Author: Eric Melton

Another staff member has tested positive for Covid-19. Starting tomorrow, the library building will be closed to the public. Patrons with browsing an PC appointments have been notified via email. We will continue curbside pickup of holds and printing. The following has been posted on Facebook.

FYI

Des Moines is at curbside only at all branches with internet by appointment at Central only. This will officially be in place until December 1st but will likely last longer.

Ankeny is remaining open with its current limits:

• <75 capacity
• Reduced # of computers
• No large meeting room use
• No in-person programs
• Curbside offered every day

Pleasant Hill will be closing to patrons coming into the library beginning on Friday. We will have curbside service on Monday through Saturday.

Waukee is closing to the public starting Saturday. Will continue with curbside pickups.

Bondurant, has backed down to curbside and appointments for 1 person computer usage.

Clive is closed to the public until at least 12/31/2020 we are offering curbside pickup only.

Grimes – curbside only

West Des Moines Library will remain closed and continue curbside service through at least November 30

The governor issued a proclamation yesterday that included a couple of sections I want to address as they relate to library business. One section issues a limit on indoor gatherings to 15 people. These restrictions, however, “do not apply to gatherings that occur during the ordinary course of business or government.” Another section issues a requirement that masks be worn “when individuals are within 6 feet of one another for 15 minutes or longer.” Neither of these measures will change how we do things here at the library. I’ve included a link to the Iowa Department of Public Health’s summary of the governor’s proclamation below. Let me know if you have any questions.

https://intranet.johnstonlibrary.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Summary-of-Enhanced-Public-Health-Measures_final.pdf

These cards are at the bouncer desk to handout to patrons we turn away.

JPL is now offering HelpNow, an online service that connect students with a live instructor for homework help and tutoring. HelpNow is available every day from 2pm – 11pm. A link is available on the Research page of our website as well as the kids and teens pages. I’ll add a link to the homepage soon and we’ll promote the service on social media next week.

https://landing.brainfuse.com/?u=main.johnstonlibraryhn.ia.brainfuse.com

Appointments for PC use and browsing have been updated to reflect the changes detailed in my post yesterday.  It’s going to take through the weekend to work through the appointments that were made before these changes. Because of this, we don’t need to begin enforcing the one-group at-a-time rule for browsing until Monday. We will also wait to decommission 2 PCs until then.

Beginning Monday, we’ll have less room for walk-ins. To keep the number of people we need to turn away to a minimum, please make appointments for all callers who want to visit or encourage them to do so themselves before they come. Links for making appointments are on the front page of our website. For those that we do need to turn away, offer to make them an appointment for them. Handouts for patrons will also be available at the bouncer table with information on how to make appointments.

This reduction in services comes at a time of year, December through February, that is typically our slowest both in terms of circulation and foot traffic. Because of this and because, with the crazy case numbers, more people are likely to stay away from public places, I don’t think these changes will have a dramatic effect on our patrons. While browsing slots are likely to be relatively full each day, PC slots won’t be. With 3 PCs available from 10am-6pm, for example, we can accommodate up to 24 computer users each day. Only 9 of those slots are available for appointments. This means 15 slots will be available for walk-ins.

As I mentioned yesterday, there is no end-date to these relatively minor changes. I will continue to consult with the board, with city administration, and with departments heads as circumstances change.

With rising case numbers in the metro and throughout the state, we’ll be scaling back our in-building services as outlined in the message below that I sent to library trustees today. In addition, we will cease volunteers working in the library which may mean that shelving and other tasks get backed up–that’s ok. Please remember to try to practice social distancing between each other and between yourself and patrons whenever possible. There is no end-date for these changes, we’ll make further adjustments one way the other as circumstances warrant.

Trustees,

In response to the rising case numbers in Iowa and the Des Moines metro, we will be scaling back our in-person services, ceasing volunteers working in the library, and having some of our full-time staff work from home when possible. Changes to our services are outlined below:

Browsing

We have changed the spacing of browsing appointments–where groups of up to 4 can browse in the library for 30 minutes–from every 20 minutes to every 35 minutes so groups don’t overlap. No walk-ins will be allowed unless there is not another group here or scheduled to be here within 30 minutes.

Computer Use

We have changed the spacing of our 1 hour PC appointments from every 30 to every 45 minutes. We will also reduce the number of available PCs from 5 to 3. Walk-ins will be allowed if a computer is available.

Curbside Holds and Printing Pick-up

Curbside services will continue as-is.

