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!
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Saturday, March 23, 2013
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.
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.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
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
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
Friday, March 8, 2013
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!!
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!!
Friday, March 1, 2013
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
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
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