HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND BON VOYAGE FROM CAPPY D!

Ahoy Mateys,
Before I jump ship I thought I would leave you with one final blog entry.

As you know, Galina will be taking over "the helm" while I am away playing in Argentina, and  I know that  you all will keep things running smoothly (and in fact it will probably be revealed that the only really important thing I do is write this blog) but do lend each other a helping hand should difficulties arise. You will have a number of subs covering shifts so please do your best to make them feel welcome as well and remember that  since they are less familiar with the workings of our branch they might require a bit more help on what is where and how we do things here. Of course we try to stay consistent with the workings of the whole system but I know that each branch has its quirks and that includes ours.
 
Now a bit of work related information:

Galina has downloaded a few e-reader start up guides to print and pass out, should you have patrons with questions after Santa leaves them their new e-reader devices.  These are on the desktop of the sit down computer. There are documents for Kindle Fire, Nook and IPad. I think these will be a great help, as well as directing patrons to the ebooks tab now on our homepage.  I have also requested some devices from LIT to come and live at our branch so we can use them to walk patrons through the process, so someday we might get those as well.

If you haven't already, please familiarize yourselves with the patron conduct rules and the information about therapy animals in the library that Teresa emailed to all. These are supposed to be posted to the intranet sometime in the near future if you need to review them later.

Magazines are now requestable including those in the blue binders. If you find a "blue binder" issue on your pulls list please ignore it. The request will be filled when the magazine is replaced in the binder.

If the electronic sign needs to be reset, which usually involves turning it off and then on again, there is a remote in the desk drawer where we keep the branch key.

I will replace the kid's Holiday display with books about Winter before I leave for vacation, so if you are searching for winter books you can look there.  You may replenish the display as you see fit with incoming winter themed Jeasys.

  And on that note, I am about to say ciao for now.
 I will go off on my travels knowing that the branch is in capable hands and I wish you all HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND A GREAT NEW YEAR!!
  SEE YOU FEBRUARY 1st!
    Cappy Dick

OK this is an IMPORTANT ADDENDUM:
A HUGE THANKS to my staff who threw me a going away party with LOTS OF GOODIES, A WONDERFUL GIFT that should buy me a few meals and a tango lesson to work off the calories, 
an Argentinian quiz so I don't appear to be a gringo dolt, and a WONDERFUL NEW RENDITION
of  DON'T CRY FOR ME ARGENTINA with accompaniment by Donna on piano and IPHONE.
I am publishing the lyrics here as they are so excellent. Andrew Lloyd Webber eat your heart out!

DON'T CRY FOR HER, CAPITOLA
BECAUSE THE TRUTH IS, SHE'LL NEVER MISS YOU.
SHE'LL BE TOO BUSY,
NOT SPEAKING SPANISH,
BECAUSE SHE'S SWEDISH, 
AND SHE NO HABLO...

I KNEW my staff was multi-talented!  Thanks Mis Amigos, You are all excellent and truth be told, I will miss you!! 
   Bueno.

THE END OF THE WORLD!!!

Well mateys,
evidently the end is almost here, and still Cappy Dick keeps blogging along....

but I will try and make this short and sweet...And speaking of sweets,
the Friends of the library gave us a gift basket full of goodies so please eat them up!
They are in the break room along with other goodies being donated by appreciative patrons.
One of our patrons, Kim, also gave us 4 Christmas cacti, so with Carolyn's help, maybe we will manage not to kill them off.  For now, along with our Christmas "snow storm" and other decor that Galina brought in and that Barbara risked life and limb on the ladder to put up, it is starting to look downright jolly in our little branch!
   Lit also gave us a holiday gift in that they rebuilt our server and patron's should now be able to print PDF files without trouble as well as access a lot of those sites, including cruzio, that they hadn't be able to get to.
If you are working at the volunteer computer in the back of the workroom, you may notice a fan sound, but its nothing going awry, its just a new piece of equipment that Tinka installed to keep us running smoother.

Galina has made some excellent signs with tear off due dates to remind the patrons of the date their items are due. These are at each of the self check stations. The closing aide should pull off the day's date at closing time and the opening aide should double check that the date is correct upon opening. 

There will be no story hours or Tails to Tales until the New Year. Story hours starts again here on Jan. 11th and Tales to Tails Saturday, January 5th.  

Things seem to be slowing down a bit for the holidays so all of you take a deep relaxing breath and fill up on chocolate, candy canes and other goodies so you have lots of energy for the end of the world or the new year, which ever comes first.
    Cappy Dick



  

CAPPY DICK IS TO FULL TO WRITE A DECENT BLOG

Ahoy all,
Well, I am still so stuffed from our excellent Capitola/Live Oak party (Thank you Barbara for all your work in making that happen, along with the Live Oak staff), that all my energies are stilll working on digesting so I can't think of a thing to put in this blog.  If you didn't make it to this event, all I can say is that you missed out on some great food and good company and I should've hauled back some leftovers but I probably would've eaten them all before they made it to the work fridge, so sorry.  Isn't that what December is all about:
Gluttony and Gifts?!
 Seriously, it was wonderful to gather without having to answer any reference questions OR MARK THEM DOWN on our typical week sheets, which, thank goodness we are done with until the last week of January.  I want to thank all of you for helping me keep track of every question/interaction  and all the items shelved. We do really well at this branch in keeping up and closing each day with a minimum of extra work for the next day. It reflects well on how everyone pitches in!

   Please observe the beautiful new display we have on the back wall of the children's room. This is thanks to Galina who solicited art from one of the local schools, and to Riley who risked life and limb to put them all up on the wall. And of course to the 7th and 8th grade students from Alianza Charter school, who did such intricate and colorful designs on their "Greek vases."  It really brightens up that area.

I believe that next week we will be able to print out a system wides claims returned search list. If indeed that is true, I will put it on the back clipboard with our missing list so anyone can search in their free time. If you do find an item you will need open the systems claims returned bucket 653 and remove the item from the bucket. Also do remember to check it in and send it on its way.  We are continuing to find books from other branches on our shelves as well as items claim returned here, so do continue to be diligent in watching the screen and popping open the books before shelving them to be sure they are going to the right place.

The story hour theme this next week is winter so if you find any non-holiday books about winter in the jeasys do add them to the pile on my desk and of course look there should they turn up on your pulls list. This will be our last story hour until January 7th.

Don't forget to replenish our two Holiday displays (adult and kidlets) if you see any appropriate incoming titles.
 And Happy December,
Cappy Dick.

CAPPIE DICK IS BACK TO THE BLOG

Well, I hope you are all recovered from your "relaxing" Thanksgivings and post party shopping expeditions, because this looks like a week full of "fun".
Firstly, it is going to be another "Typical week" (like there is such a thing at Capitola, what with every day bringing some kind of surprise...) and this one will be a bit different then we have done in the past so listen up.
Firstly we have been asked to keep track of all the books that need to be shelved and all the books that WERE shelved for an entire week. This starts on Monday so I will be asking the aides or anyone else who puts a cart out on the floor to please attach a tag on the end stating the date and how many books are on the cart before you begin shelving. Anyone who empties a cart please pull the tag and put it on my desk"
We will need to let our volunteers or any subs know this procedure as well. Also its important, if you walk a book to a cart or to a display shelf to make sure that is recorded. You can note it on a cart count  or you can simply jot it down on a piece of scrap paper, date it and leave it on my desk.
Also anyone working the desk will need to remember to fill out the typical week stats forms after EACH interaction with a patron. Please remember that EACH QUESTION/BOOK LOOKED UP/ETC. gets a hash mark in the correct time slot not just each interaction.. I have to compile these sheets daily so it is important that we all be accurate. I will leave a sheet beside each of the service desk computers.

We have new claims returned procedures that are in the greeenbook so it is a good idea to review the process there if you haven't already. We are about to get access to a system wide claims returned bucket so we can search our shelves for items claimed returned at other branches.
 I have created an unclaimed branch bucket for Capitola for 3 months out, so if someone reports an unclaimed item please be sure that you put it in the correct monthly bucket for Capitola. You will see there are buckets for December, January and February so choose accordingly.  Also, and this is most important, if you find an unclaimed item on our shelves please do delete it from the unclaimed bucket. Checking it in does not automatically clear it from the bucket.

I have put a list of items from our November Missing bucket on the back counter clipboard so if you are lacking exciting things to do, you are welcome to search for any of those items. If you do search please note on the list the date you searched and if you find anything remember to remove it from our missing bucket also.

