YEEK! This week's blog is going to be all about technology, not Cappy Dick's area of expertise, but live and learn I guess, and this week its heavy on the learning. Of course we have a couple of days off for Thanksgiving to do the living part too and to give our addled brains a rest.
We have now officially be running the new Evergreen 2.3 for a week and hopefully most of the glitches are worked out. If you encounter anything strange do let me know so we can inform Lit if need be. Last week we discovered a few anomalies that were NOT supposed to be occuring and that Lit was unaware of, so we shouldn't be shy about reporting strangeness if need be.
Firstly, please take the time to look at MY ACCOUNT on our home page and familarize yourself with the various screens and options that are available to patrons. This will be helpful when you encounter questions about the new format.
If a patron reports that the MY ACCOUNT is not working, be sure they are NOT trying to access it from a bookmark to the OLD homepage or the old MY ACCOUNT page as these look similar but are now disabled. Recommend that they try to get in by typing in the library url instead and accessing it that way, and if that works they can bookmark the newer version.
Please also look over the new registration form in EG. You will quickly discover, if you haven't already that it is necessary to use a different format to put in the birthdate and expiration date then we have been previously using. There are examples by each, of the new correct format (and EG won't let you complete a registration with the old formate). For the expiration date, the easiest way is to click the correct date on the calendar, and then it will self-fill for you.
There is new User field on the registrations now which we do not fill in, but it is a good idea to encourage patrons to access it with MY ACCOUNT and to populate the pick up location with the branch of their choice. I believe that if they do not do this, the item will continue to show up at the home branch that we fill in when we do the registration but there is some speculation from higher ups that this may not necessarily be the case.
Richard is working on new procedures that will allow branches to share their CLAIMS RETURNED buckets with other branches so we can do system wide searches. When he has set it up he will be emailing all of us with instructions as well as putting it in the Green book.
UPDATE: As of Monday, 11/19/2012 Richard has published the changes in the Green book. Please take the time to read them and refer to them until you are familiar with this process.
Capitola has its own claims returned bucket and this is where we should be listing any items that a patron says they returned, that are still showing checked out to them. Please remember when you are marking an item claimed return to enter the return date within the loan period even if the patron says they returned it after the due date. (see item 2.4 in the Green Book: Marking items claimed returned and also Work Flows section 4)
If you check in an item that has a status of claims returned, please check our bucket and remove the item.
It will not remove automatically. If you are unsure how to do this, you can leave it on my desk with a note and I will take care of it.
Currently I am searching our claims returned bucket once a week but if any of you are lacking for something to do, please feel free to search it yourself.
Our claims returned bucket is found under cataloging/ manage copy buckets/ CAP_ClmRtn_month.
If you have any questions about how to access the bucket or do any of these steps please ask and I will do the best I can to walk you through the steps. We are all learning these procedures so no worries if you are not clear on this. Soon you will be an expert and then we will have another upgrade just to keep us all from getting stale.
If people wish to know donations the friends of the library accept, please direct them to the friends website
FSCPL.ORG where there is a handy button they can click that says DONATE. From there, if they click on Book Donations it spells out what the library will and will not accept. Explore this yourself as its a good idea
to be familiar with what kinds of donations we can accept at the service desk.
Patrons can also access the Friends page from the library home page. There is a Friends selection on the top of the home page.
Janis O'Driscoll is sending out a What's New once a week list of things happening in the system.
I am posting that on the clipboard behind the service desk, as well as any new procedures and Evergreen information that comes out, so feel free to flip through all those papers when things are slow. If you find something wildly out of date, don't hesitate to liberate it from the clipboard. I am trying to keep things current but I can use all the help I can get.
The theme for story hour this week is Families so look for those books at my desk and feel free to take or add items as per usual.
Ok, my fingers are tired and I suspect your brains are too, by now so I say, Happy Thanksgiving. Have a wonderful week and enjoy your time off!!
Cappy Dick
P.S. Welcome back, Barbara. You were missed by all!
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Saturday, November 10, 2012
HEY, MONDAY IS A HOLIDAY!!
Ahoy me hearties,
Cappy Dick was feeling generous and declared you should all have Monday off, so I hope you enjoyed your time away and are back refreshed and ready for a new week!
