Category: Uncategorized

Please place your completed timesheets in the folder outside of Eric’s office by 9 am Thursday, March 31. 

With the holiday closing, make sure that your hours are recorded correctly.  And don’t forget to complete a PAR if you took paid time off this pay period.

Thanks,

Peg

The library board met last Thursday. Some of the items discussed are highlighted below.

• The board approved changes to the Meeting Room Policy that makes prohibition of sales and name collecting more explicit. See the Meeting Room Policy here 
• Molly is looking into power washing services for cleaning water and dirt stains off the building. This spring, we’ll get a quote for painting various metal beams and grids that have begun to chip and rust.
• We have a lot of trouble keeping the carpet clean in our small study rooms. Patrons spill drinks and drop food and dry erase markers. I’ve priced hard flooring and installation for the rooms. The work will be done before summer.
• Our recent pizza dough class and latest Cheap Date event both had great turnout: 26 and 22. The two adult book clubs we run—one the second Thursday of the month at the library, the other the last Thursday of the month at Gusto Pizza—have been consistently well attended. The book club held at the library has about twenty regular attendees.
• Last spring, the Johnston Schools notified us that 2015 would be the last year they would distribute our summer reading materials to school kids. Despite complaints from the public and ourselves they’re sticking to their ban. The city has agreed to allow us to distribute summer reading information—for our adult and children’s programs—via the May water bills. The information will reach about 8,000 Johnston households. 

This morning, an email notice will be sent to all patrons who have an email address on their account and over $5 in overdue fees. The notice reads as follows:

Pay your overdue fees with non-perishable food items during National Library Week (April 10-16).

One food item pays $1 in fees.

Fees for damaged or lost items cannot be paid with food and are not included in the amount listed below.

Your current fees eligible for payment via food for fines: $15.00

Please respond to this message with questions.

Johnston Public Library

515-278-5233

We will be having a Food for Fines Drive during National Library Week, April 10-16. During this week, patrons may bring in 1 non-perishable food item in exchange for $1.00 of library fines. This does not apply to lost or missing items, just late fees. 

More information will be forthecoming from Eric and Molly. 

From The Atlantic March issue

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/03/the-library-card/426888/

I reset the system clock to Daylight Savings Time.  It may take up to 12 hours for the building clocks to reflect the time change.

The City of Johnston is pleased to announce that Dennis W. McDaniel has been selected as the Police Chief. He was selected from a field of 80 applicants.

Chief McDaniel has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Criminal Justice from Saint Ambrose University. He has 16 years of professional law enforcement experience serving in the communities of Marshalltown, Iowa and Windsor Heights, Iowa. Chief McDaniel currently serves as the Police Chief in Windsor Heights.

“The City is very excited about Chief McDaniel becoming a part of our team. Public safety is the most important responsibility of city government. Chief McDaniel will continue to build on the positive progress our Police Department has made over the past several years,” Mayor Dierenfeld said.

The City and Chief McDaniel are working on the details of his employment contract. The contract will be on the March 21st City Council agenda for consideration.

Former Police Chief Bill Vaughn retired on March 4th after serving 41 years in law enforcement and six years as the Police Chief in Johnston.

At the end of March, Peg will be moving to Public Services as Assistant Librarian. Congrats Peg!

Minutes from the last few staff meetings are now available via the directories linked below…

Some of you already know, but I wanted to let everyone know since it was made official today, I have accepted a full time librarian position at the Des Moines Public Library. I begin work there on March 28th. 

Mohamed Eltahir has been banned from PC use for 30 days. His account has been set to “No Internet”. If you see him in the library or he asks about computer use, please refer him to Molly or Eric.

Just a heads up in case someone identifies themselves as a Safe at Home participant. For Circ Staff, when creating or renewing a library account, we will change the statistical code to Johnston rather than Des Moines.

Information on the program from the SOS

The Secretary of State is launching a new program called Safe at Home. Safe at Home is an address confidentiality program for survivors of violent crimes, such as domestic abuse, sexual assault, trafficking, and stalking. Safe at Home provides a designated address, mail forwarding and confidential voter registration and absentee voting.

A participant’s address is confidential; however, their participation within the program is not. When using the Safe at Home address participants should present a participation card, and you may ask if they are a participant in the program.

Please see Molly with questions.

If people bring in donations for the sale today between 12:30 – 4 pm, they can drop them at the Lion’s Club if they want. If not, we can put them in the Book Drop room and we will store them for next year.

Don’t forget to complete a PAR for any PTO taken during the pay period!

Thanks,

Peg

“Thank you very much. No other library in the metro area is as responsive to its customers as the Johnston Library.”

When books become available for Outbound delivery or for Public Services Holds, please give them to Ref Staff or place them on the shelving behind the Reference Desk labeled Outbound books or Public Services Holds. 

Thanks!

Beth

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

• The board approved incorporating the Conference & Study Room Policy into our general meeting room policy. The additional language, which changes the weekly limit from four hours to one reservation, reads,”Individuals and groups may make an advanced reservation of library study rooms once per week. Subsequent use of the study rooms that week will be on a first-come, first-served basis”. 
• The board approved Molly and I to attend the Public Library Association annual conference in Denver this April.
• Molly applied for a $2,500 Polk County Betterment grant to help digitize our local newspapers that are not yet available online. We hope to complete the project before the end of the fiscal year.
• After consolidating JPEG scans of individual yearbook pages into searchable PDFs, the Johnston High School yearbooks are finally available online. They can be found at https://archive.org/details/@johnston_public_library. 
  
• Maryann Mori will be at the library in April to lead a community focus group. She will lead a similar information gathering meeting with library staff at our regular staff meeting in May.
  
• After several years of service, Carol Crane decided not to serve another term on the Foundation Board. Her position will be filled by Marcia Johnson. Marcia is currently a member of the Friends of the Library and has helped with Art In the Barn and Craft In the Barn in recent years. She’s a retired elementary school principal and makes a mean batch of cookies.
  

You’ve probably heard that DuPont, owner of Pioneer, is merging with Dow and this will have consequences for Pioneer’s presence in Johnston (see http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/2016/02/19/iowa-loses-ag-headquarters-new-dow-dupont/80561874/) .

The city manager, Jim Sanders, held a meeting this afternoon to explain what has happened and what we might be able to expect. He reported that, while the city and state had hoped Dow would locate its headquarters in Johnston, Dow has decided its headquarters will stay in Delaware. The good news is that there will not be a sudden closure and loss of hundreds of jobs. (Pioneer has about 2,600 employees in Johnston, 1/3 of whom live in Johnston.) The bad news is that the future is uncertain. While Dow has committed to keeping a facility (a “Global Business Center”) in Johnston and possibly even growing that facility in the years to come, there will likely be some job losses as part of the company’s “restructuring” over the next few years–possibly at the same time as other, different positions are added.  

Let me know if you have any questions.