JPL Intranet

Our potluck to wish Pally a happy retirement will be held in the east meeting room from 11:30-1:00 on Tuesday, December 17.  Tableware and beverages will be supplied.

While I am truly excited to  begin my new position on Monday, I also appreciate the bind and strain this has put on the
current staff to fill my now vacated hours.  I was hoping (if, and) when I finally did find a new job, that I would be able to
give the library more notice – especially with all of the current staff leaving.  However, my new employers are extremely
busy, and anxious for me to begin full time ASAP – in fact they wanted me to start on Wednesday (the day after my acceptance
of their offer).

So, I want to express my gratitude and appreciation first to Eric, Maurine and Rita for understanding my situation and the “demanding” circumstances and time frame that have come with my immediate hire, and their total support through out.  I also want to thank in advance any of you who will now be covering my hours until new hires are trained and ready to go, or having their schedule changed to accommodate this change. I appreciate you all.

I also thank everyone for putting up with my varying mood swings, bad days, endless stories, etc. etc. You have all been wonderfully supportive, positive and encouraging – and this has helped me get through some pretty tough days and weeks.  I think you all had more
faith that things would work out than I often did!

So thank you to all of you, and I will still be around on my weekends to work.
If I don’t see you or speak to you before the holidays – hope they are wonderful and bless you all!

Thanks immensely
Diane

As most of you have heard, Diane accepted a full-time position (congrats Diane!). For now, Diane will keep her weekends and, starting next week, we’ve made some schedule shifts that will fill her weekday hours. With Pally and Janet leaving as well, we will he looking for two additional circulation staff -interviews will begin within the next couple of weeks. We hope to have the new staff members on board by the second week in January. These changes will be accompanied by a shift in coverage at circ. which may affect some of your schedules -we’ll work through any conflicts with those affected.

Maurine and I will interview for the IT and Circulation Support position over the next few days. It’s possible that whomever we hire may not begin until March. During the few weeks between Rita’s leaving and our new employee starting, Maurine and I will do as much as we can to fill in at circ. during busy periods and breaks.

This has been a year full of change for the library -with a new director, a new ILS, and soon a new circulation supervisor. I truly appreciate everyone’s  hard work and patience and as we adapt to new and sometimes challenging circumstances.

Eric

Someone from the Clarion Library will stop by in the next couple weeks to pick up Book Club books.  These books are boxed and placed on the bottom shelf of the white holds shelves.

Thank You!

Jo

The Bright Board behind the circ desk has been moved to the counter above the inside book drop. Lois Roets, who funded its purchase, thought it would be more visible closer to the front door.

Eric

Hello!

Please turn in your timesheet today, Wednesday 12/11!

Thank you,

Missy

FYI The text of the self-check exit button has been changed to “Print Receipt” in hopes of clearing up some patron confusion.

When closing for the night, please do not play “reindeer games” with the router at the Reference Desk.  🙂    Please just unplug Mr. Reindeer rather than turn off the power strip as this shuts down our router.  This won’t be an issue once he is put away…but for now, please just unplug him.

Thanks,

Cheryl

A couple of gingerbread house winners have not yet claimed their prizes. Their gift cards are by the popcorn tins behind the circ desk.

Eric

Elijah Trice bas been banned from the library and will be allowed back December 14th. For the past few days, however, he has had no place to go after school and has been coming to the library. As long as he remains on or near the entryway stools, he can stay at the library while he waits to be let into his house.

Eric

Just a reminder that there will be 2 Flex Spending Enrollment meetings TOMORROW – December 5.

• One at 7:30 am at Public Works
• The second meeting will be at noon at City Hall in the Council Chambers.

Please plan to attend if you have questions regarding flex spending.  I will bring back enrollment forms for those who can’t attend. 

Forms will be due back to Jody Goodwin by December 19 at 4:00 pm.

Here is a letter I received from Alisa (previous shelver)!  Exciting news from her…..

Hey Cheryl 🙂

A lot has happened since I last stopped in to the library, so I thought I would fill you in on some of the big things going on in my life!  I joined another lab, a comparative psychology lab in which I work with pigeons.  We are training them to perform visual tasks, and applying that to the human visual system.  In September, I presented a poster at the Iowa Physiological Society meeting and placed third in the poster competition.  It’s exciting because psychology posters hardly ever do well and physiological meetings, and the $100 prize is a bonus!  In October I presented at the Mid-American Association of Behavior Analysis meeting in Milwaukee.  There wasn’t any competition there, but I did present for the chair of the neuroscience department at U of W Milwaukee!  And last Saturday, I went to San Diego to present at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting.  Over 30,000 neuroscientists attended from around the world!!!  To put that in perspective, there were about 30 people at the Iowa Physiological Society meeting I presented at, and about 85 at the one in Milwaukee.  I was nervous to say the least, but it went really well.  I met a grad student from the U of W at Milwaukee there, so I’m thinking that I’ve got good chances of getting into their doctorate program.  Which reminds me, I’m applying to doctorate programs!!  I’m not getting my hopes up too high–I was mostly looking at master’s programs but I recently found out that schools prefer you enter a doctorate program right away.  This means that I’m switching gears on pretty short notice, which makes me nervous.  But plan b is to find a research assistantship for next year and then reapplying.  I am really excited to be at this point in my life.  It’s a little bit scary, but I look forward to what the future has in store for me.  I hope everything is going well at the library, and I hope I have time to stop in soon!

