Collection Services – Page 2 – RPL Staff Intranet

Converting Online Cards

In case you didn’t already know, patrons who sign up for ecards through our website are not able to check out physical materials with that card number (which starts with a 5). To check out physical materials, they will need to come in and get a physical card (one that starts with a 2).
If you help a patron with this process, please make sure you change their patron type from Online to Public Patron. Let me know if you have any questions.

Staff Shout Outs

Are you ready for some shout-outs? If you’d like to submit a shout-out, fill out the form on the Forms page. Don’t be shy! Shout it out!

Shout out to Franny for going above and beyond, helping a co-worker, and keeping it positive. Franny is an amazing help to the Children’s Department, quickly stepping in to cover various nights, days and weekends for the department over the past few months, all while attending school. She quickly steps right in to help patrons and has provided the department with a lot of stability and peace. We are all very grateful to her for that. From Ally.

Shout out to Andrea H. for going above and beyond and helping a co-worker. Andrea went searching for a specific copy for a book I needed (a first edition from the 1970s) and after tireless emails and possible rejections, it finally came in! Thank you for becoming the Indiana Jones of ComCat requests so that me (and patrons) can get the books they desperately want/need. We appreciate you in Children’s! From Olivia.

Shout out to The Borrower Services Staff for going above and beyond and keeping it positive. Thank you to the Borrower Services staff for their patience and enthusiasm! Getting the lockers up and running has been a long, complicated journey, and the BoSer staff has been so patient and supportive. Now that we’re using them regularly (!), everyone has been so enthusiastic and so willing to learn everything they need to know to ensure that our patron’s experience of the lockers is great. You’re all truly fabulous! From Valerie.

Shout out to the RPL Staff for going above and beyond and keeping it positive. Thank you for such a warm welcome! I’ve had a fantastic first week because of all of you! From Dina.

Shout out to Dina for exemplary customer service and for keeping it positive. In her first two weeks, Dina has organized the CR desk, run programs, learned Evergreen, researched prizes for summer reading, embraced Canva, collected mentor texts, and so much more, all with an infectious laugh and a supportive heart! Shine on, Dina! From anonymous.

Shout out to Meaghan Clemente for keeping it positive. Meaghan has handled the paperwork for the Trustees’ meetings quickly and smoothly. We are very lucky to have her on our team. From Michelle.

Seed Library

We have a new addition to our Go & Grow collection in the Children’s Room (the cute name we have for our Library of Things). A Seed Library! You may get patron questions about it, so I wanted to let you know how it works.

The library has 2 small binders with info about all the seeds. We have seeds for vegetables, flowers and herbs. People can read through the binders to learn about plants and decide what they want. Then they can select up to 2 packets of seeds from the library to take home and plant. People can also donate seeds. They can do this at the Children’s Room desk.

Please note: even though it lives in Children’s it’s not just for kids! Adults can also come up and use the collection.

More info is online in the Library of Things section of the website: https://readingpl.org/dt_portfolios/seed-library/

There will be two Seed Swap Share events this week to help kick off the new Seed Library. Tuesday April 4 at 3:30 and Saturday April 8 at 2:30. (links go to LibCal events)

Thank you and way to go Megan White for setting this up! (with support from our wonderful Friends group).

Book & Library Program Challenges Procedures

What do you do if someone wants us to remove a item from the library collection? This is called a “Challenge” and the person is making a “Request for Reconsideration” (RFR). If you receive a call or someone comes in to complain about a title, here are the steps to take:

Assistive Technology

The library has added software and equipment to be more inclusive and accessible to all our patrons. I’ve created a page on the website to highlight this. Please look it over and let me know if you have questions about any of the equipment or suggestions on what else to add. I’ve created instructions for the Community Room Assistive Listening Devices, they are located under Instructions on the intranet, on the S drive under Manuals/Meeting Room Instructions and a paper copy is in the AV closet in the Community Room.

End of Community Read — Thank you!

A quick thank you to all who participated and helped promote the Library’s Community Read — Unapologetically Positively You — which officially ended on October 8th. A very special thank you to Olivia and Susan for developing much of the content and leading various programs to support the Read’s theme of body neutrality.

The Library has received a lot of positive feedback but sharing a few circulation statistics to help celebrate its success!

1. Fat Girls Hiking by Summer Michaud-Skog: 89 lifetime circulations/72 circulations during Community Read. 80.9% of circs happened during CR

2. Starfish by Lisa Fipps: 90 lifetime circulations/52 circulations during Community Read. 57.8% of circs happened during CR

3. Bodies Are Cool by Tyler Feder: 58 lifetime circulations/42 circulations during the Community Read. 72.4% of circs happened during CR

The Library also sent 70 copies into the wild in various book boxes sprinkled around local businesses like the YMCA, Pleasant Street Center, Starbucks, and Fat Larry’s. All copies were taken and hopefully passed around among friends, families and acquaintances.

