Author: Amy Lannon

Busy Bees Volunteers Info

We have a few helpers who will be helping us maintain the exterior native and sensory garden areas – weeding and watering as they can. Please see Amy if yo you have questions or if you they need assistance.

Our Busy Bees Volunteers will be stopping by the Borrower Services desk to sign in and pick up the watering cans (2 blue ones), their gardening apron which signals they are a volunteer, and tools (if they don’t bring their own). Everything (except the watering cans) is in the green Busy Bees Bucket located near the blue watering cans.

Updated Emergency Response Guide

The updated Emergency Response Guide – updated as of April 2025 – is now available on the intranet. We will discuss several key points at the upcoming staff meeting.

FOR THURSDAY

Please have a printed copy at every service desk. Employees should read through this document carefully.

We do not have time to review the entire guide at the May 1 meeting, but still expect you all to be familiar with how to handle emergencies.

Indoor Plant Care

Starting April 9, the large indoor planters will be receiving some TLC from Environgreenery.  In addition to sprucing up these planters (2 entry, 2 Borrower Services, 3 Reading Room, 1 Children’s Room), Envirogreenery will be in monthly to maintain the plants.

If you receive questions: We are excited to work with this company (Envirogreenery) to maintain our indoor plantings. These plants help the indoor air quality and are great for mental health. Additionally, we are fortunate to have some interesting specimens to help inspire visitors to add to their own indoor gardens.

Maintenance costs are paid through gifts and donations. No taxpayer funds are used.

Regarding IMLS Funding Cuts

Thank you to those who were able to attend the April 3 all-staff meeting. As I mentioned, the recent cuts to the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is deeply concerning and there are still a lot of unknowns.

This is a demoralizing issue. And RPL will continue to offer high quality and professional service to our community as we navigate this situation.

To that end, please read/print this memo. It’s important that we acknowledge these difficult times and also maintain a healthy work environment. The memo also includes information on how to respond to public inquiries on this issue.

As always, please feel free to speak to any member of the Leadership Team if you have more questions or concerns.

Rooted in Reading: Garden Improvements

Happening today! New plantings related to our Rooted in Reading grant (FKA “Dig In”). These include an example Sensory Garden and native plants that support pollinators and birds.

Rooted in reading focuses on nature, health, and sustainability. Part of the grantmust be used to add educational garden areas for community enjoyment. The grant will also pay for over 20 programs and provide funds to purchase related books, online resources, and items for our Library of Things collection.

Each service desk has a FAQ Sheet about this part of the grant.

CORRECTION: Monday Morning Update

One of the links in this today’s Monday Morning Update was incorrect:

Please use this link for the item below

What do you want to learn?

Albert Pless, Director of Equity and Social Justice, will lead our January 2025 training session.  Please let him know what DEIAB workshop/learning you would like best. You are also welcome to call or stop by Albert’s office to share other ideas on diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and belonging in the workplace.

Cybersecurity Reminder

Please continue to work on (or start work on) your Cybersecurity Training. The platform is “KnowBe4” and doesn’t send reminders to your email.  There is an app available if that is easier for you. This is a shorter program (6 months instead of a year).

IT recently briefed us on the number and frequency of security issues, including scams. There are many bad actors out there, and their tactics are getting more sophisticated. IT can barricade the doors, but that doesn’t help if we (the users) go around opening all the windows.

Also – when you receive suspicious emails, please forward them to IT support.

Attend & Reserve: It’s Happening!

Thank you for all your hard work importing and fixing the data in Attend, the new events calendar.   We are live! Please remove the LibCal public events calendar link on your browser. Here are the new links:

ALSO

The new meeting room booking software, Reserve, is live. For now, please send any questions about booking to Meaghan, Louise, or Michelle. Michelle will soon send out information about training.
If you want to help book a meeting room for an outside organization, you are welcome to do so! The meeting room policy has stayed the same.

Niche Academy for Staff

RPL subscribes to Niche Academy for both public and staff use. Niche is an online learning solution with ready-to-use tutorials. RPL can also use this platform to create our own learning modules for public or staff use which we hope to begin doing over the next year or so.

Employees should have access to all the tutorials. However, you will be receiving an invitation to create a Niche account so you can track and save your progress. Topics range from DEIA/Belonging and Customer Service to Safety, Collection Development, and Ethics.

In the meantime, we have gathered a collection of tutorials created by Niche and other libraries for you to look at. There is also a Niche Market with hundreds more tutorials.

Give a whirl and please send comments, questions, or issues to Amy.

Planners / Desk Blotters

It’s that time of year when folks are getting organized. Employees may purchase their own work planner or desk blotter calendar and request reimbursement (not including tax) for up to $15 for work planners or $20 for desk blotter calendars within a 12-month period. Please submit receipts to Meaghan C. and notify your Division Head.

If the planner or blotter calendar is less than these amounts AND is available from Amazon, Staples, or WB Mason, RPL will purchase it for the employee on our tax-exempt accounts. Please send requests to Meaghan C. and your Division Head.

Happy planning!