We have weathered our Evergreen upgrade and things seem to be working pretty well. I think there are some improvements and it definitely looks different and has some different settings so do take time to explore both the behind the desk version and also the public version. If you have a personal library account, I recommend you log in to it and see what the patrons are seeing, in case they have questions.
There is also an e-mail I have printed from Lit in case patrons are using an old bookmark on their personal computers to get to the website and are ending up with the wrong homepage and trying to log in. I have posted it on the clipboard, so please review it.
Speaking of the clipboard, I will always try to put relevant information that we might need to refer to quickly, on the clipboard near the sign in sheets so try and make a habit of checking there for new information when you sign in each day. This blog is only weekly and as we all know things change in our system constantly, so this is one more way to keep informed.
Also please check the branch Gmail which is bookmarked on the middle computer on the service desk. I try and leave it open on a tab all day on that computer so we can check it periodically so give it a gander when you can.
Heck, with all this reading how will we have time to actually work? Well, all those people that say "Oh, you are so lucky to work in a library, you must get to read all day" maybe weren't so far off the mark after all.
We are still having an inordinate number of items either not checked in properly, or not routed to the correct branch (many non-Capitola titles on our shelves) so I am going to INSIST that for those of us on the service desk, we use ONLY the check in computer near the phone to check items in. This means, please do not take items from the drop box to any other computer to check them in. I believe that multi-tasking at the other computers is causing some of these mistakes as you are often interrupted mid-transaction and things are getting mislaid and then mis-shelved.
Of course if during a patron transaction you need to check in an item at the other service desk computers, that is fine. You don't have to run to the check in computer in that case, just do remember where the checked in item needs to go next.
Lit has configured the columns on most of the evergreen pages on our three service desk computers.Please do not change these configurations without checking with me. If you see a sub attempting to change these cut off their hands, uh, i mean , gently remind them to not touch.The computer in the check in room has not been changed so you may need to set up the columns there according to what works best for you. Just remember to save list configurations if you want them to remain in place.
The J New Fiction has been moved once again. It will now live on the small table as you enter the children's area. I will be posting the New York Times best seller list of J Chapter books at the end of that shelving, should anyone ask.
The J holiday books are now displayed on the backside of the top shelf of the adult display books, facing the J New Fiction. If you go to the children's area this will make a lot more sense so do wander over and figure out what I am talking about.
Ken is still making us new shelving for the J Graphic Novels but until he has those in place we will continue to use the rolling red cart near the J New Fiction table.
The story time subject this week is Thanksgiving and as we already have those displayed, if you find any add them to the display and if you need them for the pulls list, you know where to look.
Kari will be hosting her second Tea and Talk adult get together on this Wednesday morning at 9:30. There are fliers if any patrons are interested.
There are also our ongoing Tales to Tales on Wednesday, Teens and Tweens group meeting Thursday afternoon, and pre-school story time on Friday, so as far as programing goes it will be a full week.
Hope you remembered to honor all our veterans and had a fine day off.
Happy Week!
Cappy Dick
Cappy Dick was feeling generous and declared you should all have Monday off, so I hope you enjoyed your time away and are back refreshed and ready for a new week!
We have weathered our Evergreen upgrade and things seem to be working pretty well. I think there are some improvements and it definitely looks different and has some different settings so do take time to explore both the behind the desk version and also the public version. If you have a personal library account, I recommend you log in to it and see what the patrons are seeing, in case they have questions.
There is also an e-mail I have printed from Lit in case patrons are using an old bookmark on their personal computers to get to the website and are ending up with the wrong homepage and trying to log in. I have posted it on the clipboard, so please review it.
Speaking of the clipboard, I will always try to put relevant information that we might need to refer to quickly, on the clipboard near the sign in sheets so try and make a habit of checking there for new information when you sign in each day. This blog is only weekly and as we all know things change in our system constantly, so this is one more way to keep informed.
Also please check the branch Gmail which is bookmarked on the middle computer on the service desk. I try and leave it open on a tab all day on that computer so we can check it periodically so give it a gander when you can.
Heck, with all this reading how will we have time to actually work? Well, all those people that say "Oh, you are so lucky to work in a library, you must get to read all day" maybe weren't so far off the mark after all.
