BON VOYAGE...THE CAPTAIN'S JUMPING SHIP!!

Ahoy Mateys,
well me hearties, this will be the last post from your ol' Cappy Dick (unless this split personality thing is really a job hazard, in which  case your new boss, Miss Melanie Barash, might take on the sailor hat and pipe and Captain's title). I've got myself a couple of fresh tattoos and am ready to hit the high seas and sail off to India, but alas, I think I will be traveling by rowboat or garbage scow, so I can't invite y'all along.  Seems the first mate Galina is off to fry bigger fish also, out nearer the seaside at La Selva, so the rest of you had better stay put to keep this branch afloat.
 I know you are going to love your new staff, Melanie and Maile and I am sure the patron's won't be disappointed in the service either, as both of these people are wonderful, kind and efficient, so I don't feel too badly as I know everyone is in good hands.
   
Ok, enough of this landlubber blubber, let's get down to business.
Firstly a HUGE THANKS to Peggy Stone and Sharon Borrage who have been filling in all summer as aides to cover Riley's shifts. Riley is back from his world travels on Thursday so we won't be seeing Peggy or Sharon on a regular basis for awhile, but both of them have been a huge asset to our branch and I for one, feel fortunate to have gotten to know each of them a little better. Thanks for your great work, ladies! It's been fun to work with you both!

As usual we are moving things around in the branch just to keep everyone on their toes. We have weeded all the audio tapes, both Adult, YA and J, as books on tape will no longer be offered in the library collection. Instead the money previously spent on audio cassettes will be used to buy audio books on CD and e-book titles in keeping with the latest technology. If you come across any audio books on tape, put them on my desk for withdrawal this coming week. After that you will have to check with Mel to see how she wants them handled.  Barbara has shifted the books on CD and the adult playaways to make use of some of the space that opened up and the shelving by YA is being kept empty until Mel decides how she would like to utilize that space. Make sure to take a gander on that back wall to see where things have ended up in case you have to direct patrons.
The J periodicals have also been moved once again and are now housed directly above the readers and beginning chapter books.
  
Summer reading is over (if you are reading this at the beginning of the week (July 29th and beyond) so most of the programming team is on vacation. This means that there will be no more story hour or other programs at our branch for the month of August. Tales to Tails however will continue as usual on the first and 3rd Wednesdays of the month as well as the first Saturday. There are up to date fliers in front of the service desk.

   I think that's all the business fit to print so I will take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your hard work and for making my position as "person in charge" so tenable. I have been so impressed as to how well everyone here works together as a team, and this includes our most amazing volunteers!  Truly without the kindness, willingness to help each other out and selfless giving I have seen, I am sure things would not run as smoothly as they do at this branch. I appreciate all of you helping me to learn to be a decent supervisor with your patience and generosity as I fumbled my way through this experience. You all have made me a better person and I hope I have contributed something besides misery to your lives as well.  I am forever indebted to all of you for your daily kindnesses. We have a camaraderie that I think is fairly rare in the other branches and I feel so blessed to have gotten to know each and every one of you and I will carry the memories of you with me on my travels and I know it will make me smile when I am feeling lonely.

  Biggest hugs (cuz I can do that now, since I can't get sued for harassment soon),

Cappy Dick (and his alter ego, Jonell)

  ps.  eventually I will have a new blog about my travels, so if you wish to be advised when it is up and running,  email me at
Jelenedraj@gmail.com and put Peagreen curry  in the subject line and I will add you to my contact list. 

THE END IS IN SIGHT??

Ahoy Mateys,
ZOWEE! It feels like the closer we are getting to the "dog days of summer" when everyone is supposed to laze around and chill, that the busier our branch is getting. Don't our patrons know they are supposed to be sipping lemonade and reading bad beach reads??
All I can say, is Thank you staff and volunteers for helping to keep us afloat. We would be in trouble if y'all weren't pitching in with your best efforts!  
And just because I know we are all really overwhelmed with the amount of work we are already doing, I am going to make this blog as short and sweet as I can.

There are really only a couple of important details to impress upon you. 
Firstly, this is the last week of the summer reading program.
It will end on Sunday, July 28th with a big festival in Harvey West Park but the last day for our patrons to sign out here will of course be Saturday, July 27th, so be prepared for the onslaught. If you have forgotten how to sign patrons out of the SR program please refer to the instructions on the clipboard. I believe the sign out page is bookmarked on all the circ computers but you will probably need the branch name (capitola) and the password (011500) to log in.  We are out of the Papa Murphy cookie dough coupons, but we still have both teen and child Lego land coupons as well as Round table pizza coupons, and of course the bumper stickers so please distribute those. Do remember to either stamp the  SR logs in the upper right front corner or initial and write the branch there when you sign out the participants.

 Secondly, Richard sent an email about setting up pre-collection payment plans. These are ONLY for patrons who ask to set up a payment plan BEFORE they have gone to collections. Accounts are sent to collections after they have a balance of over $25 for a number of months. There are instructions in the greenbook on how to set up these plans and I have made up a folder with the payment plan agreements that must be filled out and a copy sent to the Circulation supervisor at DTN (currently, Richard).  I have stapled the green book instructions to the front of the folder for quick reference. The folder is in the file behind the opening closing procedures on the circulation counter. Please familiarize yourself with this process.

Thirdly, Galina will be setting up a display of some of our beautiful oversize photography books for the remainder of the month. We have a lot of these but they are often overlooked so she is going to highlight some of this wonderful collection. Remember to check the display should you be looking for something on the pulls list.

The last story hour of the summer will be on Friday, July 26th. This will also be the cessation of the school age craft program. New story hours will start again some time in Sept.
As far as I know, Tales to Tails will continue throughout August, but that is subject to change.

Ok, that is as short as I could make the blog.
Thanks again for all your hard work! Now go back to swabbing the decks,
 Cappy Dick

BIG CHANGES A'COMIN...!

Ahoy Mateys!
  well a couple of us are a year older at the branch, then we were last week, and after this email we might all be sporting new wrinkles, so don't say you weren't warned.

  Firstly, it is most important that ALL of you review the long and involved procedures for handling materials sent to CMS that Richard sent out on Thursday. They are in your email as well as printed and attached to the clipboard on the back counter. You will probably need to refer to them for awhile when handling damaged items, or items not correctly cataloged.  I have set up three crates on rolling pallets in the workroom; one for withdrawn items, one for non-media selector review.  and one for media (please note that none of these items should be in transit). When the crates are full we will send them to CMS and replace them with empties. There are extra signs above the crates. There are also CMS special flags which I have placed at the discharge station and also the aides computer, which you should use as specified in the instructions that Richard sent out.
Please feel free to ask me if you have questions about any of these new processes and we will muddle through with the instructions (which are now also available in the green book).
Note: an upside to these new procedures is that we no longer need to use a deleted items bucket so that has been eliminated from our database.

