Art in the library

The art that was in the "tunnel" in the front of Sunset, before the remodel, has been moved to the Basha branch. (12/8/11)

The new public art mentioned in a City of Chandler news release is the glass enclosing the children's room. There is a plaque on the yellow wall outside of it identifying the artist.

Holds messages at checkout

Please note the following hold status in Polaris. If a patron wants to check out an item that has a hold, we can check it out if it has a status of Active or Pending. We cannot check out items with a status of HELD. This means the other patron has already been notified to pick up their hold.

Active—When a hold request is first placed it will have an Active status. The overnight job may change this to Pending if the item is on the shelf.

 Cancelled—Cancelled requests can be reactivated. They will automatically be deleted per a setting in System Administration.

Expired—If a hold is not satisfied within the specified period of time, the status automatically changes to expired.

 Held—An item has been trapped to fill the hold and has been placed on the hold shelf for pick up by the patron.

Inactive—Inactive holds have an activation date into the future. The future date has been set by a staff member in the staff client or the patron through the PAC.

Pending—This is the RTF (Request to Fill) list that needs to be printed out, items gathered and checked in to either capture the hold or put in transit for hold.

 Unclaimed—If the requesting patron does not pick up the held item within the specified period of time, the hold status will automatically changed to unclaimed. These items should be pulled from the hold shelf and checked in to either return them to the shelf, branch or shipped to fill another hold.

 Shipped—Is in the process of being shipped to another branch to satisfy a hold.

Collection development - Holds

Copied from Marybeth's 8/12/11 email, "More than 4 holds"

Basically we follow a 4:1 holds ratio for our print materials. Four holds for each copy of a title. When the number of holds exceed this ratio we buy more copies. I monitor a report every day that provides this information so we can get the additional copies ordered so we can get the holds moving. We have found that this system allows us to be more conservative in our purchasing (especially as our collection budget has been reduced) without sacrificing popular materials and what our customers are requesting. It is important to note that when the system is calculating the hold ratio it uses the unique ISBN. Therefore, for those titles that have circulating copies AND PopPicks, both are included to determine the ratio.

Holds for CD music and DVDs are monitored a little differently. Our holds ratio is higher (usually 6:1 or higher) primarily because of the 7 day checkout. We also use the "rotten tomato" rating guide to determine additional purchases.

I would ask those staff members who work with the Friends (Used Books) to review the procedure for adding items to the collection. Donations of some of the latest bestsellers have really helped with some of these long hold lists.

Teen volunteers

Update from Elisia, Summer 2016:

If you receive teen volunteer applications, please put them in my box, not on my desk. I have applications on my desk that I have already processed, so it will help to keep them separate. Any teen interested in volunteering this summer MUST attend a volunteer overview. They will need to register for this event. Because it is a training, the teen will have to be there, not the parent. They do not have to submit an application before the training. This is for working the SRP table and youth programs. Dates can be found at http://evanced.info/chandleraz/evanced/eventcalendar.asp?ag=&et=&kw=summer+teen&dt=mo&mo=5/1/2016&df=calendar&cn=0&private=0&ln=2.

We will NOT be having our regular Library Lovers weekly volunteering in June and July. This means that pink tapes (excluding adult), holds, recycle and other things that the teens take care of will need to be picked up by staff. Regular volunteering will pick back up in August.


Update from Elisia, July 2015:


Our current volunteer types are:
Library Lovers - pull holds, shelf read, fill children's displays, pull pink tape, other duties as assigned
Arts & Crafters - create felt storyboards and prep for crafts
AR Book Stamping - Stamps AR levels in JF and Reader
Minecraft - Helps with setup, troubleshooting, and breakdown
Book Reviewer

In the past we've had STEAM Club volunteers and other help, so please let me know if you have a certain program or series July-October that you would like volunteers for.


Absences:

If a teen comes to you and says he or she has missed their shift (either earlier that day or sometime in the past) and would like to make up the time, please inform them that they need to contact Elisia to make arrangements. All volunteers have specific scheduled assignments, and it is unfair to staff as well as other volunteers for a teen with a missed shift to make their own time to come in. It adds additional stress for staff who are trying to find something for teens to do, and it possibly takes away from duties assigned to another volunteer.

Volunteers may call in from time to time to let us know they won't be able to make it, so please pass on those messages when you can, even to leave me a note when I am not here, so that we can make arrangements or log the absence.  

Patent and Trademark Viewing

The US Patent and Trademark Office website apparently uses a special format for their searchable database of images, and it requires a plugin that we don't have to view the images. Paul is going to install the plugin on computers 1-6, so anyone who wants to do patent searching should use one of those computers (and make sure to use Internet Explorer, not Chrome or Firefox). The plugin will be added to the next image of the computers, which won't be re-imaged for a few months.

New library in Pinal County

Jo at Basha informed me that there's a new library in San Tan Valley in Pinal County: the Johnson Community Library. For those Pinal County residents who don't want to pay $40 to use CPL or $50 for MCLD, and who are too far away to use the Pinal County libraries in Coolidge and Florence, they can get a card for free there. (Actually, residents of any county can get a card, although they do require a social security number to apply, and must show proof of physical address, no PO Boxes.)

Johnson Community Library
968-1 E Hunt Hwy
Queen Creek, AZ 85143
480-353-2770
Mon - Thurs 9am - 8pm
Fri - Sat 9am - 5pm

Service Animals

From Brenda's email, 3/31/11:

There seems to be some confusion about animals in our libraries. Pets are not allowed. Service animals are.

See ARS 11-1024 regarding service animals in public buildings.

People with disabilities who use service animals may often be easily identified without any need for questioning. If you can tell by looking, you should not make the person feel uncomfortable by asking questions. If you are unsure whether an animal meets the definition of a service animal, management may ask the person with the disability the following two questions in a discreet and non-threatening way:

• Is the animal required because of a disability?


• What tasks or services has the animal been trained to perform?

You may not ask questions about the person's disability. You may not ask to be shown certification or a special ID card as proof of the animal’s training. You may not ask a guest with a service animal to use a specific entrance, exit or area of the business.

You may expect the animal to behave appropriately and be under the control of the owner/partner/trainer. You may expect the person to clean up after the animal if there should be an accident, but that is highly unlikely as most service animals are trained to "go" on demand and only in specific locations.