Author: Eric Melton

We checked out over 91,000 items to non-residents in FY16. The chart below shows the top 20 communities.

This morning a brown wallet was in the drop box. It had Andrew Vanderkrol’s ID in it. I wasn’t able to find contact informtion for him, so Eric has taken it to the Police Department.

Lori F. and I revised a few of the cashier assignments to make room for new Circulation employees.  If you don’t work in Circ (and you’re not Eric), you should use 17 (Not Circ) when you open the cash register.  Here’s the complete list:

The Book Bike is here! You’ll likely get inquiries about it so here’s some information.

We’d hoped to hire summer help this summer to take the bike to parks, grocery stores, the movie theatre, soccer games, etc. but the project took a little longer than anticipated. It’s a little late to hire summer help. For the rest of the summer and fall I’ll be taking it to a handful of locations around town: the farmer’s market, Hy-Vee, etc.

Deepa is currently researching summer camps, child care facilities, neighborhood associations, concerts, sporting events, and other events and institutions in Johnston. We’ll reach out early spring 2017 to gauge their interest in hosting a book bike stop. We’ll hire a book bike driver in 2017 to make stops May-August. At each stop, patrons will be able to checkout and return materials, sign up for library cards, and use the bike’s Internet hotspot.

The book bike is a Workman Cycles “Mover” industrial trike that, without the added boxes, looks like the one shown below. The box and trailer were custom built by Mike Gustafson owner of Nestcraft Studio in Des Moines. To save the rider from hernias, the bike has been outfitted with an electric front hub capable of pulling up to 600lbs. Although several libraries around the country—including Denver, Rochester, and Seattle—have book bikes, we are, as far as I know, the first library in the state with one. 

A note from city hall regarding tomorrow’s paychecks. Consider it a bonus .

The July 1st pay adjustments affect the pay period in which July 1st falls in.  Therefore, the pay period of June 26th – July 9th and paid on July 15th will be the payroll in which pay adjustments will be noticed.  The pay rate change will be for the entire 14 day pay period.

Library PCs were used more times in FY16 than in all prior years. We recorded 18,196 PC sessions/log-ins. This is pretty remarkable considering the common perception that “everyone” has a computer and Internet at home. 

The yellow (or white) notepads at the reference, youth services, and circulation desks are intended for any kind of patron comments you feel are worth noting. These could be compliments, complaints, or suggestions. 

Hello all, 

Just a quick update that at this time the public printer does not print double-sided. If a patron would like to print something double-sided, please direct them to the Reference Desk and PS staff will assist them in putting their document on a flash drive so it may be printed on the staff printer. Also, FYI, the price for double-sided printing is the same as two single-sided prints, i.e. 15 cents per side for black and white and 50 cents per side for color. 

Double-sided printing is not requested often, so I don’t forsee that this will be a huge issue. 

Thanks! Ask if you have questions. 

Beth

The lens on the Cannon camera is missing the lens cover. The lens is more expensive to replace than the camera body. The cover was on the lens last Wednesday, so perhaps we can find it.

I put a payroll change form in your box. Please sign it and return it to the envelope in Molly’s inbox. This needs to be done by the end of this week.

At the last staff meeting, Maryann mentioned “the Internet of things”. The article linked below provides examples and discusses the current state of “things”.

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21700380-connected-homes-will-take-longer-materialise-expected-where-smart

Fiscal Year 2016 has come to an end. We should all be proud of our contribution to JPL circulating more materials this past year than ever before. We have a number of exciting things to look forward to this coming year including the roll out of the book bike (if you don’t know what I’m talking about click here), new additions to the Tech Lab including an 8mm and Super 8 film reel scanner, more training opportunities, exciting programs, and more!

The 2016 Des Moines Symphony Yankee Doodle Pops is coming up soon.  It will take place on July 1st at 8:30 PM on the Iowa State Capitol grounds.  It’s free. The Des Moines Symphony website has more information. 

Andrew Holms, Circulation Clerk, plays cello in the Des Moines Symphony.

A few patrons have returned Blu-ray discs noting that the disc is causing a pink screen on their TVs.  We’ve checked the discs, and they’re playing fine on our equipment. 

A pink screen is caused by a problem with the HDMI cable and/or the Blu-ray player’s connection settings.  Suggest that the patron shut down and restart all of their AV components.  The patron can also do a browser search for “blu-ray pink screen” to read more about possible solutions.

I’ve added a section called ALA Documents under Staff Resources with a link or PDF to some fundamental documents relating to our profession.  

Kinney has asked me to announce her retirement effective October 2016. We will begin planning a rager soon. More information forthcoming. 

The library board met last Thursday. I’ve highlighted some of the agenda items below.

Evaluations & Wages

 Staff evaluations are complete. All staff received at least a “Successful” rating which makes them eligible for raises. The library board approved on the proposed wage increases. 

Election of Vice-President, President, and Secretary

• Each June, the board elects officers for the fiscal year that begins in July. Kelly McAlister will move from Vide President to president. Robert Marvin will be vice president. Mike Israel will be secretary.  

Special Census

• Johnston’s special census is complete.The city’s population has grown 18.4% since the 2010 census. Find more information here and here

Programs

• We had over 300 attend the summer kick off magic show.
• About 325 attended the Belin Quartet on June 5th. Upcoming programs include Composting Made Easy, Star Wars: The Force Awakens outside, and Indian Desserts.

Privacy

• I’ve been reviewing the information we keep (or that’s ben automatically collected for us) that contains information that could be used to identify and/or track the checkouts or computer use of patrons. We made the following changes to further protect patron privacy:
• Set our PC reservation system to discard all log files nightly rather than weekly.
• Turned off server logging of Polaris API transactions. (The library catalog makes use of thePolaris API to exchange information with Polaris.)
• Asked Polaris to write a script to remove SIP (Standard Interchange Protocol) logs nightly. (The self-check and Overdrive make use of SIP to verify patron information and checkout materials.)

Connect to our work/find your specialty based on your Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator. I am an INFP and may or may not have cried a little reading mine. Although the job title doesn’t really match, it perfectly described why I love what I do.

An updated employee handbook is in your mailbox. Please sign and date the top sheet, tear it off, and place it in the basket on my desk.

Read about the revisions

JPL could use a team of staff responsible for planning staff-related events including retirement and going-away parties, holiday get-togethers, and sending flowers, cards, or other gifts or acknowledgements. The team will also need to decide how best to fund their activities. Ideally, the team will be made up of at least one staff member from each department. Please let me know if you’re interested in helping.