Category: All-Library News

Joann Cogil, who used to work at JPL, is retiring from the Johnston PD tomorrow. A reception will be held for her either behind the public safety building or, if the weather is bad, in their large meeting room at 1pm.

This is your friendly reminder that it’s timesheet week. Please turn timesheets in by this Friday before we close.
Thanks!

Peg (via Beth)

From ALA:

“In 2020, libraries of all types stepped up to meet the needs of their communities as they responded to the impacts of COVID-19, a national financial crisis, and social unrest. They were at the center of some of our nation’s most consequential work, including supporting accurate counts in the US Census, fighting political disinformation, and facilitating free and fair elections.

Libraries also extended necessary lifelines to community members facing job losses, healthcare crises, and remote work and learning during an unprecedented and uncertain time. As we assess the state of America’s libraries, we find 2020 was a year when library professionals answered the call to serve amid multiple emergencies and a year when library workers again proved to be essential “first restorers” or “second responders.”

Read more about libraries’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2020 in the State of America’s Libraries 2021 Special Report: COVID-19.”

http://www.ala.org/news/sites/ala.org.news/files/content/State-of-Americas-Libraries-Report-2021-4-21.pdf

Next week we will welcome two new Circulation Clerks, Akira and Sandy. They will be training over the next few weeks in Circ, and I hope you’ll take a moment to welcome them to JPL.

We typically do food for fines, where patrons can pay overdue fees with non-perishable food items or personal care items, during National Library Week which is next week. This year, we will delay Food for Fines until September which is Library Card Sign-up Month.

[UPDATE] City HR is still trying to get this setup. Cyndee announced this morning that if you can get a vaccine elsewhere to go ahead and do that.

City HR is coordinating onsite vaccinations for city employees via Unity Point. I don’t know when that will happen yet but they need a count of how many employees would like to be vaccinated this way. If you’re interested, please include your name on the spreadsheet linked below.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1chl-0WA-dyMn0CjMqmn34kct5q9VLYze7PLJ9pcv9tk/edit?usp=sharing

We all know that public perception in regards to Covid-19 protocols is changing rapidly. Businesses are re-establishing regular hours, restaurants and malls are getting busier, youth sports are starting up, even live music is happening again. The public’s expectations about what libraries should be offering now, how “open” they should be, is inevitably shaped by their day-to-day experiences at these other places that are reopening. As a place paid for by the public, it’s my view that public libraries’ Covid-19 protocols need to keep pace, broadly speaking, with the expectations of the public that pays for our services.

Beginning Monday, May 10th, we will switch from our current appointment-based method of limiting traffic to a capacity-based method of limiting traffic. To start, 35 patrons will be allowed in the building at a time. Patrons will no longer be asked to make appointments to use a computer or to browse. Study rooms will reopen for two-hour visits by reservation or, if a room is available, on-demand. Most seating and study tables will be made available but play areas will stay closed. While browsers and readers will be encouraged to limit their time in the building, that’s not something we will monitor or police. We will reopen on Sundays 1pm-5pm. Masks will still be required.

I realize that we’re making a big leap here. The relatively low capacity limit that we’ll start with, however, should allow for plenty of social distancing (see the map I’ve included below for an example of what 35 patrons in the building might look like) and I expect most browsers to respect our encouragement of quick visits which will allow for a steady rotation of browsers.

We’re going to be operating between two worlds for a little while: one where we have to accommodate those that have been vaccinated or are simply tired of Covid-19 restrictions and expect a return to normalcy and one where we have to accommodate those with a more cautious approach. I expect this plan to take us through most of this “in-between” period which I assume will last the spring and most of the summer. Details on how we talk to patrons about this change are forthcoming. Let me know if you have any questions.

I’ve added a new menu on the left side of the intranet for our Covid-19 services and information including a link to the Polk County Health Department’s vaccine information and our reopening plan.

The left door (left when you’re standing inside) of the right-most pair of Commons can no longer be set to unlocked with the alan key we usually use.   If you need to unlock a Commons door, unlock one in the middle pair.

Do you have a go-to strategy for helping readers with gentle reads? Whether your readers are fans of likeable ensemble casts or heartwarming stories about characters coming home again — let NoveList and LibraryReads break down the best gentle fiction has to offer your readers — from tests of faith to life in small towns.

Register via the link included below.

https://more.ebsco.com/crash-course-in-gentle-reads.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=all_cp_ww_novelist&utm_campaign=novelist_webinar-crash-course-gentle-reads_NOVLRE_20210421

Holds pick up appointment slots have been reduced from 3 every 10 minutes to 2 every 10 minutes. This can easily be changed back if curbside gets busier but I don’t anticipate this will cause much of a delay in when patrons can pick up their items. Tomorrow, for example, still has a number of open slots.

Update: The Polaris upgrade is complete. You can use the Polaris staff client as soon as Lori French has installed version 6.7 on your PC.

We’re upgrading from Polaris 6.6 to 6.7 this morning. Please do not use Polaris until the upgrade is complete. However, Circ 1 and the Bouncer laptop are available for offline check-out.

Our estimated completion time is 10 a.m.

I’m pleased to announce that Lori Elrick has accepted the position of Library Associate (Processing). Lori E. used to work in Technical Services, and we are happy to be welcoming her back home. She brings with her a wealth of experience in all things TS and will be able to get off to a fast start.

Lori E. will begin her new job on Monday, April 5th.

The shifting of adult materials to make room the music CD bins is complete. I’ll install the bins this week or next then a volunteer will move the CDs into the bins.

