Monday and Thursday night English language classes will continue through August. Classes will not be held in September and October.

An 8.5 x 11 flyer is available at the Reference Desk with a visual calendar to give to current and potential students.

Everyday English will NOT be held on Thursday, July 25.

Instead, Monday and Thursday night students, teachers, volunteers will be on a field trip to the Des Moines Art Center.

A DMPS bus will arrive at JPL at 5:15 pm Thursday to transport students and their guests to the Art Center.

If new students should happen to arrive for class at 6:30 pm, please apologize and invite them to return on Monday or Thursday next week.

If you have questions, please ask.

Peg

Please make sure to stop by this Wednesday July 17th to say goodbye to Molly as she moves onto her next great adventure.

Molly will be in the Staff Kitchen from 11:45am-12:15pm. For staff not scheduled on Wednesday, this is a perfect time to stop at the library and join the celebration. Molly will be out of the library between 12:30-1:30pm.

Updated 7/16/24

Please speak to Holly or Riddhi if you have questions about the following information.

If you are a part-time employee that is consistently scheduled for 20+ hours a week, you are eligible for PTO or Paid Time Off.

When you submit a Time Off request through When to Work, please do the following:

• In the Comment field, identify your paid time off as PTO=x# of hours and if that time off was scheduled or unscheduled. Scheduled means you asked for it in advance. Unscheduled means you called in sick, had an emergency, etc.

• If you request multiple consecutive days, please enter each day separately.
• On days you are regularly scheduled and are taking PTO, in the Comment field write the amount of PTO used for that day PTO=6hrs. See example below.

• In this range of consecutive days write No PTO Not Available in the Comment field for any days you are not regularly scheduled to work . This will alert the schedulers not to contact you about subbing.
• One more thing, don’t forget to attach a completed Paid Absence Request (PAR) form to your time sheet anytime you use PTO. Make sure you identify if your time off was Scheduled or Unscheduled.

These small steps make verifying time sheets more efficient and accurate.

Thanks,

Riddhi

Riddhi is up and running on scheduling staff in WTW and verifying time sheets. It’s time for me to move on from these tasks, so effective today, Riddhi is your go-to person for anything related to your schedule or your time sheet.

As in the past, please communicate via email to both Riddhi and Molly about scheduling stuff – they will be each other’s backup so it’s good they are both in the loop at all times.

Peg

Please send me an email if are not able to turn in your time sheet by this day and time rasmussen@johnstonlibarary.com.

FYI – McAuley has asked to change this month’s book club meeting from April 30 to April 23. I have updated the Event Calendar. This is just an FYI in case someone wonders why it’s not on the last Tuesday of the month as usual.

Peg

Because City Hall is asking us to turn in time sheets as early as Friday mornings, I’ve modified the deadline for getting completed time sheets due to me. I realize this is Monday and I’m asking you to submit them by Wednesday night, so please just do your best this week.

Refresher on how to handle payment for meeting room invoices.

1. We ask that patrons do not pay for usage until the day of the meeting because the city doesn’t give refunds if they cancel.
2. When patron arrives for a meeting with an invoice, please collect payment before letting them into the room.
3. You will find meeting room invoices at the Public Services desk in an expandable file folder in the lower cabinet underneath the catalog computer.
4. Invoices are filed in the month of the usage. There are two copies: 1) for the patron and 2) for the library.
5. Complete the information at the bottom of each form. Give the patron their copy and place the library copy in the last slot of the expandable file folder.
6. Do NOT attach payment (cash/check/cc receipts) to the library copy of the invoice.
7. Take payment to the cash register and follow all normal cash register instructions. Meeting room invoices are entered as OTHER.
8. If patron pays by credit card make sure you put the merchant copy of the cc receipt into the cash register. Do not put the merchant copy with the invoice. The receipt is critical for the city to balance the cash register and cc machine.

Once again, the City has requested that we turn in as many time sheets as possible on FRIDAY morning. I’ll prioritize time sheets for staff that do not work Friday or Saturday.

Last week, Christine and I worked with a patron who wants to download and print sermons from this website: Message Audio of Brother William Marrion Branham

This patron’s name may be Clarck and his phone # is 660-341-1384.

He may show you an app on his phone, but one cannot print from the app and we have to go to the website. He also wants these sermons translated from English to French. We discovered today, not all sermons are available in French.

Assisting this patron definitely takes 10 min or more. Because of this, when this patron comes in to the library please seek out an Assistant Librarian, Megan or Molly to teach him how to do this himself. If none of us are available, please make an appointment for us to help him.

Peg

JPL Staff Who are Notaries

1. Public Services Librarian: Elizabeth Stevens
2. Assistant Librarian Public Services: Peggy Rasmussen
3. Assistant Librarian Public Services: Erin McDonough
4. Associate Librarian Public Services: Laurie Balduchi
5. Associate Librarian Public Services: Christine Kane-Finn
6. Assistant Librarian Circulation: Mary Bush
7. Interim Director: Molly Guerra
8. Youth Services Librarian: Megan Sockness Teeple
9. Assistant Librarian Youth Services: Jessica Young
10. Assistant Librarian Youth Services: Sheila Olson

The printable flyer has been posted on the community board outside the book return room.

Annually, libraries must submit stats to the State Library of Iowa. Some of those stats reflect interactions with patrons at service desks. Anyone who has worked the Ref Desk knows there is a stat sheet that staff make tic marks for a variety of interactions with patrons.

Starting today, each service desk (Circulation, Public Services and Youth Services) will have a new form taped to the desk. We’ll never be perfect and remember to record every interaction, but please do your best to remember to make a mark after a relevant interaction. These stats support the important and varied work we do everyday.

You may click on this link to review the form. Desk Stat Sheet effective 2024.02.01

I suspect there will be questions so PLEASE ask!

Peg