Category: All-Library News

Our nifty lockbox, to collect summer reading logs, has fallen off the exterior wall. In the interest of time, we placed a label on the book drop slots for patrons to drop their logs there. Please place logs in Peg’s mailbox.

Thanks,

Peg

The HVAC people got the chiller and air handlers/fans running again. The building should be much cooler today. We’re still experiencing an intermittent problem with the chiller which causes it to shutdown. I’ve contacted the HVAC person who works on the equipment (as opposed to the technology). I’ll keep everyone posted.

FYI

A City of Johnston employee has tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19). Starting today, Wednesday, July 15, City Hall is closed to the public and employees until Monday, July 20 to prevent community spread of COVID-19. The drop box inside the front doors at City Hall is still accessible.

This employee is not believed to have had in-person contact with the general public through work; city employees who may have been in close contact with this individual have been notified of the potential exposure.

Upon learning of the positive case, the City took immediate action to protect all of Johnston’s residents and staff, as well as the infected employee.

As set forth by state and CDC protocols, the infected employee is now under self-quarantine, and remediation measures have been taken including notifying all appropriate staff and deep cleaning all City Hall offices and open areas. There is no immediate risk to the public at this time.

Someone is coming around 3pm today to fix the HVAC.

Happy Sunday,

Sorry to interrupt your weekend, but I know that a few of you have staff members who are currently out as we’ve had a number of employees who have been exposed to household or family members, or others who have tested positive for COVID-19.

The CDC has laid out scenarios and quarantine/isolation guidance (also attached) on when to quarantine/isolate employees who have been exposed to a confirmed positive, especially when the employee may have tested negative prior to the 14-day incubation period expiration.

At this time we will use the updated CDC guidance (July 7) for our return to work protocol – at least for non-public safety staff.  (IDPH and Polk County have offered guidance in the past for first responders.)

The bottom line is that if an employee is exposed to someone with a positive COVID-19 test, that employee is to quarantine for 14 days following the last contact they had with the positive person – EVEN IF THE EMPLOYEE TESTS NEGATIVE PRIOR TO THE EXPIRATION OF THE 14 DAY QUARANTINE PERIOD.

If an employee has had exposure with a contact/family or household member who is exhibiting symptoms but is waiting on a test or test results, the employee should remain at home until the test results have been received and then follow the appropriate CDC scenario guidelines.

Using the CDC guidance will help standardize how we return folks to work, set expectations for supervisors and employees on staffing impacts, and will offer employees information on how to handle positive members in their households.  (For instance, there is a difference in return time if a household member quarantines away from other members vs caring for or sleeping with positive household members.)

Browsers are welcome to return items to the inside book drop. Circ. staff should follow the same procedure as we use on outdoor returns.

We’re approaching July 20th when we’ll offer expanded hours for computer use and browsing (see the reopening post).  Instead of having two calendars on the booking page as I mentioned previously, I’ve moved the July 20 calendars for computer use and browsing to a separate page. Take a look here> https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/pc-scheduling/

To accommodate families of 4, I’ve changed the messaging about browsing from a limit of 3 to a limit of 4 browsers per appointment. The spacing of appointments has been increased from every 10 to every 15 minutes. Groups of 4 have been the exception so far. In these first couple of days of browsing, patrons have been grateful for the opportunity to pick books in person and have stuck to the 30 minute limit. I’d guess the number of patrons in the building most of the time at 8-12.

In the current climate, it simply does not make sense to publish the schedule on When to Work over a month in advance. Starting in August, we will publish the schedule each Thursday for the following week only.

So I will not publish the schedule on July 21st. I will publish the first week of August on July 30th and continue to publish one week each Thursday.

I know that each department will have a general idea of the schedule further out than one week, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to your supervisor if you have questions or would like to request time off.

With the return to in-person browsing this week, the Hot Picks circulation parameters are back to their standard settings.

There were several errors on timesheets related to the July 4th holiday. Here’s how holiday pay works for part-time staff.

