Category: All-Library News

From city hall. Policy linked below. Let me know if you have any questions.

COVID-19

Attached is the current, updated COVID-19 policy.  Please disseminate to your staff.  If you would like me to meet with any of your employee groups, please let me know some dates and times that will work and I’ll set something up.  Alternatively, employees can reach out to me individually if they have questions.  Please make sure your staff know how to denote COVID time on their timecards.  The Federal Act is set to expire on December 31, 2020.  We will review this policy as that date nears.

Key takeaways in the new policy:

• Employees are still eligible for the 2 weeks of additional sick time during the COVID-19 pandemic.  For illness or quarantine, unless teleworking, this sick time cannot be taken intermittently.  It may be taken intermittently for daycare/school closures as defined in the policy.
• For COVID-19 illness/quarantine, once that 2 weeks of time has been used, employees will be required to use accrued leave or take the time unpaid, per City policy. (No changes to benefits – FMLA applies.)
• For daycare/school closures related to COVID-19, the employee may take the first two weeks as paid sick leave and after that is exhausted, the City will pay employees at 2/3 of their pay and employees can choose to take the remainder as unpaid or use accrued leave. (No changes to benefits – FMLA applies.)
• Employees should submit a written request to their Department Director for schedule changes, teleworking, etc. related to school/daycare closures.
• Employees who are isolated or quarantined are expected to stay home.
• Employees may still “borrow” up to two weeks of PTO.  Separation from employment prior to this being paid back will be withheld from final pay.
• Domestic Travel – Employees should use prudent judgement and follow all CDC, state, and local guidelines applicable to their destination.
• International Travel – CDC currently in a Warning Level 3 – avoid non-essential international travel.  Employees must notify Department Director of specific plans and may be required to self-quarantine for 14 days upon return.  If sufficient PTO is not available to cover the travel and quarantine periods, the request may be denied.  If staffing shortage may exist due to the travel and quarantine period, the request may be denied.
• Work Related Travel – Considered on a case-by-case basis by Department Director.

https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Employee_Covid_v091020.pdf

Holiday week got away from me, sorry for the late post. As always, if you will not be in the building prior to Friday morning and you need assistance with your time sheet, check with your supervisor or email me. Thx!

Beginning this coming Sunday, September 13th, we’ll be adding Sunday and Monday curbside hours. Sunday’s hours will be 12-2 and Monday’s 10-2.

Polly Munck was one of several people who were instrumental in establishing a library in Johnston in the 1980s. She served on the JPL Board of Trustees and as a volunteer up until late 2018. While visiting family in Wisconsin, she fell on an icy patch and spent several months in Wisconsin recuperating. Polly returned to her apartment in Johnston but then moved into Martina Place.

Polly passed away on September 1st. We will remember her enthusiasm and her no-nonsense attitude. Polly impressed us all with her speed and efficiency when covering our book jackets. Her decades of devotion to the library humble us.

Many thanks to Molly for submitting Polly’s name to the Governor for recognition for her many, many hours of volunteer service. It was a proud moment (and well-deserved honor) for Polly and her family, as noted in her obituary.

We hit three months of curbside pickup this week and, at the end of today’s pickups, have served nearly 4,000 patrons (3,874 for the nitpicky)! A big thank you to circulation staff for your hard work and to PS and YS staff for chipping in.

YS Staff have introduced a new service called “Book Bundles” where patrons can request that staff select 10-15 kids books in various categories. Take a look at the request form linked below for more details:

https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/kids/book-bundles/

Holds for browsers can be placed on the two sets of shelves nearest the bouncer station.

Hey all,

Below is a quick video clip on de-escalation Erin sent me that she watched as conintinuing ed as a teacher. The clilp is about about how to de-escalate an angry person. I found it useful and thought I would share for anyone wanting a little refresher. This guy is not Ryan Dowd, but his philosophy runs along similar lines. He breaks things down into three steps:

1. Validate
2. Help people find options
3. Allow for choice

When you have 7 minues to spare, take a look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qsfBCatgX8&feature=youtu.be

You may have heard of the federal plan to allow employers to offer their employees the option of deferring their payroll taxes to ease financial hardship due to Covid-19. The city has decided not to allow employees this option. Their explanation is included in the memo copied below. Let me know if you have any questions:

Department Directors,
As discussed at Staff this morning, President Trump has signed an executive order instituting a payroll tax deferral program which is set to kick in today, September 1. (IRS Notice 2020-65). This allows employers to defer the withholding, deposit, and payment of the employee portion of the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance segment of the FICA taxes. This deferral applies to taxes on wages from September 1 – December 31, 2020. Payroll taxes are deferred and not forgiven. This means that on January 1, 2021 the employer will begin collecting the deferred taxes, with all deferred taxes collected by April 30, 2021.
Employers are not required to defer payroll taxes. Informal polling in the metro shows that most cities will not be offering this deferral. This is partially related to the fact that for most of us, we have not furloughed employees, or reduced hours for the majority of our employees. This program also presents payroll processing difficulties, and an unclear process for collecting the deferred taxes from employees who may leave employment prior to the end of the program.
Taxes are collected based on employee wages, so it varies for each of us. A baseline of what this would be are roughly $71 per pay period for those earning $30,000. (That would mean that in January, we would begin withholding approximate $142 from each check in that same example.) You can multiply that out for different earners. The threshold for eligibility is earning less than $4000 every two weeks.
We have determined that we will not be offering the payroll tax deferral for the reasons outlined above.
Please let me know if you have questions. (I’m happy to speak with employees who have concerns as well.)

