Author: Dreama Deskins

With the seven new Wi-Fi hotspots joining our last remaining existing hotspot, I want to remind everyone that we have changed the check-in procedure. All hotspots are to be routed to Repair on check-in, even if they have a hold.

Repair staff will make sure the hotspot is functioning correctly before checking it in again and trapping the hold for the next patron.

Thank you.

Ashley Brackemyer will be volunteering Thursday evenings between 4 and 8 p.m., starting July 11th. Ashley will be doing the pick list, and she will be working with Amy T.

Please say hello and introduce yourself when you see her.

Technical Services has added several new people in the past few weeks:

• Amy Huynh will start Wednesday. She will be checking in and shelving weekends from 12-5.
• Amy Theulen started yesterday. She will be checking in and shelving from 3-8 Monday-Thursday.
• Cindy is a volunteer who will be doing the pick list and withdrawing materials on Tuesdays from 1-3.
• Sreek is a volunteer shelving 3-5 on Thursdays.

Please say “hi” and welcome them to the library when you see them.

Clarification: The Heartland AEA Van delivery service will continue to deliver materials to the school district administrative offices. Only the delivery to and from public libraries is ceasing.

The AEA Van delivery service is discontinuing due to changes in the funding and structure of the Area Education Agencies. Our last pick-up day will be June 13.

After June 13, we will be using IA Shares to send materials to other public libraries on the route throughout Iowa. Some public libraries that are located inside schools or colleges are not on the route.

For non-local libraries that are not on the route, we will use US mail. For Johnston libraries, we will use staff and volunteers to hand deliver the materials.

Check-in staff will continue to use a repair slip to indicate “Not a JPL item” and an expedite flag to highlight the item’s priority.

Repair staff will enter packages in the IA Shares Package form. For packages that can’t be sent via IA Shares, use the Notes area to indicate Local or Mail.

Repair staff will receive instructions on preparing materials to be returned via IA Shares or US mail.

If you have any questions about how to handle materials that do not belong to JPL, please talk to Dreama or Laura.

Here’s the problem with putting TS staff in charge of anything: We want everything explained clearly. Already we’re stuck on what to call the variety of book (material) return boxes we have. So here’s what we’ve decided:

Inside returns — book and AV at the south end of the Circ Desk

Outside returns — book and AV slots attached to the building

Drive-up return — in front of the building

Remote returns — at Horizon and Beaver Creek elementary schools

We’ll be using these names for the Daily Desk Schedule, but we won’t complain if you use your own names for them!

The director candidates will visit our library on April 11th. Here’s the schedule of events. If you have any questions, please ask your supervisor or me.

8:30-9:45 Candidates will be arriving 1/2 hour apart

8:45-10:15 Each candidate will meet with Beth, Dreama, and Megan in the Storytime Room

9:30-11:00 Lori French will give each candidate a tour of the library starting at the Storytime Room and ending at Study Room 3

10:00-11:30 Each candidate will meet with city HR in Study Room 3 to discuss benefits

10:30-12:30 Each candidate will give a 30-min. presentation to the public in the West Meeting Room (staff are invited; reach out immediately to Molly or Peg if you want to attend)

11:00-2:45 Candidates will be on their own for lunch

12:45-3:30 Each candidate will meet with the Board and search committee in the East Meeting Room

3:45-6:00 The Board will deliberate and select our new director

Board Member Kelly McAlister asked me to share the following post with all staff:

Hello JPL Staff –

We are excited to announce that we have 3 finalists for the JPL Director position.  We had a robust pool of candidates and we conducted semi-final interviews with 7 of the 20 applicants.  Word is out that JPL is a great place to be as many of the candidates mentioned the stellar reputation our library has and the desire to lead at our particular library! 

We will be interviewing the 3 candidates on Thursday, April 11th.  If you are available, we welcome you to join us in the West Meeting Room that day as each candidate gives a presentation.  The presentations will be from 10:30 – 11:00, 11:15 – 11:45, and 12:00 – 12:30.  If you attend, there will be an opportunity to give your feedback to the board about each candidate by filling out a feedback form at the conclusion each presentation.  

As a board, we are looking for a director that will be a leader not only in our library but also in our community.  We want someone with strong communication skills that can be that public face for our library.  We are looking for a director that excels at relationship building in all aspects of this job (with our staff, patrons, board, Foundation Board, and city administration and City Council).  One of their first tasks will be to help create a Strategic Plan that shows the direction and future that the library is going as well as a plan to maintain and take care of our aging building.  

Lastly, we thank you for your patience throughout this process.  We recognize that without a permanent director in place many of you have stepped up to consistently provide quality services for our community.   We appreciate you.

Sincerely,

Kelly McAlister

A follow-up to this message from Molly:

We would like to offer all interested staff the opportunity to sit in on one presentation. This will be paid. We are working on the schedule that day to make that possible. If you do not normally work between 10:30 and 12:30 pm on Thursdays and you are interested in coming in to watch a 30 minute presentation, please reach out to Molly and Peg before 03/24.

I reset the system clock, but it may take up to 24 hours for the building clocks to reflect the correct time.

I’m pleased to announce that Laura Rath has accepted a position in Technical Services. She will be a Library Associate responsible for Interlibrary Loan lending, processing, and withdrawing materials (among other duties). Laura will begin working in TS on Monday December 18th.

