Category: Uncategorized

The last of the Mom’s Day Out donations and bins were picked up today. We will not be accepting any more donations.  If someone brings in a donation we can suggest they take them to Goodwill in Johnston or Many Hands Thrift Store in Grimes. 

Concerts this month include our final pops concert featuring Brian Stokes Mitchell and Megan Hilty on Saturday the 11th at 7:30 at the Civic Center. 

Out final Masterworks programs are Saturday the 18th at 7:30, and Sunday the 19th at 2:30 at the Civic Center.  We will be playing Respighi’s Pines of Rome, Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from Westside Story, Eric Korngold’s Violin Concerto with Phillippe Quint as soloist, and Rossini’s Overture to Italian in Algiers. 

The brochure for next season is still on Lori Elrick’s desk, but please take a moment to look at it.

Just because I thought everyone could use something to smile about today.

Peg

If you have extra cardboard tubes, we will gladly take them for some of our summer programs. Thanks.

I’d like to invite all staff to attend (on the clock of course) an upcoming webinar titled “Dealing With Challenging Patrons Workshop”

Wednesday, June 5th, 1:30pm – 3pm in the Archive Room. 

Every library employee encounters challenging patrons and users from time to time. Whether it a group of patrons causing disruption, a loud patron, or possibly an angry or even dangerous person, the experience of dealing with someone unpleasant is common for staff in libraries of just about all sizes and types.

In this workshop, library safety and security expert Dr. Steve Albrecht will show you how you can deal with these patrons effectively, efficiently, and without creating major disruptions in your library environment. Library employees at all levels will learn strategies for dealing with and effectively defusing challenging situations.

Please register via the link below:

https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/events/?event_page=registration&did=32073

I placed a brochure for next symphony season on Lori Elrick’s desk.  Please take a moment to look at it, as it should be posted on the bulletin board in the patron area soon.  Yankee Doodle Pops is on July 3rd at 8:30 PM on Iowa State Capitol grounds, and we are starting water works pops concerts this year.  July 14th and 28th at 7:30 PM at the new Water Works Park Lauridsen Stage.  All summer concerts are free!

Starting next week, we will have two new shelvers at JPL. Miren is a regular library user and is a volunteer at the Summit Middle School Library. James is a former volunteer and is a student at Johnston High School. Please take a moment to welcome them to the team when you see them around. 

The light on the wall to the right after you exit the building is not working.  The repair should not take too long but will require sawing into the concrete by the bike racks. This will happen tomorrow (Friday) or early next week. 

• Why readers are drawn to fantasy 
• How these genres developed, including classics, newcomers, and awards to know
• Subgenres and crossovers 
• NoveList insider information on genre headings, themes, appeal terms, and more 

Microsoft has established Tuesdays as their day to release updates. In the past, I’ve asked you to leave staff PCs on when you leave Mondays. Going forward, please leave your PCs on Thursday evenings instead so that Microsoft as well as Symantec updates can be installed.

If you are already in the habit of leaving your PC on every evening, you can continue your current practice.

Public PCs are automatically turned off by PC management software, so there are no changes to the closing routine for public PCs.

Thank you.

Beginning today, new juvenile materials (J and E) will have NEW tape instead of red or yellow dots.  Item records will also have a shelf location of “New.”

Circulation will be transitioning existing new materials to NEW tape and adding the “New” shelf location to item records.

We are planning to have the books we hand out at outreach sites labelled by reading level. I’ve made a webpage that pulls reading level information from Baker & Taylor to make this process easier. It may also come in handy in other library interactions so I’ve included the link below and under the “Helping Patrons” menu on the Intranet. It’s currently only accessible from staff PCs.

http://catalog.johnstonlibrary.com/staff/collection-management/index.php?page=reading-level

I’d like to gauge interest in an upcoming webinar titled “Dealing with Challenging Patrons Workshop” 

Let me know if you’re interested in AND can attend this 90 minute webinar on Wednesday June, 5th at 1:30.