We are still having an inordinate number of items either not checked in properly, or not routed to the correct branch (many non-Capitola titles on our shelves) so I am going to INSIST that for those of us on the service desk, we use ONLY the check in computer near the phone to check items in. This means, please do not take items from the drop box to any other computer to check them in. I believe that multi-tasking at the other computers is causing some of these mistakes as you are often interrupted mid-transaction and things are getting mislaid and then mis-shelved.
Of course if during a patron transaction you need to check in an item at the other service desk computers, that is fine. You don't have to run to the check in computer in that case, just do remember where the checked in item needs to go next.
Lit has configured the columns on most of the evergreen pages on our three service desk computers.Please do not change these configurations without checking with me. If you see a sub attempting to change these cut off their hands, uh, i mean , gently remind them to not touch.The computer in the check in room has not been changed so you may need to set up the columns there according to what works best for you. Just remember to save list configurations if you want them to remain in place.
The J New Fiction has been moved once again. It will now live on the small table as you enter the children's area. I will be posting the New York Times best seller list of J Chapter books at the end of that shelving, should anyone ask.
The J holiday books are now displayed on the backside of the top shelf of the adult display books, facing the J New Fiction. If you go to the children's area this will make a lot more sense so do wander over and figure out what I am talking about.
Ken is still making us new shelving for the J Graphic Novels but until he has those in place we will continue to use the rolling red cart near the J New Fiction table.
The story time subject this week is Thanksgiving and as we already have those displayed, if you find any add them to the display and if you need them for the pulls list, you know where to look.
Kari will be hosting her second Tea and Talk adult get together on this Wednesday morning at 9:30. There are fliers if any patrons are interested.
There are also our ongoing Tales to Tales on Wednesday, Teens and Tweens group meeting Thursday afternoon, and pre-school story time on Friday, so as far as programing goes it will be a full week.
Hope you remembered to honor all our veterans and had a fine day off.
Happy Week!
Cappy Dick
Saturday, November 3, 2012
YAY! TIME TO HIBERNATE
YO,
Well we made it through Halloween unscathed, despite the fact that Riley had a REALLY BIG SWORD on his costume! And we even got to hibernate for an extra hour thanks to the end of daylight saving time on Sunday. Hope by now you have corrected your watches and clocks (those of you who are old school and wear timepieces instead of using your phones) so that y'all get to work on time, and lets hope our patrons have too or we will have a heck of a time getting rid of certain ones who shall remain un-named when we close.
No big news this week EXCEPT that the new EVERGREEN 2.3 is supposed to be installed so check the Capstaff email to see if there are any relevant updates. I hope it all runs smoothly and that all the Evergreen glitches have been resolved, but I am not keeping my fingers crossed to tightly...too hard to type that way for one thing. If there are two Evergreen Icons on the desktop DO OPEN THE ONE THAT SAYS 2.3. I will clear the old icons (2.09) off the various desktops when we have the all clear from LIT.
We still don't know when Barbara will be rejoining us, but we are sending her, her mother and her family all of our best wishes from afar. In her absence various aides will be filling in some of her hours. You may see Peggy Stone (aide from LSB and GP) around a bit as she is taking lots of the hours.
You may see her teenage son Judah working on his computer in our staff room as that is a quiet space for him to study while she is working.
If you do see an aide working that you haven't been introduced too, do introduce yourself and offer your help should they have questions. Each branch is a bit different in terms of shelving and procedures so direction is always welcomed, I am sure.
We have two new displays for November. In the adult area, adjacent to the New books, the Theme is :Share your Table. We have fiction and non-fiction titles there reflecting cookery, Thanksgiving, Charity and Good food reads. There is a whole genre of mysteries and fiction around recipes so if you see any of those in the stacks, please feel free to add them to the display as well as other titles you think might be appropriate for our display.
In the children's area I have put out the small smattering of Thanksgiving books and to bulk up the display, also books with autumn and harvest themes, so again, if you see any titles that you think would merit showing off in that area, please do add them.
This year SANTA CRUZ READS will be reading John Steinbeck for THE BIG READ and as recognition of writing as a form of activism, SCPL, Friends of SCPL and SANTA CRUZ WRITES are sponsering a writing contest open to the community. There is information available at www..santacruzreads.org and there are entry forms at all the libraries. Ours are by the sit down reference station at our service desk.
