JPL Intranet

Thank you to all those who donated vases for the upcoming adult craft!  You have given a fabulous selection of sizes and styles and I know our patrons are going to have an amazing time up-cycling these!

Thanks again!

Lori E and Riddhi

When patrons makes a study room reservation for themselves through the new calendar, the system titles these reservations with just the name of the study room (e.g. Study Room 2) rather than what our old calendar did which was to include the first name of the patron (e.g. Study Room Reservation for Beth S.). We don’t have a way to change this in the new calendar.

If you create a study room reservation for a patron through the new calendar, go ahead and let the title of the study room reservation default to the name of the room.

Additionally, when we open the library and write reservations on study room windows and on the white board, reservations will now no longer show the person’s name, but the date and time of the reservation. If there is a question about who has actually reserved the room, PS staff can login and look at the contact info details.

Thanks!
Ask Beth, Peg or Megan if you have questions.

The Library Foundation funded the addition of some decodable readers for the Junior Readers Collection. They will be in bags, like the other red readers, and they will have eye-readable barcodes and JPL stickers on the back of each book in the bag.

The tag will list how many books should be in the bag and have a scannable barcode. At check-in,  you will count the books in the bag and double-check the barcodes to make sure the correct books stay with the set.

If a bag is returned without a tag, you can type the eye-readable barcode from a book in the check-in screen to check it in and put the item into repair where repair staff can look up the number of books to verify that the set is complete and create a new tag for the bag.

Hello All,
JPL will be hosting a Read Local Author Fair  on Saturday February 25th. Right now through January 21, JPL is accepting applications from local published authors who would like to be a part of the event.

Just wanted to bring this to everyone’s attention should you get asked about it. Information about the rules for author’s wishing to participate and the participation form is currently available on our website by clicking on the image on the homepage of our website.

More information about the event itself as well as the rules and participation form can be found by clicking through the buttons on this link: https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/local-author-fair/

Thanks! Please direct any questions to Beth or Megan.

Ultimate Reading Challenge Booklets and the Bonus Bookmarks for those who want it are now available behind the Circ Desk. There is no sign-up for the year-long Ultimate Reading Challenge. If someone wants to participate, they simply need to take the booklet (and Bonus Bookmark if they want it). All instructions are inside the Booklet. Reminder that the Ultimate Reading Challenge is for adults 18 and older.
Ask Beth or Stephanie if you have questions.

Please let Beth or PS staff know if it looks like the supply is getting low.
Thank you!

Thank you so much for all the help you give to our patrons in ordering ILLs.  We get a lot of positive feedback and appreciation for this service!

When a patron wishes to read a whole series or watch multiple seasons of a show, it is very helpful to place these holds individually ( by title or single season).  For instance, instead of placing a request for The Office: seasons 1-3 as one single ILL request, place three separate requests.  Understandably, this can be very time consuming.  No problem, just send Lori E an email or a note and I will place them for you!

Because we can never predict when a borrowed item will arrive, or how long we can keep it, it is helpful to know if the patron would like to receive the items in a specific order and/or paced time frame.  We will do our best to accommodate those requests.

Lastly, while you have the patron in front of you, perhaps verify their preferred method and accuracy of notification.  It’s sad to see an ILL go unclaimed.  Questions?  Ask  Lori E or anyone in TS. We are happy to help!

Thank you again!

Rose’s new email address is kaiser@johnstonlibrary.com. Messages to hebron@johnstonlibrary.com will be forwarded to the new address.

We’ve received a couple of inquiries about recycling Christmas lights. We are not a drop-off location. Metro-area drop off locations are listed below.

• Clive Public Library
• East Side Library – Des Moines Public Library
• Central Library – Des Moines Public Library
• South Side Library – Des Moines Public Library
• Grimes Public Library
• Norwalk Easter Public Library
• Urbandale Public Library

The new library calendar went live today. Peg has created printed instructions to create study room reservations, meeting room requests, and how to add/edit event registrations. The links below are to trainings I recorded.

Circulation staff – please take time to watch these trainings while scheduled at the check-in desk.

PS/YS Staff – please take time to watch these trainings while off desk or when the desks are slow.

Meeting Room & Study Room Training

https://tinyurl.com/28surc7s

Event Registration Training

https://tinyurl.com/4h3z2hz9

If you have questions please feel free to reach out to Beth, Peg, or Megan.

Beginning Monday, all study room reservations, meeting room requests and program registrations should be entered into the new calendar.

Each service desk has diagrams explaining the steps for handling rooms and registrations. Peg, Megan and Beth are happy to walk through the steps with you.

We anticipate the first week using the calendar to have some bumps, but not many. Please ask questions and share feedback.

Megan is preparing short videos that staff can watch to learn how to handle requests as well.