Cyndee Rhames

We lend book club sets to borrowers for book clubs outside of the library. Technical Services, Miren, gets the sets prepared, checked out, and in a bag. She also contacts the borrower to arrange a curbside appointment and puts a blocking note on their account.

In case they drop-in for their items without an appointment, the bag is placed behind the Circulation Desk. The books are checked out to the patron and ready to go.

The website and intranet have been moved to the new server. Let me know if you experience any problems.

Update: The cutover is complete. All Polaris functions should be working. If you run into any problems, check with your supervisor or with Eric or Dreama.

We will be switching Polaris to a new server early Thursday morning. If all goes well, Polaris will be available by 9:00 a.m.

Lori F. and I will be walking around re-installing the Polaris software on all staff PCs. You won’t be able to use Polaris until the software has been re-installed on your PC and the Polaris database is on the new server.

Circ1 will be left on the old server until the cutover is complete. If necessary, staff will be able to do offline circ from that PC.

Do not check in any materials Thursday morning until the cutover is complete.

I will be double-checking time sheets on Friday morning. Please contact me if you’re not able to turn in your time sheet by Thursday night.

Peg

Now that some of the items that were borrowed in March have been past due for more than 30 days, items are moving to a circ status of lost and bills are being mailed.

If a patron gets a bill for an item(s) and calls you wanting to negotiate the fees before the items have been returned, please encourage them to:

1. Double-check their contact method with the library. Before someone gets a bill in the mail, if they have email or text, they should have received four messages from us. Encourage them to check their SPAM and mark notices@johnstonlibrary.com as safe
2. Return the overdue and/or lost items as quickly as possible. If they are quarantined or can’t make it to the library, pass the call to Molly
3. Wait for the items to make it through the quarantine and check-in process (five to seven days)
4. Check online, call us back or email us at notices@johnstonlibrary.com to make sure everything was returned and verify the overdue fees on their account
5. We are happy to waive fines on a one-time basis if there has been a miscommunication during the pandemic and items have come back.  This would apply to fines assessed after July 1. This applies to fines – not replacement costs, damage costs, or processing fees. For other fee-related questions, please refer to Paying or Waiving Fines or Fees in the All-Desk Documentation or pass the call to circ staff.

*Please don’t encourage patrons to bring back lost books to the Circ Desk and expect them to be processed immediately. Explain that we have a quarantine process and tell them to use the book returns.

*If the item has moved to a circ status of lost and they think they returned it or they seem very concerned/upset in general, please don’t hesitate to send them to Molly for additional assistance.

At last week’s meeting, the board ok’d sticking with the casual dress code until we’re more fully reopen.

Hello All,

Today we received a couple calls from parents inquiring about usage of study rooms. At this time, study rooms are not open to the public. The services that we offer, (computer use, browsing by appointment, and even curbside hold pickup) are really intended to be sort of grab-and-go type services, and thus have time limits.
These calls got Friday JPL staff thinking about what parents might really be concerned about. Internet access or just a change of scenery? Peg contacted Johnston School admin, and like most other school districts, Johnston is providing hot spots to households who need them. We were told that if parents need to request a hotspot, they should contact the building administration at the school where the child will attend. Here is a link with contact numbers for different schools in the Johnston district.
https://www.johnstoncsd.org/schools/​

Thanks!

In a meeting last week, I let department heads know that we’d be sticking with the same hours and services through September.

If patrons arrive at the front door or west staff door to pick up a book club book that has already been checked out to them, they are in front of dreama’s office–again, already checked out and labeled with their name. I have instructed my book club people to let me know if they want a book club book, so that all staff need to do is grab it and hand it over to them.

As we know, sometimes people don’t follow instructions. If people show up wanting a book club book and have not made prior arrangements, current book club books for all 4 adult book clubs are now behind the circ desk, where they used to be.

Thanks! Ask beth if you have questions.

We’ve implemented a grace period of 7 days to all checkouts. This means that if someone returns or renews their items within 7 days after the due date, fines will not be assessed.

I’ve hijacked the Johnston Arts Council website to host our holds scheduling. The links on the intranet to create holds appointments, view the schedule, and cancel and edit appointments have been updated to point to the new location. (Printing, browsing, and PC scheduling have not been moved to the new site.)  I will email all patrons with holds soon with the new link.