TFML Staff Exchange

So, this morning when I went into the computer room to turn on the computers, they each had a sticker over the on/off button saying not to turn them off, and they were all on. I don't recall the buttons being covered last week. Is there a different procedure for those computers?

Hi. Sandy covered up the on/off buttons in the computer room because some patrons had started turning the PCs off during the day. Ignore the statement at night.

FYI, the LaGrange Library has closed its temporary location in order to begin moving into the new building. They expect to open at the end of October.

If you are taking requests for books and articles please make sure you ask the patron if they are willing to pay a $3 fee in case we have to go out of state to get material. This way we do not have to call them back. Most likely there will be no charge.

Also if you have requested a article in or out of the system for our patrons a blue sheet needs to be filled out and all paperwork should be left at the magazine desk.

If we are sending an article to another library no blue slip needs to be filled out but I do need the paperwork that was sent requesting the article so I can keep statistics on how many we do.

There is some news that everyone should know.

1. Starting Monday, October 8 (a day we are closed), contractors will remove and lay carpeting downstairs. The children's area will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday for sure. It may be closed Thursday and Friday, depending on how the work goes.

All of downstairs is being re-carpeted. There will also be lighting work and painting.

2. In November, E-Commerce will be added to SWAN. What this means, is that card holders will be able to pay their fines and lost items on SWAN with a credit card. They will be able to do this from their account.

3. The new website is to debut in November. There is still much to do. Kristin will be working on it remotely,

4. Brent is working in both circ and reference for the month of October. He did well on his first day at the reference desk.

Help! I need a display idea. I've done autumn foods in the past, but I'm sick of cookbooks! Does anyone have an idea?

What about the 158.1s? We have a million of them.
We also have purchased a lot of political stuff - both sides. Or what about paperbacks? People are always asking where they are.

I like Kris' ideas. Also, we could do Nobel Prize for Literature. Doris Lessing just won, so I put a few of her books around the desk, but there could be a bigger display with other winners.

This morning I updated the Internet Explorer and the Firefox internet browsers on Public Reference Computers #1 and #2. I will try to get the others on Saturday if it is slow at the start of the day.

I am doing this in hopes that the problems our clients have had with some websites and especially their email will go away. Several of the email services have released new versions recently, which are designed for the newer browsers.

One of the COD students here this morning asked me about the size and breadth of our collection. Though I know I have seen at least the # of volumes somewhere, I didn't know where to look. It isn't in our brochure or on our website.
Where is that info, and how about putting it in the Staff Wiki?
Speaking of the wiki, it appears that someone hacked into it. Look under Administration. (Was there any data there before?)

A reminder: Have you read any books lately? Please fill out a review page for our Western Springs Reads binder, and encourage patrons to do so. We want it to be a continuously growing readers' advisory tool.
Thanks.
Nancy

I have been looking for Nancy's answer about the collection size. I thought an estimate was in the annual reports for the Illinois State Library, but I have not found it. I am going to ask Sandy for a report from SWAN that should update any info we have right now.

I have that we have 46037 items in the adult collection according to my spreadsheet, but I believe it is actually less because I never got a count for some CDs and videos were withdrawn. There have probably been some errors in the last several years since I had an actually SWAN report run.

Several years ago there were 40,000 plus items in the children's collection and perhaps 10,000 magazine issues. I think there are fewer magazines now, for we keep a year or two less in back issues.

So we probably have been 85,000 and 90,000. It will be good to find out.

Sandy got a report back from SWAN. The details need some refining as there are figures for some codes that we do not actually use, but the totals are ready for broadcast.

We have 101,637 items with barcodes. This includes books, media, magazines, pamphlets, etc. The SWAN total value of this assembly is $11,172,099.05.

There will be more details later.

We just got email from Federal Student Aid that it will no longer send FAFSA forms or the worksheets to prepare for filing on line to public libraries. Students are mostly filing on line and everything they need is on the web site.

Students may themselves request paper copies of the form or the worksheet from the web site. Federal Student Aid will then send out up to 3 copies.

Since we will not have the forms, I am not ordering any of the brochures, which we had in abundance the past few years. We won't have so much to recycle.