We are starting a new month so we have a holiday book display for both adults and kids. The adult display encompasses all the December holidays as well as the winter season so if you find something appropriate please add it to the display.  The children's display is mostly just picture books celebrating the holidays and is on the display shelf on the back of the adult display. Remember to look in both these places if you are looking for items that are on the sends list.

The change of months also means its time to pull all the new books dated 6 so be on the lookout for those yellow spine labels and feel free to remove them.  Our new displays are packed full so we can use any room we can manage, although most of these titles do circulate quickly.

Story hour this week is "your favorites/our favorites" so if you have some favorite J easys put them on my desk and I will put them on display for our story hour on Friday.

Don't forget the Holiday Potluck at Live Oak on Friday at 6 pm. If anyone needs a ride from the branch I will be happy to stuff you in my little car, just say the word. Should be good fun and good food so do join us!

Happy December,
Cappie Dick

CAPPY DICK DOES TECHNO

YEEK!  This week's blog is going to be all about technology, not Cappy Dick's area of expertise, but live and learn I guess, and this week its heavy on the learning. Of course we have a couple of days off for Thanksgiving to do the living part too and to give our addled brains a rest.

We have now officially be running the new Evergreen 2.3 for a week and hopefully most of the glitches are worked out. If you encounter anything strange do let me know so we can inform Lit if need be. Last week we discovered a few anomalies that were NOT supposed to be occuring and that Lit was unaware of, so we shouldn't be shy about reporting strangeness if need be.

Firstly, please take the time to look at MY ACCOUNT on our home page and familarize yourself with the various screens and options that are available to patrons. This will be helpful when you encounter questions about the new format.
 If a patron reports that the MY ACCOUNT is not working, be sure they are NOT trying to access it from a bookmark to the OLD homepage or the old MY ACCOUNT page as these look similar but are now disabled. Recommend that they try to get in by typing in the library url instead and accessing it that way, and if that works they can bookmark the newer version.
 
Please also look over the new registration form in EG. You will quickly discover, if you haven't already that it is necessary to use a different format to put in the birthdate and expiration date then we have been previously using. There are examples by each, of the new correct format (and EG won't let you complete a registration with the old formate). For the expiration date, the easiest way is to click the correct date on the calendar, and then it will self-fill for you.
  There is new User field on the registrations now which we do not fill in, but it is a good idea to encourage patrons to access it with MY ACCOUNT and to populate the pick up location with the branch of their choice.  I believe that if they do not do this, the item will continue to show up at the home branch that we fill in when we do the registration but there is some speculation from higher ups that this may not necessarily be the case.

Richard is working on new procedures that will allow branches to share their CLAIMS RETURNED buckets with other branches so we can do system wide searches. When he has set it up he will be emailing all of us with instructions as well as putting it in the Green book.

 UPDATE: As of Monday, 11/19/2012 Richard has published the changes in the Green book. Please take the time to read them and refer to them until you are familiar with this process. 

 Capitola has its own claims returned bucket and this is where we should be listing any items that a patron says they returned, that are still showing checked out to them.  Please remember when you are marking an item claimed return to enter the return date within the loan period even if the patron says they returned it after the due date.  (see item 2.4 in the Green Book: Marking items claimed returned and also Work Flows section 4)

If you check in an item that has a status of claims returned, please check our bucket and remove the item.
It will not remove automatically.  If you are unsure how to do this, you can leave it on my desk with a note and I will take care of it.
Currently I am searching our claims returned bucket once a week but if any of you are lacking for something to do, please feel free to search it yourself.
 Our claims returned bucket is found under cataloging/ manage copy buckets/ CAP_ClmRtn_month.
If you have any questions about how to access the bucket or do any of these steps please ask and I will do the best I can to walk you through the steps.  We are all learning these procedures so no worries if you are not clear on this.  Soon you will be an expert and then we will have another upgrade just to keep us all from getting stale.

If people wish to know donations the friends of the library accept, please direct them to the friends website
FSCPL.ORG where there is a handy button they can click that says DONATE.  From there, if they click on Book Donations it spells out what the library will and will not accept.  Explore this yourself as its a good idea
to be familiar with what kinds of donations we can accept at the service desk.
Patrons can also access the Friends page from the library home page. There is a Friends selection on the top of the home page.

Janis O'Driscoll is sending out a What's New once a week list of things happening in the system.
I am posting that on the clipboard behind the service desk, as well as any new procedures and Evergreen information that comes out, so feel free to flip through all those papers when things are slow. If you find something wildly out of date, don't hesitate to liberate it from the clipboard. I am trying to keep things current but I can use all the help I can get.

The theme for story hour this week is Families so look for those books at my desk and feel free to take or add items as  per usual.

Ok, my fingers are tired and I suspect your brains are too, by now so I say, Happy Thanksgiving. Have a wonderful week and enjoy your time off!!
  Cappy Dick
P.S.  Welcome back, Barbara. You were missed by all!

HEY, MONDAY IS A HOLIDAY!!

Ahoy me hearties,

Cappy Dick was feeling generous and declared you should all have Monday off, so I hope you enjoyed your time away and are back refreshed and ready for a new week!

We have weathered our Evergreen upgrade and things seem to be working pretty well. I think there are some improvements and it definitely looks different and has some different settings so do take time to explore both the behind the desk version and also the public version. If you have a personal library account, I recommend you log in to it and see what the patrons are seeing, in case they have questions. 
There is also an e-mail I have printed from Lit in case patrons are using an old bookmark on their personal computers to get to the website and are ending up with the wrong homepage and trying to log in. I have posted it on the clipboard, so please review it.

Speaking of the clipboard, I will always try to put relevant information that we might need to refer to quickly, on the clipboard near the sign in sheets so try and make a habit of checking there for new information when you sign in each day.  This blog is only weekly and as we all know things change in our system constantly, so this is one more way to keep informed.
 Also please check the branch Gmail which is bookmarked on the middle computer on the service desk. I try and leave it open on a tab all day on that computer so we can check it periodically so give it a gander when you can.
 Heck, with all this reading how will we have time to actually work? Well, all those people that say "Oh, you are so lucky to work in a library, you must get to read all day" maybe weren't so far off the mark after all.

We are still having an inordinate number of items either not checked in properly, or not routed to the correct branch (many non-Capitola titles on our shelves) so I am going to INSIST that for those of us on the service desk, we use ONLY the check in computer near the phone to check items in. This means, please do not take items from the drop box to any other computer to check them in. I believe that multi-tasking at the other computers is causing some of these mistakes as you are often interrupted mid-transaction and things are getting mislaid and then mis-shelved.
 Of course if during a patron transaction you need to check in an item at the other service desk computers, that is fine. You don't have to run to the check in computer in that case, just do remember where the checked in item needs to go next.

Lit has configured the columns on most of the evergreen pages on our three service desk computers.Please do not change these configurations without checking with me.  If you see a sub attempting to change these cut off their hands, uh, i mean , gently remind them to not touch.The computer in the check in room has not been changed so you may need to set up the columns there according to what works best for you. Just remember to save list configurations if you want them to remain in place.

The J New Fiction has been moved once again. It will now live on the small table as you enter the children's area.  I will be posting the New York Times best seller list of J Chapter books at the end of that shelving, should anyone ask.
 The J holiday books are now displayed on the backside of the top shelf of the adult display books, facing the J New Fiction. If you go to the children's area this will make a lot more sense so do wander over and figure out what I am talking about.
Ken is still making us new shelving for the J Graphic Novels but until he has those in place we will continue to use the rolling red cart near the J New Fiction table.

The story time subject this week is Thanksgiving and as we already have those displayed, if you find any add them to the display and if you need them for the pulls list, you know where to look.

Kari will be hosting her second Tea and Talk adult get together on this Wednesday morning at 9:30. There are fliers if any patrons are interested. 
There are also our ongoing Tales to Tales on Wednesday,  Teens and Tweens group meeting Thursday afternoon, and pre-school story time on Friday, so as far as programing goes it will be a full week.

Hope you remembered to honor all our veterans and had a fine day off.

Happy Week!
Cappy Dick  
 

YAY! TIME TO HIBERNATE

YO,
Well we made it through Halloween unscathed, despite the fact that Riley had a REALLY BIG SWORD on his costume! And  we even got to hibernate for an extra hour thanks to the end of daylight saving time on Sunday. Hope by now you have corrected your watches and clocks (those of you who are old school and wear timepieces instead of using your phones) so that y'all get to work on time, and lets hope our patrons have too or we will have a heck of a time getting rid of certain ones who shall remain un-named when we close.