Dealing with Challenging Patrons Workshop
A 90-minute workshop, Wednesday, June 5, 2019, 2:30pm Eastern/1:30 Central/12:30 Mountain/11:30am Pacific

Every library employee encounters challenging patrons and users from time to time. Whether it’s a group of patrons causing disruption, a loud patron, or possibly an angry or even dangerous person, the experience of dealing with someone unpleasant is common for staff in libraries of just about all sizes and types.

In this workshop, library safety and security expert Dr. Steve Albrecht will show you how you can deal with these patrons effectively, efficiently, and without creating major disruptions in your library environment. Library employees at all levels will learn strategies for dealing with and effectively defusing challenging situations.

In addition to our own locallly-assigned genres, we used to use Amazon data to sort materials into the various “Browse Genres” on our website. Amazon cut us off of their data recently, so we’re now getting this information from our local records as well as Baker & Taylor (primarily a seller of books and other materials to libraries and retailers). 

In order for this to work, each of the genres included in our records as well as those from Baker & Taylor need to be told which website genre they should be assigned to. This needs done for a few thousand genres. You can see what this process looks like via the link below. If you’re insterested in helping during slow times at your desk, please let me know. 

http://catalog.johnstonlibrary.com/staff/collection-management/index.php?page=assign_external_genres_to_pac_genres

Time sheet verification has been going a lot smoother lately.

Thank you all for taking the extra few minutes to confirm that the hours on your time sheet match the hours you were scheduled to work! 

Peg

I’d like to invite all staff to attend (on the clock of course) an upcoming webinar titled “Beyond An Apple A Day: Providing Consumer Health Information At Your Library”

Friday, April 26th, 1pm – 3pm in the Archive Room. 

This hands-on class will cover the health information seeking behavior of consumers and the role of the librarian in the provision of health information for the public. Come learn about the evolution of consumer health, health literacy and the e-patient. Participants will leave equipped with knowledge of top consumer health sites. We will discuss creative ideas for health information outreach. The class will wrap up with an opportunity to explore effective marketing approaches and develop an elevator speech.
Objectives: 
This class teaches you the basics of providing consumer health information at your library. We will cover:
– Challenges of providing consumer health information 
– Planning a consumer health service
– Consumer health on the internet
– The reference interview
– Ethics
– Outreach
– Project development / marketing

Please register via the link below:

https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/events/?event_page=registration&did=31957

It’s spring which means…it’s evaluation time. Part of the process is the self evaluation. This is your chance to tell your supervisor what you think you did well in the past year, how you’d like to grow going forward, and what could be done to help make your work or your experience at work better. The self evaluation form is linked below. Please have it to your supervisor by Friday, May 10th at midnight.

http://catalog.johnstonlibrary.com/share/self%20evaluation%202019.pdf

An extra performance of Star Wars: A New Hope has been added.  Performances are at 7:30 on June 7th, and at 1:30 and 7:30 on June 8th.  Again, this could be a one-time event, so please make plans to attend!  All performances are at the Civic Center downtown. 

I’d like to invite all staff to attend (on the clock of course) an upcoming webinar titled “Should I Report This? How Librarians Can Work With DHS”

Thursday, May 31st, 10am – 11:30am in the Archive Room. 

What should library staff do about seemingly neglected children, supervised visits that don’t appear to be supervised, or other situations that cause concern? Are library staff mandatory reporters? Does calling DHS violate library privacy aspects? State law librarian Mandy Easter will moderate a Q&A webinar with Maureen Barton from Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) which will address these and other questions often asked by library staff.

Please register via the link below:

https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/events/?event_page=registration&did=31891

I know the building has been hot lately. The box that takes readings from the little thermostats around the library is old and is getting bogged down with error messages and other garbage. Once it’s out of memory, it can no longer take readings of the outside air temperature or the thermostats. I’ve been resetting the system every couple of hours which seems to help for a time. At their meeting tomorrow, the board will be voting on purchase of an upgrade which should fix things.