Sincerely, 

Alisa 

I believe the seemingly random login issue we were having with the public PCs has been resolved (a dollar sign in the fine limit field that should not have been there was preventing the system from validating patrons with fines on their accounts). Please let Maurine or I know if there are further troubles.

Eric

To add your staff picks to the Browse>Books>Staff Picks section of the pac, start at “Staff Picks” link on the intranet. On the next page, search for a title, then click what you’d like to add in the resulting list. Staff picks is currently configured only for adult & YA titles.

This is a reminder that the circulation staff will be meeting on

Monday,Dec. 2 at 8:00 pm.

  Any staff member who has suggestions of items that should be discussed at the meeting should email me or talk to me so that we can include them on the agenda.  Thanks!

Please ignore messages from W2W re: trading shifts, open shifts, etc. and be sure and ask if your schedule doesn’t look right!     Don’t know whether it resulted from a W2W software upgrade or my recent computer issues, but many of the template settings I had in W2W seem to have changed and with yesterday’s publication of the December schedule, there have been some unusual messages going out.

Thanks,

Maurine

DECEMBER 5, 2013

7:30 a.m. @ Public Works – 6400 NW Beaver Drive

or

Noon @ City Hall

Representatives from Frank Berlin & Associates will be on hand for a presentation and to answer questions. 

Enrollment forms are due back by December 19 at 4:00 p.m.

POPCORN TINS – PRIZEWINNER, HOLIDAYS IN JOHNSTON 2013

• The library will offer popcorn tin prizes for Holidays in Johnston beginning Saturday December 7.
• Selected titles have been designated popcorn prize winners.   These items will be on hold in Polaris for ‘ POPCORN TINS – PRIZEWINNER, HOLIDAYS IN JOHNSTON’  and as they are scanned for checkout, the system will respond with a blocking note  saying that the item is on hold for customer ‘ POPCORN TINS – PRIZEWINNER, HOLIDAYS IN JOHNSTON’  and asking if you wish to ovveride the block and continue with checkout.

              Respond ‘Yes’ .    Polaris will then display a second blocking note asking if you wish to reset the

              hold.  Respond ‘No’ as you do not need to reset the hold.   The item will now be checked out to the

              customer at the desk. 

• There will be a printed list of all prize winning titles behind the front desk.   Please be sure to note the prize winner’s name beside the appropriate title and remember, only one prize winner per family.
• Prize winners cannot be checked out at Express Check.   Customers attempting to do so will get a message “Unable to check out.  It has been requested by another patron”.   These will need to be checked out by staff at the front desk.

The clean holds list will now be done right before close rather than in the morning.  I will identify the person who will take care of that each evening and talk about the importance of the timing.  That report is located under “utilities” and is now called Unclaimed Checklist. 

Rita

We are working hard to develop our new procedures to adjust to the Polaris system.  Here’s the latest:

1)  As items are checked in, the ones that have holds generate a print-out that lists the patron’s name and the title of the item.  Near the bottom of the print-out there is a line that says “notfication: ______”  If the words after notification do not say “email address”, this indicates that this patron will need a phone call for their notification.  Items that require a phone call should be placed on the bottom shelf of the black truck.  I will be working with the staff members who make calls to insure that calls are made each day, and that the print-out has the initials written on it of the staff member making the call. 

2)  People doing the pick list should also sort the items out, identifying the ones that require a call.  Again, these items will be placed on the bottom shelf of the black truck.

 3)  We have noticed that a certain number of patrons (including some staff) no longer have email addresses listed on their accounts in Polaris.  One likely theory is that they were people who had 2 email addresses listed in Sirsi, and that data did not “gel” with Polaris format and didn’t get transferred.  If you had 2 emails listed on your patron account, please double-check to see if you need to put your email addresses back in.  Please note that Polaris has a second, separate box for the additional email address.  If you notice that same problem with a patron, ask the patron for their email address and update the account. 

Please ask me if you need help understanding any of this, or if you have questions!

Thanks.

Rita