Author: Molly Guerra

Recently, we have had more people requesting that staff microwave food and drink. I’m going to let you use your best judgment on this. If you feel that you have time to quickly visit the breakroom and microwave a cup of soup or coffee, and you feel comfortable doing so, I’m okay with that choice. It would be wise to warn the patrons that most of the time library staff will not be able to microwave for them and they should plan to bring food that does not require warming in the future. Also make sure that the desk is covered when you pop back to the break room and please do not bring the patrons back to the break room with you J

If you don’t have time, you don’t know how long to microwave it, it involves complicated preparation or you simply feel uncomfortable handling other people’s food, please let them know that you are working on a library-related task and are unable to microwave for them and in the future, they should plan on bringing food to the library that doesn’t require heating.

The common message for patrons here is that, in general, library patrons should not plan on having a microwave available at the library and they should plan accordingly with their meal/snack planning. We should be educating them, very politely, in either case.

The common message for library staff is to feel empowered to say no to microwaving for library users.

Beth is offering a training on Sunday, March 29th from 1 – 2:30 p.m.  If you are planning to attend Megan’s training at 11 a.m. and would like to stay for Beth’s, I have an optionla hour of Circ Training/Meeting that we can do between 12 and 1 p.m. so you could work from 11 -2:30 rather than take an hour break between 12 and 1 p.m.

Let me know if you will be attending Beth’s training at 1 p.m. and if you are attending if you would like to do the Circ training from 12 – 1 p.m. on the 29th.

Thanks!

Hi All,

Please see the message from Dreama below. Do not switch the trays/paper sizes. Thanks!

Please let staff know that the trays are designated for specific paper types/sizes:

• Tray 1 – envelopes in the left side of the tray (follow diagram)
• Tray 2 – 8.5 x 11 paper
• Tray 3 – 8.5 x 14 paper
• Tray 4 – 11 x 17 paper

During the remodeling of the bathroom, Circ staff should unlock the two glass doors nearest the porta potties when we open. We will need to remember to lock them when we close.

This will allow for easier access to the bathrooms, but it will be important that we remember to lock them when we close.

I’m a little late with this post, but I’d like to welcome Carolyn Wall and Laura Akers to the library. They both began earlier this month as library clerks, and we are so happy to have them!

Hi All,

This is the text from an email that Beth sent to Public Services and we wanted to share it with you. A department head or Public Services / Youth Services staff will address severe body odor issues with patrons, but we thought it would be helpful for you to understand how we try to address the situation with the most positive outcome possible for everyone:

Y’all,

Last night we had a patron with very strong body odor (and some medical issues on top of that) who had to be asked to leave the library. Lydia and Lynne handled the situation and they did a very good job, but I want to put this out there so it’s on all of  our radars. I would imagine that this type of thing will only increase in frequency with easy bus access to JPL.

In the same way we’ve had to practice our scripts with behavior, I would like all of us to put on our to-do lists practicing how to handle body odor issues. Like most customer service things, it often matters less what you say, but how you say it.

Please take a look at these best practice scripts from the Librarian’s Guide to Homelessness. Get comfortable with them. Practice.

http://www.homelesslibrary.com/body-odor.html

Ann will still be here for us, you know humor and moral support, but starting Sunday, February 9th, she will be moving all of her hours to Technical Services.

Although she is impossible to replace, I am working with the schedule to fill some of her hours after she switches to TS. If you have any questions, please let me know.

If you leave a message, maybe let them know that our phone lines are down, for now, so if they have a question, they should email us :/

When you are checking in items, please use the Claims Missing Piece procedure. When you find an empty case on the shelf or at the Circ Desk, please mark the item with a circulation status of Missing in Polaris. Then put a note on the case with the date and your initials. Place the empty case in the box under the Incomplete AV shelf. We will leave cases there for three weeks and see if the disc turns up. After three weeks, we will put it to replacement.

The Circ Desk in the workroom is without a receipt printer, but a new printer has been ordered. For the time being (a week or so), it is probably easier to trap holds at the Checkin Desk, Molly’s Desk, the Circ Desk or Lori E.’s desk. If none of those stations are open, you should be able to trap the holds and the receipts will print from Lori E’s receipt printer. Please let me know if you have questions.

Kate’s last day at JPL will be Sunday, January 12. Please join me in wishing her the best. Hopefully, she and Shawn will still join us at the JPL Holiday Gathering (no pressure, Kate). A clerk position has been posted.

The security system, the small boxes by the staff door and by the light switches in the Commons, are alerting us every time a door opens with a small, quiet beep and a message saying which entrance opened. I am awaiting a call back from a second technician, but I’m not hopeful it will be before the weekend.

The fire alarms and security systems are still functioning.

Youth Services staff is working to shift and reshelve J Readers by color. Going forward, we will separate Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Orange and Pink on the shelves.

I have relabeled the pre-shelving area.

On the new shelf, we will just separate by color on the shelf. It won’t matter if all the yellows are in front of the blues one day and behind the blues the next. We just want to put them with the like color and alphabetize within the colors.

We have put check-in notes on the titles that have not been leveled and re-labeled. When you check-in items that have the old green reader sticker, please place them in repair and put them on the mending shelf.

Please see Molly with questions.

Going forward all AV repair will be completed by circulation staff. Please place all repair items on the circ mending shelf. You no longer need to place scratched discs or faulty Playaways on the TS shelf.

Please ask Molly if you have any questions.