Our story hour theme on Friday is Trucks. There is a stack by my desk should anyone be looking for them or have picture books to add.
I think that wraps it up. Happy Autumn and don't forget to vote!!
Cappy Dick
Well we made it through Halloween unscathed, despite the fact that Riley had a REALLY BIG SWORD on his costume! And we even got to hibernate for an extra hour thanks to the end of daylight saving time on Sunday. Hope by now you have corrected your watches and clocks (those of you who are old school and wear timepieces instead of using your phones) so that y'all get to work on time, and lets hope our patrons have too or we will have a heck of a time getting rid of certain ones who shall remain un-named when we close.
No big news this week EXCEPT that the new EVERGREEN 2.3 is supposed to be installed so check the Capstaff email to see if there are any relevant updates. I hope it all runs smoothly and that all the Evergreen glitches have been resolved, but I am not keeping my fingers crossed to tightly...too hard to type that way for one thing. If there are two Evergreen Icons on the desktop DO OPEN THE ONE THAT SAYS 2.3. I will clear the old icons (2.09) off the various desktops when we have the all clear from LIT.
We still don't know when Barbara will be rejoining us, but we are sending her, her mother and her family all of our best wishes from afar. In her absence various aides will be filling in some of her hours. You may see Peggy Stone (aide from LSB and GP) around a bit as she is taking lots of the hours.
You may see her teenage son Judah working on his computer in our staff room as that is a quiet space for him to study while she is working.
If you do see an aide working that you haven't been introduced too, do introduce yourself and offer your help should they have questions. Each branch is a bit different in terms of shelving and procedures so direction is always welcomed, I am sure.
We have two new displays for November. In the adult area, adjacent to the New books, the Theme is :Share your Table. We have fiction and non-fiction titles there reflecting cookery, Thanksgiving, Charity and Good food reads. There is a whole genre of mysteries and fiction around recipes so if you see any of those in the stacks, please feel free to add them to the display as well as other titles you think might be appropriate for our display.
In the children's area I have put out the small smattering of Thanksgiving books and to bulk up the display, also books with autumn and harvest themes, so again, if you see any titles that you think would merit showing off in that area, please do add them.
This year SANTA CRUZ READS will be reading John Steinbeck for THE BIG READ and as recognition of writing as a form of activism, SCPL, Friends of SCPL and SANTA CRUZ WRITES are sponsering a writing contest open to the community. There is information available at www..santacruzreads.org and there are entry forms at all the libraries. Ours are by the sit down reference station at our service desk.
Our story hour theme on Friday is Trucks. There is a stack by my desk should anyone be looking for them or have picture books to add.
I think that wraps it up. Happy Autumn and don't forget to vote!!
Cappy Dick
Friday, October 26, 2012
A WEEK TO "RAISE YOUR SPIRITS"!
Someone ought dress as Cappie Dick for Halloween!! And I mean the real dude, not your Capitola person in charge. Course only a few of us codgers would know who you were meant to be, but heck, it would be an original costume!
I myself intend to come in costume because I agree with the writer Douglas Coupland who says:
"If human beings had genuine courage, they'd wear their costumes every day of the year, not just on Halloween. " In my world every day should be a costume party! And I encourage any of you to dress up as well if you like that kind of thing. I am sure the patrons would enjoy it.
I will bring a big bowl of candy to put on the front desk to allay any tricks our little ghouls might feel tempted to pull should they feel they are not adequately sugared.
There will be NO tales to tails that day (although there will be one the following Saturday before we open).
There isn't a lot of other branch news, except that Barbara had to leave unexpectedly to go and help take care of her elderly mother who has taken a downturn in health, so you may be seeing a lot of new faces, as we have various aides filling in some of her hours. Some of them will be new to our branch and not privy to all our shelving quirks so do be on the lookout for mishelved items. I will try and give them all the low down on what lives where but as you all know, its a lot to absorb so one of the best things y'all can do is to pay special attention to what goes where and if you are one of the shelvers, do open the book and make sure its a Capitola item. We are still finding items from other branches on our shelves as well as items not checked in.