No big news this week EXCEPT that the new EVERGREEN 2.3 is supposed to be installed so check the Capstaff email to see if there are any relevant updates. I hope it all runs smoothly and that all the Evergreen glitches have been resolved, but I am not keeping my fingers crossed to tightly...too hard to type that way for one thing. If there are two Evergreen Icons on the desktop DO OPEN THE ONE THAT SAYS 2.3. I will clear the old icons (2.09) off the various desktops when we have the all clear from LIT.

We still don't know when Barbara will be rejoining us, but we are sending her, her mother and her family all of our best wishes from afar. In her absence various aides will be filling in some of her hours. You may see Peggy Stone (aide from LSB and GP) around a bit as she is taking lots of the hours.
You may see her teenage son Judah working on his computer in our staff room as that is a quiet space for him to study while she is working.
If you do see an aide working that you haven't been introduced too, do introduce yourself and offer your help should they have questions. Each branch is a bit different in terms of shelving and procedures so direction is always welcomed, I am sure.

We have two new displays for November. In the adult area, adjacent to the New books, the Theme is :Share your Table. We have fiction and non-fiction titles there reflecting cookery, Thanksgiving, Charity and Good food reads. There is a whole genre of mysteries and fiction around recipes so if you see any of those in the stacks, please feel free to add them to the display as well as other titles you think might be appropriate for our display.
  In the children's area I have put out the small smattering of Thanksgiving books and to bulk up the display, also books with autumn and harvest themes, so again, if you see any titles that you think would merit showing off  in that area, please do add them.

This year SANTA CRUZ READS will be reading John Steinbeck for THE BIG READ and as recognition of writing as a form of activism, SCPL, Friends of SCPL and SANTA CRUZ WRITES are sponsering a writing contest open to the community. There is information available at www..santacruzreads.org and there are entry forms at all the libraries. Ours are by the sit down reference station at our service desk.

Our story hour theme on Friday is Trucks. There is a stack by my desk should anyone be looking for them or have picture books to add.

I think that wraps it up. Happy Autumn and don't forget to vote!!
Cappy Dick

A WEEK TO "RAISE YOUR SPIRITS"!

Someone ought dress as Cappie Dick for Halloween!! And I mean the real  dude, not your Capitola person in charge. Course only a few of us codgers would know who you were meant to be, but heck, it would be an original costume!
 I myself intend to come in costume because I agree with the writer Douglas Coupland who says:
"If human beings had genuine courage, they'd wear their costumes every day of the year, not just on Halloween. " In my world every day should be a costume party!  And I encourage any of you to dress up as well if you like that kind of thing. I am sure the patrons would enjoy it.
 I will bring a big bowl of candy to put on the front desk to allay any tricks our little ghouls might feel tempted to pull should they feel they are not adequately sugared.
There will be NO tales to tails that day (although there will be one the following Saturday before we open).

There isn't a lot of other branch news, except that Barbara had to leave unexpectedly to go and help take care of her elderly mother who has taken a downturn in health, so you may be seeing a lot of new faces, as we have various aides filling in some of her hours. Some of them will be new to our branch and not privy to all our shelving quirks so do be on the lookout for mishelved items. I will try and give them all the low down on what lives where but as you all know, its a lot to absorb so one of the best things y'all can do is to pay special attention to what goes where and if you are one of the shelvers, do open the book and make sure its a Capitola item. We are still finding items from other branches on our shelves as well as items not checked in.

The internet printer is not currently working. It jams almost every time we attempt to print. I have sent an IRM to lit asking for a new printer but in the meantime this means that our public cannot print from the internet. I have posted signs but you all know how much they read so you might have to remind people who come in to use the internet that they will be unable to print. Also this means that we cannot print out receipts for our patrons from the sit down service desk station so please try and use that station for reference and keep the middle station free for transactions that require a receipt. Hopefully this will be resolved soon but in the meantime you can print if need be  to the workroom computer if you choose Cap Wkm from the drop down menu when you choose to print.


You may see 2 evergeen icons on the desktop for a couple of weeks. One of them is about to become obsolete but in the meantime that is the one you need to use. It is the NOT labeled 2.3. If you hover the mouse over the icon you will be able to determine which one it is. If it says 2.3 choose the other icon to open. 2.3 will not work until after Nov. 4th.

The story hour subject this week is still CATS (it got switched with last week), so as usual, look on my desk for J titles on that subject for the sends list or if patrons are asking for them.

There will also be a new adult display (possibly Thanksgiving related, its still under discussion) on Thursday afternoon so check and see what it is and be sure to place appropriate items on the display shelves.

 Nov. 1 we will be pulling all new books with 5 or prior stickers on the spines.

For those of you who work the service desk (which is all of you): if you take a check please be sure and write the following on it next to the patron's name and address:
License #
Branch 
date
your initials
  some of these details are being missed and accounting is not pleased.

Happy Halloween!
Cappy Dick

CAPPY DICK IS ON VACATION!

Y'all keep the ship afloat whilst I am gone. I know you can sail smoothly without me! I will see you on Wednesday but don't forget to do your Kronos on Tuesday!
bon voyage.
C. D.

ps.  The story hour subject is Cats so look near my desk for any J titles on that subject that you might be searching for.

A BLOG ALMOST AS LONG AS CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Well mateys,
last weeks blog was light but this one is going to be more on the long side
as I have various things to report on since attending my exciting monthly PIC meeting.

Most important of all: The city is having a Halloween Party and although its at the civic auditorium in Santa Cruz, you can participate if you want to enter their city employee costume contest by taking a photo of yourself and sending it as an attachment to Jason McCluskey (mccluskeyj@santacruzpl.org) by Halloween morning at 9 am. He will send them on to the city and our esteemed city council will be the final judges. I am not sure what you win (a key to the city of Santa Cruz?, free parking for life?) but it might be fun to try if you think you have what it takes.

Now business: since we have had our first rain I am going to review power outage information before the winter season gets underway and I ask that all of you take a bit of time to read over the power outage section of our emergency manual (pp. 31-32). There is an emergency manual on the counter behind the circ desk. Let me know if you can't find it. October is emergency preparedness month anyway, so if you haven't read through the emergency manual yet this year, this is the month to do it. Feel free to grab a binder in any slow moments and have a thrilling read. Some of it is not as up to date as it should be, but in this case even a little information is better then none.

Most importantly: There are various flashlights throughout the branch: one under the circ desk, one in the discharge room, one on each of our workstation desks and two tall standing flashlights on the top shelf above the Tales to Tails basket. Please wander around and make sure you know where to find one BEFORE you are caught in the dark.

If the power goes off the person in charge will call LIT  & HQ from our power outage phone to report the outage. To use this phone you must dial 9 to get an outside line.

Public restrooms should be locked for safety reasons. (its dark in there?!)

If the outage is during the daylight hours we will remain open and provide whatever reference and information services we are able. We do have a branch IPAD so if wifi is still up we can use that to access our catalog (depending on if the entire network is down). It is also handy in getting general dewey decimal #s when trying to help patrons find particular subjects. However, it does travel back and forth with me so if the power goes out on a day that I am not at the branch you will have to do without.

If the outage occurs at dusk or beyond patrons should be cleared from the branch and after 15 minutes the branch will close. We will put signs on the door indicating the reason we are closed and follow our usual closing procedures as best we can, turning things off and locking up as per usual.
There is signage for almost all occasions on the back counter so it is not necessary to create new ones.
(There are also Branch is closed due to Power Outage signs in the Power Outage notebook)


 For those of you who work the desk, in the event of a network failure, wherein we still have power to run the computers but evergreen is down we have been asked to start using the evergreen standalone interface instead of creating a word document. There are two screens: one for checking out and one for renewing.
The instructions for using this interface are printed out and on the branch information clipboard so I strongly urge you to read through them, look at the interface and familiarize yourself with this process. It is most important to SAVE THESE TRANSACTIONS after finishing with each borrower before moving on to the next.
All  offline transactions MUST BE UPLOADED at the end of the day! The person most in charge at the branch will be responsible for this. We no longer however have to send any e-mails stating that "all  branch off line tranasctions are done" and in fact we have been pointedly asked NOT TO, unless we receive an e-mail stating otherwise...
During any power outages we will limit check outs to 5 items per patron.

I have put together a POWER OUTAGE NOTEBOOK which will live henceforth on the back counter behind the circ desk so we don't have to prowl around in the dark when we forget all the instructions.