Please help me welcome Meredith Ackerman and Dawn Kasotia to the library as library clerks. Both Meredith and Dawn are going to be great additions to the JPL Team.

Please take a moment to welcome them when you have time.

It’s the last pay period of 2022. Thank you for being diligent in getting your time sheets into the green folder each pay period and notifying me of last-minute changes. The number of corrections needed each pay period continues to decrease which makes verifying your hours so much easier.

We have JUST started to advertise one-on-one computer and job help available to patrons at JPL. This new service is called JPL Help Desk and will be available via appointment on Tuesdays from 4-6 and Wednesdays from 10-12. JPL Help Desk will be staffed by some ref staff and is meant to provide a better way of assisting patrons with more lengthy requests than the typical reference desk interaction can accommodate.

Information about the JPL Help Desk is available under the Services menu on our website at: https://www.johnstonlibrary.com/services/help-desk/.

If you have patrons inquire about this service, please send them to the Reference Desk. Ref staff have a series of questions that they will ask to figure out if a Help Desk appointment is the best option or if there is another option that would be a better fit (like a recommendation to an outside service).

Below is info about the Help Desk that details some of the parameters for this service.

Thanks!

Johnston Public Library’s Help Desk program provides training and support for teens and adults as they face new learning, employment, or technology-related challenges. JPL Help Desk staff can provide guidance with tech-related tasks, job search and resume help, and can connect individuals to resources, but cannot provide legal, financial or medical information or fill out forms for individuals. Help Desk appointments are educational in nature and individuals should have a clear goal in mind of what they would like to learn during their session.  Librarians are instructors and cannot troubleshoot or fix malfunctioning software or hardware. Typical uses for a Help Desk appointment include:

• Resume and Cover Letter writing assistance
• Job search assistance
• Troubleshooting basic computer applications
• Assistance searching the internet
• Help downloading library e-Books and other digital resources
• Setting up email or other online accounts
• Google Drive
• Social Media Basics
• Tech Lab Training

For more information or to schedule an appointment, call the Public Services Staff at Johnston Public Library at 515.278.5233 x 3.

If you are interested in making up the hours that you would normally work today and tomorrow or over the weekend, please visit Iowa Learns and create an account. If you watch webinars, please just shoot me an email with the total hours you watched (include the time to set up your account if you don’t have one). I don’t need proof, just the total hours. I will add them to When to Work so you can add them to your timesheet.

Another great resource is WebJunction. You will be required to create an account, but many of their resources are free. I thought that the webinar about working with library users with Dementia and Emerging Technology Trends was very applicable.

Making up hours from home is optional.

Let me know if you have questions or need additional resources.

Due to the extreme weather forecast, we will be closed tomorrow and Friday (and also Christmas Eve and Christmas Day). Items due during this time have had their due dates changed to Monday. Holds expired during this time have been updated to not expire until after close on Monday.  DART, KCCI, and Polk County Emergency Management have been notified.

Due to the weather, we will not empty the Beaver Creek and Horizon Book Returns this Friday. They will be emptied next on Tuesday, December 27th.

We will backdate items to reflect the last empty of 12/19. Let Molly know if there are any questions or concerns.

Please do not stack items on top of each other on the shelves.

If you are putting an item away and there is no room to add another item on the shelf where it belongs, check to see if you can do a minor shift (redistribute the items on the surrounding shelves while keeping them in order). If more than a minor shift is required, please return the item(s) to the Circ Pre-Shelving Area.

Leave a note for Molly, and she will work with shelvers to shift and selectors to make more room on the shelves.

Please ask Molly or Megan if you have questions.

Extremely cold temperatures are forecast for Thursday and Friday this week. We will decide by Wednesday at noon whether the library will close those days. If we close Thursday, we will also close Friday. I’ll keep everyone posted.

A note from city hall:

Department Directors:

Please pass this information along to your employees in whatever manner is most efficient in your department.

I wanted to touch base on a few items related to the direct deposit emails.  As most of you may be aware, we’ve had an issue where employees who are using their city email addresses for the direct deposit information aren’t receiving them at the time they’re sent because the emails get “stuck” in the quarantine filter.  These emails are actually generated and sent through Incode, so we’re experimenting with whitelisting the IPs that Incode is using to hopefully resolve that issue.

With that being said, it’s probably a better practice to use your personal email addresses for these types of emails.  This allows you access to the information whether or not you have access to your city email (think after hours, out on leave, passwords expiring, etc.).  To facilitate that change, I have included a change form for employees to use to change to their personal email addresses.  These can be returned to me at crhames@cityofjohnston.com.

And finally, you will notice that the next payroll stub emails will require you to enter the last 4 digits of your social security number to open the email.  (At least that’s how it’s supposed to work!)

Change Form