As you can see from the chart included below, visits to the library building since we reopened in June are down by 80%-85%. We think these new steps, which will reduce daily computer appointments from 14 to 9 and browsing appointments from 23 to 13, along with our mask requirement and social distancing put us in a position where we can safely continue to offer services that patrons can’t get anyplace else and continue to offer work to part-time staff who can’t work from home.  From the public’s perspective, these changes will be mostly invisible as we will continue to offer the same services as before; same-day appointments may just be harder to come by.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

The following message is from city manager Jim Sanders:

Fellow City Employees,

As you are aware, over the past couple of weeks we have experienced a significant surge in COVID-19 cases within Polk County and throughout the state of Iowa. The surge in COVID-19 cases and exposures has “hit home” for many of us as we all have experienced or witnessed more illness and exposures among our co-workers, family members, friends and acquaintances. We are at a critical stage regarding COVID where we as citizens need to do our part to help stop the spread and protect ourselves, co-workers, friends and families.

Attached are current and updated policies regarding COVID. We have created these policies to meet and/or exceed the guidance we have received from the federal government and Center for Disease Control (CDC). The policies require our employees to follow safety guidelines including social distancing and wearing face coverings anytime you are in common areas within our facilities including hallways, restrooms, work rooms, break rooms, shops, etc. Employees that do not follow any directive, policy or guideline related to the pandemic may be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination.

Regarding what you do outside of the work place, I encourage you to follow all safety guidelines and protect yourself, your family and friends. As we go into the holiday season, I hope you discuss with your family how you can safely celebrate the holidays while protecting yourselves and your families, especially older family members and family members with underlying health conditions.

I know we are all tired of dealing with COVID and I hope we will soon be able to turn the corner and begin working our way back to normal. In the meantime, we all need to take personal responsibility and do what is necessary to be safe and reduce the spread.

Thank you and please stay safe!

Jim

Just a reminder that the library will be closed next Wednesday for Veterans Day.

Voting will start at 7am tomorrow morning and go until 9pm. Molly will be here to open and I will be here from 6pm-9pm. The gate will be down and signs will direct voters to enter via the Commons 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.   Johnston has four polling locations (listed below). This website can tell Johnston voters which is theirs.

• Precincts 1 and 2: Johnston City Hall (new building)
• Precinct 3: Crown Point Community Center
• Precincts 4 and 5: Stoney Creek Inn
• Precinct 6: Johnston Public Library

A reminder that on election day, next Tuesday, curbside is cancelled. Browsing and computer appointments are available as normal.

[UPDATE] The following has been posted to social media:

During the weeks of October 26th and November 2nd, some children and teen JPL programming will be canceled due to reduced staff at the library. One library staff member has tested positive for COVID-19 and she and those who worked closely with her are quarantining for 14 days. The employee did not contract the virus at the library and immediately quarantined once it was known that exposure had occurred. The Johnston Public Library values the safety and health of our patrons and staff. Since reopening the library building in June, we’ve introduced several precautionary measures including quarantining returned library materials, extra cleaning procedures, limiting the number of patrons in the building, and requiring masks and social distancing. Curbside pick-up of library materials will continue and the library building will remain open for computer use and browsing by appointment. Visit www.johnstonlibrary.com to learn more.

Megan has tested positive for Covid-19. She met with four other staff outside of work last week before knowing she was exposed. Megan and the four other staff will be quarantining for 14 days. Molly, Beth, and I are meeting this morning to determine if we have coverage to continue in-building services.

I am discontinuing our new item newsletters. These were periodic emails sent to subscribers that listed new items from various categories–DVDs, Fiction, etc. This year, a “hacker” subscribed hundreds of emails to the newsletters of people who don’t want them. On top of that, viewing new items on our website is easy enough that I doubt their utility.

Megan hung out with someone over the weekend who has since tested positive for Covid-19. Megan is not displaying symptoms but, per city policy, will quarantine for 14 days. She’ll let us know if anything about her health changes.

The library’s phone will be down between 8am and 10am tomorrow morning as city hall moves the system to the new building.

[UPDATE 2] The voter registration/ballot drop-off table for this coming weekend is back on.

Lina Gill will be setting up a table for voter registration and ballot drop-off this Saturday and Sunday and the next from 12-2 outside the library. She doesn’t need anything from library staff. Her role is non-partisan; she is authorized to collect ballots from voters of any party affiliation.

Up to now, PC and Browsing appointments have been set to allow scheduling no sooner than one hour from the current time–e.g. if it’s 10am, no appointments could be scheduled sooner than 11am. In order for staff to be more accommodating in scheduling patron appointments, that gap has been removed–at 10am, for example, we can now schedule a browsing appointment for a patron for 10:20am. If you schedule an appointment that’s within 30 minutes of the current time, please post it on the Slack public service desk channel.

Patrons now have the option of requesting a copy of the latest Book Page when they make a holds appointment. The box of the newest edition is next to the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten supplies.

From Janet, the city’s communication specialist:

NORTHWEST POLK COUNTY RESIDENTS’ CHOICE FAVORITES IN JOHNSTON

The PS/YS and Circ. desk schedules have been added to the header menu on the intranet. These are “live” documents so they should always be up to date.