http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/weeding-the-worst-library-books

Please remember to put your completed and signed timesheet and PARS in the folders outside of Eric’s office on or before Thursday noon, April 28.  My task is to ensure that you are paid properly – I do feel uncomfortable when I have to complete PARS and sign your name – so please double-check the expandable folder to make sure any PTO has a matching PAR. 

Thanks,

Peg

The library board met last Thursday. I’ve highlighted some of the agenda items below.

• The board approved lowering the 1-10 page fax price to $1 while keeping the 25 cent charge for each page over 10.
• The board also approved funds to digitize our collection of local newspapers that were not digitized the last go round as well as funds to purchase umbrellas for the tables on the west patio. 
• The board approved purchase of equipment for a book-bike delivery/outreach service. The bike will haul a custom trailer full of library materials. Operating staff will have the ability to check out materials, make new cards, and more.  Regular routes to neighborhoods will initially run June through August. The bike will also be taken to community events, grocery stores, and other gathering places.

Update to Shred Day–I heard back from AARP and they tallied roughly 500 cars through our Shred Day line. That is nearly 5 times the volume that we typically have!! I want to thank Saturday staff for rallying and handling unexpected events in a stellar fashion. Given what we knew going in to the event, I don’t think it could have been handled better. 

Thank you. You’all are very appreciated. 

AARP estimates 300+ cars navigated the gueue to drop off materials to be shredded.  The shredding truck couldn’t keep up and some materials were transported to the shredding company’s location.  

THE SHREDDER wants recyclers to know that their staff will not go home tonight until all materials dropped off at JPL today are shredded.

JPL Staff – In case you are not aware of this issue, please read Emergency Alert from the City of Johnston.

Peg

The board approved a reduction in Fax pricing at last night’s meeting. 

Pricing is now:

$1 for up to 10 pages

25 cents for each additional page

Please complete, sign and put your timesheet into the green folder outside of Eric’s office by Thursday (ee gads – that’s tomorrow).  Don’t forget to complete PARS for PTO.

Additionally, please put your private card to Karen’s family into the basket (in the staff kitchen) or sign the group card on or before Friday.  We’ll gather up the cards and send them all to Karen’s son and daughter-in-law in Monterrey, California.  Hopefully our cards will let the family know that Karen was a valued member of the JPL staff and that she is missed.

Thanks,

Peg

We are having new, more-easily cleaned flooring installed in each of the study rooms as well as the Tech Lab. The work will begin tomorrow and be completed Saturday. The study rooms will reopen as soon as the work is complete. The Tech Lab will reopen Monday once I reinstall the furniture and equipment.

The President of the JPL Foundation, an organization that works with the library to address needs through private donations, asked me to pass along his appreciation of JPL staff on National Library Workers Day:

In honor of today’s National Library Workers Day, I’d like to pass along from myself and the foundation, thanks for your guidance and time spent on all aspects of making the Library, the place to be. Also, thanks to your staff for their countless hours working with patrons and organizing events for the community.
You are appreciated!

Greg Judas

Doctors Now, where all city employees go for non-emergency work-related care, has moved to 8779 Northpark Court (in the strip mall with Pancheros and 1908 Draught House). The phone number remains 515-270-1000 option 1.

To honor Karen’s memory, we thought it would be nice to have JPL staff individually prepare a card of sympathy to be sent Karen’s son. We will collect cards in the basket in the staff room and then will mail them collectively to Karen’s son. 

If any individual chooses to make a donation in memory of Karen to the nonprofits of her family’s choice (NPR or Johnston Public Library)- perhaps you could include/acknowledge this in your individual card.

Please place cards in a sealed envelope in Peg’s mailbox or in the basket in the staff room before next Friday, April 15th. 

For those that would rather sign their name on a group card from JPL, there is a card is in the staff Kitchen next to the basket.  

Karen’s family are as follows if you wish to address them directly: 

Son and daughter-in-law, Shawn and Brett Zima of Monterey, Calif.; brother, Ron (Marla) Franklin of Des Moines; sister Judy (Dennis) Carlsen of Germantown, Ohio

The timesheets distributed today have incorrect dates along the top of the table. The dates should read 3-16 (not 20-2).

Karen’s family stopped in the library today.  They left a beautiful bouquet in honor of Karen at the Circ desk .  And they expressed their appreciation and gratitude for all the staff did for Karen on Thursday and throughout her tenure here.

They said she enjoyed coming to work at the library and was really in her niche: Karen loved reading, BBC shows, music, NPR and current topics.  It gave them great comfort to know that she was here, at a place she loved, when she suffered the heart attack.

Per Karen’s wishes, there will be no service.  An obituary will appear in the Newton Daily News.   The family is requesting that memorials be directed to NPR and the Johnston Public Library.

Peg

One more thing to mention about mobile printing: Circ, Public Services and Youth Services all have handouts for patrons at their desks that detail how to utilize the three different methods of mobile printing. Instructions are also available at www.johnstonlibrary.com under the Services Menu link. 

JPL now has mobile printing! Here’s what you need to know: 

•  For patrons printing from our library PC’s, the only difference they might notice is that they no longer need to create a user ID when sending their job to the printer. The system will now take their library card number or the guest pass number that they logged into the computer with and use that to ID their jobs. 
• At the print release station in the library, patrons can now use a card scanner to scan their library card number or their guest pass to bring up their print jobs. Patrons will now only see their own print jobs–not every queud job from all patrons–this is nice because it eliminates people printing jobs that don’t belong to them. 
• When you give patrons a guest pass, it might be useful to tell them that if they plan on printing, they should hang on to their guest pass instead of tossing it in the garbage once they’re logged in.
• Printing costs remain the same–15 cents per side for black and white. 50 Cents per side for color.  
• A patron’s print jobs will now remain on the Print Release Station for 12 hours before being wiped before the next calendar day. 

The new printing system also offers 3 methods of mobile printing. They are as follows: 
 

Please let me or Teresa R. (trotschafer@cityofjohnston.com) know if you’d ike to talk to a counseler about Karen’s passing. You can also contact EAP directly at 800.327.4692.

Eric

As many of you probably have heard, Karen suffered a heart attack today at the library. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital where doctors discovered severe blockages around her heart. I am sorry to say that she passed away at the hospital. I will update everyone as her family makes decisions regarding a service. I want to thank Peg for being with her at the hospital. Please keep her family in your thoughts. 

AIB is giving away all the books, magazines, audiotapes and videotapes in its library collection. We have a ton of (mostly older) fiction, nonfiction and reference books. I am running the giveaway and want to invite all Johnston Library employees to come and take anything they want. The library is open this week 7 a.m to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday. On Sunday it is open 5  p.m. to 7 p.m. The giveaway ends next week, 7 a.m to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Everything must go before the library closes for good on April 7. Contact me with any questions at brownr@aib.edu.

-Rod Brown