INTERLIBRARY LOAN IN DECEMBER AND EARLY JANUARY

Our in-state Interlibrary Loan delivery service has informed us that it will not be in operation from December 22 through January 5. We have received notices from many university libraries that they will be shutting down their operations as early as December 15. If you or your customers request any Interlibrary Loan books after December 15th, please be aware that your requests may not be delivered until mid January at the earliest.

The JPL ILL Policy (http://jaxpubliclibrary.org/ill/ill-policy.html) states that items that are less than a year old (that is, books copyrighted this year) cannot be requested. We get an unusually high number of requests for new books in December. We usually cancel these requests citing the policy. As a service to our customers --starting December 15--we will be saving these requests but still won’t be requesting them until after the start of the new year.

The ILL staff thanks you all for your help this year. Happy Holidays, everyone!

Heather Campbell
Manager- Special Services (Interlibrary Loan and Books by Mail)

With blogs, wikis, MySpace pages, and so many other Web 2.0 technologies being used by us all, we've made Guidelines so that we can maintain consistency when representing JPL on the Internet. These guidelines will be posted to the Neighborhood and I'll send an announcement as soon as they are with their location. Meanwhile, I thought I'd share them on the blog. It seems like the appropriate location! Karen (if you have comments, go ahead and email me kwalker@coj.net)

Jacksonville Public Library
Web 2.0 Guidelines

The purpose of a blog affiliated with the Jacksonville Public Library (JPL) is to share library or community information with staff and/or customers. Branches, departments, and committees are encouraged to use Web 2.0 technologies to create a more collaborative environment. Staff is invited to share branch information, branch staff announcements, programming information, etc. by blogging to the JPL Staff News blog. The link is http://jaxplstaffnews.blogspot.com/.

Access information (usernames and passwords) to all user generated web hosted content will be supplied to ILS personnel.

All Web 2.0 sites affiliated with JPL and available to the public will have an assigned administrator who will review postings and comments for content

All Web 2.0 sites affiliated with JPL will contain identifiable features (JPL logo, Ask a Librarian logo and link, Counting Opinions link) when the format allows. HTML and assistance can be requested from ILS (kwalker@coj.net).

All web-based and hosted technologies including, but not limited to:

• Social Community: Facebook and MySpace
• Email, Communication and Social Messaging: Meebo, Gmail, Twitter
• Image Storing and Sharing: Flickr, Photobucket, Snapfish
• Wiki: pbwiki, wikispaces
• Video/Audio Storage: YouTube, Podcastalley, ODEO
• Blog Filters: Technorati, Bloglines
• Blogs: Blogger, Blogstream

will adhere to this standard.

You may include artwork, photographs or quotations, but, you must conform to copyright laws.

You must obtain written permission of both customers and staff before posting their photographs online. The release form is located at http://jplstaff.coj.net/Forms/release_voiceimage.pdf.

Congratulations to South Mandarin Staff!

South Mandarin staff exceeded their local Customer Satisfaction performance objective to increase "Did Library staff meet and greet you?", by attaining a 100% satisfaction score in October! Great customer service start to the new fiscal year!

Additions to Training Resources Web Pages

I wanted to alert you to a couple of additions to the Training Resources section of JPL Neighborhood:

1. Link to Leadership Development Academy (LDA) information. You'll find a prominent link on the "City Training Resources" page, and it's also in the Site Index under "L". This link will take you to the City's LDA page where all the latest forms and information are stored.
2. Training Calendars. At the top of the "Class Schedules" page, you'll see links to several training calendars, including JPL's new calendar for internal and online classes, the City calendar and NEFLIN's.

Hope these new links are helpful. Whenever you have suggestions, or trouble finding anything related to training, please notify us at jpltraining@coj.net. Thanks!

News from the Director's Desk

It’s hard to believe that we have already begun a new fiscal year and are about to close out another calendar year!

The Board of Library Trustees held a planning retreat with senior staff and representatives of the Friends and the Foundation. Much was accomplished, but additional work has yet to be done as we evaluate strategic direction and plan ahead for the 2010 budget.

Performance measures are in place for FY2009 and I am looking forward to seeing the October reports. I congratulate each of you who have participated in destination:LEADERSHIP by developing your own action plan to integrate leadership practices into your day to day activities. I am also pleased that branch and department teams have identified and adopted local customer satisfaction measures this year. Thanks to all the staff members who participated in developing these and other performance measures with an eye toward insuring good customer service outcomes.

I will look forward to discussing these and other issues with you at the first Town Hall meetings this year.

I have directed my staff to schedule town hall meetings each quarter this year. A senior staff member will join me at each meeting to discuss his or her area of operation and answer questions. Keith McLaughlin will join me at the first round of meetings to be held Monday and Tuesday, December 1 and 2nd at the Main Library Conference Center, Room MP1. Town Hall meetings will be from 2:30-4:00. For the convenience of staff attendance, the meetings will also be broadcast to two other libraries, details forthcoming.

In addition to taking questions at the meetings, I will be happy to answer other questions submitted via this blog (yes, your questions can be anonymous). To submit questions via the blog, just click on the word “comment” below and follow the directions. All questions and answers will be posted after the town hall meetings.

Very best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving holiday,

Barbara Gubbin

Living Library Books

Did you see the article in the October 18 Times-Union about the "living library books"? Customers in Santa Monica, California, can "check out" a human for 30 minutes and use them as a reference resource. They can check out a Buddhist, a vegan, a nudist, a homeless person, 14 in all. I'm jealous. When are we going to start?

Learn more at http://www.living-library.org/.

(Forgive me if the word's already been spread on this month-old article.)

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.