Author: Eric Melton

JPL was voted “Favorite Northwest Polk County Library” by Iowa Living Magazine readers! Grimes and Urbandale were runners up. I’ll be contacting the directors there to wish them better luck next year 🙂

We are a polling site for the upcoming general election to be held Tuesday, November 3rd. Curbside pickup will be cancelled on that day. The gate in the commons will be lowered and voters will be directed to enter via the Commons doors, not the main entry. Voting will be held in the West meeting room. While Polk County is not requiring voters to wear masks and we won’t enforce our mask policy in the Commons and West that day, we will continue to require masks of anyone who enters the main entry that day to browse or use a PC. Let me know if you have any questions.

Starting now, when myself and Molly are not in the building, Assistant Librarians or public desk department heads will be the “Librarians in Charge”. Going forward, the goal is to have at least one Librarian in Charge (or myself or Molly) in the building during all open hours. The role of the Librarians in Charge is to direct the library’s response to emergencies, troubleshoot technology problems, handle building-related issues, and respond to patron complaints, policy questions, behavior issues, and other situations that cannot be managed by other staff. In short, if you have situations or questions you and your peers can’t manage, find an Assistant Librarian–Brittany, Jessica, or Peg–a public desk department head–Megan or Beth–or myself or Molly. See the full Librarian in Charge description via the link below and let me know if you have questions.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZqmLvtjo49mOCrRfmpVDx4Rbvicgu6R1a0wbAuDzKvI/edit?usp=sharing

From city hall:

Good Afternoon,

It’s hard to believe, but moving day is upon us!

This evening, shortly after 5 p.m., we will be shutting down the network at the old City Hall to move the servers and switches to the new City Hall.

This means that there will be no email for any department until the network is back up.  If you need an immediate response to something, please call or text the staff member you are needing to reach.  Our plan is to have the network back up and running this evening, barring any unforeseen hiccups.  I will send out another email when we’re back up.

As a reminder, City Hall will be closed on Thursday and Friday, with regular operations resuming on Monday, October 12 at the new building.

Thanks everyone!

Cyndee

We now have some smaller paper bags for holds for pickups with just a few items. They’re near the others behind the circ. desk.

Early in-person voting in Polk County is taking place only at the Polk County Election Office. Details are included below.

POLK COUNTY ELECTION OFFICE

120 2ND AVENUE, SUITE A

DES MOINES, IA 50309

Monday – Friday (Sat Oct 24 & 31st) : 8A – 5PM

I put the bypass key in the coin-op so staff can now make copies without payment on the public copier.

The conduct report form has two new fields: the time of the incident and the category of the incident. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

https://staff.johnstonlibrary.com/conduct/index.php?page=incident

The State Library has just added several new magazine titles to Bridges. Our patrons now have more magazine titles available via Bridges than what we offer via RBDigital (see list below). Given this and the upcoming dissolution of RBDigital from their takeover by Overdrive, we won’t be renewing our RBDigital magazine service this fall. I will notify our RBDigital users of this soon. Let me know if you have any questions.

Reliable Maintenance will take over cleaning of the library on October 5th. Molly and I met with the supervisor today and mentioned the lack of attention to detail that we hope will not be an issue with his crew. They run overnight shifts for cleaning so you’re unlikely to see them at closing time.

https://www.reliablemaintenancecompany.com/

We now have an iPhone for curbside so patrons can text and call us directly rather than going through Google Voice. Messages and calls from patrons to the old Google Voice number will be forwarded to this new phone. Until all patrons are sending calls and messages to the new phone’s number,  which may take a week or so, we may still experience the delay we’ve seen with Google Voice.  Let me know if you have any questions.

FYI both Crown Point and Simpson Barn are taking reservations for meetings. Interested parties should contact  the Parks Department.

The Des Moines Public Library has compiled information on metro-area library’s services and hours. Our info. is slightly out of date so other’s may be as well but it provides a nice overview of who is doing what.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ai3X-8cHmlwFecJowf-qjKRL6kYkx2CeK3cJfP-U5mQ/edit?usp=sharing

We are seeking an Assistant Librarian for Circulation to provide additional support and training for staff doing circulation work. Internal applicants are welcome to apply. If you know someone outside of JPL that may be interested, please spread the word. Let Molly or I know if you have any questions.

Assistant Librarian – 25.75 hours/week – Some Evenings and Weekends

Under the direction of the Assistant Director, the Circulation Assistant Librarian performs a variety of tasks in providing library service to customers. Responsibilities include working in the Circulation, Reference, and other areas of the library as assigned. This position requires skill in customer service and behavior management.

Starting pay: $20/hour

Details and an application are available at https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/cityofjohnston/jobs/2866585/

Recording

[UPDATE]
The parking lot lights are fixed

We have short amongst the parking lot lights that’s tripping the breaker for the lights near the staff parking area. An electrician will be out next week. Until then, the staff lot will be a little darker after sunset.

The spacing between PC appointments has been increased from 20 to 30 minutes to accommodate more walk-ins.

An inclement weather version of the holds pickup sign has been added to the other side of the sign holder. Be sure to face the correct sign out each day at the start of curbside.

FYI If you’re remoting into another PC from the bouncer desk and want to use both monitors, you’ll need to click “options” on the remote dekstop app and check the box to use all monitors.