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

The latest Windows 10 update caused problems with the Dymo label software. If your label printer is printing blank labels, let me know, and I’ll install a software fix on your PC.

Department heads met yesterday morning to discuss further stages of reopening as we look forward to a tapering off of the Covid-19 threat over the next several months.

Patrons

Before I get into that, I’d like to address the likelihood that more of our callers and visitors will push back on or ignore our Covid-19 rules as more of them get vaccinated or just get fed up with so many months of restrictions. We’ve gotten a handful of phone calls recently, for example, from patrons questioning why our study rooms, play areas, and other parts of the library are still closed. Ultimately, the decision on when to reopen these things will be made by myself and the library board. I don’t expect staff to debate patrons on whether what we’re doing is beneficial or logical. Please know that you can always refer hard patrons to myself or Molly. With certain patrons, trying to argue that our restrictions are based on continued advice from the CDC and other institutions to, for example, maintain social distancing and continue mask wearing creates an opportunity for them to express their contrary views and to start a debate. I took a call from a dad yesterday morning who was upset that his daughter couldn’t meet with her tutor in a study room. I explained what services we were offering right now, that we have a plan in place to reopen study rooms when we feel it’s safe, and that we are just as excited to get back to some normalcy as everyone else is. When he persisted and began repeating his arguments against our rules, I told him that I had heard what he had to say and will take it into account but that I wasn’t going to debate him. That may not always work but it seemed to shut down his persistence and the conversation ended amicably.

As always, we should also be prepared for library visitors to ignore our rules—rules about hanging out and reading, for example, or keeping a mask on. Given the limited number of patrons in the building right now, these are not rules I expect staff to rigidly enforce. We’ll do what we can to communicate our expectations but no one should feel compelled to engage in a verbal tussle with a patron over a relatively minor infraction, particularly if it’s clear that the patron is knowingly violating our rules and is unlikely to comply. I’ve put one lounge chair near the magazines and newspapers to give patrons a spot to sit during their 30-minute visit. If you have other ideas that could help us accommodate patrons that our rules aren’t working for, please let me know.

Reopening

Those of you around JPL last spring know that, given a lack of guidance and the unpredictable nature of the pandemic, decisions on when to close, when to reopen, and what services to offer often came with only a few weeks’ notice. My hope is that the next phases of our reopening, where we start getting back to normal operating hours and services, will be a little more predictable but I don’t think that’s something we can count on.

Starting Monday, hold notices will invite patrons to come into the library to pick up their holds. The notice text will read:

The following items are being held for you at the Johnston Public Library. Your holds can be picked up in the library any time we’re open (Mon-Thu: 10am-6pm, Fri-Sat: 10am – 5:30pm, Sun: Closed) or you can follow the link below to make an appointment to pick them up via the library’s curbside service. If you’ve already made an appointment for a future date, don’t make a new appointment. We’ll bundle your new holds with the others.

In discussions, at JPL and in the public library community at large, about what library services look like post-Covid, a common topic is the likelihood that some form of curbside pickup is here to stay. How popular curbside will be as the pandemic comes to an end, however, is hard to say. Seeing how many patrons take us up on the offer of coming inside to pick up their holds instead of picking them up curbside will give us a sense of how we need to staff curbside going forward.

In May, the plan is to reopen normal hours on Sundays, 1pm to 5pm and to continue our current appointment-based services—browsing, computer use, and curbside pickup. In June, study rooms will reopen and we’ll stop asking patrons to make appointments to browse or use a computer. Curbside pickup will move from an appointment-based service to an on-demand service available any time we’re open. Holds will be shelved on the self-serve pickup shelves. Patrons who want to pick up their holds curbside will call the curbside number then a staff member will checkout the patron’s holds and take them outside. Sometime in July or August, we’ll likely resume normal hours, open the Archive Room for public meetings, and startup some of our smaller in-person programs. When Johnston’s schools start up on August 23^rd, we’ll start admitting patrons under 14 back into the library without an adult per our Unattended Child Policy.

After nearly a year of operating with limited hours and services and few patrons in the building, it’s going to be tough on all of us to transition JPL back to the kind of bustling library it was until last spring. We’ll need to re-acclimate to the sometimes-stressful encounters that come with being a place open to anyone. What will make all of this easier, I hope, is seeing the faces that we know and feeling how grateful our patrons are for what we do for them. Helping people is what we’re good at here and what makes this job special. Getting back to more of that is what we have to look forward to.

There are more details included in the reopening document linked below. Let me or another supervisor know if you have questions or ideas.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b7HQGm50bguUt3M6MeMeg0oHMdLKJUz8tIAqvzFGeoc/edit?usp=sharing

Abbi Waugh has accepted a full-time position as cataloger for the Des Moines Public Library. We are sad to see her leave JPL, but we’re so happy for her. This is a long-time dream realized.

In light of Abbi’s departure on March 18th, we are reorganizing the job responsibilities in TS. We are looking for someone to work as a TS Library Associate (Processing). This person will work Monday-Friday from 12:00 – 5:00 p.m. (25 hours).

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

• Job description for Library Associates
• Job tasks for TS Library Associate (Processing)

The deadline for applying for this position is Wednesday, March 17th. Interviews will begin Thursday, March 11th.

We will not hold our regular Shred Day event this year. Veridian Credit Union, however, is holding a shred event on May 8th in Ankeny from 9am to 12pm at the FFA Enrichment Center – DMACC Ankeny Campus
1055 SW Prairie Trail Parkway.