Secondly, once again I have to insist that everyone pay even greater heed to watching the screen when checking items in as well as really focusing on where said items are supposed to go, as there have been an inordinate number of items that are supposed to be going to other branches, on our shelves, as well as many claims returned items that have not been properly checked in. I would rather everyone go slow and we have a backlog of things to be shelved then to have to unshelve items that have been mishandled. For those of you who shelve, please flip open the books and make doubly sure that these really are Capitola books and if in doubt run them through check in again.

Kari Gunn, our own personal programming person has hosted her first Tea and Talk event this last Wednesday. She had a decent turnout and it appeared a lively discussion. If any of you know people who are looking for a bit of adult social time, Kari will be hosting this event on the second Wednesday of every month from 9:30-11 (before we open).
She is also here on Thursdays @ 3pm running the Tweens and Teens group, which currently is pretty sparsely attended so again, if you know of anyone who might be interested please pass this info on to them. I believe she has a craft organized and would happily plan games or book groups if she had any takers.

Tales to Tails is on a temporary hiatus and will NOT be scheduled on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month, despite what our flier says. Please encourage interested patrons to call the programming dept. as they need to make appointments if they wish to participate and programming should have the most up to date information on when the program occur.

The story hour subject this week is Boats and Voyages so if you are seeking kids books with that might fall under this subject check in the pile above my desk.

NEW PROCEDURE:  Since this is  emergency preparedness month, I have instated a special new emergency procedure specific to Capitola. It is the procedure for rescuing your co-workers from unfortunate encounters. This is covered in the problem patron manual but at Capitola we are lucky enough to have two white "doorbells" under our circ counter. If you are trapped at the desk with someone you need to get away from please feel free to ring those bells and any staff that happens to hear, please step out into the circ area and tell the trapped staff member they have a phone call in the back. Do attempt to be subtle as to not further excite the patron.

ok, this is so long it will take you 1/2 a shift to read it and then you have to move on and read the emergency manual and the clipboard.
Happy abosorbing,

Cappy Dick

A BLOG SO SHORT IT BARELY RATES A TITLE!

Greetings fellow Cappies,
This is going to be the shortest blog yet because everything is running so smoothly and for once there aren't any vital changes for us all to attempt to remember.
The two Halloween displays (J and adult) are popular so do continue to add any appropriate items that you come across to those.
Our Friday Story Hour this week is  FARM ANIMALS (as opposed to last weeks FARMS) so I have the usual pile at my desk and you are welcome to take titles you need from there.

I have received the list of Periodicals we will be receiving for 2013 and while most of our current titles will continue a few have been replaced with other magazines so if you are trying to shelve a periodical and you can't find the right shelf space for it, put it in the back with the older copies.  I have re-labeled the periodical shelving to get ready for our new additions which should be coming soon. We are adding three Spanish titles:  People en Espanol, Siempre Mujer and Telenovela.  We are discontinuing Christian Science Monitor, Utne and Harpers.

We are also expecting the Chronicle any day now.

That's all folks!
Keep up the good work!
Cappy Dick

Banned books or Halloween?!

October may host banned books week but if you have lived in Santa Cruz for any length of time you know that Halloween is the biggest celebration in the year here, so we had to get a head start and get our Halloween and Day of the Dead displays up before all the patrons checked them out and we had nothing to display.
Of course we could ban anyone from checking out our display books and then we would have both banned books and Halloween but since Galina has made us such a wonderful ghoulish display of all adult titles Halloweenish and there is also a display of the children's materials on the low table entering into the kid's area , I doubt we would have much luck preventing patrons from checking them out.

 I have posted a sign on the J items asking that patron's limit their selections to 3 per visit  (see, they are almost banned) so if you see anyone at the self-check with big piles of Halloween books you might offer a gentle reminder that we want to have enough materials available for all to enjoy. The display will be up all month so there should be plenty of time for everyone to get their Halloween fix.
As always if you find titles, either Adult or Juvenile that you think appropriate for a Halloween theme please add them to the displays. These aren't just limited to monsters, witches and ghosts, but also things like pumpkins, costumes, horror fiction...candy corn?? Use your most creative judgement. I am sure that everything in these displays will circulate!
  And don't forget to start planning your costume!!

The branch is almost entirely weeded now so there should be lots of room on the shelves. Do let me know if you find areas that are still impacted and we shall see what can be done. Thanks again to Riley for shifting and for all of you for shelf straightening and making our branch look beautiful. Keep it up because on Thursday there will be a branch tour by the Site committee including various big wigs and consultants as well as Teresa and Gale. They will be looking at each branch as they determine how best to spend monies set aside for the new building refurbishment, etc. I am not sure how Capitola will fare as we were once slated for a new building but due to the elimination of the redevelopment agency I am not sure that is still in the cards. We are housed in a portable building so expansion options seem unlikely but maybe they will figure out some kind of magic reconfigurations that will give us extra space. 

The story hour theme this week is farms so look for any J picture books about farms in a stack above my desk and take anything you might need to fulfill the patron's wishes.

Enjoy these last glorious days of HOT summer!

Cappy Dick

HAPPY AUTUMN!

A HAPPY FALL TO Y'ALL,
Summer is gone as are some our our tourist crowds but it feels like we are making up for it with all the back to schoolers and a fresh crop of parents and kidlets attending our story hour on Fridays, as well as a couple of  "tweens" who attended the drop in group last Thursday afternoon and a lot of young patrons who came to read to the dogs and cat on Wednesday's Tale to Tails.
Just to keep everyone on their toes we have rearranged the branch once again (really this is because our collection keeps growing but our building does not).  The juvenile graphic novels are being housed temporarily on a red rolling cart at the entrance to our YP room. We are hoping to have shelving built at the end of J biographies so they will have a permanent home.
  We have also pulled out our NEW J Fiction and displayed it on the top of the New Book shelving facing the YP room. If you see any of the new titles interfiled on the regular shelving,  please pull them and put them with the others on this display. And just to make sure everything gets equal billing, we also now have a NEW J Non-Fiction Display at the end of fiction where the J graphic novels used to be.
  Riley, our super shifter has graciously shifted all the J fiction and is working on shifting all the J non-fiction to create  more room, as things were getting tight on many of those shelves and as I said, our collection continues to grow. We can re-utilize the display shelving between the fiction and non-fiction should the need arise but for now they will highlight our newest J Non-fiction titles.
 
Galina has printed out a list of "favorite reads" for Young Adults and it is in a binder on the New YA shelving. Please peruse it when you can, so you can refer our YA patrons to it, should they ask for read-alikes or good reading suggestions. (There is a similar list for those patrons who loved Harry Potter and are looking for similar titles, hanging near the Harry Potter books in the J fiction area.)

When you get a chance, take a walk around the branch and familiarize yourself with all these new displays and do let me know if you see other areas where we could improve. Also feel free to continue to pull out favorite titles and put them on our interim shelves within the adult fiction and non-fiction stacks. Patrons continue to comment on what good reads they find in these displays. All I ask is that if you display a book, please keep it near its "shelving of origin" spot so that we can find it if we are searching for it.

The subject for Story hour this Friday is Fall or apples?? (i guess Kari will decide at the last minute) so I am pulling J books on both those subjects and will stack them at my desk should you need to snag any.

Please remember to ONLY put BOOKS  and MEDIA in the lost and found Books/Media box up front under the circulation desk. Other lost and found items can go in the boxes on the bottom shelf in the workroom. All items should have a note with the date they were found. The items up front are held for week and then donated to the friends. The lost and found items in the back are held for a month before they are taken to Goodwill or disposed of. 

Ok, go kick some leaf piles and have big bon fires or whatever else one does to celebrate the Fall equinox and as always, THANKS FOR BEING SUCH A GREAT TEAM!
Cappy Dick

YAAAR!! TALK LIKE A PIRATE!!

Ahoy Mateys,
This week is the long awaited TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY on Wednesday, Sept. 19th! Maybe Tales to Tails will bring in a parrot for the kidlets to read to, but if not, well we can say YAAR and order Riley to Swab the Decks (just kidding Riley!) etc. If you really want to know more about this important holiday, here is a link: TalkLikeAPirate  but I will forewarn you, some of the Pirate pick up lines are a bit salty...
 I have a poster I will put up that day and I am compiling a stack of Pirate books to put up on display in the children's area also on Wednesday.  Of course the Story hour subject this week is Pirates as well, so as per usual, if you are looking for pirate books and you can't find them in their usual spots, check the display or my desk.
  We also will continue to showcase Galina's wonderful display of books adapted to movies, so when you are shelving, keep an eye out for books made into movies or DVDs of books to replenish her display. And don't forget to add any of your favorite adaptations to her on-going list.

