Author: Eric Melton

The contact information for Jessica is incorrect on the staff list.  Her cell phone number is 515-491-2590.  515-331-1743 is her HOME phone. 

Molly’s new e-mail is countryman@johnstonlibrary.com. 

Teacher cards will have access to Kanopy so teachers in the Johnston School that do not live in Johnston, will have access to Kanopy with a Teacher Card. 

We are a drop off point for a project that will be giving cards to kids in behavioral health units in the metro.

Donated cards can be placed in the blue basket under the current book club books behind the checkout desk.

More information is available at https://www.pleasepassthelove.org/paint-the-state-green

In an attempt to thin the wall of stuff barricading the circ. desk, we’ve moved a few things. The book sale printer and ID scanner have been moved to a shelf (see image below) and the book lists/bookmarks have been moved to the cash register counter.

Tis the season for giving. As a benefit of our partnership with Project Share (Star Cards) and the desire for more jeans days, the library will be participating in Casual for a Cause. Beginning November 1, staff can purchase stickers or buttons to be used for Jean Days throughout the month of December. There are 16 non-casual days in December (think Monday-Thursday).

Stickers are $1 – You can buy as many as you would like, but each sticker can only be used once

Buttons are $15 – Buttons can be used throughout the whole month of December

You may purchase stickers/buttons from me (Megan S.) or Deepa beginning on November 1. Cash only, please!

The last day to purchase buttons/stickers is November 30. Stickers/buttons are redeemable beginning December 1. 

You must be wearing the sticker or button any time you are wearing jeans on a non-casual day.

All money raised from Casual for a Cause will be used to purchase items for individuals participating in Project Share.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Just a reminder, if you are interested in attending this Friday’s open rehearsal, please let me know by tomorrow night (the 25th), so I can sign you up.  402-730-7668 is my number if you want to text me.  It’s at 7 PM at the Civic Center. 

If you want to attend rehearsals not originally open to the public, please contact Richard Early (Richard@dmsymphony.org), or Aaron Williams  (aaron@dmsymphony.org) about possible arrangements.  

Yep, another pay period has snuck up on me.

Please have your timesheet completed with PARs attached and placed in the green folder outside Eric’s office by Thursday evening at 8 pm.

As always, double-check that the hours on your timesheet match When to Work. If they don’t, please speak with your supervisor. If there are last minute changes, you may always send me an email and tell me that your timesheet is correct or that WTW is correct or whatever. 

Thanks,

Peg

Y’all, 

Please help me welcome two new Public Services people to the library. 

Kathleen Nubel will be working Wednesday and Thursday evenings and is a recent Library and Information Science graduate from Urbana Champaign. 

Stephanie Gibb Clark is a graduate student in Interdisciplinary Studies at Iowa State and will be working Tuesday evenings and every other weekend. 

Peg and I were both very excited by what we heard from them in interviews and think they will be a great addition to JPL. 

Please introduce yourself if you see them around and help acclimate them to our library. 

Thanks!

I took a stab at responding to some of the questions submitted in ahead of our meeting on the Ryan Dowd training. I didn’t address every question. If there’s one you’re dying to see addressed, let me know.

Is our policy of requiring a picture ID with a current address discriminatory against homeless people or other people without easy access to such IDs?

• Almost 90% of our funding comes from Johnston property taxes. We also get funding from the state based on our circulation to non-Johnston residents–reporting this requires knowing where patrons live. In addition, part of our responsibility is to keep track of library materials which includes knowing how to contact borrowers if needed. For these reasons, the Library Board has decided that knowing where someone lives should be a prerequisite to them having borrowing privileges.

I wondered about our sleeping patron policy, if we have one, and if we are needing to enforce it.  

• The Conduct Policy does not include a prohibition on sleeping. A sleeping patron, however, should not be allowed to disrupt other with their snoring or whatever. Please check out Ryan Dowd’s tips at http://www.homelesslibrary.com/sleeping.html

I was also thinking about his ideas on calling vs. not calling the police.  I am thinking that our ways lean toward calling the non-emergency when we feel uncomfortable. Is that still okay?

• If a situation seems unsafe for you or patrons or involves something illegal, call the police. See also the “Major Violations” section of the Conduct Policy: https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Library-Policy-Manual.pdf

Does the city of Johnston offer any resources for homeless people in Johnston?

• No, but Polk County has a lot of good information on mental health resources and homeless shelters at http://polk.ia.networkofcare.org/mh/

How involved should circ staff be in a situation? In past meetings, we were told to let Reference & Youth handle issues & disturbances. Maybe this is this different from what we’ve discussed in the past? Just trying to understand the boundaries.

• While all staff should be prepared to respond to difficult situations, our general guidelines on who should respond to behavior and other issues are still as follows:

• Because Public Services and Youth Services staff are:

  • generally more available to leave their desks to respond to behavior-related incidents

  • trained to submit conduct reports and escalate consequences in accordance with the Conduct In the Library Policy

  • more familiar with many frequent-offenders

please report behavior issues you observe to either Public Services or Youth Services staff who will respond.

“Poverty is inevitably loud”. However, a library may or may not be loud. He did not give any real ideas on how to share a space. He had lots of good comments on understanding the “whys” behind volume differences, but not on space-sharing with different volume expectations.

A 2013 article from Pew on libraries and noise says,

One of the interesting findings that surfaced throughout our research, whether in our nationally representative phone survey, in-person focus groups, and our online panel of librarians, was that Americans want many things from their libraries. About three-quarters said that they want quiet study spaces available, but a similar number said they want programs and classes for children and teens, for instance — a decidedly un-quiet service!

If there’s one thing our research shows, it’s that there’s no one thing people want their libraries to be.

