Outreach Success for JPL FY 2008-2009

Kathy S. Tekin, Youth Services Coordinator, proudly reports "JPL System Wide has reached the goal of contacting 85% of the schools in our community; this is both public and private schools. With the September statistical reports, we reached out to 198 schools during FY 2008-2009. The goal for the system was 197 schools. Everyone should be proud of helping us reach this goal. We tried for 3 years to meet this goal and Success has been achieved. If we can do it this year, we can reach this goal in FY 2009-2010.”

Staff Profile

Karen Wishart is a previous JPL Employee of the Quarter and works at the Main Library in CAL as a Literacy Program Supervisor, contributing much to this community's growth in literacy.

Q: What is the most rewarding aspect of being a Literacy Program Supervisor?

A: We work with unique customers at the Center for Adult Learning. As a literacy program, our students come to us with very specific problems they want to tackle.

The first type of learners are native English speakers who read on a very low level. That means they are reading somewhere between 3rd and 6th grade level. They are trying to get a job, or read with their children, or just do not want people to know they cannot read. I had a student who recently shared with me that he was so proud of his new found ability to read. He said when asked to read something, he didn’t have to tell someone a “little lie” about not having his glasses with him. He went on the say that he would actually try to read it and mostly could. That proud moment is worth waking up for.

Our other students are in the English as a Second Language program. They come to us needing not only language skills but also job, culture, and life skills. One of our students was an administrative assistant at the UN in her country. She spoke several languages but was struggling with her English. She was having a difficult time finding work because of her accent. Recently she shared with us that she had a good job at a hospital. She was so proud of the improvements she had made with her English. She likes her job and “it didn’t have to be in housekeeping”.

These classes we give and the successes our students achieve are rewarding in many large and small ways.

Q: What made this career a good fit for you?

A: I started my career as a math teacher for middle school students. People always roll their eyes at me when I tell them that because it is a difficult age group to work with. I found, however, that I really liked that age group for the most part. You can joke and be sarcastic with them and they “get it”. Also, they are not so “grown” as to be horrid everyday. I was supposed to go into retirement from teaching when I began working part-time with the CAL English language learners. I loved them because they loved coming to class. This was a unique experience from my perspective. I decided retirement was not for me and was lucky enough to be offered a full-time position with CAL. It has been a wonderful experience for the past three years. The students learning to read often have learning disabilities, never liked school, or had to leave school early for a variety of reasons. I love to tell them that I was a math teacher who failed math in the 7th grade because I had such a poor math teacher. They laugh that I still remember her name. This makes them relax because they know I understand them because we have shared this school experience. I like having students who want to learn to read, to do math, or to learn English because they like to be here.

Q: What do you see as the next step forward in literacy programming?

A: CAL will be doing even more outreach this year. One outreach is with Wayman Enterprises. We are helping them start a literacy program using the reading program written by CAL.

We are also planning more work with the refugee population. I started attending the Refugee Task Force meetings and am beginning the process of meeting with the individual organizations that help with refugee resettlement. There are tremendous literacy needs with that population. The agencies have shared that more and more of those moving to Jacksonville have had immense disruptions in their education and the agencies want help from the library to provide a wide variety of education tools.

We have also learned recently that the military needs help working with the sailors who are trying to learn English quickly so that they can pass their citizenship test.

Finally, we are going to different organizations and groups locally and around the state to train volunteer tutors who want to teach reading.

Q: Who was the greatest mentor in your life and why?

A: My greatest mentor was a fellow teacher who took pity on a first year teacher. Unfortunately, when I began teaching the principal handed you your classroom keys and you either succeeded or not. There was not much (not any, really) in the way of guidance. I also had never had an education class at college because that was not my major. To learn to do lesson plans, I lied to this sweet woman. I told her I knew that every principal liked the plans written differently so what should mine look like. This should have set off alarm bells in her head but instead she very patiently explained how she wrote hers. From then on if I had a question, I headed to her classroom. She was patient and kind and never let on that she thought there was a bozo in the 7th grade room. She spent two years getting me into the rhythms of teaching. I know that she sometimes wondered how I fell into teaching but she never spoke aloud about her misgivings. I will always appreciate what she did for me.

Q: Do you have a favorite book or author you would like to tell us about?

A: I am a sci-fi nut. I love nothing better than to read or reread a Larry Niven or Isaac Asimov. One of my current favorites is Jim Butcher.