  This week is TYPICAL STATISTICS WEEK at the branch (this happens quarterly), so I am placing Stats sheets at each of the circ computers. Please remember to make a hash mark for any kind of questions you have to answer or help you have to provide. This includes such exciting questions as Where are the bathrooms? What are your hours? either by phone or in person, so if you are out on the floor and someone asks you anything library related, please remember to mark it down on one of the sheets.

We also have to do another "items shelved in 24 hours" so we will do this count on Wednesday as this actually is a count of how many items we typically shelve in a day.  I have left detailed instructions for the aides, but basically this means that everything to be shelved needs to go on a cart (no walking items to the new or display shelf) and that whomever wheels the cart out onto the floor needs to do an item count and record it on a piece of paper and attach it to the cart.  Aides, when you finish shelving a cart, please remove the count paper and put it on my desk.

If anyone should inquire about completing volunteer hours for school, please refer them to Community Service Days at the Aptos, BC, Downtown and Scotts Valley Libraries. We have a poster for this with more information on the Young Adult side of our new books shelving area (right before the encyclopedias) or you can refer them to the Volunteer Office at 427-7700 ext. 7615.

Donna is officially DONE with her training but we all know that we are all in training all the time, as fast as things change around here, so everyone please continue to help each other out and lend a hand wherever it might be needed. I  am proud at how well we are all working together and I for one am learning new tricks every time I come to work, so big thanks!

Yarr then, lets look smart and  show them landlubbers what we're made of, and all that....
Cappy Dick

NEW HOURS/NEW EMPLOYEES HERE WE GO!

Well, y'all had a repreive from Cappy Dick's blog for a couple of weeks but all good things must come to an end so here we go again....I have to say that the branch was in fine shape upon my return and for that I credit the competence and dedication of my excellent staff! A big thanks to all of you for handling everything, including an incident and the requiste report that went with it! Well done!!  
It's been a whirlwind week since I returned;  it feels like we are busier then ever most of the time, but beginning this week we have slightly longer open hours so maybe the tide will come in slower instead of these tidal waves we have been getting hit with.  Donna has one more week of training but Galina and I should get to start our "regular" schedule so hopefully we will all figure out when we are coming and going with less confusion by the end of the month.  For now, thanks for bearing with us!
  I have put out the open hour handouts with all the new hours reflecting changes system wide as well as posted our new hours on the door. (Thanks Galina for great signage!)

Story hour starts up again this week. Capitola will be having a story hour for pre-schoolers (3-6) every Friday at 10:30 before the branch is open.
 There will also be a Tweens & Teens story hour on Thursdays @ 3:00 pm starting Sept. 20th,
as well as a monthly Tea and Talk program for adults on the second Wednesday of the month starting Oct. 10th. This will be an opportunity for attendees to decide what they would like to discuss or do at these meetings.
These last two programs are new to our branch so I have put out flyers at the front desk. Please let any of our patrons whom you think might be interested, know about these.  Kari Gunn will be leading all these programs and if anyone has questions they can call her at 427-7700 ext. 7680.  Her number is on the flyers also.

Tales to Tails will continue on Wednesdays at 3:00pm as well as the first Saturday of the month at 9:30am. Patrons do have to sign up for this ahead of time so if you have inquiries direct them to the programming phone # and remind them to leave a message with their return phone #. Jeanne O'Grady is the contact person for this program now.

The theme for Story time this week is Grandparents so I have compiled a stack of books on this subject at my desk. Please feel free to take any you might need to fill the pulls request list or if a patron is inquiring.

Due to popular demand we have installed a red cart near the book drop where we can place CAP books until we have time to take them to the check-in room and sort them onto the appropriate carts for shelving.
Also we have placed a tall chair out front for whomever would like to get off their feet and we have a wonderful new red "perch" on order for the front service desk as well.

For those who are new to our branch and our strange ways:  the purple paper slips are to be used ONLY for 3 day holds. This way we can easily identify them if they are not picked up in a timely manner.
Also, Capitola is the only branch that shelves the MCs as if they were in fact MC (not MaC), and we also shelve our adult Fiction and genre titles in alphabetical order by TITLE if there are multiple books by the same author.

We are still finding an inordinate number of library materials for other branches on our shelves and our carts.
When you are checking in, PLEASE WAIT FOR THE TURTLE before assuming a book goes to our branch and double check the screen to make sure it really is a CAPITOLA book.  If you are checking items in at the front desk during a busy time, give priority to our patrons and give your full attention there. Multi-tasking is not all its cracked up to be and things will get done as they do. Better slower with less mistakes then frantic with many.
Thanks to our diligent aides for catching a lot of these by checking inside the book for the branch designation.

Please remember if you are helping patrons that we have some excellent databases. Mango in particular is a wonderful resource to those who are learning languages (and then we have Donna who speaks Spanish and Cantonese, and Galina who speaks Russian, and uh, me,. well, I can swear like a sailor!).
And also if they have kidlets we have the Discover and Go program that gives discounts on many of our local and not so local venues. The Exploratorium in SF has a great discount on that site and there are many others as well, that I don't think our patrons know about.

Ok, enough blather for now...Happy Indian Summer.
Cappy Dick

BACK TO SCHOOL ALREADY??

Arggh! Cappy Dick can't stand the idea of  Back to school in August. Have mercy and let us all enjoy the last few days of summer vacation before the hecticity of school reports and exams kicks in....In fact I am going to take this week off just to lounge and try and enjoy the final tourist days in downtown Santa Cruz so you all are on your own. I know you can swab the decks and handle the riff raff with the best of them, and Galina has been here a couple of days so she knows whats what, and if not, I have assured her that the rest of you do!

Please be sure and have your Kronos done by Tuesday as Galina will be approving it in my absence (if the Kronos God will let her, otherwise subfinders and Gale Farthing will have you covered.)

The Back to School display is officially available to the public now. It is on the children's room table. Please re-shelve any back to school type books there as they are returned and direct any patrons there who are looking for that subject for their little ones.. We will keep the display for the month of September.

I have created a binder to record Read-To-Me kits that have been returned to our branch missing pieces.
You don't have to record anything there but this will allow you to check for information about a kit in the event that a patron comes in and wants to know why the kit is still checked out to them after they returned it.  Generally if the kit is missing pieces it is not checked in but sent to Programming and they contact the patron, but as there is some lag time, the patron may have concerns. These kits do not accrue overdue fines.
In my absence you can put the returning Read to me kits on the programming shelves directly across from my desk. Remember NOT to check them in. I or a programming person will do so when we are available.

Donna Barber will be joining us on Saturday, Sept. 1st to begin working here as a part-time LAII.  She has worked here as an on-call and I know she will be a wonderful asset to our already excellent staff!  The patrons are gonna love this branch, thanks to all of you!!

Happy last week of August,
Cappy Dick

BYE BYE DAVID/HELLO GALINA

Well last week was tough as we had to say our sad goodbyes to David. Still if you all want to visit him he is easily accessible at the DTN branch, and maybe you will get to see Gina there too and Chicory. Seems like everyone is jumping ship to go to the big city!!
  But Galina Wells is coming back (she used to work here once upon a time) so we are on our way to a full staff by Sept. 10th when our hours increase. Galina will be starting on Wednesday, so be sure and make her feel welcome!

We are trying a "new" procedure on the two front desk circulation computers. Each morning we will set up those two computers in evergreen with open tabs for Check out/patron search/register patron/catalog/cash register/renew/check in and attempt to keep them open during business hours.  What this means is that when you are done working in a particular tab, rather then shutting it to clear the information you have imput, simply choose the link from the evergreen menu above the tabs and it will refresh that tab.
I would draw a nice diagram but I haven't mastered that aspect of the blog yet, so I have put a list of the tabs in order on the counter in front of each of those computers and if you are unclear on the process, check with me.  We can only have 9 tabs open at a time (and I did find that if you do a patron search, when it retrieves the patron it will open up a new tab for that person so DO shut those when you are finished with them) so if you find things are not working check the # of open tabs.
I am requesting that you implement this procedure in order to keep the cash register tab open, as it is a real pain to keep setting up every few minutes after it has been closed, and I also think the consistency of having the tabs we use most open and in the same place, will make it easier overall to do our circulation procedures without so many glitches.  If you have no idea what I am talking about, please ask and I will walk you through the process, and if you accidentally do close a tab, just open another one to replace it.

We have been asked to make a back to school display for September so I am collecting back to school type books on the counter above my desk. Please feel free to add any you see and also check there if you can't find titles on your pulls list. You are welcome to take them to fill requests.