The internet printer is not currently working. It jams almost every time we attempt to print. I have sent an IRM to lit asking for a new printer but in the meantime this means that our public cannot print from the internet. I have posted signs but you all know how much they read so you might have to remind people who come in to use the internet that they will be unable to print. Also this means that we cannot print out receipts for our patrons from the sit down service desk station so please try and use that station for reference and keep the middle station free for transactions that require a receipt. Hopefully this will be resolved soon but in the meantime you can print if need be to the workroom computer if you choose Cap Wkm from the drop down menu when you choose to print.
You may see 2 evergeen icons on the desktop for a couple of weeks. One of them is about to become obsolete but in the meantime that is the one you need to use. It is the NOT labeled 2.3. If you hover the mouse over the icon you will be able to determine which one it is. If it says 2.3 choose the other icon to open. 2.3 will not work until after Nov. 4th.
The story hour subject this week is still CATS (it got switched with last week), so as usual, look on my desk for J titles on that subject for the sends list or if patrons are asking for them.
There will also be a new adult display (possibly Thanksgiving related, its still under discussion) on Thursday afternoon so check and see what it is and be sure to place appropriate items on the display shelves.
Nov. 1 we will be pulling all new books with 5 or prior stickers on the spines.
For those of you who work the service desk (which is all of you): if you take a check please be sure and write the following on it next to the patron's name and address:
License #
Branch
date
your initials
some of these details are being missed and accounting is not pleased.
Happy Halloween!
Cappy Dick
I myself intend to come in costume because I agree with the writer Douglas Coupland who says:
"If human beings had genuine courage, they'd wear their costumes every day of the year, not just on Halloween. " In my world every day should be a costume party! And I encourage any of you to dress up as well if you like that kind of thing. I am sure the patrons would enjoy it.
I will bring a big bowl of candy to put on the front desk to allay any tricks our little ghouls might feel tempted to pull should they feel they are not adequately sugared.
There will be NO tales to tails that day (although there will be one the following Saturday before we open).
There isn't a lot of other branch news, except that Barbara had to leave unexpectedly to go and help take care of her elderly mother who has taken a downturn in health, so you may be seeing a lot of new faces, as we have various aides filling in some of her hours. Some of them will be new to our branch and not privy to all our shelving quirks so do be on the lookout for mishelved items. I will try and give them all the low down on what lives where but as you all know, its a lot to absorb so one of the best things y'all can do is to pay special attention to what goes where and if you are one of the shelvers, do open the book and make sure its a Capitola item. We are still finding items from other branches on our shelves as well as items not checked in.
The internet printer is not currently working. It jams almost every time we attempt to print. I have sent an IRM to lit asking for a new printer but in the meantime this means that our public cannot print from the internet. I have posted signs but you all know how much they read so you might have to remind people who come in to use the internet that they will be unable to print. Also this means that we cannot print out receipts for our patrons from the sit down service desk station so please try and use that station for reference and keep the middle station free for transactions that require a receipt. Hopefully this will be resolved soon but in the meantime you can print if need be to the workroom computer if you choose Cap Wkm from the drop down menu when you choose to print.
You may see 2 evergeen icons on the desktop for a couple of weeks. One of them is about to become obsolete but in the meantime that is the one you need to use. It is the NOT labeled 2.3. If you hover the mouse over the icon you will be able to determine which one it is. If it says 2.3 choose the other icon to open. 2.3 will not work until after Nov. 4th.
The story hour subject this week is still CATS (it got switched with last week), so as usual, look on my desk for J titles on that subject for the sends list or if patrons are asking for them.
There will also be a new adult display (possibly Thanksgiving related, its still under discussion) on Thursday afternoon so check and see what it is and be sure to place appropriate items on the display shelves.
Nov. 1 we will be pulling all new books with 5 or prior stickers on the spines.
For those of you who work the service desk (which is all of you): if you take a check please be sure and write the following on it next to the patron's name and address:
License #
Branch
date
your initials
some of these details are being missed and accounting is not pleased.
Happy Halloween!
Cappy Dick
Thursday, October 18, 2012
CAPPY DICK IS ON VACATION!
Y'all keep the ship afloat whilst I am gone. I know you can sail smoothly without me! I will see you on Wednesday but don't forget to do your Kronos on Tuesday!
bon voyage.