The next new change is that processing will no longer be marking the branches in  or on the items. This means that there will be no point in flipping open the books to check for branch designation but it will also put the onus on us to really really pay attention to the screen when we are discharging and then pay attention to where we are putting the discharged items (ie: get them to the right crates or carts, please). If a wrong item ends up on our shelves we won't know it until an unwary patron attempts to check it out. I am told that eventually the entire system will be using a floating collection, which means that where an item is returned is where it stays until someone checks it out so this is one of the reasons for no longer marking items with the branch designations. This process has just started so it may be a while before we see any of these things and really if you feel compelled like me (can't teach this old dog any new tricks)to go ahead and open the books to check, you are welcome to. Just don't be surprised when one day you pop open that book and there is nothing written there.

New items are now being ordered again so you can reassure any of those patrons who are wondering where those new title are, that they are on the way. It usually takes a couple of months between ordering to actually get the items in hand so counsel patience, by September they should start seeing them come in.

Our towel vendor has been cancelled. It looks like the library will be purchasing towels and washing them ourselves (not us, the building maintenance crew) but in the meantime we should just use paper towels as needed.

For those of you who are confused: Richard is the system wide circulation supervisor so he is the go to person you should refer people to if they have concerns about collection agency issues or refunds.  David Sidle is the downtown circulation supervisor so he usually only deals with downtown staff issues. You can call him if you have questions but don't refer patrons directly to him concerning circulation concerns that are not specific to downtown.

Shelvers, please be aware that we have a special plexiglass holder on the back counter above the A section of the Jeasys where we display all the magic school bus titles. I keep finding these interfiled in our regular non-fiction but these titles are so popular we have pulled them out and display them separately now.

The story hour subject this coming week is fruits and vegetables, should you find any jeasys on that subject, or be looking for any for the pulls list...check my desk and feel free to add titles to the stack.

ok, that should keep all your brains quite full for now. I hope there are no other big changes until after August. 2nd, when there will be the biggest change of all and you will have a new branch manager, Melanie Barash, whom I am sure you will all enjoy working for as she is much less a slave driver then old cappy D.

A special thanks to all of you who so wonderfully helped us all celebrate our UN-BIRTHDAYS!!  You are very sweet and now so am I since i am stuffed with goodies!
  
tootles,
Cappy D

YAY! LET'S BLOW THINGS UP!!

Hooray!  It's Cappy Dick's Favorite holiday; the one where you get to set off cannons and blow things sky high and you don't even have to stop to come to work since we all get the day off! Happy 4th of July! (please remember to have your Kronos done and approved by Tuesday morning as Cappy D has to approve them by Tuesday night!)

Hopefully you all come back to work on Thursday with your toes and parts intact as its hard to manipulate the keyboard with missing digits.  However, if you do have an accident, at least you won't have to write out the holds slips anymore as we now have receipt printers attached to the back computer where our route ins get done as well as the one in the aides' workroom, and also, of course on the front desk. They have all been formatted to print out the patron's first/last letters and the hold expiration date so there's another place where you won't need all your fingers to count up 10 days to figure it out. Simply choose print on the "turtle" page, but do remember to choose the star cutter option when you select a printer. 
Unfortunately, the formatting does effect all things evergreen so now if you want to print the pulls list in a legible form you will have to log onto a computer without a receipt printer to print it out. The computer on Donna's desk is usually available in the morning and as she doesn't work until the afternoon it shouldn't cause any traffic jams (uh, or is that "printer" jams?:)
  
The summer reading program is off to a walloping start. We have had two very successful programs so far and we now have some special goodies to hand out with our reading logs. The owner of the local Papa Murphy's pizza came by and left us a stack of bribe bookmarks that you can hand out with the reading logs when people sign up. Basically if a child reads 10 books and then takes the bookmark to Papa Murphy's they receive a free bag of cookie dough. The only thing is please remember to stress that this is a generous offer from Papa Murphy's and NOT connected to our library program.  We also now have both teen and child legoland passes as well as a free personal pizza coupon redeemable at round table to hand out when we sign kids out of the reading program. You need to be sure and stamp the pizza coupons when you hand them out and its one per customer, please. 

This July's adult display is All American featuring a wide variety of all things American including politics, eating habits (BBQ)(Corn on the cob), biographies and history. Basically if you can't find something on the pulls list remember to check out all the displays cuz chances are you will probably find it on one of them.  The children's area display will continue to highlight SUMMER VACATION so feel free to add any appropriate titles to that display, including  J DVDs and other media.
 We are entering a new month so do pull any "new" titles that have the number 1 on the spine to make room for all the new titles that usually come flooding in in mid July.

The story hour theme this Friday is food so look for those J titles near my desk and add any you might come across as well.
  
Cappy D will be off next week after Tuesday so there probably won't be another blog post until July 13th, but do keep an eye on the Cap-service desk email as well as the clipboards on the back counter behind the desk as I keep relevant things posted there as well.
  
ok, set off some jing-tinglers and some razzabazza booms but make sure you don't get caught unless you know how to request an aesop absence from jail.
 
Cappy D!

HAPPY FIRST WEEK OF SUMMER!

Ahoy Mateys,
Welcome to the first week of summer! We are off to a good start, what with a packed house pretty much every day from the minute we open to the minute we close our doors. There are a few lulls now and then but really they seem few and far between.
  With all this activity is is particularly important to remember that accuracy is preferable to speed, so please please pay attention to what goes where. We have had almost two carts of books over this last week that belonged at other branches. Luckily our aides are catching most of these mistakes before they get shelved, but we all need to pay close attention when we are discharging. The turtle does not consistently work (if you notice this, log off Evergreen and start it up again), so we have to watch the screen, please!

NEWS FLASH:  HOORAH!!  We have finally gotten the long promised ability to print holds slips for requests. This will only happen on computers with receipt printers attached but I have requested printers for the aide work room and the volunteer computer where most of the requests are processed.
When running the item through check-in, the turtle should appear and you must choose print from the bottom left corner of the screen, and then choose ok when prompted to print (same as our regular receipts. The hold slip shows the patron's "nom de plume" as well as the hold date and the barcode of the item (handy for when the slips fall out). 

Many things are happening this Friday.
Instead of story hour the Surfin' Magician will be performing OUTSIDE in the playground at 10:30 for all comers.

Kari will be hosting her second school age crafts session for the summer reading program from 2:30-3:30

And Teresa will be here at 1:30 to meet with any staff for a brown bag lunch session. This is a great time for any of you who are interested to go and chat with her about anything on your mind, or just use it as a chance to get to know her. You can do this on work time (doesn't have to be your lunch time) and we can take turns covering the desk if need be. Please do take advantage of this opportunity if it is something you wish to do, as its hard to visit with her one on one otherwise due to her busy schedule.

Since there is no story hour there will be no story hour subject this week so you won't have to worry about looking for missing titles at my desk, however, Galina has added some Vince Flynn titles to the Adult display to honor his passing, so if those show up on your pulls list be sure and have a look on the top shelf of the display.
   
I think that's it for this week and that is more than plenty.
Enjoy these summer days, whatever weather they bring.

Over and out, 
Cappy D!

SUMMER RUNNING?! PROGRAM...

