Author: Eric Melton

Des Moines Symphony in February includes the Family Concert on Saturday, February 18th at 1 PM at the Civic Center.  Program includes William Tell Overture, Symphony on a Stick by Peter Hamlin, and Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite.  Following week is Pops 3 at 7:30 at the Civic Center.  Hope you all can make it, especially youths on the 18th.  They will love Symphony on a Stick, as it’s a dedication to Iowa’s State Fair. 

Homemade wheat burger buns are in the freezer and are marked “Wheat buns for all.”  Help yourself, and let me know if you would like the recipe.   

The city has moved to online-only job applications. Those interested in viewing or applying for library openings should visit cityofjohnston.com/jobs. This link is also included in the footer of the library’s website.

The first phase of the staff room door installation is complete. In the next couple of weeks, electricians will install magnetic latches that will keep the doors open. They will also install buttons inside the doors that will release the latches for both doors. Once the latches are released the doors will close and be locked from the public side.

This is from the ALA Center for the Future of Libraries weekly newsletter. Applicable to our profession in many ways:

This week’s headline comes from The New York Times’s new “Journalism That Stands Apart” report – and it’s a refrain that ALA Past President Sari Feldman told me has been in her mind since she saw a short article about the report just a few weeks ago. Across industries, experts are looking at the changes in their world and recognizing the need to adapt their work, even while staying true to their guiding principles. 

W-2s have been placed in your mailbox. To repeat Eric’s previous message: the W-2s distributed Tuesday were incorrect; please use the one you recieved today.

We will be having a Food for Fines Drive during National Library Week, April 8-16. During this week, patrons may bring in 1 non-perishable food item in exchange for $1.00 of library fines. This does not apply to lost or missing items, just late fees. 

Patrons with more than $5 in fines will receive an email notice about food-for-fines a few weeks in advance. 

More information will be forthcoming from Eric and Molly. 

The library’s website now defaults to https instead of http. This provides a number of privacy and security advantages:

“HTTP is not encrypted and is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle and eavesdropping attacks, which can let attackers gain access to website accounts and sensitive information, and modify webpages to inject malware or advertisements. HTTPS is designed to withstand such attacks and is considered secure against them (with the exception of older, deprecated versions of SSL).”

-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTPS#Difference_from_HTTP

As with any significant IT change, it’s possible that this switch has broken something on the site that I’m not yet aware of. Please let me know of any irregularities that you find or that are reported by patrons.

Beth was hard at working cleaning the east meeting room kitchen today. It smells so fresh now!

We also labeled cupboards. Items available for the public’s use are in unlocked cabinets. Items for use by JPL staff and programs are in locked cabinets. 

The circulation security doors mentioned in previous posts will be installed Monday morning. Although I assume they’ll only be blocking one doorway at a time, expect to be inconvenienced for several hours. 

Timesheets for this payperiod will be due next Thursday, Febuary 2. I will be double-checking timesheets that day because I won’t be working on Saturday the 4th.

Each of you can do one thing to help me with this process, compare your actual hours worked as reflected on your timesheet to your scheduled hours in When to Work. The accuracy of your pay is ultimately your responsiblity. And for those that earn PTO, please complete a PAR and file it as soon as you make your time off request or ask your supervisor to complete one in your absence if you are ill.

If you need instruction on how to access and utilize When to Work please speak to your supervisor.

Thanks,

Peg

Check out Genevra Bell’s art in the display cases!

She is an Iowa artist with a Beatrix Potter flair!

http://www.genevrabell.com/about

City hall just informed me that the W2s I passed out yesterday are incorrect. Please discard them. I will distribute new ones as soon as they become available.

—————————————————

PLEASE LET ALL EMPLOYEES KNOW THE W-2’S RECEIVED ON MONDAY ARE NOT CORRECT.  WE’RE WORKING ON THE CORRECTION AND WILL GET NEW W-2’S TO ALL EMPLOYEES ASAP!!!

PLEASE SHARE WILL ALL EMPLOYEES AND POST!

Teresa

Audio dramas are audiobooks that are read by a full cast.  You can now search for them by entering “audio dramas” as a keyword phrase in the subject or genre field.

On our website, patrons can browse for audio dramas under audio books.

The kitchen in the east meeting room is getting a face lift. As part of this update, I’ve purchased towels for use in this area. The color theme is gray – an easy trigger that anything gray should be stored in the east kitchen drawers for use in that area. Having these available should help patrons clean table tops, etc. after use. And will be a great addition for JPL cooking/food programs.

If you want to identify the bags of goodies (Latino pastries) in the lunchroom, they’re from La Mona Panaderia on East Grand about 15th.  You’ll find they’re not so sweet as our US baked goods.

Thanks Dan!

Laura Rath started working as a library clerk today. She will be working everyother weekend and Monday nights. We are very excited to have her here! Please welcome her if you have the opporunity. 

Rod has accepted a role as Circ Associate and will be playing a large role in upcoming projects being launched by the Community Engagement Committee. Congrats Rod!

Friendly reminder to complete your timesheets and put them in the green folder by 8 pm today. If you have questions about the new electronic timesheet, don’t hesitate to ask your supervisor, Dreama or Peg.

Thanks,

Peg

Tax time is upon us and we’ll be receiving requests for tax forms. Here is a list of what is available at Johnston Public Library:

Federal Forms

• 1040
• 1040A
• 1040EZ
• Instructions for forms 1040 and 1040A are on order, but haven’t arrived yet.
• Publication 1132 Reproducible Copies of Federal Tax Forms and Instructions is on order, but hasn’t arrived yet.
• The forms are currently located under the map in the Copy Center.
• Forms are also available online at IRS.gov/forms

State Forms

• None – please refer people to www.tax.iowa.gov 
• I’ve printed screen shots of this webpage and the steps to get to the list of online Iowa tax form. The images are located under the map in the Copy Center.