Staff Profile - December 2015

Hurry along if you want to speak with Charlene Ovshak, who is often on the run in her relatively new position as JPL's Circulation Supervisor. Charlene is an amiable sort who wastes no time getting down to the nitty gritty, as you see here, because times's ticking and there's much to do. 

1    Q: What position(s) did you hold prior to JPL?   

      A: Previous positions?? I began working with JPL in 1988 and I’ve have managed to stick around.

3    Q: When did you begin with JPL and what different positions with JPL have you held prior to becoming Circulation Supervisor? 

      A: I started as a Clerk Typist II at Webb Wesconnett Library, then transferred to the Mandarin Branch. I promoted to Children’s Library Assistant and was there for the reopening of Willowbranch (the first time). Beside WB, I have also served as a Children’s LA at Highlands and San Marco  Branches.  Later, I became a Library Clerical Supervisor for the Beaches and Pablo Creek Regional Branches. I spent a couple of years working with JPL Facilities and Support Services before becoming Circulation Services Supervisor in June 2015.   

   

      Q:  What are your duties as a Circulation Supervisor?   

  

      A: I work closely with supervisors, region managers, and administration to create and implement policies and procedures. Mostly, this means I’m in everyone’s business and still trying to figure out what our policies and procedures are supposed to be. The new position keeps me so busy I barely had time to even do this profile.  J
     
 Q: Please share with us something about yourself that most of us would not know.

  
 A: While it would be fun to say I have some crazy hobby that nobody knows about, I spend most of my spare time spoiling my three beautiful grandchildren, Austin, Ava and Amelia. 
    
    

It's Bosses Day!

Cynthia Simmons, Main's Clerical Services Supervisor, was pleasantly surprised to receive this beautiful arrangement from the Circulation Team in honor of Bosses Day, October 16!  

Main Circ Lites Up

L/R: Cynthia Simmons, Erin Tuzuner (behind desk), Theresa Bascom, Gabriel Quintas, Sean Wallace (behind desk), Dana Denson (behind desk), Corey Scott (also with tree), and Willysa Jones, who took time to share these photos with you, and all the Main Circulation team wish you the very best this Christmas.

Email Campaign Prize Winners!

Welcome to circulation corner~

This month I am pleased to talk about the Email Campaign...

The staff at the South Mandarin Regional Library were the winners of a six month campaign to increase the percentage of customers that have email addresses on their accounts. The JPL overall increase was 14% and SOM topped the list of locations at 25%!!!!!! The prize was a "take-over" of the winning location for two hours by a team from JPL Administration. The staff at SOM had no idea what would happen when the team showed up. In addition to me, the branch was handled by: Carolyn Williams, Gretchen Mitchell, Laura Kline, Diane Moser, Kathy Graw and Susan Mankowski. Unfortunately, Barbara Gubbin had to attend a last minute budget meeting but was there in spirit.

Here are some highlights:

The staff was presented with a basket of sugar to help ease their nerves. What would happen to SOM?

Chef Susan expertly filled in presenting a program (Why did we choose an early release day?) Kathy Graw and Susan did an amazing job handling the chilren's department and program!

The staff wanted to make sure we knew what we were doing!

Their fears were soon put to rest. Laura took over the Reference Desk! She was soon joined by Ms. Williams who helped handle the mob.

When Diane said "What is workflows?" we got a little nervous, but she was just kidding. She jumped right in and even helped customers with Self-Check!

Diane, Gretchen and I all had a great time!

In the end, we all felt privileged to work at South Mandarin. Several customers commented on the courteous, helpful staff at that location~

Thank you all for allowing us to come and see the hard work you all do on a daily basis. And congratulations!

Circulation

Greetings JPLers!
Welcome to my little circ world on the JPL Staff News blog. I get a lot of questions and comments about our policies, procedures and my personal style, so I thought this might be a good forum to address some of these issues. I welcome suggestions for further blog entries and hope to be able to clarify some things, muddy some others and make good use of this new communication tool.

here goes my first hot potato-On a recent site visit, I was approached by Staff Member X (whose name shall not be mentioned-ever) who posed the following query:

Q: What is with this new DVD policy regarding the number that can be checked out at one time?

A: Well, X, that is a very good question. There are two possible answers that I can give you and you can decide which is the real reason behind it.

1. The members of CRU are actually part of a secret club whose sole mission is to confuse staff and customers alike.

2. In order to allow parents to restrict their children's access to R Rated DVDs, a seperate item type had to be created. Our current SIRSI system would then technically allow 5 of each item type to be borrowed. This was all well and good until my good friend selfcheck showed up and sneakily taught customers how they could mess with the sytem and get more than 5. Some customers began to question staff about it and heard some interesting explanations (mostly from me). "Today's your lucky day!", "I dunno" and numerous variations.
CRU was asked to examine DVD policy and we began to explore this problem. I kept hearing my Grandmother in my head saying "Always tell the truth-that way you don't have to remember what lie you told" and we decided she was right. It is much easier to tell customers that they can get 5 R Rated DVDs and 5 non R Rated DVDs than to invent an explanation.

I know they automatically think that they should have ten, but if we say they may have 5 rated and 5 non rated to allow parents to restrict their children's access, in time the confusion on our customers and our staff will subside.

Okay, which is the correct explanation? Feel free to post your comments below. I know there are some locations that have taken creative steps to clarify this. Here's your chance to brag!!!

Until Next Time!
Ron