Ahoy Mateys,
well if this last week was any kind of example, I can say that the MOVE part of the Summer reading theme (eat, move read) is certainly apt, at least for the staff trying to keep up with the huge numbers of patrons coming in looking for items, returning items, and requiring help at the desk! If this keeps up we all WILL have to eat MORE, and then fall down at the end of the day and hopefully get a chance to read. Good thing we are earning the REAL dollars and not those counterfeit summer reading dollars everyone else has to make do with.
   If you haven't yet had a chance to familiarize yourself with the summer reading program, how to direct some one who is inquiring or how to sign someone out, please do review the SR clipboard on the back desk. 
 Basically any member of staff can hand a Summer reading log to ANY inquiring patron who is interested in signing up a child. The child does not have to be present but the patron must understand that a responsible adult (parent or guardian) needs to sign the reading log before it is turned in to redeem the SR dollars.  Sign ups are to be done by the patron either at one of our computers  or remotely. The most important thing to stress for patrons when they are signing up is to record the summer reading # on the inside of the reading log as this is the easiest way for us to find them when they return the finished log.  Participants may read ANY number of hours, they do not have to complete 20 hours (although that is the maximum they can earn dollars for) and they may return the logs and redeem them for $ any time between now and the end of the program. The last day to turn logs in is on the July 28th, and participants may turn in their logs at any of the branches. They are not required to return them at the branch where they signed up.
 If for some reason a patron is unable to sign up and staff is unable to help them, please make use of the white slips attached to the summer reading princeton file, fill it out and put it in the file. Programming will handle it from there. The patron will not be given  a SR # at the time they fill out the form but we can look them up by name if need be.

  To sign a patron out, you must access the SR admin. site which is bookmarked on our circ desk computers. Simply click on the sign out icon on the upper right side of the page. Initial the upper right corner of the reading log, give the participant the applicable number of SR dollars earned,(the summer reading $ have been separated into piles of $20 so if someone is earning that amount you can hand them a rubberbanded bundle without having to count them out) as well as a free pass for the festival of the book (do not cut in 1/2), a legoland discount coupon and a bumper sticker with the SR logo on it.
 (there are legoland passes for either child or teen. Currently we only have the passes for children, but i am attempting to obtain teen passes as well.)
There is more detailed information on all this on the clipboard so please feel free to refer to it should you be confused.

Another program which you are going to see is the REACH OUT AND READ PROGRAM. of this literacy program that was started by pediatricians and has been in place for 15 years, adopted more recently by pediatricians at
the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. At every well child checkup, children between 3 months and 5 years are given a book to take home. The Library was invited by a PAMF pediatrician to partner with local
PAMF clinics. A Friends of the Library grant was obtained to support this new program. Children are first given library card applications (a simplified form specific to the program) at the clinic, after which parents bring the application into the Library. The library issues a library card and gives out a board
book, available in English or Spanish. There is just one book that children will receive. The title is Book! by Kristine O’Connell George. 
The applications do not look like our standard applications and in exception to our policies! we do not require proof of address before giving out the card. 
There is an example of the application on the SCPL clipboard on the circ desk back counter. Please check it out so you aren't surprised when someone walks in with one. There is supposed to be an updated version of the application being distributed which has a place for the library card number but if you get an application that does not have a space for that, please write the number on the application.  There is one copy of the book we are to hand out on the shelf near the summer reading logs. We are expecting more copies.

Our first program the Fratello Marrionettes was a huge success last Tuesday evening. Thanks to Donna's nephews who leant us their muscles for moving furniture to and fro to accomodate all 114 patrons who showed up to squeeze into our tiny children's area and watch the show!  
The next program we will have besides our weekly story hour is a school age children's craft program. This is for children ages 5-12 and we have a flier at the front desk. It will be on Fridays at 2:30-3:30 on a drop in basis and will run until 4PM.

Galina has made a nice display for the adults honoring Fathers for the month of June, so if you find any relevant books, either fiction or non-fiction please feel free to add them to her display. 

The children's area display continues to celebrate Summer Vacation so remember to look there if you are missing titles on the pulls list and replenish the display with any titles you find that might fit that broad category. 

I think this is more than plenty to absorb so lets all take a deep breath and get ready to hit the decks running.

Ciao for now,
Cappy D.

SUMMER READING IS SO DELICIOUS AND BETTER YET, LOW CAL!

Ahoy Mateys,
School is out and the summer reading program has started (patrons can apply on-line from anywhere but they need to come in to pick up their official reading logs) so put on your running shoes as Capitola gets BUSIER in the summer months with all the tourists, beach goers and park users entering our doors.  As for the tourists, don't forget the handy Soquel/Aptos/Capitola maps we have behind our circ desk and there are handouts in our free area about local events/classes/shopping etc. so you can direct them there as well.

The Summer Reading program theme this year is READING IS SO DELICIOUS (and lo-cal unless you read with a bag of chips and a box of bon bons nearby... )
 If someone wishes to sign up please give them a Green reading log and an orange calendar of events and direct them to our catalog computers where they may sign up from our home page, or they can sign up from home. Remind them to record the # they are assigned when they complete the log in.
If they don't have access to a computer there will be an envelope on the Summer Reading Clipboard where you can collect their information on the salmon colored sheet and we will turn it in to the Programming staff when they come to our branch each week.
Upon completing the log the readers (or read to) are awarded a SR dollar for every hour completed, a free lunch pass for the Festival of the Book, a bumper sticker (for all those young drivers?) and 1 legoland discount ticket (as long as those last). I am sure there will be instructions about how to record this in the Summer Reading database, but we are not privy to that yet so lets hope we don't have any speed readers coming to our desk. If that happens I suggest someone call Programming for instructions.

   Our first event will be this Tuesday at 6:30 pm. It is a wonderful rendition of Peter and The Wolf by the amazing Fratello Marionette group. If you haven't seen these guys I would highly recommend coming to watch (if you can squeeze in!). They are incredible and also funny.
    Our pre-school story hour will continue on Friday mornings at 10:30 thru July 26th and we will be having an afternoon craft session on Fridays @ 2:30 for school age kids which will start on June 21st.

A couple of technical details:
-We are no longer able to delete items from Evergreen. Instead the item barcode is to be added to a Capitola Deleted items bucket (Delete_item_CAP) and CMS will eventually delete them from there.
Once you have added the barcode to the bucket you can go ahead and discard the item, as per usual.
(if you notice more than 25 items in that bucket, please alert me, as i will alert CMS that it is about to overflow.)
-Please check all the display areas (new and on-going displays) carefully before marking an item missing. I have found numerous titles on the missing list that have been on in our displays.

-Also please take the time to really look at the spine label before shelving. We are finding regular and oversized titles mixed in both sections as well as mystery and fiction together. This means that someone is reading the call number correctly but missing an important detail which will make all the difference when we are searching for an item. Slow and accurate is better than fast and misfiled.
 -Please feel free to add any titles to the kid's display of Summer Vacation that you think would be appropriate. We are particularly low on chapter books for this display so any thing that you read in the summers of your youth and enjoyed are welcome there.