Laura brings to TS several years of experience with Polaris and overseeing the donations for the annual book sale. She also has strong organizational skills that she honed during her time at Grand View University.

Thanks to all of you who expressed an interest in working in TS.

A new self-check station is in place at the Circ Desk. We’re using a standalone barcode scanner (unlike the previous one that fit under the monitor). Patrons may need help at first learning how to place their cards and items under the scanner.

Ask your supervisor, Lori French or me if you have any questions.

I reset the system clock, but it may take up to 24 hours for the building clocks to reflect the correct time.

Ann Brown has decided to retire (again) effective December 15th. We will not need to say good-bye as she intends to continue to brighten our lives by volunteering.

Technical Services will need someone new to take on Ann’s job. This position will continue to be from 8 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Monday-Friday (20 hours).

If you are interested in being interviewed or if you have questions about this opening, please send me an email. I’ll set up a time for us to talk.

• Job Description for Library Associates
• Job Tasks for TS Library Associate (ILL Lending)

The deadline for applying for this position is Friday, October 27th. Interviews will begin Monday, October 30th.

We’re separating YA Manga from YA Graphic Novels. Manga are graphic novels or comics originating from Japan. They are typically read from right to left.

The call numbers for these new collections will be YA MANGA CUTTER and YA GN CUTTER. The cutter portion will just be the first three letters of the author’s last name or the first three letters of the first word (skipping A, An, The) of the series title.

TS staff will re-catalog and update the item records with the new collection and call number. Circ Repair staff will add an orange (YA GN) or green (YA MANGA) label to cover over GRAPHIC NOVEL on the spine.

Shelvers will interfile the YA MANGA with the YA GN. Shelvers will separate the GRAPHIC NOVEL on the shelving on the north wall of the library where YA CD Books used to live.

We will also be discontinuing adding a red or yellow Graphic Novel label to the front cover of YA and J graphic novels.

If you have any questions about these changes, please ask your supervisor or anyone in Technical Services.

Molly will return from vacation on Thursday, and I know we’ll all be happy to welcome her back. Many of us have a new appreciation for all that she’s been doing during her time as Interim Library Director!

I want to congratulate you all for doing such a great job of making my time as “Librarian in Charge of Escalations” go so smoothly. It has been gratifying to see you going about your daily assignments, working independently and helping your co-workers, as needed.

These past few months have been a time of change, and we’re still a distance away from our goals. Still, these past two weeks you’ve demonstrated a mastery of the new processes you’ve been learning. You passed the end-of-summer exam with flying colors.

Let’s look forward with gratitude to an autumn full of blessings – work that is both challenging and satisfying, co-workers who make us smile, and patrons who let us know every day just how much they appreciate all that we do for them.

Pagliai’s doesn’t have a working air conditioner in their party room, so Well Red Book Club will meet at the library this evening. We’ll meet from 6:45-7:45 in the East Meeting Room.

I’ve sent an e-mail to participants, and I’ve changed the location in the event calendar.

The Ref Desk is getting a new Windows 11 PC. Up until now, we’ve been staying with Windows 10. Windows 11 will change the way we log into the staff network — whether we use Windows 10 or Windows 11 PCs.

Up until now, when you log in, the server assigns the Public (shared) drive to the letter P:. For some staff, it also assigns your private folder to the letter H:. These drives will no longer automatically be assigned. Your login may remember them (even though it’s no longer being prompted) or you may have to map the drives one time on each PC you use.

Here’s the procedure for mapping a network drive. If you need help, you can ask your supervisor, Dreama, or Lori French.

Over the next few weeks, YA CD Books – Fiction will be moving from the YA area at the east end of the library to the adult CD books area. YA CD Books –  Nonfiction and YA CD Books – Biography are already in the adult CD books area. The new call number format for YA CD Books – Fiction will be CD BOOK F AUTHOR YA. This format is consistent with other YA materials that are integrated into the adult collections.

This move will give us more room for YA graphic novels and manga. We will be separating out the manga and adding a genre label to the spine. More news on this change after the YA CD Books have settled into their new location.

If you have any questions about this change, please check with your supervisor or with someone in Technical Services.

Update: Erik Rasmussen will be coming and going from the library to work on web projects. We have him set up in the director’s office, and he’s welcome to go behind the Circ Desk into staff areas any time the library is open.

Erik Rasmussen (Peg’s son) has agreed to help us with some web projects. He will be using the director’s office evenings and weekends.

Lori French has made space in the office for Erik. Please do not place items in the director’s office. If you need a place to store materials, let Molly or me know, and we’ll help you find an alternate storage space.

At last Sunday’s All-Staff Meeting, there were requests for a list of birthdays and work anniversaries. I’ve compiled the list and placed it under Staff Resources.

I used the start date listed in When to Work. For those who started here before we began using When To Work, the date listed is the date we started using the new scheduling system. If you want me to enter your real anniversary date for posterity, just let me know the date, and I’ll update the list.

Patrons are no longer automatically receiving instructions for learning tools by e-mail. When a patron checks out a learning tool that has instructions, offer to print or e-mail the instructions.

In the coming weeks, I will be adding links to the bib records and updating the tags for patrons to access the instructions on their own.