Notes from Collection Development:

Disney- more than animated films. Look for these titles new to the collection.

Two young siblings (Robb and Ludwig) find themselves on the run from a dark organization seeking to exploit their paranormal abilities in this remake of the beloved Disney classic. A helpful cab driver (Johnson) and a UFO specialist (Gugino) try to keep the kids safe. Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann, who played the siblings in the original movie, co-star.

When the pop star fame of her secret alter ego, Hannah Montana, becomes too much to bear, Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus) takes a break and journeys back to her Tennessee hometown of Crowley Corners for a much-needed break from the spotlight. But the pressures of celebrity life prove difficult to escape when Miley is pursued by a snoop who suspects the truth about her identity.

Follows polar bear, elephant, and humpback whale families on their journeys and struggles within their environments.

Your ticket to... tips for outreach and promotion

Each month, JPL will focus on promoting specific library services as part of the library awareness campaign. This month's services are downloadable media-- audiobooks, digital video, and e-books. The home page on the library's website is rotating images to promote downloadable media, and each location received signs with a note about promoting downloadable media.

Use your knowledge of downloadable media or recent vendor training to promote this valuable service to your customers. Downloadable audiobooks have proven to be very popular with library customers, but there are customers who still might not know about downloadable e-books and video.

The best, easiest and most inexpensive way to promote library services and programs is through word-of-mouth. Take every opportunity you can to talk to customers about downloadable media in October.

- Tell customers about downloadable media while working at the reference or circulation desks. Use the signs as a reference point while talking to customers. The best time to start a conversation about downloadable media is when a customer is asking about or checking out a physical audiobook.

- Place Discover Online services brochures on the desks near the signs promoting downloadable media. Also take Discovery Awaits Online brochures to outreach activities. (Note: More Discovery Awaits Online brochures can be ordered by using the promotional materials order form on JPL Neighborhood)

- Make an announcement at the beginning of a library program or storytime. Use one of the signs to hold up and point to during your announcement.

- Talk about downloadable media when doing outreach. Additional signs for outreach are available upon request. Please email your requests to Wally Bowden at wbowden@coj.net.

- If you are artistically creative, put together a downloadable media display. Email requests for additional signs for displays to Wally Bowden at wbowden@coj.net.

- And last but not least, share your own creative ideas on how to promote downloadable media and other library services with your colleagues. Share in person, or post your ideas right here on the staff blog.

**Look for November's signs in the library delivery next week (week of October 11-16). Upcoming highlighted services include:

October

Downloadable audio books (IPOD accessible)

Downloadable video

E-books

November

Your ticket to answers:

Live Homework Help

Ask-a-Librarian

Book-a-Librarian

Also Festival of Trees

December

Break

But continue to promote Festival of Trees

January

Your ticket to answers:

E-research

Your ticket to economic success:

Business and economic resources

Free tax assistance from AARP and RealSense

Investor education

(For a full list of highlighted services, visit JPL Neighborhood at library awareness campaign plan)

Best Free Reference Websites

Check out RUSA's 2009 list of the best free reference websites. A gold mine for JPL reference staff.

How many were you familiar with?

(First seen on NEFLIN's blog)

Reader's Advisory now on Facebook

The Reader’s Advisory Committee is now on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jacksonville-FL/Jacksonville-Public-Library-Readers-Advisory/122636279653

Here you’ll find staff recommendations, announcements of new releases, author readalikes and more. Visit us on Facebook at Jacksonville Public Library – Reader’s Advisory and become a fan today!

And don’t forget the Personalized Booklist! It’s a great tool for reader’s advisory. Recommend it to your customers or have a printed version available at the desk.

Notes from Collection Development

Titles recently released about the King of Pop--

Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson by Ian Halperin

In late December 2008, Ian Halperin told the world that Michael Jackson had only six months to live. His investigations into Jackson's failing health made headlines around the globe. Six months later, the King of Pop was dead.

