Author: Eric Melton

Thanks to Terry, the Premier engineer, the workroom Xerox is once again available for all serviices.

Terry even set the machine so that it won’t ask us to confirm the paper each time we open the tray!

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A Premier engineer will be out in the morning to fix the printer.  It is turned off and should remain off until then.

If you need to print, you can use either the HP LaserJet Pro (black and white) in TS or the Xerox WorkCentre 6655 in Youth Services. If you need help installing a printer on your PC, please let me know.

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Please do not send jobs to the Xerox Workstation 7725 in the workroom until further notice.  Print jobs are getting stuck in the queue and are not printing.

Thanks for your patience.

While putting off folding laundry tonight, I was thinking about the Ted Talk we watched at last week’s staff meeting and his reference to how simply being observed by others often causes us to change our behavior in some way. I was also thinking about Michael’s latest trip on the book bike to the Johnston Little League at Lew Clarkson Park. A common experience we’ve both had with the book bike is that people are either: 1) more interested in talking about the bike than the library; 2) afraid that we’re selling something and avoid eye contact; or 3) realize who we are and keep walking (I’m sure there are more than 3 types but I’m stopping here for now). Maybe the #3s are in too much of a hurry to stop. Maybe they don’t know about the kinds of things we offer now. Or maybe they had a bad experience at school or some other library. Their teachers, parents, or whoever didn’t think they did well. They resented being thought of as a “bad” reader or student or whatever. Maybe they were left with a bad feeling toward institutions that remind them of education. 

A big part of our job is not only showing people the path to the whatever they came to the library for but also trying to clear that path–to make the whole process of getting library stuff as painless as possible. Sometimes what stands in people’s way is fear of judgment. Maybe they don’t know how things are organized and don’t want to ask; maybe they’re not sure how to phrase the question because they can’t think of what we know or what we have that could answer it. 

The point is, there are likely people out there that have this kind of experience and it presents a barrier to them using the library in ways that could help them. A simple thing we can do is to try not to express negative judgments in our interactions with patrons. (I suppose this is the same as being friendly.) I think we do a great job at this and this is a big part of why we have so many regular patrons and why I hear so much positive feedback about patron’s experiences at JPL.

The other day a lady at the reference desk approached and said, “I’m looking for a book but I don’t even know the whole title.” I had to coax the question out of her–try to convince her that there was no price to pay for a half-baked question. “I might be able to find it.” She thought for sure she didn’t have enough information to even ask the question and felt embarrassed. Finally she said, “It’s ‘Breath Becomes’ something.” I thought, “C’mon, lady.” She was ecstatic that I knew what book she meant.

PBS has a special eight-part series this summer called The Great American Read. You can look here for more information: http://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/about/show/ 

I enjoyed looking through the list of 100 best-loved novels to see what I have read (not enough), what I will never read (Twilight series and 50 Shades of Grey), and what I’m embarrassed I’ve read. Anyway, it’s an interesting list.

Have fun checking it out!

Abbi 🙂

The Science Center and a Des Moines-area moms group posted information about library Adventure Passes on Facebook that’s getting a lot of attention. Rather than wait until June 2nd, Adventure Passes will go live today. For now, the only link on the website is on the homepage below the main menu. A landing page will be created soon with a link someplace within our main menus.

I’ve also added a kiosk at the circ. desk for patrons to reserve and print adventure passes. This can only be used to create and print NEW reservations–it cannot print existing reservations.

More information about Adventure Passes

We have four large pizzas coming around noon today. Andrew Chicchelly’s friend Gene sent a card today (find it in the breakroom) that included a nice note and $50 for pizza! If the Friday staff don’t eat it all, there will be two cheeses, one pepperoni, and one sausage for the weekend crew to munch.

PLUS we have 12 brand new forks in the break room!

Agenda – All Staff Meeting 5/24/2018

• TS/IT

  • New Launchpads

    • Several new launchpads have been added. These new devices come in a slightly different case–a clam-shell rather than a lunchbox–but are otherwise the same as our current launchpads.

  • Video games

    • Video games and their cases are now kept behind the circulation desk. Vinyl sleeves with game information–similar to our learning tools tags–will be on display in the videogame bin and can be swapped for the actual game at checkout.

• Public Services

  • Summer Reading

    • Summer reading begins June 2nd. The theme this year is “Libraries Rock”.

    • Log

  • Beginning ESL

    • A new ESL class will begin in July. It will be held each Thursday, 6pm-8pm. Registration is not required. Students can start attending the class at any point. In other words, the class will not be setup with a particular start or end date.

  • Our Story Programs/Genesis

• Youth Services

  • Summer Reading

    • Summer reading begins June 2nd. The theme this year is “Libraries Rock”.

    • Logs

      • Kids

      • Teens

  • Beth Schaefer is our new YS Intern. She recently graduated from the University of Illinois with a Masters degree in Library & Information Science. She’ll be with us until sometime in August.

  • Teen Summer Reading Video

    • Jessica’s Teen Advisory Board wrote, performed, and edited a summer reading video that won the 2018 Teen Video Challenge.

• Molly/Circulation

  • Hot Picks

    • A new collection of popular books and DVDs called “Hot Picks” will be available soon. Materials in the collection, which take the place of “The Moment” display near the new adult books, will not be holdable or reservable and will have shorter circulation periods–2 weeks for books, 3 days for DVDs. Patrons will be able to checkout 2 books and 2 DVDs (i.e. 4 items total) at a time from Hot Picks.

  • Adult Literacy & ESL shelves

    • A new section of adult readers–similar to easy readers but with age-appropriate content–and ESL books and audiobooks will be available soon.

