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.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Saturday, December 15, 2012
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
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
Saturday, December 8, 2012
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.
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.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
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
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
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