Whatever the final autopsy results reveal, it was greed that killed Michael Jackson. Friends and associates paint a tragic picture of the last years and days of his life as Jackson made desperate attempts to prepare for the planned concert series at London's 02 Arena in July 2009. These shows would have earned millions for the singer and his entourage, but he could never have completed them, not mentally, and not physically. Michael knew it and his advisors knew it. Anyone who caught even a fleeting glimpse of the frail old man hiding beneath the costumes and cosmetics would have understood that the London tour was madness. Why did it happen this way? After an intense five year investigation, New York Times bestselling author Ian Halperin uncovers the real story of Michael Jackson's final years, a suspenseful and surprising thriller

Life Commemorative: Michael Jackson by Life Magazine

His talent was spectacular, electric. He was a thriller beyond compare. And he left us too soon. LIFE was there to capture the excitement that was Michael Jackson, from his earliest days when the magazine's John Olson visited the Jackson 5 to the adult years when Jackson invited Harry Benson to tour Neverland for LIFE. This book is an intimate portrait of the artist and the chronicle of an extraordinary American life. There was never a performer quite like Michael Jackson, and in the pages of this special commemorative book a singular superstar is captured in full.


Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, 1958-2009 by J. Randy Taraborrelli

So much has how been said and written about the life and career of Michael Jackson that it has become almost impossible to disentangle the man from the myth. This book is the fruit of over 30 years of research and hundreds of exclusive interviews with a remarkable level of access to the very closest circles of the Jackson family - including Michael himself. Cutting through tabloid rumors, J. Randy Taraborrelli traces the real story behind Michael Jackson, from his drilling as a child star through the blooming of his talent to his ever-changing personal appearance and bizarre publicity stunts. This major biography includes the behind-the-scenes story to many of the landmarks in Jackson's life: his legal and commercial battles, his marriages to Lisa Marie Presley and Debbie Rowe, his passions and addictions, his children. Objective and revealing, it carries the hallmarks of all of Taraborrelli's best-sellers: impeccable research, brilliant storytelling and definitive documentation.

Kudos from Customers

Argyle Branch: I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this library. Barbara Hughes is always helpful and makes me feel so welcome.

Beaches Branch Library: I love your children’s section. I check out books weekly for my pre-k class. The librarians are helpful and knowledgeable. Nicole Saville, Children’s Dept., comes every year to read and do movement activities with our five classes of pre-k students. She does an amazing job.

Brentwood Branch: I would not know where else to go that supplies so much information, friendship, and satisfaction. Thank you especially for the marvelous staff (Gloria Armstrong, Margaret Miles, and Maude Scott).

Southeast Branch: Recently, I had surgery and was unable to lift books I checked out. A woman at the circulation desk named Joyce (Myllykangas) notified someone in the back that she would be assisting me to get my books to the car. She carried two book bags to the entrance and waited for me to pull up to the curb where she placed the books on my front seat. How is that for service! Please let her know that I have submitted this commendation on her service beyond the call of duty.

Webb Wesconnett Branch: My daughter and I go to the library every Saturday. My daughter adores Jackie Bartha. She knows my daughter’s name and takes time talking with her.

They Don't Call It "Special Services" For Nothing

Heather Campbell, Manager-Special Services (Interlibrary Loan and Books by Mail), and her team received a good review about their dedicated service and many customer accolades in a recent article in the Financial News and Daily Record:

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=528879

Ms. Campbell is assisted by Carolyn Hampton, CSA II; Betty Person, Library Assistant; and Tammy Crotts, a Part-Time Clerical employee. This department boasts 98 years of service to JPL, its customers, and the City of Jacksonville.

Westbrook Branch Summer Library Program Winners

Meet two of the cutest winners you will ever see:

Jhaniya, age 5, was delighted to receive one of Westbrook Branch’s grand prizes at the close of their Summer Library Program. The grand prize included a new backpack full of goodies.

Also pictured are Megan, age 8, who was another grand prize winner, along with her mother, Melissa.

Eve Harm, Children and Teen Librarian
at Westbrook, reported that over
29,000 minutes were turned in for the Summer Reading Program at Westbrook and over 300 people attended the Be Creative @ Your Library programs.

'Way to go, Westbrook!

Have You Suggested Ed's Resume' Maker to Job Seekers?

Are you familiar with Ed’s Resume' Maker? It is a wonderful program that Ed Lein, Librarian in the Main Library's 2nd floor Reference Department, wrote which allows a person to simply type information in blanks and it automatically formats the information into a beautiful resume'. Linda Eckersen, who suggested we share this valuable information, said she showed it to customers when she worked at San Marco Branch, who were working on their resumes' and did not know how to make them look professional.

http://jaxpubliclibrary.org/res/sites/jobs.html
http://edsplace.coolfreepages.com/resumemaker.html

"There was a period of time when it did not work," Ms. Eckersen said and she asked Mr. Lein if he would fix it and he did. She believes most staff members do not know it is now working.