This week's story hour is Father's so those books are at my desk should patron's be searching for any.


Ok, let the bon bons begin! Happy Summer Reading Y'all!

GOING TO SEA IN A SIEVE!

Ahoy Mateys,
to steal a quote from Edward Lear's wonderful poem The Jumblies: "They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,  In a Sieve they went to sea", most perfectly describes the state of our branch Tuesday, last, after the holiday! However with much baling by our dutiful staff and wonderful volunteers, we managed to stay afloat even under all the weight of every book in the library system that seemed to be all left in our bookdrop!  All I can say, is Kudos to us for a day of hard hard work, and a huge Thanks to all of you who helped save the day!
   
Galina is back and we will give her a couple of days of jet lag before we force her to regale us with all her stories from Russia. Welcome back, Galina!

Not too much to report for branch news, except that school is supposed to be out soon, so brace yourselves for an influx of children. Unlike the other branches that slow down in the Summer, Capitola tends to pick up business due to our close proximity to the beach and even closer proximity to the playground.  Do familiarize yourselves with the summer reading program and events.  Summer reading starts on June 10th.
 We will continue to have pre-school story hour on Fridays @ 10:30 through July and also a weekly School age Craft on Friday afternoons at 2:30. (Please note that the craft program does not start until June 21st.)   I will attach a flier with this information to our summer reading clipboard in case you need to refer to it. 

We have moved the Amercian Girl Beginning Chapter Books from the bottom shelf after the regular starred chapter books, up to the top counter to display them better and also to free up some space.
The selectors have provided us with a list of titles that are starred throughout the branches, so if you see a title that you THINK should be starred, check the list on the bulletin board in the aides office and add a star if need be (they are next to the list).   

I have noticed that the Jeasy's are being shelved REALLY tightly and though I know its tempting to keep them that way to retain a neat and tidy branch, they are in fact impossible for little fingers to pull out as well as the aides who are trying to shelve anything else in that section so for the ease of all please leave about 2 inches of space at the end of each section.

The story hour subject this week is water, lakes and oceans so look for those kinds of titles at my desk should you need them for the pulls list.

We are starting June so please pull any of the yellow spine  labels marked 12  off (now)
 not so new titles. 

Word from Tinka is that Riley has reached his destination in Missouri safely. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that he doesn't encounter any tornadoes while he is down there and has a safe and wonderful experience.

Ok, keep up the excellent work and let us proceed 

Cappy D

CAPPY DICK IS HAVING A BRAIN VACATION FOR MEMORIAL DAY!

Ahoy Mateys,
this is going to be one of those short posts sos we can all enjoy our Memorial Day weekend without overtaxing our brains, and hopefully by the time you read this you will be nice and rested for the post holiday week!
 In honor of the end of school, which is just around the bend, I am going to switch out the kid's May garden display with a new display honoring vacation and vacationy things, like camp, and the beach, and summer adventures, so if you are looking for any of these titles, either check the huge stack I have set aside in front of my desk, or if there aren't any there, that means I actually got the display up, so check the small table leading into the kids' area.
   Galina is in charge of the adult displays so I will let her tackle that when she recovers from her own vacation, later in the week. She is due back on Thursday afternoon but we will give her a couple of days to fall back into the routine and then see what she comes up with. In the meantime, the Adult Gardening display can continue growing where it is. Replenish as necessary.

Richard has sent a few important emails to all about various evergreen issues and I am printing them out and keeping them on a clipboard on the back counter, so when things are slow, be sure and give those a look see or refer to them should you need a refresher.

  Kathleen has asked me to remind y'all to go easy on filling the crates: don't fill any higher than the bottom of the handle openings on the side, and if you have a lot of oversize books or an inordinate amount of children's picture books, fill the crates a little less, as these add a huge amount of weight.

 Thanks again for keeping our branch looking so beautiful and a special thanks to Carolyn for all the gorgeous plants and the bouquets from your garden and to Barbara for keeping us "sweet" with the wonderful cookies.
    Happy Holiday and also Happy Post Holiday Week!!
Cappy Dick

EVEN SHIP-SHAPER!!

Ahoy Mateys,

 If you are reading this on Monday or after, we have made it through our "typical stats" week, although frankly, I think there is no such thing as a typical week at this branch as its seems we have more rogue waves than predictable tides, and this last week we almost got swamped a couple of times but thanks to my dedicated staff and some great subs (thank you LIZ!) we stayed afloat. Ok, ok, enough of the sea-faring references....Cappy Dick's brain is still soggy from this last week!

So, on Monday the rugs are being cleaned (have been cleaned?) so it will be interesting to see what color our carpets REALLY are!  Things might be out of place at the start of the week, but we will get them back asap. If you notice something amiss or missing, do let me know.  And speaking of things out of place, well, really just things moved to a different place, by now you have probably noticed that ALL the newspapers have been moved next to the periodicals.
Also, because so many people are coming in with laptops and because this branch is so outlet challenged, Lit has installed a nice new power strip on the computer round table between internet stations 1& 2, so if someone is looking for a place to plug in, you can direct them to the space we have provided there, as well, of course to the long table behind the PACS. There is a chair at this station now and we have moved the big dictionary to the long table to make space. The internet sign up sheet is now to the left of internet station #1.

We have gotten two important reference titles that the public may ask for: The Proposed Sea Water Desalination project and the SCPL facilities master plan.  It looks like the master plan for Capitola isn't going to change much for awhile, until some funding comes in, but at any rate, should a patron ask to see either of these document they are here: The Desalination project is in two volumes and is on the shelf above the cash register to the far right.  The SCPL facilities master plan is nearby on the counter in the standup display next to where we put the completed registrations. Give it a gander in case anyone asks.(The Capitola 2013 city budget is also there, in the basket next to the City Council agendas).

Tails to Tales, which was briefly scheduled for EVERY Wednesday at Capitola has been "cur-tailed" to the first and third Wednesdays again, despite what the new handout says. Seems that one of the "therapy" dogs wasn't actually certified to sit around listening to readers and so until another dog with a longer attention span can be found, we are back to twice a month plus the first Saturday of the month. I am sure, now that I have
informed you all of this, the schedule will change by next week!

Well, our evening aide Riley is off on a grand graduation adventure, traveling across the U.S. by train and by thumb until August so he is being replaced by Sharon Borrege and Peggy Stone. When you see them please give them a big welcome. Both of them are familiar with our branch and do great work so I am happy to have them on our staff for awhile.

 The story hour theme this week is the pigeon books by Mo Willems, but I don't think we have any of those at our branch so no need to search for them at my desk. I will let Val, who is doing the story hour for Kari this week, take care of her own display.

 We do still have our May Gardening display for both the kidlets and adults so if you are shelving books that might be appropriate for either of those displays do feel free to refresh them, and remember to check the displays if you are looking for gardening books on the pulls list.

