Category: Circulation News

Beth and Peg have put together a training about Meeting Rooms and Study Rooms.

I will assign you time this month to watch it on the Daily Desk Schedule.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AbJayOZwsuv-Id1EzZWIvuXkfxARF8IB/view?usp=share_link

Thank you.

Hello-

As you check out ILL items to patrons, can you please take a moment to go over the following with them:

-Review the due date of the item (remember to update it on Polaris) and note that it may be a different circulation period than JPL materials.

-Review the importance of keeping the paper slip on the cover of the item. Let them know that the barcode we use to check in the item is on that slip, so we need it in order to remove the item from their account when they return the item. It is to their advantage to leave that slip of paper on the book.

-Remind them that the slip has special instructions for renewals.

If you have any questions, please ask Molly or Lori Elrick

I will add time to everyone’s schedule to watch these webinars/talks this month. I’ll make a note on the Daily Desk Schedule when you should watch them. If you are watching them during a Backup or Backup/Check-In Shift, please watch without headphones (just lower volume) so that you can back up the desk if needed.

*A couple of you may have seen them before, but they are worth rewatching.

**Meredith, Dawn, and April have watched these in the last month – you don’t need to rewatch them- yet.

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story

https://www.ala.org/pla/education/onlinelearning/webinars/ondemand/understanding

The three PCs on the ledge behind the checkout desk will be picked up by Maxwell Hooks.

The Lonely Readers book club is using an Inter-library loan book from Clive PL for their February selection.  The JPL barcodes are located at the top left corner of the borrowing band.  The books are automatically set to check out for 6 weeks, which makes them due on 3/7/23, ( a day before the normal due date).  Please remind patrons to return the books to a staff member and to leave the ILL borrowing band on . Please placed returned books on the Lonely Reader Shelf.  Thank you so much for your help!

Lori

Hey All,

Since we don’t have a staff meeting, I did take you off When to Work this Thursday at 8 am. If you would like to come and watch some of the online conference in the Archive Room that Eric M has posted about before or after your regular shift, please let me know so we can get When to Work updated to match your timesheet.

Thank you.

We took down the Holiday CD Display. As CD/HOL music CDs come in, please change the shelf location to STORAGE and put them in storage.

The storage bins are on the pre shelving under J Fiction.

The Library Foundation funded the addition of some decodable readers for the Junior Readers Collection. They will be in bags, like the other red readers, and they will have eye-readable barcodes and JPL stickers on the back of each book in the bag.

The tag will list how many books should be in the bag and have a scannable barcode. At check-in,  you will count the books in the bag and double-check the barcodes to make sure the correct books stay with the set.

If a bag is returned without a tag, you can type the eye-readable barcode from a book in the check-in screen to check it in and put the item into repair where repair staff can look up the number of books to verify that the set is complete and create a new tag for the bag.

The new library calendar went live today. Peg has created printed instructions to create study room reservations, meeting room requests, and how to add/edit event registrations. The links below are to trainings I recorded.

Circulation staff – please take time to watch these trainings while scheduled at the check-in desk.

PS/YS Staff – please take time to watch these trainings while off desk or when the desks are slow.

Meeting Room & Study Room Training

https://tinyurl.com/28surc7s

Event Registration Training

https://tinyurl.com/4h3z2hz9

If you have questions please feel free to reach out to Beth, Peg, or Megan.

If you are interested in making up the hours that you would normally work today and tomorrow or over the weekend, please visit Iowa Learns and create an account. If you watch webinars, please just shoot me an email with the total hours you watched (include the time to set up your account if you don’t have one). I don’t need proof, just the total hours. I will add them to When to Work so you can add them to your timesheet.

Another great resource is WebJunction. You will be required to create an account, but many of their resources are free. I thought that the webinar about working with library users with Dementia and Emerging Technology Trends was very applicable.

Making up hours from home is optional.

Let me know if you have questions or need additional resources.

Please do not stack items on top of each other on the shelves.