A wonderful patron donated a small vacuum cleaner to us and we are keeping it under the check-in computer near the book drop as it is perfect to use when bad things get put in our bookdrop and need to be vacuumed up.

There are summer reading prizes for the Capitola raffle winners in a manila envelope on a shelf above the back counter, above the aide in-boxes. The winners have been notified so if they show up, consult the package to see what they win and hand them their stash.

Ok, thats enough fun for now. The branch is looking spic and span so thanks for all your hard work.
Cappy Dick

August Alohas and Ahoys

Ahoy,
This will be a rough week as we have to say our goodbyes to David who is jumping ship to go be a boss man at the DTN branch. This is a great step up for him but also a great loss for us!  He has been a huge asset to the branch and personally for me a wonderful co-hort in getting the branch up and running in its new incarnation under the service model of less staff.  I know i would've flailed mightily and might have thrown myself overboard were it not for his support and his huge technical know-how.
 His last day will be Thursday so be sure and say your adieus by then, and I am sure he would welcome visitations at DTN should you be in the area.

To fill David's big  shoes we are getting 2 new employees!

   I am glad  to welcome back Galina Wells to the Capitola branch. She will be taking over David's position as second in command. She was once part of the regular staff at Capitola and I am going to rely on all her knowledge about this building and the quirks of the branch. She will be a wonderful asset and I think most of you already know her from her work at many of the branches as well as an on-call. I am sure many of our patrons will be thrilled to see her behind the desk again!
   Also coming to our branch starting Sept.1st is Donna Barber, who has been working on-call as both a library assistant as well as a courier driver. She will be working 20 hours a week in the afternoons to give us the staff support we will need when we expand our hours in mid-September.  She has lots of experience as a boardwalk security guard (among other things), so not  only will she be inured to the sounds of all that screaming that comes from our tot lot, but she can toss out our problem patrons when we are trying to close!! (and you who work the closing shift know who i mean!).

Pre-school story hours have been discontinued until the week of Sept. 10th (when we increase our hours), should anyone inquire. I have posted signs on the door and also in the children's area. They will begin again that week on Fridays @ 10:30 for our branch.

Tales to Tails will also not be meeting for the next two weeks. There will be a session on Saturday morning Sept. 1st.  If anyone has questions please refer them to programming. There is a phone number on one of the flyers.

We are not actually receiving our subscription to  the San Francisco Chronicle yet so if you get random copies in the book drop, leave them on the lunchroom table for staff. I will let you know when our library copies start arriving and in anticipation i will make up a new check in chart as well as designate a shelf in the workroom as i promised in an earlier blog.

If you check in items that are damaged but not something a patron is responsible for (broken spines, loose pages, worn covers, etc), please fill out the appropriate damage slip (green for books/white for media). There are slips at both discharge stations. Then if you feel comfortable with the process, change the item attributes to send the item to cms mending and put the item in transit, or if you are not sure of this process leave the item WITH the damaged slip on David/Galina's desk.  If an item is damaged by a patron (or missing parts) DO continue to put notes on those (not damaged slips) and leave them on David/Galina's desk as well.

We now are able to print some of the missing lists from Evergreen and our first search for items enroute too long from Capitola resulted in a couple crates worth of things that should not have been on our shelves. So, if you are shelving, please do pop open the books and make sure they say Cap inside. If you have questions, run them through check in to be sure they belong at our branch.
Also, if you are discharging, please don't let your DTN, APT, LO piles accumulate too high, but clear them off regularly and crate them up so things don't get confused and end up on our shelving carts.
This should alleviate the problem for the most part, aside from the usual warning, wait for the turtle when you are doing check ins.
  I will try and run the lists once a week when we can get them to work (they are still in the trial basis) so we should be able to keep on top of this and it will also give us some space on our shelves for our own collection.
   
  Ok, this is far too long but some weeks are like that. Hope you are all enjoying our real summer weather and thanks again for your great team work.
    Yaarrr from the Cappy,
Dick
  

DOG DAYS Of SUMMER...

Well changes continue to be afoot here at the Capitola library, the biggest one being that David is moving on to the big city where he will become an LAIII at the Downtown branch. HUGE CONGRATS DAVID! We will miss you and we will be calling you constantly for help trouble shooting our evergreen issues! You can't escape that easily!!
   I don't know yet who will be replacing him as interviews for his position are next week. We will also be adding another 20 hour LAII position to coincide with our increase in hours that will take place starting Sept. 10th.  The days open will continue to be the same but we will be opening earlier on Tuesdays and Thursdays (at 11, instead of 1) so we will need some extra help to cover all the open hours.

Hooray, the Sand is gone so if any of our patrons come in and are sad, please send them directly to the beach. I have put out a bin of foam blocks and contraptions and those seem to be pretty popular, not to mention a lot easier to clean up.

We are now receiving the SF. Chronicle along with our other papers, so please process it as usual and put it on the table with the Parjaronian. I will designate some shelving for it in the workroom and I am also in the process of making a new newspaper check in sheet which I hope to have in place by Tuesday pm. In the meantime, just write it at the bottom of the sheet.
I have also moved the bulletin board in-basket off the volunteer desk (which will soon become a shared work space for our 20 hour person ) and put it next to the periodicals in-basket above the Sentinel shelving in the workroom, in case you are looking for it.

There has been a rash of items that do not belong to us on our shelves, so please please slow down when you are checking items in and wait to see if that turtle appears or else check the list of titles on the check in page and make sure that the item you are scanning REALLY HAS SCANNED. I think what is happening is that because the tortoise is so slow to appear (how apropos) we are assuming that an items is checked in and belongs to our collection when in fact a minute or two later the tortoise will appear and we will have moved on to another item. At any rate, do pop open the books and check for the Cap assignment inside and do watch that screen. Evergreen has some limitations and speed is one of them, so don't panic when the book bin is full, take your time. I would prefer accuracy to speed at this point and we will always have lulls to catch up.

Other then that,  I think we are doing magnificently. The branch is looking great and that reflects well on all of you!
 Happy August,
Cappy Dick

END OF SAND AND SUMMER (READING)

Ahoy mateys,
well despite the title of this blog its not really the end of Summer reading as we have a new August display to highlight the "dog days of summer" for lots of lazy reading. There are a few non-fiction titles, as well as many works of fiction including mysteries, large type and science fiction, all with dogs somewhere in their pages so keep that display in mind if you are searching for titles on your pulls list.
I have put big colored paw print stickers on the spines to differentiate this collection so if you are shelving please be on the lookout for those and return those items to our display.  There are a few childrens books on the back side of the display, also about or starring dogs but these have not been paw printed since we can easily refill any empty spaces with more dog books from our j collection without doing any major searches.

The summer reading program has now come to an end so should anyone ask the days to collect those dollars are over and now its time to go out and spend them.  There is also NO summer reading or story hour for the month of August so do let patrons know, should they inquire. Story hour will start again, mid-September.

The sand box will also be retiring, or actually returning to where we borrowed it from, Rancho Cucomonga Library down in Southern California. Its apt that they should own it, as if you ask me, anyone who thinks sand in a library is a good idea might just be "Cucomonga"!. I am glad our patrons enjoyed it so much  but I doubt any of us staff will miss sweeping up the sand twice a week and I suspect our poor janitors will do a jig of joy when they see it is gone.
 I will put out some easier to deal with playthings like the giant legos and foam blocks later in the week so the kids don't go into withdrawals but I will also put out a large tub that we can toss them in when they aren't being used. This should be easier to clean up then the sand and if not I might reconsider and send everyone outside to the park.

Its a new month on Tuesday so do remember to pull off any #2 orange or yellow spine stickers you see on "new" books that are no longer new.

I hope you are all enjoying these last weeks of summer!
Cappy Dick

LAZY DAYS OF SUMMER??! SOME DAYS YES, SOME DAYS NO!

Ahoy all,
well, our busyness factor seems to be as unpredictable as ever, what with one day we are swamped, the next day slow as cold molasses... but at least there are no new dramas to report. It appears that things are running pretty smoothly no matter how many people pass our threshold so you are all doing a great job.
 Only a couple of reminders/heads up this week: firstly we have received a whole new crop of music cds. Barbara has put out the appropriate dividers for what we have gotten so far but if you find you are trying to shelve in a section for which there is no designated divider, look on the workroom shelf directly below the back issues of Baby Bug and you will find a whole box of divider choices to help you do your job.