C. D.
ps. The story hour subject is Cats so look near my desk for any J titles on that subject that you might be searching for.
bon voyage.
C. D.
ps. The story hour subject is Cats so look near my desk for any J titles on that subject that you might be searching for.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
A BLOG ALMOST AS LONG AS CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Well mateys,
last weeks blog was light but this one is going to be more on the long side
as I have various things to report on since attending my exciting monthly PIC meeting.
Most important of all: The city is having a Halloween Party and although its at the civic auditorium in Santa Cruz, you can participate if you want to enter their city employee costume contest by taking a photo of yourself and sending it as an attachment to Jason McCluskey (mccluskeyj@santacruzpl.org) by Halloween morning at 9 am. He will send them on to the city and our esteemed city council will be the final judges. I am not sure what you win (a key to the city of Santa Cruz?, free parking for life?) but it might be fun to try if you think you have what it takes.
Now business: since we have had our first rain I am going to review power outage information before the winter season gets underway and I ask that all of you take a bit of time to read over the power outage section of our emergency manual (pp. 31-32). There is an emergency manual on the counter behind the circ desk. Let me know if you can't find it. October is emergency preparedness month anyway, so if you haven't read through the emergency manual yet this year, this is the month to do it. Feel free to grab a binder in any slow moments and have a thrilling read. Some of it is not as up to date as it should be, but in this case even a little information is better then none.
Most importantly: There are various flashlights throughout the branch: one under the circ desk, one in the discharge room, one on each of our workstation desks and two tall standing flashlights on the top shelf above the Tales to Tails basket. Please wander around and make sure you know where to find one BEFORE you are caught in the dark.
If the power goes off the person in charge will call LIT & HQ from our power outage phone to report the outage. To use this phone you must dial 9 to get an outside line.
Public restrooms should be locked for safety reasons. (its dark in there?!)
If the outage is during the daylight hours we will remain open and provide whatever reference and information services we are able. We do have a branch IPAD so if wifi is still up we can use that to access our catalog (depending on if the entire network is down). It is also handy in getting general dewey decimal #s when trying to help patrons find particular subjects. However, it does travel back and forth with me so if the power goes out on a day that I am not at the branch you will have to do without.
If the outage occurs at dusk or beyond patrons should be cleared from the branch and after 15 minutes the branch will close. We will put signs on the door indicating the reason we are closed and follow our usual closing procedures as best we can, turning things off and locking up as per usual.
There is signage for almost all occasions on the back counter so it is not necessary to create new ones.
(There are also Branch is closed due to Power Outage signs in the Power Outage notebook)
For those of you who work the desk, in the event of a network failure, wherein we still have power to run the computers but evergreen is down we have been asked to start using the evergreen standalone interface instead of creating a word document. There are two screens: one for checking out and one for renewing.
The instructions for using this interface are printed out and on the branch information clipboard so I strongly urge you to read through them, look at the interface and familiarize yourself with this process. It is most important to SAVE THESE TRANSACTIONS after finishing with each borrower before moving on to the next.
All offline transactions MUST BE UPLOADED at the end of the day! The person most in charge at the branch will be responsible for this. We no longer however have to send any e-mails stating that "all branch off line tranasctions are done" and in fact we have been pointedly asked NOT TO, unless we receive an e-mail stating otherwise...
During any power outages we will limit check outs to 5 items per patron.
I have put together a POWER OUTAGE NOTEBOOK which will live henceforth on the back counter behind the circ desk so we don't have to prowl around in the dark when we forget all the instructions.
Secondly, once again I have to insist that everyone pay even greater heed to watching the screen when checking items in as well as really focusing on where said items are supposed to go, as there have been an inordinate number of items that are supposed to be going to other branches, on our shelves, as well as many claims returned items that have not been properly checked in. I would rather everyone go slow and we have a backlog of things to be shelved then to have to unshelve items that have been mishandled. For those of you who shelve, please flip open the books and make doubly sure that these really are Capitola books and if in doubt run them through check in again.
Kari Gunn, our own personal programming person has hosted her first Tea and Talk event this last Wednesday. She had a decent turnout and it appeared a lively discussion. If any of you know people who are looking for a bit of adult social time, Kari will be hosting this event on the second Wednesday of every month from 9:30-11 (before we open).