If you are putting an item away and there is no room to add another item on the shelf where it belongs, check to see if you can do a minor shift (redistribute the items on the surrounding shelves while keeping them in order). If more than a minor shift is required, please return the item(s) to the Circ Pre-Shelving Area.

Leave a note for Molly, and she will work with shelvers to shift and selectors to make more room on the shelves.

Please ask Molly or Megan if you have questions.

We are still looking for the solution to the short hold slips that have been printed at Circ 1 and 2. If you notice short slips, can you make a note on the #it channel on Slack including additional details (see examples below from Dreama’s message)

In the meantime, please remember that you may have to re-print hold slips in the back until we get this resolved.

 “If staff could report in more detail what they were doing before the short slips occurred, that might be helpful. For example, had they just logged in? Were they printing to another printer? Were the slips printing correctly and suddenly went short with no intervening activity?”

In case you get questions, the Johnston Historical Society will hold an open house this Saturday, December 3rd 10 -11:30 am at the Johnston Historical Society Museum – right next to the Simpson Barn.

We’re running short on folded welcome brochures. When you have time at the front desk, please work on folding the brochures in the box on the ledge. Thanks.

Cathy has a great opportunity to be in Arizona this winter in January and February.

I have created a Doodle Poll to see if you guys can help pick up Cathy’s Saturdays while she is gone.

If you can work part of the shift or the afternoon shift on one of these Saturdays, would you please email me that info?

Thanks.

https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/b81x42od

If you notice that the hold slips are printing in a shortened format – not including the title or barcode of the item, please follow these steps.

1. If you are at Circ 1 or 2, please double click on the icon in the lower right corner named Restart Print Spooler. This should correct the issue. If it does not, please use another machine to print your slip. Make a note on #it on Slack and Dreama or Lori F will follow up as soon as they can.
2. If you are at a computer station in the back, please restart the computer and the the printer. This should correct the issue. If it does not, please use another machine to print your slip. Make a note on #it on Slack and Dreama or Lori F will follow up as soon as they can.

I will be in Los Angeles starting today through Sunday. I will be available via text, but Denise has offered to handle staffing issues that come up while I am out. Her cell is 515-441-6769 so please contact her now through Sunday if you need to call in for a shift.

In addition to Denise, Dreama is available if you have any questions today.

Outside of emergencies (see Librarian in Charge), if Denise or Dreama is not available, please use the Item/Patron Needs Attention form, and we can follow up.

Check-in has been much slower in the last few weeks. I would like you to please use some of your time off the desk to focus on some training available on Niche Academy.

If you do not have a Niche Academy account, please see me and I’ll help you get one set up.

On Niche Academy please watch or rewatch:

Librarian’s Guide to Homelessness (Core Training)

Mental Illness Part 1

Dementia and Alzheimer’s

If there are other videos that you would like to watch, please do so if time allows.

In addition to the above training, please spend some time looking at AncestryLibrary and LinkedIn Learning. Please watch the Niche Academy training (see the Johnston Public Library Academy rather than the Johnston Library Staff Academy) and visit the resources to see firsthand what is available.

There is no deadline to get these watched. As circulation increases, we will have less time to watch these, so let’s try to get some of this training in while it is slow.

Circ 1 has been replaced. We believe that all the printers are connected and everything should be functioning. Please let Molly or Lori F know if you have any questions.

We have had an uptick of kids that want to leave their scooters or bikes behind the Circulation Desk. For the safety of staff (tripping hazard) and to discourage kids from riding them in and out of the library, we are asking that library users keep bikes and scooters outside of the library.

Since we have allowed some users to keep bikes and scooter behind the desk recently, you may get some questions or pushback. Please always remind people that we offer scooter and bike locks. If the bike or scooter owner does not feel comfortable locking their bike or scooter outside, please let them know that we cannot, for safety reasons, keep them in the library. You can use your judgment, but for younger library users, you may want to gently let them know that if they do not feel comfortable locking it up outside, they may need to return it to their home, and they may not want to ride it to the library anymore.

We are able to keep balls behind the Circulation Desk on or below the white cart.

Please let Molly or Beth know if you have any questions.