Category: Uncategorized

Rachel is headed for UNI the second week of August to start Marching Band practice. Julie will be leaving around the 15th of August to get settled at Creighton University. We will be celebrating their time at JPL as volunteers and employees/HS graduation on Tuesday, July 31st with treats in the Break Room. 

Best wishes Julie and Rachel! 

We’ve drawn names for the Adult Summer Reading prizes and winners have been notified. If anyone stops in to get her prize, send her to the Reference Desk.

Prizes are locked up in the Laptop cupboard and there is a sheet to record when a prize has been picked up.

Thanks,

Peg

Public Internet service was restored Tuesday evening. – Dreama

UPDATE

• Our Book Bike hot spot has been turned on and is providing WiFi as “JPL Hot Spot”. 
• We have one catalog PC for the public up and running at the ref desk.

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CenturyLink believes a technician crossed wires with another customer resulting in a loss of service for JPL. Someone  will be out Wednesday morning to resolve the problem (maybe sooner). – Dreama

We will let you know when the problem is resolved. 

 I’ve highlighted some of what was discussed at the July board meeting below.

*Policy Changes

Fax Policy: The board approved doing away with fees for sending faxes. 

Dress Policy: All of Summer Reading has been included as “casual days” in the updated Dress Policy. Next summer, staff can wear jeans/dress casual during the Library’s Summer Reading Progam.

*Painting

Painting of several large areas–including one of the Commons walls, two walls on the east side of the Library, and the north art gallery wall—and some repair and repainting of water-damage will begin the week of 9/10. Public areas affected include the story time room, the west meeting room, and study room 4. See here for more details.

*Parking Lot Lights

A while back, we were getting frequent complaints about our lot lighting not being bright enough. A lighting study confirmed medium to low-light levels throughout the lot with things being especially dark outside the entryway. If we were to address the lighting situation, the best option in my opinion is a new, taller light pole with a brighter head outside the entry. Even this limited response will cost over $7k. The board agreed that we should table the issue pending further complaints and our visual assessment of the outdoor lighting late fall.

*Foundation

The 11th annual 5k for Karen, administered by the Library Foundation was held June 15th. We’re still awaiting a $1,000 sponsorship check from Kohl’s. Once that arrives, net proceeds will be nearly $5,700. Next year, the name of the run will be changed at the request of Karen’s widower.

For more details, remember that current and past board agendas and documents are located under Staff Resources or at http://catalog.johnstonlibrary.com/board/

At their meeting last Thursday, the Library Board approved dropping the $1 fee for sending faxes. This policy change is effective immediately. 

Tammy Dial, volunteer, has lilies and daffodils from a landscaping project if library staff are interested. Please email her at disfreak93@yahoo.com if you are interested.

Thanks!

Internet is back 

Summer story hours have come to an end and we have received a lot of questions regarding our story hour offerings this fall. Sessions begin the week of September 10th and will run for 6 weeks. Below is the weekly schedule for our story hours as well as descriptions and ages for each. Information about our story hours is also available online. 

Storytime Mondays at 930am and 10am (ages 2-5 years old)

Interact with your child as we build early literacy awareness through stories, rhymes, songs, and more. Geared to ages 2-5, siblings are also very welcome.  No registration is necessary, join us at whichever time works best for you.

Wee Read Wednesdays 930am and 10am (ages 12 months-2 years old)

Enjoy interactive time with your child as we share stories, songs, puppet friends, and more. Geared for children 12 months to 2 years, younger and older siblings are always welcome. No registration is necessary, join us at whichever time works best for you.

Bouncing Babies Thursdays 10am (ages birth-12 months old)

Bouncing Babies story hour includes rhymes, songs, bounces and books just right for your little one! Build your baby’s foundation for lifelong reading and learning with this engaging story time. Designed for children from birth-12 months and their caregivers.

Woot woot. Another pay period is in sight.

Please turn in your completed and signed timesheets and PARS by 8 pm on Thursday the 19th. 

Y’all have been doing a great job of making sure that your timesheet matches When to Work and also attaching your PARs. Thank you!