There are many people out of work and some job seekers do not know how to format a resume'. This program does everything for them.

Staff Profile

Laura Minnich is JPL's Westbrook Branch Manager and has an astute way of serving customers and teaching computer classes. Laura is pictured here with her husband, Michael, when they were hiking in the mountains. (Click on the photo to get a better view.)

Why did you choose a career as a librarian?

Serendipity, really. I didn’t set out to become a librarian. I was teaching young toddlers in a daycare/preschool and working on my portfolio for grad school, where I was intending to pursue an MFA. But I wasn’t happy with the way my portfolio was coming together, and I didn’t feel like early childhood ed. was exactly where I wanted to be either. So, in a bit of a last minute panic, I applied to two programs at the University of Pittsburgh—public policy and library science. I didn’t even think of library school until the day before the deadline to apply, so you can imagine what a stellar application that was!

You won the 3rd quarter 2008/2009 R&R award as "Good Trouper" and are lauded for dropping everything to serve a customer and providing computer classes. What talents do you use to provide such customer service and your computer classes?

Hmm…I’m not sure that I have any special talents in this area, but here goes:

CUSTOMER SERVICE: One talent, if you can call it that, is being able to remember customers’ names pretty easily. That really goes a long way. Also I think it is important to just genuinely be nice and not let past bad experiences get in the way of how you handle a customer.

COMPUTER CLASSES: The computer classes were developed because we observed a need. Many customers were coming to the library to apply for jobs but didn’t have any idea how to use a computer or find the appropriate website. We decided to use the ASPIRE center because there is almost always a line for computer use at WBK, and taking students to ASPIRE center wouldn’t deprive customers of the opportunity to use the public computers. Again, I don’t think any particular talent is involved—these are VERY basic skills that we tackle, like using a mouse or finding the enter key or creating an email account. Patience is a good quality, as is a willingness to teach the same thing over and over.

Tell us about the kinds of computer classes you provide and a couple of customer successes because they took these classes.

We offer two different computer classes at Westbrook Branch:

OPEN ACCESS is a two hour walk-in session for customers who are working on employment application/skills or applying for various state benefits. We noticed that customers were frustrated at trying to complete food stamp applications or job tests in the 30 minutes allotted by Pharos. Open Access allows customers an extended session and a library staff member available to answer questions.

ADULT COMPUTER CLASSES are one hour sessions with pre-registration recommended. This class focuses more on skill building. It is somewhat free-form in the sense that I often have customers who are varying degrees of beginner. Because these classes are 5 or fewer people, I am usually able to work one-on-one with students. I generally try to determine how comfortable/knowledgeable a customer is before he or she gets to the class so I can prepare some activities/practice bits for him/her to work on while I am with another student. For example, I might have one student starting out on the Mousing Around Tutorial*, another student working on creating an email account and a third using Word to create a resume. This system works well for us because we’re small and it doesn’t bother me to work in a fairly non-linear fashion. I think it would be more difficult to set up a computer class in this manner at a larger branch. On the other hand, I have never been able to offer a class focused on one particular program (Word, excel, email) and have anyone sign up or express interest here, which is one advantage of a larger location.

*Pablo Creek Branch has some great resources for computer classes and one is a page with links to computer related tutorials online.

SUCCESS STORIES: I know that several of my Open Access attendees have found jobs as a result of being able to complete an application. They usually come back in to let me know, which is nice. One customer who attended my adult computer classes was able to polish her computer skills enough to take some online classes and go back to school. A mother and her daughter (who lives out of state) were able to communicate more frequently because the mother came into the library and attended classes until she was truly comfortable using email. One of the things many of my customers are most excited to learn is how to attach a resume to a job application—that’s a little success, but it makes their job applications go so much faster!

What do you believe is your greatest accomplishment in life?

Career wise, two things that I am most proud of are the preschool storytime program I developed at West Regional and the great rapport we’ve developed here at WBK between staff and customers.

What book has most influenced your career and why?

There are many books that have influenced me over the years, but one that stands out right now is The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster. I read this in junior high/high school and it’s a great book about finding & following your direction in life. It’s also one of the many books that sharpened my interest in children’s literature.

