JPL Intranet

This afternoon, patrons with over $5 in fines will receive a message like the one shown below. You may receive calls from patrons with questions about their fines and about food-for-fines.

Eric Melton,
Pay your overdue fees with non-perishable food items April 2-10.
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:
$126.70

Staff
Johnston Public Library
515-278-5233

Tips for talking with patrons about fees during Food-for-Fines:

How do I quickly find and add up the eligible fees on a patron’s account? Here is a step-by-step guide for adding up fines and how to accept payment with food/personal care items. I’ve also printed it for the desks.

Remember to encourage patrons with lost items (You’ll see Replacement/Processing fees) to return items. Those fees can be reduced to a fine of $5, or less, per item, if they are returned. It is never too late to bring items back to the library.

We are collecting Food-for-Fines items at the Circulation Desk behind the Self-Check Kiosk.

One of the Johnston parents who are collecting baby items (for the daughter of the man recently stabbed to death at Sonic in Johnston) has picked up what’s been dropped off so far. There may still be more donations coming in this week.

The tornado sirens will be tested at 10am this morning.

Hi All,

I am holding an online Circ Staff Meeting via Zoom this Sunday, March 27th at 11 am.

I will put all of you on When to Work. If you cannot attend online at 11 am on Sunday, please just watch the video at a time that works for you at home.

Topic: Circ Staff Meeting
Time: Mar 27, 2022 11:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87853960479?pwd=cng4U0wxalhjeVFOWENHOXFXSnEyZz09

Meeting ID: 878 5396 0479
Passcode: 114731

Hello All!
I’m so excited to report that we have partnered with Goodwill of Central Iowa to provide FREE Drop-In Job Help. At this time, job help is available every Wednesday from 10:00am to 12:00pm. Mike Johnston is the name of the job coach who will be providing the help. Mike can help patrons with the following things:

• Job search help
• Help filling out job applications
• Assistance writing or updating resumes
• Assistance writing or updating cover letters
• Interview coaching

I am attaching a picture of Mike so you know who he is. Please say hello and introduce yourself if you see him. I’ve showed him the staff kitchen so he might come back in the break room to grab coffee.

Additionally, I’m putting job help flyers at all the public service desks. If you hear anyone talking about job help or applying for jobs, please give them a flyer. As always, if someone comes in at a time when mike’s not here, ref staff will do our best to help, but as much as we can we want to start spreading the word about Drop-In Job Help so people take advantage of this service.
Thanks! Ask beth if you have any questions.

Concert set featuring Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony and Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto is this coming weekend, and here is the link to get tickets:  https://desmoinesperformingarts.org/events/symphony-beethoven-shostakovich/.  If you purchase online access, you will have up to 30 days after the performance to watch it.

A group of Johnston parents has asked if they can place a donation bin at the library to collect baby items for the daughter of the man recently stabbed to death at Sonic in Johnston. The bin will arrive sometime in the next couple days and will be placed by the entryway.

From Janet W.

The launch of our new site is scheduled for Thursday, March 17, 9–11:30 a.m. CST. CivicPlus will be launching the site, fire dept header, custom banners (Police, Fire, Community Development, Economic Development, Parks and Public Works) and the mobile app at this scheduled date/time unless anything changes. Our website will always remain accessible during the launch process. However, CivicPlus does ask that we remain from making any site updates/edits to pages during the launch process (9-11:30 a.m.), if at all possible so that their team is the only ones accessing the site to complete the launch steps. Once the launch process is complete, I will let you know via email once CivicPlus gives me the green light.

Below are the links to the pages. Please DO NOT share these links as they are beta, so they aren’t live to the public yet. The subpages don’t have the website’s new look right now, but they will when the site launches.

Fire page: https://www.cityofjohnston.com/1138/Fire—2022

City page: https://www.cityofjohnston.com/1137/Home—2022

We are very close to having a new site that looks and feels more usable!

Thank you in advance for your understanding.

If you have questions, please do let me know.

Thank you,

Janet Wilwerding, MBA l Communications Manager

Information about this year’s Lions Club Book Sale has been added to our event calendar. Details are included below.

Pick up some new-to-you books, movies or music at the annual Lions Club Book Sale. Proceeds from the event support the Johnston Public Library. Early shopping on Thursday, April 7th has a $3.00 entry fee; Friday and Saturday shopping is open to the public with no admission fee. The Johnston Lions Club is located on the corner of Merle Hay Road and NW 64th Place.