• Eric

  • Adventure Passes

    • Adventure Passes (see here) will go live June 2nd.

  • ALA’s Choose Privacy Week – May 1-7

    • Ted Talk: Glenn Greenwald

    • New technology raising privacy and other concerns

      • Aerial Surveillance

        • Washington Post: video

        • RadioLab: podcast

      • Facial Recognition

        • MSNBC: video

      • License Plate Tracking

        • CNN: video

        • Newsy: video

        • Verge: ICE is about to start tracking license plates across the US

      • Cell Phone Tracking and Interception / “Stingrays”

        • ACLU: article

        • Note to Self: podcast

      • Fake Audio and Video

        • RadioLab: podcast

      • Learn More

        • ACLU

        • Electronic Frontier Foundation

I received this in an email from Andrew Chicchelly’s good friend, Gene. I thought it was worth sharing:

“Thanks for your kind words and kind approach to Andrew.  He had in most respects a difficult life, but the library along with his church were the highlights for him.  He loved coming to the library and enjoyed the acceptance he found there.  I would nominate you and your staff for awards if I could; you all have gone far beyond the job description.”

Hey hey, it’s almost the end of another pay period. Please complete your timesheets and PARs and place in the green folder outside Eric’s office by Thursday evening at 8 pm.

Thanks,

Peg

I received word today that Andrew Chicchelly passed away on Saturday. His service will be at Bishop Drumm on Friday morning. Click here to link to his obituary http://bit.ly/2kkOP5P.

Many of you may recall Andrew, an older gentleman who used a wheeled-walker with a basket full of books, and was accompanied by a tall slender man, Gene Larson.

Peg

Beth Schaefer, our YS summer intern, starts work today. Please help welcome her to JPL.

A patron’s car got a flat tire while she was here today (Sunday). She will be leaving it in the parking lot overnight tonight until her husband can come change the tire in the morning. Patron was on her way to work; luckily within walking distance.  The car is a Silver Chevy Cruze, license plate DSL 275.

A debit card was found with the name Peter M. Sand on it. He does have a library card here, and I left a message saying that it would be locked up for him. I told him our hours for the rest of the day and for tomorrow and said to come to the circulation desk to retrieve it.

The Teacher Card section of the Circulation & Library Card Policy has been updated. The previous wording excluded Polk County teachers as well as teachers who lived in Johnston but worked elsewhere.

Here is the updated section:

Teacher Cards

With acceptable identification, Teacher cards will be issued to:

• Public or private school teachers who live or work in Johnston or rural Polk County
• Homeschool teachers who live in Johnston or rural Polk County
• Preschool or daycare teachers who live or work in Johnston or rural Polk County

You may have noticed that many files and images linked in email notices of new Intranet posts don’t work. This is for two reasons:

1. The intranet is accessible only from staff computers. It’s easier to upload images to the intranet than to put them in a publicly accessible location. I like easy things. The images and files are uploaded to the intranet and are inaccessible when you’re not at work.
2. I don’t expect anyone to read work stuff outside of work. In fact, if you want to remove yourself from being notified by email of Intranet activity let me know. BUT be sure to check the intranet regularly while on-the-clock.

Adventure Passes–a service where patrons can checkout family passes to the Blank Park Zoo, the Science Center of Iowa, and Living History Farms–will go live June 2^nd.

Please take a minute to read an overiew here.

Most of the reservations will not require staff intervention—it’s designed to be self-serve–but patrons might need help. If a patron needs help, refer them to: Public Services staff, Youth Services staff, or a Circulation Associate (Erika, Lori E. or Rod).

I would appreciate any paper towel tubes or toilet paper tubes you might have. I’ll be using them in a couple of programs this summer. Thanks.

RECORDING:  http://www.libraryspot.net/Webinars/WorkingwithHomelessPatrons.mp4

SLIDES: http://www.libraryspot.net/Webinars/WorkingwithHomelessPatrons.pdf

I’d like to invite all staff to attend (on the clock of course) a webinar on working with homeless patrons on Thursday, June 7th at 1pm in the Archive Room. 

Please register via the link below if you plan to attend

https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/events/?event_page=registration&did=29212

Description:

The challenges surrounding homelessness can seem overwhelming. The homeless people taking refuge in your library have intractable problems, maybe mental illness, maybe an addiction. Homelessness itself has deep societal causes ranging from affordable housing to income disparity. What can a library possibly do, right?

Actually, a lot.

This live webinar offers two compelling perspectives on this topic.

Jared Oates, Niche Academy COO, shows how the most effective libraries are acting as a powerful catalyst within their own communities to implement practical and locally relevant solutions.

Ryan Dowd has been working with the homeless for decades and is currently the executive director of the second largest homeless shelter in Illinois. Ryan presents actionable advice on dealing with problems that arise every day in the library.

Participants will:

• Learn how to dealing effectively with the difficult situations that arise every day within the library–diffusing conflicts, enforcing rules, and responding with compassion.
• Discover how other libraries are acting as a powerful catalyst within their own communities to implement practical and locally relevant solutions to the challenges of the homeless.
• Discover additional resources and training opportunities.

Presenters: Jared Oates is a former engineer and director of product strategy at SirsiDynix. He is currently the chief operating officer at Niche Academy. Ryan Dowd is the executive director of Hesed House, the second largest homeless shelter in Illinois and the author of The Librarian’s Guide to Homelessness, published by ALA.

More at The Atlantic >>

http://www.weareiowa.com/sports/local-sports/johnston-sisters-running-for-state-title-in-3000-meter-race/1181750071.

She isn’t identified, but she is one of the shorter ladies.