Category: Uncategorized

Phone found on light table in youth services. 6/15/18

As of today, use of the Youth Computer Lounge is limited to children in grades 12 and younger and their caregivers weekdays after 3pm and all day Saturday and Sunday.

The service technician was here, and the public printer is working once again.

The public printer is in need of a new fuser (yes, fuser with an “r”, not fuse). This requires a visit from our friendly printer technician. Thus, the printer is out of order until Monday at the earliest. I have posted signs in the Public Services area and on the white board. Reference staff will print for patrons as needed – within reason. 

Peg

Wesather sirens are  activated in the following cases:

1) Tornado Warning

a. Issued by the National Weather Service

b. Tornado or funnel cloud reported by a trained spotter (law enforcement, fire department official, emergency management agency)

2) Severe Thunderstorms

a. Issued by the National Weather Service

b. Winds 70 mph or greater forecast or occurring

In either case, staff should announce that patrons need to either leave the library or go to the restrooms for shelter. 

Please see the two documents linked below for more information.

https://www.polkcountyiowa.gov/emergency-management/emergency-preparedness/be-informed/warning-sirens/

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1uEt_ZXp_FOihnHRWDsdDUSEine8ri6sXcn817fg2Zww/edit?usp=sharing

I’d like to invite all staff to attend (on the clock of course) a webinar on services to people who speak English as a second language on Tuesday, June 19th at 2pm in the Archive Room. 

Please register via the link below if you plan to attend

https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/events/?event_page=event&did=29363

DESCRIPTION:

Need ideas on how to engage patrons of all backgrounds? Join in as two library systems share how they successfully serve members of their communities for whom English is a second language with unique programming and outreach services.

Panelists

• Aspen Walker, Community Engagement & Enrichment Manager, Boulder Public Library
• Angela Nambiar, Multicultural Programming and Outreach Liaison, Anne Arundel County Public Library

To help keep new Adult/Young Adult Fiction, Non-Fiction, Large-Print, and Paperbacks in the New Book Section, please scan items from the aforementioned collections found on black carts or around the library in both the In-House screen and the Check-In screen. When a new item is scanned in the Check-in screen, you will see New in the location field.

Please ask your supervisor if you have any questions!

The planters in front of the entry and the commons have been filled with oregano, cilantro, basil, and rosemary. Labels indicate whats what. Anyone is welcome to pick some. We’ll see how it goes.

I was in Madison this past weekend and picked up a few fliers on events and services from their downtown library–they’re linked below. I took a few photos too but there are better photos online.

http://catalog.johnstonlibrary.com/share/madison.pdf

Oh yeah, another paycheck is in sight!

Please turn in your completed timesheets and PARS by Thursday, June 7, at 8:00pm. 

As always, just send me an email if a problem comes up.

Thanks,

Peg

There are two cookie sheets filled with fresh picked strawberries in the staff kitchen refrigerator. Please help yourself. I’d really like to take home empty pans.

I just picked these this morning and they have not been washed. I put a couple Glad plastic containers on the table as well as a box of Baggies and twist ties so you can take home as many as you’d like.

They are tiny, but most are very sweet and delicious. Enjoy.

Peg

The Johnston Girl Scout’s that have been working on a free food pantry for the library, finished it last week and installed it Friday afternoon east of the entryway. 

If you see that the pantry looks a little empty, feel free to put in something from the donation bin.

We purchased two additional passes to the Science Center yesterday for a total of 4. 2 additional zoo passes are on the way. 

A girl scout troop has built a little free food pantry for us. Public Works will be mounting the post to concrete east of the main entry. IN a few days, the troop will mount the pantry on the post. Details regarding stocking the pantry and other information forthcoming. Find more info about little free food pantries at http://www.littlefreepantry.org/frequently-asked-questions/

The Iowa Association of School Librarians have a new shirt design available to order. For those interested. you’ll need to place the order yourself on your own dime. 

https://pogo.undergroundshirts.com/collections/iasl-pogo-ship

Thanks to Terry, the Premier engineer, the workroom Xerox is once again available for all serviices.

Terry even set the machine so that it won’t ask us to confirm the paper each time we open the tray!

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A Premier engineer will be out in the morning to fix the printer.  It is turned off and should remain off until then.

If you need to print, you can use either the HP LaserJet Pro (black and white) in TS or the Xerox WorkCentre 6655 in Youth Services. If you need help installing a printer on your PC, please let me know.

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Please do not send jobs to the Xerox Workstation 7725 in the workroom until further notice.  Print jobs are getting stuck in the queue and are not printing.

Thanks for your patience.

While putting off folding laundry tonight, I was thinking about the Ted Talk we watched at last week’s staff meeting and his reference to how simply being observed by others often causes us to change our behavior in some way. I was also thinking about Michael’s latest trip on the book bike to the Johnston Little League at Lew Clarkson Park. A common experience we’ve both had with the book bike is that people are either: 1) more interested in talking about the bike than the library; 2) afraid that we’re selling something and avoid eye contact; or 3) realize who we are and keep walking (I’m sure there are more than 3 types but I’m stopping here for now). Maybe the #3s are in too much of a hurry to stop. Maybe they don’t know about the kinds of things we offer now. Or maybe they had a bad experience at school or some other library. Their teachers, parents, or whoever didn’t think they did well. They resented being thought of as a “bad” reader or student or whatever. Maybe they were left with a bad feeling toward institutions that remind them of education. 

A big part of our job is not only showing people the path to the whatever they came to the library for but also trying to clear that path–to make the whole process of getting library stuff as painless as possible. Sometimes what stands in people’s way is fear of judgment. Maybe they don’t know how things are organized and don’t want to ask; maybe they’re not sure how to phrase the question because they can’t think of what we know or what we have that could answer it. 

The point is, there are likely people out there that have this kind of experience and it presents a barrier to them using the library in ways that could help them. A simple thing we can do is to try not to express negative judgments in our interactions with patrons. (I suppose this is the same as being friendly.) I think we do a great job at this and this is a big part of why we have so many regular patrons and why I hear so much positive feedback about patron’s experiences at JPL.

The other day a lady at the reference desk approached and said, “I’m looking for a book but I don’t even know the whole title.” I had to coax the question out of her–try to convince her that there was no price to pay for a half-baked question. “I might be able to find it.” She thought for sure she didn’t have enough information to even ask the question and felt embarrassed. Finally she said, “It’s ‘Breath Becomes’ something.” I thought, “C’mon, lady.” She was ecstatic that I knew what book she meant.

PBS has a special eight-part series this summer called The Great American Read. You can look here for more information: http://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/about/show/ 

I enjoyed looking through the list of 100 best-loved novels to see what I have read (not enough), what I will never read (Twilight series and 50 Shades of Grey), and what I’m embarrassed I’ve read. Anyway, it’s an interesting list.

Have fun checking it out!

Abbi 🙂

The Science Center and a Des Moines-area moms group posted information about library Adventure Passes on Facebook that’s getting a lot of attention. Rather than wait until June 2nd, Adventure Passes will go live today. For now, the only link on the website is on the homepage below the main menu. A landing page will be created soon with a link someplace within our main menus.

I’ve also added a kiosk at the circ. desk for patrons to reserve and print adventure passes. This can only be used to create and print NEW reservations–it cannot print existing reservations.

More information about Adventure Passes