Author: Eric Melton

Holidays In Johnston, the city’s/library’s annual holiday event, will be held Saturday, December 2nd, 2:30-4:30. The event includes a visit by Santa, music, cookie decorating, and crafts. 

We will also be judging a gingerbread contest that day. Entry forms are available above the inside book drop and by clicking “Holidays in Johnston” under the events menu of the website (a link to the form is in the event description). Gingerbread houses can be delivered to the library beginning Saturday, November 25th. Entries can be placed on the ledge behind the checkout desk.

Please let me know if you have questions.

Johnston Community Education will deliver Project Share Star Cards to the library today.  Project Share has been implementing a holiday giving program for 24 years. 

I have placed the cards in the Foundation Supplies drawer. 

The city of Johnston is pretty smart. It might even be the “smartest city” in Iowa, according to a new ranking released by Zippia, a career website.

The two incumbent council members up for re-election last night were defeated. In January, the seats of David Lindeman and Gerd Clabaugh, who had each served for eight years, will be filled by Rhonda Martin and James Evans. Department Heads and city administration will meet with both candidates over the coming weeks to provide tours, information, and generally get them up to speed. 

I’ve linked to Rhonda and James’ candidate Facebook profiles below as well as an audio recording of a candidate forum from October. 

Rhonda Martin:  https://www.facebook.com/rhondamartinforcitycouncil/

James Evans:  https://www.facebook.com/VoteforJim2017/

Candidate Forum Audio:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6lTezDMYi83TnBtNXJaZHdTTTg/view?usp=sharing

With several holidays approaching, this is a good time to review holiday pay eligibility and related issues. 

• 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. 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Since the library is closed on Saturday, please turn in your timesheets early again this payperiod. I’ll be double-checking them on Thursday afternoon.

Send me an email if this causes you a problem this week and we’ll work it out.

Thanks!

Peg

Over the next week or two, Circ will be shifting the adult non-fiction section to make more room for CD Books and Playaways. We will work to get shelf-end signage updated as quickly as possible. 

I received news today that our recycling service now includes glass, aluminum cans, and plastic–not just paper. Feel free to place these types of items in any of the library’s recycling bins.

I reset the system clocks this morning, but it may take up to 24 hours for them to reflect the correct time.

Happy Weekend!  I am wanting to do a staff picks book mark and would like to ask all employees to add their staff picks to the intranet by clicking on Staff Picks under Staff Resources on the right hand side of the page.  I’d like to get this done by Sunday November 12th. Thanks for your help! I’m excited to see what everyone is reading! 

The public printer/copier has been moved behind the Public Services Desk.

Please have your employees (and yourselves) stop by my desk or call me to verify their SSN and address so that their W-2 information is accurate. I am aiming to have this completed by November 16^th.

Please do not have them email the information since this is not a secure email connection.

Thank you.

Kathy Barger

Payroll Accounting Clerk

The Johnston Public Library Foundation approved a 2018 budget this morning. It includes a number of exciting projects and services. Take a look via the link below:

http://catalog.johnstonlibrary.com/board/2017-11/Foundation%20and%20Friends%20Budget%20Narrative%202018.pdf

With the arrival of new Playaways, we’ve changed the collection names to Adult Playaways, Juvenile Playaways, and YA Playaways.  The new spine label prefix will be PLAYAWAY.  You can limit a search in Polaris to a Playaway device by typing, for example, endangered playaway.

We’ll be changing the existing spine labels from Porta Books to Playaways over the next few weeks.

Our volunteer, Helen Robinson, cleaned all of the Book Club shelves and closed up the gaps between the sets.  The call number order remains, starting behind Missy’s desk: Adult Nonfiction, Biography, Fiction, Juvenile Fiction, YA Fiction.  As we acquire new sets, they’ll go at the beginning of the shelving, and we’ll do another cleaning and integration next fall.

If you need assistance locating a book, TS is happy to help!

 I’ve highlighted some of what was discussed at the October board meeting below.

*Capital Improvement Plan Projects

The board appoved inclusion of the following two projects in the city’s Capital Improvement Plan

1. Replacement of public restroom counters, tile, and stalls – FY20
2. Replacement of existing security camera equipment and installation of additional cameras – FY21

*Unpaid YS Summer Internship

The board ok’d hiring an unpaid YS summer intern

*Circulation Policy

The Board approved removing language from the Circulation & Library Card Policy related to checking out to patrons who forget their library card. 

The new circulation procedure that covers such cases says that patrons can check out without a photo ID or a library card if they verify two of these three pieces of information: address, date of birth,  phone number.

*Library Closings 2018

The Board approved library closings for 2018. See http://catalog.johnstonlibrary.com/board/2017-10/8%20Holidays%20Calendar%202018.pdf

*Strategic Plan 2018-2023

The Board approved the library’s 2018-2023 Strategic Plan. We’ll discuss the plan in detail at the November all-staff meeting.

For more details, remember that current and past board agendas and documents are located under Staff Resources or at http://catalog.johnstonlibrary.com/board/

The Library Board approved the 2018 Holidays and Closings list. It’s been added to the “Staff Resources” and is available at http://catalog.johnstonlibrary.com/board/2017-10/8%20Holidays%20Calendar%202018.pdf

I just received a notice from city hall regarding flu shots. Shots will NOT be covered for employees not on the city’s health plan. I apologize for the confusion.

FREE flu shots for all employees as well as dependents who are covered on the City health plan!

WEDNESDAY, November 1 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.

OR

THURSDAY, November 2 from2:00 – 4:00 p.m.

PUBLIC SAFETY BUILDING

Meeting Room

6373 Merle Hay Road

A Holidays & Closings page has been added to the website. Look for the link in the footer of each page.

https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/holidays-closings/