Thursday, April 7, 5:00pm-9:00pm
Friday, April 8, 8:00am to 8:00pm
Saturday, April 9, 8:00am to noon

The Des Moines Register is now being delivered in print only six days a week (Sunday-Friday). We will no longer receive a Saturday newspaper. Home subscribers will have digital access to the Saturday paper. See the full article here.

I reset the system clock, but it may take up to 24 hours for the building clocks to reflect the correct time

Update: Scanning to email on the public printer is now working.

Ok. This is super long, but it is really how I want to see claims returned handled, so I hope it makes sense. Please let me know if you have any questions.

When a patron states that they brought a book back but it is still showing on their account, we should be able to resolve the issue with the claims returned function or by escalating it to Molly or Denise with the Patron Needs Review form.

Very rarely will we want to go to the shelf to look for the item(s). 

Before moving an item to claims returned or escalating the issue, please make sure you are asking the following questions and having a conversation about our check-in timeline when appropriate:

• Do you remember approximately when you brought it back?
  • We don’t need an exact date but was it two hours ago, two days ago, a week ago…
• Did you return it to the library or one of our remote book returns at Beaver Creek Elementary or Horizon Elementary?

The above questions just help us provide education and establish expectations on the time between returning an item and when it is check-in. This is my script:

• Our goal is to have items checked in within 24 hours when using the book returns at the library. Holidays or weekends occasionally put us past that timeline. If you return something to the book return at the library, I recommend waiting two days before contacting us to let us know if it is still showing on your account. We backdate at check-in to reflect the date the items were received at the library.
• For Beaver Creek or Horizon, we generally empty the book returns twice a week (backdating to the last empty), so I generally recommend that people wait one week after returning a book to the remote book returns before they contact us to report a discrepancy.

If the patron is calling about five items or fewer, I put the items to a status of claim returned regardless of the timeframe. I just want to make sure I educate them so, hopefully, they will wait an appropriate amount of time before calling next time.

If the patron has more than five items out, and it seems that the items on a cart waiting to be checked in or in a remote book return waiting to be emptied based on the timeline they provided you, I thank them for calling. I give them a date by which I would expect their items to be checked in. I ask them to check their account or give us a call back after that date if they still detect any errors.

If the patron has more than five items out and from the timeline, it seems like they should have been checked in, please transfer the call to circulation so we can look on the shelf for the book or take a look for the books yourself.

• If you find the books, check them in backdating, and call the patron to apologize and let them know we have checked in the items.
• If you don’t find the books, call back the patron and let them know you are looking for the items but you do not see them on the shelf. If possible, renew the items in question and fill out a patron needs review form so we can follow up with them after looking for the items again. If some of the items have holds and are not renewable, please move them to claim returned (even though there are more than five) and fill out the patron needs review form.

Here are instructions for moving items to claim returned.

*For any of the above scenarios if the item is an ILL or a book club book, would you also send a message to Lori Elrick letting her know the status?

Due to recent changes in the U.S. Postal Service, the Wall Street Journal will begin arriving one day after publication effective March 13.

You may begin receiving inquires if JPL will be hosting a “shred day” as we have in the past. At the present time, the answer is no, although Beth is working with AARP to figure out if something could be offered.

In the meantime, you may refer patrons to Veridian Credit Union’s website: https://www.veridiancu.org/events/community-shred-day.

Veridian is offering two metro area shred days

May 14 at Maple Grove Elementary School in WDM and

May 21 at DMACC Campus in Ankeny.

DART is partnering with 10 participating public libraries to offer FREE bus rides to anyone with a library card February 27-March 5 on all fixed routes, on-call services, and DART On Demand rides. Just show your library card when boarding!

Participating libraries include Altoona, Ankeny, Bondurant, Clive, Des Moines, Grimes, Johnston, Pleasant Hill, Urbandale and West Des Moines.

Sorry for the short notice. I won’t be working Friday and need to work on time sheets Thursday afternoon. If this causes trouble just send me an email.

Hello all,

If you ordered Girl Scout Cookies from my daughter, I have put the cookies in your locker. If you ordered Adventurefuls and/or Peanut Butter Sandwiches, those are still en route to you. (Like everyone else, Girl Scouts are experiencing some supply chain issues. *eye roll*) I should have those to you in a week-ish. If you still need to pay for cookies, cash, Venmo to Beth, or check made out to Beth would be great. I then take that money and submit it through a girl scout app.
Thanks!