Advice for Dealing With New Technologies

On Friday, Stephen Bell discussed the topic "Reversing the Ratchet: Basic Technology Adoption Strategies for Library Workers" in a College of Dupage webinar sponsored by NEFLIN.

If you missed it, but want to hear what it was about, check out NEFLIN's blog entry: http://neflin.blogspot.com/2008/11/reverse-ratchet.html . This provides a good summary, as well as information on viewing a recording of the presentation.

p.s. If you do view this, you are eligible for training credit, so please notify jpltraining@coj.net .

Staff Profile

Anthony Williams is a Library Associate at the Beaches Branch Library.

Q: How long and where all have you worked at JPL?
A: I started working at the library in 2004 at the Beaches Regional Library. I was then transferred to the Main Library in the African-American Collection, where I stayed for 6 months. I later transferred back to the Beaches Library.

Q: What do you look forward to most on the weekends?
A: Weekends are far and few. When I'm not working at the library, I have my military commitment to the Navy so that leaves me only one weekend out of the month.

Q: Tell us a little bit about your family.
A: I have a wife, Deborah, who just finished completing her Masters Degree in Librarianship at University of South Florida and my daughter, Alia, who attends La Villa School of the Arts where she plays the euphonium. My wife and I are from Philadelphia, Pa., and my daughter was born here in Jacksonville.

Q: What's one thing that people probably don't know about you?

A: I own my own part-time business that involves event planning and cruise destination travel.

Q: What books are you reading?

A: Robert Ludlum and Vince Flynn’s cloak and dagger type novels.

Q: What's the best part about working at JPL?

A: I enjoy helping our customers with their questions and seeing them leave knowing the fact that I made their day a little easier.

JPL/United Way Campaign 2008 - LIVE UNITED!

The City/Library United Way Campaign is in full swing, and your branch or department United Way representative will be encouraging you to donate this year. There are many worthy organizations United Way supports, and they help people from babies to seniors. Your UW rep can give you financial information about distribution of funds to these agencies.

One of these agencies is The Bridge, which helps troubled teens learn how to live productive lives and experience the satisfaction of becoming successful.

Even if you can’t give a lot, together all of our giving makes a big difference in our community. United Way headquarters reported that calls for help are up 20%. If you already donate, please consider increasing your gift. Payroll deductions do not begin until January 2009, or you can make a one-time donation, if preferred. Please give your completed United Way donation form, signed and dated, to your United Way/JPL representative by December 1.

Kudos from Customers

Interlibrary Loan (Main Library): I want to commend you on the excellent work that Carolyn Hampton in ILL provides. She is so competent, helpful and friendly.

Murray Hill Branch Library: Revondolyn Dubois is awesome.

Children’s Department (Main Library): Thank you so much, Marie Myers, for all that you do to stimulate our children's development. The French Storytime is really wonderful as it teaches children something they can’t get anywhere else!

Pablo Creek: My children and I visit this branch about three times a week and Christie Rogers is always ready to lend a much needed helping hand.

Teen Department (Main Library): On a scale of 1 - 5, Keli Likins is a 1,000,000,000.

San Marco Branch Library: I needed assistance locating my sons' textbooks. Mia Brack has been very kind and helpful every time my sons and I need help.

Election Time at Murray Hill

Kudos to Murray Hill staff for setting up this catchy display for early voters as they walk in and wait online.

Halloween Fun at NW

NW STAFF:

Cindy, NW's new children's librarian: giving candy to kids!

Best Wishes to Kathy Graw!

Wishing much happiness and very best wishes to Kathy Graw and Frank Tekin who were married October 10, 2008!

Ready Reference Information

Thanks to Greg Royce at Main for the following reference information:

If you haven't already had a customer ask for "free phones," you will soon enough. According to this story, Safelink Wireless is now offering a free phone program for low-income families.The service is designed for those who are already on government assistance, such as Medicaid, food stamps, etc., though Florida's Public Service Commission offers rebates for qualifying applicants through their Link Up and Lifeline programs.

We did it!

Christian Martin, Maria Waters, Eleanor Brewer and Gloria Buenavista : receiving their MP3s
for doing the JPL Learning 2.0.

Go team!

Go to ALA Free!

A grant is available for new ALA members to attend the 2009 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago for FREE. You must be a member of their New Members Round Table. See their announcement for more information (http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/rts/nmrt/initiatives/applyforfunds/3mawardinformation.cfm).

LE@D -- Great New Training Resource

NEFLIN is providing a great new resource this year -- Free access to a whole bunch of relevant, self-paced on-line classes in a program called LE@D. Looks like most are worth about 3 hours credit. Here are a few course topics:

Weeding: It's Not an Option
Reaching Reluctant Readers
Reaching Teenagers
Serving Multi-cultural Customers
Info-Age Ettiquette
Various Microsoft Office Classes

To learn more, see NEFLIN's LE@D web page <http://www.neflin.org/services.php?pid=13>.

To sign up, please request classes by e-mailing jpltraining@coj.net w/ a "cc" to the supervisor. PLEASE DON'T CONTACT NEFLIN DIRECTLY.

ADD THEM TO YOUR PDP -- These classes are not yet in the TMS so please use the "Seminar" feature. (Contact the Training Office w/ any questions.)