New Collection: Healing Kits

We have a new collection at the library! Our Healing Kits are part of the Healing Library and live in the Health Nook (turret next to reference and teen room). The Health Nook and Healing Library are ongoing, developing projects. But for now, the first 10 Healing Kits are ready to go!

What is a Healing Library? The RPL Healing Library is a series of kits customized with books and resources to help a person, group or family navigate areas of trauma and personalize the healing process. Topics include depression, divorce and family change, gender identity, domestic violence, and various forms of grief. Each kit contains a selection of books curated to appeal to a range of ages (kids, teens, and adults). Also included are a sharing journal and a binder with local resources, therapeutic activities, and further reading suggestions. See the full list of topics here!

Important Circ Info: Kits are holdable, but must be picked up and returned here at RPL. Similar to other kits, each item will be checked in/out individually. There is a guidelines sheet inside each kit to help you know what/how many items to look for. (A typical kit contains about 5-7 items). Please visit the Health Nook turret and check them out!

This is a soft launch. The kits will be shared at the Recovery and Remembrance event on Wed. 9/28, and a large-scale PR campaign will start in early October.

Please let Ashley or Ally know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Staff Shout Outs-August 12

Are you ready for some shout-outs? If you’d like to submit a shout-out, fill out the form on the Forms page. Don’t be shy! Shout it out!

Shout out to Desiree, Michelle, Susan & Olivia for helping a co-worker. For all of your help, insight, suggestions, and general support with pulling together the Community Read. This project looks as good as it does thanks to all of you From Ally.

Shout out to Megan, Cate, and Ashley for going above and beyond. Megan, Cate, and Ashley deserve the BIGGEST shout-out this summer for being outside in record highs with large crowds of kiddos doing extraordinary outreach work! Sunrise Storytime got families out and about in Reading discovering new parks and patches of (sadly dead) grass. Nature Stories and Exploration got kids moving and discovering all the wonderful nature spots in Reading (like seeing snakes and more!) I am in awe of all of you for being outside and cheerful in these record-high temperatures. Another shout out to Cate who would bop from Sunrise Storytime to Birch Meadow Elementary in a non-air conditioned cafeteria to work with kiddos. You’re all rock stars and deserve the biggest ice-flavored treat EVER! AGREED. From Olivia.

Shout out to John Davis for going above and beyond. John and his wife, Shirley, generously donated a wheeled cart to one of our patrons in need. Our patron, Craig, was extremely appreciative of this thoughtful gift since his cart had a broken wheel! From anonymous.

Shout out to Sudeshna for keeping it positive and for all her hard work moving Reading forward in these trying times. From Michelle.

Shout out to Jocelyn for coming up with a new idea, exemplary customer service, and keeping it positive. Jocelyn’s Craftivism program was amazing! Lots of new faces, great energy, and lots of laughter in the room as we embroidered patterns of our own making. Jocelyn and Shannon were very helpful and positive. We should definitely do this again! From Valerie and Judy.

Staff Shout Outs!

Are you ready for some shout-outs? If you’d like to submit a shout-out, fill out the form on the Forms page. Don’t be shy! Shout it out!

Shout out to Tech Services for going above and beyond. Shout out to the Tech Services team for letting us buy all of our wish lists and then processing all those items….cause there were a lot. You’re a dream team of public servants and we cannot thank you enough! From Children’s.

Shout out to Meaghan Clemente for a great first two weeks! She jumped right in and is already organizing us. Thank you! From Michelle.

Shout out to Suzy for going above and beyond and exemplary customer service. Suzy recently helped one of our patrons who was having car trouble. She helped her call AAA (patron is hard of hearing) and made sure she had a ride home. And apparently, another patron noticed the exemplary customer service Suzy was providing because she told Reference “The people at the front desk are being so nice to that woman!” From Judy T.

Shout out to Cate for going above and beyond and coming up with a new idea. Cate’s passive programming ideas are always a hit. But her Chumley’s Flower Garden puts the rest to shame! So much wonderful pretend play is happening between children and with their engaged caregivers. Cate, your creativity never ceases to amaze! From Ashley.

Initials, please!

When you leave a ‘problem’ item on the snag cart or on the desk of someone in TS, please write a brief note and sign or initial it. Sometimes we have follow-up questions about these items and don’t know who to ask. Thanks for your help with this!