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.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Thursday, July 18, 2013
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
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
Friday, July 12, 2013
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
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
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