The summer reading program does not start until June 10th, although we are already getting patron queries about it. I am sure there will be much information available as it gets closer so you can direct the patrons to our website where it will be posted as it gets closer. We do have a calendar on one of the clipboards but already it has been revised twice so i would use it only as a guideline should someone inquire as to what kind of programs we will have, not as gospel set in stone. I do know that we will be having an children's craft time on Friday afternoons, but again that won't start until the week of  June 10th. For now, we are still having our regular story hours on Friday mornings at 10:30.

   Well enough of this blarney, let's pray for smooth sailing this week.
  Cappy Dick

THIS BRANCH IS LOOKING IN SHIP SHAPE!

Ahoy Mateys,
I hope you read the addendum (in red) on the last post as that should help you navigate all the shelving changes at the branch, but just to keep you on your toes, a couple of decorating elves have snuck aboard and also changed around a few other pieces of furniture, so look for the newspapers now near the periodicals and a longer low table in the kids room that will accommodate all of our puzzles. Also, the J non-fiction audio cassettes are now next to the J fiction cassettes rather than on top of the revolving blue J media display.

This week is typical stats week, which includes keeping track of the number of items to be shelved each day as compared to the number of items actually shelved, so remember if you are shelving to please make sure all the items on a cart are counted and marked on a dated post-it and attached to the cart before you roll it out on the floor and if you are shelving and you empty a cart, please remove the post-it and put it on my desk.
I have to keep a running tally each day.  This also means, that for those of us who walk things out to the new shelf, or displays, keep track of those numbers too. You can just jot the number down with the date and leave that on my desk as well.
And of course we have to keep track of all our desk transactions. I will put out typical stats sheets so you can make your hash marks each day. Please try and remember to do so as we want to get full credit for all of our hard work. Note: Anything beyond a simple check out is a reference question and each thing you look up for a patron counts as a separate question.

In an effort to make our searches a little easier, I have consolidated all of our monthly missing lists into one Capitola Missing Bucket, so you no longer have to search months of buckets to remove a missing item if you find it. We do still have multiple months of Claims returns buckets as these have to stay separated out so they can be added to the system wide list at the end of each month, so be sure to add any claims returns to the current month's bucket.

We have a new library directory for the phones. It is in a white binder next to our printer. Please toss any other system phone books you have laying around as they are not accurate. I have put a cheat-sheet bookmark on your desks or in your boxes with vital system phone numbers, but if you would like a copy of the phone book you may print one out off the intranet under staff databases. If you see any mistakes in the directory, please e-mail Sheila or subfinders and they will make the necessary changes.

Richard sent out a very detailed message about our latest Evergreen glitch and I have printed it and left it on one of the clipboards behind the service desk. Please familiarize yourself with the steps should you encounter it. Remember, if a patron comes in and says that they have returned an item and you look at "checked out" items and you see that there is no record attached to the item they say they have returned, please check it in in their account and forgive any fines they might've accrued. You will not be able to mark these items claims returned.

Liz Pollack who is taking a lot of Galina's shifts had the brilliant idea to request contact info to hand out to our patron's who are signing up as homebound., and Jeane O'Grady, who is handling the homebound accounts has graciously complied, so there are now homebound handouts on the clipboard at the sit down reference station. Do remember,  if a patron comes in who might benefit from a book buddy or homebound services, to let them know it is available, and if they opt in, mark them as homebound in their account (they can still walk in and use any library, but this gives them a little more leeway and the option of a book buddy, should they be unable to come to a branch) and leave their account # and name with Jonell. I will forward the information to programming who will make contact with the patron and find out how to best meet their library needs.

There was a recent reminder that we were asked to pass along to staff, as this has been a recurring problem throughout the branches. The policy on staff use of cell phones at the desk is: staff may keep their cell phones on vibrate and they may be checked  IF it is not interfering with the public but only for work related reasons unless there are extenuating circumstances such as impending emergencies (ill family members, etc.) I would like to add that I would like my staff to step away from the service desk and into the workroom to check their phones.

 The Friday story hour subject this week is Dogs. I will pull a few books but since we also have Tales to Tails on Wednesday and they also use books about dogs, and since we have such a huge selection of dog books in our collection, it is not necessary for you to add to whatever I find. Do however feel free to take any books from my desk that might appear on the pulls list.

Ok, off to swab the decks (and maybe move more furniture!)
Happy week,
Cappy Dick

A FINE KETTLE OF FISH!!

Ahoy Mateys,
  Special Thanks for April Zilber for providing this week's blog title. I am thinking of having a weekly contest to take suggestions for sea faring post titles as my brain certainly feels like a fine kettle of Boiled fish by the end of the week when I am supposed to write the next post. Do feel free to email any suggestions!
  So, this was our first week sans Galina, who is off in the wild steppes of Russia, and we hope, having a wonderful time. Donna is filling her shoes, doing a fine job dealing with our myriad damaged and missing pieces returns, so do continue to leave those items on her desk.
  Carolyn is off to New York for the week and a little, so various subs will be taking her opening shifts, so be aware if you find things mis-shelved, since not everyone is as familiar with our shelves as we are. Also we should try not to kill all the plants she has looking so nice around the branch, in her absence.
   Speaking of shelving, a couple of things have come up: firstly the DVDs. Please shelve all the 791.43s  including those that have more numerals after the .43 as if they were only 791.43's.. Just shelve them alphabetically as 791.43. We often can't read the rest of the numerals on the spine so its pointless to separate them out. The same is true of the 460's. If the DVD says 460. just shelve it as a 460, again ignoring any numerals after the decimal point. These are all spanish language titles and should be shelved together. 
If this is all too complex to understand, Barbara, or myself will walk you through it.

Also speaking of shelving, special thanks to Riley for his excellent shift of the mysteries. There should be plenty of room for a little while for any new titles we are getting. And do let me know, you who shelve, if you see areas that are particularly tight and I will attempt to get some weeding done.
Currently I am waiting for a weeds list for biographies and large print. because I know these are two areas that need attention and room for new incoming titles.

Barbara and I have reconfigured the children's room by splitting up the tables and rearranging the rug and furniture a bit, just for a change of pace since we can't expand the building
This will also allow parents with laptops to use the outlet under the graphic novel shelving if they have children in the play area.
I have also placed a request with Lit to get another power strip between the internet stations 1 and 2 to allow a patron to sit there with a laptop, since our branch is so outlet challenged and we are seeing more and more patrons looking for somewhere to plug in. If we do get that powerstrip, I will move the large dictionary and the sign up sheet elsewhere but for now it will stay where it is.

 Evidently our plan to add shelving to the tops of the J fiction and YA shelves has fallen through due to stability issues, so we will have to try and get even more creative with our use of space. We have eliminated one shelf of NEW YA display to make more room for that collection and we seem to be ok for the moment.
Whoops! Addendum:  Cappy Dick was misinformed (big surprise!)  I came in the branch on Tuesday and VOILA! We have at least 3 1/4 new display shelving installed on top of the YA AND J Fiction shelves that we CAN use for display purposes (not for regular shelving because its not strong enough), so Barbara shifted some things on both sides to allow us to make the best use of our new space. 
The New J Fiction is now above the regular J fiction (instead of on the New books shelving) and the New J NON-Fiction  display is on the lower shelving at the far end of the same row. (we aren't sure if the shelving is going to be finished on that end, so for now we are using the dropped down shelving for display purposes...this may change if they add the last piece to our topper.)
  The YA non-fiction has been moved next to the YA Honor system books (near the YA media), to allow for more space for the adult playaways on the opposite end of the shelving. 
Adult Graphic novels are now on top of the shelving as are the YA New titles.