She is also here on Thursdays @ 3pm running the Tweens and Teens group, which currently is pretty sparsely attended so again, if you know of anyone who might be interested please pass this info on to them. I believe she has a craft organized and would happily plan games or book groups if she had any takers.
Tales to Tails is on a temporary hiatus and will NOT be scheduled on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month, despite what our flier says. Please encourage interested patrons to call the programming dept. as they need to make appointments if they wish to participate and programming should have the most up to date information on when the program occur.
The story hour subject this week is Boats and Voyages so if you are seeking kids books with that might fall under this subject check in the pile above my desk.
NEW PROCEDURE: Since this is emergency preparedness month, I have instated a special new emergency procedure specific to Capitola. It is the procedure for rescuing your co-workers from unfortunate encounters. This is covered in the problem patron manual but at Capitola we are lucky enough to have two white "doorbells" under our circ counter. If you are trapped at the desk with someone you need to get away from please feel free to ring those bells and any staff that happens to hear, please step out into the circ area and tell the trapped staff member they have a phone call in the back. Do attempt to be subtle as to not further excite the patron.
ok, this is so long it will take you 1/2 a shift to read it and then you have to move on and read the emergency manual and the clipboard.
Happy abosorbing,
Cappy Dick
last weeks blog was light but this one is going to be more on the long side
as I have various things to report on since attending my exciting monthly PIC meeting.
Most important of all: The city is having a Halloween Party and although its at the civic auditorium in Santa Cruz, you can participate if you want to enter their city employee costume contest by taking a photo of yourself and sending it as an attachment to Jason McCluskey (mccluskeyj@santacruzpl.org) by Halloween morning at 9 am. He will send them on to the city and our esteemed city council will be the final judges. I am not sure what you win (a key to the city of Santa Cruz?, free parking for life?) but it might be fun to try if you think you have what it takes.
Now business: since we have had our first rain I am going to review power outage information before the winter season gets underway and I ask that all of you take a bit of time to read over the power outage section of our emergency manual (pp. 31-32). There is an emergency manual on the counter behind the circ desk. Let me know if you can't find it. October is emergency preparedness month anyway, so if you haven't read through the emergency manual yet this year, this is the month to do it. Feel free to grab a binder in any slow moments and have a thrilling read. Some of it is not as up to date as it should be, but in this case even a little information is better then none.
Most importantly: There are various flashlights throughout the branch: one under the circ desk, one in the discharge room, one on each of our workstation desks and two tall standing flashlights on the top shelf above the Tales to Tails basket. Please wander around and make sure you know where to find one BEFORE you are caught in the dark.
If the power goes off the person in charge will call LIT & HQ from our power outage phone to report the outage. To use this phone you must dial 9 to get an outside line.
Public restrooms should be locked for safety reasons. (its dark in there?!)
If the outage is during the daylight hours we will remain open and provide whatever reference and information services we are able. We do have a branch IPAD so if wifi is still up we can use that to access our catalog (depending on if the entire network is down). It is also handy in getting general dewey decimal #s when trying to help patrons find particular subjects. However, it does travel back and forth with me so if the power goes out on a day that I am not at the branch you will have to do without.
If the outage occurs at dusk or beyond patrons should be cleared from the branch and after 15 minutes the branch will close. We will put signs on the door indicating the reason we are closed and follow our usual closing procedures as best we can, turning things off and locking up as per usual.
There is signage for almost all occasions on the back counter so it is not necessary to create new ones.
(There are also Branch is closed due to Power Outage signs in the Power Outage notebook)
For those of you who work the desk, in the event of a network failure, wherein we still have power to run the computers but evergreen is down we have been asked to start using the evergreen standalone interface instead of creating a word document. There are two screens: one for checking out and one for renewing.
The instructions for using this interface are printed out and on the branch information clipboard so I strongly urge you to read through them, look at the interface and familiarize yourself with this process. It is most important to SAVE THESE TRANSACTIONS after finishing with each borrower before moving on to the next.
All offline transactions MUST BE UPLOADED at the end of the day! The person most in charge at the branch will be responsible for this. We no longer however have to send any e-mails stating that "all branch off line tranasctions are done" and in fact we have been pointedly asked NOT TO, unless we receive an e-mail stating otherwise...