We are also getting leased books which may say CMS inside but are designated for Capitola.  Fear not, just shelve them with our new books even though they don't have a new date sticker. We don't want to interfile them with our regular titles as we will have to send them back after they have been in the branch for awhile and I don't want to have to hunt them down. (They are easily recognizable by the red LEASED B&T sticker on the lower spine.)
And speaking of new titles, I am noticing that a number of our new titles with the date spine labels, are being shelved with our regular (non-new) titles. Please be watchful when you are shelving so that the new books get spotlighted with our new items.
 (just to add to the confusion: new large print titles and new adult graphic novels should be displayed with the rest of those collections.)

I have been weeding the branch over the last few weeks so there should be LOTS of room in the collection. I have been finding an inordinate amount of books falling behind other books so please when you are shelving tighten up the collection by using book ends (we have plenty now on the counter above the cash register) and not leaving big spaces between the books. I know that it has been the practice to leave open spots for easier replacement of what is checked out but it makes our shelving so loose that things are "falling through the cracks", as it were and with all the weeding many of those titles might not ever be coming back
 
Overall, I think the branch is looking good so you should all be proud of your hard work. It shows!
Thanks
Cappy Dick

MIDSUMMER DAYS WITH CAPPY DICK

ZOWEE!! WE had a record breaking program on Friday the 13th with the wonderful Carnival of the Animals Marionettes. I had no idea we could squeeze that many people into our building. No one alert the fire marshal!  For those of you who missed it, it was quite amazing and I think our little branch has reached a new notch of popularity with a lot of the summer parents looking for ways to keep their kidlets entertained.
Apologies to all you aides who have to clean up the shelving mess. I think we might do some extra shelf reading in the children's area this week if you get a chance.

As you all have probably heard, Capitola is getting 6 more open hours starting Sept. 10th and we have been requested to survey our patrons on which of two open schedules they would prefer. The ballots are on the front desk and if anyone gives you a completed one there is a basket near the cash register to deposit it. We will be running the survey until July 28th.

There is a new policy on backdating returns that come in while we are closed. Please backdate only to the last day the branch was open.( Previously we had backdated two days from the last day the branch was open, but no longer.) This should be less confusing and problematic.

You will all be so sad, I am sure, to know that the Archie and Veronica comics in the revolving rack in the children's area, have been withdrawn due to low circulation and poor condition. If you get any in the returns please withdraw them, black out the barcode and stamp them discard inside the front page (or you can leave them on my desk and i will take care of them) and put them outside in the free magazine pile. Hopefully they won't return via the bookdrop over and over again....

There is an e-book class taking place here on Thursday, July 19th at 3 pm if anyone you know needs help learning how to check out and download library e-books on to their e-readers. 

OK, that's all folks. The branch is looking great despite it high usage and that is due to all or you, so Thank you and have a wonderful week!
 Cappy Dick

Crazy Summer Days

WHOA ALL,
More Changes as of Tuesday, July 10th:
We are getting leased books so please shelve them with our new books.
Adult playaways have been moved to the back window sill opposite the adult graphic novels.
 
It appears that Summer is the busy time for our little branch by the sea!!  We continue to have record crowds but you are all doing a fabulous job of keeping up with work flow, in spite of our short staff  in the height of summer (pun intended, but no reference to our overall stature!  In my book we are GIANTS!)

 And we are lucky to have Carolyn Bryks joining us as a much needed replacement for the bulk of Gina's aide hours.  She has worked in the system for a number of years as an on-call and now she will also experience the thrill of being a library aide to pad up her resume!  Welcome, Carolyn!

We have a special marionette show coming to our branch on Friday, July 13th @ 11. I have heard good things about it so let your friends and family know if they are looking for some free entertainment that morning. I suspect we will have a full house!

   New branch hours will be coming in September and I will keep you apprised of any staff changes that occur over the next couple of months, but so far all I know is that we will be open 6 more hours a week starting the week of Sept. 10th. We are supposed to get a new 20 hour staff person to help fill the shifts that will create but I don't have any details as of yet, or what our actual open hours will be. I don't forsee huge changes to any of the aides work schedules beyond a possible bit of tweaking so fear not! You may end up with extra hours if you like...we shall see.

We have a slew of new bookends donated by the other branches so if you see ANY areas that could use tightening up, go for it. They are parked above the cash register and come in RED as well as ubiquitous bone. Use them freely!

IMPORTANT:  The Adult Language CD's have been moved to the END of the non-fiction audios! They now have a separate shelving area. This makes them easier to find as well as giving our non-circulating non-fiction cds a chance to get some attention.

The pull date for July is 1 so do remember to pull off any labels with that number on the spine, and don't forget we now have a NEW BOOKS display for YA as well as for our new Large Print.

Continue to "market" any interesting titles you see in the stacks by placing them cover side out when there is room but do remember to keep them near where they would regularly be shelved so we can find them when we do our sends list.  Patrons continue to comment on how much they like this kind of display so they must like our taste!

I am going to leave up the READ LOCAL DISPLAY at least through July so continue to put incoming books about Santa Cruz County on those shelves as well as local authors.

I will continue to weed so you should have more shelving room but let me know if you find areas that are too packed and I will concentrate there first.

If you need to order items from downtown (new routing slips, brochures, etc.) do remember to use the system supplies address: syssupplies@santacruzpl.org rather then sending e-mails to individuals, as they may  not be around to fill the requests.

CAPPY SAYS BE HAPPY, and thanks for all your hard work.
CD

LONGEST WEEK OF THE YEAR!

Ahoy all
Cappy Dick is going to make this short and sweet because after last week we all need some time to recover. It was the longest day of the year on last Wednesday, but personally, it felt like perhaps the longest whole week in the year, as we were pretty swamped. I suspect that unlike a lot of the branches, Capitola by the sea gets busier during the summer months! We shall see.
On last Tuesday we got slammed with a gazillion returns( and the worlds slowest running Evergreen) and the Friday Summer Reading performance of the Great Blindini brought in over 168 attendees, but we persevered, and the branch is looking good, thanks to y'all.
 We are using subs to fill in a lot of our missing aide hours but starting July 7th we will have Carolyn Brycks, a SCPL on-call joining us as an aide and picking up a lot of Gina's former hours. We still have a 4 hour opening slot (9-1) vacant if any of you wants to expand your hours or you know an aide who would like to add more to their schedule.
    There seems to be constant new changes with the summer reading program, so check out all the info on our summer reading clipboard on the back counter to keep up to date. We have a scheduled family craft time every Friday at 11:15 and our next big event is a puppet show which looks pretty cool on July 13th, Friday at 11.
 
We have been asked to keep track of how many items we shelve in 24 hours so I have been having you fill out a count sheet attached to each cart as you move it out to be shelved, and we will do this once again this coming Tuesday to give us an average.

There are a few extra crates stashed in the staff kitchen area under the table near the bathrooms should you find you need any.

The giant sculpture of children of the world is going to be removed from our branch by the artist who created it in the next few weeks so if you need to sit on the top of the world, this is your last chance. Actually, don't do that. I don't want to have to write up an incident report. 

 And last but certainly not least: Please remember to check inside the books to ascertain that they really belong to Capitola. I have been finding a few too many items that aren't ours on the shelves. I will remind the volunteers as well.
    Over all I think we are doing an excellent job, so thanks again,
Cappy Dick

Summer Reading off and running...

Ahoy all,
Well it was a sad week in that we lost Emily off to the wide world (she graduated and moved to San Diego to get her accountant's license) and Gina off to work at SV and DTN.   So Riley, Barbara and Sandra are having to shelve like demons to keep up...well  actually we are getting a few subs to help out and we have our wonderful crew of volunteers so we aren't falling apart completely at the seams. I am hoping to fill the vacant hours by beginning of July. There are still permanent shifts available so remember to let me know if you are interested.

  Our summer reading program started on Tuesday, and all went smoothly. It has been pretty easy to direct people to the public computers and have them log in and we have plenty of reading logs to hand out, behind the desk.  We had our first summer reading "event" on Wednesday, with a 'Stuffie sleep over" with about 11 kids bringing with their stuffed animals to spend a couple of nights in the library. They picked them up on Friday and got to watch a slide show of all the shenanigans their "progeny" had been up to in the meantime. I was happy to see that none of them had slipped into the cell phone recycling tube as had occurred on a previous sleep-over!
 Our next scheduled Summer Reading event is this coming Friday at 11. Blindini the magician will appear and if we are lucky perhaps he will make some of the less circulated items disappear so we will have more room for new titles.  Check the summer reading clipboard for any relevant updates)

I have gone ahead and decided to help him out a bit by doing some weeding in the audio area for the adult and the YA collections, so you may notice that those items have shifted a little bit and there is more shelving room. Currently the bottom shelves are empty so in the future we will have some "growing room" for the ever increasing YA and YA Graphic novels collection as well as adult CDs. And thanks to Barbara's suggestion I have relocated the encyclopedias to the area on the other side of our new books shelves and integrated our YA media collection with the rest of the YA collection. Hopefully this will increase the circulation of these items.