The most important change is that we have finally separated out the fairy tales (J398.2s) like most of the other branches. This is an area that was getting overlooked so this new section should highlight some of our really good titles. All the fairy tales are now housed in their own section BEFORE the J non-fiction.
Go take a walk around the branch and give it a gander, sos you know where things have moved too.
Signage is on the way!


Both of this month's displays for children and adults is Gardening so do feel free to replenish those displays as you find appropriate materials.

The story hour theme this week is Mothers and Mother's days (HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY all you MOMs and also to  those of you who have Mom's) so look for those titles near my desk.

New starting this week, we have added Tales to Tails on All Wednesdays now, as well as the first Saturday of the month.
  Janice also sent out a list of summer reading programs starting in June throughout the branches and I have printed it and highlighted events at Capitola. It is posted on a clipboard on the back desk as well as at the sit down reference station should patrons have questions. I am sure there will be an on-line calendar as well as print copies when the dates get closer.
  ok, enough of this blarney. I've got to go back out and swab the desks!
 Cappy Dick

MAY DAY MAY DAY!

Ahoy Mateys,
Life was running so smoothly last week Cappy D. decided not to write a post at all, but I don't want y'all to get too complacent and assume that the Captain isn't on the job, so just to keep you on your toes, here's a post for the beginning of May. I realize that May doesn't start until Wednesday but I am going to be too busy then to write so you can have a head start.
  To get you off on the right foot here's a fine May quote:
It's May! It's May! The lusty month of May! Those dreary vows that ev'ryone makes, Ev'ryone breaks. Ev'ryone makes divine mistakes! The lusty month of May!" - Lerner and Lowe

  Firstly, Galina is off to Russia until the end of May so we will all have to work triple hard to fill her sandals!. We will have a variety of subs filling her shifts so those of us who are regular Capitola staff will need to be extra diligent in making sure that in the case of  "divine mistakes" like the poem says, things get taken care of,  check-ins put in the correct crates, displays kept up, etc. We have a pretty good crew of subs but they won't be as familiar with our branch as we are, so please keep an eye out for anomalies that you can take care of and help them if they are looking for supplies, etc.  I will be around so let me know if you are seeing areas or issues that might need addressing.
   Donna will be handling damages in Galina's absence so please put those on Donna's desk for the month of May.
   I will take care of the unclaimed list and the displays.
 For May the displays will be Gardens and gardening, both for the adults and children's areas. I will put those up on May 1st or 2nd, depending on the work flow, so feel free to add to them as you find appropriate materials. We have a lot of books on this subject so rather than clean out our shelves in the 635s I will just pull a few at a time and replenish the display as the month continues.
   The story hour subject this week is also Flowers and gardening so rather then collect those books at my desk, I will keep them on the display. Therefore, look there after Tuesday if you are seeking gardening books for your pulls list.

The May pull date for new books is 11, so pull all the books with the spine sticker 11 this month.

Ok, I think that's all the news thats fit to print so off with you. Go out and enjoy the lusty month of May, but don't get arrested!
  Cappy Dick

NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK!

Ahoy Mateys,
So National Library Week runs April 14th to 20th to CELEBRATE our wonderful free lending system! Cappy Dick would like to declare the week a National Holiday but alas, the Captain has no pull with the bigger wigs who get to make such declarations manifest, so I guess we better all show up to work in case the public decides to celebrate by inundating us.
Especially because this is also Food for Fines Week (if you haven't read all the details, please do. They are posted on one of the back counter clipboards. The salient points are: $1.00 off of fines for 1 item of non-perishable food up to $20.00 (no damaged or lost fees, only overdue fines), and the same quotient if the patron has donated on line and comes in with the receipt and/or donation ticket printed out from the web. In the patron's account remember to choose payment type:  GOODS and then put the amount to be 'waived' in payment received just as if you were recording a payment  If the patron produces a receipt or ticket showing that they have donated on line, be SURE TO DATE AND INITIAL THE PAPERWORK before returning it to them. You will not have to touch our cash register for any of the food for fines exchanges..
 
   Fortunately, we don't have to think about tallying the prints any more this month, what with all the other things we are supposed to remember, so breath a big sigh of relief and thank your higher powers for that blessing!

Galina is going to switch the adult poetry display to Take Off With A Good Book (in honor of her upcoming vacation to Russia!) which will feature some of our travel writing collection. We have quite a few good titles on this subject and I think they are often overlooked so I am sure this will be a hot display!

Our story hour subject this week is also honoring National Library Week so picture books about books? and libraries will be gathered near my desk if I can find any relevant titles. I know we have a few but I will have to snatch them up before the ravening public beats me to it.

On a final note: in an effort to be consistent with all the other library branches in the system and thus to less boggle our poor patrons, if you are the opening aide, please only backdate the items that you pick up off the floor or are in the return bin when you start work. After that the incoming books can be checked in on the day you are working (unless of course you are working on a day we are closed, in which case do backdate them to our last day open). I am aware that some of the other branches have not been doing this and we have not been so consistent either but all the branches were asked to do the same thing and this was the consensus on when they should be checked in.
 That means, for the rest of us, if a patron should ask, the items are checked in from the minute someone is in the building, not from when we open, so they will accrue fines if they return things after that. The safest thing is to tell them that if they return an item BEFORE 8 they will not be charged for that day. This covers all the early morning work shifts at ALL the branches.

  Ok, Happy National Library Week. Be sure and read one great book or watch one great video or listen to one great CD this week and CELEBRATE the fact that you have a job here! I for one, am going to celebrate that I have such a great work team!  Now go on and swab the decks!
  Cappy Dick

APRIL SHOWERS??

Ahoy Mateys,
Well last weeks April showers might not have brought us flowers but it certainly brought us a slew of patrons! So much for a Spring BREAK!  Personally, I hope this next week is a little slower so we have a respite before the following week which is FOOD FOR FINES week when I suspect things will get crazy.
If you have not yet done so, please read the FOOD FOR FINES information sheet on one of the clipboard on the circ desk back counter. I have highlighted important info on the second page which you should commit to memory.  I will remind you at the beginning of the actual F4F week once again.

  I have also printed out the Project Scout Calendar to hand out to patrons who are looking for tax help.
These handouts are on the back counter and there are two different pages so be sure and give them one of each.  (One tells what they need to bring to their tax appointments and has vital phone numbers). As the tax date gets closer I imagine we will get more of these questions. You should also direct them to our website (which also has the Project Scout calendar as well as other tax tips and information).

