Author: Eric Melton

The DMARC Mobile Food Pantry visit scheduled for this afternoon has been cancelled due to inclement weather.

I will be doing a training session on the “Website” portion of our all-desk services trainings tomorrow after the staff meeting for any staff who want to stick around. It should take 30-45 minutes. No registration required.

Our new, down-sized food donation bin will be kept below the self-check.

The library is closing at 2pm today.

Molly, Beth, Megan, and I will soon begin sending out sign-ups for the all-desk services trainings discussed at the most recent staff meeting (see the complete list below).  There will be multiple opportunities to complete each training and we will work with staff to schedule trainings at times that work best for you. If you’d like to attend a training that’s scheduled during your regular shift, please consult your supervisor first to ensure coverage.

Next week, a shredding company will be bringing two bins similar to the one shown below. The documents inside will be picked up and shredded once each month. These will take the place of our shredder which will be put in storage.

From Polk County Emergency Management:

Snowfall returns Friday morning as a winter storm takes aim on the region. The snow may be heavy at times during the morning and afternoon hours before eventually transitioning into a period of light wintry mix or freezing rain. Strong northwest winds develop Saturday which could lead to areas of blowing snow, in addition to lingering light snowfall Saturday morning. Highest snowfall accumulations nearing 6 inches will reside in north central Iowa with lesser amounts of 3 to 4 inches further south.

2019 W2 forms have been placed in your mailboxes.

The library’s current notaries are:

• Beth
• Peg
• Stephanie
• Erin
• Abbi

Lydia will be a notary by March. If none of these staff members are working, notary services are not available.

We all know about the weather expected this afternoon and into the weekend. I generally don’t like to close the library early or open late unless 1) it’s obvious to me that the weather is going to be bad enough that anyone driving will be unsafe or 2)  enough staff tell me they feel like it will be unsafe for them  to get to or from work. During a weather event, if you’re at work and feel like you should leave or if you’re at home and can’t make it in please let your supervisor or myself know—in-person or via phone or text.

Eric

515-250-5381

Ann is having some health issues again. If you’d like to feed her, sign up for a week via the link below. Food can be left in the staff fridge.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EzxGTWPhQgae3anS2dDjXRXNhqh5445PlUywcftHmj0/edit?usp=sharing

Living History Farms has dropped out of the Adventure Pass program. I believe they’re closed for the season so we may not get questions about it until the spring.

The vendor for our Adventure Pass website has removed the print button from the confirmation page. To print from the kiosk at the checkout desk, patrons will need to click the printer icon in the toolbar at the top of the screen.

Our banks–both the Foundation’s and the city’s–won’t accept Canadian coins. Please don’t accept them from patrons.

I’d like to invite all staff to attend (on the clock of course)  the Innovative Libraries Online Conference on Thursday, January 16th, 9am – 4pm in the Archive Room.

The conference has several sessions some of which may not be of interest to you given your particular role at JPL. Please take a look at the schedule and attend those you’re most interested in.

Please register via the link below:

https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/events/?event_page=registration&did=34474

The website is fixed. I apologize to everyone for whom it caused more work today. Merry Christmas!

Our website’s SSL certificate has expired just in time for my vacation. Patrons are going to receive a message that the site is not secure. They will need to click “advanced” or “show details” in order to get the site to work. I’ve tried to fix this remotely but it’s not something I can handle without being at work.

Use the “TS News” category when creating news on the intranet to only send notifications to TS staff. View an archive of TS News via the “Departmental News” menu.

A couple of changes to notification of new intranet news:

• If you want all staff to be notified of your news, you must select the “All-Library News” category. You can also add additional categories.
• News assigned to the “YS News” or “Circulation News” categories (and not also assigned to the “All-Library News” category)  will only be sent to staff in those departments and will not be listed on the intranet home page. Instead, these news items will be accessible via the links in the “Departmental News” menu on the right side of the page.