JPL and in the public library community at large, about what library services look like post-Covid, a common topic is the likelihood that some form of curbside pickup is here to stay. How popular curbside will be as the pandemic comes to an end, however, is hard to say. Seeing how many patrons take us up on the offer of coming inside to pick up their holds instead of picking them up curbside will give us a sense of how we need to staff curbside going forward.

In May, the plan is to reopen normal hours on Sundays, 1pm to 5pm and to continue our current appointment-based services—browsing, computer use, and curbside pickup. In June, study rooms will reopen and we’ll stop asking patrons to make appointments to browse or use a computer. Curbside pickup will move from an appointment-based service to an on-demand service available any time we’re open. Holds will be shelved on the self-serve pickup shelves. Patrons who want to pick up their holds curbside will call the curbside number then a staff member will checkout the patron’s holds and take them outside. Sometime in July or August, we’ll likely resume normal hours, open the Archive Room for public meetings, and startup some of our smaller in-person programs. When Johnston’s schools start up on August 23^rd, we’ll start admitting patrons under 14 back into the library without an adult per our Unattended Child Policy.

After nearly a year of operating with limited hours and services and few patrons in the building, it’s going to be tough on all of us to transition JPL back to the kind of bustling library it was until last spring. We’ll need to re-acclimate to the sometimes-stressful encounters that come with being a place open to anyone. What will make all of this easier, I hope, is seeing the faces that we know and feeling how grateful our patrons are for what we do for them. Helping people is what we’re good at here and what makes this job special. Getting back to more of that is what we have to look forward to.

There are more details included in the reopening document linked below. Let me or another supervisor know if you have questions or ideas.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b7HQGm50bguUt3M6MeMeg0oHMdLKJUz8tIAqvzFGeoc/edit?usp=sharing

We will not hold our regular Shred Day event this year. Veridian Credit Union, however, is holding a shred event on May 8th in Ankeny from 9am to 12pm at the FFA Enrichment Center – DMACC Ankeny Campus
1055 SW Prairie Trail Parkway.

UPDATE: Links for the harassment training meetings have been added below. You can attend live or wait until I share the recording.

The city’s HR department (Cyndee) has set up several sessions of harassment training via Zoom that will be required of all city staff. Supervisors (Megan, Beth, Dreama, Molly, and myself) will attend one of the 4 hour (!) supervisor trainings and everyone else will attend one of the 3 hour “line” level staff trainings. I realize that between personal and work commitments these times aren’t going to work for everyone.

The links for the respective meetings –

• Tuesday, April 6: Supervisor training at 12:30-4:30 p.m. CDT.
  • https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84927377784
• Wednesday, April 7: Line employee training at 6:30-9:30 p.m. CDT.
  • https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88042203027
• Thursday, April 8: Supervisor training at 7:00-11:00 a.m. CDT.
  • https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87970967535
• Friday, April 9: Line employee training at 7:00-10:00 a.m. CDT.
  • https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81701713582?pwd=T3dHZ0huaDZpMmlvYXBObXZZbHlqZz09  (using a different Zoom account)
• Monday, April 12: Line employee training at 12:30-3:30 p.m. CDT.
  • https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86846468395

From city hall:

Hello,

We will be replacing the Exchange server this weekend – March 6-7, 2021.

This means that email will be unavailable for periods of time.  We will send out an email when the process has been completed.

Thanks for your patience!

Cyndee

Science Center passes have been added back to our list of Adventure Pass offerings.

The lease on the large printer in the staff area and the smaller one in the YS office is coming to an end. Those machines will be replaced with machines with similar functionality sometime in April. I assume the vendor will offer some kind of basic training on the machines. I’ll keep everyone posted.

A special school board election will be held in the West Meeting Room tomorrow from 7am to 8pm. The gate will be down and signs will direct voters to enter via meeting room hallway doors. Patrons who need to use the restroom can be directed to the YS restroom. If they prefer the larger restrooms, they’ll need to exit the main entrance and enter via the Commons. In addition to the library, voters can vote at ANY of the following locations:

• ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH
  • 4300 BEAVER AVE.
• GRIMES UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
  • 801 W. 1ST ST.
• JOHNSTON CITY HALL
  • 6221 MERLE HAY RD
• CROWN POINT COMMUNITY CENTER
  • 6300 PIONEER PKWY.
• STONEY CREEK HOTEL & CONFERENCE CENTER
  • 5291 STONEY CREEK COURT

The two west-most Commons doors get stuck open and closed easily when it’s this cold. If you need to go in and out of the Commons right now, it would be best to use one of the middle doors.

We have subscribed to a new online resource called Weiss Financial Ratings Series Online which includes ratings for banks, credit unions, insurance companies, stocks, and mutual funds, plus financial planning and investment tools including medigap plan comparison. This resource fills a gap from our cancellation of our subscription to Valueline stock ratings a couple of years back. Patrons can access Weiss from home or within the library. Check it out at https://greyhouse.weissratings.com/

The new microwave in the breakroom has a convection cooking feature. Instructions are listed below.

1. Press Conv. once, “350” will flash. “Conv.”, “F” and corresponding temperature icons will display.
2. Press Conv. more times or press More or Less to choose the desired cooking temperature. Temperature selections ( 100° F):170, 250, 275, 300, 325, 350, 375, 400, 425. Press to confirm.
3. Press to start preheating. When the oven preheats to the selected cooking temperature, it will beep twice; open the door and place food in oven.
4. Press number pads to enter the cooking time. The maximum cooking time is 99 minutes, 99seconds. “F” will disappear.
5. Press to start cooking. The remaining cook time will display. “Conv.” and corresponding temperature icons will flash.

A critical piece of the teen space wall that was to be installed this week arrived damaged. The installers will be back when the replacement arrives.