Shelving Quirk Alert: we currently have only one of these titles but if you are looking for a Graphic Novel, non-fiction, that is exactly what it will say in the catalog, as opposed to a call number or Bio. The spine label will read GN Nonfiction and the first 3 letters of the authors last name, so if you are looking for or shelving GN non-fiction, please just handle it as if it were fiction and shelve it under the author's last name.
Also weirdly enough, I discovered that Curious George is shelved under JEASY CUR so I guess that little monkey wrote the books. This is how they are all cataloged so that is how they will show up in the database and on our shelves. Odd!

Ok, enough shelving anomolies for now. Do continue to open the books to make sure they actually belong in our branch, no matter where they are shelved, and remember to check the new books, the Poetry Month display and the April Fools J display for titles on our pulls list or search lists. We have been finding quite a few books that belong at other branches among our own.

The Capitola branch is about to become the proud owner of a Police Communications Radio Transmitter. The transmitter will be housed inside the library near the back route in computer. There will be an atenna on the roof and also a diesel generator installed outside. Whether this will actually power our branch in the event of a black out, I have no idea. I guess we will find out if we ever have another big storm. At any rate, don't be alarmed if you see our "men and women in blue" traipsing around our office. I believe this is mostly for use during emergencies so perhaps we will be the first to know what is going down. After all, the libraries are supposed to be bastions of information so it would behoove us to be in the know. Anyway, I will let you know what I know if anyone ever tells me.

I don't think this has ever happened here, but in the unlikely event that someone wants to post non-library related information on our electronic bulletin board, please tell them that it is NOT our policy to do so, due to the amount of time and labor it takes to make a "flyer" and also because we have a limited amount of space to post our own events. You can also refer them to me or Diane at Virtual Services (through LIT).

Galina has discovered a nifty searching tip for foreign language films: If you type "motion pictures" and the language you are searching for (ex: motion pictures french") in the subject field you should get hits. Thank you Galina and if any of the rest of you discover wonderous tricks to make Evergreen do its proper work, please feel free to pass them on!

The story hour subject this week is Babies and Families so look for those titles near my desk and do remember to keep an eye out for poetry books (adult) and humorous books (childrens) to keep our two April displays replenished.

REMEMBER TO WRITE DOWN THE # OF ANY PRINTS YOU REMOVE FROM THE PRINTER 
(for staff or patrons) on one of the handy tally sheets taped to the front desk by each of the computers. This will go on all month.

Thanks for your great work,
Cappy Dick

DON'T BE AN APRIL FOOL: READ THIS BLOG!

Ahoy mateys,
well you got off easy with  last weeks short post  but this week its a regular plank walk what with all the information I am going to throw at you, so read on:

Firstly; we have gotten a new code of conduct which I have posted in the nice artsy frames by the public entrance bulletin boards. Basically the only thing that has changed is that the JPB has decided to enforce a sleeping ban, but unless we see someone taking up residence in the library and sleeping on the books I don't think this will be much of a problem here at Capitola. Plus we have the playground which is getting busier and busier now that spring has sprung and there should be enough noise coming from there to keep any would be nappers awake.
However: along with the new code of conduct we have also been issued Code of Conduct Packets which I would like you all to peruse. I am putting the packets by the Opening Procedures information on the counter behind the circ desk. We are all responsible for enforcing the rules and I need you to know how the process works so reading through the packets (I would recommend reading them several times) will enable us all to respond both legally and quickly should any incidents occur. This responsibility includes temporary workers so don't think that just because you don't get benefits you don't get the  benefits of having to enforce the rules. Think of the POWER!
  Most importantly in the packet, I would like you all to pay special attention to the Service Animals section and please note that if someone enters the library with an animal staff is REQUIRED to ask whether the dog is a service animal and what service the dog is certified to perform. Obviously if the animal is wearing a service animal bib, I don't think this is necessary but it is important to enforce the no animals but certified service animals rule in the library. This means that if someone comes to the desk carrying a non-service dog, to "just ask a question" or "just pick up a book" they still need to take the animal outside the branch before they conduct their business.
     I am leaving printed copies of the Library Rules of Conduct beneath the discharge computer. We have copies in both English and Spanish should you need to hand them to anyone.

We have heard from the processing team that to help us decipher titles in the floating collection that should remain in our branch (as opposed to titles that are misshelved and should be sent to their owning branches)
there will be an F notation after the owning branch written inside the books. For instance if we have travel books that say DTN-F this means that for now the item can stay on our shelves but eventually it will automatically route to DTN. The gist of this is please do continue to look inside the books to determine where the book belongs but if it has an -F after the branch designation, it can be shelved at our branch for the time being.

April is National Poetry Month so Galina is putting together a display of Poetry for our Monthly book display.
For the children's area I have opted to highlight APRIL FOOLS with a collection of humorous titles gleaned from our J collection. This display will include jokes and riddle books, Funny Jeasys and lot of funny J fiction, including both readers, beginning chapter books and regular chapter books. Please feel free to add any childhood favorites of your own and of course check out the display for titles on the pulls list. I will try and keep the books in some kind of order to aid you in finding them.

The story hour subject this week is colors and rainbows so I will collect picture books with that subject at my desk.

For April we will be pulling all books with the label 10 on the spine.
 
Ok, back to swabbing the decks. Continue the good work!
Cappy D!

THE SHORTEST POST YET!

Ahoy and almost Over and out in one sentence: there is nothing new or exciting to alert you to this week, as far as I can tell. The only thing I need to remind everyone is to be extra diligent in checking inside the books to make sure they belong on our shelves and to read the screen carefully when doing any routing in of items, as we are getting an inordinate amount of books for other branches in our route ins. This is through no fault of ours but if we are lax it will become our problem so Attention Mateys!
   The branch looks wonderful and as always that is due to the great staff. Keep up the good work and enjoy the last week of March and FYI the story hour theme this week is Rabbits so you know where to find those titles if they aren't mulitplying on the Jeasy shelves. Help yourself.
   Cappy D.

BLARNEY FROM CAPPY D

Ahoy mateys... In honor of St. Patrick's day I will write the blog in green this week!  And don't forget that speaking of green, the first day of spring begins on Wednesday! 
   
We've had various changes in the branch this week so take some time to cruise around and familiarize yourself once again. 
I have shifted the Audio books to make more room for CD's on the back wall, and have relabeled all the shelving so it should be pretty self-explanatory.  The only  more radical change is that the Playaways are no longer in the back window, as they were getting melted, so they are now on shelving at the end of the audio cassette non-fiction but above the audio cassettes biographies (on the same shelving as the YA collection but closer to the window.) Also I have moved the Adult Graphic Novels to the shelving just above the Playaways, as this put them closer to the YA graphic novels where I think they will circulate more often as well as have space for the collection to grow. 

We also have a MAGIC SCHOOL BUS display on the far end of the JEASY display area so if you are reshelving these titles or looking for them, be sure to check the display. Since the display was set up those titles have been flying out the door, so it is already quite popular.