There is also now a YA NEW BOOKS bay with many titles on display, so if you are shelving new YA titles please put them there. (Please continue to interfile new YA Graphic Novels however, as there isn't quite enough room to display them at present.)
  New J easys and also New J non-fiction can go on display above the JEASYS if you think they are worthy or they can be interfiled as you see fit . Just remember when you are doing the pulls list to look in all the displays if you can't find an item.

 Do feel free to let me know if you find space getting too tight in any of our collections and we will see what can be done about it. We are about to outgrow this building but until Capitola forks out some cash for a new building we will have to make do by weeding out uncirculated titles.

And a final shelving reminder, please remember to re-file local titles (either by local authors or about Santa Cruz county, Capitola and surrounds) in our READ LOCAL display near the new books. They are circulating a lot but if we forget to reshelve them there our display is going to get pretty skimpy.

On a final note: we have a few new routing slips for DTN and CMS. These are the new designations for Central and TS, so if you have the new slips available use them first and then revert to the old ones. Eventually we will get all new routing slips with the correct designations. Place your items in the same crates as always. I am investigating getting the correct signage to place in the full crates. Continue to use the old ones for now.

The first day of summer is this Wednesday so get ready for those beach crowds! Speaking of which, today I had to remove a kid that was sitting IN the sandbox, which when you think of it shouldn't be all that surprising, I guess. Still...rumor is we only have the sand pit for one more month and though its well loved, there are days I am sure we won't miss it too much.

 over and out,
Cappie Dick

SUMMER READING: LET THE RUMPUS BEGIN!

Firstly a BIG CONGRATS TO ALL YOU GRADUATES!  And happy summer to all of you who are out of school for the summer...now just remember if you get to bored with all that free time, we are still looking to fill in hours on Tues, Wed, Thurs and Saturdays.

   Monday is the first day of the Summer Reading program and while the programming dept is supposed to be taking care of most of the logistics, its a good idea to inform yourselves of how it works because as you know, the public will come to you and ask, particularly if you are out in the stacks.
I have assembled a clipboard of summer reading related information which is on the back counter.
 The way it works in a nutshell is thusly: interested parties can sign up on any computer at the library website (they can use the PACs in the library or the internet computers if they are available). The sign up page is under the KIDS section of the home page and the directions and information about the program are all clearly spelled out there.
  The program is open to any age, readers and non-readers (listeners) and participants can earn a "dollar" redeemable at participating merchants for every hour they read (or are read to). They can collect their dollars by turning in their reading log to any one from programming after scheduled events or if they choose to turn in their logs at another time, they can return the following week to pick up their dollars.

   If someone comes to you to sign up give them a reading log and direct them to a computer to sign up.
Remind them to write their name and their summer reading # (which they will get when they complete the application) on their blog.
If there is no computer available to sign up on, have them fill out one of the salmon sign up sheets and place it in the princeton file (or the manila envelope on the clipboard if you can find the file...as of today it has not yet been delivered...)

If someone wishes to turn in their summer reading logs for dollars, put the logs into the princeton file (make sure there is a legible name on the reading log, if not a log #) and tell them to come back the following week.
Reading logs will be accepted thru July 29th

There are events for all ages scheduled throughout the program period June 11-July 29th.
There is a list on the clipboard with  programs at the capitola branch highlighted and patrons can access the list from the summer reading webpage. New events may be added and some require on-line registration so direct patrons there, should they inquire. We also have stacks of the summer reading handouts on the circ desk and in the children's area which have a print out of some of the events.

 Capitola will have a weekly craft time for all ages on Fridays at 11:15 (until 1?).

We will also have a Stuffed animal sleepover this Wednesday, June 13th after closing time. Programming will be here to receive the animals and while they are staying over (after they are done marauding around the branch) they will be sleeping in our staff room, so please don't disturb them as some of them may be fierce.
Programming will send them home with their "parents" the following Friday morning at opening time.

There will be no regularly scheduled story times again until Sept. but Tales to Tails will continue on Wednesday afternoons.

Barbara and myself have weeded the audio books on tape so hopefully you will find much more room to shelve the CDs. Feel free to move things around as you need room and use those empty shelves to "market" any interesting titles you find. I have found that if its on display, SOMEONE will find it worth checking out!
 
Thanks for keeping the branch looking so spiffy!
   Cappy Dick

LOTS OF GOOD BYES!

Hey y'all,
soon that "y'all"  will be just a few of us as we are losing staff right and left!!  Gina will be going to aide elsewhere, due to a change in housing location, Emily has got one more week with us after which she is graduating (BIG CONGRATULATIONS!) and moving to San Diego, and Chicory will be leaving our branch to take on his duties as a beach volleyball coach! You will all be missed (especially when those books start piling up on the carts!) so you oughta remember to come back by and say hello when you are in the area! We promise not to make you shelf read.

  In the meantime i am trying to fill the upcoming vacancies so if any of you are interested in increasing your hours let me know.  The hours will be Tues,Wed, Thursday and Saturday 9:30-1:30 or possibly 10-2, all pre-opening/opening shifts.
 
In honor of summer vacation and the onslaught of tourists, I have changed the gardening display to a "read local" display, with lots of local area information/history and a small section by local authors. The artwork is mostly from the Soquel middle school classes of years past.
  The display will give our locals a chance to find out about where they live as well as allow any tourists to get a glimpse of Santa Cruz county history, vacation opportunities, etc.  If you see any books, J or Adult that you think would lend to this display, please feel free to add them. I have put a pile of bike maps near the display as well.

There will be no story hour from now until Sept. as Summer reading will be taking over instead the week of July 11th.  I will fill you in on details as they become available. All i know for sure at this point is that Capitola will be having a family craft time on Fridays at 11:15. Programming staff will be available at that time to sign people up for summer reading, hand out summer reading dollars, booklets, etc.

The pull date for June is 12, so please remove any stickers from the book spines with 12/11 or before and shelve them as usual.
  ok and ahoy then,
Cappy Dick
 

YES WE ARE OPEN

Well,
the most notable thing that happened this last week was that we got a couple of HUGE new OPEN signs, as the one in the back window near the audios fell apart after years of sun exposure.  The new signs are so HUGE that they don't actually fit so well in the windows and they block out what light we get, so for now we are only using the CLOSED side of the sign in the far window and taking the whole thing away and storing it in front of the safe while we are open.
 Patrons who are driving by on Clares street will be able to read it if we are closed and if the sign isn't out, hopefully they will figure out that we are open.
We are not currently using the extra sign for now. We will continue to use the smaller sign in the window of the discharging office for both open and closed hours.

Next Friday is our last story hour for the summer and then starting June 11th the summer reading program will commence. If any patrons ask you about it you can direct them to the front desk or let them know that information will be available on our home page starting on that date.  The Capitola summer reading family craft will be Fridays at 11:15. This is geared for all ages and there will only be a story  if people request one from the facilitator. There will also be other special Capitola programs over the summer including a puppet show and a stuffed animal sleep over. I will keep you updated on these programs and whatever else is coming our way as they get closer.

Our NASA display hasn't shown up yet as of this writing so I have not yet put up any space posters in the children's area, but I will do as soon/if our display appears.

On a personnel note: Sadly our aide Gina Garcia is going to have to do her aide hours closer to SV or Downtown, due to a change in her housing location, so her hours are up for grabs. I sent an e-mail to all the aides in the system with the details so check your library aide email if you are interested in adding hours to your schedule.  We are looking for someone to fill shifts on Tuesdays & Thursdays 9:30-1:30 and a Saturday shift from 9-1 and these shifts will probably start in early to mid June. Let me know if you are interested and when you would be available to start.

Also, don't forget to e-mail me your preferences for our potential upcoming expanded schedule (see last weeks blog) when you've had time to mull it a bit. 

This week's story hour is celebrating the life of Maurice Sendak so if you check any of those books in, pleae put them on my desk. I think we only have a couple in our collection and they always seem to be checked out.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day Holiday and remember to honor all the veterans who have served so we could have a holiday!
   Best,
Cappy Dick