Author: Eric Melton

I sent the message below to all patrons active on Bridges in the past 90 days:

The recent storm damaged some of our internet provider’s infrastructure making our website inaccessible. Until it’s repaired, which may be several days, you’ll be unable to log-in to Bridges to access your holds and checkouts. I’m working with Overdrive, the company that manages our Bridges site, to see if they can institute a temporary fix for patrons to log-in and if they can give patrons a few extra days to checkout available holds. I apologize for the inconvenience. Let me know if you have any questions.

I just notified Shawn, our current cleaner, that we will be switching to a new cleaning service sometime in October.

Internet

Staff internet is back. To get it working, the city’s IT guy tapped into our public internet service through Mediacom. This means that our public internet is now down.  For PC appointments, I have disabled the Envisionware login screen on PCs 10 and 16 and connected them to our hotspot. Printing is working as usual.

Overdrive

Because our Polaris server is not connected to the Internet, patrons cannot log in to Overdrive. I’ve contacted Overdrive to inquire about a temporary workaround for authentication (like sending them a list of barcodes) and to see if patrons can be given a few extra days to checkout available holds.

Power is back. For those who don’t know, we closed early yesterday due to a power outage. I will email those who missed their browsing and PC appointments.

There is a new self-check in the YS area near the restroom.

I attended a meeting run by Parks Director John Schmitz yesterday afternoon about the development of park facilities in Johnston Commons, the green space around the library. Amenities being discussed include a playground, a large (70-80 person capacity) shelter with restrooms, a full basketball court, and a splash pad. The location of this development will be in the space between the pond and Merle Hay, not between the library and the barn. There’s a chance that some sort of shade structure over our west patio will be included in the project as well. Construction is planned for spring 2021. I’ll be attending additional meetings as plans develop and will keep you posted.

OPPORTUNITIES TO GUIDE FUTURE GROWTH OF JOHNSTON

The City of Johnston is a growing community, but community feedback is always needed to help guide businesses and residents’ wants and needs. City leaders and staff have been working on a draft comprehensive plan – the Thrive 2040 Plan. This plan will help shape the future growth, investment and reinvestment within our community.

As I mentioned yesterday, since we’re allowing same-day appointments for PC/notary/etc. and for browsing the person at the PS desk and at the front door will need to use the live schedule (rather than a printout) to keep up to date on each day’s appointments. I added a thing to the schedules that we’ll cause them to reload every 10 minutes. Just keep each open in a tab, either on the laptop at the table in the front or the PS iPad mini, and they should be up to date whenever you need to look.

https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/browsing-schedule/

https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/pc-schedule/

I’ve adjusted the settings on our browsing and PC appointment scheduling to allow patrons to schedule an hour in advance. Those monitoring appointments should use the website rather than a printout for the latest info. Curbside and printing appointments still need to be made a day in advance.

The HVAC people got the chiller and air handlers/fans running again. The building should be much cooler today. We’re still experiencing an intermittent problem with the chiller which causes it to shutdown. I’ve contacted the HVAC person who works on the equipment (as opposed to the technology). I’ll keep everyone posted.

FYI

A City of Johnston employee has tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19). Starting today, Wednesday, July 15, City Hall is closed to the public and employees until Monday, July 20 to prevent community spread of COVID-19. The drop box inside the front doors at City Hall is still accessible.

This employee is not believed to have had in-person contact with the general public through work; city employees who may have been in close contact with this individual have been notified of the potential exposure.

Upon learning of the positive case, the City took immediate action to protect all of Johnston’s residents and staff, as well as the infected employee.

As set forth by state and CDC protocols, the infected employee is now under self-quarantine, and remediation measures have been taken including notifying all appropriate staff and deep cleaning all City Hall offices and open areas. There is no immediate risk to the public at this time.

Someone is coming around 3pm today to fix the HVAC.

Happy Sunday,

Sorry to interrupt your weekend, but I know that a few of you have staff members who are currently out as we’ve had a number of employees who have been exposed to household or family members, or others who have tested positive for COVID-19.

The CDC has laid out scenarios and quarantine/isolation guidance (also attached) on when to quarantine/isolate employees who have been exposed to a confirmed positive, especially when the employee may have tested negative prior to the 14-day incubation period expiration.

At this time we will use the updated CDC guidance (July 7) for our return to work protocol – at least for non-public safety staff.  (IDPH and Polk County have offered guidance in the past for first responders.)

The bottom line is that if an employee is exposed to someone with a positive COVID-19 test, that employee is to quarantine for 14 days following the last contact they had with the positive person – EVEN IF THE EMPLOYEE TESTS NEGATIVE PRIOR TO THE EXPIRATION OF THE 14 DAY QUARANTINE PERIOD.

If an employee has had exposure with a contact/family or household member who is exhibiting symptoms but is waiting on a test or test results, the employee should remain at home until the test results have been received and then follow the appropriate CDC scenario guidelines.

Using the CDC guidance will help standardize how we return folks to work, set expectations for supervisors and employees on staffing impacts, and will offer employees information on how to handle positive members in their households.  (For instance, there is a difference in return time if a household member quarantines away from other members vs caring for or sleeping with positive household members.)

Browsers are welcome to return items to the inside book drop. Circ. staff should follow the same procedure as we use on outdoor returns.

We’re approaching July 20th when we’ll offer expanded hours for computer use and browsing (see the reopening post).  Instead of having two calendars on the booking page as I mentioned previously, I’ve moved the July 20 calendars for computer use and browsing to a separate page. Take a look here> https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/pc-scheduling/

To accommodate families of 4, I’ve changed the messaging about browsing from a limit of 3 to a limit of 4 browsers per appointment. The spacing of appointments has been increased from every 10 to every 15 minutes. Groups of 4 have been the exception so far. In these first couple of days of browsing, patrons have been grateful for the opportunity to pick books in person and have stuck to the 30 minute limit. I’d guess the number of patrons in the building most of the time at 8-12.

There were several errors on timesheets related to the July 4th holiday. Here’s how holiday pay works for part-time staff.

• 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 of the week) 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.

I’m not sure anyone needs reminding but a couple of summers ago, the board approved a revision to the library’s Dress Policy that made the period of Summer Reading “casual days”. Staff can wear jeans/dress casual during the Summer Reading Program.

As you know, browsing by appointment begins next Tuesday. We’ll have at most 76 patrons in the building each day, no more than 16 at a time–up to 4 computer users and up to 12 browsers (see image below for what 16 people in the building might look like). To give a sense of how that compares to our normal traffic, last July we had 500-700 patrons enter the building each day. All staff at a public desk during service hours will be required to wear masks. Given the recent increase in cases in Polk County, all patrons will be required to wear a mask as well–I’ll send a notice to those with appointments later today. Patrons will enter the front door as they have been. Masks will be available in between the entry doors and patrons will only be admitted once they’re masked. Walk-ins will be allowed if slots are available but anyone under 14 will need to be accompanied by an adult. Tuesday’s browsing appointments are full but the schedule for the rest of the week is pretty sparse.  Let me know if you have any questions.

If you’re back in the building this week, please complete your own timesheet and put it in the green folder outside my office by Friday. If you won’t be in the building before then, please let me know.