During any power outages we will limit check outs to 5 items per patron.
I have put together a POWER OUTAGE NOTEBOOK which will live henceforth on the back counter behind the circ desk so we don't have to prowl around in the dark when we forget all the instructions.
Secondly, once again I have to insist that everyone pay even greater heed to watching the screen when checking items in as well as really focusing on where said items are supposed to go, as there have been an inordinate number of items that are supposed to be going to other branches, on our shelves, as well as many claims returned items that have not been properly checked in. I would rather everyone go slow and we have a backlog of things to be shelved then to have to unshelve items that have been mishandled. For those of you who shelve, please flip open the books and make doubly sure that these really are Capitola books and if in doubt run them through check in again.
Kari Gunn, our own personal programming person has hosted her first Tea and Talk event this last Wednesday. She had a decent turnout and it appeared a lively discussion. If any of you know people who are looking for a bit of adult social time, Kari will be hosting this event on the second Wednesday of every month from 9:30-11 (before we open).
She is also here on Thursdays @ 3pm running the Tweens and Teens group, which currently is pretty sparsely attended so again, if you know of anyone who might be interested please pass this info on to them. I believe she has a craft organized and would happily plan games or book groups if she had any takers.
Tales to Tails is on a temporary hiatus and will NOT be scheduled on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month, despite what our flier says. Please encourage interested patrons to call the programming dept. as they need to make appointments if they wish to participate and programming should have the most up to date information on when the program occur.
The story hour subject this week is Boats and Voyages so if you are seeking kids books with that might fall under this subject check in the pile above my desk.
NEW PROCEDURE: Since this is emergency preparedness month, I have instated a special new emergency procedure specific to Capitola. It is the procedure for rescuing your co-workers from unfortunate encounters. This is covered in the problem patron manual but at Capitola we are lucky enough to have two white "doorbells" under our circ counter. If you are trapped at the desk with someone you need to get away from please feel free to ring those bells and any staff that happens to hear, please step out into the circ area and tell the trapped staff member they have a phone call in the back. Do attempt to be subtle as to not further excite the patron.
ok, this is so long it will take you 1/2 a shift to read it and then you have to move on and read the emergency manual and the clipboard.
Happy abosorbing,
Cappy Dick
Saturday, October 6, 2012
A BLOG SO SHORT IT BARELY RATES A TITLE!
Greetings fellow Cappies,
This is going to be the shortest blog yet because everything is running so smoothly and for once there aren't any vital changes for us all to attempt to remember.
The two Halloween displays (J and adult) are popular so do continue to add any appropriate items that you come across to those.
Our Friday Story Hour this week is FARM ANIMALS (as opposed to last weeks FARMS) so I have the usual pile at my desk and you are welcome to take titles you need from there.
I have received the list of Periodicals we will be receiving for 2013 and while most of our current titles will continue a few have been replaced with other magazines so if you are trying to shelve a periodical and you can't find the right shelf space for it, put it in the back with the older copies. I have re-labeled the periodical shelving to get ready for our new additions which should be coming soon. We are adding three Spanish titles: People en Espanol, Siempre Mujer and Telenovela. We are discontinuing Christian Science Monitor, Utne and Harpers.
We are also expecting the Chronicle any day now.
That's all folks!
Keep up the good work!
Cappy Dick
This is going to be the shortest blog yet because everything is running so smoothly and for once there aren't any vital changes for us all to attempt to remember.
The two Halloween displays (J and adult) are popular so do continue to add any appropriate items that you come across to those.
Our Friday Story Hour this week is FARM ANIMALS (as opposed to last weeks FARMS) so I have the usual pile at my desk and you are welcome to take titles you need from there.
I have received the list of Periodicals we will be receiving for 2013 and while most of our current titles will continue a few have been replaced with other magazines so if you are trying to shelve a periodical and you can't find the right shelf space for it, put it in the back with the older copies. I have re-labeled the periodical shelving to get ready for our new additions which should be coming soon. We are adding three Spanish titles: People en Espanol, Siempre Mujer and Telenovela. We are discontinuing Christian Science Monitor, Utne and Harpers.
We are also expecting the Chronicle any day now.
That's all folks!
Keep up the good work!
Cappy Dick
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