Northwest Library's Outreach Program

Gloria Buenavista and Davi Harmon represented the Northwest Library at the Carter G. Woodson Community Day held at the elementary school on Saturday, August 22nd. They had a terrific time talking to parents and students about library services and signing up 66 people for library cards!

Tropical Storm Tracking

Scroll down on the right and find a new gadget that will allow you to track tropical storms in the Atlantic (click on the green square on the right of the map) and in the Pacific (click on the green arrow on the left of the map). Clicking on either one gives you an enlarged view.

Graham Branch Scores Big with Kids in Summer Library Programs

Ron Anglin entertained 22 school age children with his juggling program, July 1, at Graham Branch. This proved to be the largest attended of their summer library programs.

Then on July 22, Cranston Burney, Library Assistant in Main's Digitization area, introduced Pat Morrison, Main Library Supervisor, Special Collections, who presented a program about famous Jacksonville African Americans. She closed her program with a bingo game, which challenged kids to identify as many of the famous people as they could. Here you see Ms. Morrison on the left; Carmen Gregory, age 11, center; and Delores Walker, Clerical Support Aide II, to the right. Mr. Burney is in the background. (Click on either picture to get a better view.)

Goodluck, Marlon!

Marlon's party at Northwest. We wish you all the best!

Kudos from Customers

Main - Children's: I witnessed one of your employees, a clerk whose name I believe is Pamela (Brannon), dealing with a rude member of the public. Yet this young lady was able to put all that aside and acted professionally.

Main-Government Docs: Ms. Kathleen Krizek was most helpful and courteous to me on my visit. I’m working on my family tree and I appreciate her assistance and patience. She is an asset to this department.

Main - Interlibrary Loan: Highest compliments to Carolyn Hampton, who helped me with an Interlibrary Loan renewal today. She was patient with me in that at first I could not locate my ILL number. She then proceeded to successfully renew my book saving me much needed time today. A+ work on the part of Ms. Hampton!

Main - Popular: Matthew Moyer has exceptional public relations skills + extremely helpful and polite.

Mandarin Branch: The children's programs at the Kori Road Mandarin branch are excellent. Jean Winney and Margo Crafton do an exceptional job each week and have kept us coming back for storytimes during my child's toddler years.

Nominations Open for 2009 Carnegie Corp. of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award

Richard Mott, JPL's Training Coordinator, wants to share this information he received from Florida Library Association's Executive Director, Faye Roberts.

"Deadline for nominations for the I Love My Librarian Award is October 9. Categories include: public librarians; school library media specialists; or college, community college, or university librarians.

"Last year’s winners included Floridians Linda Allen, Director of the Pasco County Library System, and Iona R. Malanchuk, Associate University Librarian and Head of the Education Library at the University of Florida. "

Ms. Roberts can be contacted at PO Box 1571, Lake City, FL 32056-1571; phone 386-438-5795; Fax 386-438-5796; faye.roberts@comcast.net; or: http://www.flalib.org/.

You can email this discussion board: fl-lib@list.dos.state.fl.us

You can use this link to sign up to join the discussion list: https://list.dos.state.fl.us/mailman/listinfo/fl-lib

For more information about nominatons for the 2009 Carnegie Corporation Of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award: http://www.ilovelibraries.org/lovemylibrarian/home.cfm

Southeast Branch Customer Had A Special Need Quickly Resolved

Who says you can't have a hot time at the library? This comment was recently proven at the Southeast Library on Thursday, August 13. At around 12:45 p.m., a customer notified our circulation staff that a car in the parking lot was smoking and was emitting a strong burning odor. Investigation revealed a white automobile in the beginning stages of conflagration. Once the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department was called and arrived, the engine compartment of the car was engulfed in flames. Resolving this event was all in a day's work for the firefighters. Much to the relief of the onlookers and owners of the vehicles in the vicinity, the flames were extinguished in short order. So much for the idea that libraries are not exciting places to be.

Monique GrahamWins Jax Suns Trip to Miami

Monique Graham, CSA II at South Mandarin Branch Library, attended the Jacksonville Suns game, August 2, which closed out JPL's summer library program, and won a round-trip bus trip for two to Miami. It's not just any bus trip though. She and her daughter, Nadia, will travel with the Jacksonville Suns baseball team to attend the Marlins/Mets game there. The trip includes hotel accommodations for September 26-27. Congratulations Monique!