• Part time staff not regularly scheduled more than twenty hours weekly will not receive holiday pay (even if you come to work on Christmas 🙂 )
• Part time staff who are regularly scheduled 20-30 hours per week and who are also scheduled to work on a paid holiday can take as paid the hours that they’re regularly scheduled to work. If Jim is scheduled to work 6 hours on Christmas, for example, he can take 6 hours of holiday pay.
• Full time staff may need to adjust their schedules (take days off some other day of the week) to ensure that their paid holiday hours don’t push them into overtime.

Find more Holidays and Closings on the website or under the Staff Resources menu on the Intranet

Please let me know if you have any questions.

I’m not sure anyone needs reminding but a couple of summers ago, the board approved a revision to the library’s Dress Policy that made the period of Summer Reading “casual days”. Staff can wear jeans/dress casual during the Summer Reading Program.

As you know, browsing by appointment begins next Tuesday. We’ll have at most 76 patrons in the building each day, no more than 16 at a time–up to 4 computer users and up to 12 browsers (see image below for what 16 people in the building might look like). To give a sense of how that compares to our normal traffic, last July we had 500-700 patrons enter the building each day. All staff at a public desk during service hours will be required to wear masks. Given the recent increase in cases in Polk County, all patrons will be required to wear a mask as well–I’ll send a notice to those with appointments later today. Patrons will enter the front door as they have been. Masks will be available in between the entry doors and patrons will only be admitted once they’re masked. Walk-ins will be allowed if slots are available but anyone under 14 will need to be accompanied by an adult. Tuesday’s browsing appointments are full but the schedule for the rest of the week is pretty sparse.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Hey – my garden produced too much lettuce for us to eat so I’m sharing. There are three LARGE bags of leaf lettuce in the staff refrigerator – please take as much as you can use. Note: I did NOT wash the lettuce prior to putting it in the bag so be sure to wash it thoroughly before using. And I need a favor. I won’t be back to JPL until Monday, July 13, so could someone throw away any unused lettuce when/if it goes bad?

Thanks,

Peg

If you’re back in the building this week, please complete your own timesheet and put it in the green folder outside my office by Friday. If you won’t be in the building before then, please let me know.

I’ve put some handouts in an outdoor brochure holder attached to the front entry. The handout describes the services we’re currently offering and how to take advantage of them. Take a look via the link below. It’s also accessible from the printable menu. I’ll update it as things change.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MKaoAKrcEoGgPgbk2MrLJtVpfeJblJNF/view?usp=sharing

For those of you who would like to relive the awesomeness that was Deepa and Missy’s Cowgirl Mystery Going Away Party, here is the link to the video:

(Don’t worry! It’s private. Only people with the link can find it.)

Enjoy!

As you know, we offer a collection of digital magazines via RBDigital, the name of the app and website where Recorded Books offers digital content. I received notice today that the company that owns Recorded Books has purchased Overdrive. The notice I received says:

…over the coming months, all RBdigital library customers and RBdigital app users will be migrated to the OverDrive platform and Libby. We expect that the OverDrive platform will be enhanced with content that was unique to the RBdigital platform, including new Recorded Books audiobook releases, and we will be exploring additional content relationships such as digital magazines from ZINIO. After the customer and patron migration is complete, the RBdigital platform will be discontinued.

I’ll keep everyone posted as I hear more about these changes.

Currently, Book Club facilitators, (beth, dreama and stephanie) are in contact with their book club members to get them book club books. When attendees let facilitators know they would like a book, beth, dreama or stephanie will check out books to patrons with the extended check out date for each club and arrange a time for patrons to ring the staff door bell to grab the book. Book Club facilitators are putting checked-out books that are awaiting patron pick-up by the “In” sign outside dreama’s office. Books are marked with patron’s name. Book club facilitators most of the time will be the person who is around to give the book to the member when they come to the staff door to pick it up, but, should you have a surprise visit–book club books that are already checked out to patron’s should be in this spot outside Dreama’s office.