NEFLIN Golden Apple Awarded to JPL

Richard Mott, Barbara Gubbin and Kate Holmes accept NEFLIN's Golden Apple Award.
The Golden Apple is awarded to the public library with the best NEFLIN training record during the year.
Congratulations Richard, Kate and Barbara!

Book a Librarian

Book a Librarian new feature at JPL
Get one-on-one time with a specialist for any genre

For several months, the Main Library has offered a new service to customers: Book a Librarian.

Customers are able to schedule an appointment with a subject specialist for a one-on-one introduction to resources available online
and at the Main Library.

“This will give our customers who need a little extra time and help the attention they deserve,” said Gretchen Mitchell, Administrator
Supervisor for the Main Library. “Our librarians keep very busy, and it’s hard to get 5-15 minutes with them. Book a Librarian allows
customers to book up to an hour, and more later if they need.”

Book a Librarian was developed to provide its customers with the best possible service the library can offer.

“We looked at this service from various angles; we wanted to provide our customers with the opportunity to get one-on-one face time
with a librarian for an extended period of time, and utilize our librarians’ knowledge base and skills.”

The library also wants to maintain its customer base.

“With the status of the current economy, we know that our customers are extremely
important to the vitality of the library system. We want to show them they’re important
to us.”

By focusing on its resources and their customer base, JPL can continue to provide helpful and knowledgeable services that not only
informs but educates.

Librarians can provide answers about how to use the internet, research a school project or family history, locate a favorite book,
and provide demonstrations.

Laura Minor from special collections has seen the popularity of the service and the benefit for both customers and librarians.

“We’ve had several people asking for the service in order to get help with extensive research they’re doing,” Minor said. “With this service, we’re able to do the research and find ways to help them with their topic and search before their sessions even begins, which allows us to make the most of the appointment.”

Customers can call 630-2665 to make an appointment or go online at http://jpl.coj.net/lib/bookalibrarian.html.

Staff Profile

Larry Butler is a new CSAII at the Pablo Creek Branch Library.

Q: How long have you worked at JPL?

A. I've worked here for about ten months.

Q: What's one of your favorite books and why did you like it?

A: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is one of my favorite books. It's fun to be completely mystified by some situation and then find out the explanation, and Holmes is a fascinating character.

Q: What are your hobbies or favorite pastime?

A: Gardening and reading.

Q: What's something that people may not know about you?

A: I once worked for the Post Office as a mail carrier.

Q: What do you like most about working at the Library?

A: I like being part of an organization with positive values. When you're working for the library you're doing something special.

Buenavista

MySpace Comments & MySpace Layouts

Believe

MySpace Comments & MySpace Layouts

JPL Learning "The 23 Things"

JPL Learning “The 23 Things” will be back on Monday. If you think you might be interested in learning about some Web 2.0 tools, check out About JPL Learning 2.0 which will give you basic information and has a FAQ sheet to answer your questions.

The lessons will be posted every Monday morning by 9:00. When there is news about or an update to the program, I'll be posting it here.

To make it easier for you to communicate with fellow participants, we have put a “Chat Here” gadget on the “23 Things” blog. You can log in to the chat room using any name you like or using the default which will be a default “guest” username that will look like “guest77891”. Here you will be able to talk to each other about the lessons, help each other with tips and discoveries, and ask for assistance if you get stuck. If you don’t have participants in your branch or department to collaborate with, you can still find others to work with and help each other along. Those who have already finished the program are very welcome to come in to the chat room to help new participants with problems or just impart your wisdom.

Remember you get 9 hours of training credit for completing this program which is a great way to start off your training for the new fiscal year. If you still feel like you don't have all the info you need just email me at kwalker@coj.net, and I'll answer your questions. Karen

"Unshelved" Comic Strip on RSS Feed in JPL Staff News Blog

JPL hosted Bill Barnes, creator of the "Unshelved" comic strip, as one of the speakers at our Staff Training Day this past spring. His comic strip is now available on the RSS feed to the right of this article.

Kudos from Customers

Good service is appreciated by Jacksonville Public Library customers, and several compliments for staff will be listed from different library locations each month:

Main Library – E-Library Reference: Christa Snow was extremely helpful in showing me a new world of data bases full of information!

Regency Square Branch: Lucy Harris has great people skills and is always willing to go the “extra mile” for all of us.

San Marco: Willis Brown was very helpful; a wonderful employee, who went the extra mile. Thank you.

South Mandarin: I frequent this library daily. Not only are the managers polite but every employee I have met. I would like to especially compliment Aracelis Diaz; she greets every customer with a smile and patience.

Willowbranch: My granddaughter, Izzy, and I have attended Arts and Crafts at WB for three years and have been ‘regulars’ ever since due to Isabelle Pierre. Last February, Izzy’s two year old sister joined us for our weekly visit. Ms. Pierre knows children’s needs, is a cheerleader for older children and handles grownups with as much aplomb as she does children.

Annual Benefits Re-enrollment

Important information about Annual Benefits Re-enrollement is available on the COJ Employee News site, link below. During the re-enrollment period of October 1 through October 31, employees can add or delete dependents from their existing insurance coverage; switch plans; or, enroll in various plans, e.g., Employee Supplemental Life (will require Medical Evidence of Insurability), Dependent Life, Vision, Dental, or the Flexible Spending Account ( includes medical reimbursement, dependent care, transportation, and parking). All changes will be made effective January 1, 2009.

Employee News