Galina has updated her Women's day display, to a Women of Mystery display in celebration of Women's History month. She is highlighting female mystery writers so as you see these come back into the branch, feel free to replenish her display shelves. This is another very popular display so its tough to keep those shelves filled.   The children's display is still featuring Girl Power so any titles that you feel demonstrate that theme can gladly be added. It is mostly Jeasys and a few biographies as I wanted to appeal to a younger age group than our J fiction readers. 

We discovered that the receipt printers should be turned on before the computers they are attached to so if you are an opening person please remember to turn the printers on before the computers. Otherwise the printers don't sync well and sometimes refuse to print.

We now have a binder of reproducible Federal tax forms. It is labeled and resting on the table with our other tax forms.

There is a new newspaper in town, called Capitola/Soquel Life. It is a monthly and we can just leave a copy of the current month on the same table as our Register Parjaronian and Chronicle. When the month is over we can stash it in the back on top of our old Mid county Posts which are no longer being published.

The system supplies staff has requested that we put rubber bands on both the top and bottom of our stacks of routing slips before sending them back downtown. Evidently they were receiving some with only one rubber band. Shameful!!

The story hour subject this Friday is SPRING. I have gathered a few books at my desk but additions are welcome as it's slim pickings.

Ok this is enough blarney for now. I hope you all had big mugs of green beer on Sunday and found some lucky charms at the end of your rainbow!
   Cappy Dick

SPRING FORWARD!!!

Ahoy all,
well it's that time of year again, get ready to SPRING forward on Sunday, March 10th so y'all remember to show up to work on time even though the glorious weather will tempt you to stay away that extra hour, I am sure.
  Not too much to report this week, except we did get two new printers on our service desk computers; one at the discharge station and one at the sit down computer. We have decided NOT to choose the receipt printers as the default printers on these two computers as we use them to print out the pulls list and reference materials for patrons so if you do use them to check out a patron, remember to choose the StarTSP cutter to get a receipt.

We should also be seeing some "floating" travel titles coming our way. These will mostly be travel guides (Fodor's, Let's Go, etc.) They may have DTN inside the cover but if you check them in and they don't show as in transit to another branch, go ahead and shelve them as per usual with our other travel titles. They will revert to DTN as some point, I believe. This process is still a bit muddy but the bottom line is DO keep checking inside all the books and just remember if its a travel title that shows DTN you can shelve it. Everything else with other branches in the item should be checked in and sent on their way.

The story time theme this Friday is Trees in honor of Arbor day so if you see any relevant books for pre-schoolers about trees please put them on my desk and as per ususal, if you are looking for books about trees for patrons or the pulls list, check my desk. You are welcome to take them.

    Thanks for all your hard work. The branch is looking beautiful.
   Cappy Dick
P.S.  Happy 61st Birthday to Donna on Saturday!! 

WHAT DAY OF THIS MONTH IS ALSO A COMMAND??..

Ahoy Mateys,
ok, the answer to the title of this post is.....drum roll.....MARCH 4th! Get it?! HA!  Well, I'd say we had a pretty rough February, but now Barbara is back and all is right with the world...
 Seriously, let me step out of my Captain's Cap for a minute and as my alter ego, Jonell, thank you all from the bottom and top of my heart for your hugely generous gift to the Cloverdale Food Pantry in honor of my father, and also for you absolute reliability in keeping the branch up and running when I so suddenly abandoned ship to go attend to my father's unexpected illness and death. I cannot tell you how much a relief it was to KNOW that I didn't have to worry about a thing back at work while I helped the family out elsewhere. YOU GUYS ALL DESERVE A SPECIAL RECOGNITION INCLUDING OUR GREAT VOLUNTEERS. I will see if they let me nominate my whole staff at once this month but if not, please now that I am forever indebeted to all of you, and if you want me to shelve or do that one task you hate but are supposed to do, you can call on me and I might just help you out.
  NEWS FLASH: OK THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH IS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSIDERATION AND MAY OR MAY NOT BE TRUE. SEE TERESA'S EMAILS AND CHECK WITH ME ON WEDNESDAY FOR LATER UPDATES. 
   And speaking of recognizing, as you probably now know with all the e-mails flying about, there will be a memorial service at the Kaiser Stadium for our two fallen police officers this Thursday, March 7th  at 11. To allow city employees to attend, the libraries will all be closed that day until 2. If you choose not to attend the memorial, and you are scheduled to work you have the option of coming in and working your regular hours or taking the time to do something in memory of the officers...meditate, take a thoughtful walk. I am not sure how this gets marked on Kronos yet but according to my understanding it is paid time. If you normally come in before we open, than please do so so that we are up and ready to open at 2. There is a message regarding the closure to the public on our website and I am told we will also be receiving signage. Story hours that normally occur that day at other branches will be cancelled, should any patrons ask. We will have our regular story hour as per usual on Friday. 
  Now, back to dull old business...
     
    We are having a number of new aides come in and because each branch is different and our branch has its particular quirks I have made a copy of part of our regular aides manual and am leaving it in the Opening and Closing procedures folder on the counter behind our service desk. Normally, when I know we have a new aide coming in, I will try and give them a copy of this myself, but in the event that I am absent, please direct them to the On-call aide packet and ask them to sit and read it before they begin to shelve. We have had an inordinate amount of things mis-shelved in the past few weeks and there is only so much we can blame on patrons' reshelving.  ALSO PLEASE CRACK OPEN THE BOOKS BEFORE YOU SHELVE THEM AND MAKE SURE THEY BELONG IN OUR BRANCH AND DO REINFORCE THIS WITH ANY ON-CALLS WHO ARE SHELVING. IF YOU ARE CHECKING ITEMS IN PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK THE SCREEN TO MAKE SURE THAT THE ITEM YOU SCANNED ACTUALLY CHECKED IN AND THAT IT IS GOING TO THE CORRECT BRANCH.  I have found many items on our unclaimed and in transit to long lists that are sitting on our shelves because they were not properly checked in  and often belong to another branch. We are all going to have to be diligent about this even if it means slowing way down in our processes. I would prefer we be slow and accurate because in the end we are expending more time to solve the problem than if we were slowly doing things correctly.
   There are two new displays for March. For the adults titles, Galina has compiled books to celebrate International Women's day (March 8th), so check our her collection and feel free to add any titles you think are relevant as you see them. She will change the display midway through the month to highlight women's history but I will give you a heads up when that happens so don't add those titles to the current display.
   For the children's display opposite Galina's I have put together mostly picture books celebrating GIRL POWER. There are a gazillion chapter books and lots of biographies about famous women, but I am concentrating more on every day stories to empower young girls. If you see any titles in our J collection that you think would enhance this collection please feel free to add to the display.
And don't forget to check these displays when you are doing the pulls list also.
  Riley has shifted our YA collection so it starts on the bottom shelves below the new YA display now to make room for our ever expanding collection so be careful to check where you are shelving so you don't start in the wrong place.
 The pull date for not so new anymore books is 9 so pull anything with the yellow sticker 9, please.and reshelve as normal.
  The story hour theme on Friday is Airplanes and Flight so if you are looking for children's books on that subject you can always check my desk.
  Over and out,
Cappy Dick