When it comes to noise in the library and how we should respond to it, I think we need to consider:

• Where is the noise happening?

  • Is it happening at the train table, where most would agree that some noise is ok, or is it happening in Study Room 4, where a degree of quiet is expected by staff and other patrons?

• What’s the context?

  • Has a program just ended? Will the crowd disperse soon? Are we having a rock concert?

• Is the noise disrupting others’ use of the library?

  • The first, and most important, line in the Library’s Conduct Policy reads, “The Johnston Public Library is committed to providing a safe, comfortable environment for the use of materials and facilities.” Later, in the list of examples of violations of the policy, the Conduct Policy reads, “Creating unreasonable noise or engaging in boisterous activity (unless caused by a disability), using personal electronic equipment at a volume that disturbs others, or otherwise engaging in behavior that interferes with the rights of individuals to use Library materials and services.”

  • We’re more fortunate than some libraries in that our building is structured so that sound in one area doesn’t always impact another area. Play in the Youth Services area will probably not bother someone studying in the southeast corner, for example. In other words, in many cases we can accommodate a variety of uses and preferences because of the building’s layout. Other times, like when the “Adult PCs” are full of gamers excited about their game while other patrons are studying quietly at the tables along the north wall, patrons are trying to use the same or adjacent spaces in conflicting ways.

One other note about noise. At the Library Foundation’s November meeting, I’ll propose a project that would create a glass-walled room in the old copier area. When not used for programs, this room would be an adult quiet lounge (not that kind of adult lounge)–with comfortable furniture and probably computers. Stay tuned.

The notice below went out this morning to patrons who have checked out a digital magazine from us in the past three months:

You’re receiving this email because sometime in the past three months you’ve checked out a digital magazine from the Library using RBDigital.

This is the time of year that we renew our digital magazines. Just prior to our renewal, we received notice that the State Library of Iowa chose to begin offering digital magazines via Bridges—the statewide consortium where libraries offer patrons e-books and e-audiobooks.

To avoid duplication of digital magazine subscriptions, we’ve decided to renew only those RBDigital magazines that are not available via Bridges.

Magazines can be found via Bridges at https://bridges.overdrive.com/bridges-johnston/content/collection/217420 as well as on the Overdrive app or the Libby app—both available wherever you get apps for your device.

The RBDigital magazines will continue to be available at https://www.rbdigital.com/johnstonia/service/magazines/landing  and via the RBDigital app.

In addition to these changes, RBDigital will no longer offer magazine titles published by Meredith. I’ve included a list of these titles below.

Please let me know if you have any questions of if you need help getting started with Bridges magazines. 

I posted information a couple of weeks ago about magazines now being available via Bridges/Overdrive.

Our e-magazine service via RBDigital is one we share with 7 other libraries.  Many of the magazines available on Overdrive are titles we were already subscribing to via RBDigital. The group has decided to drop the duplicate subscriptions from RBDigital and add comics/graphic novels to our subscription. These changes will take place over the next few weeks. I’ll keep everyone posted.

Kaylee Jones left her JCSD iPad in the YA area. I called the phone number on her account and spoke with her mom. Kaylee’s mom will be in to pick it up tomorrow (Thursday) morning. It will be locked in the gray cabinet. 

Seth Nicholson’s wallet was found at public PC #2. I spoke to him and told him we would lock it in the gray cabinet. His photo ID is in his wallet so you can identify him by picture.

Peg

We have an awesome new streaming video service available for patrons who live in Johnston. Johnston residents need to create an account then verify their library card number and password. Each cardholder is allowed up to ten views each month. Please review the details at https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/kanopy/

Hey y’all, 

Early satellite voting has begun at JPL. Early satellite voting is available Mon-Fri 10am to 4pm beginning October 15 through Oct 30, and Saturday, October 27 10am-4pm. 

Most days it will be in the West Meeting Room. Friday, October 19 and Monday, October 22 Early Voting will be in the meeting room hallway to allow for Pumpkin Patch. 

If people ask, voters who are already registered need only provide their name to vote. If a peron needs to register to vote, they will need to provide either a government photo id or the last 4 digits of their social security card. Satellite Early voting is available for all Polk County residents at any satellite voting location (including ours). 

Ayan Osman left her JCSD-issued iPad at the library at close Saturday. I sent an email to the email address in her account. The iPad has been locked in the gray cabinet. If you have questions on Sunday, see Megan B.

Thanks,

Peg

I apologize for the delay in distributing Sergeant Agan’s presentation at the all-staff meeting on strategies for de-escalating tense situations. It’s linked below.

http://catalog.johnstonlibrary.com/share/JFD%202%20Hour%20Block.pdf

The costum swap starts Saturday and goes through Monday. It will be open all day in the area behind the adult music CDs. We have several volunteers signed up to faciliate things. I’ll be in Saturday morning to make sure things get started ok.

As Circ Associates clean out the lost and found, we are finding some things that might be dealt with in a better way than using the Lost and Found. Sometimes we are finding books from other libraries which we could/should return via Open Access. We have also found things with identifying information where we could have notified the owner. Just today, we found one of the library’s wifi hotspots from the Learning Tools collection….

Basically, just take a close look at the item and try to determine if the lost and found is the best place for it. Thanks in advance!!! Let me know if you have any questions! 

Have you turned in your time sheet for this pay period yet? You still have until Thursday evening at 8 pm to “get ‘er done.” 

If you are eligible for PTO, don’t forget to attach your completed PAR to your timesheet.

Oh, and remember to double-check the hours on your time sheet against your scheduled hours in WTW. Check with your supervisor regarding any discrepancies.

Thanks!

Peg