Peg

From PD:

All,

Camp Dodge will be hosting parachuting and helicopter operations training this week. It is not uncommon for parachutists to occasionally land outside of the designated drop zone (which in this case is North Central Camp Dodge) so don’t be surprised if citizens call in for off-course parachutists. When I know a more specific jump schedule I will forward that information to y’all. As always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Detective Ryan Hanssen

Johnston Police Department

ILL requests should contain specific titles that the patron wants. If nothing in our collection covers a particular niche a patron is hoping to learn about, for example, 1) use worldcat, Amazon, or some other online resource to find titles that would; and 2) submit ILL requests for those titles. In other words, please do not submit topic requests or other kinds of requests that require further research and consultation with the requestor–that work should be done up-front prior to submitting the request. 

At the end of each fiscal year, I put together statistics to share with the Library Board, the city council, and the State Library. I’ll be posting this information for all of you soon but wanted to share this bit now. When arguing for funds to move Jessica’s position from part- to full-time, I said that teen program attendance would likely double as a result. Attendance nearly quadrupled this year! These numbers obviously represent an unprecendented level of impact on the part of the Library amongst Johnston teens and tweens. Hats off to Jessica and the YS crew! 

The AWE station in YS has been very popular with a couple of ChildServe clients. To help these individuals transition to being allowed only in the computer lounge and adult area, the station has been removed. This may be temporary.

Johnston residents and businesses are being encouraged to report damage from the recent storms. 

From the city’s website:

If you are a resident or business owner that was affected by the recent storm damage, we encourage you to report your assessment. In order to qualify for federal funding, Polk County is working to report the extent and severity of damage to FEMA. FEMA then determines our qualification for federal and individual assistance. To meet this threshold, it is very important for residents to report a damage assessment to 211, the Disaster Recovery Center or self-report it to Polk County Emergency Management’s website. Make sure to take LOTS of pictures for damage reports so Polk County can see the physical damage done to your home or property. Polk County and the impacted cities are working very hard to get the damage assessments completed in a timely manner.

http://www.cityofjohnston.com/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=651

More information about available assistance can be found at http://www.cityofjohnston.com/DocumentCenter/View/5661/How-flood-impacted-residents-can-get-assistance

I’m teaching Learn It: Paper Crafting Techniques on Sunday July 29th from 3:00-4:30. Participants will learn several card-making techniques.  Lori F. and Abbi have agreed to help, but I need one or two more staff members to help.  I’ll show you how to die cut, emboss, or stamp, and you’ll help the participants through that step.  If you’re interested, stop by my desk or send me an e-mail.  You’ll be paid for your time from 2:00-5:00 (including set up and clean up).

As many of you know one of our regular patrons, a ChildServe resident, was recently seen by staff and patrons touching himself inappropriately in the Youth Services area. Today, I sent the message included below to a ChlidServe staff member. In short, the messages says that adult ChildServe visitors should stay either in the Youth Computer Lounge or on the adult/east side of the Library. Keep in mind that not all ChildServe groups are adults–some are under 18. This rule would not apply to them. Please take a look at the message and let me know if you have any questions.

Lori,

We recently experienced a couple of incidents with an adult visitor from ChildServe in the library’s Youth Services area. He likes to use the tablets along the north windows—a popular spot for children to play. Both incidents involved him masturbating.

We typically do not allow adult patrons not accompanied by a child to hang out in the youth services area but, up to now, have made an exception for ChildServe. After this incident and further reflection, we’ve decided it would be best to treat adult ChildServe visitors—those 18 and older—like we do other adult library visitors and limit use of the Youth Services area to the Youth Computer Lounge—a glass-walled room with computers on the northeast side of the Youth Services area.  This still leaves the east half of the library—the adult area–open for use.

To accommodate ChildServe visitors who like to use the tablets in the Youth Services area, we will be purchasing 3 tablets for the adult area that will be kept at the Information Desk.

Please pass this along to staff and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

A new synthesizer is available in the YS area. It’s fun to play with. Try it out when you get the chance.

Here’s a video of it in use. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT11qr_9CSI